Saints At West Bromwich Albion The Verdict Sunday, 13th Sep 2015 11:09 Yes another clean sheet from Saints but little inventiveness going forward as Saints dominated the game to remain unbeaten on the road. The statistics say a lot about this game, Saints had 65% possession, restricted the home side to just 4 shots with only 1 on target and looked comfortable throughout yes they had few moments of note in the West Brom penalty area despite 14 attempts on goal. The high point though was Virgil Van Dijk, he looked the part in every department, his reading of the game was excellent, he could take the ball and move it forward and he had the height in the air, despite the fact that West Brom caused us little problems all afternoon, when it looked like they could Van Dijk was there. But going forward we just could not create anything of note Ronald Koeman opted to put Wanyama straight back in at the expense of Romeu and there was that feeling that in doing that we lost a little in going forward in the way that Romeu can move the ball forward a little faster, Saints tactics are simple in many respects, they rely on getting the ball out quickly to the wide men, in this case Tadic and Rodriguez and this was not happening enough, when it did neither seemed able to create anything of note. The introduction of Mane late on sparked a little more opportunities but it was a case of too little too late and leaving Mane on the bench seemed a strange decision. On the plus side we seem to have sorted ourselves out at the back, another clean sheet gives us a lot to build on and the good news is that we have the firepower to start scoring goals, we just need to start to use them a little more. This was a case of two points dropped but it was also a case of a point that keeps us solidly in the middle of the table and when we can click we are in the position to surge forward.
It was good to see Rickie Lambert again, however it was sad to seem him struggling and it was no surprise that it was him who made way shortly after the break for Berahino. Perhaps the difference between now and a year ago is that although Koeman has a bigger and better squad, he also has injuries to what will be key players in Clasie and Bertrand, the problem is with a bigger squad you have more options and getting the formation right is a tricky proposition, perhaps at West Brom we got it slightly wrong in that we did not take the game too them as much as we should have. That is not completely the managers fault, in fairness he could have expected more from several players in the side at the Hawthorns, Jay Rodriguez is still struggling to find his form, Koeman hoped tht starting him might help, I think that J Rod needs to find his feet off the bench a little more at the moment, although with the inexperienced Targett at left back he might have felt that Rodriguez offered the best option to get back and cover him, this is no reflection on Targett, but the reality is that if we had had Bertrand we could have taken the game to West Brom a little more and due to his pace, he would not have needed cover so much. In the centre of midfield everyone hoped that James Ward Prowse would repeat his performance from last week, he needs to start to take a game like this by the scruff of the neck and create openings, sadly he didn't But a point is a point and its one more than we got last season Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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