You sense the players are frustrated too.

ORIOL Romeu admits Saints would “all love to be more creative” and it would make an “amazing difference” if they were – but it’s not that simple.

The 26-year-old believes Mauricio Pellegrino's side fear being punished on the counterattack if they commit too much going forward.

Romeu speculates that this is why Saints have struggled to win convincingly and not capitalised after taking the lead this term.

“We’d love to all be more creative and make a difference in the last third, but that’s difficult,” said the Spanish midfielder.

“That’s the most difficult part in football and that will make an amazing difference.

“But we need to be quicker with the ball, make them (opponents) run and pull them out of place. That will give us a bigger chance to get to the box and get more chances.”

The former Chelsea man believes that Saints are still to find that balance between being “creative and offensive and not being punished by the counterattack”.

“Whenever we play against these teams we know how good they are defensively,” he said ahead of this Saturday’s game against high-flying Burnley at St Mary's.

“Everyone is proving very hard to be beaten or to take them out of place. We need to do better with the ball.

“They (opponents) are clever, they are ready to run and recover and go for the counterattack and that’s hard because if you try and attack too much you can get killed by a counterattack.

“We need to find that balance between being creative and offensive and not being punished by a counterattack.”

Romeu has often spoken to manager Mauricio Pellegrino who is “always telling me” that it is important Saints mark attackers even when the team are going forward.

“He’s always telling me when we’re attacking we need to be closer to their strikers because if we lose the ball and they’re free it’s easier for them to be free and run and get that counterattack,” he said.

“While we’re attacking we have to defend and allow our attacking players to create problems but we defensively have to be ready for the counter.”

But Romeu agrees that Saints need to gamble more when going forward to help them score more often.

“Yes, to break the lines without a doubt you have to play forward and that’s the one of the things we need to get,” he said.

“Against Brighton we couldn’t break the lines, but we need to make sure our defensive parts are strong and from there we need to build the momentum and get those players up front.

“We need to feed them more balls and give them better chances.”

Saints also need to learn that scoring one goal is often not enough to win games, as they discovered to their cost in the 1-1 draw at Brighton last weekend.

“We thought one goal was enough but that’s not what you have to do,” he said. “We score one but we have to go for the second and keep going.

“Even if we lose we have to keep going for the same and the style of play must always be the same.”

After reading this I’m shocked.

First up it tells the opposition our setup and plus we will continue to play boring football.

Gone are the days that we will win by two clear goals.

Time for a new manager

When you don't have any faith in the ability of the goalkeeper it is no surprise to see the team playing defensively.

Bill Shankly used to say that when you had a good goalkeeper the rest of the team would push up and take risks.

You also have to open up play and draw the opposition out, in order to create space.

Also, if the opposition think you are likely to score they are drawn out, knowing they will have to score.

Manager is ok. Time for a new goalkeeper !

After reading this I’m shocked.

First up it tells the opposition our setup and plus we will continue to play boring football.

Gone are the days that we will win by two clear goals.

I wouldn't be concerned about that. The opposition will have done comprehensive analysis, and none of this will be new to them.

Agreed on style though. Romeu's comments on 'finding balance' and 'moving the ball more quickly in attacking areas' has been highlighted by many. Points to the fact that our attacking options aren't good enough at the moment. Again nothing new to anyone who's been following us for the last 2 seasons.

Hoping for a positive addition in Jan, then a mini-overhaul in the Summer. Long, Austin, Tadic could all be replaced. All must be good earners in the club. With other attacking players like Davis, Redmond and Boufal who don't contribute regularly - we'll be in trouble next season if we don't sort this out.

The Southampton way

ORIOL Romeu admits Saints would “all love to be more creative” and it would make an “amazing difference” if they were – but it’s not that simple.

 

The 26-year-old believes Mauricio Pellegrino's side fear being punished on the counterattack if they commit too much going forward.

 

Romeu speculates that this is why Saints have struggled to win convincingly and not capitalised after taking the lead this term.

 

“We’d love to all be more creative and make a difference in the last third, but that’s difficult,” said the Spanish midfielder.

 

 

“That’s the most difficult part in football and that will make an amazing difference.

 

“But we need to be quicker with the ball, make them (opponents) run and pull them out of place. That will give us a bigger chance to get to the box and get more chances.”

 

The former Chelsea man believes that Saints are still to find that balance between being “creative and offensive and not being punished by the counterattack”.

 

“Whenever we play against these teams we know how good they are defensively,” he said ahead of this Saturday’s game against high-flying Burnley at St Mary's.

 

“Everyone is proving very hard to be beaten or to take them out of place. We need to do better with the ball.

 

 

“They (opponents) are clever, they are ready to run and recover and go for the counterattack and that’s hard because if you try and attack too much you can get killed by a counterattack.

 

“We need to find that balance between being creative and offensive and not being punished by a counterattack.”

 

Romeu has often spoken to manager Mauricio Pellegrino who is “always telling me” that it is important Saints mark attackers even when the team are going forward.

 

“He’s always telling me when we’re attacking we need to be closer to their strikers because if we lose the ball and they’re free it’s easier for them to be free and run and get that counterattack,” he said.

 

 

“While we’re attacking we have to defend and allow our attacking players to create problems but we defensively have to be ready for the counter.”

 

But Romeu agrees that Saints need to gamble more when going forward to help them score more often.

 

“Yes, to break the lines without a doubt you have to play forward and that’s the one of the things we need to get,” he said.

 

“Against Brighton we couldn’t break the lines, but we need to make sure our defensive parts are strong and from there we need to build the momentum and get those players up front.

 

“We need to feed them more balls and give them better chances.”

 

Saints also need to learn that scoring one goal is often not enough to win games, as they discovered to their cost in the 1-1 draw at Brighton last weekend.

 

“We thought one goal was enough but that’s not what you have to do,” he said. “We score one but we have to go for the second and keep going.

 

“Even if we lose we have to keep going for the same and the style of play must always be the same.”

Puel out

Only Les could sack Puel and then employ his doppleganger

Only Les could sack Puel and then employ his doppleganger

...after not employing Marco Silva...

...after not employing Marco Silva...

Saints will finish above Watford this season.

Silva's not great. In fact, they'll struggle.

When you don't have any faith in the ability of the goalkeeper it is no surprise to see the team playing defensively.

 

Bill Shankly used to say that when you had a good goalkeeper the rest of the team would push up and take risks.

 

You also have to open up play and draw the opposition out, in order to create space.

 

Also, if the opposition think you are likely to score they are drawn out, knowing they will have to score.

 

Manager is ok. Time for a new goalkeeper !

If we replace Forster, but keep the same goalkeeping coach I am fairly sure that withing a few months, the new goalkeeper will be playing no better than Forster. The root problem is in the coaching setup at the club, with poor coaches, like Watson, Black and Jaidi, being allowed to stay at the club and becoming ever more influential, even when managers change.

When you don't have any faith in the ability of the goalkeeper it is no surprise to see the team playing defensively.

 

Bill Shankly used to say that when you had a good goalkeeper the rest of the team would push up and take risks.

 

You also have to open up play and draw the opposition out, in order to create space.

 

Also, if the opposition think you are likely to score they are drawn out, knowing they will have to score.

 

Manager is ok. Time for a new goalkeeper !

It shows to me that we know that our attacking players (primarily Tadic, Redmond and Boufal) are so bad at giving the ball away to the opposition that we are forced to cover the opposition breakaway possibility. It happens so often, we get the ball forward to those three and eventually, often because they take so long to create anything, the ball ends up back with our opponents. We also give the ball away more often than not from corners. Of course we also are worried and commit to defensive tactics because we have a useless keeper. All in all until we replace our current crop of attacking mids and our keeper we will continue to play in this way.

The root problem is in the coaching setup at the club, with poor coaches, like Watson, Black and Jaidi, being allowed to stay at the club and becoming ever more influential

Absolutely struggle with this statement. We've only regressed in league position last year. Watson has been at the club for around 3 years (during our best seasons in the Premier league) and Forster was formidable during that time. Do you not remember when we went from Stekelenburg to Forster and had that amazing defensive run? He used to inspire confidence. Unfortunately you can't always coach confidence and Forster seems to let mistakes massively affect his game.

Furthermore, Black has been here for 1 year and 1 season, where does that imply a 'root' problem?

Finally Jaidi has been great with the U23s and has overseen many first team patches like Stephens, Hesketh and Sims, and also coached players well enough to go to Championship/League 1 clubs and do really well. Not every single youth player is going to make it into the first team but I don't see how it would fall on him to produce that. U23 football isn't even about winning either; it's about producing players and that's what he's trying to do. Difficult to give them time with no cup runs though (so far, yet to see FA Cup). Noticed as well he puts in a lot of u18 players when he feels they're ready. Good coach and a good servant to our club.

The problem, while there is definitely a problem, isn't necessarily from coaching and nor is it a 'root' problem. From Romeu's comments you can see the manager worries about the defense, which is understandable because we haven't had a 'settled' defense in a while, but also incredibly frustrating.

Well I think that we can conclude that is the end of Mauricio's career at Saints. Weird. Thought they would give him until the transfer window. Oh well.

Romeu was one of the players who real enjoyed playing under Puel so I wouldn't be surprised if isn't enjoying it so much this season.

ORIOL Romeu remains immensely grateful to former Saints boss Claude Puel for helping him become one of the Premier League's best defensive midfielders.

The 25-year-old - alongside Jack Stephens and Maya Yoshida - flourished under Puel's management and has acknowledged the influence the Frenchman, who was sacked by Saints in June, had on his career.

"He gave me everything to play and feel comfortable," said Romeu about Puel. "He put his confidence in me and I had to give that confidence back. I did that.

"He was probably the first coach to say 'you are going to be the main man here and I want you to play'. That definitely made me feel much stronger and have more confidence in myself."

ORIOL Romeu admits Saints would “all love to be more creative” and it would make an “amazing difference” if they were – but it’s not that simple.

 

The 26-year-old believes Mauricio Pellegrino's side fear being punished on the counterattack if they commit too much going forward.

 

Romeu speculates that this is why Saints have struggled to win convincingly and not capitalised after taking the lead this term.

 

“We’d love to all be more creative and make a difference in the last third, but that’s difficult,” said the Spanish midfielder.

 

 

“That’s the most difficult part in football and that will make an amazing difference.

 

“But we need to be quicker with the ball, make them (opponents) run and pull them out of place. That will give us a bigger chance to get to the box and get more chances.”

 

The former Chelsea man believes that Saints are still to find that balance between being “creative and offensive and not being punished by the counterattack”.

 

“Whenever we play against these teams we know how good they are defensively,” he said ahead of this Saturday’s game against high-flying Burnley at St Mary's.

 

“Everyone is proving very hard to be beaten or to take them out of place. We need to do better with the ball.

 

 

“They (opponents) are clever, they are ready to run and recover and go for the counterattack and that’s hard because if you try and attack too much you can get killed by a counterattack.

 

“We need to find that balance between being creative and offensive and not being punished by a counterattack.”

 

Romeu has often spoken to manager Mauricio Pellegrino who is “always telling me” that it is important Saints mark attackers even when the team are going forward.

 

“He’s always telling me when we’re attacking we need to be closer to their strikers because if we lose the ball and they’re free it’s easier for them to be free and run and get that counterattack,” he said.

 

 

“While we’re attacking we have to defend and allow our attacking players to create problems but we defensively have to be ready for the counter.”

 

But Romeu agrees that Saints need to gamble more when going forward to help them score more often.

 

“Yes, to break the lines without a doubt you have to play forward and that’s the one of the things we need to get,” he said.

 

“Against Brighton we couldn’t break the lines, but we need to make sure our defensive parts are strong and from there we need to build the momentum and get those players up front.

 

“We need to feed them more balls and give them better chances.”

 

Saints also need to learn that scoring one goal is often not enough to win games, as they discovered to their cost in the 1-1 draw at Brighton last weekend.

 

“We thought one goal was enough but that’s not what you have to do,” he said. “We score one but we have to go for the second and keep going.

 

“Even if we lose we have to keep going for the same and the style of play must always be the same.”

So basically "we would like to be more creative/attacking but we can't because our manager wants us to play boring, safety first, play not to lose rather than play to win football". Happy days!!!

Great so Pellegrino's motto is who dares, loses.

So basically "we would like to be more creative/attacking but we can't because our manager wants us to play boring, safety first, play not to lose rather than play to win football". Happy days!!!

Yes exactly that I keep living in hope that we will turn it on soon in front of my own eyes.

The Southampton way

https://southamptonfc.com/news/2017-11-03/preview-craig-fleming-u18s-pl-cup-saints-norwich

"Overall performances have been good, win lose or draw, I haven't seen a drop in tempo," Fleming said, reflecting on the past couple of results.

"Obviously we want to win, but we want to do that the Southampton way. We've been making the boys aware of running themes, one is being clinical in front of goal. They've tightened up on it and realised that scoring goals is just as important as defending well.

Can someone remind the first team about this "much admired/blueprint for so many clubs" 'Southampton Way'?

Pretty much sums up what I suspected.

We set up to not lose as we have a fear of losing rather than a will to win.

Something MP needs to sort out, quickly.

Doesn't really make MoPe any different to most PL managers these days. Seems to be most managers go for hard to beat and then hope one of your attacking players gets you a lucky a goal and a win on the break. Hell even Jose plays that way at Man U when playing the other big teams.

Great so Pellegrino's motto is who dares, loses.

Surely he knows the last man got the sack for not having the balls to play attacking football !?

Surely he knows the last man got the sack for not having the balls to play attacking football !?

Makes his appointment all the more bizarre. Wasn’t exactly raining goats at Alaves last year was it? Reed has a lot to answer for I think. Looking for the next Poch, a man he might not even have unearthed in the first place.

Forster was and never has been formidable. He had a good defence and midfield in front and was rarely tested. He was in better form than now yes, but he still had the same weaknesses. He hasn't just become slow to move around the goal and get down, he always was.

Agreed. My old man called his major weakness in his very first start for us away at Liverpool when he was slow out/down to that one on one against Sturridge. Not a mistake by any stretch but immediately illustrated his limitations.

ORIOL Romeu admits Saints would “all love to be more creative” and it would make an “amazing difference” if they were – but it’s not that simple.

 

The 26-year-old believes Mauricio Pellegrino's side fear being punished on the counterattack if they commit too much going forward.

 

Romeu speculates that this is why Saints have struggled to win convincingly and not capitalised after taking the lead this term.

 

“We’d love to all be more creative and make a difference in the last third, but that’s difficult,” said the Spanish midfielder.

 

 

“That’s the most difficult part in football and that will make an amazing difference.

 

“But we need to be quicker with the ball, make them (opponents) run and pull them out of place. That will give us a bigger chance to get to the box and get more chances.”

 

The former Chelsea man believes that Saints are still to find that balance between being “creative and offensive and not being punished by the counterattack”.

 

“Whenever we play against these teams we know how good they are defensively,” he said ahead of this Saturday’s game against high-flying Burnley at St Mary's.

 

“Everyone is proving very hard to be beaten or to take them out of place. We need to do better with the ball.

 

 

“They (opponents) are clever, they are ready to run and recover and go for the counterattack and that’s hard because if you try and attack too much you can get killed by a counterattack.

 

“We need to find that balance between being creative and offensive and not being punished by a counterattack.”

 

Romeu has often spoken to manager Mauricio Pellegrino who is “always telling me” that it is important Saints mark attackers even when the team are going forward.

 

“He’s always telling me when we’re attacking we need to be closer to their strikers because if we lose the ball and they’re free it’s easier for them to be free and run and get that counterattack,” he said.

 

 

“While we’re attacking we have to defend and allow our attacking players to create problems but we defensively have to be ready for the counter.”

 

But Romeu agrees that Saints need to gamble more when going forward to help them score more often.

 

“Yes, to break the lines without a doubt you have to play forward and that’s the one of the things we need to get,” he said.

 

“Against Brighton we couldn’t break the lines, but we need to make sure our defensive parts are strong and from there we need to build the momentum and get those players up front.

 

“We need to feed them more balls and give them better chances.”

 

Saints also need to learn that scoring one goal is often not enough to win games, as they discovered to their cost in the 1-1 draw at Brighton last weekend.

 

“We thought one goal was enough but that’s not what you have to do,” he said. “We score one but we have to go for the second and keep going.

 

“Even if we lose we have to keep going for the same and the style of play must always be the same.”

bit in bold shocks me. wow

Absolutely struggle with this statement. We've only regressed in league position last year. Watson has been at the club for around 3 years (during our best seasons in the Premier league) and Forster was formidable during that time. Do you not remember when we went from Stekelenburg to Forster and had that amazing defensive run? He used to inspire confidence. Unfortunately you can't always coach confidence and Forster seems to let mistakes massively affect his game.

Furthermore, Black has been here for 1 year and 1 season, where does that imply a 'root' problem?

Finally Jaidi has been great with the U23s and has overseen many first team patches like Stephens, Hesketh and Sims, and also coached players well enough to go to Championship/League 1 clubs and do really well. Not every single youth player is going to make it into the first team but I don't see how it would fall on him to produce that. U23 football isn't even about winning either; it's about producing players and that's what he's trying to do. Difficult to give them time with no cup runs though (so far, yet to see FA Cup). Noticed as well he puts in a lot of u18 players when he feels they're ready. Good coach and a good servant to our club.

 

The problem, while there is definitely a problem, isn't necessarily from coaching and nor is it a 'root' problem. From Romeu's comments you can see the manager worries about the defense, which is understandable because we haven't had a 'settled' defense in a while, but also incredibly frustrating.

You can't come on here and try to start using facts and intelligent analysis. Get a grip man FFS.

You can't come on here and try to start using facts and intelligent analysis. Get a grip man FFS.

Except anyone who could be bothered could pick that apart with real facts !

Agreed. My old man called his major weakness in his very first start for us away at Liverpool when he was slow out/down to that one on one against Sturridge. Not a mistake by any stretch but immediately illustrated his limitations.

He has always struggled with his footwork even at Newcastle that's what affects him and his movement, when being coached at Newcastle he was even struggling to kick a ball as his feet were to big

Saints will finish above Watford this season.

 

Silva's not great. In fact, they'll struggle.

Still think this will happen

Saints will finish above Watford this season.

 

Silva's not great. In fact, they'll struggle.

November throwback quote. I still think this will be the case. And proven right in my thoughts about Silva.

He's not what we need at all.

November throwback quote. I still think this will be the case. And proven right in my thoughts about Silva.

He's not what we need at all.

They're 10th, Watford's statement pretty much said that it wasn't due to his ability, rather behind scenes stuff that he got the boot.... I don't think you've been proven right at all. There was nothing to suggest we would get more points under MP than we Watford would have (we failed to beat them only 2 weeks ago).

Clutching at straws a little, I think.

They're 10th, Watford's statement pretty much said that it wasn't due to his ability, rather behind scenes stuff that he got the boot.... I don't think you've been proven right at all. There was nothing to suggest we would get more points under MP than we Watford would have (we failed to beat them only 2 weeks ago).

 

Clutching at straws a little, I think.

I have - Watford's bad run happened after I posted the above reply. Are Watford not struggling? They're 10th but 4 points off the relegation zone. That's how tight it is down there. I'd agree with you if they were 10 points above the drop.