 | Your
Report | Arsenal v Southampton Your Report added at 10:45:22
Perfect away performance until that Downes pass. When we scored I thought that as long as we didn't hand them a quick equalizer we might be in for an incredible point (that game was never going to have Arsenal 0 at the start of the result) but instead...
The Russell curse is that this keeps happening and will keep happening. You don't sensational shock wins at places like Arsenal with tippy-tappy. If the owners are considering sacking him they should grasp the nettle and do it now. We'll be done by November if not.
Russ said at the end that our season will not be defined by how we do at Arsenal. Great quote from the football manager's book of cliches and truisms but results against which opponents does he think our season WILL be defined by - Forest, Brentford, Ipswich, Bournemouth, or maybe Leicester???? |
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Report | AFC Bournemouth v Southampton Your Report added at 08:23:21
I was in the 'give him a few more games' camp but that first half changed my mind. Team selection and tactics are odder than Ralph at his most eccentric and the whole thing was an embarrassing shambles after the first goal. We may be doomed anyway but we certainly are under RM. I have no confidence in the current lot's capacity to choose an adequate replacement but not changing is no longer an option... |
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Report | Southampton v Nottingham Forest Your Report added at 00:19:48
This match will certainly not quieten those who are suggesting that RM is out of his depth. Of course it is going to be a hard season but he needs to get team selection and tactics right to give us any chance. Today was a total dog's breakfast against one of the more beatable teams in the league. Has RM got what it takes to learn and adapt quickly? The jury is, to say the least, out... |
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Report | Newcastle United v Southampton Your Report added at 15:09:41
Three things strike me about this game. Two I already knew (McCarthy useless at playing out, attack unlikely to score many) but the one I didn't know was a pleasant surprise: we looked alright, even good at times. The key now is that RM accepts the truth - at least one point was thrown away in that game by a simple fact (McCarthy) that we all know about and he seems to be in denial about. If he is not willing to LEARN then we go down. Full stop. If he does adapt there are hopeful signs. Even with us not scoring that should have been an excellent 0-0. Every point is vital. Come on RM - stubborn is sometimes good but NOT over this... |
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Report | Leeds United v Southampton Your Report added at 15:11:12
Well done all - players, manager and supporters. I will be smiling all week. We deserved it on the day. Special mention to McCarthy, Bednerak, KWP, Smallbone, Armstrong and most of all the formidable Downes.
It won't be long before we start looking ahead to next season with all its anxieties and challenges - but for now let's raise a glass and continue smiling!!!! |
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Report | Southampton v Stoke City Your Report added at 13:05:07
The record run is now a stick to beat RM and his hapless players with. The truth is that we weren't superb in all of those games. Many were won right at the end and one or two we probably deserved to lose. Interesting to compare Cardiff away with, say, Norwich away. Both we should have won easily and in both we failed to put the opposition to the sword. Norwich did NOT fluke a winner at the end so our run continued, Cardiff was different. "The table doesn't lie" has more truth in it than many cliches, especially at this time of the season. Even out the up and downs and we have been the 4th best side.
The problem going into the play-offs is that something else seems to be happening. Yes, we are 4th over the whole season but we weren't during our first 'four in a row including an abject 5-0 ' fiasco and we aren't now (I assume defeat at Leeds). We are getting all the usual 'lost the dressing room' and 'players not trying' comments but none of us (beyond perhaps injuries) really know the truth.
I share misgivings about a RM led Saints in the prem but I can't make myself not want us to get through the play-offs. I have never wanted Saints not to win a game in my long life and I am not starting now. Promotion and RM then goes to pastures new is my best (and probably quite slender) hope. Then, of course, we would face SR's abysmal record in managerial appointments. They'd probably go for the Derby bloke who most of their supporters see as someone who nearly prevented promotion rather than achieved it. |
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Report | Cardiff City v Southampton Your Report added at 10:37:14
The idea of an RM managed Saints in the Prem next season is, at one level, what we all hope for and why we are so disappointed at such a performance and result. On the other hand graveworm's point (so good he made it four times) that going up might not be a good thing is very valid. RM is managing a top team in THIS league and we are as open, and flaky, at the back as I have ever seen us. I will be delighted if we do go up (no point being a supporter if not) but would be fearful of RM trying to play like this in the Prem (as he would) without the resources to get the players needed (they have to be very good to play this way and we won't have the money)
I blame RM for many of our woes but the failure to put seems to the sword and the missing of easy chances is largely down to the personnel on the pitch. In the end, although Adams and Armstrong have scored a fair few between them they have missed sitters at vital times (esp. Adams) and the back-up players have not been up to it.
The play-offs will be anyone's guess. We have to beat two of Leeds/Ipswich, WBA and Norwich. Not easy at all. |
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Report | Southampton v Watford Your Report added at 10:43:47
'The TRUTH is the table does not lie' says jameshill. Yes - but the 'what if' question (which, of course, can never be answered) is could we be doing better? Under RM's management our team would seem to be fourth best and that is the TRUTH the table tells us. Many fans have a feeling that we could be doing better. Poor old JS has become the fall-guy for that particular argument (as was Manning, and maybe Smallbone, earlier in the season) but in the end the tippy-tappy and the frequent inability to finish teams off has cost us dear and that is not the fault of any player.
Having said that it has often been exciting. Is that down to RM. Answers on a postcard... |
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Report | Ipswich Town v Southampton Your Report added at 09:47:54
RM must think this is figure skating or ski jumping where you get extra points for artistic interpretation or technical merit or whatever. Yes we looked good for most of the match, got two good goals but that means nothing.
The words frail and brittle used by other posters say it perfectly. We leave ourselves too open at the back and when the crisis comes we simply fail to defend. Do they not discuss basic marking on the training field?
One of the reasons that we are able to look good is that we send too many people up the pitch. Even mediocre opposition knows that there will be oceans of space where out full-backs should be and looking at the table I would say that Ipswich are not mediocre.
Oh and a goalie who is always half a second too slow moving sideways doesn't help... |
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Report | Southampton v Middlesbrough Your Report added at 11:09:25
There is an old saying (just invented by me) that says "teams who couldn't be bothered to defend rarely get promoted". I fully accept that we could have been out of sight in the second half but sometimes in football you do enter the last couple of minutes one up. What you do then is defend properly and win. What you don't do is give a winger plenty of time to cross to a man in the box who has no defender within five yards of him. And let's face it that wasn't the only time we allowed them space and time.
RM hasn't been the disaster that some (many?) predicted but I don't like this style of football. The open spaces in our defence are a sight to see, I don't often agree with Klopp but maybe we need another year in the second division to learn how to defend. We would get murdered playing this way in the Premier division. To play this way you need the resources to buy VERY technically accomplished players. There is an argument that 4th this season would be an underachievement. Might this squad have done better playing in a different way? |
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Report | Birmingham City v Southampton Your Report added at 21:08:19
Phew. Entertaining I suppose.
Our poor start to the season was all about conceding loads of goals. We then, during the long run, seemed to sort that out. All of a sudden from Huddersfield onwards we are letting them in again. Including the cup, that is 16 goals in 7 matches. Not good enough.
Still, a win's a win - but I would settle for a quiet 2-0 win vs Preston!
Fully agree with Codge about the tippy-tappy in the box. It is just show-ponying for no good reason. It shreds the fans' nerves and is always going to give more chances away than it creates at the other end. The display at Liverpool was surreal in its sheer pointlessness. |
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Report | Liverpool v Southampton Your Report added at 14:07:00
I have given thumbs up to every comment both positive and negative. The reason is that I am totally torn between 'wasted opportunity' and 'at least we weren't embarrassed'
On the one hand it was a good performance - Ally McCoist was reasonably impressed, not so much Roy Keane - and we were unlucky with the first goal and there were good performances from Aribo in particular and we didn't give a goal away with the endless tippy-tappy in our own box.
But: are we in the quarter finals? Did we score a goal? Did we concede several again? Did the surreal tippy-tappy exhibition achieve anything beyond looking like a travelling circus exhibition of juggling while on a tightrope? When I saw the starting line-ups I thought two things - Liverpool look beatable and where in the hell will our goals come from? I was right on one...
What did RM achieve last night? Was it a 'look I can rest players and play tippy-tappy' job advert for a 'bigger' club? Bottom line is it was 3-0 against Liverpool second team and could have been a lot better. My negative list seems a lot longer than the positive - so be it, a win against Birmingham and all will be forgotten. |
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Report | Bristol City v Southampton Your Report added at 12:21:05
Pity that our amazing run ended with a whimper rather than a bang. Six goals conceded since Downes went off which says something. We may end up only in the play-offs as, I think, Leeds have more strength in depth than us - but that will still be an achievement.
I am not going to get all negative due to one poor performance/result. The simple fact last night was carelessly giving the ball away and not responding well to being hit on the break. The way we play, the pressure not to give the ball away is intense. Bristol broke well and also pressed our endless passing back to where it wasn't dangerous. Those are problems that can be solved, they are not issues that should lead us to have a poor run - and even if we do fade a bit we are guaranteed the play-offs - no guarantee I know but as good as most of us hoped for at the start of the season.
I hope Downes is back for West Brom. |
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Report | Watford v Southampton Your Report added at 08:30:38
Gillingham in the League Cup all over again, or could easily have been. Stupid thinking to start with so many changes. Only made sense if he definitely wanted to lose. The players needing game time didn't actually get it in any meaningful sense. We didn't need to 'rest' players - no midweek game last week or this. So play the core of the first team with three or four squad players who will then get real game time in a proper team and thus have their chance to gain confidence and get noticed. What he did instead was hang them out to dry in a team that could easily have lost 3 or 4 nil.
By bringing on the subs he showed that he presumably wanted to get through and now we have what was presumably the worst possible option: a replay. Muddled thinking to say the least. |
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Report | Swansea City v Southampton Your Report added at 12:14:42
I know we are in the second division but that first half was the best I have seen Saints since, well I would say the second half of that 4-0 cup game against Hoddle's Spuds - others will have different 'sinces' but it was certainly great.
A perfectionist would argue we should have been out of sight at half-time and it left us open to a shock result: Swansea were always going to have a 'spell' in the second half and could easily have got a second. That said we are looking pretty good and as an RM sceptic I have to say well done.
Just two criticisms: The tippy-tappy at the back in the last 20mins and the substitutions. They came together horrifyingly with that Stephens pass. Bringing on a substandard CH just at the time when you are expecting kitchen-sink time from the opposition and then playing high-risk nonsense at the back was asking for trouble and it VERY NEARLY got it. |
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Report | Watford v Southampton Your Report added at 20:21:49
We are not scoring enough to put games to bed (we haven't been 2 up away from home all season and only three times at home I think). We are also always just vulnerable enough at the back to make equalizers a possibility. Oh well - we've scored several very late goals so perhaps this was due. Let's not slip up again at Cov.
The dull common sense view is that we are doing pretty well given where we were last May. Not spectacular - plenty of narrow wins, some draws and not many defeats. It could be a lot worse!! |
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Report | Southampton v Rotherham United Your Report added at 22:05:52
Should have killed them off in the first half. Second half poor with a not totally surprising outcome.
Overall so far it is a pretty average start to the season. In truth we have only played two good games all season - Sheff Wed (when we had JWP) and Leeds. I expect we will be there or thereabouts for quite a while in terms of the play-offs because there is not an awful lot of quality in this league but we don't look that great do we? I fear that RM is not going to give us what we want and a long season of not very much lies ahead of us. |
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Report | Southampton v Leeds United Your Report added at 09:43:11
That's a relief!! Of course it is only one game but it shows that when he picks our best players and we look to move forward rather than sideways/back from defence we can compete amd more. Bellis may well turn into a very good player and Sulemana has to be utilised while he is here. Of course if Leeds HAD got a second things would have got very scary but they didn't and that was to a large extent because we defended better. Yes no clean sheet but that didn't matter yesterday.
The one cautionary note is that we won because we were very efficient at converting chances. Going forward I think we do need to create more as we will rarely have that high a conversion rate. Anyway - let's repeat at Stoke and start looking UP the table. |
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Report | Middlesbrough v Southampton Your Report added at 09:29:29
The main argument for not cutting short this latest SR management experiment is that RM needs 'more time'. The response to that is 'more time for what?'. Where is this going? It all looks pretty clueless.
The other problem, perhaps unexpected or perhaps not under SR, is that the new signings do not look promising. SR, just like last year, have flooded the squad with a bunch of players who mainly look rubbish, lost, or both. What was the master-plan behind the purchases (other than quick profit of course)?
I thought that this season at least we would not have to worry about heavy defeats, record runs of defeats etc. It seems I was wrong. Given that Leeds and away at Stoke are next up I could see us kicking off a relegation match vs Rotherham having lost six in a row - horrendous. |
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