Saints fans have always loved to have a scapegoat and with the departure of Danny Fox and Guly the situation was vacant, however some sections of the support have wasted no time on filling that vacancy.

Ever since I have supported Saints back in the 1970's there has had to be a scapegoat for some Saints supporters, even when things have been going well some people have never been happy unless they can throw some verbal abuse at somebody, of course as a club Saints won't be alone in this situation, but it seems that over recent years it has got worse.

I am not talking about having a rant in the pub here or venting your fury on internet message boards, from time immemorial football fans have loved to get together and give their opinions on teams and players and as much as anyone love to do this and football would be rather boring if we all had the same opinion.

What i am talking about is those people who decide that they don't like a player and whatever he does they are going to give him stick whatever he does.

Yesterday's draw against West Brom was remarkable for perhaps only one thing and that is how quickly a section in the crowd, mainly in the Northam End had decided that Graziano Pelle was going to be the new scapegoat.

Barely 15 minutes had gone before an audible groan emitted every time he was beaten to the ball and when he won a header in the 20th minute there was a very loud ironic cheer.

Did this help the player trying to adjust to a new team and league, or did it indeed help the team these people profess to support, here we are 15 minutes into the first home game of the season and some people have already decided that Pelle is rubbish, he might well turn out to be, but for god's sake give him a fair crack of the whip.

Many of those Pelle abusers were also of the same opinion that this would never have happened with Rickie Lambert and that had SRL still been here he would have scored a hatfull and generally won every ball etc, what they forget was that a year ago Saints were just as woeful in the opening home games, they started with a 1-1 draw with Sunderland relying on a last minute headed equaliser from Jose Fonte to save a point and we followed that up after losing 1-0 at Norwich by drawing 0-0 with West Ham, in the first 5 games last season we scored only 3 goals, one a penalty and the other two headers from dead ball situations.

It was the sixth game of the season before we scored from open play, that being Osvaldo's goal against Swansea, the point here is that it is all about perception, that everything last year was great and everything this year isnt.

The difference between now and a year ago is that back then Rickie Lambert being the hero of the fans was given the opportunity to show he could start scoring, whereas Graziano Pelle has been given 15 minutes before some fans have decided he is not up to the job. A year ago Jay Rodriguez was sneered at as being average, yet now he is seen as an England player, but right up to his injury there were some who could not accept that he was now the main scoring thread ahead of Lambert.

Pelle's performance yesterday was not great, but in defence of him he was not given the greatest of service and he did show some good touches, he needs to be given a fair crack of the whip before he is derided.

The problem is though that once a few people get on a players back it quickly esculates, not only affecting the player himself but the performance of the team and it is here that people need to ask the question of themselves, do they want the team to succeed ? or would they prefer to see it fail just so they can give an individual a bit of stick.

So lets have a bit of patience for Pelle and indeed all of our players, last season showed that if you get behind a struggling team and support it, it can come good, like two seasons ago it would have been easy for Saints fans to get on the teams back, but to their credit they got behind the team in both of our dodgy starts of the past two years and we have recovered and moved forward.

Now we need to do the same, let's learn from history and realise that we support a team not individual players and all of those players should have our support on the pitch to encourage them to do well, leave the slagging off for the Pub and social media sites.

Photo: Action Images

SanMarco added 11:53 - Aug 24 Good point and well made but I fear it will make no difference. I think some people's attitude to football is that it is little more than a vehicle to express hatred and frustration. Of course they have paid their money but quite frankly I wish they would spend it on something else.
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landsdownsaint added 11:53 - Aug 24 I wished we had had Guly yesterday ! He would have held possession far better than Pelle.I really don't understand your problem with MP & last seasons side? For me & many others & top managers our football was the best!
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ancientbriton added 12:29 - Aug 24 I don't have Pelle down as a scapegoat but it can't be said that he actually shone against WBA. A number of players seemed to have more dynamism about them including Fonte, Clyne, Tadic and thank goodness Schneiderlin is still there. Best buy thus far - Fraser Forster, in my eyes the only thing between us and losing our first home game? Give Pelle time but I agree that we are in the same positiuon as we were this time last year, i.e. nobody with the aggression to keep going for the goal?

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davidhosey added 12:31 - Aug 24 Well said Nick. It annoys me too. It can't help his confidence. Maybe like minded people could make more of an effort to chant his name once or twice !
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nomorerumours added 12:44 - Aug 24 100% agree with Nick and davidhosey. Pelle will need more game time to adapt and the team will need to give him more support. I still believe that he'll be a 20+ goal per season EPL striker for us over several years and the Tadic cross and Pelle finish will become feared by all opposition teams. He and the team need to build confidence and that is where Saints fans need to give their utmost support. Judge our new players later in the season not after just after 1 or 2 games. All true and passionate Saints fans will be supportive, patient and understanding. The so-called other "fans" need to cut out the jeers and evil chants. We have a great manager and some great new players. When they start to fire, we'll put a bunch of good performances together and rapidly climb the table. Top 8 again at least.

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lotus added 12:46 - Aug 24 when all this selling began i was sure that with the big money we earned koeman will bring a big scorer who knows the premier league and could break stub urn and physical teams like WBA but seems the manager had other plans.a big name could have cost 40-45 million and the rest could have been invested in tadic and others. however i agree with the author that we should give him more time until big scorer will be found but try to play less on him or reduce the high crossing as much as possible

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WillFos added 13:15 - Aug 24 Agree Fully. I think best thing about Pelle is how much he isn't always looking at the goal and is holding up and specifically chesting down balls with his back to goal setting up shots. done it a lot in the first two games. Bit more gelling and Tadic and Rodriguez either side of him makes a sharp looking attack. Shane long is not worth £12. [NEW SCAPEGOAT!] Jokes aside, i am supprise the simple fact that we HAVE overpaid for long hasnt made him the target of abuse over Pelle, who hasn't looked bad and genuinely deserves the chance.

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Slacker added 13:26 - Aug 24 Well said Nick. This is a very important article. It will take time for this new team to settle. Anyway, we need to encourage every player with a saints shirt on throughout this tough season.
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Jesus_02 added 13:36 - Aug 24 Pelle is not a Scapegoat. He is just not good enough. Wow betide me for having an opinion. I defnded Jay Rod but I fear without quality around him he will become exposed as a slightly better than average player. That said Jay would have made a difference yesterday. Thankfully I think Tadic has enough about him to open up defences and together with Jays pace we may be able to get enough points in the second half of the season. We can leave Pelle on the bench until we are desperate for a last minute equaliser then we can launch long balls up to him. Its going to be a struggle this season, especially as the run of favourable fixtures is likely to finish before we "gel" . I envy Nick for his seamingly endless celebration of getting rid of Count Cortese and his evil cohorts. But what will it take before he realises that this is about footabll and not Soccernomics and cardboard personalities. Yesterday was simply not good enough. Pelle was simply not good enough and with great regret i have to say that Koeman did nothing to suggest that he could change the game plan.

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redstokes added 13:57 - Aug 24 It's pretty hard to retain possession when the game plan was to clip it long into Pelle when we couldn't find a way to penetrate a very compact WBA side. Considering how isolated Pelle was every time he received the ball, which was put into him at head height or chest height more or less every time, I think he did well; when he did win flick ons or held the ball up who was there to support him? Tadic and Davis/Prowsey were hugging the touchline and a lack-lustre Schneiderlin was playing with a cigar in his mouth, not bothering to get involved with any combination play in the final third. He is trying to bring players into play by holding the ball up, but it is the system with which we are playing that is failing him, not the other way round. When did we revert back to clipping it long into a striker like we used to when we were a very unimaginative championship (Pre-Adkins) side? Perhaps if we gave the ball into his feet, or played someone in the number 10 roll to support him in and around the 18 yard area and winning flick ons we would see Pelle's full ability, and people would stop displacing their frustrations about a very rigid system - with no apparent Plan B - onto a new signing still learning the ropes of a new league in a new country.

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AreYouSure added 14:02 - Aug 24 I was astonished at people around me regarding the sarcastic cheers when Pelle won the ball. My thoughts were "why are we playing the ball over the for Olsson to header?" He's huge and is primarily paid to do just that. He is going to win every ball in the air. As soon as we played it into Pelle's feet or cheat, he was strong and held it up very well. If it was played in the air but not by Olsson, Pelle won it. You can see the guy has a good touch. Also, I think people don't understand, that if you have a target man, people need to play close to/ off of him if he's going to win any of those balls, otherwise it's useless. I thought he done his job.... but footballs a team game.

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darkangelv2 added 14:04 - Aug 24 I still blame Fox
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SaintNick added 14:48 - Aug 24 jesus02 no one is denying you an opinion, but are you that much of an expert that you can tell he is not good enough after 15 minutes or even one game, Rodriguez did not excel in his first games for the club you simply cannot accurately judge a player over a couple of games, you can have your suspicions, but until he has played a few more games no one can be sure
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BlackRod added 14:51 - Aug 24 It wasn't so long ago that Dan Harding got the blame in these reports for every game we lost. Of course that was expert analysis, not scapegoating.
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ItchenNorth added 14:57 - Aug 24 Buttom line is does any if this opinion help a players game or help them settle at a new club or into a new tough league; no. People are too quick to judge and ultimately their actions could be counterproductive. Support your team, its only the 2nd game of the season !
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SaintNick added 15:07 - Aug 24 Blackrod, I was not a fan of harding and I pointed it out in my reports on here, however that is not what this article is about, I am not saying that i was right about harding, nor that anyone will be wrong about Pelle, the whole point is that some people are not giving him a chanceand were abusing him yesterday with the ironic cheers etc. I was always constructive about why i felt harding wasnt good enough and i didnt spent my time at the games abusing him or cheering ironically every time he did play a good ball or cross

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Steve_N added 16:19 - Aug 24 Lotus. It's all very well saying spend £45 million on a striker but 1 - who is available? 2 - who of that calibre would come to St Mary's? and 3 - we couldn't afford to pay the wages a player of that ilk would demand even if such a player was available We have to give Pelle a chance. I know the EPL is very different to The Eredivisie but RK must see something in the guy.

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Saintstridey81 added 16:41 - Aug 24 I dont agree with the ironic cheers etc,but after the game he had against liverpool and the not so good game he had yesterday,you cant tell in 2 games for sure,but personally the minimum you have to give is 100%,i felt some challenges he goes into half heartably,and same goes for that header as well yesterday as well,just didnt look like he put his all into it,that in my opinion is why he is getting stick

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BoondockSaint added 17:04 - Aug 24 Pelle needs to adjust to the speed of the EPL-and hit the weight room! No point getting into the heads of your own players-save it for the opposition. I for one-hope I'm wrong-thought J-Rod was average last year (and therefore perfect for the England team) yes he scored goals, but most were set up on a silver platter. He looked confused in the box-which I think is just in his head-and a big reason for the boo birds to NOT to get on him! If any one is going to be a scapegoat this year, it's going to be Shane Long if he doesn't get scoring soon. Good job we "swooped in" and got him before Scousehampton did and forced them to pay 4 million more to settle for Batty-otelli" Actually this will be great-Brenda is like Wile E. Coyote he just lit the fuse to the keg of dynamite he's sitting on! Oh, and Lambert and Lallana just had to slide down the bench-and their "ambition" will be fulfilled playing for the Paint & League Cups!

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lemmsy added 17:17 - Aug 24 Surely if you support a team theres a clue in the word support. .ranting , raving & general moaning should be saved for the pub or forums such as these( thismay even lead to intelligent discussion ) unfortunately too many fans use football as a vehicle to vent their personal frustrations.Moaning & booing at your own side has to be counterproductive so lets get behind the stripes & keep the rest until the final whistle

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SonicBoom added 17:21 - Aug 24 There were some knobs in block 4 too who were cheering ironically. I always think they are casual fans wanting to see goals on their one visit. Season ticket holders tend to see a bigger picture. I blame Koeman. Playing the guy alone up front didn't help. Pinging the ball at his head didn't help. Using the direct approach when he's marked by one of the tallest cb's in the league was frankly stupid. Surely he could see that?

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Jesus_02 added 23:42 - Aug 24 Nick. Not sure where you got the 15minutes from. I've seen him three times. He was awful 3 times.
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Jesus_02 added 23:46 - Aug 24 SonicBoom: you want to watch yourself blaming Koeman. He is a far superior manager than MoPo. Hurra, didn't we play wonderfully and no-one should be blamed at this early stage. We will be second by Christmas.
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redkraft added 06:49 - Aug 25 I agree with the thrust of the article. In fact, I avoided reading it until I had written and publish my similarly theme blog entry entitled “Color Me Confused (and Rambling).” Redsloscf.blogspot.co.uk Redsloscf.blogspot.com
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aceofthebase added 09:51 - Aug 25 I blame the POX for everything. Pelle has got some nice touches but yesterday he was isolated and sent far too many high balls that even if he had outjumped Olson would not have been of much use. So whose fault was that? Pelle for not winning the headers? The providers of the long ball? The manager for playing the wrong system. Well it's too early to put a finger on it, this team needs to gel and learn each others strengths and weaknesses and be prepared to adapt to diffent teams and situations. We have a squad of players some as yet untested and much as a squad is important I would rather concentrate on getting the best and most consistent team playing together. The trick is finding the correct eleven.

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