Match Day Thread Southampton v Leicester City Saturday 17th October 2015 KO 3pm

http://outside90.com/epl-player-ratings-southampton-2-leicester-2/3/

Haven't read whole thread so apologies if posted. Players ratings...tends to favour Saints slightly, but then Leicester strength was as a team...some of their shooting was wild.

 

Well, it's interesting reading the reactions to yesterday's game. I figured there might be a bit of a meltdown, so I thought I'd leave my immediate comments until I'd settled down a little and had time to properly digest the game.
Firstly, Leicester were very good - they bullied us (albeit with an incredible amount of leeway from the ref - quite how they got away with no bookings defeats me), we allowed them to do that and panicked in the second half by our complete inability to keep the ball.
Our midfield was totally overrun and, I have to agree, Clasie looked out of his depth (it IS his first PL start though and in Ron and Les we trust). But hindsight's easy. We were majorly crippled by Vic's injury and booking (I was constantly worried in the 2nd half that he was going to get a second), Huth's and their number 5's constant clattering of Pelle (once again no protection from a very poor ref), plus Mane's apparent exhaustion and Tadic' going awol again in the second half.
Clearly Cedric's sub was forced, but Maya did as well as the rest of the defense - I wish people would get off his back. He was no worse than the rest of the team. Jose's injury also affected us and we gave the game away.
However, fair dos to Leicester. Maher and Dyer were inspired subs and changed the game. We couldn't cope. We were slow, bullied and panicked. They never gave up - which shows in their position - good on them. Their left back (apart from the collision with Cedric in the first half) played really well and we should have known the danger Vardy poses.
But I'd have taken a draw before the game, I, like everyone, was just disappointed that we couldn't see out a game from a 2 goal lead.
However onward and upward - coaches and management will have learned lessons yesterday which hopefully will help us in the future. Personally, I think international breaks don't help us - players seem to come back tired and jaded.

 

To be pedantic, Claise hasn't had a Premier League start yet has he?

 

I think it is generally agreed that RonKo got it tactically wrong in the second half, there were several reasons for that and we all have different and somewhat opposing views, but I fail to understand some of the posters' (not only on here) vindictive "Person to Blame" mentality, this ranks of being spoilt brats and poor losers, we have to accept that we cannot hope to win every time and also have to give the opposition some credit. I am all for the desire for Saints to do well, but it has to be done using fairness and sensibility.

 

Oh you old pedant you ......

Writing this on a tablet - hence the hitting if "post reply" when I was halfway through my post! Apologies.

 

Ha ha... I'm impressed at the tablet Dave. I dnot have one. You'll have to leave the Dinsoaurs Club I'm afraid

 

Not judging Clasie on that performance. I did have to ask someone if he was even on the pitch at one point though.

Hopefully his next experience of the PL will be a bit more comfortable.

 

To be further pedantic Claise is unlikely to ever make a prem start but Clasie might...

 

Like everyone else was disappointed in Saints 2nd half showing yesterday but i was hugely impressed with Leicester City's fightback. Near the end I thought that we were going to lose and was glad of a point at final whistle, Vardy really should have had a hatrick. Losing a 2-0 ht lead and 2-1 lead on 90 mins is hard to take but take nothing away from Leicester, they showed that their league position is no fluke.
Like Dave above i couldnt see how they managed to get to the final whistle with no bookings, and once again we had a ref that didnt appear to like Saints too much, but these are no excuses.

 

I forgot to add - who is this Claise guy ? Im no follower of European football and didnt have a clue who he was when he signed for us but a lot on here were wetting themselves about him long before he signed and then ecstatic when he did join, but from the glimpses that ive had of him thus far im not impressed at all. Steven Davis was prob a bit knackered yesterday but he had far more effect on the game than Claise when he came on. Will have to give him some time to find his feet in this team/league maybe but first impressions not good.

 

Give him time. He is a very good player.

 

Touché

I have fat fingers!

 

If you mean defence in the Napoleonic sense - "attack is the best form of defence"- then yeah.

If you're talking about holding our shape without the ball, we actually did that okay for the most part, restricting them to half chances. We did too much of it though. Which is why we were more tired than them at the end.

 

So you say, but ive not seen this yet. I did say in my post that will have to give him some time.

 

Has it been confirmed that our double substitution was due to injury, or was it tactical?
I have nothing against Clasie, but sending him on for his first taste of Premier League football, when the team has it's back to the wall and when we are playing against a team that plays at such a high tempo, was a mistake by RK.
I'm not a fan of double substitutions, per se, unless they are done at half time (like Leicester) or if you are chasing a game and have to gamble.
For me, it disrupts the team cohesion in different areas of the park, at the same time, creating more imbalance whilst both subs get up to speed.

One thing, as a team, we also need to start looking at, when we are being totally dominated, is the need to disrupt the flow of teams that get on top of us. We're too honest, but at times, like yesterday, we need to take a leaf out of Tony Pulis' book, and slow the game down when we win throw ins and goal kicks etc. Going down and get treatment etc, just to disrupt the other team. Not nice, but it happens against us.

An incident that seems not to have been mentioned too much, unless I missed it (I did skim some pages) is the Mane attempt from 40 yards, or so.
He really should have run with the ball.
At worst he could have messed up, like he did anyway. At best he could have scored or even drawn a red card tackle from the chasing pack.
This could have been a game changing moment.

 

Firstly his name is Clasie, the fact you can't spell it is probably why you haven't found out much about him, he is a talented midfielder, that will, in time be a very useful addition to the squad, his introduction to Premiershp football has been interrupted by a couple of unfortunate injuries so he has had no time to get accustomed to the rigours of the Premiership, this was probably not the right game to be thrown in at the deep end, Romeu was the obvious option to most of us. Watch this space before you criticise please.

 

He was a bit knackered I think which is why he went for that option but there was another - he could have played JRod in.

 

Regarding that Mane attempt, I think basically he was still fatigued after the International break, had it gone in we would have been bragging about what a genius he is, thin margins.

 

Don't blame Mane for the attempted lob. Earlier on when he ran past Schmeichel though, he could have given the ball to Tadic straight away.

 

Can't accept the excuse, that Mane was too tired to run with the ball.
Vardie managed to run himself into the ground for 95 minutes, with no sign of fatigue.