Saints 2-0 Watford post match relief

Was it just me, or did the Fonte/VvD dovetail look much better with VvD on the right and Fonte on the left?

I have to agree with some of the above posters with regards Matt Targett. I have been a little critical of him in the past but tonight was probably the best game that i have seen him play.

Hope Romeu keeps his place....prefer him over Vic.

Win Saturday and we could go 8th, what's all the fuss about. Thorough victory tonight, pleased RK hauled mane off for missing those chances. Hopefully Pelle has been watching Long chasing defenders down and will now put a shift in. We will see ����

A win would give us 30 points. Can only get as high as 10th.

Yes, Targett was just excellent - barely put a foot wrong all night. He seems better in a role in which he's not back-pedalling but attacking the ball when he sees fit, and his distribution was spot-on.

And Cedric seemed much more aware defensively.

That wasn't an easy front two to play against but they never got a sniff.

I'd love to know the distance that Long covered tonight.

I'm still shaking my head at Mané. Oh well, when there's a thunderstorm going on it's best not to play a fart in it. He's such an enigma.

Well, that feel's a lot better. Still missing chances though! I think we may have just sleep walked our way out of a relegation battle. Hopefully I will be proved correct in my assertions.

Hope Romeu keeps his place....prefer him over Vic.

Agreed.

Better passer, more mobile and a fierce shot.

He's going to get better and better.

Hope Romeu keeps his place....prefer him over Vic.

Clasie played well and played for 90 minutes. That'll annoy a few.

Dominated the game for 90mins. But it did show if we had a decent forward it would have been a cricket score tonight!!

Clasie played well and played for 90 minutes. That'll annoy a few.

Why would that annoy anyone?

Just got back. Excellent result and performance. Romeu my motm, great passing and really gets stuck in sitting shirking. Shout out to targett, cedric, clasie and long. Vvd won everything as well. Great stuff.

Why would that annoy anyone?

Because a few on here love to hate him and pick holes in his game.

Sat on the bus

Clasie MOTM he might be on the small side but he is a little terrier nipping away at the opposition and putting in some great tackles added to that he has an eye for a pass he could be a good player for us.

Everyone played well tonight no sign of the brain farts that have been costing us.

Mane needs a goal I reckon once one goes in he will be up and running.

Only slight criticism is that players seem scared to just head into the opposition box at times. To night both Mane and Davis pulled up anf tried a pass when they had space to head into the box and shoot.

Just got back. Excellent result and performance. Romeu my motm, great passing and really gets stuck in sitting shirking. Shout out to targett, cedric, clasie and long. Vvd won everything as well. Great stuff.

Totally agree Romeu and Clasie outstanding . Long energy levels are amazing.

Koeman and team got tactics spot on and great sub Tadic for Mane

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Why would that annoy anyone?

Dunno but I suspect the two fellas sitting near me who wouldn't stop complaining about him for the first 20 minutes, slagging him off every time he touched the ball. They stopped complaining after about half an hour though. I think even they realised they were talking ****.

That was certainly a £12m performance from Long tonight. Thought he was superb and Targett had a great game too. If Mane could hit a cows arse with banjo we'd have won that by about 5 or 6.

Totally agree Romeu and Clasie outstanding . Long energy levels are amazing.

Koeman and team got tactics spot on and great sub Tadic for Mane

 

 

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I was actually upset by the sub because l wanted Mane to score and felt he would if he kept going and then Tadic scored........fair play Ronald

Blimey.. Clasie played 90 mins!

Made them look crap. VVD and Fonte had their pair up front on their pockets. Clasie and Romeu excellent.

Everyone did well, although Mane was a little sloppy at times but couldn't be faulted for effort. Just didn't happen for him.

Funniest thing I heard was someone shouting at Gomes to punch it when taking a goal kick!

Fantastic from Long tonight, no other word for it.

Targett looked really good, great delivery into the box.

Deeney couldn't shake VVD, was in his pocket all night.

An on-song Mane and we could have had 4 or 5.

Great performance against a poor Watford. Thoroughly deserved result, by far the better team and the sort of performance that makes you think we should be capable of stringing a few results together now

Well in lads, a great performance and a result to show for it.

Romeu was outstanding, my MOTM.

Great cross from Targett for our first, he had a very solid game, to be fair everyone did.

COYR!

We put in a great performance tonight two good goals again we missed a number of guilt edge changes and thank goodness there were no errors in defence FF only had three things to do and they were in the second half, one cross to take, one shot to save and stop one going for a corner. Can't make my mind up on MOM for me it's between Long and Davis.

GREAT WIN!! Agree with all the positives so to switch it up I will post a very small negative as I'm curious if I'm in the minority with this one....

Does it annoy anyone else that we appear to need to replace Cedric with Yoshi at RB because we can't trust Cedric to defend? (And before you say it's because of height, imagine if we subbed Bertrand off "because of height"...both Fullbacks need to be unsubbable surely?)

Looking forward to Saturday !!

GREAT WIN!! Agree with all the positives so to switch it up I will post a very small negative as I'm curious if I'm in the minority with this one....

 

Does it annoy anyone else that we appear to need to replace Cedric with Yoshi at RB because we can't trust Cedric to defend? (And before you say it's because of height, imagine if we subbed Bertrand off "because of height"...both Fullbacks need to be unsubbable surely?)

 

Looking forward to Saturday !!

Can only think it was because he was on a yellow??

Can only think it was because he was on a yellow??

Plus he has been injured and we have another game in a short time. Sensible sub with the game won.

Great win tonight but feel we will need to be more clinical against west bromwich as they will be more organized than Watford were tonight. Shane long was immense tonight.

Everyone put a good shift in today in awful conditions. Watford were dreadful - how can they be in the top half? Their defence was all over the place. But that doesn't detract from our completely dominant performance. Special praise for the superhuman Shane Long and for Matt Targets who was the best I've ever seen him.

*Targett * bloody auto correct.

Great result, shame the atmosphere in the ground was sh1te though, everyone around me (block 38.) seemed content to sit on their hands rather than join in supporting the team.

Agree with what a lot of people are saying about Matt Targett. Thought he was excellent tonight. Very under rated young player who potentially has a great future.

Great game, Long was superb and Targett had a great game. Just passed Sadio getting a talking to in the layby off the Winchester junction of the M3 after he sped thru the roadworks at Eastleigh. He should have scored a couple.

Ref was ****e when it came to any balls into touch

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.

Great to get a win.

 

Lots of positives:

 

- Good use of 3 CBs

- Clasie playing 90mins and he, Romeu and Cedric were all good

- Davis outstanding (hope Derry enjoyed his performance)

- Long with one of his good games

- Forster return a massive moment. Surely he plays every game from now

 

One negative:

 

- We need far too many chances to score and won't always get as many as today. Too many players are not ruthless in front of goal and its the biggest reason for our league position not being as high as would be ideal.

 

Question: Will Koeman try and fit Wanyama and Pelle into the team on Saturday? Especially given the close proximity of the games.

 

Would be great to start seeing some selection consistency.

 

Moment of the Game: Duncan cheering Tadic's goal

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.

Great game, Long was superb and Targett had a great game. Just passed Sadio getting a talking to in the layby off the Winchester junction of the M3 after he sped thru the roadworks at Eastleigh. He should have scored a couple.

 

Ref was ****e when it came to any balls into touch

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

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

Shame Davis had a perfectly good, well finished goal disallowed.

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

 

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

The one in front of the kingsland was blind

Good performance and great to see the formation finally work as it's meant to.

We didn't half ride our luck with all the chances we missed though. Watford were awful so it wasn't much bother but a better side could have punished us.

Gary Lineker on Match of the Day: "We've all made ourselves bigger with our hands"

Well, made me chuckle anyway....

Have a Watford supporting mate. Makes it sweeter.

Thought Cedric was very decent, tried a few skill moves too

The one in front of the kingsland was blind

That was definitely the assistant's call. I'm central Kingsland and it all seemed OK to me but I'm looking across the line, not along it. The assistant's in the best position in the ground.

Can only think it was because he was on a yellow??

what a joke that card was to....

Great result, shame the atmosphere in the ground was sh1te though, everyone around me (block 38.) seemed content to sit on their hands rather than join in supporting the team.

yeah atmosphere got better in the second half in the Itchen North (though still not great). I put it down to nerves after the last few results I think a lot of people were expecting the worst.

Watford were only poor because we dominated the game. Whatever has been said behind the scenes has had a positive effect as we looked like a team who has plenty of confidence and belief in themselves. Goes to show that Wanyama isn't needed and perhaps a stint in the stands will do him (and us!) the world of good. Mane caused the defence all sorts of problems but like Long, he needs to improve on his finishing before he can become worth silly money.

And cracking efforts by Targett and Davis. The latter being very unlucky having his goal disallowed.

Gary Lineker on Match of the Day: "We've all made ourselves bigger with our hands"

 

Well, made me chuckle anyway....

On the day he's announced his divorce as well!

Great all round performance but my MOM was VVD, he didn't give their forwards anything, won everything in the air and made them look poor. Great win, felt sorry for mane, he needs a goal but just didn't happen for him. Pelle and Wanyama on the bench saturday, we look good as we are, Pulis will park the bus and the keeper will waste time from the start, hit them with pace. COYS

Huge win!

A loss would've been incredibly deflating, very pleased we managed to get the W on the board.

only downer on the night was Fraser not waving, 10 months out and can't even give the fans a wave ffs

only downer on the night was Fraser not waving, 10 months out and can't even give the fans a wave ffs

A grown man didn't wave to a bunch of other grown men, oh the horror!

:lol:

only downer on the night was Fraser not waving, 10 months out and can't even give the fans a wave ffs

I'm certain I did see him wave though...