Graffito

Just got home. I'm sure this point's been made many times in the preceding 7 pages but contrary to the BBC report crediting hodgson's substitutions what I saw was a fcking great hole where Hoijberg was. Oh and I saw heads drop again. Unbelievable.

Dann stretchered off.

The way I saw their goal in real time, though it didn't come across on MoTD so I could be mistaken, was the Belgian, whose name I can't remember, took one step forward then one step back to lose Yoshida and make space for a simple header. One of the oldest CF manoeuvres in the book, and Yoshida fell for it. Nothing to do with Forster.

We went behind to a goal conceded in time added to the first half in the corresponding fixture last season, if I remember correctly. We switched off, particularly FF. I was interested to hear MoTD pick up on Forster's failure to save the free kick which was pretty much what I saw and commented on at the match. He went through a ponderous attempt at getting his bearings by looking first at his right post and then at his left post and planted himself flat footed on his line. Ok the wall was poor and the free kick was well placed but it was saveable by someone alert and on their toes but it was so clear that Forster wasn't prepared. Second point, their manager was maoaning about Saints time wasting. Didn't one of their players get booked towards the end for fannying about at a corner?

Agree they have much better, pacy clinical forwards. Was looking at the stats last night and they got something like 70% of shots on target. Saints got about 1 in 3 on target.

Heads dropped after the first goal, no question. The team lacks character, leadership and belief. I defy anyone who was there last night to say after the first goal went in they believed the players would turn it around. If the players don't believe they can beat Leicester at home why should we.

Nice use of the "no true Scotsman" fallacy. I had a good view. Sadly, it looked deliberate to me.

The tactics were right for this match. The team played well. The only failure, not for the first time, was not taking our chances. Thank goodness for Austin. Disappointing to concede late but I'm encouraged by the performance.

Allardyce. More Tech College than School of Science.

We created virtually nothing in our previous game against Liverpool and had not a single attempt on target. Other differences - moved the ball quicker, got the ball in the box quicker, Austin who will score given the service, Tadic playing centrally and closer to Austin, PEH, full backs getting forward more which was a major plus, and Everton (unlike so many other teams at SMS) trying to play rather than sit back and they weren't good enough to do it.

Too much time on his hands.

Losing 1-5. Can't lose to this lot. Surely.

Does £20 a ticket make a difference? 2-0 down now.

Wednesday 13th February 2-0 home win against an in-form Watford to give Saints only they're second win in 9 matches (from memory the other win was Arsenal which I think was a 442?). Results picked up from there although we didn't always go with 3-5-2. "The biggest alteration for the home side, though, was a tactical tweak by manager Ronald Koeman as Ryan Bertrand slotted in at centre-back in a 3-5-2 formation." http://www.skysports.com/football/soton-vs-watford/341394 Anyway, pedantry aside, do you have a view on the merits of 352?

Turned our season around. The formation change coincided with Forsters return to the team (an in-form Forster) but it was the formation change that set us back on course, even although Koeman obviously didn't always play 3 at the back thereafter. Like to see Pelligrino give it another try with his strongest team this time. This should get the fullbacks further forward quicker which will create chances. It gives the option of dispensing with one or other of the misfiring Redmond and Tadic or both. It facilitates two up front if necessary. At the very least it's trying something different and giving the opposition something to think about.

I can't see us putting a run of wins together so I'm hoping we lose more games so we can have a relegation battle and we can all get excited.

The Times had a feature on struggling Southampton the other day.

You think Mike Ashley isn't a mess behind the scenes?

We haven't had one of Ralph's motivational speeches for a while.

Me too. Pretty obvious why he's selected him.

Impersonating Martin Samuel eh? Who'd do a thing like that?

A bit early to be writing obituaries.

Better teams than Saints fail to breakdown the likes of Burnley. It takes quality on the ball and as you say we don't have it where it's needed, in the final third. I don't want Saints to go the way of Burnley and West Brom. I do think if we are going to "control the game" and get mugged anyway we may as well take more risks on the ball. Wholesale changes aren't possible. The manager has to work with what he's got and give the players more licence. Move the ball quicker and be more aggressive.

I can't disagree with any of that. What I disagree with is the implication that Bertrand can't be arsed. Firstly, I haven't noticed at any point in any recent match that he can't be arsed, though granted he's been in better form than recently. Secondly, pretty much the whole team is underperforming. Thirdly, Bertrand has a World Cup place to play for. It's barely credible that someone can't be arsed to cement a place in the squad. Imo underperformance is down to the way we play and responsibility for that rests primarily with the manager. As an aside, have you noticed how many threads there are on individual player's shortcomings. They can't all be individually responsible for poor performance. The witch hunters never run out of witches. There's a whole herd of scapegoats.