I like Deano and he was steady enough today, but still think that the Cork/Morgan pairing helps us to dominate possession better at home. MOTM has to be Lallana, not just for his goals, he was always a threat.
For the record... Davis - 6 - Little to do save wise, distribution fairly good. Fox - 7 - Solid display, and promising going forward. Miles better than Harding. Hooiveld - 7 - Won everything in the air. Commanding. Fonte - 7 - Equally as good as his CB partner, though slid in unnecessarily late on the substitute Rose to give Barnsley a set-piece opportunity. Richardson - 7 - Started poorly, not linking up well with Guly but got into the game more and more once he attacked. Lallana - 8.5 - Didn't see too much of the ball at times in the first half but scored the two important goals. Hammond - 7 - Certainly did nothing wrong and helped break the play up. Schneiderlin - 7.5 - Recovered after a sloppy start to control the midfield with space and presence. Having a great season. Guly - 6 - A pleasing ending to the game with some good passing but a really poor first half lowers his mark. Lambert - 7 - No goals today but played a big part in the build-up to the ones we did find the net with. The key cog. Lee - 7.5 - Delightful for Adam 's second goal and like the whole team, improved significantly 2nd half. Quickly becoming a fans favourite. Subs: Cork - 7.5 - Fantastic movement in his cameo. Needs to work on that shooting though! Connolly - 7.5 - See Cork. Link-up impressive. Sharp - 6 - Not enough time to show much but made a few good runs.
Davis- For the first time ever, his distribution was excellent!! Richardson- Got caught out a few times, but a fairly average game where the postives out weighed the negatives Fonte- Absolute class with the ball at his feet, I was livid when he took that bloke out though. No need when the bloke wasn't going anywhere. Hooiveld- Same as Fonte, great with ball at his feet and won majority of headers. Shame his cracking shot didn't go in. Fox- Love this guy, fantastic crosses which I felt we missed against Ipswich. Won most tackles and pretty much put in an excellent shift. Guly- A game of two halves, sloppy first but a quality second. Barnsley couldn't get near him and hopefully this is the confidence booster he needs. Hammond- Solid game. Didn't really put a foot wrong as far as I can remember. Schneiderlin- Couldn't get near the ball in the first part of the match, but as soon as he got hold of it Southampton controlled the match. Lallana- Top performance. Crazy talent who I think will sneak the Best Player of the Championship from Lambert. Lambert- Great assist, few good touches. But couldn't pass to save his life. I think he was very tired from mid-week so needed the rest. Lee- This guy has been a revelation, worked hard chased everything down, linked up well and what an assist for the second. Subs- All 3 looked lively and put themselves about, great to see as they all want to be starting games in the future. Bodes very well for us. 2 negatives from today: 1) Lee has the most incredible movement and puts in some fantastic runs, yet our defence never seem to pick up on it when playing the ball through and when they do its to late and Lee is offside. Real shame as it really puts the opposition on the back stick when it works. 2) Silly fouls, why oh why do we do this? The opposition are attacking with one striker against 2 of our defenders and going no where and then we foul them which gives them a great opportunity to put the ball in the box. Overall, enjoyed the game and look forward to next week.
When Guly played centrally today and was given a free role he dictated the game and was our playmaker. Just shows how wasted he is on the right. I think we played quite well overall but after a lethargic first half an hour few of our player can be said to have had a 8/9 game. The difference in the second half was that we pressed them high up the pitch and got our quality ball players on the football. Lambert struggled today and was marshalled well, hopefully he can now have a rest .
Glad we have no Tuesday game, good bit of preparation for Millwall. Come on Donny, beat the Reading & get Bristol closer to the zone.
Reading look likely to go second on Tuesday which may add to the pressure on WHAM. Reading have two away games coming up but both look winnable the way they are going at the moment!
Completely agree, you have said almost exactly what I was going to write to the letter. The first off we just stood off them, let them play and couldn't get our passing into gear. Second half we did what we normally do and shut them down completely and controlled (dominated!) the game. Guly was absolutely class in the second half, but doesn't run at people or take people on enough to play on the wing. He also comes inside too much leaving Richardson with too much to deal with.
They look very decent, I thought they would struggle against Leicester today, but instead they just look like they are getting stronger. Which leads me to........damn you Jason Scotland!
OMG... you do make me chuckle. Fox defended very well all game. "Improved slightly" .... lol. Just incredible fella. In the frist half, their lad from West Ham ran at Fox three or four times and each time Fox tackled him, won the ball and came away in posession. Not many full backs tackle any more the way Fox did in the frist half today. My only criticism of him tpoday is that in the second half when Barnsley gave up, he could and should have bombed on a little more. Did you glance up at your Dan Harding poster just before doing the ratings? The reason why it is so funny, is that all your ohter ratings for the game are spot on; you just let your love for Harding cloud your view on Fox.
Some posters here are absolutely clueless. Fox had a flawless game. These idiots just rate up their favorites and rate down players they don't like no matter what. Makes me think at times whether they actually go to the game
Did you see Fox in the opening 20mins or so fatletiss? right in front of me and could not get any closer to the pitch and he wasn't great, constantly out of position either too far up and too deep and on the ball was poor everyone around me commented on it, so its going to affect his rating isn't it? If you look at my previous Fox ratings, I've actually been quite favourable, in fact I'll show you my previous Fox ratings: Danny Fox - 9, Got a hat-trick of assists, just as good as goals for me (Derby) Danny Fox - 7, Crossing was hit and miss but otherwise ok (Burnley) Danny Fox - 7, Good performance, although crossing wasn't as good as it can be (Crystal Palace) Danny Fox - 7, A good assist (Pompey) Danny Fox - 7, Solid game, looked good defensively and going forward, his best for the club (Brighton) Fox - 7, superb going forward, ok at the back (West Ham) In fact,I would say I've rated Fox quite well throughout the season and today was only the 4th time I rated him below a 7 so you know, not that blinded thank you. The only games I rated him below a 6 were Leicester, Bristol City, Blackpool & Cardiff which coincidentally were when the whole team was poor anyway (I don't count his early games as I understand he was settling in and I cut him a little slack etc) Good enough for you now!?
Anyone rating him below 8 today know nothing about football. Simply as that. I can't remember the last time a RB/LB defended so well at St Mary's
Yes, I saw the whole game too. He had a very good game. I still stand by the fact that if he does 20 good things, you'll point out the 1 bad thing because Harding is your man. As for being right next to the pitch, how can you tell he's out of position? That's why I like to sit a bit further back, so you can see the bigger picture. It's hard to tell what's happening when you are at pitch level.
He was excellent defensively. I did however (as mentioned in my original critique) that in the second half he held back a little instead of bombing on. I think Adkins asks him to do this, becasue of lallana who does get out of position due to the nature of his play. Some games he is exposed with 30 yards in front of him.
Love the fact you ignore all my evidence about how I rate him down cos of my love for Harding denial and that I do rate him well - I hardly doubt giving him a 7 most games is rating him down because of one bad thing do you? In fact, looking at my previous ratings, Harding is rated LOWER than Fox more times than not so I don't really see your point of view anymore - You want proof? Dan Harding - 6, Couldn't cope with Henry but did well attacking (Millwall H) Dan Harding 5, His worst game for the club,and I'm a big Harding fan (Leicester H) Dan Harding - 6, rusty 1st half, improved 2nd half to offer a threat down the left (Peterborugh) Harding - 6, started well but faded out towards the end (Millwall) I've only rated Harding a 7 twice this season, compared to Fox so what do you think now? I hardly call it favouritism. I'm not sure what more I can do to prove it Anyway, maybe your right I don't see the bigger picture but tbh, I can only rate on what I see from where I'm sat and from where I was sat, Nouble constantly had loads of space in front of him
Have to say that in the past I've favoured Harding over Fox but against Barnsley Fox was excellent....I'm leaving it to Adkins to pick the team from now on...he seems to be quite a promising selector
Ok Saintsfan4 life, you know I pull your chain a little; just some banter. But please admit that ratings apart, you've alwyas had a little anti-fox in you. As for Nouble having loads of space, most of that was probably caused by Lallana bombing on; Adam simply doesn't play positional football, and that is ok because we want him to go and cause problems. It is also why Fox is played, because defensively he is strong and he holds his defensive position well apart from when he is asked to go and take set plays. He doesn't get forward as much as he could, although during a match he is obviously going to be in a forward position at some point. To say someone is "out of position", you can't take a snap shot and freeze the picture and ask "where is that player?". the play may have naturally taken him forward, or even that we had a corner in the moments leading up to that snapshot. What was clear from Saturday, according to me, is that Fox had an excellent game against Barnsley. You gave him a 6 for a performance that was excellent defensively when I thought he was our best player in the first half, and only really surpassed by Lallana who really turned it on in the second half. That simply does not make sense.
I did have anti-fox in me at the start of his saints career where I thought he was overpriced and not good enough however over the course of the season he has proved me wrong and that he is good enough to start for saints I'm not going to dwell on the matter though, and I look forward to the next set of ratings! Adkins is the manager, he picks the team and whatever team he picks I'll be supportive and I'll view it as I see it from where I'm sat (Differing views on players in different parts of the ground, thats why peoples match ratings are often so different and interesting) I think the fact Fox is in team of the week shows my views are often irrelevant and probably not worth reading! and of course it's only banter mate, just proving my point!
