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What do we do well?


Dusic

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Serious topic. At times this season we have played some nice football. Often not for 90mins and certainly not in regular spells through the season, but at times there has been some good stuff. I was thinking why that is and as a team what is different when we play well to when we are ****e.

 

So, this for me are the signs of us playing well:

 

1. Full backs get forward and are a key feature of our attacking game. Example: Everton at home and most other games we have been a threat have coincided with Bertrand having good games and linking well with Tadic. IMO this partnership is our best attacking threat.

 

2. Bossing the centre of midfield. This allows us get the upper hand and enables the full backs to get forward. I think we are better when we have three players in this area. Whenever we have played two strikers we have lost control in this section of the pitch, negating the impact of having a second forward. Lemina's mobility helps us a lot.

 

3. Being given space to play in. We are much better generally against sides that give us space to play and want to attack themselves. Even Liverpool realised the best way to play against us was get people behind the ball and then counter us, as we are a slow side. Away from home we probably get more space and are more of a threat as a result.

 

4. Having a physical striker attacking the crosses we put in. Gabbi and Long barely get a look in inside the area because by far our weakest section of the pitch is the area from the D on the edge of the opposition area to just before the halfway line (the width of the penalty area. We have no creative passers or guile in that area and are better in wide areas, so strikers with aerial ability (Austin, Carrillo) will fare better.

 

5. Better when we have something to gain rather than something to defend. It lifts our tempo a little and guards against becoming too deep.

 

Thoughts?

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Serious topic. At times this season we have played some nice football. Often not for 90mins and certainly not in regular spells through the season, but at times there has been some good stuff. I was thinking why that is and as a team what is different when we play well to when we are ****e.

 

So, this for me are the signs of us playing well:

 

1. Full backs get forward and are a key feature of our attacking game. Example: Everton at home and most other games we have been a threat have coincided with Bertrand having good games and linking well with Tadic. IMO this partnership is our best attacking threat.

 

2. Bossing the centre of midfield. This allows us get the upper hand and enables the full backs to get forward. I think we are better when we have three players in this area. Whenever we have played two strikers we have lost control in this section of the pitch, negating the impact of having a second forward. Lemina's mobility helps us a lot.

 

3. Being given space to play in. We are much better generally against sides that give us space to play and want to attack themselves. Even Liverpool realised the best way to play against us was get people behind the ball and then counter us, as we are a slow side. Away from home we probably get more space and are more of a threat as a result.

 

4. Having a physical striker attacking the crosses we put in. Gabbi and Long barely get a look in inside the area because by far our weakest section of the pitch is the area from the D on the edge of the opposition area to just before the halfway line (the width of the penalty area. We have no creative passers or guile in that area and are better in wide areas, so strikers with aerial ability (Austin, Carrillo) will fare better.

 

5. Better when we have something to gain rather than something to defend. It lifts our tempo a little and guards against becoming too deep.

 

Thoughts?

 

Fullbacks are our strongest area, at least in terms of working good positions.

 

Not sure about bossing the midfield. Seems as if we can't do it without giving up some attacking threat.

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The questions academic now, we can’t score goals so we’re basically down now. I’m not one for doom and gloom but just cannot see us getting out of this.

 

Southampton have scored more Premier League goals this season than...

 

1 - Stoke City

2 - West Brom

3 - Huddersfield

4 - Swansea City

5 - Crystal Palace

6 - Brighton

7 - Newcastle

8 - Burnley

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- Rolling out players to say, “we just need to play harder for each other” or some other platitudes.

 

- Killing any momentum we get in a game with slow play

 

- Hand momentum to other teams due to shambolic nervy defending

 

- Every player scores from every shot in training

 

- Smiling and joking in FB training ground videos like we’re on a 5 wins on the bounce run

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"Cedric whips a mean uncontested cross into row 22 of the Chaple. Not seen any other professional footballs achieve such a feat."

 

That act of total incompetence summed up yesterday's performance in a nutshell. He had time and space to deliver a perfect cross and he completely f****d it up.

 

To be fair to him though, he wasn't the only useless clueless incompetent on the pitch. There were quite a few others who ran him close for that accolade.

Boufall's inability to find a team mate with one single pass, Bertrand's persistent passing into the Itchen, Hoedts bambi on ice imitation resulting in an early goal against, sideways passing and lack of mobility from the whole lot of them instead of trying to create and put pressure on, etc. It was as bad a second half performance as I have ever seen ..... and I've seen a few. Not one shot on target from a side that knew it was in the bottom three prior to kick off.

 

What do we do well? Answer - Implode. Not many other teams could throw away all the hard work and experience, that got Saints from L1 to European football, in less than 2 seasons. If it was a crime then the board would rightly be branded as criminals!! As a fan it is very hard to take :(

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The questions academic now, we can’t score goals so we’re basically down now. I’m not one for doom and gloom but just cannot see us getting out of this.

 

March is massive for us.

 

I think the focus on being able to score goals is misplaced. It's much more important for teams at the bottom to be tight at the back. You can find examples either way, but we didn't get relegated in 2005 because we couldn't score.

 

When you're at the top of the league you have to score goals because you lose ground every time you don't win, and teams set up to defend against you. At the bottom, a 0-0 followed by 1-0 is probably good enough to climb one or two places. Even the poorest attacking teams can find a way to create or take a chance now and again. Our problem is that we're not great in attack, and shaky at the back. We invaraibly need to score two or three times to win a game, and we're (understandably) not capable of that.

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1: Got a nice pre-match huddle going on.

 

2: Hoedt's beard (not the gay slang kind) is something he takes great pride in.

 

3: We don't have anyone with particularly ludicrous hair ala Firmino, Pogba.

 

About half-way through the 1st half, I wondered if Firmino is actually a CGI created person.

 

He looks Air-brushed. Like a much better 'Young' Charles Xavier from the terrible 1st Wolverine movie.

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We are good at letting games just peter out without so much as a whimper.

 

How many times have we been ahead or tied (vs a big team) and watching the last 15+ minutes becomes unbearable because you can see that the other team is really pouring it on, throwing everything but the kitchen sink trying to get a goal?

 

Vs.

 

How many times have we been the team behind or tied (vs a relegation rival) and we just slowly go through the motions until the final whistle, not amping up the tempo one iota?

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nearly as good as the catering and Radio station. yes?

 

We can joke about catering and the radio stations all we like, but the bloke who was the brunt of the jokes in that area, Lowe, would have seen Pellegrino out of the door by now I'm sure.

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We can joke about catering and the radio stations all we like, but the bloke who was the brunt of the jokes in that area, Lowe, would have seen Pellegrino out of the door by now I'm sure.
of course. he would have sent him packing 2 months ago and fronted up to the cameras for it.

 

Lowe was a **** for many reasons but he rarely hid from it all.

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Our (social)media department does well on Facebook.

 

Jordan Sibley, even though he's piled on a few pounds, no longer burning calories polishing the club's private spoon collection, still looks sharp in his estate-agent's suit.

Edited by shurlock
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