Graffito

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.

The problem lies with how we play as a team (the manager) not with the players attitude. SM or MT would be worse options under the current manager.

Bertrand provided the only decent cross (which Gabbiadini narrowly failed to convert) in the whole match. Not a chance he'll be dropped.

He may be as bored as the rest of us with the football Saints are playing but really I fail to see how you can arrive at your conclusion. He's a quality full back. If only the manager would use a formation or find a way of playing which gets the full backs forward more quickly, and instructs Cedric to put in low hard early crosses as Bertrand does, our scoring would improve.

I noticed that Brighton had two wingers. Maybe the manager wanted to match them. If he did, it didn't work.

Has he got a plan B yet?

I don't agree the football is unstructured. It's too structured if anything. A little more off the cuff unstructured football might create more.

So how do you account for the fact that LR gave Puel the opportunity to stay if he played a more attacking style of football? If LR was issuing instructions to Puel evidently he wasn't following them. No, I think the style was down to Puel's caution and lack of pace in the team. Different players, different style at Leicester. But their style is cautious too and he won't change it.