Saints 1-4 Ajax Reaction

[Arizona]

Saints take the lead through Fish Mills. Suarez (2, 1 pen) De Jong and Zeigler score for Ajax.

 

Sounds like it was going reasonably well up until 80 mins. Any thoughts on players and the general atmosphere from those at the game.

[these things take time]

Pardew out ffs

[FMPR]

Start as you mean to go on is what I think

[obelisk]

Still conceding plenty of late goals then. Something there to be looked at by the new man in charge.

[saint_mears]

Expected result and hopefully we will see at least two new faces by next Saturday.

[offix]

The result is expected, I just hope that our performance and level of effort was acceptable?

[stthrobber]

Think you can probably write this result and maybe next week's off as we all know the squad needs new blood, but I think Pardew will be able to attract exactly the right players we need.

 

Ajax are a quality side and er, we aren't, so I can't read much into the result

[FMPR]

Ajax probably mid table Prem standard tbh

[kelso kev]

Just got back with our kids. G8 atmosphire, squad didnt look to bad, first half i feel wi just did it. Now looking forward to the season.

[Windmill Arm 2]

still conceding plenty of late goals then. Something there to be looked at by the new man in charge.

 

 

it was ajax ffs, who gives a toss, how one sided can you get?????

[sussexsaint]

Couldn't go what was the atmos like? Would ML have been chuffed with the crowd?

[September Saint]

Ajax played with Vim?

[O_RLY]

Disgusting.

 

How we will ever get anywhere in League 1 losing to a champions league side...

[Northant Saint]

What was the attendance?

[Sergei Gotsmanov]

what was the crowd?

[exit2]

Quite enjoyed it, we seemed to let in it go in the last 15 mins. No one really stood out apart from KD, but did think Murty was solid and would do a job in league 1 in front of KD.

 

Have to say their last goal I thought was a qulity strike, other than that it was just a normal friendly.

 

AP got a good reception as did ML

 

Crowd I say was around 19 -20k, although might be wrong

[John Cool]

Ajax played with Vim?

 

Wiped the floor with us

[Saint Charlie]

Mills looked good when moved to LB and Schneiderlin showed his class when he came on. IMO if we can we should get rid of Rasiak and Saga and bring two strikers in, one with pace+one with physical presence. Also need to get Lallana more involved as he is our most skillful player. Gillett+Murty both looked good, as did Wayne Thomas. We struggled a little when he went off. All in all we did well, certainly no disgrace against a technically good Ajax team. Quite a nice mix of youth+experience today.

[Tractor_Saint]

Enjoyed the game. Crowd at the Northam end and Kingsland were pretty packed but Itchen and Chapel were a bit sparse.

 

SFC Missed a trick by not bringing our new owner and manager out on the pitch before the game. Do you think that the camera feed was stopped on purpose when Liebherr was announced?

 

I think the team played well but needed to keep more possession _ Kelvin was fantastic .... could have been 7 or 8 otherwise.

 

Traffic out of the stadium is cr*p - only just on the Itchen bridge - grrrr

 

Have a few pics to post - what's the rules about posting pics? can i just put them in here?

Edited 18 July, 2009 by Tractor_Saint

[Matthew Le God]

Joseph Mills or Kelvin Davis Motm imo

 

Team shows some promise against clearly much better opponents.

[Scoobysaint]

Positives:

I thought we played well in the 1st half. Thomas had a very good half and it was never a pen! Kelvin made some fantastic saves. Mills had a good game including a goal and a fantastic last ditch tackle. Murty looked solid and although not the quickest he reads the game well.

Negatives:

Some of the passing at points was poor and too often possession was just given away. The whole team is lacking pace, especially up front and at the back. Molyneux was very disappointing.

 

All in all, a reasonable performance against a team that was quality.

[stknowle]

Wiped the floor with us

 

Cleaned up

[Saints foreva]

We played good in the first half imo, Thomas was a beat in the defence and the Ajax strikeforce struggled to get past him. It didn't look like a penalty, but we are used to the cack referee's. Even in pre-season we have them!

 

2nd half was very poor, we struggled to get hold of the ball. Thomas had gone off and we struggled in the defence. We NEED to keep Thomas.

 

Saga and Rasiak didn't look interested so they can f-off.

[Weston Saint]

Ajax looked slick, passed slick and a decent team. We looked what we are, a div 1 side. Passing poor, midfield too deep for much of the game and some of our players looked unfit. That said I think Pardew has something to work with.

[Matthew Le God]

Having seen some of the formations people not at the game, I'll clear it up with the actual one as I was there.

 

                        Davis

Murty         Thomas           Perry        Molyneux

                    Wotton

          James             Gillett

Lallana                                        Mills

                     Rasiak

[NickG]

defence looked ok.

 

upfront we looked poor - both Rasiak and Saga.

 

midfield looked better with Scneiderlin.

 

did pretty well - back 4, Gillett, KD and Schneiderlin

[SoccerMom]

Kelvin and Mills stood out. Murty was solid enough, but on more than one occasion there was dreadful communication between him and other players (inc KD). Maybe just needs time to adjust. :>( Thomas was excellent and a physical presence - looks more like a quarterback than central defense. Things started to fall apart in the second half with all the substitutions.

 

Agree Saga and Rasiak don't look interested, but why just one up front, FFS? Don't they ever learn?

 

Pardew must feel like he's got his work cut out.

[NickG]

Having seen some of the formations people not at the game, I'll clear it up with the actual one as I was there.

 

                        Davis

Murty         Thomas           Perry        Molyneux

                    Wotton

          James             Gillett

Lallana                                        Mills

                     Rasiak

 

yes and looked defensive in first half - but tbf held a good side

[kpturner]

I thought we did OK for 30 minutes or so and Rasiak actually looked up for it IMHO. However, if we signed Murty and played him at right-back I would be a bit worried about Lloyd James playing in midfield. Didn't get a sniff - too powder puff in possession (and why does he run like a girl with his hand like that??). Actually just saw Henderson on Saints TV saying that he thought James' best position was right back so that says a lot for his midfield credentials.

[derry]

Where the hell do we get these bloody incompetent clowns of coaches that pick these sides.

 

I shudder to think if this is the sort of thinking from the coach running the academy, no wonder the youngsters have problems understanding how to play.

 

Ajax played with touchline to touchline width instead of copying them our geniuses play any way but.

 

As for Wotton attempting to imitate an Italian traffic cop arm waving, gestures etc whilst giving a totally incompetent display allegedly holding in front of the back four.

 

Apart from his usual high percentage of fouls, all he succeeded in doing, was giving the ball back to Ajax nine times out of ten, wandering about in between the Ajax players picking up nobody.

 

His incompetent display disrupted the midfield and stopped the centre backs coming out and attacking the ball.

 

Mills did well and looked useful at left back, we needed two up front and two banks of four. One up front with everybody funneling back was awful.

 

Gillett was fine but James was poor in midfield but Wotton didn't help matters. If we are going to play a holding player they have to attack the ball and have a nearly 100% passing success rate not 10%.

 

Murty looked useful, I just hope he hasn't done his knee.

 

Pardew has a lot to do yet and a lot of changing of the way we have been playing. Wotton just cannot be played in a five man midfield.

[Matthew Le God]

I'm still standing by my long held opinion that Morgan Schneiderlin is a class act, despite what others on here think.

 

Was very good when he came on.

[Nexstar]

Players that looked good:

 

Mills

Gillett

Davis

Murty

Perry

Thomas (sure it wasn't a penalty)

Lallana

 

Players that looked bad:

 

Rasiak (can leave in the morning)

Molyneux (at fault for their second)

[Saint Charlie]

Yeah if still here Schneiderlin could have a great season. He keeps the ball so well. Him and Gillett in the centre would be fine!

[RedWillie]

crowd was good, i'd say 23000, Kingsland was very full as was Northam.

[saintsmike25]

Okay thoughts on the game.

 

Kelvin Davies was fantastic today as per usual, although the second goal he really should have done better on, but that had more to do with Molyneux's inept defending style of not even attempting to close down Suarez who could have had a cup of tea and a cigarette and Molyneux still wouldn't have challenged him.

 

Joseph Mills was superb I thought, in terms of work rate and getting up and down and challenges he's really up for the challenge, he still makes the odd mistake as their third goal showed when he almost scored an own goal, but he reminds me of a left back Simon Gillet with lots of energy and enthusiasm and just needs a bit more belief in himself, also really really fantastic at sliding challenges.

 

Graeme Murty was solid he looks a bit out of shape but he seems very dependable he doesn't do alot of things wrong, he'll be an asset in league one.

 

Paul Wotton seems to look more like a pub footballer in a Saints shirt, occasionally makes a challenge infront of the defence but we always look worse with him in the side, because all he seems capable of doing is hoofing it and fouling, I didn't see him play one good pass. Really hope we can get someone whose more capable.

 

Rasiak looked his usual self and was totally isolated upfront however he won a few in the air and held up the ball well at times, he seemed a bit more enthusiastic we really need to support him better if we're going to use him as a target man. Most of the time it was him against four Ajax defenders.

 

Molyneux had a really bad game, as soon as Rommedahl came on he looked clueless which is perhaps to be expected but his positioning and tackling was inept.

 

Lloyd James didn't get involved at all, but he didn't have a terrible game.

 

Wayne Thomas was one of the standout performers and was really looking good in the first half.

 

Lallana was a bit quite but looked good on the ball.

 

The squad still isn't match fit as the 60th minute mark came alot of the players were huffing and puffing, much to Ajax superb slow patient build ups and use of the full backs and width.

[Nexstar]

**Sorry if it takes a while to load**

 

 

Picture taken from the back of Northam

[wild-saint]

Interestin to see wotte sat in the crowd today.

[Joesaint]

Did feel we played so so deep, esp at the end, AJAX were bound to score. Defence needs some real organisation AJAX worked us out and its called a through ball.

 

Some players impressed, some didn't. Think AP can do alot of good this season providing he gets a few new players, I thought the crowd was really good and did us all proud.

 

COYR

[St_Tel49]

I'm still standing by my long held opinion that Morgan Schneiderlin is a class act, despite what others on here think.

 

Was very good when he came on.

 

I agree - the only one to seem to be in the same class as their players. Strong on the ball too. Apart from that I was pleased with the way we played up until the hour given the quality of Ajax, but we still manage to give away comedy goals i.e. nos 2 and 3. Both were very poor goals to concede - CL opposition or not. I think that is one of the prime areas for Pardew to deal with. Agree also the KD and Mills performed

[saintsmike25]

I saw some idiot in the Northam get chucked out in the first 5 minutes.. And some old **** dressed up as a blues brother these people weren't even watching the game just constantly gesturing towards the Ajax lot who were pretty funny.

[BotleySaint]

I thought Murty was pretty poor against Ajax. Whether he can do a job against lower opposition though... not sure.

[Deppo]

Did they wheel out Pards before the game started? I only got in as Liebherr was being introduced.

[Deppo]

Ajax played with Vim?

 

Very good.

[Matthew Le God]

Did they wheel out Pards before the game started? I only got in as Liebherr was being introduced.

 

They cut to him on the big screen as he took his seat. Gave the crowd a wave.

[Deppo]

crowd was good, i'd say 23000, Kingsland was very full as was Northam.

 

Looked like they deliberately filled the ground opposite to where Liebherr was sitting to make it look impressive. Kingsland was rammed.

[St Will]

I thought Murty was pretty poor against Ajax. Whether he can do a job against lower opposition though... not sure.

 

I thought he was unspectacular but didn't do a bad job....no coincidence once he went off and Lloyd James went to right back, we looked very weak at the back

[Paul Chuckle]

I see McMennemy is still hovering around probably desperate to get his 75k a year hand shaker job back!

[spyinthesky]

We'll be fine when Anthony Pulis gets fit

[RedWillie]

Davis, Thomas, Mills and Lallana stood out for me, the rest were average but is Murty really only 34? He played OK but looks about 40 !!!!

 

Mills got around a bit and Davis made some cracking saves and commanded the box in the first half. Second half the back 4 were awful. Saying that Ajax were very, very good and probably could have crucified us.

 

Good crowd and the only way is up...

[L1Minus10]

I don't think it would have been 4-1 without all our substitutions which weakened the team.... Lancashire for Thomas being the main one... and then it really went wrong when Thomson came on, on the left.

 

Davis 8 - Some great saves - should have done better with the 2nd goal

Murty 7 - When he gets fitter, he'll be a great signing on a free

Molyneux 6 - not too bad though static for 2nd goal

Perry 8 - Solid as ever

Thomas 8 - Solid, pen wasn't a pen but he should have given one away later on

Lallana 6 - Needs to find a position as right wing isn't it

James 5 - Game bypassed him

Wotton 6 - a couple of agricultural challenges but nice work for the goal.

Gillett 6 - Was trying to link with Rasiak but breaking forward isn't really his game

Mills 7 - good goal and very lively

Rasiak 7 - Isolated but worked hard. not quick enough to play up on his own

------------------------

Saganowski 6 - looked a bit heavy

Thomson 5 - Dit nowt

Lancashire 5 - Notably more nervous defence when he came on

 

Overall, not bad. the starting Xi wasn't bad with another striker being required instead of James to make it a decent side.

Edited 18 July, 2009 by Billy Shite