Horrible to watch, a bit like a slow crash. We lost when Ralph wrote up the team sheet.
Not a good player on the pitch and looked dejected from the first minute. Desperately need all new midfield. Prowsey didn't do a thing and is not a dead ball specialist and Romeu and Stephens and Vestergaard are a liability. Miles too negative and zero confidence.

-1

Horrible to watch, a bit like a slow crash. We lost when Ralph wrote up the team sheet.
Not a good player on the pitch and looked dejected from the first minute. Desperately need all new midfield. Prowsey didn't do a thing and is not a dead ball specialist and Romeu and Stephens and Vestergaard are a liability. Miles too negative and zero confidence.

-2

I heard that I'll have half.

0

An awful opening match brought home the realisation that we are a long long way short of having a competitive squad for life in L1 this season, and we would probably struggle in the North West Counties with the line up we saw today.

Baffling tactics and several below par performances as good as gifted a weakened Swindon team the easiest 3 points they will ever get.

0

plenty of positives, team 'forming' before 'storming' when we get an out and out CF/fox in the box

0

We showed no urgency for an equaliser, even in the 2nd half - in a game we should have been looking to not only equalise, but go on to win.

Too many players weren't involved enough today and some of those that were, didn't do themselves any favours.

Redmond and Smallbone were noticeably quiet and as a result, the front 2 got no service.

Romeu gave the ball away far too much (a bit like PEH) and put our defence under unnecessary pressure far too often - including for the goal.

Djenepo did nothing but should, like Long, have had longer to impress.

We didn't really create much / enough, but the 2 decent chances we had were well saved. JWP needs to practice his free kicks.

Vest did well with some long balls and headers, nearly getting an assist, but was awful at playing a high defensive line (no pace) and made a real mess when McCarthy stupidly passed to him near the end.

Palace could probably have gone up a gear if needed, so we disappointingly didn't deserve anything from the game.

Would Armstrong have made a difference ? Perhaps, but we will never know.

Still need 2 more in at least and some competition for places to keep them sharp

1

Southampton lacked spark and Crystal Palace didn't come to play. Seriously missing the work effort of Armstrong. Romeu and Redmond had one of their worst games in a Saints shirt. Would have been totally different if we had scored first but we did not. Teeth pulling stuff, but also equally glad I'm not a Palace supporter and would have to watch them every week. The Roller Coaster of being a Saints fan starts again.

4

Learnt 2 things from that game 1) We have made teams notice us as Palace showed us respect and played like the away team, 2) we still can’t break down teams who sit back in numbers.

1

We've unlocked our biggest problem on the first game of the season. We cannot break down organised teams who "park the bus". Palace sat back and defended virtually for 90 minutes and barely passed the ball around. And that suited them, there were a few times they tried to play out from the back and we looked sharp with our high press.

I think the tactics were just wrong and left us vulnerable. You can see why Redmond and Smallbone didn't really get into the game, they were coming inside to bring palaces full backs in, to create space for our full backs get forward and receive the cross field pass. This leaves two problems, when they get the ball they have no support and if we lose the ball, we're vulnerable to being countered. Also, leaving our slow CB's so high up the pitch meant it was so easy for Palace, who didn't even play very well. Wilfred Zaha could've scored a hat trick because of this and he was barely in the game.

As for individual performances, Romeu isn't a good midfielder or passer of the ball. He must have given the ball away 4/5 times in dangerous places (one which lead to the goal), I even recall him not even looking where he was passing it for one of the goals. Redmond wasn't great, he doesn't really bring anything to the team. I think this needs to be a make a break season for him. He might have the odd 8/10 game but more often then not he's a 5/10. Very wasteful, his final ball is awful and so is his finishing. Ings and Adam's were very quiet up top. Adam's did a good job at holding the ball up and bringing others into the game. Credit to Guaita for making some very important saves.

I don't think that our best players being away on the international break for 10 days before the match would've helped with preparations.

0

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0