Firstly lets confirm one thing, a good team does not become a bad one overnight, but having said that there is something that needs changing in the Southampton side.

It seems as if it is one piece of bad luck after another at the moment at Saints and it wasn't just the defeat but the fact that we are losing more players to suspension.

Sheffield United though deserved their win for the way they wanted to take the game to us whilst too many of our players seemed like rabbits caught in the headlights, very few of our men can put their hands on their hearts and say they did themselves justice, we had 63 % possession yet we managed only one shot on target all evening.

That doesn't tell the story of the game though, the Blades were up for it from the start yet we looked lost, our passing game was disjointed and we lacked leadership on the pitch.

Certain players should be stepping up to the plate at the moment and they are not doing that, Jose Fonte is the Captain and had been in the best form of his Saints career up to a few weeks ago, now he is a shadow of his former self and in the worst form of the five years he has been here.

In times of trouble you look to senior players for that guidance, you look to them to stand strong and lead by example, but this just wasn't the case last night, the senior members of the squad were hiding, in my opinion only Shane Long and James Ward Prowse put themselves about and looked like they wanted it.

We were second to every ball and got too many bookings because we failed to deal with fairly simple balls, Nathaniel Clyne's yellow card was a fine example of this when he went to clear the ball and instead of doing so in a confident manner swung a leg, missed it completely and scythed down his opponent, he was not the only culprit.

The winning goal was poor defending, the Saints wall crumbled and Fraser Forster did well to save the shot that flew through his own wall and the Blades were always going to be first to the rebound, again a lack of discipline and leadership at a key moment and we defended like a Sunday league team, if the wall had done its job then perhaps the result may have been different.

This was a big disappointment, that cannot be denied, but we have to take it on the chin and move on, we are still fifth in the league and we still have the FA Cup to look forward to, the season is far from over and we would have all taken this scenario back in August.

There can be no doubt that Saints have suffered many blows in the last few weeks that have left us short in the squad, but this although a factor last night was not the main cause of this defeat, that has to be lain firmly at the feet of most of the players who went out there last night and put in performances that are unacceptable for players of their level, hopefully now they will use this as the kick up the rear that some of them clearly need and we can get back to winning ways.

Good luck to Sheffield United in the semi's, yes there were reasons why we played badly, but you wanted the game more than us and took your chance when it came, you are in the semi finals on merit and we are out because we played like an ill disciplined rabble

Jose Fonte has admitted that the side let down the 4,500 fans who travelled up to Yorkshire, but words are cheap, the real way to make amends is to win a few games again.

Photo: Action Images

BarnetSaint added 17:06 - Dec 17 Good article. A lucky, scrappy 1.0 win would do wonders right now. Confidence is key. We're also due some luck FFS Our first 11 are a match for anyone in this division. We had held city until Morgan went off. Get them all back and fit and we can go on another run. Our squad players who have to feature due to injuries and suspensions are not up to it. This is where the prem is uncompetitive. The big boys can fill their bench with multy million valued players. Happy to collect their wedge. Once we get J Rod back and strengthen in January. I'm confident we can achieve top 6 COYS

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SaintGeorge added 17:44 - Dec 17 "a good team does not become a bad one overnight" well no, it takes about five weeks...
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TreeHugger added 18:11 - Dec 17 well we are officially in a pickle. Last night was the first time I thought sh*t. the previous games (including burnley) I thought we at least competed and on another day we could have won all 4 games. Last night we looked lost. I think the players have to take responsibility for this, koeman was clearly not happy and I imagine he will start to chop a few players if they don't give a performance over the next few games. The bad news is I think we lose to Everton. They looked great in mid week and have a lot of their key players coming back while we are losing ours. Mane is in danger of becoming a scapegoat. He is a bit wild but he has potential. We need to give him time and maybe koeman will take him out of the lime light for a few games and use him as an impact player. Only problem is that we are short of players so may not be able to. Last night he lost it though and looked mentally not with it. Some very reckless tackles and poor decision making. Lets keep the faith and hope for some luck against everton. we will need it!

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thegeneral added 18:16 - Dec 17 Simply couldn't see where a goal was going to come from, no one looked like they had a goal in them or the ability to create a goal, nuff said.
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FrankSaint added 18:29 - Dec 17 Nightmare. Oh to wake up and discover it is half time against Man City and I'd slipped on a chip at St. Marys and knocked myself out. We need a plan B when our full backs are blocked. Surely that must mean there is room in the centre of the pitch. And we need rotation of our midfield with just one staying back.
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corkcitysaint added 18:32 - Dec 17 What saddens and annoys me is the lack of heart and desire shown last night. Never mind the league just now but this was a quarter final, away to Sheffield United, 2 leagues below us. We'd done what you would think would be the hard part - gone to Arsenal and Stoke and won! Get to the semi's and who knows what could happen. All the talk has been of qualifying for Europe. What a great way to kill 2 birds with one stone. A cup win and a European place. Fantastic. Oh no, wait, we're trying to qualify for the Champions league by coming in the top 4. Sorry, I forgot! I think the lads have cracked under the pressure of the 3"big" games as hyped up by the media. All the talk was how we would fare against them. Were we good enough, could we stay in the top 4 etc. I think the confidence in now shook and they are making poor, rash decisions during the game. Too conscious of the defensive errors recently so they are blindly going into tackles. We need to get our composure back. Forster is lacking confidence as is Mane and now Fonte, the captain "leader`'.. The whole squad need to man up now show a bit of heart and fight. Last night was embarrassing. If i was Roko, I'd forget about the training ground and get a shrink or hypnotist in!! Sorry for the rant. Am still annoyed. Got it off my chest. At least we can still qualify for the Champions League or should that be Chumpions ….

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saintmark1976 added 19:17 - Dec 17 Older fans can remember us going to Tranmere and being three up at half time and still managing to lose or being four up from the first leg against Watford and losing the second leg seven one!On both occasions we had a far better team than we do now.Get over it,somehow its just cup football. What matters is how we respond and where better to start than a home game against Everton? They will not fancy coming to Saint Mary's knowing that our backs are against the wall.If we get stuck in,chase every ball as Sheffield did then we have nothing to fear even without some of our big name players.After all they did not do much for us yesterday did they?

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landsdownsaint added 19:21 - Dec 17 God knows what abuse Guly would have got if he was performing like Mane !? ... But I do think he will come good ,I think the Man City game knocked us for six .
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SonicBoom added 19:59 - Dec 17 What's worse, Mane cooking up every time he has the ball or Tadic being totally anonymous for five weeks. Yes he played well for the first nine or so games, but has lost his way completely recently. I have no idea why.
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ChristchurchSaint added 20:12 - Dec 17 I probably won't be popular for this, but as much as we were rubbish last night, I think there are a couple of issues which have struck me: 1) We have had horrendous problems over the last few weeks with injuries- JC, MS, SD, TA- that is an important part of our defence/midfield. JWP is only just back from 3 months out and we still await JRod ( who some people think will return blazing both barrels- don't want to disillusion anybody ,but even when he comes back it will take several weeks for him to recover true form- even if he manages it at all this season) 2) The number of yellow cards ( and red last night!) seems to have escalated somewhat- Perhaps RoKo needs to instil some discipline and remind players that to get booked and ultimately suspended affects them, the other players and the club's image itself. I appreciate that the squad desperately needs some reinforcements in January, but players are not doing themselves any favours missing matches now.

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BoondockSaint added 20:21 - Dec 17 I still think Tadic played better before Roko shifted him over to make room for Mane. We'll see what happens when Mane is off playing the Africa Cup. Cheer up everyone! Did you see Lovern's howler last weekend? There, doesn't that bring a smile?
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LanzaSaint added 20:28 - Dec 17 Pretty; toothless.
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stmichael added 21:46 - Dec 17 Very gentle report considering the scale of the shiiit that was served up in such an important game. Twice in our history we have made the semi finals of this competition and last night was a great chance to make it 3. Sheff Utd rested their best players last night for the league game Saturday FFS!!! You are dining on a start that saw us beat no one that we didnt finish above last year. The summer is now coming home to roost. it wasn't some master plan it was a shambles that we somehow managed to turn into a miracle over the 1st few games. Reality is now settling in. Good save from the free kick??? A 12million pound England international it was shocking goalkeeping at it was against Man u and Villa. Tadic too tired to play in our most important game of the season? Mane 10 million pounds Long 12 million pounds!!!!! That is not money well spent.#Your right you don't become a bad side overnight but you do over 5 successive defeats (and still counting). Ill finish by reminding you Sheff U played a weakened side last night.. Horrific evening and it needs to be told as it was..

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SanMarco added 01:47 - Dec 18 "a good team does not become a bad one overnight" No - but a team with hardly any players (us in the summer) doesn't become good overnight either. We are a work in progress and it is in adversity that RoKo will show us what he has or hasn't got. We need at least 4 points from the next 3. If we do that we will enter 2015 in the top six. Not bad in my view. Yes we were awful last night. It is a pity that there was so long between rounds. If we had played this three weeks ago we would have walked it...

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schatfield added 08:44 - Dec 18 stmichael is spot on...Forster really lacking in confidence at the moment, shame we dont have Boruc for competition for places. Mane, well, he is quick and falls over a lot..Long, just not sure. Defense makes lots of mistakes. and no one able to score. oh dear.
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Jesus_02 added 08:48 - Dec 18 I can’t work out what some people see in Mane. Maybe it’s the same lot that cried out for Steve De Ridder every game? Mane might even play well for another team, but Saints players need to have a good touch. His record in the last 3 games: Man U: Should have been Red carded Burnley: Could have been Red Carded Sheffield: Gave away the free kick that resulted in the winning goal. (Could have been a pen) In my opinion, if he HAD been sent off at home to Man U we might be reflecting on wins against Burnley and Sheffield Unt. No he is not the Scapegoat. He IS the problem.

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Whatsforpud added 09:04 - Dec 18 Further to Schatfield's comments about the goalkeepers, Koeman should never have said that Forster was his No. 1 choice. Everyone should have started the season on equal merit, knowing that if they don't deliver, they would be rested. We now have a situation where Forster is an automatic choice however he plays. 0n his style, he is a great blocker and parrier of shots, but not so hot on catching cleanly, as per the Sheffield game.

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halftimeorange added 09:45 - Dec 18 We have to be realistic. With a relatively small squad, a weak player as captain who should not be holding that responsibility, our best player openly wanting to prove himself at a higher level than we can offer, a lack of goals, a lack of discipline and a raft of games coming up against sides all beginning to find their best form as we slump, Saints could well be on less than thirty points by the end of January. That would conceivably put us in the bottom eight. We won't be relegated but something has gone seriously wrong. Maybe we now have disruption in the dressing room - who knows? Last season until the period of unrest provoked by Pochettino, we had a settled squad. Perhaps there are too many disparate and strong new personalities. It could be a testing time for supporters until May. Still, I've got my tickets for Ipswich. One has to hope.

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SaintJez added 10:25 - Dec 18 Systematic failings by Koeman in selection and tactics ever since the Vila game. He seems to be watching something no-one else is. Even pre-match, did anyone think our 20 million pound forward line would be good enough to score against Sheffield United reserves? I certainly didn't and it's ridiculous when you think about it. To their credit both do try hard but Long is a "chase after it player" rather than anticipate and that just doesn't cut it at the top level and Mane is simply awful and fast becoming a major liability. We already lose possession pretty much every time he gets it and everyone can see it's only a matter of time before he's sent off. Risking both Wanyama and Scheiderlein for a league cup game when both were 1 booking away from suspension is an unncessary risk. What has Reed done wrong to be sub not used for all 6 of the last debacles? Why won't Koeman give him a chance to prove himself? and why did we only have 6 subs anyway?? Ridiculous considering our investment in the academy. Surely we could have drafted someone in to give a potential extra attacking option and give them a taster of the first team (even if they didn't get game time),

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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 11:56 - Dec 18 Since we beat Sunderland 8-0 the goals have dried up. We're still creating chances but our four attackers; Pelle, Long, Mane and Tadic have all been massively off form and haven't been taking their chances. Couple that with an influx of defensive errors and what we're left with is a massive crash in confidence across the whole team. Against Sheffield United it looked like a lot of the spirit and belief had gone too. What we need now is for Koeman to get the team together, work together, get the team spirit back and grind out a couple of results. Focus on the basics, don't concede and look to nick a goal. We need a bit of luck and we're due some. We need Mane not to fall over just one time and actually beat a man and put the ball on to Pelle's head. Just one bit of luck or quality could get a 1-0 nil and stop the rot. We desperately need it right now. I look at the fixtures and struggle to see where the next win is going to come from if the team doesn't get a lift from something.

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ExiledSupporter added 14:00 - Dec 18 Agree with your opening comments Reedy etc. All of our strikers are suddenly off form, although Pelle has had very poor service during this time and looks frustrated with his team mates. But surely I'm not the only one who has watched Mane and Long and know that they are consistently much more likely to miss good chances than to score from them. Neither of them seem well suited to putting decent crosses into the box for Pelle to make use of his strength and power. We may have sold cleverly over the summer and by and large bought well, but at a total cost of £22m for these two we seem to have reverted to our old habit of squandering our resources. Mane should not be a scapegoat, but he does seem to me to be yet another player bought for his speed (like Mayuka and De Ridder before him and others going further back still) without recognising that his other skills and qualities leave much to be desired. I wonder if these two were really Koeman's choice...I find it difficult to believe...what's more if we decided to sell them tomorrow we wouldn't get a decent fraction of the price we paid for them! In the summer I suggested that we should have taken Zaha and Giudetti on loan from the Manchester clubs, although the former hasn't been all that great a success yet there are signs of recovery and the latter is doing well and we'd still have £22m in the bank with which to either sign them of get others in. So we could not in any way be worse off!

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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 16:41 - Dec 18 I think Mane and Long should be used as impact players to bring off the bench with 20 minutes to go to run at/close down tired defenders. They both don't really warrant a starting place, but at least Long puts in a shift. We need to strengthen in these positions in our 1st team. An on form Tadic and Rodriguez is the answer but at the moment we don't have them and Long & Mane aren't up to it. If we have Long & Mane on the bench then it means we can finally ditch Mayuka and Isgrove who clearly aren't Premiership quality. Exiled - Good point about their service. The crossing from Long & Mane has been truly dreadful and its not helping Pelle at all.

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