Early in the season sloppiness was costing Saints goals, but sadly it seems that we have not yet sharpened up enough in this department.

Virtually every goal we conceded in the early games of this season could be put down to individual error, some worse than others, but the reality was that a lack of concentration at key times was costing us dearly.

The arrival of Virgil Van Dijk plus the return of Ryan Bertrand looked to have improved the situation, but Saturday's game against Leicester City proved that there is still rom for improvement.

In today's Premier League the fact is that a team or for that matter an individual player has to be sharp and focused for the entire 90 minutes plus injury time of a game and that if they switch off just for a second then it can cost the team dearly.

That was certainly the case on Saturday for the equaliser, a poor kick from Kelvin Davis gave the ball to Leicester, Yoshida was caught napping to play Vardy on side and the ball was in the back of the net.

It really should have been avoided, it is bad enough when one player errs, but for two to do so in the same move is not acceptable.

What is also not acceptable is that it seems to be the same players involved, Kelvin was playing his first game of the season, so from that viewpoint escapes the finger pointing personally, although it did highlight that we need either to put our faith in Gazzaniga now or find another back up in January.

But for Yoshida it is a regular occurrence, he is a player who throughout his Saints career, seems to be tight for 89 minutes but always seems to then have a lapse in concentration that costs us dearly, this was not the first time this season he has been caught out, perhaps not catastrophic blunders, but a failure at key times to do the job he is there for.

There is no doubt that Yoshida is a decent enough player, but the continued lapses are highlighting a flaw in his game and that has cost us dearly this season.

So Ronald Koeman has to work on this part of the game and do so quickly, the frustrating thing is that hd we won on Saturday we would have been fifth, indeed we could have been higher than even this if these individual lapses in concentration had not cost us points, we handed Manchester United a win and gave away two sloppy goals at Newcastle to name but two games, of course every team makes errors, but we have done it just too many times this season to be acceptable, if we want to emulate last year then we need to sort this out.

Photo: Action Images

perazi added 09:45 - Oct 19 Nick, I enjoy your articles and often agree with what you say. You are way off the mark though in pinpointing Yoshida as the prime culprit in Leicester's comeback draw on Saturday. Long before Yoshida came on to the park we were being overrun in midfield - our success over the past few seasons has been a solid DM midfield pairing, usually Morgan and Vic. Once Vic picked up a knock and a yellow card his influence fell away, and with Steve Davis, Ward-Prowse and finally Clasie as midfield partners we were just wide open as Leicester gained momentum and dominated midfield. To magnify the problem, Tadic and Bertrand had quiet, not involved second halves which only increased the constant pressure. It wasn't just a sloppy moment or two, we were completely dominated for the whole second half - RK's substitutions didn't help - where was Romeu? Where was Harry Reed? I also don't think you can forgive the selection of Kelvin that easily. Most would agree that at the end of last season, Kelvin should never have been called upon again to start an EPL game. Right from the start, his hesitancy and slow reactions made us vulnerable.

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Jesus_02 added 09:54 - Oct 19 Regardless of his individual error (crap kick) I thought Kelvin was a poor selection for this particular fixture. Everyone knows that Leicester are going to exploit any space at the back and we also know that KD hardly moves from his line. I must say i was filled with woe before kick-off On the plus side VVD looked immense and Soares looked good before he came off. We can blame Yoshida all day long but the goals where hardly against the run of play but we where getting hammered in the second half and it was only a matter of time IMO. Koeman need to take a large portion of the blame there. The Double substitution was the biggest howler of the day

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saintmark1976 added 10:12 - Oct 19 Nick. Please lay off of continually giving Yoshida stick. He is a centre back who this season has found himself being asked to play at right full back. How is this his fault? At least he tries to defend,unlike Tadic who appears to me to go missing when our "backs are against the wall".
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monkeytennis added 10:21 - Oct 19 I agree with Perazi. Yoshi may have played him on side but we had no mid field for much of the second half, this was not his fault. VVD, had a solid game but gave the ball away for their first so should we lay the blame at his feet, no of course not. Koeman made poor substitutions and the ref not allowing our midfield to tackle may have influenced this. I think possibly Romeu stayed on the bench because of the refs inability to keep his whistle out his mouth . Kelvins kicking was poor but not as poor as some of our players attitudes in tough games (Mane and Tadic). If they pressed the ball perhaps we would get out of our own half now and again. On the plus side, JWP is improving and becoming more consistent.

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saintsnutcase added 10:26 - Oct 19 Nick is right. Basically we went into this season with two likely weaknesses - we do not have adequate cover at right back and (with Forster probably out for most of the season) goalkeeper. We could probably have fixed this with small amounts of expenditure but we didn't. Therefore we have to play Davis and Yoshida (out of position) and we pay the consequences. I think any Saints fan could have seen these weaknesses in the summer and they should have been fixed, instead of overloading the squad with midfield players.

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dirk_doone added 11:16 - Oct 19 I agree with Perazi too: "I also don't think you can forgive the selection of Kelvin that easily. Most would agree that at the end of last season, Kelvin should never have been called upon again to start an EPL game." It is almost criminal negligence on the part of a highly-organized professional football club to let Kelvin Davis start in a Premier League game when all the fans who've watched him play over the years know we should have got rid of him years ago. How can the coaches not see that??? It beggars belief.

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IWOZTHERE added 11:26 - Oct 19 Sloppy? Jaded?...Yes! Tired after the internationals ? Give me a break Jose. Vardy travelled back from Lithuania after playing on artificial grass, looked fresher and more dangerous after 90mins.than he did at the start! Easy with hindsight but it was a surprising team selection and even worse choice of substitutes.
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LesVivian added 11:55 - Oct 19 All this about KD, VD and Yoshida making mistakes is missing the point. Our midfield was non-existent during the second half, even more so with the departure of SD. JWP is an excellent passer of the ball, but if he is to step up to the England side, he needs to be able to 'run' the midfield. We saw nothing of Tadic or Mane second half, and we couldn't get the ball up to Pelle. Once VW was booked, he became less of a force: bring on Romau or Reed! (Reed needs to play or go out on loan - he is stagnating on the bench!)

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saintsnutcase added 12:14 - Oct 19 @LesVivian Reed would be stagnating on the bench if he ever got onto the bench. Lately, he hasn't even got that far. Koeman massively underrates him.
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bstokesaint added 12:46 - Oct 19 I've got to admit I feel for Yoshida and Davis. With Yoshida the player joined us as a first team centre back and to be fair to him he did alright. He's not a bad player, despite the occasional lapse, but at the time we could live with that. When we got Toby we took it up a notch and all of a sudden Yoshi was third choice. Even so he didn't get despondent or try and engineer a move out. He stayed and competed for his place, as he has since VVD arrived. It's not easy being a 3rd or 4th choice CB, but he accepted we'd gone up a level. Now he finds himself having to fill in at right back because of an injury to Cedric and presumably Ronald thinks that Cuco isn't as good in that position (despite being brought in to cover that position). I hope Yoshi has a MOM performance someday soon because it's not easy coming under fire for mistakes made playing out of position. It’s not doing his confidence much good when called on to close out games. He definitely needs to switch on more but I still think he's a versatile option as a squad player. As for Kelvin, I love the bloke for what the guy has done for the club, but his playing days are definitely at an end, which is a concern because I've not seen enough from Gazza to justify him as first team choice either. Kelvin's kicking was woeful on Saturday, as was his communication with his defence. By distributing short we just invited Leicester to come and attack us. I hope Kelvin stays with us in an ambassador-like role. On Saturday everyone in that team was sloppy for whatever reason. No-one moved the ball around that well and there were plenty of off days from the bigger names. I still think that tactically we got it wrong, but I accept that the international break had some impact. If we back this up with a result against Liverpool this game will quickly be forgotten.

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BoondockSaint added 13:55 - Oct 19 Does Koeman even own a hairdryer? I just looked up his interview from our 2-0 loss to Leicester in May and he lamented Saints' "lack of aggression". It seems he never wants to rile the players up. I know screaming at younger players is bad for their confidence, but some players need it: Tadic for one who plays much better when he is angry and wants to prove a point.

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aceofthebase added 15:05 - Oct 19 Tadic lost the ball and gave a half hearted challenge on the left which led to our first goal. Enough has been said about Kelvin whom I normally support but I fear he is past it. Clasie should be immediately sent out on loan, he is not good enough for the premiership. He was non exixtant in this game and in the 40 mins prior to his injury. Rather see Romeu or Reed next game and of course Gazza

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pintsizedsaint added 16:12 - Oct 19 @aceofthebase "Clasie should be immediately sent out on loan, he is not good enough for the premiership". Really?! That's the best bit of knee jerk I've seen all season!
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bstokesaint added 18:50 - Oct 19 Ace, are you nuts?! The bloke's played all about 60-70 mins and you've written him off. I mean I know Holland are struggling right now, but he's got international pedigree.
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aceofthebase added 19:16 - Oct 19 If any of you want to play with ten men then select Clasie. At the moment I cannot see him succeeding in the premiership. Can you?
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bstokesaint added 19:37 - Oct 19 Totally I mpossible to say. He's had like 40 minutes of PL football. Mane had about 10 games last season before the kneejerkers said he was "sh1t"!! 10 games later they decided they liked him and now they're all scared about him leaving. Give the lad a chance.
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aceofthebase added 19:44 - Oct 19 Clasie is and never will be a Mane. Let him prove himself in a lower league. Bringing him on with a two goal lead was supposedly a safe few minutes. Big mistake.
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DPeps added 21:09 - Oct 19 A year ago people were slagging off Mane based on little evidence, and now look at him. best to hold fire on Clasie. I sound like a stuck record, but give him time. It was a poor decision to bring him on because he'll add creativity, not shore up a leaky midfield. I know others don't rate Gazza, but really can't understand the decision to start Davis ahead of him. At least Gazza possibly has a future at the club

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A1079 added 08:22 - Oct 20 Given how wrong I got it with Pelle at the start of last season I am more circumspect about judging players so quickly. Far too early to judge Clasie. He has not had enough playing time. He does seem to get pushed off the ball easily and needs to toughen up, but until we have seen him in a few games hard to tell. Difficult to see how he is preferred at the moment over Reid who, when he has played, looks more likely to offer an option. Fundamentally, there were some errors tactically on Saturday, in both the first choice of keeper (though if he is saying that KD is a safer bet than Gazzaniga, then at this stage, it says very little about Gazanniga) and in the substitutions. But also, the style of play and the lack of effort by some players in the 2nd half. Everyone knew what Leicester were capable of, so they should have taken that on board. Won't accept this tiredness excuse and supposedly we have enough depth in the squad to counter it. All that aside, overall, the last few games have seen some entertainment, goals and there is some evidence of progression from the start of the season, but I think we will yoyo around mid table for most of the season. For all Koeman's fine attributes, I think he has some blind spots on tactics and selection (and he doesn't seem to put much stall in our academy players).

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SaintBrock added 14:16 - Oct 22 In my mind and despite Koeman's insistence that the international breaks are of little consequence to players, player fatigue must be a major factor in such poor performances. With blokes like Mane & Yoshida having to fly half way round the world and back again within a few day and then having to face a Premier League match a day or two later why would we not expect them to be knackered and unable to stay the pace. We have far more international players than Leicester and there in a nutshell is your answer. Don't blame the players blame the stupid bloody FIFA system. Internationals are relevant to world soccer today so get rid of them or accept the consequences.

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SaintBrock added 14:20 - Oct 22 The idiots who are already knocking Clasie need to hand in their season tickets and find another hobby to moan about. The know zero FA about football that's for sure.
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