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

Haha, that was a great song - but it was the Leicester fans, unless I'm seriously mistaken?!

 

Yeh they did it too,but we were first. Great song?give me strength.

 

*cough* some did

 

Evening lads,

Having skimmed through some posts on this thread (I don't have the time to read the whole 25 pages ), I just want to say thanks for your positive comments

It's not often we are appreciated, and receive positive comments from opposition fans (you're on an entirely different level to the dramas and the Hullards on here ), so credit to you's!

You have been the model in recent years that we need to follow, and if we could replicate anything like your last season, I'd be ecstatic! However, I think we'll drift away soon, I'll accept anything above "comfortably surviving".

You've done immaculate considering the managers and players you have lost, best of luck for the rest of the season

 

do you have a wife called Gloria?

 

No, but I have a son called Esteban

 

No, our fans started it after our second. I hate baiting the opposition - it is pointless sad small minded. The Leicester fans (quite rightly - though, sadly in my opinion) turned it back on us when they equalised.
Makes me sad to think of the youngsters who go to the game being introduced to that sort of thing, but I guess that's part of our culture these days.

 

Thanks, Jack. Yes we're rightfully upset at throwing away 2 points but impressed with your team's attitude. Good luck for the rest of the season!

 

... N'Golo Kante .. made the most tackles in the whole of European football last season apparently .. has been immense. .. only problem he has is being left with the responsibility of marking Fonte at corners

 

We sang it first, at Huth I think, when he missed a sitter. Then they sang it back at us after they equalised.

I thought it was funny. But then I'm easily amused.

I also used to enjoy "duh duh duh dud duh duh, ****ing useless" back in our league 1 days.

 

One thing that struck me yet again from the Leicester game is Ron's obsession with Pelle. He was completely outplayed and dominated by the two Leicester centre backs from the first whistle to the last. If ever there was a case for trying something different then here it was. But as usual, nothing.

It begs the question, why did we buy Juanmi? Just maybe someone small and tricky might have unsettled them. Or maybe he could have pushed Mane into the middle and bought Rodriguez on earlier. Something!

Pelle has on occasions been superb this season but surely someone should recognise when its not working out and try something different.

 

http://www.skysports.com/football/n...ook-their-toll-on-southampton-says-jose-fonte

Fonte blames the performance on the number of internationals we have....said we faded in second half. Almost certainly not as fresh as we would have liked, but we have to live with that....there are more internationals in November. Ignoring freshness, I do feel we would have played better if this match came straight after our victories against Swansea and Chelsea.

Just seen picture of Cedric's injury....

 

I do agree with him. We looked knackered second half.

 

Where did you see that and can someone please tell me if the Leicester player led with his elbow (it looked like it from where I was, but I didn't manage to see MOTD or any replay)?

 

Nah, was just a head-to-head collision. Cedric nutted the top of Schlupp's bonce.

 

Pretty sure it was a clash of heads.

 

Thanks. I was annoyed that the ref took no action, but I understand now - Tom can rest easy ...........

 

Great post. Feel exactly the same. Absolutely no criticism of Ron from me overall, but sometimes the truth is that managers sometimes make tactical changes that have little or no effect, and I just maintain that he has to hold his hands up for some of that on Saturday. My view is that he did in this instance, BUT would have come out on the winning side still had Kelvin not let the team down with a bad bit of distribution at precisely the wrong time. And had we won, I would have still maintained we got very lucky. The energy of that Leicester side was insane - that makes it a bad idea to introduce Clasie. I wanted to see Romeu in from the start, as I anticipated Leicester would start well - yet Ron didn't, and got that right. My view was completely wrong.

When one sits at home shouting at the screen during a quiz show, and we bemoan the contestant for missing a really easy question, or making the wrong choice, the standard thought is that under the pressure of an audience, studio lights, and the genuine risk of losing thousands of pounds (or whatever the prize may be), it's not actually that easy, and we wouldn't necessarily do any better if we weren't sitting on our sofas at home under no pressure at all. That doesn't mean that we didn't still get the question(s) correct. And the same goes sometimes for our tactical suggestions when sitting up in the comfort of the stands. No one's saying we know more than Ron, I'm sure.

The story of the game is that post-international break, it was a very lethargic first half. Saints didn't put too much more effort in than Leicester, and didn't have to work too hard to go 2-0 up. Leicester came out with momentum, and Saints effectively weakened our side considerably (in terms of physical prowess and energy) against a strengthened side who had already played their hand in terms of subs (this is hardly the famous Prisoner's Dilemma, where both parties in a game have imperfect information about opposition motives). And as for giving Leicester credit - yes, they are a great team, but they didn't turn up in the first half; and I am more interested on this site in examining why our team didn't see this out, as opposed to chalking it down to Leicester being great. That is simply not a reason for the result from our point of view. A team is only as great as another team lets it be. Us v Chelsea, for example. I would talk about Leicester's greatness more if I was having this discussion on the Leicester board. The interest lies in why we weren't matching them. Most of the second half was played within our final third, and our players didn't seem to even be able to make defensive clearances past that imaginary line, a factor that lost us the game in the end. I hazard that with a more robust and physically fit defensive substitution, we may not have had quite so much pressure on us. Alternatively, Romeu may have picked up a yellow within five minutes, given away a freekick or pen, and they would go on to beat us 2-3. So who knows...

 

Does anyone know if Romeu is one yellow away from a ban? I thought maybe Ron wanted to save him for the Liverpool game.
Also, as I said in an earlier post, if Clasie is able to be more effective against Liverpool and fixtures beyond due to some actual game time, I think that may have been worth the sacrifice of two points.