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Saints At Tottenham Hotspur The Verdict

This was probably Saints worse performance in the Premier League since our drubbing at Arsenal back in 2012, but whose fault was it ?

This was a combination of problems mounting up for Mauricio Pellegrino which meant that, we now have a squad that is riddled with injuries, suspensions, a lack of confidence and most importantly a manager that seems unable to deal with the problem.

I have to say that a lot of the problems we have this season start with Virgil Van Dijk, his attitude and now non appearance just at a time when we really need him show just how low he is as a professional footballer and a human being, but that is only the root cause as to why this season has gone so far downhill.

This was more about the players missing than those on the field, this was a game when we needed pace and composure at the back, but Spurs just kept ripping us apart on the counter attack, last season Claude Puel knew he could not defend the counter attack and set up to make sure we didn't get ripped apart by playing defensive formations, it cost him his job.

Yesterday at Spurs Mauricio Pellegrino must have surely known he was low at pace at the back but did little to make sure we weren't exposed.

His team selection once again raised eyebrows, Shane Long completely ignored by Pellegrino for the last five matches, to such an extent that he wasn't even on the bench for some of those games, suddenly leapfrogs Manolo Gabbiadini, Long looked a player completely unmotivated, but then again so did the entire team.

In my opinion only three players could come out of this game with any credit, Wesley Hoedt, Matt Targett & Pierre Emile Hojbjerg, they were the only three who dug in gritted their teeth and played to somewhere near their abilities.

AS for the rest of them, if anything said that they had lost confidence in the manager it was this performance.

Ironically Spurs were not that good, yes they showboated well and passed the ball around a lot, but the stats were exactly almost exactly equal, 57% possession to Spurs but 16 shots each with Spurs having 7 on target and Saints 6.

With a decent side out there Saints could have won this game given we gifted them all of their goals, Harry Kane won't score an easier hat trick, his marker just kept standing off him and letting him shoot, if we had been tighter so would the game have been.

But it wasn't, Saints deserved to lose because they were leaderless both on and off the pitch, they had too many players not only off form and off the pace, but clearly not giving 100%, I'm sorry this is not the first time this has happened this season and it shows that it is too late for the manager to turn things around.

This is not a bad team, there is nothing that selling Virgil Van Dijk and bringing in a quality replacement won't sort out, at least in the interim, but it has lost it's faith in the manager and performances now are too up and down, erratic and lacking in any direction.

We now need to get Saturday's trip to Old Trafford out of the way and then concentrate on the New Year, we need a new manager in place by thenand we need a new signing or two early in the window, it is no use moaning about what has happened, it is no all about what happens next.

As I say this is not the worst Saints team I have seen, man for man it is for the most part better than the one that played in our first season back in the Premier League, but that side played with pride in the shirt and with motivation from it's manager, this one doesn't.

I have not named individuals here for there performance apart from the three I felt actually played fairly well, but the flaws were there for all to see, this game was not pretty to watch but it answered a few questions.

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