Match Day Thread Saints v Wolves - Wed. 23 Aug @ 19:45 - EFL Cup

I wouldn't worry about it mate. I doubt they've heard of you either

 

We have a genuine striker. We're just not terribly good at getting him the ball properly.

 

Yeah. I mean, we could also get a genuine striker and move Gabbiadini wide, but if we've deployed him there once since joining, I don't remember it.

 

I wouldn't move Gabbiadini wide. He makes all the right runs. We should focus on someone who can find those runs.

 

Don, what's a genuine striker?

 

It's mostly that I think he has the intelligence to make those runs from deep, too, and having two players making runs at least would make it harder for our midfielders to miss them (theoretically). As seen with his goal against West Ham, he's damned dangerous with a head of steam, and can finish on the move.

 

Maybe, but that example came from down the middle. If he was part of a very flexible front three maybe, but my concern would be that the wide men have to track back more and that means our best goal threat will be further from the goal for large parts of the game.

 

One that can get a shot on target occasionally and finds the back of the net, or knocks the ball to a team mate that can do the job instead.

 

So you don't think Gabbiadini is one?

 

Not 100% convinced, I am sure he could be with a decent service, but he can't do it all on his own. He has proved he can score so ample room for discussion here. I would like someone up with him that would make up a strike partnership.

 

For me, tonight wasn't a striker issue. Charlie Austin literally had NOTHING to feed off.

We didn't play direct to him, we didn't cross to him, we didn't pass to him. We didn't try and find his runs down the channel. It was embarrassing.

No, strikers aren't the problem, it's our ponderous midfield. Tonight it was even worse due to being physically outfought down to poor tactics. Normally at least we have a solid foothold before we misplace our passes. Tonight we misplaced our passes and then got caught out of position time and again.

 

Absolutely, playing sideways, backwards with 2 at the back was bad enough, even worse with three of them doing it! None of the midfield actually created anything as far as I could tell.

 

Still gutted. Fingers crossed we put in a big performance at the weekend after that shambles

 

Im not reading too much into this loss.yeah it was dire.but that was a very experimental lineup and formation,a mistake in hindsight.

 

It was a low risk game and perfect to try an experimental formation.

What let us down was the excess of lazy easy passes across the back and an inability to see the runs made by other players.

We just do not break quickly enough when we regain procession in our own half.

Contrast our ponderous movement out of defence with Wolves very direct style.

The evening was no not helped by Tadic's ridiculous diving and a below par performance from JWP.

 

MP reviews the success of his three at the back formation last night:

 

Agree. Apart from the very odd aberration, such as Redmond's through ball & goal on Saturday, our support play to Gabbi over the the last few months has been pretty awful. With Puel, the gap was way too much (& pedestrian) and although MP has got us playing more front foot rather than backfoot, we still don't support enough and with sufficient quality. Tadic, JWP, Redmond & Boufal have been frankly awful. Last night, we did the same with Charlie. I know a lot of us have been screaming out for a quality AM; me too but with the above supporting players, you'd think there was enough quality to be able to pick more than just the occasional lock. IMO Davis, is the only one who can really link up the forward play with any real, consistent quality. Anyway, MP, over to you & lets prove our credentials against one of last seasons quality Championship teams, who will definitely be up for it & playing with their FIRST ELEVEN, not like last night!

 

100%

 

Your second post is why I think your first post (and earlier comment) is way too harsh.

If you're sure he could be with decent service, then the player isn't the problem. Gabbi is clearly a quality player.

 

Let's hope that our poor EFL Cup performance is inversely proportional to our league success: like Koeman & Pochettino, the worse the cup performance the better our league performances!