Match Day Thread Saints v Newcastle Sunday 15th October 16:00

please log in to view this image

Vs

please log in to view this image

Venue: St Marys Stadium.

please log in to view this image

Right, as it's basically Wednesday and no one has done one yet, thought I'd have a crack.

Sunday afternoon sees the first of a home double header for Saints and the visit of newly promoted Newcastle United to St Marys for a game live on Sky. Newcastle have a made a decent start to the season after coming straight back up under Rafa Benitez with 10 points from their 7 games so far.

Saints really need to be getting a good points haul from our next 3 games with a tough winter schedule coming up so will certainly be targetting 3 points from this match. We have a great record against Newcastle down here since coming back up in 2012 though it won't be easy as Rafa is very good at getting teams well organised and will fancy his chances here with our goalscoring issues. Pretty sure they'll be happy to let us have the ball and will challenge us to break them down while hitting us on the break.

Last time out:

Saints lost 2-1 at Stoke in a game we dominated possession but struggled to create in the story of our last 12 months. Newcastle drew 1-1 at home to Rafas former club Liverpool in what was seen as a decent result for them.

Key men:

Saints: Gabbiadini - Hasn't started the last 3 league games with Long being favoured but surely it's time to put him back in as he is undoubtedly our best striker, particularly as Long picked up a knock on international duty. Get the service right to Gabbi and he will win us the game.

Newcastle: Shelvey - Apparently has a knock but expected to be fit and although a right **** of a player we'll have be careful to not let him pick his passes from midfield as he is capable of those defence splitting passes. Have to try not let him shoot within range either as he has a habit of that too.


Officials: Haven't got a clue but playing the odds I'm sure they're probably ****e

EDIT: Courtesty of @SAINTDON13

Referee: Kevin Friend
Assistants: Constantine Hatzidakis, Matthew Wilkes
Fourth official: Roger East



Selection wise, there's been a lot of debate between us on here about how to tackle our goalscoring issues with one thing that most are agreeing on is that we can't keep trying the same set up with the same 4 players making the front 4. I would personally go for a 3-4-3:

-------------------------------------------------Forster-----------------------------------------------
----------------------Maya-----------------Virgil-----------------Hoedt----------------------------
Cedric---------------------Romeu-------------------Lemina-----------------------Bertrand
------------------Boufal---------------------Gabbi-----------------Tadic-------------------

With Lemina encouraged to provide the link between midfield and attack and the front 3 given license to interchange and swap positions.


TLL's match thread record: Only did one throughout the whole of last season and it was a 4-0 win to a North East side. Omen.

TLL's prediction:

If we change it up formation wise and try something different then I can see a comfortable 2-0 win.

If we go 4-2-3-1 again with Redmond etc. then a draw at best imo.



Up the ****ing Saints

 

Agree that if we play 4-2-3-1 again it'll probably end as a frustrating draw.
I'd like to see Lemina slightly more forward with Romeu playing as the sole defensive midfielder.
I'd also imagine that Davis and Redmond will both start. If they do then I hope Redmond at least plays on the right and Tadic on the left.

 

Courtesy of @SAINTDON13:

Sunday 15 October
4pm Southampton v Newcastle (Sky Sports)
Referee: Kevin Friend
Assistants: Constantine Hatzidakis, Matthew Wilkes
Fourth official: Roger East

Got that right then...

 

Cheers, added

 

Predicted formation:
------------------Forster-----------------
Cedric----Maya----Virgil----Bertrand
------Romeu-------------Lemina------
Tadic----------Davis--------Redmond
---------------Gabbiadini----------------

I'd like to see:
------------------Forster-----------------
Cedric----Maya----Virgil----Bertrand
------------------Romeu-----------------
---------Lemina---------Tadic----------
Redmond------------------------Boufal
----------------Gabbiadini---------------

 

Baffled that anyone would drop Tadic before Redmond tbh. Think Tadic has been much improved in the last few games so would stick with him.

 

If we do the same thing again I will be baffled full stop.

 

Agreed! Please, please MP, change it up. My feeling is he's been very conservative to-date (sort of understandable) & has really gone with the obvious but I'm rather disappointed he hasn't shown any managerial "rabbits out of the box". If he goes with standard or a slight tweak on standard, I think we'll be looking at a very laboured & poor performance again. Opposing managers have got us figured playing 3-1 up front & unless MP makes some radical changes, we'll suffer same.

 

Agreed, but perhaps fitness may come into it: Tadic has had two highish-pressure international games in the past week (highish in the sense that Serbia needed to win at least one of them to top the group and then promptly lost the first of the two), so I can see him starting on the bench. The same may apply to Cedric and Davis. In which case, assuming Long is out injured, I'd start with:

Forster
Maya VVD Hoedt
JWP Romeu Lemina Bertrand
Redmond Boufal Gabbiadini

Incidentally, I notice that Tadic has scored 4 goals in the 10 qualifying games - he needs to save some of those for us!

 

I strongly suspect we have no rabbits left in the box.

 

The rabbits we need live in a hat, not a box.

2-0 Saints

 

Just to clarify, the information comes from https://www.premierleague.com/referees the Official web site. It is usually posted on a Monday prior to the match, but sometimes gets delayed for various reasons.

 

I'm not sure if it is a pleasure to see Saints score goals or whether it is torture to see the players we had.

 

Both

 

-------------Forster-------------

Cedric------VVD-----Hoedt------Bertrand

------------Romeu------Lemina------------

JWP------------Davis--------------Redmond

------------------Gabbiadini-------------------

Is my predicted lineup. Think we draw this 0-0 or 1-1

 

The box has already got a live cat in it...or possibly not

 

4-0

 

This will be only my 2nd game this season. We beat West Ham 3-2 the last time I was at St Marys, so I expect we'll win again. Bound to, really.

 

newcastle have a terrible record at St Marys and The Dell! .

however saints are awful and benitez is much more streetwise the Pellerino..

A bad home defeat coming and another wake up call

 

Off to this one after work on Sunday and I'm looking forward to it. After the Stoke match I was in a bit of a grump, but after ignoring footy for the last couple of weeks I'm now ready to get back to it!

My second game of the season, went to the Swansea one so hoping for better.

2-0 Saints, COYR!