Post-Match Reaction: SAINTS 1-1 FC Midtjylland

[Plastic]

Totally forgot about Clasie. Where is he?

[shurlock]

just like when people post 'what can you do....'

 

Box of frogs

[Dangermouth]

You could see when they had the ball and were expected to play they didn't really know what to do.

 

Mind you, everyone knows how to defend against us now: just get bodies back.

 

I wonder how a team that has been playing the same way for over a year can't even seem to do that sometimes.

 

Depressing.

[Saint Charlie]

Owen Hargreaves saying he thinks the identity of the team has changed and its not really working.

[mcbendy]

Wow and it takes a certain kind of **** to turn on someone for no good reason, back under your bridge you sad troll.

 

Maybe you're not on here all that often. The kid has form.

[badgerx16]

it goes back to the point. no team ever, in the history of the premier league has lost the amount of players we have in the space of 12 months

 

not sure even Leeds or Pompey did

 

Which, unfortunately, is the price of our success - Man Ure, Arsenal, and the red scousers will poach our best because they can offer riches beyond our capability. If we'd finished 15th in each of the last 2 seasons, we wouldn't have been anywhere near as attractive to them.

[CB Fry]

just like when people post 'what can you do....'

Feel free to mention Everton at any point.

[shurlock]

Owen Hargreaves saying he thinks the identity of the team has changed and its not really working.

 

We've been toothless for ages; just our defense isn't as strong to eke games out by the odd goal.

[adrian lord]

A season of chasing the coat tails of the likes of Palace and Stoke is not what I had hoped for.

[mrfahaji]

That last 20 minutes was excruciating to watch - copious amounts of time wasting and gamesmanship from them, and either poor passing/control or unimaginative long balls when we had a chance to do something.

 

I thought we looked threatening until then, perhaps our lack of such threat as the game went on was mainly due to their tactics. But the number of times I said "jeeesus" or "bl00dy hell" in that game shows how fragile and error prone we look defensively compared to last season. I guess it's inevitable in a team missing Schneiderlin, Clyne, Alderweireld and Bertrand, but disappointing nonetheless. Thought Romeu and Wanyama protecting the back line helped compared to previous games, but Vic's all round performance was poor, and we missed Davis' energy - as much as Ward-Prowse had a decent game, I don't recall him being everywhere in the same way that Davis was against Newcastle, for example.

 

With Targett and Yoshida as full backs we were sorely missing width, there were times it was crying out for a ball into space wide, but there was no-one there.

[Saints foreva]

Play like that on Sunday and we'll be losing.

 

Nowhere near good enough, again.

[adrian lord]

Watford suddenly looks a daunting prospect.

[saint_ed]

You really are going to post this every single day aren't you?

 

He's got a point though, you don't see Everton rolling over letting Stones, McCarthy, Coleman and Baines leave so freely.

[richard]

We've not started the season well - fair enough.

We've got players to come back from injury and probably one or two more to transfer in.

RK will get them organised and soon we'll look a lot better side.

We've not even lost tonight. Let's keep some perspective.

[saint1977]

Caulker got better as the game went on (or as the Danes dropped off) and was always dangerous from setpieces but made two or three glaring mistakes that could have been very costly. Not very mobile and his distribution is gash.

 

Agree on Caulker, better second half but just as dangerous to Saints in his own box as the opposition's. Not sure what Les Reed was thinking of there.

 

Positives - J Rod, much better from Targett, Romeu looks decent but is going to clock up a few suspensions, Stek solid again despite the bombardment from the air first half, JWP better second half and Tadic stayed on the bench. Hopefully we can get sell Dusan by 31 August, if not, loan him out to Derby or somewhere. He won't feature much if we don't make the Europa Groups.

 

Need to improve: Victor hit and miss, genuinely isn't ready yet for top 4 move, Mane ditto, Juanmi only got a few minutes again. Caulker and Yoshi poor, despite both nearly scoring.

 

How have we ended up with Yoshi and Caulker as regular first teamers? I'm going as far as Alpine, who is doing my head in, but something has gone very badly wrong with the recruitment and Les has some serious questions to answer. Would imagine that's why Ronald isn't looking too happy at present, along with some post op discomfort.

 

Need to get another 3-4 in, a couple of CBs, good strong CM and we still look over-reliant on Pelle so a hold-it-up striker as well. Would see us as being lower-mid-table at best if we don't address those flaws, which are obvious early season already. The PL is much stronger this year and Saints are a lot weaker.

[badgerx16]

We've been toothless for ages; just our defense isn't as strong to eke games out by the odd goal.

 

Caulker's first start, Maya at RB, and Targett at LB - not our preferred starting back 4. Once we get Bertrand back and can get a settled defence in place for 3 or 4 games things should look better.

[BARCELONASAINT]

The most concerning points for me are the lack of leaders on the pitch....I look around and i can't see anyone.

Koeman, to me looks disinterested......has he had enough of having to rebuild.....how much did the Toby debacle do to Koeman losing heart.

At this present time we are weaker....alot weaker than we were last season.

I have been baffled by his team selections thus far. Nothing against Yoshi, thought he did alright but we were crying out for an attacking wing back like Soares???....and why the hell is Juanmi not given a chance ahead of Long...he had a great pre-season.

 

Yup i know it is early days....but i cannot help being very concerned.

[Saint George]

Mostly poor.

 

None of the new players bar Stekelenburg have made any real impact let alone improve us.

 

Too much long ball to Pelle, midfield looks a shadow of last season.

 

Defense looks shaky and not creating much from open play.

 

Ronald doesn't look happy and something missing from the team, drive passion, interest, team spirit? Doesn't look like many are "enjoying their football" or "playing with freedom".

 

Why would they?.....It's been made clear to them they're not here to win things but merely showcase their abilities for the benefit of potential clients in the transfer market and thus ensure Big Kat's big purse gets ever bigger....

 

Straight out the same Les Reed book of 'psychology and achievement' that's made just about every decent player we had run for the hills.

 

To quote the great one....."It could have been so different"

[Graffito]

Disappointing that we went long in the final quarter of the match but understandable maybe. Took our midfield out of the game. Had they scored again we'd probably have been out effectively. Anyone (Dutch posters?) know how and who created the goals for Pelle at Feyenoord because he's feeding off scraps at the moment. Couldn't see anything wrong with Caulker's goal. On the other hand the penalty was soft. Ref was a pussy.

[COMEONYOUREDS]

Why is Juanmi barely getting a look in? Full Spain international, on fire in preseason and behind Shane Long in the pecking order.. Weird

[COMEONYOUREDS]

Why would they?.....It's been made clear to them they're not here to win things but merely showcase their abilities for the benefit of potential clients in the transfer market and thus ensure Big Kat's big purse gets ever bigger....

 

Straight out the same Les Reed book of 'psychology and achievement' that's made just about every decent player we had run for the hills.

 

To quote the great one....."It could have been so different"

 

Go away

[Brave Sir Robin]

Bit suprised at the reaction on here from some.

Thought we played ok, very unlucky to have Caulker's goal disallowed, they were very organised, good at pressing and tracking back. Draw was a fair result.

I don't think we've got a hope of beating them next week, so that's probably Europe over for another few years for us, but we are showing signs of improvement and surely have at least one more signing on the way, so we'll be ok in the league (10th would be my guess).

[stknowle]

It takes a certain kind of determined narcissism to have composed the post-match reaction thread and be hovering over the 'post' button before the game has even finished. Congratulations - you can now see your name on the thread for the next couple of days. Does this help fill whatever void you are trying, desperately, to fill?

 

FFS. Incredible

[GarrettIvo]

What a f**king mess we're in. I hope Ralph Krueger calls Les Reed into his office tomorrow. Or maybe hes too busy counting the profit hes making for KL...

 

Another gem.

[Diabolus Ex Machina]

Well I missed the last 20 mins so don't want to comment on whether we should have won or not but sounds like we had the chances to. So if it's a simple case of having to win at their place to go through then so be it. The way some people make it sound like that's some sort of impossibility astounds me.

 

Season may not have started well but we have as many points as we did after 2 games last year and are still in Europe, nothing to lose our heads over just yet.

 

I won't even go into detail about if we are better/worse player wise as last year. Think i'll wait until all our players are healthy, we've finished our business and they've actually been able to play a run of games together until I judge.

 

I do wonder if the level of expectation is getting to the players a bit though. Last year they came in to the season with everyone expecting us to be relegation fodder which gave them something to prove and no pressure. This year we would be expected to be top half again as well as our European ventures, might be affecting them mentally.

[GarrettIvo]

Alpine is becoming a parody of himself

 

Becoming??

[Graffito]

The most concerning points for me are the lack of leaders on the pitch....I look around and i can't see anyone.

Koeman, to me looks disinterested......has he had enough of having to rebuild.....how much did the Toby debacle do to Koeman losing heart.

At this present time we are weaker....alot weaker than we were last season.

I have been baffled by his team selections thus far. Nothing against Yoshi, thought he did alright but we were crying out for an attacking wing back like Soares???....and why the hell is Juanmi not given a chance ahead of Long...he had a great pre-season.

 

Yup i know it is early days....but i cannot help being very concerned.

 

Of course Koeman wasn't disinterested. He was p1ssed off with the blatant time wasting and weak refereeing (and maybe the hoofing his team descended to) like the rest of us. Oh and he's on crutches.

[CB Fry]

Why would they?.....It's been made clear to them they're not here to win things but merely showcase their abilities for the benefit of potential clients in the transfer market and thus ensure Big Kat's big purse gets ever bigger....

 

Straight out the same Les Reed book of 'psychology and achievement' that's made just about every decent player we had run for the hills.

 

To quote the great one....."It could have been so different"

Please save us Saint George like you did last season. Please save us Saint George please save us. Please save us.

[Latheal]

The Morgan influence is glaring (but it was last year when he was missing). You can't just go out and replace that type of quality.

 

Fonte is off form, Targett looked nervous first half and Yoshida offers nothing going forward first half. Both fullbacks improved after the break.

 

We're too slow at the moment. Passing needs to quicken up. Hopefully Clasie can bring that to us when fit. Surprised Tadic wasn't brought on.

 

Positives that Pelle looks sharp, Jay got stronger as the game went on and JWP played well. We do miss some chances though.

 

Fancy us over there though.

[richard]

Bit suprised at the reaction on here from some.

Thought we played ok, very unlucky to have Caulker's goal disallowed, they were very organised, good at pressing and tracking back. Draw was a fair result.

I don't think we've got a hope of beating them next week, so that's probably Europe over for another few years for us, but we are showing signs of improvement and surely have at least one more signing on the way, so we'll be ok in the league (10th would be my guess).

 

We don't have a hope of beating them? Given that they are the team who did all the time-wasting, I'd say that even they disagree with you.

[Max]

Overall it was pish - Mane and Vic are the two I was most disappointed with. Impressed with Romeu and Targett and glad to see JWP has really stepped up his dead ball delivery.

 

I thought Mane and Vic looked a class apart from every other player on the pitch when they were in possession! And I thought Romeu was unlucky to be booked early on but then lucky to stay on with a couple of late tackles late on. Targett had a couple of promising moments but still a weak link defensively, bit to slow. Agree with you about JWP though so we were watching the same game!

[badgerx16]

Well I missed the last 20 mins so don't want to comment on whether we should have won or not but sounds like we had the chances to. So if it's a simple case of having to win at their place to go through then so be it. The way some people make it sound like that's some sort of impossibility astounds me.

 

Season may not have started well but we have as many points as we did after 2 games last year and are still in Europe, nothing to lose our heads over just yet.

 

I won't even go into detail about if we are better/worse player wise as last year. Think i'll wait until all our players are healthy, we've finished our business and they've actually been able to play a run of games together until I judge.

 

I do wonder if the level of expectation is getting to the players a bit though. Last year they came in to the season with everyone expecting us to be relegation fodder which gave them something to prove and no pressure. This year we would be expected to be top half again as well as our European ventures, might be affecting them mentally.

 

That is far too rational for this forum.

[verlaine1979]

We've been toothless for ages; just our defense isn't as strong to eke games out by the odd goal.

 

Absolutely this. The entire back-end of last season we struggled for goals, except on the odd occasion when the opposition were so abject that we could help ourselves. In the first half of the season the defence were incredibly good (and we got incredibly lucky with some penalty decisions etc) but we weren't especially high scoring, and I remember at the time thinking that some of the results were pretty fortunate with us scoring an unusually high % of our chances (Swansea, Stoke, Hull).

 

This season looks like more of the same, with the majority of balls either going long or wide, and generally taking an age to get there in the latter case. The team is crying out for someone who can pick up the ball on half-way and drive to the edge of the box, as without one it seems we'll continue to pass in front of rather than through teams.

[badgerx16]

We don't have a hope of beating them? Given that they are the team who did all the time-wasting, I'd say that even they disagree with you.

 

We don't have to beat them, 2-2 is fine.

[corky morris]

We lack width, Clyne & Bertrand used to go past players, Targett tried, but not got the pace. I thought Mane, Wanyama & Fonte were way below par. Wanyama's pasing was terrible. Three times Mane lost control of a very simple ball. Fonte was at fault for the goal (horrific header) & got beaten in the air time after time.

Pelle worked hard without any refereeing support. Jay Rod should/could have used his left foot on a couple of occasions & messed up using when shooting.

Romeu did well until the booking.

That said we had loads of possession & had 23 shots!! Normally enough to win 2 games.

Lots of work to do........................

[GarrettIvo]

Hopefully we can get sell Dusan by 31 August, if not, loan him out to Derby or somewhere.

 

This is clearly not going to happen.

[Viking Saint]

Disappointing that we went long in the final quarter of the match but understandable maybe. Took our midfield out of the game. Had they scored again we'd probably have been out effectively. Anyone (Dutch posters?) know how and who created the goals for Pelle at Feyenoord because he's feeding off scraps at the moment. Couldn't see anything wrong with Caulker's goal. On the other hand the penalty was soft. Ref was a pussy.

 

To be fair, I felt, apart from the disallowed goal which I can see why it was given, that the ref gave us the overwhelming majority of decisions tonight, and Romeu was lucky to stay on the pitch. Mistimed a challenge badly but luckily the ball fell well for them and the ref played a long advantage to them. We're a bit naïve as to the cynicism in European football as they were timewasting from about 20 minutes onwards....

[Jimmy_D]

Just back, thought we were by far the better team on the night, although we still look a bit rusty in some places.

 

Result isn't what we would have chosen, leaves us needing to win out there, but I think we'll be ok.

[COMEONYOUREDS]

Becoming??

 

LOL. Or St George is a parody of Alpine. I'm confused now, didn't think there could be two people that miserable

[Sour Mash]

I thought they were a vile side. Like an old Stoke, plus ridiculous time-wasting, took the p#*s. Makes next week's game interesting.

[GarrettIvo]

 

Need to get another 3-4 in, a couple of CBs, good strong CM and we still look over-reliant on Pelle so a hold-it-up striker as well. Would see us as being lower-mid-table at best if we don't address those flaws, which are obvious early season already. The PL is much stronger this year and Saints are a lot weaker.

Also not happening at this stage.

 

Perfectly acceptable if we make it into the EL group stages.

[Appy]

 

He'll eat them

[corky morris]

I thought Mane and Vic looked a class apart from every other player on the pitch when they were in possession! And I thought Romeu was unlucky to be booked early on but then lucky to stay on with a couple of late tackles late on. Targett had a couple of promising moments but still a weak link defensively, bit to slow. Agree with you about JWP though so we were watching the same game!

 

Seriously??? Lost count of the amount of times Wanyama gave the ball away. Mane lost control on at least 3 occasions when it was easier to trap the ball...................

[GarrettIvo]

Why would they?.....It's been made clear to them they're not here to win things but merely showcase their abilities for the benefit of potential clients in the transfer market and thus ensure Big Kat's big purse gets ever bigger....

 

Straight out the same Les Reed book of 'psychology and achievement' that's made just about every decent player we had run for the hills.

 

To quote the great one....."It could have been so different"

 

Alpine 2.0 right here. With bonus misogyny.

[S-Clarke]

We were the better team, but incredibly sloppy and lacking any quality at the front end, final passes just not good enough. It some ways it was similar to Saturday, started very brightly and then dropped off.

 

Very tricky away game, as they're not a bad side. They play to their strengths to be fair, which is to time waste, fall over and do the dirty ****. I really felt we needed a 2nd goal, cause you know this is all they will do in the away leg.

[Brave Sir Robin]

We don't have a hope of beating them? Given that they are the team who did all the time-wasting, I'd say that even they disagree with you.

 

You seen their record at home? They'll time waste there too cos they're experienced enough in Europe to know that's how to frustrate us and control the tempo, particularly against English teams. They'll go all out for a clean sheet and I think they'll get it.

[St Marco]

Can't really be angry about it as I think it could of been a lot worse. We made so many mistakes and thankfully they were not punished. In the PL they would have been. AFter the first 45mins i'd have taken a draw.

 

My concern is we have turned into a long ball side now. No real cutting talent in the midfield. Defenders launch it and hope Pelle can nod it on to someone. Target and JWP launched it whenever they got the chance. The free flowing cut through teams style has gone.

 

Les Reed said that all transfer fees would be re-invested in the team so I have no doubt we will bring in some more players. The season is young and the new players need time.

[Appy]

Early goal next week we'll be alright, if we don't score early, we're in trouble.

[Diabolus Ex Machina]

Early goal next week we'll be alright, if we don't score early, we're in trouble.

 

Might as well go for it from the start. Even if we concede would still only need 1 to take it to extra time or Pens.

[goodymatt]

Very frustrating to watch. We always seem to struggle against teams that 'kill the game'. It's going to be a difficult 2nd leg for us, but hopefully our superior quality will shine through over 180 mins - their time wasting!

 

We have a few injuries and we are desperate for that CB replacement. When we are done in the market and have a fit squad we will be much better. Patience required, unfortunately. I worry about Sunday's game, hopefully we turn up...