Well it might not be that easy. I’ve been reading for 12 months that he’s a waste of space and not suited to the Premier League.
Easily our best performance of the season in my view. OK, you could look at the negative in that and say that even then, it still took us to score a wonder goal to win/score a goal. But I prefer to look at it as a match against WBA, who are always difficult to score against due to the way that Pulis sets them up. Aside from about a 15 min spell after WBA went to a back three, and put Jay alongside Rondon (cough, cough, not such a bad formation that...), we totally controlled that game. Virgil and Lemina were excellent (obviously, goes without saying!) and everyone else was solid. OK, Tadic wasn't properly back on the left. But at least his role in the centre did allow him to use his left foot, and link up with Bertrand at times. Certainly an improvement to him on the right. (Where, frustratingly, he ended back up once Redmond came on.) Hopefully Boufal's goal (and just general cameo in total) pushes him up the pecking order, and at the same time pushes Redmond down it. (When Boufal was preparing to come on, my mate next to me just beat me to joking that Redmond should be the player to come back off for Boufal)
We played a similiar style to Puel at the start of last season, but the main difference i noticed from this game was that we seemed much more dangerous on the counter. Something that Puel rarely managed. I think we will fair better against the bigger teams if that continues.
Mr Fatletiss we are the same age and grew up watching Saints. We spot the occasional diamond in a bag of poo: Williams, Moran, Letiss, Rod and Danny Wallace, Bale, Walcott, etc. You can just see this lad has talent and we as fans need to support and believe and he will deliver and make us believe again
Think the problem with Boufal is that he is capable of producing moments of magic like that as much as he is capable of trying to beat too many players and losing the ball in a dangerous area.if he has a good game like today then great,but if he gives to ball away a few times all of a sudden the manager is an idiot for playing him. I do think Boufal should get a run in the starting 11 tho
Oh I believe fella.... just not too many were believeimg over the last 12 months. PS . I can’t believe you missed Chicken George Lawrence off that list
This is where MP2 got it tactically spot on today. I'm just glad the negative and anti tactics of Pulis didn't get rewarded today. I have no problem with defensive football when it's done properly though which managers like Dyche do.
A team needs one player that can do the spectacular. The flip side usually is that they can balls up, but hey, it’s worth the risk. This lad chased back defensively too.
According to whoscored he was never dispossessed and had 100% pass success. He was also never dispossessed against newcastle.
Typical game against WBA. It suppose being a Baggie's follower must be one of the least rewarding things anyone could do in association with football. I don't find their style of play under Pulis to be enjoyable and , all in all, his philosophy seems pretty pointless. I thought Saints were better in the first half and the standout players for me this evening were Lemina and Yohsida with Bertrand being the Man of the Match in my opinion. I thought that Cedric was poor today and it was another not so inspired performance from Romeu. Of course, Boufal's goal was something truly remarkable and the highlight of the game. It seems to have taken him a while to get used to football in this country but the goal he scored today is going to live long in the memory of Saints fans eve of if none of the defenders from West Brom seemed capable of putting a tackle in. I think it was a great goal yet it was also pretty terrible defending. Nice to see Jay-Rod fluff his big moment too ! We were not so good in the second half until we scored and I suppose West Brom can feel hard done by - even if playing such a dire and uninspiring version of the game means that I have little sympathy for them. Pulis seems to forget that football is supposed to be entertaining.
I like the post but hate the first 5 words. I think that sums up our issue. Look back to England in1995: the problem with Matt is he won't track back, so we need Batty to hold onto our 2 goal lead ( which Matty had scored) : poetic license, but those old enough will get my drift. Play your best players, it is easy
Lemina is outstanding in his role. I don't think I've seen a player like him in a saints side. Got skills to beat a man, uses his body incredibly well to get the ball and can nick it off the toes of the opponents. Looking forward to seeing how he develops over the season. His distribution and movement will be increasingly important.
Oh so much this!! It’s the English disease. Something good and we start with... “The problem is...” Not digging the poster by the way as I too liked the rest of his post.
I still don't like seeing Jay struggle even against us, just loved the guy and reahope Believe me, I was thinking George but thought you and me would be lost in tumble weed ( like if I mentioned the Nickly Banger hatrick in the league cup in 88). There are roads that cannot be crossed
Not easy if your plan is to hold onto the ball and play yourself into goal scoring opportunities. Needs to change the approach a bit. For me, we need passion and drive and Boufal is at the point where he has so much of it we either play him now and give him a decent run or run the risk of it going sour and lose it all.
It isn't that several hadn't tried, good defending and no luck for us on the rebounds just got in the way.
Saturday evenings feel so much better after a win. Pleased for Boufal, if that was courtinho scoring that another 25m would have been added to his price tag. Hope Boufal gets rewarded with more than a place on the bench. Keep the match threads coming TLL. Happy days, an arsenal victory at goodison tomorrow wouldn't hurt.
Some people have been worried that Boufal is a Gaston Mk2 - bags of talent, but won't cut it. Gaston never did that for us. Nor track back.
