This was always going to be a game where winning it meant a lot more than the scoreline, this was a very satisfying win !

There were many who came to St Mary's on Sunday to criticise Claude Puel and his tactics, but in the main they left happy at a win and unable to level much stick at the French manager.

It was a slightly strange line up in some respects, out went Charlie Austin and there was no room for Hojbjerg a player many consider to have been as good as anyone in the opening weeks, but in the end the manager was proved right in the way he picked his team and made the right changes at the right times.

The first half was frustrating, but there was nothing wrong with the way we were playing or how we contained a Swansea side and once again left Fraser Forster with little to do, the issue was with taking chances, we looked nervy in front of goal, but the good sign was that we weren't hiding.

This gave the perception to many that we were playing badly, I would disagree with that, with every game we seem to settle in to the formation a little better and again we dominated, there has only been one thing wrong with our game and that has been goals.

The fans certainly disagreed with the manager on the forward line, they all thought that Charlie Austin should have started, but again I can see why Puel kept him in reserve, Austin does not look fit and starting him again after Thursday might have been a little bit much for him, Puel got it spot on with this decision.

Nathan Redmond came i for some stick and it cannot be argued that his shooting was woeful, but he was fast he hassled defenders and he got into good positions, he did not hide even after missing a good chance he was looking for the next one.

Perhaps those who say the team spirit is not there would do well to look at two incidents in quick succession in the first half, the first saw Redmond burst through with the options of either blasting the ball past the keeper or laying it across the goal for an easy tap in for Shane Long, in the end he opted for neither and hit the ball well wide bringing a very visible rebuke from Long.

Minutes later Redmond did everything right except score and again the ball went high and wide leaving the player on the ground devastated and the crowd hurling their derision, but Long made a point of running 25 yards to the prone Redmond, picking him up and encouraging him.

The second half seemed to be starting the same way as the first, then came Puel's masterstroke, off went Clasie and Long, neither of whom were playing badly and on came Hojbjerg and Austin and the game upped a level.

But for the first ten minutes not a lot changed, it is funny how crowds perceive a player, before he scored Austin missed the chance of the match yet hardly a murmur was heard from the crowd, the irony should not be lost here, if it had been Redmond then the reaction would have been a lot different.

But a goal was not long in coming and again it was Dusan Tadic a candidate for man of the match who created it, crossing for Austin who took his time chested the ball down and blasted it in from close range.

You always felt that Saints needed a second, but although we had plenty of opportunities it would not come and that mean't we had to keep our first clean sheet in the Premier League since February.

This we did with relative ease although Fraser Forster had to make one decent save to keep the scores level.

But again Claude Puel read the game correctly, with Swansea attacking down our left flank and double teaming Cedric, Puel went for caution and took off Tadic and brought on Martina to sit in front of Cedric and quell the threat.

A vital win for Saints as it took the pressure off the manager and the team, I do not subscribe to the fact that we have been playing badly or the system does not work or the players can't play it, 80% of the problem has been our failure to take our chances and 20% luck, in many respects on Sunday we played no better or worse that the last two home games, but the difference was that we kept it tight at the back and took our chance when it came.

We should now give the manager a chance to show that he can take us forward, this time last year we had six points from our opening five games, not much better than this season's five from six, so this is something the fans need to take on board, give the manager and certain players some leeway.

The season is now going to get tougher with games coming thick and fast, there is no reason why it should not be a good time for us and an exciting one, we just need to look back at how we started the last two seasons, not much different to this one, the future is still bright, ts just not Orange any more.

Photo: Action Images

Jesus_02 added 10:26 - Sep 19 The difference between the crowd’s reaction to Redmond and Austin is because everyone knows that Charlie is a natural finisher and Redmond isn’t. There was a sense of expectation and Charlie duly delivered. Redmond is a fine player, but he is not the next Thierry Henry and casting him in that role is not helping him at all. He isn’t the next Mane either. If anything he is the next Shane Long. One instance that exemplifies this was the disallowed goal. What great striker would ever thing to cut the ball back when 5yrds out. A good decision, but not a striker’s decision. Let’s hope Austin stays fit or at least has extended periods of fitness

6

lemmsy added 10:37 - Sep 19 A sensible article nick although I have to correct you , we have 5 points from 5 games at the moment & last season we had 6 from 6.i think it's widely accepted that we deserved at least a point against arsenal & yesterday the score could & should have been at least 4 .imo redmonds miss was worse than austins but as you say the fact we're creating chances bodes well. Hopefully we can get past palace and have a cup run & also go to West Ham & upset them.i find it very frustrating that supporters go to the ground almost hoping we'll fail ( most football people say look at the league after ten games )but I quess its the nature of football now to want instant success.as you say this should give a little breathing space & also breed confidence, not forgetting boufan waits to debut.

2

GeordieSaint added 11:56 - Sep 19 Has Frazer not kept a clean sheet since he broke the record for minutes without a goal? That is quite an interesting little stat. Crucial couple of wins to ease the nerves, time to get on with the season now.
1

charlie357 added 12:03 - Sep 19 I think Redmond's is definitely the worse miss. Austin is running full pelt and stretching to get on the end of the cross and the ball bobbles a little in front of him. Whereas Redmond has just sold the defender, has a dead ball 12 or so yards out and still sends it 3 feet over the bar. Don't get me wrong, I think Redmond is a good player and a good signing but we can't get away with playing him and Long as our two strikers, neither of them are clinical enough. If one of them were through on goal you still wouldn't feel confident in them scoring. Once Austin and J-Rod are match-fit we need to be starting one of them each game, they know how to hit the target.

7

SaintPaulVW added 12:12 - Sep 19 Great start to an important couple of weeks. Hopefully confidence is high and things will now slot into place for a great season. We've got a great defence, a skillful midfield and loads of attacking options. Beginning to get excited about the potential of this side this season.
0

SanMarco added 12:21 - Sep 19 The talking heads on Match of the Day were praising Redmond to the skies although they did also award him miss of the day! That went to the skies too now I think of it! We are in for a season of lots of nervy ends to matches. It is quite right to say we should have been 3 or 4 up but my guess is that this season we are going to be less good at killing off games like this. We have just got to accept the loss of Mane's pace and hope that Austin stays fit... The thing that sparked improvement last season after 5 from 5 was the introduction of VVD in the 6th game. We need Boufal to make a similar impact.

4

Archersclose added 12:24 - Sep 19 charlie357 You are spot on with your post above. This more or less what i was going to type out.
3

TimSaint added 12:26 - Sep 19 GeordieSaint - FF's last league clean sheet was ironically back against Swansea last season on 13th Feb - breaking the clean sheet record. He obviously kept a clean sheet against Sparta on Thursday. Towards the end of last season,we were a great option on the Both Teams To Score betting slips :-)
0

saintsnutcase added 12:28 - Sep 19 You are spot on in this report Nick. Saints were really good on Saturday, and Redmond played well apart from a couple of rushes of blood to the head. He is young, incredibly talented, and it is possible that his finishing will improve as he matures. The comparison with Henry is unfair on him, but actually Henry was a poor finisher at the same age. I am really getting fed up with some of our fans. Puel has handled the squad brilliantly in the past week - last year we were garbage in the Europa League and poor in the Prem at the same stage. I think this team will turn out to be better than last year's, though of course the big 6 have all improved, so we probably won't get into the top 6. But we could be best of the rest, if the strikers and centre backs stay fit.

2

schatfield added 13:20 - Sep 19 after watching the watford game (how good did they look) and Sunderlands worldie young keeper play so well again, made me realise getting draws against these 2 before maybe wasnt so bad after all. With regards to Swansea, they were truly awful and their fans must be worried for the season ahead. Onwards and upwards for the Saints!
0

halftimeorange added 13:40 - Sep 19 This is an interesting one. The incident when Shane Long went over to spur on Redmond after his woeful finish says more about Long (who must know the feeling) than it does about team spirit. More encouraging was the goal celebrations of the unused substitutes. On the subject of Redmond, I went home disappointed at his waste of good chances but I, too, watched MoD and they did fairly highlight his better contributions to the match. I watched MoD to see whether Long really was yet another victim of Mike Jones' ineptness at refereeing when the penalty shout was turned down. I thought at the time Shane had lost the ball but was genuinely brought down and I have no reason to think differently after seeing it on TV. As for Shane, I've a feeling that he is going to be the player left out when Claude Puel finally settles on his preferred starters. Claude Puel definitely made the right substitutions at the right time, especially Martina but I considered Clasie's performance to be very poor and I will be surprised if he starts again any time soon in a league game. I think that the Sparta and Swansea performances were gratifying in that we won but they were both against toothless opposition (at least on the day). Until our profligacy in front of goal is corrected we will continue to see points unnecessarily dropped. More shooting practice, please, Claude.

5

pintsizedsaint added 13:48 - Sep 19 As my dad is a Norwich fan, i've seen Redmond's development be stunted by the same type of blinded viewpoints that some of our fans seem desperate to replicate. Whilst a Canary, Redmond was typecast as a traditional winger and not given much time to develop - in fact he struggled to even make the squad last season. Lots of Norwich fans are completely gutted to let Redmond go and criticize their club for failing to see the potential SFC now see. He's a real talent. His ball control (particularly at speed) is immense and he has significant pace. He has the ability to tear through defences at will. Due to the poor development he's had, his finishing has suffered and confidence will not be there yet. Thank heavens SFC could actually see the prospect here. So what if he missed a sitter; many reputable strikers with proven goal-scoring pedigree have done the same. I agree that liking him to Henry is silly - but Puel clearly sees a lot of similarities - and he should know. I'm sorry, but if i have to decide between listening to armchair pundits (who say Redmond is never a striker) and Puel (who actually coached Henry and an impressive CV of actually managing a football team/coaching players) i think i know which one i will take. When or if Redmond develops his shooting abilities, he will be an amazing prospect. So i say give him some time - and don't do what Norwich did.

5

ExiledSupporter added 15:00 - Sep 19 Yes, good to win and yes I like Redmond but he is young and will develop, but he's not likely to be a primary striker this season or for a while longer at best. But he is well worth persevering with because he can create considerable difficulties for all but the best opposition thanks tom his pace and ball control. But here is the problem, a starting strike force of Redmond plus Long (who I am also a great admirer of) is always likely to be very profligate with the conversion of chances created. They do not have the deadly instincts that Austin and Rodrigues have demonstrated in the past. Charlie's goals have shown a striker who is far more predatory than the players we are starting with at the moment. It makes a nonsense to start with them both and then have to bring on a sharper attack after 60mins or so because we haven't taken advantage of our dominant possession. So can someone explain to me why Austin is not considered fit, he had a full pre-season (admittedly most of the friendly matches we played were against rather underwhelming opposition), surely he should be fit. And of course then again we have JRod injured (not clear how and what apply here, nor for how long) but these troubling issues underline why we should have taken on another striker in the transfer window. Two profligate strikers, two unfit/injury prone strikers do not make for a convincing strike force and there are not enough consistent goalcontributions from the rest of the side , especially the midfielders (hope Boufal will eventually galvanise this situation. Here are the stats 6/19 shots on target for us, 3/9 for the Swans; though they had fewer shots they had a marginally higher percentage on target (Saits 31% vs Swans 33%) That says a lot doesn't it!

3

saintsnutcase added 15:10 - Sep 19 Brilliant comment by pintsized
3

helpineedsomebody added 16:22 - Sep 19 big sam might have a look at redmond soon
0

aceofthebase added 19:35 - Sep 19 C'mon guys and gals give Redmond a chance. There has never been a striker who hasn't missed a sitter. His contribution was immense and his finishing will improve, surely he is out practising his shooting right now. I think he will open up defences with his quickness. He will not play every game but I for one think that he is a good prospect. It's a pity we cannot play all our forwards, some of them are going to be left out. There is quite a combination that Puel can play ( and he also needs to be given a chance) I have always said that Clasie is not quite up to it and that goes for Cedric too, but we have their replacements in Martina and Hojbjerg. Perhaps they should play the league games. Cedric outplayed when Montana came on Charlie is an old fashioned but nevertheless effective centre forward. I would think that a fit JayR would be marginally better but whoever plays there will only be as good as the service and crosses that they receive. We made the chances on Sunday and if we continue to do that then the goals will come.

0

AmericanSaint added 21:04 - Sep 19 Some very good comments and observations from the group. I think Redmond can become much better but there will be serious growing pains. The disallowed goal shows his ability to cut the defense and square it to a waiting Long. I think that the Long/Redmond combo needs to change and I agree that it has to be either Long/JRod or Charlie/Redmond. Tadic is showing his class and will just get better. I think Clasie needs to be used against a team where precise passing and movement is needed. He gets bullied off the ball sometimes to often. There were times where he passed the ball to an open spot where he thought the forwards would go and they didn't. Cedric played well, but when Montero was brought on, he struggled because of Montero's speed. Puel was smart in subbing in Martina, who helped to neutralize the speed with his own. Also, with Martina's crossing capabilities, be and Cedric could play off each other on the right side. It was a very good strategic move. Final thought - if we keep missing the target like this, we will have a lot of 1 goal games and a lot of nervy endings. Look at games so far - Watford are flying high right now and we tied in the 1st game , Manu - we played poorly, Sunderland was ok and we did ourselves no favors, but they also just barely lost to Tots (an error gave Kane the goal) and the travesty at Arsenal. Overall, we seem to be inching our way to more confidence and let's believe this is the start of our move up the table. Time will tell, but keep marching on.

0

legineloc added 07:07 - Sep 20 I think puel handling of Charlie is spot on,fans were saying that after 40 mins against Sparta he was huffing & puffing, maybe he's still to get back to full fitness after last years injuries, let's say puel played him & he broke down, the fans would bemoan that fact, lets jays injury is just a slight one, but does go to show we've got to man manage jay & Charlie so we get the best from them this season, I think Redman will get better as the season progresses, he's still learning his central role & with his pace will frighten central defenders & hopefully get a few pens

0

TeamCortese added 07:26 - Sep 20 Great result Sunday. What mattered above anything else was getting a win and I have no doubt we'll improve further this season. Redmond and Long need to really look at their finishing because they're undoing all the hard work they put in throughout matches. It's a difficult one because one could argue you either have the ability to finish or you don't. I get the impression that's the case with Shane Long...with the greatest respect to Shane he's played enough top flight football to develop his finishing and should really be leading the line at this stage of Southampton career. He has incredible work-rate and great movement. However, his goal conversion ratio is simply not good enough. I think we should use him as an impact sub. He would probably fit better in the team when we're paying away on the counter.

2

SanMarco added 15:05 - Sep 20 "There has never been a striker who hasn't missed a sitter" says aceofthebase and he turns my mind to White Hart Lane a couple of years ago: 1-0 down with a few minutes to go, Bertrand crosses and one Sadio Mane has an open goal a few yards out, the proverbial 'tap-in' - suffice to say the game finished 1-0.
1

Blogs 31 bloggers

Manchester City Polls