Saint Charlie

Great 4 goals today but if you were there you know it should have been 7 or 8. Made the game difficult for us due to not taking chances. Long the main culprit today. PL quality sides won't give you that many tame opportunities to squander.

Just on the train back from the most bizarre game Ive been to. Poisonous atmosphere from Villa fans, booing Bacuna and Lescott when the teamsheet was read out. Their fans seemed just as annoyed as ours when Long missed a great chance after two mins. Villa were woeful. We were comfortably better until it came to killing them off. Four goals away is great of course but we should have killed the game by HT. Long especially missed too many good chances today and should have had a hattrick if not more. Tadic was as good on the ball as he was poor tracking back...but he is in the team to create and he certainly did that. Liked him picking out Duncan in the crowd after his second goal. Jay Rod did well, still finding his feet and wouldnt pick him in a straight choice vs Mane but he will be a big asset if he stays fit. Defensive wise we were a bit shaky all game. Forster cocked up a bit to concede the corner that led to the second, Fonte was poor on the ball and Cedric was largely dreadful and just seems to be too easily dominated by opponents. Central midfield also seemed easy to break on throughout the game, especially 2nd half when we lost Wanyama. Summary: Good win, performance quite typical Saints this season, made a lot tougher work of it than needed. Special mention for the "Joleon Lescott is a goat" banner in the Villa end and the gadgy behind me who kept calling him Joseph Lescott.

Which players told you that they don't give a **** about the Champions League? Sure the money helps but its also a chance to play in some massive games if you get to the latter stages.

Faarkoff you critical pr.ick. Do you even like Saints..?,,,,

Whilst that run was obviously poor its worth remembering that when we beat West Ham on 6th February we were above them and also won our next game at Swansea. That gave us a great chance of European football at that stage. Unfortunately, as seems to happen when we are on the cusp on something (like a cup semi final) we seemed to wilt under the pressure: threw away a lead against Chelsea to lose, didn't turn up against Bournemouth and then were poor at home to Sunderland. Add in the disappointing return of 1 point from the Leicester and Everton games where we should have had 4 and thats why we have slipped behind. You probably shouldnt be able to reach 6th or 7th if you lose 8 in 10 during a spell of the season. But we could have done.

Was Lambert. This season we haven't had one. Mane the closest.

Exactly. Competent squad player. Has started 15 games. If we want him to just be a squad player then he has been a win. If we want a starter each week then he is a draw. He hasn't provided actual competition for Wanyama because VW has started every game he is available for pretty much. Probably the best of the signings outside VVD relative to what was expected. Clasie, versus the hype, has been disappointing.

Romeu can't be a win when he is second choice to Clasie who is a draw. Martina is ok, but nothing on Clyne. Stekelenburg was pretty poor I thought. Certainly not a PL quality starting keeper which is what we brought him in for. Behind VVD, Clasie and Cedric have started the most games but neither really nailed on successes.

Only Van Dijk is a definite win. Don't think anyone can argue with that.

I actually was meaning if you are going to play an attacking style you need quality defensive mids who are mobile to cover defensively and win duels. The point being the team is attacking so relies on the DM to keep the team solid and prevent counter attacks. Wanyama much better at that than any other CM we have. Schneiderlin's mobility was also a great asset which we no longer have hence we have conceded the most goals from counter attacks in the PL according to Opta as our full backs play quite high and the central midfielders are quite slow. Wanyama wins far more duels/headers than Romeu or Clasie do. Clasie is easily taken out the game when taken on and Romeu not very agile and slow to turn.

Probably the least mobile of any pairing in the PL. Fine when shielded by 3 CBs and two full backs who aren't venturing forward a lot but not over a season if you want to play an attacking style. We didnt replace Schnedierlin's mobility so hopefully can do that this summer. Jury still out on Clasie for me and Romeu is a good squad player but nowhere Wanyama's level as a defensive midfielder in the PL.

Romeu and Clasie is a midtable CM combination at best IMO. Wanyama isnt picked to score goals and his discipline before this season hasnt really been an issue.

I'm pretty sure Koeman would be looking for ways to improve all the time. Anyway, after 7 or 8 posts on the thread how about one of them is actually on the topic of our away form?

Koeman said today Reed is talking to Wanyama's agent but didnt know how it was going. Said we want to keep him but also dont want him to enter the final year of his contract. Very similar to the Clyne situation and probably depends if there are any genuine offers for VW. If there are then would seem likely he will go.

Later half of this sees Koeman talking on this topic. Says poor away results and lack of goals the reason there is a gap between us and West Ham/Liverpool.

Finding ways to improve and not liking something are quite different. I am sure the Club are quite self critical of what they do and are looking to continually improve. To do that you first identify where you are weak and what you need to do to rectify it. Koeman was frustrated today and said we haven't won enough away games, it doesn't mean he doesn't like the Club. Serious answer.

Just a shame that all the sides with similar defensive records away from home are in the CL places and top of the away table and we are 12th in the away table because we score so infrequently. A clear area of focus for Koeman to marry the two next season.

Miles better once Koeman started picking him up front. He isnt an asset out wide. Misses too many presentable chances to ever be prolific but he has done well since December and some defenders hate playing against him. Only 3 away goals though all season in the league.

It may not be the case but I get the impression that more points are won away from home across the league than used to be the case. Certainly a few teams who are actually better away than at home.

They do enough at home for us to be third top scorers though. Are we tactically different away from home? Probably more away games where Davis plays just behind the striker. His return of one (good) goal in the season is very poor in that position. Souness was talking about that position on Sky last week and said you can be a good player, provide assists but if you don't score goals you can't be considered a good player in that position.

Koeman presser today was quite interesting. He basically saying its hard for a team like Southampton to be consistent across the whole season and that we are doing well to be established in the PL. Then mentioned the ambition of the players and Manager is to be higher and it depends what the ambition of the Club is as to whether that is achievable. He also said we are continually making progress he thinks.

Only two teams have more home goals than us though (City and Spurs) so its definitely an away specific problem. 3rd top home scorers yet 16th highest away scorers. Big variance there. Only Newcastle anywhere near close to such a difference.

As part of a fairly downbeat press conference, where he was clearly still ****ed off about last weekend, Koeman mentioned our away form is what is largely preventing us from being higher in the league. He said we haven't won enough games away from home. Looking further, there are some quite interesting away stats which you can see below. Do you agree it is the biggest barrier to us finishing higher this season? How could it be improved for next season? ---------------------------------------------- - We have the 7th best home record, but the 12th best away record in the league. - We have won fewer away games (5) than Bournemouth (6) - Only Man City (3rd in PL) and Tottenham (2nd) have conceded fewer goals away from home. We have also condeded the same number of away goals as likely Champions Leicester (16) - Despite a good defensive record only matched by CL qualifiers, our away GD is minus 2 - Only Newcastle (19th), Norwich (17th), Villa (20th) and WBA (14th) have scored less than our 14 away goals from 17 games - Sunderland have scored 8 more away goals than Saints. - Despite condeding the same number of away goals, Leicester have 6 more away wins than us - largely because they have scored a league high 31 away goals (17 more than us) - We have only scored more than one goal away from home in 3/17 games this season - The goals in those 3 games (7 goals - Newcastle, Chelsea, Stoke) represent HALF our away total - In the other 14 games we scored 7 goals at 0.5 goals a game - Saints failed to score away from home against: Watford, West Brom, Crystal Palace, Norwich, Arsenal, Bournemouth & Leicester - Graziano Pelle has scored in 3 away matches this season - Shane Long has also scored in 3 PL away games this season ------------------------------ Away goals: Pelle 4 Long 3 Mane 3 Tadic 1 (pen) Davis 1 Austin 1 OG 1 ------------------- Forwards: 11 Att Mid: 2 Mid: 1 Def: 0 OG: 1

Same conundrum for JWP as the previous 3 summers. Hard to see him being a regular starter next season though. He isnt an attacking midfielder/no 10 and can't do the defensive stuff needed to play deeper.

Comparing to Leicester because they have showed the value of being able to score away from home whilst still being solid and without superstars. They gained 6 more wins than us despite conceding the same no of goals. When you have the 3rd best away defence over a whole season you shouldn't have a negative away GD or end up in the bottom half of away points gathered. That IMO is where we have lost a European finish and is the one key area to improve next year. Pretty sure Pelle has only ever scored about 5 away league goals for us. Long possibly a couple more but both much more reliable at home. Edit- Pelle has scored in 3 of our away league games so far this season. Long the same.