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Comment | Can Bertrand's Return To Action Come At The Right Time For His Euro 16 Hopes
at 10:27:22
Sadly i have to agree with bstokesaint. I have found it harder and harder to watch England recently. It doesnt help that Woy's brand of football is awful to watch. I dont think ive forgiven him for the terrible showing in the world cup. It hasnt helped that Saints are playing some ofnthe best football of my lifetime, so internationals are just opportunites for our players to get injured. Add to that the fact that i live in a timezone that makes watching England a challenge. |
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Comment | Saints V Everton The Verdict
at 01:52:59
I was just as unhappy as the rest of you about the performance. There were a few tactical decisions that just didn't work out. Playing Tadic on the right and Schlong on the left just didn't work. Tadic was generally poor and Schlong can't cross with his left. This meant that only our fullbacks were putting crosses in (or at least trying to). I wish we had swapped them back before halftime. This wouldn't have required a substitution and would have improved things. Our fullbacks didn't have a great game either. Hopefully Targett can improve. But remember, we lost our PFA player of the year left back to injury. Targett is just cover. As for Cedric, like Targett...lets hope he can improve.
I don't think the two centre backs had a bad game. Yoshida seems to be the scapegoat if you look at previous comments. While I wish we had a better centre back, I don't think he played badly and certainly wasn't responsible for the first two goals. In fact, we got punished by a team who were very effective on the break. We didn't get back fast enough.
I don't think Skeltenberg was that bad either. The first two goals were great finishes and he couldn't be blamed. Compare that to Everton's keeper, he had a bit of luck and saved a couple of Mane's efforts that would have gone in on another day.
Lukaku, when he is on his game is a beast and can be unplayable. We unfortunately got him on an "on" day. Barkley also had his best game in ages.
So what else went wrong? I thought that we didn't press the opposition much, there was a lot of standing back which allowed Everton to pass it around us. We were better in the second half but by then we were 2-0 down and had to commit more players to chase the game...which ultimately resulted in the 3rd goal. Wanyama didn't have his best game but the big thing I have noticed is that he is playing the ball out a lot more. Spider used to do this and he could play a killer long pass. The Wanaya/Davis combo didn't work well. I thought we looked better when Romeu came on and he began to play the ball out more. Not bad for a player who has been there 3 days. Hopefully he can improve. And finally, the team just got frustrated. You could see players yelling at each other (Pelle yelling at Targett for not releasing the ball earlier). Once this happened, we were never going to come back. The only positive? It was 3-0 and not more. |
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Comment | Saints V West Bromwich Albion The Verdict
at 10:46:02
Nick, I absolutely agree with your opening comments. It was a woeful game of football and one that made me wishing I hadn't stayed up to till 2am to watch all of it (I'm in Sydney).
On a positive note, our defence looked good. Yoshida was much better than in other games. I'm keen to see our new signing and how does he compare to Lovren. Despite being a footballing mercenary, he could defend well, was very comfortable on the ball (I've seen a few of his stepovers while charging up the pitch) and had a good shot. We will need Gardos to step up. In terms of left back, while Luke Shaw didn't play a killer ball in any of the games I saw, he could defend well and wasn't lightweight. Bertrand seems ok so far. Definitely an upgrade on Danny Fox but he goes to ground pretty easy.
I thought Spider and Wanayama were good. I'm not convinced by Ward Prowse just yet. He needs to step up his game, perhaps put on some bulk so he doesn't get pushed out of the way so often. Mind you, Spider isn't exactly the terminator but he still does pretty well.
Pelle was poor. His touch and layoff ability are good but had one shot off target the entire game. I guess he needs more time. Plus I was wondering who we had to put on in place of him. Long had already come on and I didn't see who we had on the bench. I agree with Nick in that Isgrove or Taider should have come on. Corky was lively when he did come on and it was good to see him get some game time. |
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Comment | The Lowdown On Koeman
at 11:39:44
Fair point SaintMark. However, I suspect that if we did give an up and coming British manager the job, we would probably be shopping around for a replacement by Christmas. In recent times Nigel Atkins was given about 7 months of a Premiership chance and the last time we finished as high, we tried out Paul Sturrock. I can't remember how long he lasted but I don't think it was a full season.
I know I mentioned it before but I want attacking football and Koeman's seems to fit the bill. |
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Comment | Odds Shorten On Ronald Koeman
at 00:06:08
I can't believe how much higher my expectations are for a new manager after one season. I year ago I probably would have been happy with any half decent manager. Now it has to be someone that plays attacking and pressing football in the vein of Bielsa. It makes me feel very sorry for West Ham fans who pride themselves on good football and now have big Sam as a manager. I couldn't bear the thought of getting someone like McLaren or Moyes. Damn you MoPo for raising my expectations!!! |
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Comment | Lambert To Liverpool ! Usually This Would Be Good Business !
at 17:27:31
Who is going to get us goals next season? J-rod is injured, Gallagher hasn't found the net yet, Gaston is out of favour. SRL's main asset is that he scores goals. 4 million may be a good price but what could we get with that 4 mil? Who will replace him? Who will want to come to Saints when it seems that all the valuable players are leaving? |
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Comment | Can Saints Buy And Improve Without Selling Key Players
at 13:23:14
I'd like to see us go for a strong pacey forward.
Someone like:
1) Lukaku
Probably the most expensive of the lot but has shown what a talent he is a two different clubs. Could we get him? Not sure...some reports say he is only interested in Champions League football.
2) Bony
Has been great this season for Swansea. Could we get him? Possibly.
3) Remi
Probably the cheapest of the three but has scored for both QPR and Newcastle in the Premier League. I'm sure he'd rather come to us as opposed to going back to the Championship.
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Comment | Can Saints Beat Two Premier League Record Points Total's
at 02:39:34
Completely disagree.
1) We are probably playing the best football in the premiership now except possibly Liverpool.
2) We are on track for a record points total.
3) We have broken our transfer record 5 times in the last 18 months.
3) We have the biggest crop of home grown youngsters in the 1st team (compared to any other team in the prem).
How can we say it is time for the manager to go? Have we learned no lessons from previous manager-merry-go-rounds? Fans should be over the moon at our accomplishments. |
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Comment | Saints At Manchester City The Verdict
at 12:23:47
At 1-1, the ball was playing in to Dzeko who was marginally offside, who then played in Silva who was massively offside. You saw that the Saints defence stopped playing at that point as the decision was so obvious. I think the team were still shell-shocked when the third goal was scored and can't really blame them. When was the last time you saw a decision so bad. It had me wondering if I had fundamentally misunderstood the offside rule all these years.
In the second half Pelligrini made some good substitutions and started winning the midfield battle. We should have made our own changes at around 50-60 minutes rather than leaving it to 75 which was far too late. We had no outlet with any pace and really missed J-Rod. Best wishes to him by the way. I hope it isn't as serious as it looks. I also thought that Davis had a great game up until being substituted as did Cork. I would have brought on Gallagher much earlier as slynch previously suggested. Why wasn't Gaston on the bench? Is he injured? He would have been a quality sub to bring on.
Our fine run up to November went to shite when Boruc, Lovren, Wanyama and Ramirez all got injured. We have a small squad and the loss of key players hits us much more than it does a Man City, Chelsea or United. For me, we need to retain our key first team players this summer, Lovren, Shaw, Cork, Schneiderlin, Lallana, Lambert, JRod. I would also keep Davis, JWP, Chambers, Clyne, Boruc, Fonte, Ramirez and Wanyama. But we need an attacking midfielder with pace and central defender and a possibly a striker. Ship out the rest (except the kids) and reduce the wage bill.
And finally for such big guys, Yaya Toure and Dzeko go down far too easy. I was embarrassed but I guess that is the way the game has gone.
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Comment | Saints At Sunderland The Verdict
at 12:22:11
Firstly, I just wanted to give my support to the fans that made the journey up north. I watched the game on TV and my heart swelled with pride when I heard a rendition of "Oh when the saints" about 20 minutes in. Making the journey up to Sunderland for a midday kickoff...now that is real commitment.
Back to the game, despite his kicking being awful, Davis had a good game. He couldn't be faulted for the goal. It was a wonder strike and may end up being goal of the month. He actually claimed a couple of crosses too. Jos and Yosh were solid at the back. In fact Yosh seemed to be reading the game very well and stepped up numerous times to play Sunderland's strike force offside. Luke Shaw was great in the first half with pretty tight control and some good runs. I loved how strong he seems to have become, bundling people off the ball. Saying that, on another day he could have given away a penalty and appeared tired in the last 20 minutes as his crosses and shots were all very poor. Clyne, with the exception of giving the ball away once, had a great game. He is a real attacking threat.
Davis and Wanayama were wasteful in the middle. Davis probably had the better game and seemed composed on some occasions. Wanayama needs match practice. He looked off the pace. I know his distribution is questionable but he was struggling with his bread and butter yesterday, namely his tackling and using strength to hold people off. JWP had a great chance in the first half and forced their keeper into a very good save but apart from that he was anonymous. Lallana was class and apart from resting him, I don't know why he was taken off. Guly was ok, no better or worse than some of the others. I thought Rickie, that terrible miss aside, played well. His hold up play was good and the knock-down for JWP in the first half was quality. When Spiderman came on, he showed why arsenal were sniffing round in the January window. He tackled, he passed, he dribbled. If he would just get some goals, then he'd be the complete player.
Overall, we played poorly and struggled to close Sunderland down in our usual manner. BBC website said that we came out winners in terms of possession but it didn't seem like it to me. However, Sunderland didn't really offer much except their wonder goal. They were offside many many times and I thought Saints had the better chances. |
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Comment | Saints V Swansea City The Verdict
at 01:15:46
First of all I'd like to say thanks to Nick for running this site. While I may not always agree with his analysis, I appreciate everything he does for the site which gives Saints fans such as ourselves the chance to discuss matches and tactics. I have to admit that I eagerly await each match report and that is despite the fact that I watch each game on TV (I'm based in Australia so the time change can be challenging).
Next I'd like to discuss Danny Fox. He has had some terrible premiership games for us, ones that make me wonder how he gets selected. However, against Swansea he wasn't that bad. He didn't dive in, didn't give away reckless free kicks (both of which he normally does) and didn't get booked. Yes he was run ragged by Dyer, however, half the team were made to look pretty ordinary by Dyer who had a great game. Now I'm not saying that I want Fox in the team but he's not first choice and right now, we've got no-one better (who is naturally left footed and fit). If Shaw is fit, we can attack from the left. Otherwise, (like Sunday) our only attacking threat comes from the right.
I thought Poch made some good changes. Although as we were reduced to playing on the counter attack from almost halftime onwards, I would have brought on JRod a bit earlier. Other posters mentioned this as well, JRod gave their back four a little more trouble and caused them to lose some of their attacking threat as they couldn't commit too many for fear of being caught on the break (something which SRL and Dani weren't really providing). I like the fact that we moved to a "plan b". Its something that we have never really had before.
We were definitely outplayed, but we had some luck and we won. I think of the number of times last season that we were the better team but we lost (Old Trafford for instance?). I'd rather have the three points. Plus don't they say the the sign of a really good team is that they can play badly and still win? |
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Comment | Saints At Liverpool The Verdict
at 07:05:21
For me the jury is still out on Wanamaya. He did make a lot of wayward passes and and his first touch isn't great. If we got him for 4mil I'd be happy but paying 12? Still, it could be worse. Liverpool payed 16mil for one of their defenders and he was rubbish.
Osvaldo looked very promising early on with a lot of classy flicks. However, near the end of the second half he started to look more like a one trick pony. I thought he should have held the ball up more instead of trying flick-ons at every opportunity, most of which didn't pan out.
Ballsy decision by Poch to take SRL off in the second half but I agree with it. In fact, I don't like playing both SRL and Dani together. I'd much rather play one up front, I don't care who, and have the other on the bench.
Very interested to see who plays tonight in the cup...time to try out some of the players who haven't been getting much game time recently. I'm looking at Ramirez in particular...time to step up.
I still think we are still missing a pacey winger. Someone like Redmond from Norwich who can run at players. Also, we should have put in a bid for Lukaku, that kid has it all, pace, power, skill...and proven at this level. I don't know how Everton got him.
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Comment | Player Review 12/13 - Jos Hooiveld
at 03:09:30
Don't forget Jos consistently being outjumped by the very small Shane Long in the WBA game. For someone who is tall and all about the aerial game, it was pretty embarrassing. |
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Comment | Saints V West Brom The Verdict
at 10:44:35
Jos Hooiveld is 6'4" and was consistently out jumped by Shane long who is 5'10". We lost just about everything in the air, both at the front and the back. I agree with most of the comments that our central defenders just don't cut it. All of WBA's decent moves started with a long ball that wasn't dealt with. Every header went to one of their players. At the other end of the pitch, if we did win a header, it went nowhere. If we did put a cross into the box, they just mopped it up.
As far as MoPo goes, I thought he made substitutions at the right times. They just perhaps weren't the right ones. Although, what options did he have? Our best players were on the pitch already. Maybe Puncheon should have come on for Lallana instead of Mayuka. Should he have brought Forren on?
And I agree with what I heard about Lukaka...what a player he is! If Chelsea don't take him back, we should put in a bid. What's he worth? Maybe 20mil? If we are aiming for Champions League, that's the sort of player you have to attract.
And so it all isn't negative, Spiderman played very well as did Boruc, if it wasn't for them, it could have been 8-0. |
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Comment | Could Reeves Be The Answer At Left Back ?
at 11:16:45
I spent some time in Italy last month and have a few friends from the Bologna/Modena area. I asked them what they thought of Gaston Ramirez and they described him as "a typical No.10, like Totti but not as good". I asked if he scored, many goals and they said no. Here's to Ramirez proving all of them wrong! I though he has been quality so far. |
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Comment | Saints V West Ham The Verdict
at 23:24:45
I'd much rather win an ugly game 1-0 than lose 4-3 playing fantastic football.
Come on you Saints! |
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Site Scores| Forum Votes: | 0 | | Comment Votes: | 17 | | Prediction League: | 0 | | TOTAL: | 17 |
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