It was defeat for Ralph Hasenhuttl in his first game in charge but that is not the end of the world and there is enough optimism that we can pull through over the next six months.

It was not an easy first game for our new manager, firstly he was missing arguably our three most impressive strikers this season in Ings, Obafemi& Long, leaving him little options up front.

Then he was missing both of the first choice full backs in Cedric & Bertrand so it was a very weakened team that he put out in key areas.

In short just about everyone who was fit was then on the bench meaning that we had three central defenders, that tells you something about our problems.

Cardiff huffed and puffed as you would have expected them to do, but apart from the last 25 minutes or so of the first half in the main Saints looked comfortable, but the problem was after conceding yet another goal from a defensive error it was always going to be difficult, you just knew that when the chips are down they are down and as the game entered the final 15 minutes and with us starting to dominate play, we shot ourselves in the foot with Vestergaard under hitting what looked a simple back pass.

We had our chances and replays on TV showed we should have had two penalties but ultimately we were toothless up front and that was not the managers fault, this was not to be our day but there is now hope going forward, it's going to be tough but as our new manager said, we all need to get be kicking in the right direction there are no guarantees in football.

Photo: Action Images

Wembley76 added 09:08 - Dec 10 Long trip to get soaked thru'........ but you could see the intent & effort that the new manager had brought to the squad in just two training sessions. Quite rightly, the depleted squad (forwards + full backs) made things very difficult for Saints to dominate over the 90+ mins ~ but there was enough on show for Ralph H to build on. Onwards and upwards over the coming weeks!

8

LanzaSaint added 10:45 - Dec 10 When I played football, it was said teams with a strong spine won matches. Spine: Goalkeeper, Centre Half, Centre Forward. The Simple Truth.
7

LordDZLucan added 10:50 - Dec 10 If Yoshida or Stephens had made that mistake you would have spent the whole article, Nick, banging on about how they're not up to the job. But you haven't given Vestergaard the same treatment this time which actually I find quite commendable because it doesn't help to keep on targeting individuals. The mistakes problem is a collective thing and not down to any one player. Also, I would have liked you to have given Jack Stephens some praise for the job that he did in place of Valery after coming on at half-time. He really is one of our most promising players even though you can't see it.

10

wibbersda added 10:54 - Dec 10 I can honestly say after watching football for 45 years I have never ever seen a team that the central defence make continual blunders. I don't mean just mistakes, but full on howlers. And this is from ALL of the CB, Yosh, Stevens, Holdt, Vesty. There has to be a disruptive/negative influence in the Team causing this problem. If it is fear of making mistakes then this is a self-fulfilling prophecy and requires a shrink. Watching RH he already looks baffled as he realises the magnitude of the task at hand. Hell, Pep couldn't sort this lot out. Hope I'm wrong but it looks like "We're all Doomed"

3

saintjf added 11:06 - Dec 10 We have now lost to both Cardiff and Fulham. (6 points in the bag). Our defence is hopeless whatever centre back combination we use. Our GD is -17. We have to look upwards as we are at the bottom. The club have made some big decisions and this season there is enough time for the new manager to put things right. Heres hoping.....
5

Sanguin added 11:26 - Dec 10 I thought Cardiff were good value for the win, yes we deserved a penalty but they had much more chances.
7

SanMarco added 11:28 - Dec 10 No football result is ever the 'end of the world' of course but this was a very bad result. The usual problems at both ends and the issues in defence looking pretty insurmountable + the mantra that there will be no real money in January is being drip-fed us through the Echo. So the new manager will, largely speaking, have to work with what he has got. I would also have to say that I thought we were supposed to have strength in depth - i.e. we would come into our own as the season went on because we had stronger replacements. Cardiff also had several key players out so it is difficult to swallow that as an excuse. If we lose the next three, which is more than possible, we will be on course for the fourth lowest points total in epl history. Of course, not the end of the world, but hardly grounds for optimism.

9

saintmark1976 added 11:41 - Dec 10 We couldn't even hang on for a goalless draw against a team of journey men donkey footballers who most people have never heard of managed by a dinosaur. Well done the owners and management for ruining a once proud and respected football club and turning it into a shallow money making business.
8

BaselSaint added 11:53 - Dec 10 If he can pull that shambles together he's a genius. That match was like a below average league one game, hoofing it in the air, continually losing possession, crap defending. What a job the new manager has.
9

underweststand added 12:06 - Dec 10 I suppose it was Vestergaard's " turn" to make the defensive error, if only because almost every other defender has cost us valuable points so far this season. Overall our displays haven't been as bad as our 19th position suggests, but such a catalogue of costly mistakes surely hasn't been seen in decades, and losing to Man U wouldn't have been SO bad... had we not been 2-0 up before the errors started to come. (Similar situation in Chelsea home game last season). There is no disgrace in clearing your lines and putting a ball into Row Z , but trying to delicately play our way out of a touchline problem situation has cost us dearly this season. I can only hope that Ralph H. has taken that to heart. As for the game...too few accolades to hand out. Lemina looked the best of a poor bunch, and despite his earlier good showing it may be a while before Valery gets another shot at RB , but this is to be expected with such a young talent and I hope he will come again. RH's " new formation" will be seen soon, but my worry is that "absentee list "..(Long, Ings, Obafemi, Bertrand , Gallagher) it doesn't seem like anyone will have a quick return. Our "strike force" has been dessimated. Austin has passed his "best-by date", and (despite his supporters) Gabbiadini looks like a defeated man before he even kicks a ball. Sadly ..at present there doesn't seem to be three worse teams in the Prem.

14

SaintBrock added 13:51 - Dec 10 Herr Hasenhüttl is about to turn lead into gold. Hereafter known as The Alpine Alchemist!
4

SaintPaulVW added 14:04 - Dec 10 After that performance, it's not really sticking my neck out to say that I fully expect us to be bottom of the league at the New year. We have a good midfield core to the side but the Defence and Attack need major change. I'm not sure if much business will take place in January. Certainly a solid CB seems like a must have. Ralph's style seems on paper to be an exciting one. I just worry that he needs time to work with the players to get his new system working and Summer would have been a better time to make a major shift in style. However we are where we are. I will certainly be happy to see a more pressing style with the ball being got forward much more quickly rather than the focus on training possession that leaves so much of our play looking like a training ground version of keepy uppie with the ball inevitably either being lost or being passed back to the keeper. All our CB's look weak. Choosing between them seems a fools game. Certainly saying your favourite is either short of match practice so makes mistakes or has played too much so lacks confidence and makes mistakes seems pointless. None of them at the moment are any better than B team players. Unless Ralph can find a way round this glaring problem we are likely to be relegated. I wish him well. He's got a lot of problems to sort and no real down time to work with the players. When we are bottom at least things can't get any worse!

8

BoondockSaint added 14:59 - Dec 10 Not a shock, but I fell more hopeful with a proper manager. It will take at least three transfer windows for RH to undo the mistakes of the last 3 years. Hopefully he will get the backing from the board. Sorry about the late post, but it took me a half hour to clean the computer screen after spitting out my coffee when I read "...arguably our three most impressive strikers this season in Ings, Obafemi & Long,...." Maybe autocorrect changed "infuriating" to "impressive"?

8

highfield49 added 15:19 - Dec 10 The defensive problems are the result of recruiting Bednarek, Hoedt and Vestergaard with the ambition of playing the ball out from the back rather than the traditional hoof up field or into touch. Clearly none of those brought in are reliably capable of either function and have joined Yoshi on the list with disasters waiting to happen. Arguably Stephens is the only central defender on the books who looks as though he can be turned into a regular choice, but I'm struggling to argue his case after several ball watching disasters. Hopefully there will be at least one experienced central defender recruited next month, maybe on loan or out of contract. We had Caceres a couple of years ago and squandered the chance to sign him, thankfully Les Reed won't be able to make a pig's ear of it this time around.

9

saintlee added 16:15 - Dec 10 Pep Guardiola could habe been in ojr dugout on Saturday but if you but if you have 5 central defenders on the books that arent good enough and lets face it probably only Bednarek has potential to be decent, we will always struggle. The squad needs a huge overhaul defensively in January without doubt. Whoever thought Vestergaard is premier league quality should have gone to specsavers. Ross Wilson should be under immense scrutiny at the present time. Shocking recruitment yet again.

13

skiptonsaint added 17:35 - Dec 10 It’s going to go down to the wire for relegation by the looks of it I think for us it hinges on Ings fitness We gambled on him and he’s heading toward missig too many games already Make no mistake with our defence we are going to have to score a fair few goals to stay up
9

SaintBrock added 20:23 - Dec 10 I hope we do not waste £20m on Ings in the summer. Is there an escape clause as otherwise if that is all the transfer kitty we have available then there will be no other money to change anything. Maybe the bottom 12 clubs should organise a bring and buy sale?
2

zonehead added 23:02 - Dec 10 Ross... ok black box dial me up a CB 7 foot tall played in Germany ? Ross......lets have a look Can’t boss dvd broken No worries sigh him!
0

TeamCortese added 23:16 - Dec 10 I cannot emphasise enough how much of an overhaul this squad needs. I thought we were bad but bl**dy hell. We couldn't beat Cardiff let alone score! There something majorly wrong with our attack. Aside from Armstrong, Obafemi and possibly Ing they all need to be sold in January. The same applies to our defence but I think it's a bit of a broken record mentioning our defensive frailties when we were spoilt rotten having the likes of Toby and VVD 3-4 years ago (both of whom are now considered the best defenders in the EPL and world). We need to get at least one decent striker, pacy winger and quality centre-back in Jan. If that happens I'm pretty confident we'll stay up.

3

DPeps added 07:54 - Dec 11 Not much to add to the above comments, only to say that change under RH may be slow. I think all of us want us to go back to a high press, energetic style, but we don't actually have much pace across the pitch, and our fitness levels under Hughes looked poor. I agree with TeamCortese that the only way that we'll stay up is by buying several players in Jan. I just don't see that happening, though

4

aceofthebase added 09:10 - Dec 11 Our team would be stronger with Cedric. You are delusional!
0

aceofthebase added 09:10 - Dec 11 Our team would be stronger with Cedric. You are delusional!
0

KriSaint added 01:22 - Dec 12 With RH sitting in out dugout, at no point did I fear we would lose this match - until Moss blew the final whistle, and it had sunk in that Vestergaard had gifted Cardiff a goal 15 minutes before the end, which we sadly couldn´t manage to equalize within the remaining 15 minutes + added time. Ok...., when Ings and Obafemi are over their injuries, and Ralph has worked with our defence and hopefully brought in some strengthnings in jan., we will improve, I´m sure. Very interesting to see Cedric dropped, probably in order to try to damage control the consequences of our leaky defence. Sad it didn´t pay off. We would have had a clean sheat though, had it not been for Vestergaards "own goal". I hope Vestergaards first season will be comparable with Gary Pallister´s first disaster season for Man. U. thirty years ago - and the coming seasons ditto comparible with Pallister´s totally improved, classy level after he had found his feet in the team under A.F. COYS. Much too early to give up hope. We have a promising head leading our team now. Who is assistant manager btw??

0

Blogs 31 bloggers

Oxford United Polls