How bad was Caulker - terrible thats how bad. Who coached him to back away from strikers and give them 6 yards of space when in the box? How slow is he to get across to players when he is the nearest defender - really slow. And for a big unit - and he is big strong boy - why cant he tackle with any meaning or aggression. He has no bite or fight in him at all.
OK i am on a rant now - lets keep going.
The Pelle gambit. OK so we hit Pelle with lots of balls and he is a master at heading on or chest down. When he heads on he needs one or two players near him to run off the header - say Mane and a creative midfielder its right - then Tadic and a creative midfielder if its left. Tad and Mane are too far away patrolling the wings.
Then Pelle chests down - and passes to who? He needs a creative midfielder 10 yards from him to either run at the defence or play a 1-2 or something. How many times did a Pelle win result in the ball being played to big Vic - loads thats how many - he should not be the first option - he should be the last option.

We lack a real creative tricky clever player to partner Pelle - or is that Juanami? Lets hope so. Its not really long - he is better working with Mane to provide a different type of attack, one based on break / pace.

Lets keep going - Claisie - i dont get it - i want my DMs to be 6 foot and fast, not as tall as Ronnie Corbet and slow - be small and fast OK but not small and slow. I have seen nothing from Claisie that Harrison Reed does not have - including height.

Finally - game play. There was a moment last night - we were attacking the Northam End - and 3 or 4 balls in came back, we had every player over the half way line - loading pressure on Liverpool - we were 1-2 down - the box had 4 Saints players in it - the ball was cleared to our right back - did he play the ball back in - did he f*** - he played it back to the keeper !! Why - why - why would you do that when the whole team is waiting for a ball in again - who is coaching these players to make decisions like that - play it back to your keeper instead of into the danger zone.

And the ref was bad.

I am dribbling now i better stop - FU2

0

How bad was Caulker - terrible thats how bad. Who coached him to back away from strikers and give them 6 yards of space when in the box? How slow is he to get across to players when he is the nearest defender - really slow. And for a big unit - and he is big strong boy - why cant he tackle with any meaning or aggression. He has no bite or fight in him at all.
OK i am on a rant now - lets keep going.
The Pelle gambit. OK so we hit Pelle with lots of balls and he is a master at heading on or chest down. When he heads on he needs one or two players near him to run off the header - say Mane and a creative midfielder its right - then Tadic and a creative midfielder if its left. Tad and Mane are too far away patrolling the wings.

Then Pelle chests down - and passes to who? He needs a creative midfielder 10 yards from him to either run at the defence or play a 1-2 or something. How many times did a Pelle win result in the ball being played to big Vic - loads thats how many - the ball to Vic should not be the first option - it should be the last option.

We lack a real creative tricky clever player to partner Pelle - or is that Juanami? Lets hope so. Its not really long - he is better working with Mane to provide a different type of attack, one based on break / pace.

Lets keep going - Claisie - i dont get it - i want my DMs to be 6 foot and fast, not as tall as Ronnie Corbet and slow - be small and fast OK but not small and slow. I have seen nothing from Claisie that Harrison Reed does not have - including height.

Finally - game play. There was a moment last night - we were attacking the Northam End - and 3 or 4 balls in came back, we had every player over the half way line - loading pressure on Liverpool - we were 1-2 down - the box had 4 Saints players in it - the ball was cleared to our right back - did he play the ball back in - did he f*** - he played it back to the keeper !! Why - why - why would you do that when the whole team is waiting for a ball in again - who is coaching these players to make decisions like that - play it back to your keeper instead of into the danger zone.

And the ref was bad.

I am dribbling now i better stop - FU2

0

The facts are these: we have not replaced Clyne or Schneiderlin, and there is no effective back-up in central defence when either Fonte or Van Dyke is out. Add to this that there are, in my opinion, second-rate foreign players such as Martina, Romeu and Juanmi getting on the bench at the expense of our younger players. Surely Ryan Seager deserves a chance, along with Reed, and what happened to Hesketh? One game last year, so good enough then, taken out by a cynical Leicester City player on his debut never to appear again! We have international (at their level) players out on loan - Stephens and Gallager for example, surely they will put in better shifts than fly-by-night outsiders, who may have potential, but no hunger!

4

In hindsight this has been coming. We don't seem to be set up right. We aren't pressing the opposition consistently. We are regularly bullied. We have a GK who commands his box, can kick with both feet but rarely makes a save. Our marque creative signing looks out of his depth. Never mind, if we're 2-0 up at halftime on Saturday this will all be forgotten. However, if we're 2-0 down.......

1

It was a horrible match to watch, but when we won away at Sunderland a few short weeks ago we were flying, 1 loss in 12 and that was being robbed by Man U. The last three games have been the counter balance and prove we are only a upper mid table side. I am looking forward to the Villa game, we will bounce back...but it is going to be a rollercoaster season...

Agree with LesVivian...where are Seagar, Hesketh and Reed. Reed did nothing wrong when he played last season and unlike Clasie, he tackles like Paul Scoles.

1

So my opinion of Clasie has not been incorrect, he is not upto premiership standard, not a toughie, just too small. We played with ten men and then Jwp came on and we continued with ten men. Caulker getting the blame for not being upto pace, hardly his fault unless he really has been a bad boy! Cedric and Juanmi are both lightweights.We desperately need a right back of strength and quality. Selling Chambers and Clyne a monumental error and is costing us games.
I'm not incorrect either in saying that we are heading for the relegation zone. I too would prefer to see some of our homegrown players in the team but at this stage I wouldnot expect much improvement in results. Reed and Hesketh, have they both been poor in training? Have they been poorer thab Clasie?

Come on Saints your supporters deserve and expect better.

1

Out Played, Out Fouled and Out of Luck.

0

Another nail in Monk's coffin, as yet again Swansea failed to show the necessary skills & commitment. Gomis a real waste of space, and without his goals it is very difficult, at the moment, to see where any threat might come from. Routledge is clearly past his sell-by date and I wonder whether the time is ripe to throw a couple of the youngsters in to the mix? It is apparent that something is clearly amiss behind the scenes, & I suspect that Monk may have a maximum of three more games to improve matters or see the door. Certainly without a massive change it is becoming more difficult to see how the Board can let him have any say in the January transfer window.

0

Atrocious finishing, many chances created but squandered with Guzan not called on to make that many saves. Also disappointing performances from Tadic and Wanyama . Substitutes made an impact but were very late in being introduced to the action. Villa were very poor and should have been despatched after 20 minutes.

2

We played some great football (Tadic excluded), against poor opposition, but watching effort after shot sail over the crossbar in the first 25mins started a growing feeling that it wasn't to be our day. The one touch move (with a superb pass by Big Vic) that led to Pelle blazing over was exceptional football that deserved better.

I was right behind Villa's corner, and shouted "what a shite corner!", just before 3 saints players missed it and Lescott bundled it in! At that point I was convinced it was Swansea last year all over again. That Romeu repeated Lescott's trick was very welcome.

I thought the subs played well especially Junami, Pelle tried hard but had no service. VVD/Bertrand were joint MOM..

1