Saints At Wigan The Verdict
Monday, 4th Feb 2013 09:55

There might be a change of manager, but Saints defensive frailties are still there and costing us valuable points.

It was business as usual in the Saints defence on Saturday at Wigan as a fine performance was ruined by schoolboy defending, for most of the game our defence was solid, but as has been the case for all of this season and much of last we just seem to lose concentration at vital moments and gift the opposition soft goals. Wigan's opener was conclusive proof of this, Caldwell spun off Yoshida and left him marking space with the Japanese International then getting nowhere near a cross that really should have been a simple clearance.

To their credit though Saints kept playing football and clawed their way back into the game by keeping passing the ball, in the second half pinning Wigan back for long periods with Boruc rarely being troubled, the first goal saw Jay Rodriguez win a header and Lambert showing quick reactions to get their ahead of the keeper and head home, the second was a class goal, again it was Rodriguez who took the ball down the wing, beat his man and then got to the byeline to thread a cross into the path of Morgan Schneiderlin who couldnt miss from close range and didnt.

That looked like game set and match for Saints, certainly the home fans thought so as they streamed out of the stadium, but Saints just couldnt defend a lead again and these two points squandered means that so far this season we have dropped 24 points in games that we have led in at some point, OK some like the defeats at Old Trafford and Goodison Park have been games that we took early leads and were soon behind, but some like this one and the game at Stoke have seen us drop points in games were we have dominated and then let in a late late equaliser, those extra four points would now see us nearly safe rather than still having one foot trailing behind us and with the danger of it being dragged back into the relegation dogfight.

This game showed that Saints should be more than capable of pulling away, but the blunt truth is that we havent dealt with our problem areas in the transfer window and that could still cost us dearly if we are not careful, complacency and taking our eye off the ball meant that we returned home with only a point on Saturday, the overall cost could be far worse if we are not careful.

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TimSaint added 10:39 - Feb 4

A little harsh if I may say so - yes there were a couple of errors in the game, but it is wrong to point to individuals and blame them.
We are a team, so we defend and attack as a team and if we win, we win as a team and if we lose, we lose as a team.
Before blaming individuals for these errors, please consider it from a defender's point of view. We created lots of chances against Wigan and should have been leading 3 or 4-1 going into the final few minutes, so some blame should also be placed on the strikers for not killing the game off.
Likewise at Man Utd - we had 20 - yes TWENTY shots, but only scored 1 goal. It is all very well saying we derserved something from this game, but we need to take our chances. United did this and scored enough to win with half the chances we created.
Agree that we need to address these defensive frailties, or show some more desparate (but effective) defending like at Villa Park, but it would be nice for us to do a "Reading" and score late goals, rather than concede them.
It would have been great to have a 6 point gap between us and Wigan, but now there is an importance to pick up something from our 2 other games this month.

Sanguin added 10:42 - Feb 4 At least we didn't lose. But it wasn't a great day with all of the teams in the bottom six picking up points. I'm really glad Everton got a late equaliser, otherwise the table would be too painful to look at.
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StSaint added 10:48 - Feb 4

Agree with TimSaint. The defenders switched off, though we should have really been out of sight by then - you could easily pin the blame on us not scoring.
That aside, I thought it was a really encouraging performance and am quite excited about this new approach. We were on the front foot from the first minute in a way that I have not seen before.
It was the same as the 2nd half against Man U and awesome to see us going for the jugular regardless of being away from home and who the opposition are. When I think back to Liverpool away it is great to see how much of a difference this slight change makes.
I think someone else might have said this on another site, but I get the impression that if we click then regardless of opposition, we are going to win.
There are bound to be matches where we get taken to the cleaners, though seeing us swarm all over the opposition and chuck men forward in attack is a sight to behold.
Can't wait for the City game!
Anyone else think J-Rod has looked particularly good in the last couple of matches.
On a separate note, it's good to see us sending the kids out on loan - I think that will really help with their development.

slynch added 10:59 - Feb 4

Set piece defending: Put a player on each post and Schneiderlein and Cork patrol the area between the spot and the "D"; four players on the 6 yard box; one player as a wild card; one up front in the circle. Where ever the ball comes the 2 nearest players attack it, the rest hold position.
If they did that then they would have four more points out of the last 3 matches.

Please!

birminghamsaint added 11:14 - Feb 4 Playing the pressing game in the last few games, we clearly look better when Steven Davis has come on in the 2nd half, as his ball retention is so good. Can see him starting soon.
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SaintJez added 11:19 - Feb 4

Mark the posts and we definitely wouldn't concede the first and probably not the 2nd either. Tactically naive in my book. Even sides with dominant centre halves and keepers defend the posts, yet we choose not to. Baffling.

Played great other than that so a real shame to lose 2 points due to such a basic tactical error. Very pleasing that we are developing into a quality football team though so certainly not all doom and gloom.

SaintNick added 11:26 - Feb 4

Tim, yes its harsh and we should as you say play as a team, but in that team you have to look at where you are going wrong, its simple to say that the attackers should have scored more, but its not that simple, if they do there job and create chances going forward then they are not always going to score, but as a defender you have a set task to do, the first goal was especially poor, look a the video, Yoshida loses his man and then completely misjudges the flight iof the ball, for most of the game he did his job but lapses like this happen in every game this season and have to be stopped

redwight added 12:11 - Feb 4 I must be missing something here. The fact that we WERE marking the post,although admittedly only one of them, was the cause of the second equaliser. If Luke had'nt been there, their guy would have been offside.
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simmo400 added 12:13 - Feb 4 Day dreaming Luke Shaw cost us im afriad. Nuff said.
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SaintJez added 12:17 - Feb 4

Don't agree redwight. Shaw wasn't marking the post. The lad had a brain fade and wanted to do what came naturally (ie mark the post) but then left it just before the ball came in as presumably he remembered we are now not supposed to defend posts. So all he did was end up in no mans land playing everyone onside.

If he was marking the post, he would have had a good view of the ball coming back into Maloney and would have had a great chance of coming out and making a block. Even if he didn't get to the tackle, certainly Maloney would have had to beat both the keeper and the man at the near post to score.

TimSaint added 12:30 - Feb 4

Nick - yes agree with what you are saying to an extent - but like goalkeepers, defender errors often tend to get punnished.
Strikers not taking their chances can also change games and results too. Cast your mind mind to us being 3-1 at Stoke and Guly missing that "easy" chance to make it 4-1 and game over.
Yes we need to tighten up at the back, especially at set pieces and we also need to up our chances-to-goals coversation rate.

Scummer added 12:35 - Feb 4

I agree with posters that we need to convert a greater number of our chances. The high tempo, high pressing game is working well for us. I remember last year when teams did that against us and it is hard to deal with.

I don't think Caldwell lost Yoshida; it looked as if he simply went forward, misjudged it and left Caldwell with a free header. A damn fine header, I might add.

Unfortunately for J-Rod (who had a great game by all account), I think that he was ball watching a little for their equaliser, although if they were coached to push out and make them offside then it was Luuuuke who forgot to move up. A bot more work on the training ground and then any team in the Prem will find us quite hard to deal with - I am feeling quietly confident for the rest of the season.

hmmm added 13:31 - Feb 4

Yes we did give away two sloppy goals on Saturday. But defence is no longer an issue in terms of goals conceded per game. In the last 15 games we have only conceded 16 goals, just over a goal per game. This season only Man City are doing better than this.

If all teams were as good at stopping "sloppy goals" as Nick clearly thinks we, and by extension they, should be, then most games would finish 0-0. As a famous manager, whose name escapes me, once said, "Show me the goal, and I'll show you the mistake." Which makes all goals sloppy.

Yes it would be good to have more points, and as we haven't we are still in a relegation dogfight. But the players have adapted quickly and impressively to MP's methods and we are are creating a lot more chances. Good chances as well. As others have said above, finishing is more of an issue at present.

SaintNick added 14:15 - Feb 4

The issue like last season isnt the number of goals we concede but the manner in which we concede them, yes there has to be an element of defensive lapses in some goals, but we are dropping vital points because of it, last 10 games, 2 wins(both against bottom 3 clubs), 6 draws and 2 defeatsjust about above the points per game ratio we need, last six is about the same, whatever we want to say, we are still only really getting the average number of points as a struggling side wouldwe have to shut out the mistakes and then we can surge up the leagues

schatfield added 14:19 - Feb 4

welcome back Nick. anyway, have to agree on most of your report. Yoshida was totally at fault on their first goal. Wonder when we will see our new boy start playing in defense...I would prefer him over Yoshi.
But our bigger problem is converting chances - think one of the other posters said above, we had 20 shots on target against man utd. we dont seem able to convert those into goals and try to do an arsenal in a lot of cases (i.e. walk it into the net!)

trotsky added 14:24 - Feb 4

Not good enough. We played well and deserved more, and if Adkins had been in charge then we could feel good about the fact that we were formidable and creative as a team and moving in the right direction.

Sadly, Cortese's decision - whether you support it or not - demands that we win such games if we are to meet his "standards". His treatment of Adkins makes it clear that results are all that matters, and the timing of the change allows no room for us to go through a (unnecessary) period of transition. So: two points dropped against an insipid team.

REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 17:40 - Feb 4

A dissapointing result in the end after a good performance and comeback. I'd have taken a point before hand but not when we were so agonisingly close to getting the win.
The lack of wins recently is really concerning. Only 1 win in 9. We've generally played really well in this period but we've got to start turning good performances into points on the board.
At the moment there are at least 3 worse teams than us in the Premiership and we should be able to get the 4 or 5 more wins to keep us up, but we need the points on the board as soon as possible or we'll be right in the thick of it come April. We don't want to be going into the last few games still needing points. There's still a huge danger of us going down. The biggest danger being a pick up in form from Reading, Aston Villa and the escape artists Wigan. We might need 40 points to stay up.
When you think of all of the missed opportunities and dropped points in recent months (Wigan 2 points dropped, Man Utd 1 dropped, Everton 2, Stoke 2, Norwich 2, Swansea 2) it really adds up and we'd be mid-table if we'd got some more of the points we deserved.

davepid added 20:49 - Feb 4

I took my 11 yr old grandson to is first Saints games this week - Man Utd and Wigan. He said three things of pertinence:

1. Our Number 20 is the best player we have.
2. With all that possession we should score more goals
3.Why do we pass when we should be shooting.

Enough said in my book.
and yes - can you buy we me a shirt ! He lives in Bolton, never been to southampton but loves us and is learning the chants.