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Saints 2-3 Wolves - Sigh...


Lighthouse

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Hojberg is very, very poor. So sloppy in possession (often giving the ball away under no pressure) and slow of thought and movement. A good replacement for him in the summer is badly needed....if we can get a good player in that position then we are in good shape with JWP there (who has been a revelation this season). Cannot believe any top clubs would be looking at Hojberg as he is simply not good enough.

 

There was a moment yesterday when he took the ball on the halfway line, on the half turn, and it took him three touches back towards our own goal before he turned to look behind him and see what was or wasn’t on. Such a lack of intelligence and substance in his play, his inclusion in the starting 11 tends to be a huge problem for us, especially when we need to break a team down. When we’re up against it, he’s just about capable, as seen against Chelsea and Spurs, but he has no zero creativity, zero goal threat, and imo is actually pretty lazy a lot of the time.

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The dad of the kid who ran on the pitch sounds like a complete cock.

 

Goaded the kid to run on and ask Boufal for his shirt, then when the child was escorted back to his seat by the stewards he kicked off and tried to assault one of them.

 

Saw a bloke being cuffed and dragged at the Kingsland/Northan corner by about four stewards at the end of the match. Was this the same bloke ?

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I'd noticed previously that we got our best results with our possession in the forties because we played less passes and more direct. In the first half we had 49% possession/passes and two goals up. In the second half we played more passing, slowed our game down and were fairly easily held by Wolves. The interesting thing to me was that in the second half we had 57% of the possession and conceded three goals. Wolves played more direct pulled us onto them as we passed our way forward and hit their frontmen missing out our midfield and exposed our centre backs and the full backs struggling to get back. We were playing short and relatively short from the back and lost to the Wolves press up front.

 

In the second half we were back into the old problems playing at home. We paid the price of a high line and Kamikaze defending. Just before Wolves goal Stephens pretty much summed it up, under no pressure he had the ball, instead of hitting deep into the Wolves back line he chipped it into midfield where it was gobbled up by Wolves, a quick counter attack and it's in our net completely changing the game. There was no leadership or awareness on the field and none from the management. We don't need possession to win matches. the more we have the more vulnerable we are. Wolves held tight and hit us directly. If we had continued to put the ball up front quickly the defence wouldn't have been exposed. It was trying to play passing football that exposed us. We have to cut this out and stay direct.

 

Ralph had said before the match that he wasn't considering buying a player this month since the team were playing well. I'm wondering if he might be changing his mind following this defeat. We still are vulnerable at the back. Is there anyone out there that would add the leadership in defence that we need?

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Ralph had said before the match that he wasn't considering buying a player this month since the team were playing well. I'm wondering if he might be changing his mind following this defeat. We still are vulnerable at the back. Is there anyone out there that would add the leadership in defence that we need?
An upgrade on Stephens and Bednarek who could step straight in as first choice is way beyond our budget.

 

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Ok. How much would it cost? How much have we got? Which of the 5 (or 6 with Ramsey) CBs will we be able to offload to enable this?

 

I live in the real world.

 

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we signed Djenepo even Adams when we have...

 

Long, Ings, Redmond, Obafemi, Boufal and Carrillo.......all on the books

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we signed Djenepo even Adams when we have...

 

Long, Ings, Redmond, Obafemi, Boufal and Carrillo.......all on the books

Weak and spurious argument. You're mixing strikers with AM to get the numbers up.

 

We added Adams effectively replacing Gabbiadini and somehow conned someone to take Carillo on loan. One for one.

 

We signed Djenepo with Sims out on loan and Davis gone..

 

I'll ask you again. Which CB do you think we can offload this window? Oh, and I forgot Hoedt.

 

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For actual money? There's no miracle workers on this Forum Shroppie. We might be able to lose half of Vestergaard's wages, possibly.
Exactly. And when I said I forgot Hoedt, I meant I'm trying hard to erase him from my memory.

 

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Re: Those comments about the kid running on to the pitch.

 

Was it the kids parent that got into that almighty scrap with the stewards down towards the family section? Looked like a pretty violent episode.

 

Yep, happened right in front of me. The little sh!t ran onto the pitch and after Boufal got him off, a steward grabbed him by the collar to make sure he didn’t go back on. Then bizarrely, the bloke, who I assume was his dad, instead of telling the little ****er off decided to start laying into a steward. The other Stewards bundled him but then we’re surrounded by a load his chav mates, who just as bizarrely seemed to be upset that the stewards were doing their job.

 

You have to feel sorry for the kid really, with parents like that he has no hope.

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Yep, happened right in front of me. The little sh!t ran onto the pitch and after Boufal got him off, a steward grabbed him by the collar to make sure he didn’t go back on. Then bizarrely, the bloke, who I assume was his dad, instead of telling the little ****er off decided to start laying into a steward. The other Stewards bundled him but then we’re surrounded by a load his chav mates, who just as bizarrely seemed to be upset that the stewards were doing their job.

 

You have to feel sorry for the kid really, with parents like that he has no hope.

Don't you mean "You have to feel sorry for the little shit"?

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Wolves definitely had a masterplan when building their squad. They have gone for height, strength and speed. Ironically, Traore was the only player in their team who was not over 6 ft tall but being 4ft across at the shoulders makes up for it. The £50 million they paid for Traore and Jimenez was money well spent. It just goes to show what you can achieve in the transfer market when you have wealthy, ambitious, Chinese owners. Unfortunately, we don't.

Having scouts who don't recommend shite players would help too.

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Hopefully this is another wake up call, to me they looked like a team that was on a good run, that was 2-0 up and though they could cruise it 2nd half against a team that looked a bit tired and was a in poor form, but you can't switch off in the PL, especially against teams like Wolves or they will punish you and they did.

 

Textbook complacency IMO, especially as the 2-0 flattered us a bit, and is a dangerous scoreline.

 

Ralph seemed to say as much after the game, saying the defending was sloppy and players had lost concentration.

 

Need to see a better performance against Palace for the whole 90 mins.

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It was nice to be top ten for 10 minutes, now we are looking over our shoulders again.

 

I can see why Bednarek dived in for the first Wolves goal, as the ball was closer to him than Traoure, but that didn't account for the difference in pace. If Stephens hadn't dived I, Cedric would have screened it back to McCarthy, and as for the 3rd goal Stephens blew the offside trap, and then everyone went zonal, leaving the one threat unmarked.

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It was nice to be top ten for 10 minutes, now we are looking over our shoulders again.

 

I can see why Bednarek dived in for the first Wolves goal, as the ball was closer to him than Traoure, but that didn't account for the difference in pace. If Stephens hadn't dived I, Cedric would have screened it back to McCarthy, and as for the 3rd goal Stephens blew the offside trap, and then everyone went zonal, leaving the one threat unmarked.

 

The problem wasn't so much that he dived in, it was that he didn't take Traore out when he could have. It looked like he pulled out of the challenge when he realised the ball was gone. Should have wiped him out for a yellow.

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Hopefully this is another wake up call, to me they looked like a team that was on a good run, that was 2-0 up and though they could cruise it 2nd half against a team that looked a bit tired and was a in poor form, but you can't switch off in the PL, especially against teams like Wolves or they will punish you and they did.

 

Textbook complacency IMO, especially as the 2-0 flattered us a bit, and is a dangerous scoreline.

 

Ralph seemed to say as much after the game, saying the defending was sloppy and players had lost concentration.

 

Need to see a better performance against Palace for the whole 90 mins.

 

Agreed. It was one of those matches where you play ok but somehow find yourselves two nil up without having really dominated or done anything special.

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We don't have the mobility or pace in the spine of the team to deal with players such as Traore or Antonio, it really highlights our weaknesses when you see players such as those running at us.

 

We played 'ok', but not that amazingly. We played a hell of a lot better last weekend to be fair and got a deserved win.

 

We did get two good goals first half, but it felt like we'd never really got massive momentum and were just strolling along a little. 2nd half Wolves woke up and we struggled to contain them, their pace and power was just too much for our limited spine.

 

It's frsutrating because of where we were first half....! But it's a bump back down to earth, and the next two games will probably be further nails in that bump. We've got some games coming up during Feb and March which should give us enough though, but my worry is a few of them are at home - and our home form is still horrific. Until we sort that out, we will continue to struggle to pull away.

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It was nice to be top ten for 10 minutes, now we are looking over our shoulders again.

 

I can see why Bednarek dived in for the first Wolves goal, as the ball was closer to him than Traoure, but that didn't account for the difference in pace. If Stephens hadn't dived I, Cedric would have screened it back to McCarthy, and as for the 3rd goal Stephens blew the offside trap, and then everyone went zonal, leaving the one threat unmarked.

 

The problem wasn't so much that he dived in, it was that he didn't take Traore out when he could have. It looked like he pulled out of the challenge when he realised the ball was gone. Should have wiped him out for a yellow.

 

I've just watched the highlights again, courtesy of Wes

(why do I put myself through that?) and Bednarek tried to tackle Traore with his wrong foot and Traore just skipped over him. I agree with Benji about wiping Traore out and taking the booking. Bednarek was booked ater on 57 minutes. Does anybody know why?

 

When u see it again u realise how sh** hojberg is, 20yrds behind play, walking, hand up for offside and watching jimenez walk into our box unmarked, great fu****g leader and captain

 

Yeah, he's not what you want as a dynamic midfield general.

 

If you watch that Wolves move again you can see Stephens plays Traore onside by hanging well back and then waltzes through it all as a spectator. What was the point in hanging back if he's not going to get across and clear the ball? As for that penalty, He panics and goes diving in when Cedric has it covered and doesn't get anywhere near the ball. It's not as though anyone has touched the ball either, he just completely mistimes his lunge. Cedric does everything right, gets his body across in front of Jonny who hasn't actually touched the pass and shields the ball. That lunge by Stephens is what turned the game.

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When u see it again u realise how sh** hojberg is, 20yrds behind play, walking, hand up for offside and watching jimenez walk into our box unmarked, great fu****g leader and captain

 

Agree, though Bertrand doesn’t cover himself in glory either. Just look at his and Cedric’s starting position when the ball is initially flicked over the top for Traore. They’re virtually level - if anything Bertrand is closer as it’s down his channel. Then compare Cedric and Betrand’s desire/awareness to get back and defend. The difference is night and day -Cedric deserves a lot of credit for his recovery and was unlucky not to cut things out. The less said about Bertrand, the better. Same goes for Hoj who slows down completely, waving his arm like a ****.

Edited by shurlock
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Forgot to give a shout out to the woman who brazenly walked back to her seat at half time past 2 dozy stewards while carrying a pint of beer.

 

Maybe that's the way to get around the ground regs, just be so blatant about it that no one would even think to challenge you.

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Forgot to give a shout out to the woman who brazenly walked back to her seat at half time past 2 dozy stewards while carrying a pint of beer.

 

Maybe that's the way to get around the ground regs, just be so blatant about it that no one would even think to challenge you.

We saw that at the Spurs game - Wife begins the ascent of the Chapel steps armed with a pie in both hands, husband trailing behind her with a coffee in one hand and a pint of beer in the other - pretty much as everyone had taken their seats so no congestion at the top of the steps to hide the beer in.

Fair play to them and other obviously thought likewise because no one grassed them up :D

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