CanadaSaint

It's unusual to see defensive midfielders with an 80 yard range of effectiveness; we have two. It's unusual to see a striker contributing effectively at both ends of the pitch; we have two. I love Ralph's style, and this team is maturing together rapidly. Hard to pick a MOTM from such an excellent team performance, but I'll go with JWP. He's really becoming an elite player.

Bednarek played him onside. This sounds "hindsight is 20/20" but a high level CD would have seen what was developing and stepped up, or even stopped still, to play Werner offside.

A "Ralph demands character" performance. With goals coming from different players, and JWP and Romeu paying solidly, our areas of major weakness seem to be declining to two - lack of pace in the CDs, and an occasional failure of some players to stay in the game, mentally and physically, for 90 minutes - often costing us goals. Redmond, I'm largely talking about you. I'm fancying Walcott on one side, Armstrong on the other, and Redmond on the bench until he figures out what's needed from him. Having a left-footed CD would help a lot, but who would partner Salisu? Bednarek may be playing himself out of that opportunity. We are deeper squad-wise, with a decent range of options to cover injuries and match circumstances.

That was Leicester-like form but thankfully against a team lacking the quality and pace to punish us like they did. It was the same pedestrian shit at the back, passing to eachother and often ending up playing it back to McCarthy for him to hoof it aimlessly. God, Stephens and Bednarek could have done that in the first place and at least we'd get the ball forward quicker. JWP's passing was dreadful, Redmond was awful, and Kyle Walker Peters didn't seem interested in attacking them down the flank. In fact, he's now caught the disease and turned into Kyle Walker Pass-Back. I am struggling to remember us playing one early ball in the entire match. It's hard to imagine that Ralph has lost the plot so suddenly, but that (and much of the Palace game) was a total reversion to bottom five football. Unless we break up that duo at the back - playing their comfy you-to-me, me-to-you shit - it's hard to see this changing.

I'm disappointed but not down about that. The "teachable moment" was there in the first half, but it was about 30 minutes long, and we committed the cardinal sin of going one-down (needlessly) to a Hodgson team. Most of what we were doing wrong was what we were doing wrong before going on a tear last year, and Ralph fixed it. Ideally, we fix it in pre-season but that didn't happen. Bringing on Vestergaard was intended to help us move the ball out a bit quicker but then we needed to hold Bertrand back to cover Vestergaard's lack of pace. That cost us offensively down the left. It was one of those days I think, and I'll only start getting concerned if we keep reverting to the back two ping-pong, slow passing and lack of movement that are the antithesis of Ralph's style. But we won't because he'll fix it. Armstrong is behind only Danny Ings on my list of players I fear losing from the line-up. Romeu's performance underlines that we really need that new DM, and we need to get Salisu fit. And somebody needs to have a word in McCarthy's ear about when it's time to go long rather than play a short pass to a defender with someone up his arse.

Given what Vestergaard did with his first two passes I think it's clear that Ralph wanted the back two to stop farting around and get the ball forward quicker.

Pushing them up is part of our game but I think they were going too early - clogging up the quick forward pass lanes, and leaving Stephens and Bednarek to play ping pong, and making us vulnerable to a fast break. It looked just like the team Ralph fixed after the Leicester game. Romeu was poor today and Smallbone looked very "journeyman" - we REALLY missed Armstrong. And we gave away a lot of free set piece headers in our box. A lot for Ralph to work on, but he will.

At the risk of being pedantic, wouldn't that mean that the Salisu deal has gone pear-shaped?

Our (supposed) interest in Celtic's Kristoffer Ajer suggests that either the Salisu transfer has gone pear-shaped or we're entertaining Chelsea's (supposed) interest in Bednarek. I can't see us spending big money to add two more CBs to the two who performed reasonably adequately last season. And if we are chatting with Chelsea about Bednarek he probably wouldn't have played yesterday. If the explanation for Salisu's absence was innocent, the club would have said something. Anything.

I'm not expecting any change in the keeper he was when he first arrived here. His technique is fundamentally poor. He's vulnerable to low shots because he doesn't read situations, is very static, and tries to dive from a standstill position. That limits both his side-to-side range and the speed with which he gets down. You can coach technique to a 12 year-old but not a 32 year-old. If he hadn't been 6' 7" nobody would have given him the time of day - never mind the contract Les gave him. On a human level I hope he's conquered his issues, and I'll never forget that one-off performance at Arsenal, but I don't see him playing much here. Gunn is a far better rehabilitation candidate than Forster, so I hope we think twice before we view Forster as the backup - or, worse yet, the starter.

How the hell is the average fan supposed to keep up with this shit? First we need velcro on the back for the player's name, and now we need it on the front for the sponsor.

I don't get some of the CB names being mentioned here. Sure, there are some really good players but do they fit Ralph's style? Because we press high and push our 'full backs' forward so often, we're better off with 20% less talent and 20% more speed and mobility in our CBs. Vestergaard is sooooo unsuited to how we play because it exposes his lack of pace. Stephens and Bednarek certainly have their limitations, and need to learn when it's time to stop the me-to-you/you-to-me stuff, but they both have decent mobility. Yes, we need another one or even two but I don't think they'll be in the 28+ age group.

When somebody finds how far JWP ran today I'd love to see it. He was excellent, and did a lot to cover the Vestergaard vulnerabilities without surrendering his link role, set pieces and even runs into the box. He's turning into a hell of a player. Really pleased for Adams, and there's a great chemistry developing between him and Ings. After Leicester, who saw us finishing above Everton, Newcastle and Palace - and with a better goal difference! That's a Top 8 starting line up with Top 5 cohesiveness, but it's not yet a Top 8 squad. Huge credit to Ralph.

Is Lemina's bridge to Ralph definitely burnt? On his day he can be a thoroughbred, and perhaps just the kind of player we need - especially as it wouldn't involve a transfer fee, but he needs to do it every week, and his piss poor attitude is a big stumbling block. I'd fancy Ralph's chances at rehabilitating him, but I'm not sure he's worth the risk when Ralph has done such a great job building spirit and cohesiveness in the squad. Pity, really.

The thing that has stuck me in the last few games, including the second half of the Arsenal game, is that some serious chemistry has developed among this group. They're playing their butts off for eachother, on and off the ball, and actually look like they're enjoying their football rather than doing it for a job. A very good squad seems to be coming together, and results like that won't hurt us on the recruitment front.

We outclassed Norwich and Watford, but we had a poor first half against Arsenal. The two horrific errors - and the loss - obscured the fact that we actually played very well in the second half. This looks like a team where everyone seems to enjoy playing with eachother, and the movement off the ball was excellent. The triangles are set almost instantly - far less of this standing around waiting for someone else to do something. There's interchangeability at the back, in the middle and up front. Smallbone looked good, Vestergaard was outstanding, KWP can solve a longstanding problem, and Adams looked like the player I hoped we were getting. And JWP is developing rapidly as both a player and a leader. It just feels like Ralph is building to a new level, and a lot of the key guys have bought into it.

Fart-arsing around at the back beyond our capability levels 0, Arsenal 2. A lot of it comes from Hojberg playing it back because he doesn't have a control turn, and his play-reading is weak. I'm far from convinced by either Obafemi or Valery. They don't seem to be learning from experience, and the "they're still young" excuse is wearing thin. Redmond was poor, for me. It was like the Redmond of a couple of years back - three or four silky touches followed by the choice between disappearing up his own arse or playing it back.

Biting comment at the end there (from Upson, I think) - Saints will benefit from not having any fans at their home games.

Ings contributes all over the pitch, and we're a better side with Armstrong in the lineup. Valery always seems like an error waiting to happen. JWP looked more like a leader out there than PEH has ever done.

Stop with the opposite full back corners FFS. Every time it's a guaranteed breakaway with us struggling to get back.

Ralph looks like he’s heading back to un-forced dicking around. The Vestergaard inclusion was ridiculously stupid. Most of our progress came from two CDs dovetailing well, and ditching the “me to you, you to me, me back to you” crap. And I am struggling to remember one Obafemi moment since he broke into the team when he’s looked remotely close to having what it takes at this level.

When sweepers were popular the way to counter them was to push one of the strikers on them – almost like having a striker marking a sweeper. It took away their time and space, and often their composure. Of course, VVD is much more than a sweeper. So much of Liverpool’s defensive shape and solidity revolves around him, and he’s the initial launch point for a lot of their attacks. It would be interesting to see how those things look if Long was snapping at VVD’s heels all through the game. It’s not like we’d be losing our main goal scoring threat by sacrificing Long like that.

Given our away form we've got 'em where we want 'em. Moss is so incompetent. He can't even keep up with the game when he gets to watch it on the VAR screen.

Frustrating. I couldn't count the number of times we've been done down our left side, with Bertrand either never in the picture or jogging back after the damage has been done. We knew that Traoré would be attacking that space, so Bertrand either ignored his remit or was too lazy/disengaged to fulfil it.

When it’s almost -30 Celsius outside you do strange stuff to take your mind off it.* Here’s a summary of the changes between the 17 games before the Villa game, and our last five – Overall (Home / Away): Points per game average: 1.7 (1.2 / 2.0) Goals – Saints: 0.8 (0.0 / 1.3) Goal – Opponents: -1.5 (-2.2 / -0.7) Shots – Saints: 0.4 (1.3 / -0.5) Shots – Opponents: -3.7 (-6.6 / -1.4) On Target % - Saints: 11.5% (-0.7% / 19.1%) On Target % - Opponents: 5.5% (2.5% / 10.8%) Scoring % - Saints: 6.0% (-0.9% / 10.8%) Scoring % - Opponents: -9.0% (-12.1% / -4.9%) Pass Success % - Saints: -5.7% (1.1% / -10.8%) Pass Success % - Opponents: 2.0% (0.6% / 2.5%) Possession % - Saints: -2.8% (3.9% / -7.3%) Possession % - Opponents: 2.8% (-3.9% / 7.3%) The most obvious improvements are in our Shots On Target % and our Scoring % (goals as a % of shots). So much of that is down to Danny Ings. Less obvious - but at least as important, for me – is the decline in pass success and possession. Given our dramatic change in ‘fortunes’, those numbers are a great illustration of how statistics can lie. We are more inclined to put the laces through the ball when danger threatens, and less likely to keep trying to force “playing out from the back” with multiple passes between the back two/four. That change is especially pronounced in Away games. The way things have been going lately, I couldn’t care less about our pass completion and possession stats. * It’s a “dry cold” and I’ve felt colder heading back over the Itchen Bridge after another home loss.