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Saints 2-0 Watford post match relief


Bad Wolf

MotM vs Watford (Home 2015/16)  

321 members have voted

  1. 1. MotM vs Watford (Home 2015/16)

    • Forster
      2
    • Bertrand
      0
    • Soares
      7
    • van Dijk
      12
    • Fonte
      2
    • Romeu
      65
    • Clasie
      25
    • Davis
      36
    • Targett
      67
    • Mané
      5
    • Long
      97
    • Tadić
      1
    • Pellè
      0
    • Yoshida
      2


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I take it you weren't there again. Romeu was the best player on the pitch by a mile. Clasie had a good game That gave us the base in midfield. VVD and Fonte switched and were very solid helped by Bertrand who filled in well. Cedric did well, Targett hit a beautiful cross and Long got across the centre back for a good finish. After that immense effort but often spoilt by poor control. Mane needs to be less selfish but was a problem all night if only he could finish.

 

 

Davis was nowhere near as good as you think watching without the TVs tunnel vision. He had a decent enough game much better than Saturday and did his share but Romeu was outstanding and Clasie and VVD not far behind.

I watched live and yes he was as good you think. He and Long did not give their defence a minute's peace. But hey Ho - don't let that give any transparency to your anti-Davis blinkers.

PS I agree that Romeu, Classie and VVD were also outstanding. Watford were poor but we did not let them be anything else.

Edited by St_Tel49
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Long - MotM for me. Surprised he wasn't subbed as he was completely ****ged given the amount of running he did.

Virgil - made one small mistake (not too dangerous) and dealt with pretty much everything in his usual non-plused manner.

Davis - another good performance under the radar.

Cedric - another great game

Forster - thank **** he is back. I think it gives the defence peace of mind with him rather than Stek.

Mané - should have had a hattrick

Clasie - getting better....best game so far.

Targett - defending not his strongest suit, so maybe a little further forward is better for him.

Yoshida - didn't **** it up

 

Pelle - now, this is the interesting one for me. I know he has been off for a fair while so lacks match sharpness, but then I guess so did Cedric. But when he came on, the attack naturally slowed down a lot, given that he isn't the fastest in the world. To me now, Long is the one who should be picked first as the pace that he and Mané have seems to work better than the hold up & play off style that Pellè brings.

we need both long and mane up top IF we are gong to play so many non scoring, more defensive players.

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I take it you weren't there again. Romeu was the best player on the pitch by a mile. Clasie had a good game .

 

yet, he is 3rd up top on the MoM thread

even the papers do not have him MoM

 

he was good and does not in any way deserve to make way for victor. It will be a travesty if he does

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yet, he is 3rd up top on the MoM thread

even the papers do not have him MoM

 

he was good and does not in any way deserve to make way for victor. It will be a travesty if he does

 

Romeu was my MOM he gave the best performance from our midfield this year.

He was everywhere snapping in, breaking up, mixed up passing short and long.

His partnership with Clasie was a great base for this win.

He even passed it forwards which is something we don't do enough!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Phew, 3 vital points and even more importantly a reminder that we can play decent stuff. Let's build on this and get a few more wins to remove any doubts about this season.

 

We are still a bit toothless infront of goal though, need some more firepower from somewhere.

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yet, he is 3rd up top on the MoM thread

even the papers do not have him MoM

 

he was good and does not in any way deserve to make way for victor. It will be a travesty if he does

 

What has Vic done to warrant going straight back in to a team thats just won ?

What has he contributed so much over the past couple of months ? Judge him on current form before you answer, not what he was like last season with Morgan by his side !

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Romeu was my man of the match. He was top draw and protected the defence excellently.

 

Targett was brilliant 1st half. He seems a lot more relaxed with Bertrand behind him. Like the pressure is off a bit.

 

Shane Long had another great game. He has his critics as he does miss chances, but so do the rest of the team. He won so many flick ons (2 of which he chased down himself), dragged defenders everywhere and scored. What more can we ask?

 

Mane was wasteful with his chances but to be fair, a couple of them he created out of nothing. And that's why he's wanted by bigger clubs, as he has that ability. Although he won't get away with his inconsistencies at a team like United.

 

Typical Steven Davis performance today. Such a good player.

 

Fraser may have had little to do but the defence looked a million times more confidant, and I put that down to him.

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Long showed the money we paid for him was a steal for a Premier League striker. I would keep him in over Pelle for a while. No co-incidence the sense of urgency, commitment and pressing was back in the absence of the dragging anchor that is Wanyama. Don't want him anywhere near that first team squad anymore leave alone the bench. And if Koeman brings him straight back in that will be a defining moment in his Saints managerial career. Nice to be winning again. Don't change much next game.

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My only reservation from last night is that Mane should start looking up every now and then because on four or five occasions a slick pass to his right or left would have led to others scoring.As far as VW is concerned RK should see that he's SNLR. The combination appears to the right one so I hope RK keeps the same team for Saturday.

COYS.

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Great win - richly deserved from a team that battled for everything. Thought Davis, Long, Romeu and Clasie were superb. Like others I really don't want to see Wanyama waltz back into the starting 11. Long and Mane are so much more of a threat than Pelle - he slows the play down so much his inclusion at start will disrupt the gains we've made. Mane is not really showing himself off as a £30m player - more £3m, but let's hope it's a blip. We do need another top clinical fast striker though - another Mane type rather than Pelle type. Let's hope for a repeat performance on Saturday.

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Just a glance at the poll for MOTM speaks volumes about the performance put in by virtually the whole team. Long deserves the MOTM for his goal and the assist for Tadic's, as well as his usual total commitment throughout the match, leaving him knackered towards the final whistle. But that commitment was shadowed by other players like the ever reliable Davis, alongside great contributions from Clasie and Romeu, all three dominating the midfield, protecting the defence and setting up wave after wave of attacks.

 

Long and Mane possess such pace so that when they played a high line, they forced Watford onto the back foot. There were several occasions when there were superb long passes up to them and but for better finishing from Mane and poor offside decisions from the Kingsland lino, the score could have been anything up to 8 goals.

 

Targett had a great game with Bertrand behind him and got forward well up the left wing, and with Cedric also marauding up the right flank, we created the width that allowed us the space to play a fast passing game, which we did well considering the poor weather conditions.

 

Altogether it was a superb performance from the entire team, with many of the characteristics of how we outplayed Arsenal. Some say that Watford were very poor, and that Arsenal had a bad day at the office. But how much

allowance must be made towards that excuse and how much should be given as credit towards us playing our socks off and employing the tactics that don't allow other teams to play the game to the strengths of their players? Sometimes it seems that when you have the efforts that the hard-working players like Davis, Clasie, Long, Romeu, Bertrand bring to the team, we would give any team in the Country a run for their money.

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Balls into touch? This isn't rugby, you know. ;)

 

Ball in play or out of play is almost always the assistant's decision.

Fact was whether it was the ref or the lineo they made a lot of mistakes, especially giving goal kicks instead of corners. The ref just guessed at least twice in the second half but both times got it completely wrong. Several of the offside calls were completely wrong as well. In the end it made no difference, but the standard of decision making by the officials has become very poor of late, not so much with the big decisions (penalties etc) but with basic stuff like deciding who touched the ball last before the ball goes over the touchline.

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Fact was whether it was the ref or the lineo they made a lot of mistakes, especially giving goal kicks instead of corners. The ref just guessed at least twice in the second half but both times got it completely wrong. Several of the offside calls were completely wrong as well. In the end it made no difference, but the standard of decision making by the officials has become very poor of late, not so much with the big decisions (penalties etc) but with basic stuff like deciding who touched the ball last before the ball goes over the touchline.

 

I may be wrong but I'm guessing that you're sitting a lot further away than the officials? Added to that they are viewing the situation in 3-D and with a resolution an order of magnitude greater than even the best television can offer.

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DONT TINKER RONALD!! You may have stumbled on the answer !!!! Tonight's formation worked really well because the players selected to put it into practice complemented each almost perfectly. They all seemed to play with much more freedom and found the blend that's been missing recently. Everyone appeared comfortable with their own job and their awareness of covering for others appeared easier and Lots of chances created too !

Let this line up have a run and see what happens.

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Unfortunately my stream was constantly buffering and eventually stopped working, but glad to hear Romeu was excellent. I was at Selhurst Park and felt he was also one of our best players that day. He's definitely shown that he can put himself about but also seems to have a decent pass on him. Hopefully this will also put to bed the critics of 5-3-2, a formation that can work well with the right players and right execution. Against Palace (league) the formation was fine but the full backs were dreadful and didn't attack. It sounds like they had a lot more attacking focus yesterday and hence the 5-3-2 was effective.

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I may be wrong but I'm guessing that you're sitting a lot further away than the officials? Added to that they are viewing the situation in 3-D and with a resolution an order of magnitude greater than even the best television can offer.

 

The offside against Davis for his 'goal' was blatantly the wrong call. It wasn't even close.

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DONT TINKER RONALD!! You may have stumbled on the answer !!!! Tonight's formation worked really well because the players selected to put it into practice complemented each almost perfectly. They all seemed to play with much more freedom and found the blend that's been missing recently. Everyone appeared comfortable with their own job and their awareness of covering for others appeared easier and Lots of chances created too !

Let this line up have a run and see what happens.

 

Against Watford it worked well but there were a couple of occasions where there were holes where a fullback would have been. Fortunately Watford couldn't exploit them.

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Always good when it's hard to pick a MOTM, this was one of those games where you walked through the turnstiles in a strange frame of mind not knowing what we were going see, especially against Watford who have been a funny team for us down through the years, and with them being a team that has its tail up at the moment. As it turned out like against Arsenal we just shut Watford down from whistle to whistle, you just wonder where these performances disappear to.

Thought Romeu and Clasie looked very solid in midfield they both have good vision and both can deliver perfectly weighted Hollywood balls cross field, The switch around in defence looked strange but seemed to work, Nice to see Fraser between the sticks.

The 2 lads from the Emerald Isle, North and South, just seemed to relish playing in the rain almost like it energised them, Davis and Long just did not stop moving and being a pain in the backside, when you see the whole ground stand to applaud Davis off the pitch, including even the most miserable moaners you know Steven had put in a bloody good shift. And when Shane Long got his legs in a pickle down in the Chapel Kingsland corner the reaction from us fans was not moaning it was laughing at his kerfuffle as we all knew he had run his legs off for the cause.

 

And those moaners at the £12m price tag just watch that first goal, Matty Targett isn't even looking at the balls final destination he just knows to fire in a blistering ball into the penalty box Long knew where it was going and was on the move knowing exactly where he needed to be and when, there are not that many players with that pace to then hit the ball while at pace.

 

Like others have said leave Victor on the sidelines and let Clasie and Romeu develop into the next Midfield brick wall.

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A great performance and a vital win. I thought the midfield of Romeu, Clasie and Davis laid the foundations for the win. The three at the back were solid, in particular VVD whose aerial work was supreme and Long and Mane despite some wastefulness were a handful for Watford - Cedric and Targett played the wing back roles to perfection. Before this game gets muddled in people's memories one observation needs to be made to the posters fond of likening Steve Davis and JWP as similar players or in competition for the same place in the team. Davis had a game last night the like of which JWP to this point has never come close to matching; maybe he will in time but up till now JWP has never produced the movement, influence, run and creative distribution Davis produced tonight. They are quite different players and JWP has a lot of ground to make up before he can be compared; even if he does have 10 years by comparison to do it.

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I may be wrong but I'm guessing that you're sitting a lot further away than the officials? Added to that they are viewing the situation in 3-D and with a resolution an order of magnitude greater than even the best television can offer.

Actually for several of the calls, no I was a lot closer than the officials and better placed and II also have good 3D vision. That was part of the problem, the referee did not keep up well with the play and the decisions for corners were on the wrong side of the pitch for the lineo to have any idea of what had happened. I know how hard it is being a ref or lineo, but the decision making of the officials last night was poor if I'm being generous, and it really can't be defended. They may be "able" to view the situation in high resolution, but it doesn't work if they have their eyes closed. I don't usually knock referees, but last night they were very poor with the throw-ins, corners and offsides. Very poor. But it didn't make any difference except that we probably would have scored more (no correct that we would have scored more because Steve Davis' goal was perfectly good).

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So it's only me that thinks Mane was cruising and lacked commitment?

No lack of commitment, but woeful finishing after doing so much great work to get into goal scoring positions. I thought subbing him off was a bad move, with 20 to go he was probably eventually going to get a lucky break and it would have done the world of good for his confidence, then again Tadic comes on and scores.

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I take it you weren't there again.

Davis was nowhere near as good as you think watching without the TVs tunnel vision. He had a decent enough game much better than Saturday and did his share but Romeu was outstanding and Clasie and VVD not far behind.

Sounds like it was you that was not there. Even with your personal hatred of Davis, to have such a poor view of what he did last night is very difficult to understand, and you may notice that you are in a minority of one (unless or until Verlaine comes along with his anti-Davis venom). You are quite right that Romeu and Clasie were excellent, especially Romeu, as were Targett, Cedric and Long. The back three were very good although the middle three and wing backs meant they really didn't have much to do, but VvD won everything in the air (but was very loose with some of his passes and got us into trouble a couple of times).

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What has Vic done to warrant going straight back in to a team thats just won ?

What has he contributed so much over the past couple of months ? Judge him on current form before you answer, not what he was like last season with Morgan by his side !

 

Vic would at best make the bench on sat for me

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I thought Ryan B had a fantastic game. When I saw the side I assumed he'd play left mid in front of Matty T , but the way Ron set them up worked perfectly against their front 2 . Pleased for Targett , played well particularly first half , still a long way to go for the lad but he really did look the part .

 

Agree with the comments about Big Vic being left but against WBA , itll be interesting to see what Ron does about it . Pelles slightly different he could change formation & play Pelle & Long or even drop Mane for Pelle , but to break up the Classie,Davis, OR midfield would be really disappointing

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I take it you weren't there again. Romeu was the best player on the pitch by a mile. Clasie had a good game That gave us the base in midfield. VVD and Fonte switched and were very solid helped by Bertrand who filled in well. Cedric did well, Targett hit a beautiful cross and Long got across the centre back for a good finish. After that immense effort but often spoilt by poor control. Mane needs to be less selfish but was a problem all night if only he could finish.

 

 

Davis was nowhere near as good as you think watching without the TVs tunnel vision. He had a decent enough game much better than Saturday and did his share but Romeu was outstanding and Clasie and VVD not far behind.

 

You're entitled to your opinion, of course, but you seem to be a bit of a minority regarding Davis' contribution. Even the Mirror Sports reporter summed him up under the heading "Davis makes Saints tick" and said this about him:-

 

Steven Davis remains one of the most underrated players in the Premier League but, unlike many of his team-mates, he's never linked with a move away from Southampton.

 

One or two of the so-called big boys would be stronger if he were in their squad.

 

You obviously saw a different match to others on here. Perhaps Davis' contribution should be assessed from the perspective of whether both Romeu and Clasie would have been as effective without him beside them. Of the three of them, he was the one who scored the goal, although the incompetent lino ruled if offside.

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I said pre-match that it we produced the second performance I saw the Palace game, we'd win 3-1 (I wasn't far off) but would get beaten if the first half performance was repeated. Thankfully, we produced the former and Saints were pressing urgently, first to most challenges and combining it with some quality on the ball and great deliveries, not least Targett's for Long's goal. Well done to the young man, his best game in an SFC shirt.

 

Big bonus having Fraser back, ideal really as not a busy night for him but he gave an assurance to the defence whereas Stek's confidence looked gone on Sat.

 

Hope Clasie OK for Sat having played two games already this week, much prefer him and Romeu, who was also our standout player on Sat, rather than Victor. Victor is going to have to really knuckle down if he wants his first XI spot back.

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You're entitled to your opinion, of course, but you seem to be a bit of a minority regarding Davis' contribution. Even the Mirror Sports reporter summed him up under the heading "Davis makes Saints tick" and said this about him:-

 

 

 

You obviously saw a different match to others on here. Perhaps Davis' contribution should be assessed from the perspective of whether both Romeu and Clasie would have been as effective without him beside them. Of the three of them, he was the one who scored the goal, although the incompetent lino ruled if offside.

 

There's a reason why none of the big boys want him. He's a no. 10 that doesn't have any impact in the final third of the pitch. The bit that separates the best teams in the league and decent teams

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Good to see us playing fully to our potential again. We were never a bad side but the run of losses was damaging to confidence. This win will take some of the pressure off for Saturday but we need more of the same. Fair play to Koeman. He hasn't panicked and has been quietly working away at turning things around. More of the same please guys!

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A truly amazing performance by all the lads. Targett and Long were awesome and offer so much to a successful team performance. Unsung hero Davies did really well and doesn't deserve all the crap that gets sent his way. Having Forster back has given the defence new confidence and soothed down the psnic we've seen since he's been out injured.

After I saw the team selection I had wondered whether Koeman had picked the team by pulling numbers out of a hat. Probably be the last time we get to see the same selection again. I'm not getting carried away until I see repetitions of how we played. Koeman will surely make chances for the weekend and before you know we'll be playing the usual crap.

Great seeing Bertrand and Targett working together on the left flank. Surely Bertrand is coaching Targett first hand through out the game. I am so proud of Matt's play and rising to the occasion.

 

The appearance of Pelle showed just bad his play is in comparison to Long's intense energy and non stop running. My fears are for Koeman reverting to having Pelle back as first choice and us reverting to how badly we've played recently. I really hope I'm wrong and we keep to the style of play and players who performed so well last night..

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Sounds like it was you that was not there. Even with your personal hatred of Davis, to have such a poor view of what he did last night is very difficult to understand, and you may notice that you are in a minority of one (unless or until Verlaine comes along with his anti-Davis venom). You are quite right that Romeu and Clasie were excellent, especially Romeu, as were Targett, Cedric and Long. The back three were very good although the middle three and wing backs meant they really didn't have much to do, but VvD won everything in the air (but was very loose with some of his passes and got us into trouble a couple of times).

 

Nah, thought he did okay (as I've said before when his performances haven't been sub-par). He didn't give the ball away stupidly as he did against Spurs and Palace (only the most recent examples), and he even broke beyond the strikers a couple of times, which he doesn't do anything like often enough for an attacking midfielder. All in all, a perfectly competent performance, though others (Romeu in particular) shone brighter last night.

 

Contrary to the childish imaginings of some on this board, there's no vendetta. I just think that 9 times out of 10, he trudges through games without ever really making a decisive attacking contribution, which I find unacceptable for someone who is meant to be the creative fulcrum of a side aspiring to the top six.

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Is it because Davis doesn't ping long diagonal balls or score 10 goals a season that people think he's poor? He's had bad games, but the whole side have been guilty of that - for me he really is the unsung hero of the side when he plays well and he was excellent last night. I'm also not sure I've Targett play with such freedom either, mainly in the 1st half. Some of his balls in to the box were exceptional; great delivery for the first goal. Almost undefendable i'd say.

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