It is hard to dress up what was a woeful game of football as anything else, but there were positives to take and this is what we need to focus on.
Some Saints supporters leaving St Mary's on Saturday were bemoaning the performance and looking back nostalgically to what they perceived as the best football Saints have ever played last season, their memories were short though as only a year earlier in the opening home game of last year Saints had been woeful against a poor Sunderland side and needed a last minute equaliser from Jose Fonte to rescue a point and the following home game was a dissapointing 0-0 draw against West Ham, the point being that a year ago things looked just as bleak so there is hope.
The game itself saw Saints comfortable through out and only troubled once when Fraser Forster stood up strong and blocked a shot, the problem was that for all our possession and 58% was similar to last seasons stats, we rarely looked like troubling Foster in the visitors goal.
Saints looked like a team still coming to terms with their new manager new players and new system, that is understandable because thats exactly the situation we are in and perhaps we would be overly optimisitic if we thought that after the issues in the summer we could just start like an express train.
But the good news is we are solid we look a good unit, the issue is all about going forward, this being the case was surprised that Koeman didnt try other options, Taider or Isgrove might have offered something different off the bench.
We are clearly still coming to terms with the style of play, Pelle especially struggled to get into the game and received some unfair stick with some supporters seemingly decided after only 15 minutes of seeing him that he was this seasons scapegoat, but where these supporters being entirely fair, a centre forward is only as good as his service, when Pelle had the ball laid into him he mainly did his job and laid it off, when the ball was thumped at him above head height he didn't and this wasn't endearing him to the crowd, but they didn't consider what he was meant to do with the ball when played like that ? his only option to flick it on, but to who ? with no one behind him.
Saints need to come to terms with their now more direct style going forward and that means getting the balls into Pelle that he can use rather than throwing it up into the air for him to try and beat his marker who will always have the forward momentum.
This was a dire game to watch, but it wasn't a dire performance by Saints at least not in terms of the fact that we were not in disaray at any time, we were comfortable throughout and this is a good foundation to build on, however that does not mean we are not a work in progress, we were dire in terms of chances created and that is the main worry at the moment we don't seem to be sure how to play going forward, we need to find a system that can accommodate both Pelle and Long and we need to get some width, Ronald Koeman is still chasing a winger and of course we do have Jay Rodriguez to return from injury so it is not the end of the world.
The main thing to be taken from the game though should be the need for patience, we need to look back at our first two home games last season and the way we played in them and take note that even last season we took time to find our way, the crowd didnt get on the backs of the team last year and they found their feet and the rest as they say is history, now a year on Ronald Koeman an d his team need the patience of the fans who need to keep off the backs of certain players and give them a fair chance to prove themselves.
A dire game, a disappointing game, but not a disastrous game.