Swansea (H) Match & Reaction Thread

Although another game, much more positive, looking to go forward at every opportunity. Still a bit ponderous with the passing (especially 2nd half) but carved out enough chances to win 2 or 3 games. Confident it will come!!

****ing Yoshida taking a free kick :lol:

It's typical that our first proper 'shot at goal' free-kick was earned just after taking JWP off! Decent effort though!

It's typical that our first proper 'shot at goal' free-kick was earned just after taking JWP off! Decent effort though!

Why do you think JWP would actually manage to hit the target though? If the free kick down the left in the first half was anything to go by, he didn't even manage to get it into the box to one of our players.

Based off one natch, a nil-nil at home to Swansea, you now predict we are going finish 5th or higher?

Yeah (If we keep VVD or adequately replace as I said). Its a season prediction mate, some people were doing it before we even kicked a ball. I watch the majority of Saints matches in person and I sat through some utter predictable and uninventive ****e last year, we rarely got going or strung passes together like we did yesterday, but despite that we still managed to finish where we did and better than I predicted (think I had us 10th).

I think this year based on what I saw of us in game one, what I have watched of other teams that would be around us (Everton, West Ham, Leicester) and also of teams that would be considered to be in the top 6 (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool), it is going to be wide open again, and last years return to the 00's looking top 6 was the anomaly because the teams in the best of the rest category were all ****e at once.

The top 6 teams are going to be dropping points to teams all over the place as everyone will step their game up against them as usual, there will be a good opportunity for an upset in the top 4 again this year, and we have the capability to be the team that achieves it.

I have only read some of the posts so perhaps I have missed the relevant ones, but I am surprised that no one is talking about the missed penalty calls. Based upon the TV replays, it sure looks like we should have had two penalty shots. Had we converted them--admittedly not a sure thing if Tadic is shooting--it would have been an easy victory.

The first, Tadic was tackled from behind just inside the box. Personally I think the ref bottled it as didn't want to have to decide whether it was inside or out, either that or thought there was no contact - in which case you'd think he'd have carded Tadic.

The second one, a shot was blocked by defender at close range who's hands were up defending his face. Despite protecting himself and being at close range I don't think you can say his hands are in a natural position, it's also prevented a shot, so for me that's a penalty.

Tadic needs to give that walking football a go, he'd be amazing at that. He does my head when we attack with a bit of pace and purpose and he slows it all down and gives the opposing defence time to get settled

Tadic needs to give that walking football a go, he'd be amazing at that. He does my head when we attack with a bit of pace and purpose and he slows it all down and gives the opposing defence time to get settled

To be fair, he's not the worst culprit. Nearly every time Boufal beats a man and gets through on goal, he goes back to try to beat the same man again. In fact, last season, when any of our players, with the exceptions of Austin and Gabbiadini, got into the oppostion penalty area with a clear sight of goal, they passed the ball out of the penalty area until someone lobbbed in a high cross to the opposition goalkeeper or centre backs. At least yesterday, some of them were trying to shoot.

Deja vu with all the "we need to be more clinical" articles running in the media today.

quick thoughts and player ratings http://thesaintshub.com/saints0-0swansea.html. Encouraging stuff I'd say.

what a shocking atmosphere again yesterday, literally no chants out of the northam bar OWTS. We've gotta have one of the worst home atmosphere's in the league.

what a shocking atmosphere again yesterday, literally no chants out of the northam bar OWTS. We've gotta have one of the worst home atmosphere's in the league.

Nice and positive, thanks for your input

what a shocking atmosphere again yesterday, literally no chants out of the northam bar OWTS. We've gotta have one of the worst home atmosphere's in the league.

I wouldn't bother going if I were you.

The atmosphere was pretty good yesterday.

There seems to be a couple of knocks yesterday. Davis was noticeable uncomfortable (quad/hamstring). Bertrand seemed to have a slight limp when coming off late. He went straight into the locker room.

Any word on those two?

what a shocking atmosphere again yesterday, literally no chants out of the northam bar OWTS.

You don't know what the word "literally" means.

 

You don't know what the word "literally" means.

Well yes he does, in fact his version of it is now added to the OED because language is transient and changes generation to generation http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/10240917/Uproar-as-OED-includes-erroneous-use-of-literally.html

In fact it's totally acceptable to say something like, his inability to understand nuance is literally the definition of autism.

Well yes he does, in fact his version of it is now added to the OED because language is transient and changes generation to generation http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/10240917/Uproar-as-OED-includes-erroneous-use-of-literally.html

 

In fact it's totally acceptable to say something like, his inability to understand nuance is literally the definition of autism.

Amazing, out MLG'ing MLG.

The atmosphere was pretty good yesterday.

Didn't come across on the TV feed. Sounded deathly quiet most of the time on the stream I watched.

Tadic needs to give that walking football a go, he'd be amazing at that. He does my head when we attack with a bit of pace and purpose and he slows it all down and gives the opposing defence time to get settled

BOG Off!

Obviously it's early days but first impressions are that it doesn't look like we've addressed any of the issues from last season. It's going to be a very long season.

Yep, six consecutive home games without a goal is NOT down to bad luck / crap referees.

Impotent strike force from last season, NOT addressed

3rd and 4th choice CB,s from last season, NOT addressed

Attacking midfielders from last season ( who chip in with sod all goals ), NOT addressed

Dodgy keeper from last season, NOT addressed.

Yep, six consecutive home games without a goal is NOT down to bad luck / crap referees.

Impotent strike force from last season, NOT addressed

3rd and 4th choice CB,s from last season, NOT addressed

Attacking midfielders from last season ( who chip in with sod all goals ), NOT addressed

Dodgy keeper from last season, NOT addressed.

What on earth has the GK and Defenders got to do with not scoring?

Didn't come across on the TV feed. Sounded deathly quiet most of the time on the stream I watched.

OK. The atmosphere was pretty good though.

The first, Tadic was tackled from behind just inside the box. Personally I think the ref bottled it as didn't want to have to decide whether it was inside or out, either that or thought there was no contact - in which case you'd think he'd have carded Tadic.

 

The second one, a shot was blocked by defender at close range who's hands were up defending his face. Despite protecting himself and being at close range I don't think you can say his hands are in a natural position, it's also prevented a shot, so for me that's a penalty.

On the second one, the point for me was that he moved his hands towards the ball. That makes it deliberate. Tough as it might be, he was supposed to take that one straight to the face.

Well yes he does, in fact his version of it is now added to the OED because language is transient and changes generation to generation http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/10240917/Uproar-as-OED-includes-erroneous-use-of-literally.html

 

In fact it's totally acceptable to say something like, his inability to understand nuance is literally the definition of autism.

This change is literally very distressing. My head is figuratively exploding. Meat for thought, I guess. I mean this literally.

This change is literally very distressing. My head is figuratively exploding. Meat for thought, I guess. I mean this literally.

Go away, it's you Yanks' fault that English is dying

I actually thought Tadic was our most threatening player and a big improvement on where he was last season.

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Well yes he does, in fact his version of it is now added to the OED because language is transient and changes generation to generation http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/10240917/Uproar-as-OED-includes-erroneous-use-of-literally.html

 

In fact it's totally acceptable to say something like, his inability to understand nuance is literally the definition of autism.

It shouldn't be the case though, really. Not sure I agree with the attitude of "well so many people get it wrong, let's just say it's allowed now. Everyone wins." Well no they don't, some of us have actually bothered to learn or think during our lives. Soon we'll live in a world where "with regards to" and "I would of thought" are acceptable, and perhaps people will start adopting "I could care less" from Americans (not all of them...) too. The future is bleak!

OK. The atmosphere was pretty good though.

Didn't come across that way on the live commentary text I was reading.

The first, Tadic was tackled from behind just inside the box. Personally I think the ref bottled it as didn't want to have to decide whether it was inside or out, either that or thought there was no contact - in which case you'd think he'd have carded Tadic.

 

The second one, a shot was blocked by defender at close range who's hands were up defending his face. Despite protecting himself and being at close range I don't think you can say his hands are in a natural position, it's also prevented a shot, so for me that's a penalty.

Agree, I think the first would have been given as a free kick if it was on the half way line. But I wasn't surprised to see it not given; Swansea would probably say he made a meal of it and it woud have been soft. I didn't see enough replays to be sure on the second one, but it looked to me like when the ball struck his hand it was actually by the side of his head, not in front of it. I don't think it was an intentional handball, but if the hands moved towards the ball, in an unnatural position, the ball wasn't going to hit him (i.e. in the face) anyway, and in fact the ball would have been heading towards the goal, you'd think that would qualify as a penalty even if it wasn't intentional.

Didn't come across that way on the live commentary text I was reading.

If you hold up your hands to block the path of the ball it's a penalty.

When the commentator said it was ball to hands it just demonstrated that he hasn't read the rules since 1980 and needs to catch up.

He was presumably equally shocked when the keepers didn't pick up back passes, and we had goalposts instead of jumpers.

Two good penalty shouts - you'd expect to be awarded one of them, and probably miss it.

If you hold up your hands to block the path of the ball it's a penalty.

When the commentator said it was ball to hands it just demonstrated that he hasn't read the rules since 1980 and needs to catch up.

He was presumably equally shocked when the keepers didn't pick up back passes, and we had goalposts instead of jumpers.

Two good penalty shouts - you'd expect to be awarded one of them, and probably miss it.

I think it's allowed to put hands up to block the ball from hitting your face though, isn't it? If nothing else because it's an instinctive reaction. However, I think the ball was actually going past his head and it still hits his arm. In which case, hard to argue it shouldn't be a penalty.

If you hold up your hands to block the path of the ball it's a penalty.

When the commentator said it was ball to hands it just demonstrated that he hasn't read the rules since 1980 and needs to catch up.

He was presumably equally shocked when the keepers didn't pick up back passes, and we had goalposts instead of jumpers.

Two good penalty shouts - you'd expect to be awarded one of them, and probably miss it.

You might want to climb down off of your horse and actually read the rule, thankfully you have to learn them as part of coaching licences, but ive done the hard work for you and will paste the url here for you.

I take it you've not read the rules since 1980 and need to catch up (but im not sure you are anywhere near that old)

Ill point out the main points which are;

Handball is a deliberate action of moving the hand towards the ball, not the other way around

And

The position of the hand is not necessarily indicative of an offence

Ill stick to my original thoughts that none were really penalty worthy, as theres no way they could have done anything about the ball hitting their hand. The tadic 'shout' was our biggest, but the plank does his best to win extra points for exuberant style, so can understand the ref ignoring that one too.

quick thoughts and player ratings http://thesaintshub.com/saints0-0swansea.html. Encouraging stuff I'd say.

I'd broadly go with those. If I'm nitpicking, I'd raise Gabi to a 7 as I thought he looked lively and was unlucky early on. Tadic was decent overall but would knock him down to a 6.5 because he really ought to have scored with at least one of those opportunities. Redmond 6.5 too as want him to get in the box and support Gabi with runs more. Boufal I would say 6 as a couple of decent moments but Austin's 5 is fair as his movement needs work.

Ill point out the main points which are;

 

Handball is a deliberate action of moving the hand towards the ball, not the other way around

 

And

 

The position of the hand is not necessarily indicative of an offence

Hardly any of the Rules make literal sense when compared with Actual Decisions. The only argument is if it's the sort of incident that normally results in a Penalty Decision. And given that it was us at SMS, rather than i.e. Man Utd at Old Trafford, I would say that the ref got it spot on.

FFS...they're laws, not rules.

none were really penalty worthy

Mark Clattenburg disagrees with you. He said we should have been awarded two penalties

Mark Clattenburg disagrees with you. He said we should have been awarded two penalties

He's changed since he became so famous.

Well there has been more positive attacking intent from Saints in the first 20 mins here than there was for most of last season at SMS. Great start.

Redmonds shooting hasn't improved in the off season then

 

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Look really good in that half. Early days but if the players can get used to these ideas we'll be winning more games than we lose.

 

 

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Not scoring at home against a poor team destined for a relegation scrap. New manager but its still the same Tadic/Redmond/Davis/JWP that don't score.

Much better performance. Pressed high, won the ball back in dangerous areas and made chances.

Same outcome unfortunately.

Most will look at the score line but I liked what I saw today. Very positive and encouraging. The goals will come.

Different manager, same players who can't score a goal at home.

Can't miss that many chances in this league. Same problem, same players.

F**king atrocious.

 

And the "deserved" and "unlucky" crap has already started.

 

Same personnel, same outcome.

 

This should have been a banker.

 

FFS time to get rid of Tadic.

Night and day compared to last season, best I've seen us play in ages.

Last season we'd have lost that so I'm taking a 0-0 as an improvement. Now all that's required is to find the back of the net.

We should have stuffed them. Ran out of ideas but more attacking play and pressing means we will be better to watch this season.

 

Positives: Stephens, Cedric, Bertrand, redmond, jwp (no idea why he was subbed)

 

Negatives: Yoshida (damn VVD, he has let us all down and we need to sell him now and get a good replacement in), Tadic, Davis (way too slow) and Gabbiadini (looks a pale imitation of the player we first signed)

 

Shooting was absolutely abysmal and way too predictable. Only JWP looked like an attacking threat driving to goal from midfield. Tadic does my nut in, Davis too slow and we desperately need a quality CB to partner Stephens.

 

Not a bad start, just deeply frustrating that we cannot score for toffee

Ever since Pelle/Mane left we've lost our goals. Davis/JWP never scored and Tadic/Redmond/Boufal not giving anywhere near enough. Little to do with the manager/playstyle, our players just don't score.

Obviously it's early days but first impressions are that it doesn't look like we've addressed any of the issues from last season. It's going to be a very long season.

Centre to right to centre to left to centre to right to centre to left

Pretty much like last season. We were just lucky today that we were playing completely useless opposition. Our players need to find their shooting boots pretty quickly because we'll ship goals against anyone half decent.

I try not to read too much into these early season games, but compared to last season we were much better. The score line may still say 0, but there was intent for 90mins and this is definitely a game you can file under ''one of those afternoons''. We'd have won that game at a canter if we'd got that early goal.

 

Our pressing was noticeable, we pressed in units in different areas of the pitch which 'locked' swansea in a lot of the time. This then allowed us to quickly win the ball back and break on them. Our finishing was wasteful as hell though, especially Gabbiadini. Hopefully he gets his sharpness back for next week...! As he's usually pretty clinical.

 

For me, apart from the fact it was 0-0, there isn't a great deal to complain about from that. We pressed high, passed the ball well, moved it quickly in and around the box and used the width really well at times - it was so much improved from last season, anyone could have seen that.

 

Onto next week...

****ing Yoshida taking a free kick :lol:

A few selected comments from our first match for a bit of fun.

Obviously, I was bang on the money.

A few selected comments from our first match for a bit of fun.

 

Obviously, I was bang on the money.

Damn, there was me trying to be all positive and it never got any better than that.

Damn, there was me trying to be all positive and it never got any better than that.

Haha.

In fairness, no one could have guessed quite how clueless MoPe would be or quite how feably we would cave in over our Van **** "stance".

Yeah (If we keep VVD or adequately replace as I said). Its a season prediction mate, some people were doing it before we even kicked a ball. I watch the majority of Saints matches in person and I sat through some utter predictable and uninventive ****e last year, we rarely got going or strung passes together like we did yesterday, but despite that we still managed to finish where we did and better than I predicted (think I had us 10th).

 

I think this year based on what I saw of us in game one, what I have watched of other teams that would be around us (Everton, West Ham, Leicester) and also of teams that would be considered to be in the top 6 (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool), it is going to be wide open again, and last years return to the 00's looking top 6 was the anomaly because the teams in the best of the rest category were all ****e at once.

 

The top 6 teams are going to be dropping points to teams all over the place as everyone will step their game up against them as usual, there will be a good opportunity for an upset in the top 4 again this year, and we have the capability to be the team that achieves it.

Haha

... and a 17th place finish.

Quite close. Well done.