Brighton v Saints Match Thread

You really believe that?

 

Palace got a 1-0 victory against a team that have since sacked their manager and replaced him with an experienced one (though complete tosser)

Bournemouth

Swansea drew at home to them 0-0

West Ham scraped a 3-2 home win with 2 pens

West Brom wonder goal snatched the win 1-0

Stoke lost 2-1 away

Huddersfield drew 0-0 away

Brighton 1-1 away and only looked like one winner in the 2nd half and it wasn't us.

Everton

Leicester

Newcastle drew 2-2 at home had to come back twice

 

We will be in the bottom 5 come the end of January

What’s your point? Fck me if I was a Palace, Swansea or WBA supporter I’d be a lot more worried.

F***ing terrible just like hull 1v0 up early dominating then decided to sit back, absolute joke pulling boufal off and leaving that useless c*** Tadic on, I hated Puel but at least he had us set up

An away point in the PL is ok !

Handball in build up to equaliser!

Tried to change it with subs !

Better result for us than them !

9th in league !

 

Had worse days in my Saints supporting life !

Don't worry with Pelligrino in charge there's a very good chance that worse days are yet to come.

Sorry.....no passion, no spirit, no ambition, no excitement, this is not what we were 'sold' at the start of the season, we really do seem to have lost our way.

I love the way when we concede, it is all Forster's fault. It had nothing to do with Oriel's ****e clearance and us leaving Cedric to mark Murray did it?! FFS!

Exactly this. Romeu gave it straight back to them, when he should have put his foot through the ball, and wtf was Cedric doing trying to mark Murray? I say trying because he made a pretty poor go at winning the header considering he was in a good (goal side) position. Poor defending. I assume Forster was expecting it back across the goal, not near post.

Romeu caused it, Cedric allowed it, Forster watched it...

Is this still the “Southampton Way” more like we have lost our way!!!

You really believe that?

 

Palace got a 1-0 victory against a team that have since sacked their manager and replaced him with an experienced one (though complete tosser)

Bournemouth

Swansea drew at home to them 0-0

West Ham scraped a 3-2 home win with 2 pens

West Brom wonder goal snatched the win 1-0

Stoke lost 2-1 away

Huddersfield drew 0-0 away

Brighton 1-1 away and only looked like one winner in the 2nd half and it wasn't us.

Everton

Leicester

Newcastle drew 2-2 at home had to come back twice

 

We will be in the bottom 5 come the end of January

Swansea were completely overun, but we failed convert any of a multitude of chances

West Brom played 6-4-0 and challenged us to break them down

Huddersfield had already beaten Palace away and Newcastle at home when we held them 0-0

Brighton's last game was a 3-0 win at WHU

Why do people assume that other teams are there for the taking ?

If we could sort out our chance creation issues things would look healthier, but only the Watford game has been a truly poor display by Saints.

I love the way when we concede, it is all Forster's fault. It had nothing to do with Oriel's ****e clearance and us leaving Cedric to mark Murray did it?! FFS!

It's called scapegoating.... A swf illness

Our goals come from individual brilliance or a set piece...it was the latter today.

another disgusting performance from Saints.

Barely troubled their keeper.....terrible

I hate this manager we have

Why take Boufal off just as the space is opening up? Don't understand that substitution. The last 5 or 6 minutes there are two or three break opportunities, just when you want Boufal on the ball.

Another listless performance with no attacking threat, no sense of urgency and no impression that the new manager has the slightest idea how to get the best out of his squad. When is the time to panic? That's all three promoted teams played now and we haven't beaten any of them.

Scraping together a minimal amount of points against one of the easiest opening 10 games we'll ever have is going to be put into stark, bleak context by the time all the decent teams have met us, I fear.

Forster - 4. Worst keeper in the league on current form. Seven year contract extension incoming...

Cedric - 5. Can't help being short, but the frequency with which opponents are standing the ball up to the far post for an easy towering header over Cedric's non-challenge is a serious problem.

Bertrand - 5. Phoning it in.

Van Dijk - 5. See Bertrand.

Hoedt - 5. Knock a point off for whinging about not playing and then being bang average when he does.

Romeu - 5. Is he just not good anymore?

Davis - 6. Davis-y.

Ward-Prowse - 4. Takes a decent set-piece. And there begins and ends all of his attributes of any worth. Anonymous in open play.

Boufal - 6. Some flicks, some tricks, some flailing around. Not great.

Tadic - 5. Nothing much. Again.

Gabbiadini - 4. Might as well have not played a striker if we had no plans to attack. Must've really relished having to contest aimless 70 yards hoofs with two 6' 4" centre backs and no support within the same county.

Subs: nothing.

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Our goals come from individual brilliance or a set piece...it was the latter today.

another disgusting performance from Saints.

Barely troubled their keeper.....terrible

 

I hate this manager we have

Disgusting!!!!!!!! If overreacting got a prize..... This one's the outright winner

Our performance was ordinary because we are ordinary.....

Some of our fans need to get a grip.

Disgusting!!!!!!!! If overreacting got a prize..... This one's the outright winner

Our performance was ordinary because we are ordinary.....

It was quite bad considering we were playing a promoted side. We passed the ball badly, showed little cohesion and overall lacked any sort of quality. That's not the hallmark of an ordinary side, its one of a side which is fundamentally broke and needs better coaching.

It was like watching a national team that individually has good players but they don't play well together and as a consequence massively underachieve.

Some of these players need a rocket up their arse but what I'd like most is to understand how we're trying to play the game as right now it appears they are just sent out there and asked to get on with it.

Some of our fans need to get a grip.

Some of our fans were predicting that 'Brighton will rip us a new one'.

Was strange... Poor Manolo, can't get a whiff of the ball from his midfield, midfield can't pass, defenders can't cover for that midfield, gk can't handle much when thrown at him.

Without Lamina, we went back to a Puel like midfield, albeit Boufal wasn't that bad to be honest, with little invention pr blood, sweat and tears...

Like others, I wish we could inject some pace and directness to our game... give our striker a fighting chance and us fans something to cheer about....

MP2 should worry

Cedric - 5. Can't help being short, but the frequency with which opponents are standing the ball up to the far post for an easy towering header over Cedric's non-challenge is a serious problem.

k

You can't fault Cedric for that goal, VVD should have not let Murray drift on to him, he was drawn to the middle by their left winger when they should have swapped over. Pretty much every full back in the league will get out down by a bigger striker like that and he did as much as he could to put Murray off, which should have been enough seeing as the header was soft and loopy, but Forster.....

Cedric was a solid 7, he worked tirelessly up and down that flank, overlapped at every point, tried to get crosses in (often there was just one person in the box) and made some crucial defensive blocks. Plus Tadic was nothing but useless in front of him.

Best player for us on the pitch and is our most consistent IMO.

Was going to say it’s the worse I can remember seeing us play, but then I remembered it’s the exact same as it has been for the last 8 months.

Thought we started well and got a nice goal. Felt we were largely in control first half but didn't press enough for the 2nd for my liking.

2nd half i thought we were pretty poor.

Really frustrating at the end how players seemed to be out of ideas & just passing backwards rather than try a through ball or putting it in the box.

Think we really need to sign a target man in Jan if we are going to persist with being desperate to get the ball out wide for crosses.

I'd have preferred 3 points away to brighton but they aren't a pushover based on their previous results this season.

Definitely not in the pellegrino out camp either. Needs to be given full season to see if can get more out of us than mid table mediocrity which we are probably on course for.

It's called scapegoating.... A swf illness

No it’s not. Did you watch the game or specifically see the goal? As one of our better payed players (probably one of the better paid keepers in the league as well) he should be saving, what pretty much everyone agrees is, a routine save.

I don’t know if he’s still carrying an injury, but he shouldn’t be playing.

What’s your point? Fck me if I was a Palace, Swansea or WBA supporter I’d be a lot more worried.

The point is that I don't believe those teams are worse than us. Of the teams listed as being worse than us we have only managed to beat 3 of them in 8 games, and all rather fortuitously. Even the draws against these teams apparently weaker than Saints didn't see us producing any stellar football. And you can throw in a loss against one of the teams.

Leicester playing well.

That was a bang average performance. Scored early on, sat back and made a poor side look decent.

I don’t know if he’s still carrying an injury, but he shouldn’t be playing.

Presumably he is the best option we currently have. ( Which is worrying ).

I just don't understand what the manager's game plan is - how on earth does he expect to score goals playing like this?

The side just lacks the quality to make things happen. Too many average players and not enough spark.

It happens when you sell off the stars and don't adequately replace.

Players have nothing really to play for. No-one to get behind and try to build. No ambition shown by the club.

No wonder VVD wanted to leave.

You really believe that?

 

 

Brighton 1-1 away and only looked like one winner in the 2nd half and it wasn't us

Neither side looked like winning in the second-half - further, neither side looked they wanted to win. Both were too afraid to lose.

We have played 6 at home and only 4 away.

Leicester playing well.

1-0 after a superb attack with Gray flying forward at pace. Compare that with that **** Tadic slowing it down, looking up, puffing his cheeks out and passing it backwards.

Like Brexit the Puelouters may be regretting the stupid decision

Like Brexit the Puelouters may be regretting the stupid decision

The only regret should be that despite letting our squad sigfinicantky drop in quality over the last year, there seems to be no scrutiny over Reeds position

Our crossing is poor. No one ever looks up first and the worst culprit is Soares. We have had an easy start and yet the manager is looking out of his depth which is a worry.

1-0 after a superb attack with Gray flying forward at pace. Compare that with that **** Tadic slowing it down, looking up, puffing his cheeks out and passing it backwards.

So 11th placed Leicester are the benchmark for 9th placed Saints ??

Cue comments that we should never have sacked Puel

So 11th placed Leicester are the benchmark for 9th placed Saints ??

Not necessarily old son but fast flowing attacking football over the shyte we've had to endure for the last 18 months or so probably is??

The only regret should be that despite letting our squad sigfinicantky drop in quality over the last year, there seems to be no scrutiny over Reeds position

And instead he gets a promotion!

He's a director now so no chance of getting rid of him unfortunately.

Some thoughts from start to finish.

What's with the Sky bulls hit where the players pose 'gangsta-stylee' and look like to$$ers?

As soon as I saw the midfield I thought there was no point having forwards on: too lightweight and going to get overrun.

When I saw the position of the free-kick I thought JWP was bound to score. Thankfully Davis got him out of a hole and got him an 'assist' (hooray).

We seemed to have ignored the 'play by numbers' game and actually made forward passes and all. Good (ish). Only that because we didn't really do much with them. It's clear Bertrand prefers playing with Boufal than Redmond.

I decided that any team that finishes below Brighton is almost certainly relegated and that if that is the Premier League it's now bordering on league one standard: there really wasn't much football talent/nous/skill/style on show.

I watched out for the pressing game: nope, not at all. Looked like 5 year olds chasing the ball in a headless fashion at times. But. But because Brighton couldn't pass the ball went to one of us or got intercepted so I guess that the post made elsewhere about 'pressing' is more bs.

Marks out of 10.

Forster. Last time I gave someone a zero, people took umbrage. In my book, turning up and wearing a green shirt and a scowl does not get you marks. Doing more than expected gets you over a 4 or 5 out of ten an doing as expected gets you a 4 or a 5. I would have expected a cone to save that header from Murray. But to keep people happy I'll just ask for Forster to do the decent thing and emigrate to the moon. Or Portsmouth.

Cedric. He's average. 5/10 because he smiled in his pre-match 'gangsta photo'. We need a new (decent) right-back.

VVD. 6/10 to show there's no hard feelings and he did laugh when he got the ball in his stomach from a shot/cross. Obviously a decent player. Can understand why he'd like to have some more in the team with him.

Hoedt. I've heard he kind of 'expects' to play. He's not actually that good from what I've seen and personally I wouldn't have bought him. He pushed Murray (good point, he showed some passion) but he made a slightly akward tackle which a better defender wouldn't have and wouldn't have had to do. 5/10 overall.

Bertrand. Did ok. He's good so I expect more from him. 6/10 partly because he didn't look permanently ****ed off this game.

JWP. Not. A. Footballer. 5/10. No more to say about him; he's just patently the antithesis of Boufal (who is a footballer).

Davis. Yep, you can see he's starting to slow down/lose it a bit. Would look to replace him next season. 6/10 because he reacted quickest and scored the goal and had a nice celebration prepared. Ah, sod it. He can have a 7 just for that.

Romeu. Ok. Still not at his best, not sure why. 6/10.

Tadic. Waste of space mostly. As always. He should go back to Dutch football. 5/10 because he did a couple of ok-ish things but he's really not that good and it shows.

Boufal. I saw Eric Black coaching Pochettino on the sideline in the first half. Then later I saw Redmond about to come on and assumed it might be in place of the largely anonymous Tadic or JWP if we were going for it. Cannot for the life of me see why our patently best player who did make things happen was taken off. 6/10 because he did well. Which I'll increase to a 7 because he was by and large our best player. The team performance was overall poor but he has a lot more that he can do so I'm going to mark him hard and expect him to do it. I think he should start (and probably stay on).

Gabbiadini. The invisible man who plays by himself. All that talent wasted because our team set-up is ****e, etc. 6/10 because he did try (always does), keeps making the runs etc and probably feels very lonely. Might want to try some Boss aftershave.

Redmond. Please find another club.

Long/Hojbjerg. Not on long enough. What's the point in giving players 10 minutes or less? 20 minutes minimum.

Pellegrino. Now I liked Puel up until Christmas and the way we left the EL with our tail shoved up our backside. Then I disliked his management and got very fed up with him very quickly. I do like the fact that Pellegrini does think (or appear to) about everything and gives it consideration. I dislike the fact that he either cannot find the answer(s) or is fixed in his view of a way of playing (because, why? Why play like robots? This isn't football manager!). Someone else mentioned BFS somewhere. If he can get us playing like his Bolton team did, yes please.

I understand Huddersfield are looking for someone to help with their scouting; off you go Ross. And take Les with you. I do think they won't be here much longer anyway with the new 'majority partners' and our very probable lack of success.

Our only saving grace, as like last year is that this league is starting to resemble other leagues far more than it did before: a few rich/powerful teams who monopolise everything (which is no different) but a load of other teams who are pretty much just 'cannon-fodder' which was not always the case.

Just back and thought we were ****e against a team where you probably wouldn't swap any of their players for one of ours in the same position.

Our attacking play is utterly dismal.

JWP and Davis together doesn't work. In fact, what does JWP do from open play? No wonder MP said we needed to replace Lemina with two players.

Very poor start. 13 from a very kind first 10 games is way below par.

We will be bottom third of the table.

Some thoughts from start to finish.

 

What's with the Sky bulls hit where the players pose 'gangsta-stylee' and look like to$$ers?

As soon as I saw the midfield I thought there was no point having forwards on: too lightweight and going to get overrun.

When I saw the position of the free-kick I thought JWP was bound to score. Thankfully Davis got him out of a hole and got him an 'assist' (hooray).

 

We seemed to have ignored the 'play by numbers' game and actually made forward passes and all. Good (ish). Only that because we didn't really do much with them. It's clear Bertrand prefers playing with Boufal than Redmond.

I decided that any team that finishes below Brighton is almost certainly relegated and that if that is the Premier League it's now bordering on league one standard: there really wasn't much football talent/nous/skill/style on show.

I watched out for the pressing game: nope, not at all. Looked like 5 year olds chasing the ball in a headless fashion at times. But. But because Brighton couldn't pass the ball went to one of us or got intercepted so I guess that the post made elsewhere about 'pressing' is more bs.

 

Marks out of 10.

 

Forster. Last time I gave someone a zero, people took umbrage. In my book, turning up and wearing a green shirt and a scowl does not get you marks. Doing more than expected gets you over a 4 or 5 out of ten an doing as expected gets you a 4 or a 5. I would have expected a cone to save that header from Murray. But to keep people happy I'll just ask for Forster to do the decent thing and emigrate to the moon. Or Portsmouth.

 

Cedric. He's average. 5/10 because he smiled in his pre-match 'gangsta photo'. We need a new (decent) right-back.

VVD. 6/10 to show there's no hard feelings and he did laugh when he got the ball in his stomach from a shot/cross. Obviously a decent player. Can understand why he'd like to have some more in the team with him.

Hoedt. I've heard he kind of 'expects' to play. He's not actually that good from what I've seen and personally I wouldn't have bought him. He pushed Murray (good point, he showed some passion) but he made a slightly akward tackle which a better defender wouldn't have and wouldn't have had to do. 5/10 overall.

Bertrand. Did ok. He's good so I expect more from him. 6/10 partly because he didn't look permanently ****ed off this game.

 

JWP. Not. A. Footballer. 5/10. No more to say about him; he's just patently the antithesis of Boufal (who is a footballer).

 

Davis. Yep, you can see he's starting to slow down/lose it a bit. Would look to replace him next season. 6/10 because he reacted quickest and scored the goal and had a nice celebration prepared. Ah, sod it. He can have a 7 just for that.

 

Romeu. Ok. Still not at his best, not sure why. 6/10.

 

Tadic. Waste of space mostly. As always. He should go back to Dutch football. 5/10 because he did a couple of ok-ish things but he's really not that good and it shows.

 

Boufal. I saw Eric Black coaching Pochettino on the sideline in the first half. Then later I saw Redmond about to come on and assumed it might be in place of the largely anonymous Tadic or JWP if we were going for it. Cannot for the life of me see why our patently best player who did make things happen was taken off. 6/10 because he did well. Which I'll increase to a 7 because he was by and large our best player. The team performance was overall poor but he has a lot more that he can do so I'm going to mark him hard and expect him to do it. I think he should start (and probably stay on).

 

Gabbiadini. The invisible man who plays by himself. All that talent wasted because our team set-up is ****e, etc. 6/10 because he did try (always does), keeps making the runs etc and probably feels very lonely. Might want to try some Boss aftershave.

 

Redmond. Please find another club.

 

Long/Hojbjerg. Not on long enough. What's the point in giving players 10 minutes or less? 20 minutes minimum.

 

Pellegrino. Now I liked Puel up until Christmas and the way we left the EL with our tail shoved up our backside. Then I disliked his management and got very fed up with him very quickly. I do like the fact that Pellegrini does think (or appear to) about everything and gives it consideration. I dislike the fact that he either cannot find the answer(s) or is fixed in his view of a way of playing (because, why? Why play like robots? This isn't football manager!). Someone else mentioned BFS somewhere. If he can get us playing like his Bolton team did, yes please.

 

I understand Huddersfield are looking for someone to help with their scouting; off you go Ross. And take Les with you. I do think they won't be here much longer anyway with the new 'majority partners' and our very probable lack of success.

 

Our only saving grace, as like last year is that this league is starting to resemble other leagues far more than it did before: a few rich/powerful teams who monopolise everything (which is no different) but a load of other teams who are pretty much just 'cannon-fodder' which was not always the case.

That had me chuckling and unlike the team you delivered a great performance in your write up :-)

JWP post match;

"We've improved at a lot of things this season but we need to improve our finishing. We created some good chances today but couldn't finish them off.European football is out target this season. There is no reason we cant get back there."

JWP post match;

"We've improved at a lot of things this season but we need to improve our finishing. We created some good chances today but couldn't finish them off.European football is out target this season. There is no reason we cant get back there."

We didn't work their keeper at all and JWP was utter ****e.

On train home, draw about right in a dull match. We played better at Stoke and lost, so a point not a disaster. However, while folk will have different views on sacking Puel (I wanted him to stay, and enjoyed many good away trips watching us last season) surely what no one can argue is that we have improved this season. One shot on target. However, unlike CP, MP has week in, week out uninterrupted coaching time. He will have managed a dozen fewer games than Puel had by January....

JWP post match;

"We've improved at a lot of things this season but we need to improve our finishing. We created some good chances today but couldn't finish them off.European football is out target this season. There is no reason we cant get back there."

eh?

And just how bad are we at corners?

We had 7 & failed to win a header from any of them.

What do we do all week??

JWP post match;

"We've improved at a lot of things this season but we need to improve our finishing. We created some good chances today but couldn't finish them off.European football is out target this season. There is no reason we cant get back there."

No wonder he’s the blue eyed boy with Les and co.

He can’t really believe any of that can he ?

JWP post match;

"We've improved at a lot of things this season but we need to improve our finishing. We created some good chances today but couldn't finish them off.European football is out target this season. There is no reason we cant get back there."

Wow. Just wow.

Get the Championship standard ****e like him out of this squad.

Well that was desperate and very worrying.

Brighton are bang average but by the end deserved a win.

Slow slow boring football. Probably have enough to avoid relegation this year, but next year could be painful.

I really didn't like Puel and MP can do one as well. Saints fans aren't daft we know our limitations, top half, possibly Europe, the odd cup run, that's our ambition (for the moment ).

However above all else good football is essential. Passion, drive, pace, the occasional shot maybe. Something to suggest that the big sides will be nervous playing Saints.

At the moment Saints are predictable and too easily out thought and out fought.

Solution

Drop Tadic

Play McQueen in front of Bertrand

Play just 3 out of Romeu Lemina Davis PJH jwp

Play Stephens at right back as Cedric is being targeted every game now.

Buy a target man

Beef up the team

Double training to get fit Poch style

Fine them a week's wages for passing backwards or sideways unless genuinely forced to do so.

Each player must have at least 3 shots per game

Play the game at pace and with a bit of style. Be brave.

We may lose some games but bet we win a few more as well.

Anything really as I'm fed up with this.

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JWP post match;

"We've improved at a lot of things this season but we need to improve our finishing. We created some good chances today but couldn't finish them off.European football is out target this season. There is no reason we cant get back there."

' a draw was a fair result', oh pls james go do one...

at least show you're miffed with the result how Maya was when we fu#ked up against Newcastle at home.

The point is that I don't believe those teams are worse than us. Of the teams listed as being worse than us we have only managed to beat 3 of them in 8 games' date=' and all rather fortuitously. Even the draws against these teams apparently weaker than Saints didn't see us producing any stellar football. And you can throw in a loss against one of the teams.[/quote']

 

Had some spare time the other day (and I'm also a bit sad) so I did a table based on where I'd predicted teams at the start of the season, giving 3 points at home to sides below in my table and 1 point away. Clearly no season would work exactly like that, but thought it'd be an interesting guide.

 

I had predicted us 9th.

 

Based on who's played who so far this season, the two worst performing sides (7 points less than they should have) are palace and us.

 

Admittedly given that I had us being very comfortable, we have a cushion of points that should see us safe enough, but we are seriously underperforming and look like having a real struggle of a season. We appear to have gone backwards with the manager, and no further forward on the pitch with players, especially in attack where everyone knew there was an issue.

 

I think I'm fairly balanced, probably erring on the side of the happy clappers. I also have realistic expectations.

 

This is poor, the worst performing team against results we should have got, and appear to be getting worse still.

I didn’t realise there were so many pro Puel posters on here or is there a lot of revisionism going on?

Average performance from average players.

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1 shot on target, which I assume was the goal. Says it all really.