Saints won a second consecutive home game 2-0, but it was in a totally different manner to the previous weeks victory.

They say the sign of a good side is the ability to win games when you are totally outplayed, if that old adage is true then Saints have a great chance of winning the league this year as they were out fought, out thought, out passed and out played by a Swansea City side who will be wondering how the hell they lost this one.

In my preview of the game I mentioned that the problem might arise in midfield if we played both Lambert & Osvaldo and this turned out to be the case, effectively our midfield only had four men in it with either Lambert or Osvaldo dropping back to help sometimes, but against a team like Swansea dropping back isn't good enough, you have to be able to compete with them on their own level, after a good start by Saints resulting in a well taken goal by Adam Lallana, Swansea got to work and took control of the game.

As I pointed out in the preview, Swansea like to use wingers and the fact we left Danny Fox constantly exposed down our left side was not helping matters, Im not going to debate whether Fox is good enough or not, but fact is he is a Saints player not only did he not deserve the abuse he got, but if anyone actually thinks by constantly abusing him its going to help our cause, then they bluntly are clueless, I suspect a year ago the same people were hurling the same mindless abuse at Artur Boruc and would have been happy back then to have him hounded out of the club.

If Luke Shaw had played then obviously he was better equipped to handle the pacy Dyer, but truth is even if he had, we had got our tactics wrong and he would have struggled just as much finding himself double teamed, as I said he would have had the pace to deal with it better, but the root problem would have remained.

For the middle part of the game Saints hung on and I mean hung on only the woodwork, some desperate defending and of course a goalkeeping display from Artur Boruc that ranks up there with any I have seen in over 40 years of watching the club, not only was Boruc superb in his shot stopping, but he did everything else that was needed as well, commanding his area in a way I don't think I have seen in a Saints shirt since the days of Peter Shilton, with Saints under constant pressure I was almost relieved when Swansea crossed the ball into the six yard box as you knew that Boruc would get it.

Ironically it took an injury to Osvaldo to change the game back towards Saints, with the Italian going off it enabled Saints to bring on Jamie Ward Prowse and revert to a true five man midfield, this was where Saints were losing the battle and losing it badly, JWP brought balance back to the middle of the park, not only this but it meant that we had a man on the left to protect Fox, Swansea were still bossing the game, but they weren't finding it as easy as they had been and you sensed that Saints might be able to see it through.

But it needed another substitution to truly start to swing it in our favour, Rodriguez coming on for Lambert offered pace and mobility, for the first minutes after his introduction Rodriguez ran around and although seemingly not getting anywhere was harassing the Swansea back line and they didn't look as comfortable on the ball as they had done for the previous hour.

With ten minutes left Wanyama appeared to have wrapped the game up, but as he celebrated over by the corner flag he was strangely not joined by his teammates, it soon became clear why, the goal was disallowed and they were having to deal with Swansea swiftly getting on with the game, but you felt that Saints were now if not stronger than the Swans at least on an equal footing and the second goal was about to arrive, a long kick from Boruc, saw Rodriguez refuse to give up what appeared to be a simple job for the Swansea defence, he battled and battled and got himself into a position where he could volley home to make the game safe.

A satisfying win for Saints, satisfying in the fact that last season we would have perhaps lost this game heavily, indeed we deserved too this time, but we hung on in there with every player and do mean every player doing his job and contributing to the victory, the crowd helped as well at least those who didn't barrack Fox, as the game wore on the Itchen roused and in turn so did the Northam and Kingsland corner, they got behind the team and you could see this helped, respect to those that raised their voices in support of the team, anyone who verbally shouted abuse at our left back should hang their heads in shame.

So 4th in the league and its great to be in these lofty heights, but there is a long way to go and there were a lot of warning signs yesterday that we aren't the complete side that some would have us, we got our tactics wrong yesterday, we took our time to get them right and rode our luck, hopefully we will have learnt, the biggest test so far comes at Old Trafford in the next game, we go there above United in the league and there haven't been many times we have been able to say that since the Premier League started 21 years ago. If we can come through this one with even a point, then we will have made a big statement of intent.

Photo: Action Images

SaintJez added 10:39 - Oct 7 1-0? Did you leave early Nick?? :-) COYR
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slynch added 10:40 - Oct 7 Dyer was Foxy and Foxy was Dyer. ps it was 2-0
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SanMarco added 11:00 - Oct 7 I know that some will slam the above verdict from Nick as negative but it does point to the two problems (and it is only two - think how many it was not that long ago!) that will, if not addressed prevent us from doing very, very well. Namely: 1. The weakness at left back when Shaw doesn't play. I agree that it is ludicrous and counter-productive to abuse Fox - he is doing his best, but sadly he isn't good enough. It is a fair point that he was left exposed but that doesn't alter the point that he is not good enough. 2. Against good teams Ricky and Osvaldo cannot both play. The fact that the change to 5 in midfield probably won the game for us says it all. That said - we are looking up not down. Last season I would have been dismayed at the Spurs-Wet Spam result, this season I am delighted - one of our rivals lost!!

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SaintJez added 11:11 - Oct 7 at almost any level in football, the key is to find a blend of nullifying the opposing threat and leaving enough options to create the chances of win a game. When it comes to defending you have to look honestly at whether your players are good enough to win individual battles. On Sunday, most observers could see pre-game that Swansea would have an extra man in midfield and Dyer would have the beating of Fox one on one. It wasn't rocket science to predict that but we didn't. if Shaw is fit then he is more than capable of holding is own and with 2 defensive midfielders creating an effective back 6 we have more than enough on the field to allow for Lambert and Osvaldo. Alas, on Saturday, we had a clear weakness and we didn't do enough to close it out. Ofcourse, you would like to be able to field a team with no weak links but when you can't do that, the manager needs to shuffle his pack. Pochettino will learn from Sunday and it was a soft lesson as he still got the points! Will be interesting to see if he does anything different the next time this happens.

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brady100 added 11:28 - Oct 7 Our resilience and work rate has to be taken as a positive and we can take confidence from knowing that we haven’t actually played at our best yet. Agree totally on abuse of Danny Fox, what sort of fans ironically cheer their own player when he completes a pass...what does this achieve? Having said that, Fox he was a glaring weakness throughout with his positional play, passing and pace. Backing off is criminal leaving him unbalanced and allowing dyer to deliver the ball unchallenged time and again. A weakness at this level is soon sounded out and exploited ruthlessly. Jury still out for me regarding Wanyama for me, hopefully he will grow in stature and confidence with games. Now we can go to Old Trafford after the break and play with no fear and really express ourselves. Good support yesterday!!

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SaintNick added 11:38 - Oct 7 The 1-0 scoreline was of course a typo, the debate about Fox should not be about whether he was good enough or not, but about why he was left exposed and our tactics. Fox got the stick yesterday almost before he had kicked a ball, but he should be applauded for sticking to his task, problem is how do we get someone better than Fox, with Shaw first choice and Target coming through and perhaps ready in a year we aren't going to get anyone better than Fox to come here and be second choice, Fox is a good Championship standard full back, we wont get better, Pochettino obviously thinks that and would perhaps think that in Fox's last 3 games there have been 2 clean sheets and in the 3rd when Fox was sent off the problem was down the centre not the left back. As supporters we should back Fox when he plays, try to help him get his confidence back, all the abuse was doing was making it harder for him, would we rather him have gone to pieces and lost the game ?

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LostBoys added 11:38 - Oct 7 I think this underestimates Saints performance and overestimates Swansea. They played some excellent football in the middle of the park but their only outlet was get it to their right and attack our full back. This meant that Davis, who I thought had a storming game had to cover Michu in midfield and then double back to help Fox on every occasion. This also meant that Swansea could get deep down the right as Fox would just backpeddle to leave no room behind him and shovel Dyer inside to Davis or cross from deep. I thought that this unbalanced us and also led to the whole defence playing deeper than normal. There was some horrendous stuff when Dyer escaped Davis cut inside with Fox nowhere and hit the post. Apart from that the crossing into our box was poor - Dyer's weakness has always been to bend his crosses from the goalside out towards the pen spot so that the forward has to run onto the ball and if he cannot do that and is tightly marked it is very difficult to direct the header with power. Not our best performance but as you say we would have lost this last year.

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ItchenNorth added 11:51 - Oct 7 “Out fought, out thought, out passed and out played by Swansea” , come on ! Yes we rode our luck at times but Swansea were very wasteful in front of goal and we were not. They also made two costly errors at the back; not tracking Lallana’s run for our 1st, and then miss judging the ball for J Rod for our 2nd. Boruc did have a very good game but Schniederlin, Lovren and Clyne were top draw under constant pressure in the 2nd half. Lallana is looking back to his best and apart from the great finish for his goal put a real shift in. Wanyama played well (in the main) but just needs to keep playing it simple ! We also knew Swansea would put pressure on us more so than most opponents because of their style of football. Swansea worked out after about 20 mins that we were weak down the left. Bony grew into the game as well in the 2nd half and caused Fonte problems; but we ultimately coped and they did not. The fans raise their game in the final 30mins seeing what was going on and the players did as well. We sit 4th; COME ON YOU SAINTS !

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brady100 added 12:02 - Oct 7 Yes fox was left exposed at times because of the way we set up but was difficult to avoid with the pace with which Swansea move the ball across the pitch. If Shaw isn’t fit against United I would be very surprised if Poch didn’t switch Clyne to LB and play Chambers at RB. I disagree that we couldn’t get better, game time can be offered to another LB coming in simply because of Shaw's injury record and playing too many games at a young age. Cressell from Ipswich would be a good signing.

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IanRC added 12:24 - Oct 7 Disagree with several of your points Nick. I agree it is dumb and inexcusable to barrack one of your own players but had Shaw played Dyer would have been nothing like as effective and we would have enjoyed more width going forward. In that scenario I still think we can play too strikers. Still not convinced about Wanayama as opposed to Cork though.
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thegeneral added 13:00 - Oct 7 I thought a loan deal had been agreed for Danny Fox? So what was Poch's plan for this position had DF not been at the club? Clyne switches to the left with Callum Chambers or Jack Cork in at right back?. Enough's been said about Danny Fox, it was the managers decision to put him in the game. Swansea did have a lot of possession after we scored, 1-0 is a hard score line, push for a second or see the game out? and really this exposed a weakness in the team through lack of experience we hit the panic button. Had Puncheon been an option (because i'm still mystified why he was let go) his pace could have kept Swansea guarded against the counter attack, we saw the difference JRod made. Wanyama went missing in the second half after a very good first 45 and Schneiderlin still doesn't seem to have developed a strong partnership with him. I thought Osvaldo was quite poor if i'm honest, didn't run well with the ball and tricky flips and kicks rarely came off. However, Swansea had a single game plan, lots of passing ending up knocking it wide to Dyer to cross it. We put the ball in the back of the net 3 times and two were allowed and both goals were from open play. Incidently i have never seen two players from the same team get booked for a single challenge, it looked like Fonte and Lovren were booked at the same time?

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schatfield added 13:39 - Oct 7 Funny old game football, Swansea destroyed us, yet we win 2-0!! Boruc is class - for me, the last keeper like this was Anti Niemi, who was immense. Lovren is class, and is making Fonte into a really good defender in addition. But regarding your review, agree with it all - when Rodriguez came on it did change the balance and have to respect the manager for making that change. For me personally, only thing i would have done differently is bought on Cork rather than Ward-Prowse. And not quite sure why Do Prado came on at the end...but then Im not a manager! Dyer for Swansea was brilliant.

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SaintNick added 13:49 - Oct 7 One of the things about all of the replies is they all have different opinions on the game that some of our players had, Wanyama for instance is either terrible or brilliant depending on which poster you believe. Perhaps the point to take though was from lost boys who commented on Davis, Im not sure he meant to make this point, but he highlighted just how our formation has had to adapt to accommodate both Lambert and Osvaldo, Davis was essentially playing central midfield but having to get over to support Fox, we are losing shape just to shoe horn in two forwards when really we only need one in the way we want to play, therefore we had no wide left midfielder, Swansea noticed this and exploited it time and time again, it doesn't matter how good the full back is, he is always going to struggle if he has no cover in front of him, I can see why we could gamble a bit as Shaw as pace, but in my opinion this was suicidal with Fox who doesnt

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ExiledSupporter added 13:51 - Oct 7 Agree with most of the comments above including Nick's analysis, but perhaps not as impressed with Lallana's performance still often not a good enough first touch , directness nor quality of cross. Why don't we try to get a real threat on the wing to fulfil the sort of threat that Puncheon occasionally offered in the past...Wilfred Zaha seems to be largely unused by ManU? I also wish that Wanyama could pass the ball more consistently, much too much possession given away by him and at some critical moments seemed to have gone missing in front of the defence. Thought Schneiderlein looked back to his best, can't understand why we don't re-unite him with Jack Cork?

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Whatsforpud added 18:18 - Oct 7 ExiledSupporter says he can't understand why we don't reunite Cork and Schneiderlin. We should, and probably will before long, but the manager has to save face, having spent so much on Wanyama. Did we need him when we had the solution all along? Osvaldo looks keen and sprightly, but doesn't seem to achieve much. Hasn't yet shown Lambert's ability to bring others into the game. If anything, Lambert needs to be more selfish, and have a go for goal more often. Looking at the league table, we would seem to others to be gate-crashers at some elite party. Can we stay around, or will we be thrown out?

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sidsaint added 18:29 - Oct 7 Agree with most of the above. Just a few points. I felt sorry for Fox as it was obvious from fairly early on that he needed support. It was unfortunate that he had to replace Luke with Swansea and their attacking style as the opposition. Was surprised that changes were not made until after half time. I thought Cork might have been brought on but at least Fox stayed until the end with a clean sheet and perhaps that will help his confidence more than if he had been substituted. I feel the club are very protective of Luke. He already has a bit of an injury prone record. If we are the new Swansea we have a long way to go to match them on yesterday's performance. We have dominated possession in our matches until yesterday when Swansea had 58% It looks like the league is going to be pretty open this season. It's great to see our current position and defensive statistics but there are still areas to be sorted out and I feel we are better with one centre forward and speedy support from the midfield. I also feel that Victor and Morgan do not yet have the understanding that Morgan and Jack had last season.

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Hugh_Jarce added 20:15 - Oct 7 How can jeering your own team help ? (Only time the Chapel made a sound too - muppets). Lallana and Boruc were excellent and Wanyama had his best home game yet. Other than Liverpool we haven't played a top half side so let's keep it real but great to see us grind out a result against a decent team who went for it and made it a great game.
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TeamCortese added 00:02 - Oct 8 I agree with most points above. However, as highlighted by Nick, there were some glaring tactical decisions which would have been punished by better opposition. The great thing about this squad is that we're still trying to find our best team, yet we're so high up in the table. For a team widely tipped as mid-table candidates we're more than holding our own in achieving it. While I think our current starting 11 is very strong I feel we are less potent in front of goal. Last season, I always felt--regardless of the opposition--we had a goal in us. Whether it was Puncheon coming in on the right flank linking up with Clyne; or Ricky Lambert's link-up play with Lallana, Rodigruez and others. At the moment our attack feels too disjointed and I think we were very fortunate with our clinical finishing. Defensively we are SOLID! I've never felt this safe with a Saints team before. Dejan Lovren is by far our best signing, There's a bit of a Vincent Kompany air about him with Soton. And Arthur Boruc is a stark contrast to when he first arrived at St Mary's--by far the best goalkeeper in the Premiership at the moment. I still think the jury's out with Wanyama and Osvaldo. I am yet to be convinced by both players but we have to bare in mind that they may need a season to really adapt to English football. I am also very disappointment with Ramirez. This may be partly due to MP but if he's as good as he makes himself out to be, MP would have fitted him into the team. At the moment Lallana is ahead of him and rightly so. I do admit that what I have said might seem a little negative but I hope it's also constructive. We have to put things in perspective. We are no longer relegation contenders and as a result have to be more thorough in our assessment of team and individual performances. We have to realise that if we are to get into European football next year player's of Foxes calibre should not be in the first team. And before I get slated, I can guarantee you if that sort of performance was produced at one of our rivals i.e. Swansea, WBA and Everton he would have received the same response. We should not compromise performance for the players' morale . Players should expect this sort of response if they're not good enough. But overall I am exceptionally happy as a Saints supporter and even more so because we're above those scummy Red Devils who were largely responsible for getting us relegated in the first place. As an aside, we need to find a replacement for Puncheon. Wilfred Zaha anyone?

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wazzosan added 01:15 - Oct 8 First of all I'd like to say thanks to Nick for running this site. While I may not always agree with his analysis, I appreciate everything he does for the site which gives Saints fans such as ourselves the chance to discuss matches and tactics. I have to admit that I eagerly await each match report and that is despite the fact that I watch each game on TV (I'm based in Australia so the time change can be challenging). Next I'd like to discuss Danny Fox. He has had some terrible premiership games for us, ones that make me wonder how he gets selected. However, against Swansea he wasn't that bad. He didn't dive in, didn't give away reckless free kicks (both of which he normally does) and didn't get booked. Yes he was run ragged by Dyer, however, half the team were made to look pretty ordinary by Dyer who had a great game. Now I'm not saying that I want Fox in the team but he's not first choice and right now, we've got no-one better (who is naturally left footed and fit). If Shaw is fit, we can attack from the left. Otherwise, (like Sunday) our only attacking threat comes from the right. I thought Poch made some good changes. Although as we were reduced to playing on the counter attack from almost halftime onwards, I would have brought on JRod a bit earlier. Other posters mentioned this as well, JRod gave their back four a little more trouble and caused them to lose some of their attacking threat as they couldn't commit too many for fear of being caught on the break (something which SRL and Dani weren't really providing). I like the fact that we moved to a "plan b". Its something that we have never really had before. We were definitely outplayed, but we had some luck and we won. I think of the number of times last season that we were the better team but we lost (Old Trafford for instance?). I'd rather have the three points. Plus don't they say the the sign of a really good team is that they can play badly and still win?

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sheffieldsaint added 08:20 - Oct 8 Reasons to be cheerful. 1. We scored a first half gal 2. Adam Lallana scored a goal Best gk performance in 30 yrs? Maybe but after. 2 days reflection I still prefer Davis's at Leeds 2 seasons ago. It was pluckier,more spectacular , with an even worse defence before him than Sundays COYRs
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sheffieldsaint added 08:20 - Oct 8 Reasons to be cheerful. 1. We scored a first half gal 2. Adam Lallana scored a goal Best gk performance in 30 yrs? Maybe but after. 2 days reflection I still prefer Davis's at Leeds 2 seasons ago. It was pluckier,more spectacular , with an even worse defence before him than Sundays COYRs
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St_dee added 08:39 - Oct 8 agree with most the points here. jack cork did superb for us when he came back from injury last year, and no doubt he has a better partnership with spiderman than wanyama for the time being. but. wanyama is defensively strong most the time even though his passing i agree can improve, hes still young but i feel he could become a big player for us, lets see how he gets on first season tho. also think poch fully believes in wardprowse's set piece taking, and quite rightly so boy has a great right foot. so not too suprised he came on instead of cork at 1-0 twenty minutes to go!

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ExiledSupporter added 08:49 - Oct 8 Clearly one problem, as Nick has consistently stated, is the Osvaldo/Lambert selection though I think it is more to do with having to play one less midfielder than whether they can adapt to the demands of playing together. Fox is a weakness but let's be fair to him, he's our reserve left back and if we had a better player there as reserve he would undoubtedly be an unhappy player and looking for first team football elsewhere presumably forcing us to play Chambers and Clyne when Shaw is unavailable. As several correspondents have pointed out Fox is made to look less good than he actually is because he has so little cover in front of him when we select only four midfielders. As it happens I think our worst problem is the lack of converting chances made into goals scored. We are wasteful of promising positions with some of our balls into the area being dire, too often hoofed hopefully into the opposition's penalty area from a position too far from the goal line. A crucial part of this particular issue is our 'lack' of a No. 10 because Ramirez seems to have been, so far, a flop (despite the occasional flash of brilliance). OK we seem to have discovered 4 or 5 games into the season that he is insufficiently fit (eh?) and as most supporters know he holds onto the ball too long at the wrong moments and seems to run up blind alleys on the pitch and being dispossessed. Yet it is obvious that he has considerable talent for clever passes in the opposition's defensive areas, especially for players able to run the channels (like Osvaldo and Rodrigues). Before Gaston was signed I had always thought that Lallana was the player best equipped for the 10 role...now it sometimes seems to be Lambert at certain junctures of the game. If we can't get the Ramirez situation resolved (and that means him playing to expectations commensurate with his talents) then we need to do something in the January transfer window (including returning Ramirez to Italy if that's viable) Pity we missed out on Coutinho who would have been ideal (he may struggle to get into Liverpool's team now that they are playing two forwards in tandem) In the meantime what about borrowing a player like Kagawa until we solve this problem?

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bstokesaint added 13:18 - Oct 8 It was a good result on Sunday. Make no mistake Swansea are a decent side and there won't be many sides who will give us more of a test. So we did well. I think what a lot of posters are overlooking when offering differing opinions on our players is how much depth we've got in quality in being able to make changes and have options. If we can afford to leave a £12m player out of the squad and debate whether an £8m player is better than what we already have then it shows how far we've come. In a perfect world we'd have a 22 man squad and 2 top class players in every position. This should be the target. Then we can rotate for cup games/ injuries seamlessly. The obvious weakness we have here is the left back position. Swansea won't be the only team to try and exploit this. But until we can find a replacement we need to get behind whoever plays in that position, as we should for any player who puts a Saints' shirt on.

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sheffieldsaint added 14:06 - Oct 8 Just remembered another reason to be cheerful. We did sign a chorus for Guly when he came on. So that's progress ; let's remember to do that next time Fox plays.
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