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Saints At Swansea City The Verdict Sunday, 21st Sep 2014 11:00
Who would have believed Saints could be in second place after five games, we must have a few more meltdowns and fire sales around here !
This was a tough game against a Swansea side who are well organised and disciplined and it was clear from the off that Saints were going to have to work hard, in truth we started badly, our passing game was struggling to get going and we constantly seemed to be giving the ball away cheaply giving the impetus to the home side.
Despite their domination though we worked hard to restrict their chances and they rarely threatened to score, but they did have two glorious chances, firstly they clipped the bar and then Bony saw his header cooly cleared off the line by Bertrand.
The game changed though on the sending off, Bony had initially been booked for a stupid follow through on Yoshida, needlessly crashing into the central defendder as he rose for a header, then he went straight through the same player shortly through the break.
Gary Monk was irate with the decision, although tv replays show he can have little complaint.
After the break Saints understandably dominated both possession wise and chances, although they were finding it hard to break down the home defence, Tadic was unlucky to see a shot deflected on to the roof of the net and a few other half chances were dealt with by the keeper.
But the winner came from an unlikely source, Wanyama is usually a player you use to anchor themidfield not give it goalscoring flair, but it was the Kenyan who latched on to a through ball and toe poked it home from 15 yards, a scrappy goal to win a scrappy game.
Monk is understandably irked by the result, up to the sending off his side were having the better of the game, but to their credit, Saints dug in didnt give too much away and made sure they kept in the game, from our perspective it showed that we can not only win well but win ugly.
We can also win lucky, I have rightly praised Koeman for his tactical nous, but not even he would have fancied bringing off Ward Prowse and put his hopes on Wanyama winning the game, Ward Prowse's mis fortune in having to go off injured had the golden lining of his replacement scoring the winner 10 minutes after coming on.
Some wins are pleasing for the way in which they are won, last week it was for the flowing football, this week it was for the determination and Saints showed in the first half that even when playing badly they can keep their shape keep their discipline and dig in, last season a lot was talked about team spirit, but I feel that this season's surpasses that.
So second in the league and our best start in the top flight for 26 years and we still have Sadio Mane and Jay Rodriguez to come into the squad.
Man Of The Match He was only on for 20 minutes but he made a bg contribution with the goal and for that reason it has to be Wanyama, but we shouldnt forget his team mates who in the previous 80 minutes had firstly dug in and then capitalised on the situation to dominate the game and thus made sure that Wanyama's strike was the winner rather than an equaliser or worse.
Photo: Action Images
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Good to see so many goals from the defensive midfielders this season. If you watch the goal Schneiderlin is heading forward, sees Vic going so drops back. They seem to have much more freedom this year.
We didn't play well and it was slightly worrying to see Fonte do his best to get sent off and how hard we found it to put a killer ball through.
We also had few options off the bench. I wonder what will happen when Pelle gets injured. Long or Mane could play there but it wold be a completely different way of playing.
Gallagher could come in if Pelle got injured, he is better suited to our style this season than he was the way we played under Pochettino, but Koeman is quite capapble of changing the style if we have to.
If the Manager could be nominated for MOTM then I would nominate Koeman. He is shuffling the pack so well. This augurs well for when we come up against the traditional top 6 six teams. And it looks like he will keep his feet on the ground too. Maybe away from home Koeman is our 'twelfth man'.
interesting game. we were lucky to come in goalless at half time, they had a couple of really nice chances. Fonte did play like a hot headed idiot in this game, not captain like. Tadic seemed a bit tired. but we won! And who would have thought 2nd.
The first 2 rules of wining games of football in my mind are: 1. Keep 11 players on the pitch, 2. Always play you best 11. Swansea lost cos they failed no.1. Saints nearly lost cos they failed no. 2, that was until better decisions and fate forced Ronko to put the best team out. Phew! That was close. Looking forward to seeing Mane.
FrankSaint - RonKo will be nominated for MOTM - Manager of the Month! When we thrash QPR next Saturday, that will be 3 straight wins in September - our draw and loss were in August.
The change I like most is that Jack Cork is taking up a far more attacking position than he ever has before and, not only does he look up for it, he looks dangerous, too.
Haha slynch you beat me to it.... Prefect weekend all round UTD, Spurs and Liverpool all get spanked whilst we play average but still pick up the points. Lovely stuff.
My take on the match, which I watched on my laptop on a jerky wifi stream in a Spanish bar (probably thought an English man leaping around punching the air had something to do with the four pints of sangria I put away in 90 minutes...)
Yosh did a brilliant job getting Bony red-carded but was otherwise quite often out of position, and Gardos looked much more solid, both intercepting and passing - Swansea were never going to score once he was on. Man of the match was Fabianski by a country mile - what a keeper - right place all the time every time, and couldn't be blamed for missing the goal. If he's been behind the ball it would have carried him into the net.
It's true that we were better playing ten men, but it didn't go from "11 v 11" to "10 v 11", it went from "11 v 10" to "10 v 10". Viz Shane Long... that guy is absolutely NOT clicking with the team and might as well not have been on the pitch. Our midfield absolutely needs Cork, Morgan and Davis, and it was Long's inclusion that made sure Swansea were so dominant from the outset. Long is not quick enough, not intelligent enough and above all not skilful enough to have a place in this outfit and I'm absolutely gobsmacked he's still not only starting but playing 90 mins. The sending-off slowed things down for Swansea, but things came together for Saints when Davis came on - how much better would it have been with Davis on for Long? I can tell you it would have been better - you can just feel it.
In the final analysis, and despite that gripe, we got a good win, which means for the first time in a generation it looks like the Southampton manager is better at picking the team than me ;o)
onwards and upwards (even if there's not far up to go now)
I think you are being unfair on Long he works his socks off and can offer a wide attacking option that we dont have with any of the others including Cork, JWP and Davis, perhaps mane will offer us that, but in this game we needed the width that long offered us
Agree with many comments above. An excellent win and good to win ugly rather than draw pretty as we did too many times last year.
I thought Gardos looked a class above when he came on and we were never under threat. Yoshida and Fonte are not a top half pair. The shining light of the first half was Bertrand who looks the best left back in the country at the moment.
Wanyama dominated when he came on, jwp looked a little lost to me. I also agree we need more from long - not sure if he was injured as didnt seem to want to test his pace and gave it away too often. With Mane and J Rod to come in up top though the future seems to be bright indeed. Loving this meltdown..
Before the sending off we were struggling big time. After that it was a completely different game. I thought long played really well and was causing swansea to drop deeper and deeper. I think we need to give him time to get used to a new way of playing and position. Its great to have some genuine pace in the team and he also stopped a few attacks by outpacing them when tracking back. Pele was guilty of wasting some great chances towards the end. Needs to be more clinical and improve his touch in the box. Midfield was in second gear for most of the game it felt. Luckily competition is so good that anyone coming on has to make the most of their chance. The results this weekend prove this was a good result even with 10 men. everyone is beating everyone. I actually hope Lallana and lambert do well at liverpool. Its a good reflection on the club and Lallana spent a long time with us. Lovren can sod off though
Happy with the win-just file this one away and remember it when we lose a game because the breaks don't go our way. They had the better of the play until the sending off. We were getting muscled off the ball in mid-field and I kept thinking we could use Wanyama to put them in their place Sorry if I seem mean, but every time I see Long get the ball, I keep thinking "10 million-10 million-10 million" and then he loses the ball or shoots wide. Hopefully he's going to get better.
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