Romeu, Mane, and Tadic all excellent. Cedric and Pelle almost as good. But without any doubt, my MOTM was JWP. At last he produces the goods. Oh I pray that he can produce that on a regular basis this season. Would be good for him, would be good for the team, would be good for us fans, and would allow us to put Davis down into 5th in the CM pecking order. (Morgan, that was a bit harsh on your bit Jack!)
Cheers Thai. Was always going to be tough once you went down to 10 men today. Good luck for the rest of the season!
tbh, the way the game was going, Saints were always going to get a goal. From the very first minute you had the wind in your sails (possibly from the free kick on 37 seconds), and the writing just seemed to be on the wall.
Whilst I like Jwp, I still struggle to see the impact he makes, his so called set pieces are always wide of the post and rarely force the keeper to make the save. DOn't get me wrong I want him to be a huge success, but his path has been a slow burner, and for me he was nowhere near Motm, give it to one of the front three, take your pick, but JWP did not make the critIcal difference today
Targett had a good game today as well. I thought he had a few nice tackles and also did a good job holding his ground and containing players. I thought the problem the first few games was that he was getting caught ou of position, and just making some bad decisions. Today and against Watford he's been better about playing within himself and getting the defensive stuff right. He made one bad run where he got way up and made a terrible cross that led to an immediate dangerous counter today. But mostly he did good. Tadic and his ability to hold up the ball also helped.
We seem to play significantly better with Tadic on the left. So much better that I do wonder why he ever starts on the right. I didn't see him put a foot wrong today. Matty looked so much better for having good cover from Tadic. Romeu was a delight to watch, though there was a point early on where he clattered into someone from behind and no foul was given, let alone a booking. There were genuine cries of bemusement around me. It's not what we've come to expect from the lad; he's an early yellow card every time. He was spitting out long passes to the wing a la Morgan all game. If he carries on like that he's on for a good season. JWP played better than I can recall seeing him play before for us. He kept hitting passes that I though were grossly overhit then they'd land in the right place. Again, hope he can keep doing it. A good free kick goal for him will transform him (and how close was he today?) J-Rod is so keen to score that it hurts. I'm of the opinion that once he does get going again he'll be a killer once more. Mané sublime, just sublime. Pelle, a good solid performance and eavery goal will rebuilt his confidence. One swallow does not a summer make but that certainly looked like the Saints that I love. Lovely to watch. Vin
Bang on. Tadic on the left - agree. Romeu - agree. JWP - agree. Jay - agree. Mane - agree. Pelle - agree. It was just one game - agree. As well as praying that JWP starts performing like that on a regular basis, I also pray that Ron now sticks with Mane on the right and Tadic on the left. By all means have them cut inside etc, but fundamentally play Tadic on the left. When Bertrand is then back, his link-up play with Tadic will hopefully be just as effective as Mane's was with Cedric today (our start to last season proved that Tadic-Bertrand can be a lethal combination).
LtL Watching on Sky go in Wet Cornwall and missed first 20 mins, so missed that, but did see a later one a yard passed the post. I was not talking specifically about this game, but generally, where he takes a lot of freekicks, they are close, but never on the money, maybe I was spoilt by a certain Mr Letiss, when we got a freak kick, you took your shirt off and bet that the ball would be in the back of the net. I do not want to be negative, he has has talent, and can certainly hit the dead ball, bit now needs to deliver ore
Fair enough, but the free kick in the first minute was a truly tremendous save. He's getting there no doubt.
JWP played well today. Just hard to give him MOtM when everyone else was also on fire. But one thing we might have learned today is that maybe none of Pelle, JWP, or Davis is as bad as they've looked at times. The formation was just unbalanced, so none of them could do what they do best. Maybe it was just Norwich being down to 10 players, but I thought we looked sharper from the start. And I don't think it is coincidence that suddenly evveryone had good games at once.
That's the key though. I was. I completely agree with what you said to me, in relation to all of JWP's other games for us. But today he was something else. You missing the first 20 mins was massive, in my view. Not just because of that cracking free-kick, but because of his allround game. He was dropping deep to pick the ball up, a la Morgan. He was knocking the ball about in the middle of the park. He was putting himself about. Up until the red card, he was our best player in my view (although Mane did start very well too). The red card then seemed to allow the likes of Pelle, Cedric, Romeu, Tadic etc really up their games (which is what you would expect). But JWP was on it quite literally from the word go.
Okay, point taken and well made, I hope this is the beginning of his spring and summer season together
One other thought. Replacing Davis with Rodriguez at half time smacked to me of a manager who wants us to play to win. Thre three times I noticed Ron standing up all he was doing was waving our attackers forward. Delightful. Vin
We got a lot more loot than we should have, got rid of a judas and gave our hero his wish, what's not to like?
Phew! Much better performance all round. Loved Tadic in his cameo's and gave Targett cover and someone to pass to.
And finished the season with our record points total and our highest position in the Premier League. Not bad, eh? See, I thought everyone would cheer up with a win under our belts!
