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

Think it comes down to all ten of our outfield players being on international duty. Late game for Pelle too. Mane was lackadaisical in terms of his killer instinct in front of goal. Am sure he would have scored that chance when he went round Schmeichel on another day. Seemed to think he had loads of time. Possibly the worst side to play after an international break!

 

Just a thought: Did Mane let the team down when he should have scored? Would that have given us a 3-2 win? Should VvD have stopped Dyer's cross for the first goal? Did any other players miss a chance at precisely the wrong time (any time between the two whistles at the beginning and end of the game is the only time)

It seems like Kelvin had a bad kick and Leicester scored from it. You seem to not be able to shake that the defeat was Kelvin's fault. I have no axe to grind here as I wasn't there unfortunately this week so I had no emotion carried over from the game, but I don't think you can blame a player for not winning for one clearance that lead to a goal, when there is 90 minutes of other stuff happening in a game. It was a bad clearance, that's it.

Just a thought.

 

I agree - Leicester should be disappointed not to have won that.

And on another - unrelated to your post - point, I have no doubts at all that Clasie is going to be amazing.

EDIT: I think we did well under difficult circumstances - knackered and against an energetic and very good team. Can't say I'm disappointed overall with any player's performance either. Just dislike dropping points from leading positions. Even if Leicester have done it to countless teams previously.

 

Fats,I'm definately not having another go at Kelvin but it wasn't A (singular) bad kick at all and unfortunately the team lost all confidence in him in my opinion.
Probably started with that flap he did after about 25 seconds.

 

Well, Kelvin made an error following 45 minutes of barraged Leicester attack, which we had almost seen out, thanks primarily to lacklustre Leicester finishing. He conceded possession. There is probably some sort of imaginary continuum of result accountability that has at one end (Very Accountable) 'non-pressured throwing/kicking the ball into your own net from six yards out' and at the other end (Not Very Accountable) 'losing possession in the opposition's area'. In this instance, 'conceding possession direct from a deadball by not clearing it outside a ring of 8 or 9 Leicester players within your final third with two minutes remaining' happens to be closer to the Very Accountable end of that spectrum. It was for me the moment that we drew the game, as directly before it, we were winning the game 2-1. Within a single pass and a shot following Kelvin's kick, it was 2-2.

In the bigger picture of the game - which I have covered by my views on Ron's subs - we shouldn't have allowed ourselves to be under that level of pressure. We should have adjusted at least halfway through the second half. We perhaps may have found it easier to do so had we not had the international break - both teams had the same, but we had all players involved in some key, high-intensity games too.

I have no anti-Kelvin agenda. He probably prefers it when Steks plays too. I just have a view on the overall picture and one on the moment we conceded. We all hate conceding via direct errors, as we all hate conceding from deadball situations.

 

I also hope that this doesn't apply to me either - I don't think he's tactically poor. I said he has to shoulder some of the responsibility (crucially, not blame) for this, in this instance. Just like he shoulders credit for this in most games. And I also extend the fact that if Clasie is able to perform better over the coming games as a result of more extensive involvement in that Leicester game (25 minutes in which is probably the equivalent of having played four Premiership 90 minutes!), then that is worth it.

 

It still think it was funny - and that's when it was sung by Leicester fans at our players (that's the only time I heard it - so didn't realise it had been sing by us to them previously, in which context it's even funnier (for me)! I always enjoy monotonous, repetitive, pseudo-unimaginative lyrics such as those. I bet some of our players were chuckling inside too.

 

That was a clash of heads, but there was one incident the ref did blow for where the Leicester player was adjudged to have led with his elbow (though no yellow). Caused no injury, but we got a freekick. Can't remember who was involved, though.

 

http://www.101greatgoals.com/fantas...ver-when-southamptons-cedric-was-substituted/

Not strictly relevant as it is about Fantasy Football, but does have picture of Cedric's head wound.

 

If you really believe this, then I expect that next time-- and every time Saints win-- you will not praise our players but rather blame the other team's poor management or inadequacies on defense since after all it was them who let us be great. Every once in a while a team is just completely outclassed or fails to show up but the vast majority of the time it's a function of one team playing somewhat well and the other not.

And Leicester did show up in the first half. I think you're being thrown off by the scoreline being 2-0. They looked very lively even when Okazaki and Mahrez were in, and Huth missed a great chance. I knew during halftime that unless Saints could slow the game down, Leicester was going to be dangerous and could easily get back in it. Leicester was going to go all-out with nothing to lose, and Saints were going to get tired. It was kind of obvious.

Granted, I didn't see things getting so bad that we almost feel lucky to only give up two goals, but I thought they could steal a point easily if we didn't gain control of the match. There have been games where we've been tied at half and I felt better about our chances of winning.

 

I texted my son at half time and said don't be fooled by the score...this game is tough. He replied that Merson said we were cruising

 

For one main reason, no: my focus is primarily on Saints, so I will discuss their greatness or lack thereof, regardless of the deficiencies of the other team. Like I have discussed Saints' deficiencies in the Saturday game - and I don't think there were two many on the whole, by the way, just the stupid concession of possession at the end. Not sure why I wouldn't believe that, though - it's pretty uncontroversial a statement that a team's performance is restricted to the boundaries within which an opposition allows them to play. 'Greatness' is a sliding scale. If you have a bad game, that's a low level of greatness. If Saints came out all fired up, all players fit, and played at a point above their usual level, it wouldn't mean anything if the opposition came out at exactly the same level. We'd have a great game on our hands, though we could still lose. I don't often discuss games in post-match threads anyway. It just chimed with me this time that we need to sort our keeper situation. Or maybe we don't, as it's so rare that we'll need Kelvin. But a hungry up-and-comer, with a few PL games under his belt, that instilled growing levels of confidence each time he played would be nice.

 

no Pelletron, you post your views sensibly and calmly. even if the ones that disagree with me are wrong

 

Because if Saints are only as good as the other team allows them to be, then it's not under their control. Your discussion each week should be focused on the other team and why they allowed (or did not allow) Saints to be good.

Unless Saints are the one team in the universe with control of their destiny, and every other team in the world is only as good as Saints allows them to be. But of all the football (or any other athletic) clubs in the world, I can't figure out why God would have chosen to bless one random Hampshire club with the gift of freewill and self-determination.

 

or, just maybe.... it is a bit of both

 

But Saints of course are only allowing the other team to be as good as we allow them to be, thereby handing us back control over our own destiny. Thus if Ron had put Romeu on to soak up some of Leicester's offensive pressure, rather than a not-yet-fit Clasie, we may well have pinned back Leicester to an extent. What I'm saying is that yes, Leicester were very good in that second half - but they were only that good because we allowed them to be via what seemed to be (to some of us) the wrong tactical approach, and because we were tired following the international break. We could have tried to claim back that control - and probably did, but they didn't let us - via a different combination of substitutes, and if we managed to use this successfully as a platform to regain some possession and control of the midfield battleground, that would be because we changed, and Leicester (by virtue of having made their subs) could only be said to have allowed us to gain that stronger foothold back in the game.

Fully accept this is a ridiculous conversation, by the way!

 

Come on people, do I have to spell it out again.? The only football club which truly exists is Southampton FC. All other football clubs are mere cyphers and the players are phantoms brought to real life if they ever become part of Southampton FC. They return to a virtual existence if they ever leave. Some grow beards in order to give themselves substance. It doesn't work.
Personally, I pity the fans of other clubs. If they could only see through the hype they'd realise The Southampton Way.

Eastleigh Spitfires do properly exist though, I believe. Nobody else.

 

Got to agree with this assessment and this is in no way a smear on Pelle (whose effort/concentration may have been questioned previously). It goes back to Kelvin and his kicking. One thing I love about Stekelenberg is the consistency of his boot. He always seems to be able to find Pelle or give him something to attack, but Kelvin could barely get beyond the half way line and all second half Pelle was feeding off scraps.

With this in mind, I think it would have been better to throw on Jay Rod for Pelle and at least give us the potential of pace in behind and play balls into space behind Leicester, rather than at Pelle who was either losing out or too isolated to do anything with it.

 

You're quite a little team (taking away the centre backs) and I thought we looked dangerous with every set-piece in the first half. Once Ranieri realised the best way to defend that danger was to not let us anywhere near your penalty box, then it took away our main threat.

Best wishes for the rest of the season, hopefully the tinker man can find a way of producing a 90 minutes as your team seems more comfortable playing at a higher tempo, but that's tough to maintain for the full match.
Loved your performance against Arsenal and going toe to toe with them. Hope all the fans are proud of the team