Saints V Man United - Post Match Reactions

Best team.

Best fans.

Horrible result.

Very, very disappointed, but an occasion me and my boys will remember for a very long time. Proud of ALL the players today.

Southampton done us proud, can't blame the goalie. It's a team effort

 

We had a CLEAN sheet until the final in cup run .

 

Murhino didn't look happy at winning because his team was average

Exactly they're a bang average side in the grand scheme of things - they've spent millions in the last few years and look nowhere near league contenders. They're reliant on a 35 year old at the fag end of his career (who today was aided and abetted by some generous goalkeeping).

Well done to the whole team.

They got us to a final and worked their damn sock off.

Nothing to be ashamed of.

Onward and upwards.

Nice analysis of our game and Gabbiadini here. Rest of the writeups are still half-baked.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2017/feb/26/manolo-gabbiadini-southampton-manchester-united-efl-cup-final?CMP=twt_gu

There's a lot of revisionism going on with those insisting we would've won if only Virgil and Fonte played. We lost 2-0 at Old Trafford earlier this season with both playing - in fact Ibrahimovic scored a not dissimilar header that day too.

The defence did a sterling job today against a high calibre attack who'll score three or more against far better teams.

In my opinion where we were undermined was with our midfield screen of Romeu and Davis. Romeu doesn't have the legs to do the screening job alone against the best teams and needs some help alongside him. Sadly, Davis isn't a natural in that role and goes AWOL too often. The free kick that lead to the first goal came from Romeu being stretched too thin and feeling like he had to make a desperate lunge. And on the second goal, Davis had switched off entirely and Romeu let Lingard run off him into acres of space.

They were only a handful of lapses in an otherwise good performance, but we were punished ruthlessly by United for our mistakes.

(The third goal was just a shambles borne of us not getting back into position quickly enough from our own corner.)

The boys can hold their heads up high. They gave a great account of themselves and deserved better than they got, but that's football. Obviously the linesman dropped a testicle, but I thought the referee was all right. He might've sent off Lingard, but similarly, he might have gotten a bit excited and sent off Stephens for his wild lunge or Romeu for a flying arm when he was already on a booking.

For me the only major negatives (aside from the result) were the goalkeeper's continued inability to save anything that isn't straight at him, and possibly the worst cameo since Ali Dia from our record signing Boufal - he was appalling.

For what it's worth:

Forster: 5 - he makes regulation stops you'd expect an outfielder playing as emergency keeper to make. And that's it. Inspires no confidence with his kicking or coming off his line.

Cedric: 7 - kept Martial quiet and was up and down the right wing with conviction all day.

Stephens: 6 - didn't let anyone down and wasn't overawed by the occasion. I think he's a decent prospect with a good head on his shoulders... one reckless lunge notwithstanding.

Yoshida: 7 - like in the semi final against Liverpool, Yoshi came up big and seemed to be everywhere at times. One of our most improved players.

Bertrand: 8 - solid in defence, a constant threat in attack. Brought his crossing A-game today.

Romeu: 6 - fought well, but as I mentioned previously, I thought he was a bit exposed at times.

Davis: 7 - busy, neat, Davis-y. His best moment was a lovely back heel to play in Cedric (I think). In my opinion he's more effective in those advanced positions than holding.

Ward-Prowse: 8 - one of his best games. Used the ball well, his delivery from set pieces *****il Boufal bizarrely took over corner duties) and open play was top class, and he even won a few tackles.

Tadic: 6 - never quite looked like it was going to be a Tadic kind of day. He's got great technical ability, but I think he struggles to get into fast paced, physical matches. Still had a great chance to score, but as is his wont, rather half heartedly hit the finish.

Redmond: 7 - great work outside the box, but his "end product" still lets him down too often. The cut inside shank remains his signature move.

Gabbiadini: 9 - he knows what he's doing. His runs off the ball are always so intelligent and beautifully timed. What more can you ask of your centre forward than a (should have been) hat trick? He had some lovely touches linking up the play too. Didn't deserve to be on the losing side.

Subs: Not sure Long or Rodriguez touched the ball. Boufal touched it plenty of times - straight to the opposition with masterful frequency.

Not the result any of us were hoping for, but I think we can be proud of our performance and that we had a right proper go (unlike the Arsenal cup final which, from memory, was a 1-0 procession).

Safe journey to those traveling back.

Hmmm black North Face jackets. The hardest of all terrace fashion statements.

I can vouch for that, had my navy one on today, I'm definitely not hard.

In my defence though, I did take it off as soon as I got to my seat to reveal a 1987 "Danish" Hummel shirt, which I'm still not sure how I managed to squeeze into this morning. Not a good look all round.

Well I'm still on the verge of tears. When Saints get to a final, which isn't often let's be honest, I remember my Dad, my Mum, my uncles, 1976, 1979 etc.

We will always be chasing unachievable things.

Will we win the title ? No

Will we win the champions league ? No

Could we have won the league cup ? Yes

Just for once, why can't it be good enough to play the other team off the park?

Such is life. Tomorrow is a new day and we'll get on with it again.

Feeling much love for my hometown tonight xx

Hoarse, gutted, proud

The lads were brilliant, I'm very proud of them. A good chance we'll keep this team together for next season. If we do, I wouldn't rule out another Wembley visit soon and a top 4 finish

 

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Play like that every match I'd agree but let's face it the adrenaline in the players won't be quite the same.

Well I'm still on the verge of tears. When Saints get to a final, which isn't often let's be honest, I remember my Dad, my Mum, my uncles, 1976, 1979 etc.

We will always be chasing unachievable things.

 

Will we win the title ? No

Will we win the champions league ? No

Could we have won the league cup ? Yes

 

Just for once, why can't it be good enough to play the other team off the park?

 

Such is life. Tomorrow is a new day and we'll get on with it again.

 

Feeling much love for my hometown tonight xx

Me too. It's SO ****ING FRUSTRATING playing well, losing, and knowing we probably won't get another chance for another decade minimum.

dont think it will to long before we are back at wembley, well played lads!......worried about FF though, not long ago was being touted as englands number 1, not sure what happened, maybe a time off field wouldn't be bad for him, get his head together and come back stronger, he has looked like a beast before!

Just back. Of course I am disappointed that we didn't win, but the pride in the club, the support, the team outweighs the disappointment. A good game.

Before the game I said Pogba cost more than our starting line up. Well he really was not at the races. Zlatan - well, they are almost a one man team.

Feeling gutted and angry that we lost, but only in spite of how we played not because of it. A few observations:

1) Since we have had Gabbiadini in the team our style of play has really come together. Puel has set us up excellently in recent matches (even West Ham wasn't a bad performance).

2) The ball was barely in our half yet we conceded three goals. Ibrahomivic showed his class today and benefitted from Stephens' inexperience. However I'm getting a bit fed up of Forster not pulling out any saves AGAIN. De Gea made a couple of great stops that Forster simply wouldn't have done. Ok, it's de Gea, but Darren Randolph did a similar thing a few weeks ago.

3) People criticising the substitutions - can see the argument for keeping Gabbiadini on but Long's pace also made sense and Gabbiadini was looking pretty knackered. I like Tadic but he struggled to get in the game and from an hour onwards he was a bit half hearted in some of his efforts.

4) It was fun celebrating taking the lead (took me quite a while before I realise it had been ruled out), and then when we got the equaliser. Will try to look back and remember those euphoric emotions rather than the bitterness I felt on 87 minutes.

5) Thought Kenzie Benali's stint before the game made us look a bit small time, like we needed someone to reassure us how well we were all doing. If I had a quid for every time she said "you sound amazing", all a bit patronising. Arguably the phone light thing too, although I appreciate the sentiment of it. Other than that I thought we did a great job as fans. The guy in front of me making a point of singing "stand up if you love the Saints" on numerous occasions obviously didn't love Saints enough to get back to his seat in time for our equaliser though, how ironic.

6) If we can convince van Dijk to stay, as difficult as that might be, upgrade at least one of the central midfield positions and get a new goalkeeper we could have a really strong side next year, and I've seen enough to think we have an astute manager in place too. Top 4 is always going to be a tough ask and probably unrealistic, but not sure a poster should petts should be called a "complete twot" for the suggestion.

7) As much as getting into Europe again would have been nice, it may also help us tremendously next season not to have a game every three days. Puel seems to have made good use of our time off, unlike Koeman who just liked to head off on holiday as often as possible.

Nice analysis of our game and Gabbiadini here. Rest of the writeups are still half-baked.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2017/feb/26/manolo-gabbiadini-southampton-manchester-united-efl-cup-final?CMP=twt_gu

Sums it up nicely

Koeman would have won that game.

 

 

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Right... thanks for that.

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Not having a go at the team at all - just frustrated as I have been all season at the manager - I have never had any faith in him and don't believe he is right for us even if we had won.

 

Our route here was far from being emphatic, apart maybe from the way we played against Liverpool at St Mary's and I am still worried about the rest of the season - however I would love to be proved wrong and judging from the way the team played today that could be a real possibility - but as I said I am still worried and entitled to an opinion.

That's just the problem, isn't it? You've been having a go at the manager all season and you're not open to the fact that just maybe you might be wrong.

As for our route not being emphatic... We played Premier League teams every round: A convincing display against Palace, a competent performance against Sunderland settled by a brilliant goal, playing Arsenal off the park at the Emirates, dominating Liverpool at home and being disappointed with a 1-0 win, and being the better side for an hour at Anfield and not conceding a goal until today.

But yeah, underwhelming. Puel out. Can only assume you're missing a U, T & Y from your username.

One thing really ****ed me off. There were many who couldn't get tickets, yet row 2 in block 528 had 18 or 20 empties in a row. I guess that they must have been corporate, but it is really poor that no one was in them.

Just back. Brilliant performance, especially to come back from two down. Gabbi is superb, just a pity that he is not quite there yet in terms of fitness, he looked ****ged when he was subbed. Really don't think we missed VvD today, except perhaps as a threat in their box. Two huge mistakes, one each from Romeu (who otherwise was superb) and Prowsey (who had a decent game) lead to the goals. Jack Stephens looked very calm and in control today, even his bad looking lunge that resulted in the yellow was really only because he had been tripped just before and was off balance. OK, Yoshida and Jack should probably have done better for the 2nd, but we shouldn't have been put in that position in the first place. Only down side today was the usual suspect, how much longer do we have to put up with not having a save making keeper? Please can we give Hassen a try.

Well done lads, you were mostly great today and made me proud to be a Saint again.

One thing really ****ed me off. There were many who couldn't get tickets, yet row 2 in block 528 had 18 or 20 empties in a row. I guess that they must have been corporate, but it is really poor that no one was in them.

There were a lot of empty seats everywhere, surprising really. Over 4k down on capacity.

Do you think today will change the opinion of our fans that dismiss the league cup as an inconvenience/irelevant

Best team lost.

Best fans won.

Best manager got the result.

 

Well played our depleted team. Badly led but gave their all.

 

Goodbye Puel.

 

 

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You ****ing loser.

Super performance from Saints and they should be proud of that display.

Great effort but so frustrated. Mostly we played well. Thought Davis fell asleep for Lingard goal, and seemed Forster should have been nearer the first?

Really admired the determination and work rate of Redmond, United were scared of him. Actually think bringing Long on was good. Gab was knackered and Long pace caused problems.

If that Romeu header had gone in not sure they would have come back. Its and buts...

Gab looks brilliant with link up play. JWP had a good game. Full backs were brilliant.

Ibrahimovic unstoppable at times.

Gutted

Just back. Brilliant performance, especially to come back from two down. Gabbi is superb, just a pity that he is not quite there yet in terms of fitness, he looked ****ged when he was subbed. Really don't think we missed VvD today, except perhaps as a threat in their box. Two huge mistakes, one each from Romeu (who otherwise was superb) and Prowsey (who had a decent game) lead to the goals. Jack Stephens looked very calm and in control today, even his bad looking lunge that resulted in the yellow was really only because he had been tripped just before and was off balance. OK, Yoshida and Jack should probably have done better for the 2nd, but we shouldn't have been put in that position in the first place. Only down side today was the usual suspect, how much longer do we have to put up with not having a save making keeper? Please can we give Hassen a try.

Well done lads, you were mostly great today and made me proud to be a Saint again.

Agree with this, especially RE Forster.

Long day, wrong result but can hold our heads high. Thank god we have a game next weekend.

I hope we can take this spirit and quality into the remainder of the season. It's all coming together nicely by the looks of it.

You ****ing loser.

Of all the annoying posters out there he must be the most deserving of the ignore button. Quite clearly not a Saints fan.

Thought he was poor today - lost the ball numerous times and gave United the chance to break (the only real time they looked dangerous).

Davis wasn't poor; it was JWP who lost the ball immediately prior to their second goal - he wasn't poor either; probably his most important game in a Saints shirt. Our only poor player on the day, and for some time now was Forster. It's going to be interesting to see whether Claude has the bottle to drop him.

Bitter result to take. We should have won it, but FF is too easy to score against at the moment. However, Puel has now shown what he can do when he gets time to work with the players. Bodes well, especially now we have a goalscorer. I'm going to be sad about this result for sometime, but focusing on the good bits, I am hopeful for the future too.

Davis wasn't poor; it was JWP who lost the ball immediately prior to their second goal - he wasn't poor either; probably his most important game in a Saints shirt. Our only poor player on the day, and for some time now was Forster. It's going to be interesting to see whether Claude has the bottle to drop him.

Davis along with Forster were probably the only two players who were under par today. He didn't track the Itd player for the second goal and just wasn't as switched on as everyone else. Also a pathetic effort in the wall for the first goal. Stephens was at fault for the third goal but you can't criticise him, otherwise he didn't put a foot wrong.

Thought the ref had a poor game, along with his assistants.. thought the situation where he booked Stephens could have simply been avoided if he gave the foul on the first place! Utd players surrounding the ref is hardly surprising...

Genuinely think we out performed Utd in every respect - players, fans, just the whole day really. One to remember bar the result! And they can never take away our celebrations for our second goal!

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/match-reports/manchester-united-3-2-southampton-9920930

 

For once, I agree with most of this msm report. Except for the De Gea bit (he just made saves you'd hope FF would make).

Ryan Betrand, standing behind Gabbiadini, was in an offside position, but how the assistant referee got such a key decision so hopelessly wrong, only he knows. Surely the time has come for video technology to be introduced to ensure such blatant mistakes are not allowed to happen.

Yes indeed.

Ryan Betrand, standing behind Gabbiadini, was in an offside position, but how the assistant referee got such a key decision so hopelessly wrong, only he knows. Surely the time has come for video technology to be introduced to ensure such blatant mistakes are not allowed to happen.

 

Yes indeed.

Won't happen. The big clubs know full well they get most of the decisions their way. It isn't in their interest.

United scored their first father and son sat in front of us get up and go.

Ryan Betrand, standing behind Gabbiadini, was in an offside position, but how the assistant referee got such a key decision so hopelessly wrong, only he knows. Surely the time has come for video technology to be introduced to ensure such blatant mistakes are not allowed to happen.

 

Yes indeed.

No doubt in my mind about the mistake by the assistant who possibly couldn't see Gabbiadini and thought it was Bertrand, who was in an offside position, who scored the goal but it's surprising that the Ref didn't see the error and over-rule the assistant. Video technology would change the nature of the game entirely because so many decisions would have to be referred that matches would become very disjointed. The problem we have is that if a decision is found to be wrong after the game, as this one was, it's too late to change the result, so instead the football authorities don't allow officials to admit to the errors. Maybe they are right, because to publicly admit mistakes after the game would inflame the supporters of the wronged team. But do we know whether the officials are taken to task at all for their mistakes, because if they are not, what incentive is there for them to do better next time?

It's a cruel game. We know we were the better team and we could easily have won by 2 or 3 clear goals but only the result will appear in the record books. Perhaps the consolation is that it is only a game so does it really matter that much in the great scheme of things? Of course, if you wanted us to play in Europe again next year, it does matter but maybe we will have a better season concentrating on the league and aiming for top 4.

Not having a go at the team at all - just frustrated as I have been all season at the manager - I have never had any faith in him and don't believe he is right for us even if we had won.

 

Our route here was far from being emphatic, apart maybe from the way we played against Liverpool at St Mary's and I am still worried about the rest of the season - however I would love to be proved wrong and judging from the way the team played today that could be a real possibility - but as I said I am still worried and entitled to an opinion.

Yes that's true, everyone is entitled to their opinion. Even if it's complete bollocks.

If we had lost 3 or 4-0 and been outclassed I could have accepted the defeat, there would have been no choice.

But to lose that match after having them on the ropes for so long, for the ruled out Goal and hitting the post and being absolutely superb makes it so painful to take.

Gutted, but proud, very proud.

Anyone who cannot see what Puel is trying to do and doesn't buy into it, frankly, is a clueless cu_nt.

We need a new keeper, keep VVD and buy a partner for OR. Do that and by fu_ck we'll be a fantastic side.

Genuinely gutted. I thought we were the better team from the first minute to the last

I thought our support was ****e, full of middle aged couples taking pics lower tier behind the goal.

Anyone who cannot see what Puel is trying to do and doesn't buy into it, frankly, is a clueless cu_nt.

 

We need a new keeper, keep VVD and buy a partner for OR. Do that and by fu_ck we'll be a fantastic side.

This with bells on........

I thought our support was ****e, full of middle aged couples taking pics lower tier behind the goal.

Our support was fantastic especially when you compare it to the Mancs. So what if people were taking photos to remember a final? I suppose you thought that wasn't cool or that our support wasn't good because it wasn't all Stone Island wearing youths who had got wasted before hand and were constantly singing about Pompey?

Just back and I seem to have lost my voice.

Gave my season tickets to my sons and sat in Club Wembley behind our goal. Despite being dressed as a neutral, no one seemed bothered that we joined in every Saints song and danced in the aisle when Gabba equalised !

Proud day, it was not to be.

Won't happen. The big clubs know full well they get most of the decisions their way. It isn't in their interest.

A video technology decision decided the top game between PSV and Feyenoord in the Eredivisie today. I know it's not the PL, but it's a start, and I think it's headed in that direction everywhere, eventually.

Won't happen. The big clubs know full well they get most of the decisions their way. It isn't in their interest.

Exactly, no one will care that these decisions have gone against little old Southampton. Sky wanted the "Zlatan final" and they managed to get it.

I thought our support was ****e, full of middle aged couples taking pics lower tier behind the goal.

I didn't get the fact that most of the lower tier sat down. What was that all about? Luckily we were near enough to the back to stand but there were a few people arguing near us about it.

We made a lot of noise at times even if it was limited to 2 or 3 chants. I didn't hear their fans much.

I thought our support was ****e, full of middle aged couples taking pics lower tier behind the goal.

Excellent, I'm looking forward to seeing those photos on here because I couldn't be there.

Is there an issue with people being middle aged at Wembley, never realized there was an upper age limit.

I thought our support was ****e, full of middle aged couples taking pics lower tier behind the goal.

You're a f*cking embarrassment mush.

I thought our support was ****e, full of middle aged couples taking pics lower tier behind the goal.

Oh my God! Really? What the hell. Why can't they do everything properly, just like you do.

You're a f*cking embarrassment mush.

Well said, if today was sh*t support then he might want to go and support another club with a set of fans that are worthy of his awesomeness. Top quality from all our fans today IMO, credit to the club and did us proud.

I've been to all 6 finals, 4 defeats now I'm fed up with that, but what a performance today. If you aren't proud of that then you best give up now.

Yes there were faults, our Goalie situation is worrying, but if the club could grow a pair and just keep some stability for a while the future looks bright.

Appalling decision for our first goal but equally both Stephens and Romeo could have been sent off (as could Lingard). Football karma will come around some day.

Still a good day to be a Saints fan.

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