Saints 1-2 Foxes - Post Match

Can't talk about individual performances anymore. Fact is, we keep failing to win games and Hughes record for us and Stoke the last year has been dire. 2 wins in 11 and scraping survival doesn't make someone a good manager. Just seems clueless.

 

Tired of seeing odd selections and changing tactics each week, players underperforming and never allowed to gel. Rewarding failure by picking Long still. Please bring back some common sense to our club. Learn from last season and do not leave him in charge too long. And learn from the last 3 appointments and don't do it cheap and opt for negative managers.

This....

However we will not replace Hughes unless he walks.

Left side was our strength, Bertrand and Redmond had a very good game but had little support. Our right side was terrible all game.

Lemina & Hoj were much better & more mobile than Romeu, but WTAF was Hoj thinking. Terrible at shooting, but to manage to get sent off for a blatant dive when clean through? Very let down & surprised by him - Hope he gets destroyed for that. Gives football a bad name, as do many other cheating ****s at this level.

Ings and Long V. quiet today, credit to Leicester. Thought Hoedt was ok, better than Vestergarrd who got skinned easily many times and at fault for the last goal. I too thought the corners were poor, too straight and easy to defend.

Cedric, well he is quick & sound on the ball but has there ever been a worse headerer of the ball at saints? How many goals have we conceded since he signed from his appalling efforts? NO competition for this player....gross mismanagement.

Overall I thought we were OK till we scored, it woke Leicester up and we were complacent & lackadaisical. No surprise they scored both goals when they did.

Our squad is full of average to poor premier league players and Leicester are a better team than us.

I am a supporter of Hughes, he can only work with what he has got but his team/squad selections this season are bizzare. Clearly doesn't know his best team/squad or formation and only getting the team showing up in portions of games. I expected more solid decisions and stronger leadership from him.

WTF is Yoshida? Gabbi? Gallagher?

Another long, hard season awaits.

Apparently we were excellent today ...https://southamptonfc.com/news/2018-08-25/mark-hughes-post-match-southampton-leicester-city-premier-league

Disagree If we have 11 on the pitch Maguire doesn't have the option to push up like he did and get into a goal scoring position if we have two up top.

I make that 3 out of the last 6 games we've thrown away in injury time. Useless bottle jobs.

Listening to Hughes after the game, expect Long to start more often. [emoji1303][emoji898][emoji898][emoji898]

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We have assembled a team of bottlers and fragile personalities, they are so brittle it’s ridiculous. The spine of this team just melts at the slightest adversity they face in 90mis.They can't seem to manage a game, always doing dumb things at some point.

But just take a second to look at the state of this squad, hats off to our famed recruitment team for managing to assemble the most samey bunch of uneventful players I've ever seen, all with pretty meek personalities it has to be said.

Apparently it should be lauded that we've got such a deep squad of players now, but when you've got £20m, 18m, £10m signings out on loan and £15m signings not even making the squad, you've got to look and say it has been a massive fail over the last 3 years. Why Ross Wilson is still here, walking around like he’s some sort of god is beyond me. He’s failed at his job and should be sacked immediately.

But if we’re honest, is anyone surprised by this result really? The same issues we had last season (Hoedt, Cedric, Hojbjerg, Long) all there to see and all starting. Continue with the same crap and you'll get the same results. I'd have shifted all 4 of those out in the summer if it was up to me, but I imagine we're paying them all a mini fortune in what has been another epic squad management fail.

Moan about the manager all you want, but the players are the same and have been now for ages, all continue with the same failings (this will be the third season for a lot of them). Still waiting to see what all the fuss is about Hojbjerg or Lemina - both failed players from big clubs and if we're honest, showing us everything as to why they were failed players at big clubs.

This isn't just an issue with today, this is 3 seasons of diabolical recruitment and self-lauding of ourselves which has meant we have completely lost control of the entire squad.

Moderately well. We played moderately well before that. Better than in other games, certainly, but considering how bad we've been for two years, that's not a great recommendation. Fact is we didn't create a lot before the goal, and once Leicester woke up and started pressing us, we had no answers.

 

Moreover, when Hughes made his first move to change the game before the sending off, he made the wrong decision with his substitutions, as he's done in all three games this season.

Totally spot on with your comments.

Teams are beginning to work us out these days as we will huff and puff but we really don't have that much going forward.

Some sweet triangle passes today and some good interlink play with Redmond and Bertrand but everything else is scrambled.

I'm totally puzzled how you would play two small strikers against two large centre backs today plus float in 12 corners for Leicester to knock away every time.

Leicester also played with small strikers against our tall defenders but you never saw them float balls in?

Tactically it was pants today.

I genuinely have no idea what austin brings to the table anymore.

Lemina and Redmond were superb today, Berty played well.

Hojbjerg was having a good game but had now put himself back a few spaces with that embarrassing dive.

I like Long. Works his nuts off, Ings was just off it a tad today.

2 wins in 11 for old Sparky - he needs to find his best XI and stick with it. It’s already becoming worrying and we’ve played 3 games.

Cedric is gash, how on Earth he is a Euro winner with Portugal is beyond me. Can’t wait till january when he can go fourth and multiply. Play Target right back.

Left side was our strength, Bertrand and Redmond had a very good game but had little support. Our right side was terrible all game.

 

Lemina & Hoj were much better & more mobile than Romeu, but WTAF was Hoj thinking. Terrible at shooting, but to manage to get sent off for a blatant dive when clean through? Very let down & surprised by him - Hope he gets destroyed for that. Gives football a bad name, as do many other cheating ****s at this level.

 

Ings and Long V. quiet today, credit to Leicester. Thought Hoedt was ok, better than Vestergarrd who got skinned easily many times and at fault for the last goal. I too thought the corners were poor, too straight and easy to defend.

 

Cedric, well he is quick & sound on the ball but has there ever been a worse headerer of the ball at saints? How many goals have we conceded since he signed from his appalling efforts? NO competition for this player....gross mismanagement.

 

Overall I thought we were OK till we scored, it woke Leicester up and we were complacent & lackadaisical. No surprise they scored both goals when they did.

 

Our squad is full of average to poor premier league players and Leicester are a better team than us.

 

I am a supporter of Hughes, he can only work with what he has got but his team/squad selections this season are bizzare. Clearly doesn't know his best team/squad or formation and only getting the team showing up in portions of games. I expected more solid decisions and stronger leadership from him.

 

WTF is Yoshida? Gabbi? Gallagher?

 

Another long, hard season awaits.

Excellent post which I agree with except for you comments about Cedric who has pretty good Stats I believe

But I think you could have added that we dont have any match winners in your analysis of our squad

Cording to radio Ings had a massive blister on his foot, so thats why he wasn’t great. Why start him?

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But I think you could have added that we dont have any match winners in your analysis of our squad

To win, you need to score; Ings, Long, and Austin, ( it looks like Hughes will never start Gabbi ), will struggle to score 20 between them.

If Long had connected with that rebound in 1st half injury tine, it might have been different... only if it had gone in of course.

Have to say having attended the game, we were unlucky to lose. Bossed the game till Leic scored, then it all went to peices. McCarthy an absolute liability, failed to stop two relatively soft shots straight at him. For all his shortcomings, Long played reasonably well given the service he had, Lemina and Redmond looked lively. Fail to understand Austin substitution when we were being pressed by a rejuvinated Leicester and failing to keep the ball. Hoedt inclusion worried me but he did OK for most of the game. This result is worrying, Leicester were average at best and created very little. We've played no-one and got 1 point. Hughes look's like he's floundering with team selections and subtitutions. At least the players seem up for it at the moment.

Have to say having attended the game, we were unlucky to lose. Bossed the game till Leic scored, then it all went to peices. McCarthy an absolute liability, failed to stop two relatively soft shots straight at him. For all his shortcomings, Long played reasonably well given the service he had, Lemina and Redmond looked lively. Fail to understand Austin substitution when we were being pressed by a rejuvinated Leicester and failing to keep the ball. Hoedt inclusion worried me but he did OK for most of the game. This result is worrying, Leicester were average at best and created very little. We've played no-one and got 1 point. Hughes look's like he's floundering with team selections and subtitutions. At least the players seem up for it at the moment.

Agree with all that.

Two major defensive mistakes by Cedric and Vestergaard, plus PEH being an idiot, is all it took. The Saints did this to themselves today.

What did Vestergaard do? The lack of closing down on Maguire was poor

What did Vestergaard do? The lack of closing down on Maguire was poor

Maguire's shot went under his foot

So did Hoedt actually dive from my view in the Itchen North it looked a stonewall pen everyone around me was shouting pen only to watch him get a second yellow and be made to walk.

I truly believe people are being needlessly panicky here. It's football we're talking about. That's a game where losing does NOT necessarily mean you were the worse side. It does NOT predict what will happen in the season ahead. We're only three games in. My own belief is that we've already seen more exciting play, more promising signs than in either of the two previous seasons. Unless we talk ourselves into despair there's no reason we won't have a good year ahead. Many of the same people wetting themselves today are the same people who have been spitting venom at Redmond most of the last two years. Guess what? They're going to turn out to be wrong about him. (not that the venom didn't shake his confidence and delay his return to form.) And I think they'll turn out to be wrong about the team overall. I think we have a really strong squad with competition in every position. Yes, Hoj blew it today. I hope he and the team learn from it. But it's really crazy to be writing off this team. Replay that game 10 times, even with the sending off at the same moment, and I don't think you see another Leicester win.

Unlike prior seasons, there wasn't a single moment of that that I was bored. We moved the ball really well. We have several genuinely exciting players. I'm as ****ed off as everyone with the result today. But taking the game as a whole, I draw really different conclusions. Fans turning on the team so early are really not helping.

So did Hoedt actually dive.

So did Hoedt actually dive from my view in the Itchen North it looked a stonewall pen everyone around me was shouting pen only to watch him get a second yellow and be made to walk.

Yes it was. Perhaps he was basing his dive on Moss not being unable to keep up with play due to his Phil Dowd-esque physique and give it from a distance.

Maguire's shot went under his foot

To me it looked like somebody in front of him failed to block it and he saw it late. Not great but the lack of closing down was terrible

Yes. It would have been easier to stay on his feet and shoot. Not that I'd expect him to hit the target.

Yes it was. Perhaps he was basing his dive on Moss not being unable to keep up with play due to his Phil Dowd-esque physique and give it from a distance.

In that case he is a massive bellend. From my view in that passage of play Austin was fouled, Long was fouled and then Hoj looked to have been fouled before going down so I was spitting bullets at the ref.

The annoying thing was we had weathered Leicester's response to scoring and where starting to get some momentum back the sending off just killed us.

Yet again some bizarre over reactions on here, in particular I don’t buy that Hughes picked the wrong team, or that we didn’t play well in the first half. They were loudly applauded off at half time, rightly, for a high energy and positive first 45 mins where we should have been ahead.

I do agree however with the criticism of substitutions, and when we went down to 10 men for me we should have sacrificed a striker particularly given the total inability of Austin to influence a game outside of the penalty area. Positives from today include our best 45 mins in terms of playing style so far under Hughes, and the performances of Redmond and Lamina (who was excellent defensively as well as offensively today). Way too early to hit the panic button.

Laughable that people thought this side was good enough for the top half before the season started, it will be in the relegation battle.

 

We have defenders that cant defend, absolute ****ehouse defending from Cedric and Vestergaard for their two goals and we have attackers that can't score.

 

Leicester didn't even seem to be going for the win, yet they've still got a win.

Quite a lot of people said the opposite. I said that it was going to be a long hard season and I was not alone.

Also, some people were surprised at the way we struggled last season and this.

The signs were there around 2014, if you looked carefully and with a bit of analysis. Admittedly, it was difficult to see as it was disguised by a good run and a feel good factor. Also, an effective propaganda machine.

But at the same time, complacency was setting in. Selling off really good key players and 'getting by'. There was a clear lack of urgency and a sense of drift, especially in the acquisition of key players.

I still think we will stay up, but already keeping an eye on our relegation rivals ie Huddersfield and Cardiff and a few others.

Have to say having attended the game, we were unlucky to lose. Bossed the game till Leic scored, then it all went to peices. McCarthy an absolute liability, failed to stop two relatively soft shots straight at him. For all his shortcomings, Long played reasonably well given the service he had, Lemina and Redmond looked lively. Fail to understand Austin substitution when we were being pressed by a rejuvinated Leicester and failing to keep the ball. Hoedt inclusion worried me but he did OK for most of the game. This result is worrying, Leicester were average at best and created very little. We've played no-one and got 1 point. Hughes look's like he's floundering with team selections and subtitutions. At least the players seem up for it at the moment.

I too thought that this was a pretty good performance. The only weaklings were Ings (who I understand was struggling with a massive blister) and Cedric; I would consider Stephens for right-back (as an aside, I always thought that Pied made a decent fist of wing-back, but he is gone now - I haven't seen enough of Valery to comment). Hojbjerg played the midfield general extremely well, though of course, if he dived, that tarnishes his report. I will say that the referee seemed extremely keen to book him and delighted in sending him off - did Pierre roger his missus or something?

Leicester were clearly targetting Saints' right side (Puel has the inside skinny, after all); Cedric is a known weak-link that is increasingly obvious to all.

Hoedt has a lot of talent and showed it on a number of occasions, but his frequent brain-farts are a worry. If he can cut these out, he could be a hell of a defender.

I thought Long was brilliant, as long as he was not considered as a goal-scorer. He occupies a fairly unique role as super-pest - can Saints afford to give a place in the 11 to such a player? I reckon yes.

Elyounoussi is clearly a player, though he has little pace, so trying to skin Leicester's full-back was ill-advised, something which seemed to drive Hughes to distraction. Self-awareness may be lacking there.

Austin, reasonable record notwithstanding, is not fit (pun intended) to grace a Premiership field.

Lemina played extremely well, I suspect his game is better partnered with Hojbjerg than with Romeu; love the latter but he and Mario don't work.

Overall, lots of positives to take from today's performance.

Don't think Hughes did anything wrong at all. Not his fault that our esteemed right back can't defend and a player already on a yellow decides to dive.

What?!!

I thought his team selection was terrible and his substitutions / lack of substitutions cost us the game. Hoj instead of Armstrong? Shlong instead of Gabbiadini?! Austin before Gabbiadini? Shlong left on?! Hoedt before Yoshida?! Hoj was a carthorse throughout and was on a yellow...should have been changed before he got sent off. Plonker.

Architects of our own downfall as the commentators said here. Starting with Hughes.

3 games in and ground emptying with 10 minutes to play. Not a good sign.

Shame for Lemina and Redmond who played well.

Utter Bilge! Definitely going down unless we rid ourselves of this dinosaur of a manager. All huff and puff but no plan and no end product. Typical of Hughes in fact.

I too thought that this was a pretty good performance. The only weaklings were Ings (who I understand was struggling with a massive blister) and Cedric; I would consider Stephens for right-back (as an aside, I always thought that Pied made a decent fist of wing-back, but he is gone now - I haven't seen enough of Valery to comment). Hojbjerg played the midfield general extremely well, though of course, if he dived, that tarnishes his report. I will say that the referee seemed extremely keen to book him and delighted in sending him off - did Pierre roger his missus or something?

 

Leicester were clearly targetting Saints' right side (Puel has the inside skinny, after all); Cedric is a known weak-link that is increasingly obvious to all.

 

Hoedt has a lot of talent and showed it on a number of occasions, but his frequent brain-farts are a worry. If he can cut these out, he could be a hell of a defender.

 

I thought Long was brilliant, as long as he was not considered as a goal-scorer. He occupies a fairly unique role as super-pest - can Saints afford to give a place in the 11 to such a player? I reckon yes.

 

Elyounoussi is clearly a player, though he has little pace, so trying to skin Leicester's full-back was ill-advised, something which seemed to drive Hughes to distraction. Self-awareness may be lacking there.

 

Austin, reasonable record notwithstanding, is not fit (pun intended) to grace a Premiership field.

 

Lemina played extremely well, I suspect his game is better partnered with Hojbjerg than with Romeu; love the latter but he and Mario don't work.

 

Overall, lots of positives to take from today's performance.

Agree

How many times has Puel beaten us now?

I thought we were really good first half atmosphere was good too the minute their goal went in everything changed !

How many times has Puel beaten us now?

twice

I thought we played pretty well. Great goal from Bertie. On another day we would have beaten them. Some fans need to get a grip. The red card changed the complexion of the game completely. We just have to cut out the defensive lapses as they were two soft goals to concede. Lemina was best player on the pitch. Love watching him play, absolute beast and my favourite player. Onwards and upwards to Tuesday in the cup COYR.

I thought we played pretty well. Great goal from Bertie. On another day we would have beaten them. Some fans need to get a grip. The red card changed the complexion of the game completely. We just have to cut out the defensive lapses as they were two soft goals to concede. Lemina was best player on the pitch. Love watching him play, absolute beast and my favourite player. Onwards and upwards to Tuesday COYR.

If we actually worked the keeper that is. Thought the red card made little difference - if anything, Leicester lost some of their momentum after it.

What?!!

 

I thought his team selection was terrible and his substitutions / lack of substitutions cost us the game. Hoj instead of Armstrong? Shlong instead of Gabbiadini?! Austin before Gabbiadini? Shlong left on?! Hoedt before Yoshida?! Hoj was a carthorse throughout and was on a yellow...should have been changed before he got sent off. Plonker.

 

Architects of our own downfall as the commentators said here. Starting with Hughes.

 

3 games in and ground emptying with 10 minutes to play. Not a good sign.

 

Shame for Lemina and Redmond who played well.

Thought Lemina played better than Redmond who did link up well with Bertrand and had a gd game, but his final ball was a constant let down and his giving it away with only Bertrand losing possession more, but Bertrand did get him self on the score sheet.

I don't care how many times Puel's teams beat Saints. His football is boring negative and insipid. Glad to see the back of him.

1st half was great, everybody was smiling we all knew a goal was coming. That doesm't excuse our lack of attacking verve but it just needed time.

2nd half Puel used his inside knowledge well. Cedric is too easily beaten in the air. Put Stephens there as he is way better as a full back than as centre half.

The substitutions or lack of them killed Saints stone dead. Austin adds nothing he is not a Premier League player anymore.

Ings was struggling so why not replace him with Armstrong. Change PEH for Romeo or preferably JWP imo and the game is then beyond Leicester.Beyond their defence they were very limited.

Yes it would probably be a point rather than 3 but bet we'd all take that now.

Manager needs to look at his performance. However Leicester are no mugs and their defence showed up our attacking limitations.

Its a better side than last year (just) no alarm bells just yet but come on Mr Manager sort it out.

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Disagree. We didn't lose that game due to going down to 10 men. We lost it due to inept defending. Sure, going down to 10 men dented our chances of winning but we can't pin the defeat on Hojbjerg IMO.

Why blame the defenders, the attack couldn't score goals even when we were well on top, even the much lauded Ings was hopeless today never having got into the match. At Saints for two weeks and already his goal scoring instincts have been coached out of him. Familiar pattern?

Why blame the defenders, the attack couldn't score goals even when we were well on top, even the much lauded Ings was hopeless today never having got into the match. At Saints for two weeks and already his goal scoring instincts have been coached out of him. Familiar pattern?

TBF, the final ball was bad all night, and even though we had a fair few chances at goal, none of them was clear cut chances.

Yet again some bizarre over reactions on here, in particular I don’t buy that Hughes picked the wrong team, or that we didn’t play well in the first half. They were loudly applauded off at half time, rightly, for a high energy and positive first 45 mins where we should have been ahead.

 

I do agree however with the criticism of substitutions, and when we went down to 10 men for me we should have sacrificed a striker particularly given the total inability of Austin to influence a game outside of the penalty area. Positives from today include our best 45 mins in terms of playing style so far under Hughes, and the performances of Redmond and Lamina (who was excellent defensively as well as offensively today). Way too early to hit the panic button.

Not certain anyone is “hitting the panic button” but 7 wins from the last 41 including today’s effort where victory number 8 looked very likely until - bizarrely - the second we took the lead has a few (very much including me) a tad frustrated.

Jammy result for them ably assisted by the fat ref behind the play and a poor Main stand lino. Moss didn't boo Ntidi for 3 fouls as bad if not worse than PEH; he missed at least 5 late tackles , 2 on Lemina, Austin etc, took no action, Haven't seen the penalty?red card incident yet, but in real time I thought he was shoved. As said above Moss ran fastest all day to send him off WTF? And a last minute deflection god almighty how lucky even Puel has said they didn't play very well. Far too soon to slit your wrists yet all you bed wetters.

Jammy result for them ably assisted by the fat ref behind the play and a poor Main stand lino. Moss didn't boo Ntidi for 3 fouls as bad if not worse than PEH; he missed at least 5 late tackles , 2 on Lemina, Austin etc, took no action, Haven't seen the penalty?red card incident yet, but in real time I thought he was shoved. As said above Moss ran fastest all day to send him off WTF? And a last minute deflection god almighty how lucky even Puel has said they didn't play very well. Far too soon to slit your wrists yet all you bed wetters.

This. A well written and true post

The Puel Out brigade have a lot to answer for.

Oh is that so? Why don't you go and support Leicester then

Oh is that so? Why don't you go and support Leicester then

Don't feed the troll mate

Jammy result for them ably assisted by the fat ref behind the play and a poor Main stand lino. Moss didn't boo Ntidi for 3 fouls as bad if not worse than PEH; he missed at least 5 late tackles , 2 on Lemina, Austin etc, took no action, Haven't seen the penalty?red card incident yet, but in real time I thought he was shoved. As said above Moss ran fastest all day to send him off WTF? And a last minute deflection god almighty how lucky even Puel has said they didn't play very well. Far too soon to slit your wrists yet all you bed wetters.

It was a desperate and disgusting dive.

There was no deflection - Vest swung a foot and completely missed it.

HTH

I seem to remember our best ever season under Koeman 3 seasons ago we only had 2 points after 3 games and we had played Newcastle (a), Everton (H) and Watford (a) to start with. Some people need to chill and relax.

I seem to remember our best ever season under Koeman 3 seasons ago we only had 2 points after 3 games and we had played Newcastle (a), Everton (H) and Watford (a) to start with. Some people need to chill and relax.

Good lad.

we are going to "we actually played alright", "the left side had a good game", and "we just need to eliminate 1 or 2 defensive mistakes" straight away to relegation.

been hearing these sentiments for awhile now, and none of it is getting us any results.

Jammy result for them ably assisted by the fat ref behind the play and a poor Main stand lino. Moss didn't boo Ntidi for 3 fouls as bad if not worse than PEH; he missed at least 5 late tackles , 2 on Lemina, Austin etc, took no action, Haven't seen the penalty?red card incident yet, but in real time I thought he was shoved. As said above Moss ran fastest all day to send him off WTF? And a last minute deflection god almighty how lucky even Puel has said they didn't play very well. Far too soon to slit your wrists yet all you bed wetters.

I think Leicester might have lodged a complaint if he'd done that. Seems rather unprofessional if you ask me.

3 games in. Typical slow start for saints. Just business as usual. The worst thing about losing today was that it was at home. We still look better than last season just chill out. If we're still struggling by the end of September then I'd be worried. But for now I'm not panicking. Leicester are a bloody decent side and we bossed them for most of the game. Have some faith lads.

Another home banker lost.

Deep doo-doo yet again...