The prem is probably overall the hardest league in the world and the hardest part of it is going away. Even the top sides often have to sit back and play on the counter when they play away from home. With that in mind are saints and nigel being abit over ambitous with our tactics? We basically played four attackers versus Everton and failed to protect the wings leaving us very exposed and resulting in Everton being able to comfortably overturn the defecit. A classic away performance would have seen us give alot of protection to our defence and hit them on the counter seeing as they had to come at us being a goal down. Now I know Everton are a good team so the result isn't the end of the world but even against the poorer teams (and looking at the league I cant think of many teams which I would call poor) being to open and attacking could still cost us. I think now that it isn't just the defensive personal which is the problem but the whole mindset and tactics of the team, I think we have to acknowledge that away from home we wont be able to play through teams all the time look at swansea last season!
It was rather silly to play so narrow yesterday - left the fullbacks horribly exposed. Changed it in the 2nd half but the damage was done.
Didnt see the match but that seems a good assesment hopefully Nige will learn. I guess if this teaches us how to play away then in the long run it would be a good result in a roundabout type of way.
I don't think there's anything wrong with an attacking approach, even away from home. The important thing is to keep possession, and when you lose it, get it back. We managed this quite well yesterday for the first 20 minutes but Everton worked us out, and crucially, we didn't have Morgan Schneiderlin in the side. I think that was the main problem yesterday, not the tactics. Morgan has been, statistically, the hardest working player in the Premier League this season so far in terms of distance run and tackles made, and we didn't half miss him.
We do have a lot to learn, but we are learning. A few weeks ago we would have got turned over in the 2nd half yesterday - we didn't. In our first season back in the prem we can't hope to win away games like yesterday if we are honest - Everton's record at home even against the big boys is good. I was pleased though...we are definitely improving. The big risk for teams coming up is that they can't score....we have proved we can score against anyone. I suspect we will strengthen in January, and we are already improving. If I was one of the other teams I would want to play us early in the season. As has been said, the big thing is to keep possession - but it is coming.
Good post - think that this was def the case yesterday, and it did cost us during that period before half time. Especially with the left side for Everton being so potent, more thought should have been given to the full back positions. Richardson struggled for most of the game i thought and was our worst player. I didnt think that Fonte had that bad a game - for that period when Everton was on fire the whole Saints team look shaky ! But surely we need to play with a more defensive formation for tough away games like yesterday. However to their credit Saints played better in the 2nd half, kept possession better and with better finishing may have got a draw. If only Jay Rod had finished off that good chance just after we scored !
Adkins in his post match interview talked again about having alot of goals in the team. He seems to have the Keegan philosophy of trying to outscore the opposition. It was his tried and tested approach in the Championship and he obviously feels that attack is more important than defence - as shown by the number of attackering midfielders/strikers purchased for large sums rather than concentrating on building a team from the back and through the spine of the team and therafter filling positions over time in other areas. I do not subscribe to this strategy - but we are stuck with it. I expect us to take some heavy defeats this season especially away from home and loosing more games when leading too. We have to live with the fact that our 40 points are going to have to come from home games and possibly some high-scoring away games against lower teams. We are not geared to getting an early and playing out a waiting game...
I tend to agree. I said on here yesterday that I wouldn't have minded us playing Hooiveld as well as Fonte and Yoshida. Formation of 5-4-1 when we're without the ball, and 3-4-3 when we're with the ball. Something similar to how Wigan set-up. Alternatively, maybe starting Chaplow alongside Davis and JWP, similar to how we set up against City. Although granted we still conceded three goals and a handful of other great chances that day. I've got every confidence though that over time, Nigel will learn and adapt. That said though, the fact that he has shown with his team selections away from home - and in particular yesterday - that he wants attacking players on the pitch, could work in our favour when it comes to playing those sides around us. What better way to survive, than to go to your rivals' grounds and take home three points, rather than settling for just the one? (Even if it means on the odd occassion coming home with nothing). Like ourselves, I don't see too many other teams down the bottom with great defences, but unlike us I also don't see too many of them with the sort of attacking talent that we have. So why not utilise that attacking talent against those equally poor defences? But clearly, Arsenal and Everton are not in that category.
It's a game of fine margins isn't it? If Rodriguez had scored with that great chance he had we'd have been 2-0 up and would probably have gone more defensive then and they might have struggled to get two in that scenario. But as Romsey_Saint says, we're not the kind of team that can score one and then defend it. It's not always going to work out, but to maximise our chances of winning we probably need to score more than one goal. On another day we might have had better luck. Hooiveld might have dealt better with those crosses, and given Fellaini more of a physical presence to worry about, but he is injured, so...
Clyne was ruthlessly exposed yesterday , I would love to see a % of how many times Everton came down our left flank .
Having seen the goals on MOTD, I thought that Everton's second was pure class. This was alomost the model goal insofar that a Saint's attack was broken down and the ball then swept alongthe length of the pitch by some visionary passing before Jelavic rifled home the goal. I didn't think we'd get anything today but losing to a team like Everton who play attractive and incisive football is no shame.
Maybe if you'd watched the game you were at instead of playing with your phone to troll on here you'd already know the answer.
Ok, coming back from injury. Clearly not considered fully fit. He was exposed because Lallana didn't help him and he was facing two attackers most of the time (and when Lallana did try to help Coleman went past him like he wasn't there). The best full-back in the world would have been exposed by that.
I suggest you read that , read it again , digest it , then think upon it before writing something , what is wrong that post ?
To be fair our three away games have been Man City, Arsenal and Everton. They are all going to be top five at least. So no need to go to panic stations just yet.
None of the teams around us will get much on the road this season, especially at places like Everton. We'll just have to go to these places, try to play our game and put whatever happens down to experience. There's not a lot to lose, so we may as well take the opportunity to practise our natural game..
