Whitey Grandad

I’ve not managed to get to many games but that today was an unmitigated muddled mess. Not for the first time there was no shape to the team and there didn’t seem to be any plan of action. What the hell was Stephens doing at right back? Once again we concede from a header from an unmarked player from an uncontested cross. Yoshida is too polite to try and put the striker off his jump. This is not fun any more. Pellegrino has to go but I hope to hell that the problem lies with him or we really are in trouble.

'discovered Toby Alderweireld for Spurs'? He didn't have to look very far.

Exactly.

I must admit that I had never heard of Pellegrino before his appointment but now that I have seen his record it does give cause for concern. This from today's Times: A look at Pellegrino’s previous record makes you wonder where Southampton saw those qualities in him. At Alavés, his previous club, they averaged 1.15 goals a game, and although the team finished ninth in La Liga, no side in the top 16 scored fewer. At Estudiantes, where he spent two years in Argentina, the club averaged 1.04 goals a game. In Pellegrino’s first managerial job, at Valencia, he lasted 14 league games, during which time the team netted 18 goals; in the remaining 24 games of that season, they racked up 49. All of which does not make Pellegrino an obvious choice for a club seeking a manager to take the handbrake off. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/pressure-grows-on-southamptons-mauricio-pellegrino-in-pursuit-of-exciting-brand-zdmtsdt86 (paywall)

Watching Saints can drive you to booze.

This. He was laying down a marker, sowing the seeds of discontent in the player's mind, quite literally touching up another club's player.

That is a brilliant free kick, but I blame Seaman's ponytail for slowing him down

My neighbour at the game said that PEH had bulked up a lot and that it took time to adjust to a new physique.

Then please name them. Blaming FF for that is ridiculous. Save your ammunition for when he does make a balls-up.

The only goalkeeping manuel that I can think of is Manuel Neuer. Other than him I'm stumped. Of course in this case the opposing player never actually got into the area so according to that Forster should have been rooted on his line?

And that pass across to Cedric in the first half. From one wing to the other and curved past the inside of Baines. Sheer beauty. He also did a lot of work tracking back and covering. For the first time he seemed a proper part of the team.

Moved it on quickly too. It set a higher tempo for our play.

He gave us a threat in the air, something that we have been missing for a long while. It adds an extra dimension to our game at the other end of the pitch.

Forster has had his mistakes but yesterday wasn't one of those days. The ball went over his head because of exactly that reason, it went way over his head. Out of interest, where do you hink he should have been standing? Just inside the far post hanging onto the bar with his fingertips I suppose. We won convincingly and scored four goals. As Thatcher would have said, just rejoice at that news! Rejoice!

Speculation doesn't guarantee accumulation.

If we’ve got the wrong players to suit our chosen formation then it’s the formation that has to change because we can’t change the players.

If that’s the solution then you’re saying that everything’s wrong apart from the manager. Unfortunately for that view the players are on long-term contracts so replacing them all is not an option.

Three of them! What do you think this is, The Apprentice with Alan Sugar?

What didn't happen, a change of footballing style?

The first definitely, the other two not a chance. But what's your point? Fraser was a member of our team and our team lost. Why select him for criticism, there were others who made mistakes. Stephens for going walkabout and not marking his man, Bertrand for running offside and confusing the assistant? Overall we weren't quite good enough. But we are wandering way off topic here. If we are going to give Puel any credit for reaching Wembley then he also has to take the blame for wimping out of Europe and the FA Cup. They have to be considered as a whole.

We let in three goals. That will lose you most games and that's why we lost this one.

Wembley was a good day out and we were comfortably beaten even if we made a go of it but I've been there plenty of times before. There are many examples of other clubs who have had similar runs and then gone on to win something. What we did was no great shakes in the grander scheme of things. If you get overexcited about that then you have very low ambitions. But I can't ignore the bad times too. Rolling over in the FA Cup at home to Arsenal was a dismal experience and limping out of Europe was very painful.

Sad news. Taken from us much too soon.

Our FA Cup run last year was not that great either.

Why this obsession with 8th place? What did we win for coming 8th? We got 46 points - I'll say that again - 46 points, only two points above Stoke in 13th place. As for the cup final, we lost it, end of. That was not a great season by any measure.