Saints V Burnley The Verdict ! Sunday, 5th Nov 2017 09:49 In the preview for this match I said that Mauricio Pellegrino had to do something different, he didn't in fact he regressed and he did the same things and we got the same result. My preview for this match focused on the fact that Mauricio Pellegrino's tactics did not play to the playing squad he has to hand, I said he needed to realise this and do something different otherwise he would continue to get lacklustre performances from his team and they would struggle, as many know one of my favourite sayings is "If you do the same things, then you get the same results". If the manager read my piece then he not only chose to ignore it, but show his contempt for it by regressing in his team selections, I am of course not arrogant enough to suggest that Pellegrino takes any notice of anything I write, but his starting line up against Burnley was strange to say the least. The first bone of contention was dropping Wesley Hoedt and putting in Yoshida, forget for a minute the merits of whether Yoshida is deserving of a place or not, last week at Brighton he was dropped and Hoedt came in and was arguably Saints best player, add to that his skills at passing the ball and carrying it forward, this decision made absolutely no sense whatsoever from a tactical point of view. Every supporter in the stadium knew how the game would pan out and that Saints would spend a lot of time in possession and that they would need to build from the back, Hoedt is better than Yoshida at this type of game forget the debate about how good or bad the Japanese defender is, Hoedt was the man in the team from the previous week, dropping him was just incredulous given the side we were playing and the circumstance. Secondly was the fact that brought back Redmond, played two wingers and tried to cross to a 5ft 9 lone striker marked by two big central defenders, this meant that we just carried on with the same old same old from every game this season and we got the same results. So it was deja vu, plenty of possession, plenty going forward, plenty of shots, but few real chances created and few of them on target, in fairness the Burnley keeper had to make two decent saves, but fro the very start it was clear that this game would follow the same patterns as previous ones. The Burnley keeper was the man of the match, not only for these saves but for the fact that he did everything well. But sadly this would not just peter out to another tame draw, Pellegrino's decision to drop Hoedt would perhaps come back and bite him in the rear end, with just about their only attack of note the visitors put in a cross and Sam Vokes found Yoshida losing his concentration and got in front of him to bury what was essentially a free header. Yoshida did not have a bad game, he had a good shot well saved, but ultimately this game hinged on one key moment and we got caught napping, football is a tough game, difficult decisions need to be made, good managers make them and turn defeats into draws, draws into wins and average seasons into good ones. Some will say I am being harsh on Yoshida, perhaps I am but the fact remains that the manager dropped a £16 million central defender to the bench, perhaps if he had been on the pitch Hoedt would have won the ball, we will never know that now, but my point is not about Yoshida, it never has been, it is about the manager's failure to make key decisions and this was another one, I expect Hoedt to now replace Yoshida in the next game, because the manager can now justify it afte this goal, my worry about Pellegrino is that he does not seem able to change things unless he has an excuse, he can't seem to make tough decisions. I do not worry about the quality of our squad, I have always been realistic about what we are doing and do recognise that from time to tme we will have tough times and periods of consolidation, but I do worry about the manager, if we re just going to put out the same formation, the same players week in week out and only change things if someone is injured or suspended then we are wasting our money on employing a manager, there are no decisions being made. Even the substitutions were predictable, Gabbiadini off and Austin on was essentially like for like, not trying to change the game, not being more attacking, just swapping players, the second substitution was again the same as every other game, yes Long came on to mean we had an extra attacker on the pitch but too little too late. But the third change made with Saints taking a corner was ludicrous, off went Boufal, probably the one player you would want to hit a shot from the edge of the area if it was headed out and on came Ward Prowse a player whose scoring record is not great. But why take off an attacking player ? why not take off a defender, with so little time nothing to lose, also if you want to make a change why not bring on Hoedt to offer some height for the said corner, this was a substitution you would have expected if we were 1-0 up and wanting to close out the game, not one that should be made when you have three minutes to save the game, even making it only wasted our time and stopped what little momentum we had. So I am afraid the issue is the manager and that is worrying, we cannot sack a manager after only 11 games, we should not want to become a club that panics and lurches from one crisis to another, however the issues for our poor results all stem from the managers tactics and decisions, the issues that dogged Puel last season and indeed at the start of this are no longer there, we have a full squad apart from minor injuries here and there, the manager has no excuses. From this point of view I really can't see where things will improve, I see Pellegrino doing the same things week in week out, I do not see him trying to do anything different and therefore I think continuing with his will mean only one thing and that is my favourite phrase in football. "Keep doing the same old things and you wil keep getting the same old results " Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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