Saints once again conceded sloppy goals in another defensive nightmare to lose a third Premier League away game on the trot.
Previous defeats have seen some fans turn on who they saw as the scapegoats, we went into this game on the back of a good win and with a defence that many saw as being shored up, the answer was as i have been saying, that the problems with our defending dont lie totally with the defenders, but a big chunk of our problems are our failure to put out Premier quality wingers to cover our full backs.
Both Clyne and Richardson were torn to shreds and Everton arent a side who are known for fast pace on the flanks, I have been banging on about this since the start of the season, it doesnt matter who we play at full back, they are going to get exposed as we dont have anyone covering them, no one with pace or even an idea of what the job of a wide midfield player is in this division, when we signed Gaston Ramirez we were told he was a quality winger, so far he has been used in the centre, I love Adam Lallana to death, but we have to face facts that away from home when we are under the cosh, he is a liability, he would always play in my starting line up, but not as a winger he hasnt got the pace, nor does he have the attributes for the defensive part of the job.
On the right hand side its no better, in fact its worse in that Nigel Adkins doesnt seem to have a clue who he should play there, you would have assumed that Puncheon would have started at Goodison after a reasonable display at home to Villa, but again it was all change as Rodriguez was brought back in, seemingly as we have paid so much for him he has to be fitted into a formation.
As for the formation, I couldnt quite make out what it was, it could have been 4-5-1 but at other times it looked like 4-4-2, I just couldnt work out what role Rodriguez was meant to be playing.
All in all another shambles, it could have been 5-1 at half time as Everton hit form in the 20 minutes before the break, they hit 3 goals in their purple patch and it could have been more.
The second half surprisingly had no goals, but it wasnt for the lack of trying, Saints could have and should have got at least one themselves, and Everton could have doubled their total, only some good saves from Gazzaniga and desperate defending keeping the scoreline respectable.
For those that werent at the game, 3-1 looks decent, especially against a team that in form and right up there at the top of the league, but it doesnt tell the stories of our frailties when defending, I dont know whose fault it is that we havent signed players, but the fact is we paid out money for players we didnt really need like Mayuka whilst failing to address the problems in the areas that 99% of Saints fans were banging on about as needing strengthening, we needed two wide midfielders and two central defenders, seemingly with Ramirez being played centrally out of four positions we needed men in, we have got only one, Yoshida !
The key for Saints will be winning home games, make no bones about it, its going to be a relegation dog fight, we have to make St Mary's a fortress where if we can win a few games we can give ourselves a fighting chance of turning into the new year with our heads above water and with a chance of making a few key signings in the key areas.