Match Day Thread Saints vs Watford 09/09/2017 3PM KO

Please no, it's my first time in the northam.

 

Forster
Soares Stephens Hoedt Bertrand
Romeu Lemina
Redmond Boufal Tadic
Gabbiadini

 

Not sure there is room for Tadic AND Boufal in the same line up.

 

I was thinking this. But Redmond hasn't set the world on fire so far. And boufal must be given a chance. Clearly has bags of talent but MP2 needs to find a way for him and gabby to gel.

I think the line up will be the same.

 

I agree. Puel tried it a few times when we were struggling to retain possession, however it made things worse!

I am amazed everyone would rather drop Davis compared to Tadic or Redmond. Yes, I know he is not the most attacking player, however I think he is an important cog in our team (sorry St. Brendy!) and has been performing better so far this season than other midfielders.

 

It still amazes me that people would pick Redmond and Tadic ahead of JWP.

 

Man Bun; apparently!

 

Especially against a very workmanlike Watford team with plenty of talent to surprise. Unfortunately, I think we need to keep this tight, which means Davis starts & may be open up later in the game. Hate to say it but a 0-0, 1-0 looks adds on & with my betting form, hopefully that's killed that !

 

https://www.watfordfc.com/teams/first-team/opposition-focus-southampton

Watford interview with a Saints fan about this match. Seems far too sensible for a real Saints fan

 

'Davis is an important cog in our team' - can someone please expand on this? it's such an empty argument. Our attacking play has been awful and disjointed for over a year now. Isn't Davis supposed to be the one to link midfield to attack?

 

Go on then explain it to me. Why can't we have Tadic and Boufal in the same team? I thought our problem was we didn't have enough creativity in attacking midfield? So we play the 2 most creative? It's not as if they don't run back to help defensively, they do, I've seen them. Confused from Serbia.

 

No bonus fact....I miss Jonny









Top thread though Saintsfcfan

 

I guess it's not quite that easy. It seems to me, the holy grail of team selection is to build something that is greater than the sum of its parts. Each player has strengths and weaknesses and the trick is to find the combinations that play to their strengths, rather than their weaknesses. So Tadic is supposed to be the Assist King - finding pockets of space between the lines holding the ball and threading cute passes to runners in dangerous positions. Of our current players the most obvious one of those Gabbi, but for whatever reason it is just not clicking between the two of them. Boufal on the other hand is a Man Beater - like Tadic, he looks for space. But once he gets the ball, his first thought is to go past the man or men in front of him. This is only great if, once he has done it, there is either (a) a shooting opportunity or (b) another player to lay the ball off to. Both are creative players, but they are not complementary to each other.

For what it's worth, by feeling was that the failed 3-4-3 of the league cup game was an attempt to get them to work better together. I think the idea of that formation is to overload the middle of attack - lots of short, clever passing to flummox the opposition centre-backs (think Chelsea away earlier this year, with Hazard-Costa-Fabregas) . However, they didn't play it that way (Boufal in particular). Instead, when confronted by the packed defence, they pushed out wide, so they were almost never playing close to each other. They got into some nice crossing positions, but the crosses came to nothing, because we didn't have the target men in there.

 

Do you include Pellegrino there?

 

Hi, Gabba. Welcome to the board...so you finally got signed in. You said it was necessary because you had wisdom to share. I'm waiting..............................

 

He is one of the most important players on the pitch for me. He covers a lot of distance and recycles the ball very well. I know by playing him further forward you'd hope for some goals, but I would have him in my team even if he didn't score. He makes the team tick a lot of the time.

 

He wins the ball back and, as SP says, recycles it. He keeps the ball, but doesn't necessarily provide the assists or score the goals

Linking this to the why can't we play Tadic and Boufal Q, without him we are in danger of not winning the ball and not working hard enough to shut the opposition down and if you play Tadic and Boufal and don't have the ball then they can't create anything (as in the loss to Wolves)

One day we may be able to play with more creative players on the pitch and win and keep the ball, but we can't yet
I think this is what Mario is here for as he like to transition between defense and attack more quickly

 

I spent a few minutes, this afternoon, on a Spanish app, and I was asked to translate "Ayer, otros nueve goles".
Hopefully I will be saying this on Sunday, about the Saints.
















Translation "Yesterday, another nine goals ".

 

Yes! Eventually, at about the 300th attempt one of the activation emails actually got through. Thanks for your help