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Saints 0 Spurs 2 Merry Christmas!!!


Ohio Saint

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The last seven home games we have only scored in the second half against Villa two times, only one from openplay; we are clearly nowhere near as fit as 2013 - no stamina, no energy, no fight even when only a goal down, and no ideas! The 3 subs yesterday all caused immense frustration, where are the young lads coming through? Harrison Reed? So disappointing….

 

What difference would Harrison Reed make?

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He rattled Arsenal last year and made several other decent contributions. Ultimately you're right, we're weak in GK, weak at the back, weak in MF, non-existent up front ... one player won't make a difference.

 

As per any bad patch, a player who is not playing is automatically 100% better than anyone else.

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What difference would Harrison Reed make?

 

To be fair to the lad he had a stormer against Everton last year when we won at home and Morgan and Wanyama were out. I'd take him any time for his tempo and tenacity. JWP and Davis are lucky to be manager's favourite picks but don't hold a candle to this lad when it comes to giving 100%. The manager's favourites, Wanyama Vice Capt, Pelle, JWP, Davis, are way below par for the Premier.

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Ryan Seager is turning more and more into the next Alan Shearer with the passing of every day.

 

Nobody knows how he'll do or Reed for that matter, however we do know there are a few that aren't performing and that's a fact. Stupidity is doing the same thing time after time and expecting a different outcome. Time for change, system and or personnel.

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I think the Saints foundation having read this week about their awards and the excellent work done in the local community.

If not them then the samaritans as I think several people from this forum could do with giving them a call.

 

Disappointing result - agreed.

Confidence crisis needs some luck to turn us around, perhaps a lucky pen or own goal on boxing day will help.

 

Of course this season is disappointing at the moment, makes me sick losing to Spurs but the sense of entitlement among some of our fans is ridiculous.

 

Not going to read through rest of this doom mongering but if anyone on here has the pleasure of meeting Dalek please do us all a favour sign him up for a carer, he must be a very lonely, sad individual in need of friends / help.

 

I need to take whatever it is that your taking.

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Just as moronic as those who talk up our new signings and dismiss the transfer business of other clubs, right, pal?

 

Even more moronic are those that talk up the signings of other clubs and dismiss our own transfer business, right? Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah I wish we were Crystal Palace I wish we were Crystal Palace I wish we were Crystal Palace.

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]Even more moronic are those that talk up the signings of other clubs and dismiss our own transfer business' date=' right?[/b'] Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah I wish we were Crystal Palace I wish we were Crystal Palace I wish we were Crystal Palace.

 

Did i say otherwise? Nope. Good.

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Even more moronic are those that talk up the signings of other clubs and dismiss our own transfer business, right? Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah I wish we were Crystal Palace I wish we were Crystal Palace I wish we were Crystal Palace.

 

I thought we wished we was Everton :s

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Just before Spuds scored we had 66% possession with no serious attempts on goal. They score with their first real attempt largely due to switching off in midfield and comical defending - players sauntering back rather than busting a gut to win the ball back. We are slow and predictable in attack - no simple triangulation as there's little movement and no good quality defense splitting passes. Just more of the same old cut in-field and run into a brick wall type attacking. The one chance we had in 2nd half stoppage time - we need 10 more of those in a game...one might just sneak through.

 

Pelle is too lazy and slow in his game to be worth anything other than a 75 min start to either chase or close out a game. After improving, Wanyama is now back to his old self and making a dog's dinner of 70% of his passing game. Gazzaniga - probably better than I thought in terms of basic skill, but his command of the defence in front of him stinks - the only time he makes his feelings known are when he tells Fonte and VVD that he wants to take a goal-kick long (probably because he's scared to attempt a short pass out to defence). Tadic as a playmaker is OK, but as part of the strike force he is slow and predictable and his role in defence is almost non-existent.

 

Romeu and Reed as CDM's please - give them some consistent game time together. Steven Davis is great chap to bring on to muster the troops when closing out a game - he is no CAM and is hardly a goal threat. Mane needs to be fed with quality balls - I think Tadic should play central and then we either play Seager or Ramirez or buy another top striker for the left. We need to massively improve (a) attacking passing and (b) threat on goal.

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Mahrez now linked to Manure in Jan , Leicester going the way of Saints ! Used to think the American Football draft system was strange but perhaps a fairer allocation of players would trim the rich clubs here .

 

we have the fairest allocation of money, though.

if Mahrez is under contract and leicester sell, that is their choice. They do not have to

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It was annoying that Spurs didn't have to play well to win - it was a canter for them. We started off well, but if we don't go 2 up inside 30 mins, then we lose focus and concentration and concede silly goals. As obvious as it sounds, we have no confidence past that "arc" of play around the opposition penalty box and have no-one who is willing to leather an effort on goal from outside the box, even just to show some intent.

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My two pence for what it's worth are thus. Spurs were comfortably the better side, but in my view that's only partly down to them. Our center mid this season is a shambles, and what worries me is i don't see an obvious fix to it. Wanyama has basically stopped caring and spends half the game sulking around the pitch. Clasie (and this is unpopular amongst saints fans) isn't good enough, i'm not sure if it's fitness or just not understanding the english game but his positional play is way off and he's often behind the pace. That said his distribution is far better than most of our players, but doing that from a poor position then chasing the space he's left doesn't help anyone.

 

VVD made a horrible attempt for that first goal but i don't lay the blame at his door. The issue for him, as with a lot of our team, is that he's constantly exposed by the lack of cover infront. To say we're missing Morgan is an understatement.

 

Cedric to me is about 2 years off being good enough, he's actually not a bad player but he's currently tactically naive and is constantly being exposed down the wings due to lack of cover and lose of shape.

 

Also as a team we're suffering from a real crisis of confidence, we're obviously not the side we were last season but then lets be honest losing Morgan and to a lesser extent Clyne has thrown us back quite a way. In my opinion it's not even an issue of bedding players in, it's a case of signing potential to replace proven players and potential takes time to come through. I honestly think we missed a huge trick by not going for Cabeye, someone with the right experience that was available in a price range we could afford (Song is equally one of those players i think we should've been targeting).

 

I'm not really that worried about this season re:relegation we're a mid table side and look that, we'll have decent runs and bad runs. We're not part of the "best of the rest" category but we're not terrible either, and i think that's what's difficult for many Saints fans to deal with as we've had so many seasons of consistent improvement recently.

 

Also, and equally controversial amongst saints fans, i think Poch is a better manager the Koeman. Don't get me wrong i like Koeman but Poch' develops players more, and better, in my opinion. And his teams play better football, we're now starting to lose some of his better additions (as many here predicted we would) and now is the time for Koeman to really make his mark. For example our fitness is noticeably worse and it's my opinion that we're a little more tactically naive than we were before, since Poch tends to focus incredibly well on the weakness of the opposition.

 

 

One comment on the atmosphere i have to say that the Spurs support this season was the worst so far at St Mary's. Incredibly quiet for the majority of the game and only really got going in the last ten minutes when a win was guaranteed.

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Cedric needs to practise defending. Can't afford to have him in the team just for his attacking. I'd prefer to see Yoshida at right back. Kane was way offside dummying the through pass and standing in the middle of the 6 yard area for the second goal. Surely he was interfering with play by putting Gazzaniga off?

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My two pence for what it's worth are thus. Spurs were comfortably the better side, but in my view that's only partly down to them. Our center mid this season is a shambles, and what worries me is i don't see an obvious fix to it. Wanyama has basically stopped caring and spends half the game sulking around the pitch. Clasie (and this is unpopular amongst saints fans) isn't good enough, i'm not sure if it's fitness or just not understanding the english game but his positional play is way off and he's often behind the pace. That said his distribution is far better than most of our players, but doing that from a poor position then chasing the space he's left doesn't help anyone.

 

VVD made a horrible attempt for that first goal but i don't lay the blame at his door. The issue for him, as with a lot of our team, is that he's constantly exposed by the lack of cover infront. To say we're missing Morgan is an understatement.

 

Cedric to me is about 2 years off being good enough, he's actually not a bad player but he's currently tactically naive and is constantly being exposed down the wings due to lack of cover and lose of shape.

 

Also as a team we're suffering from a real crisis of confidence, we're obviously not the side we were last season but then lets be honest losing Morgan and to a lesser extent Clyne has thrown us back quite a way. In my opinion it's not even an issue of bedding players in, it's a case of signing potential to replace proven players and potential takes time to come through. I honestly think we missed a huge trick by not going for Cabeye, someone with the right experience that was available in a price range we could afford (Song is equally one of those players i think we should've been targeting).

 

I'm not really that worried about this season re:relegation we're a mid table side and look that, we'll have decent runs and bad runs. We're not part of the "best of the rest" category but we're not terrible either, and i think that's what's difficult for many Saints fans to deal with as we've had so many seasons of consistent improvement recently.

 

Also, and equally controversial amongst saints fans, i think Poch is a better manager the Koeman. Don't get me wrong i like Koeman but Poch' develops players more, and better, in my opinion. And his teams play better football, we're now starting to lose some of his better additions (as many here predicted we would) and now is the time for Koeman to really make his mark. For example our fitness is noticeably worse and it's my opinion that we're a little more tactically naive than we were before, since Poch tends to focus incredibly well on the weakness of the opposition.

 

 

One comment on the atmosphere i have to say that the Spurs support this season was the worst so far at St Mary's. Incredibly quiet for the majority of the game and only really got going in the last ten minutes when a win was guaranteed.

 

A balanced, cogent, comprehensive and insightful analysis.

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