Saints 0-1 Wolves - Match Thread

[niceandfriendly]

21 minutes ago, charliemiller said:

My only comments 

We miss Stuart Armstrong badly he makes things happen around the box and we have no one else that does.

My only positive , clearly moussa is better than redmond , let's not start Redmond again please Ralph

He is but not by much. All Djenepo can do is run the ball out of play or run into opposition defenders. A depressing sub to bring on when you need something. You know he's going to "look flashy" but produce bugger all. Totally agree about Redmond though, rubbish.

[Mr X]

1 minute ago, redder freak said:

Did we miss Jack Stephens or would it have been worse if he’d played?

I prefer him over bednarek at the moment to be honest 

[Hawkswood]

Everyone is saying the Adams and Armstrong dont work together,  but there was no creative spark from an incredibly workmanlike midfield.  I dont think you can keep hoofing balls into the pockets between the oppo full back and cb and expect our forwards to make something happen. There was no transition between the midfield and forwards.  Ely doesnt have it and I wont even bothering to mention the other one on thw wing.

[Nemi]

I’m just as miffed as why Tella didn’t start or even get on the pitch, but come on, a 21 year old with not many games under his belt isn’t going to bail us out or necessarily even find us a goal - it’s a team game and our team is underwhelming, that’s the main issue.

 

[Baird of the land]

2 minutes ago, redder freak said:

Did we miss Jack Stephens or would it have been worse if he’d played?

I think we missed his ability on the ball. Bednarek and Salisu are very limited in that regard.

[Ivan Katalinic's 'tache]

Too slow, too predictable, too Ralph.

[Shroppie]

1 minute ago, Mr X said:

I prefer him over bednarek at the moment to be honest 

I don't think Jack would have been done by Jiminez like Bednarek was.

[stknowle]

16 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Ok, lessons learned...

KWP is not a LB. Ralph is obviously only playing him ahead of Perraud to placate him due to being miffed at losing his place to an 18yo. Clearly we can't drop Tino, but he was much more creative on the wing today than our actual winger, who was Elyounonymous. 

Redmond has had more than enough chances and will never, ever get better. Djenepo was so much better when he came on. Ok he loses the ball a fair bit but he's always trying to make something happen rather than dithering in the way Redmond does, and actually manages to get in behind occasionally.

Play KWP and Tino on the right, and Perraud and Djenepo on the left, and we will cause teams much more problems than we did today.

It's the blindingly obvious one to at least try. Still not one that our Manager fancies though.........................

[Mr X]

Question How have we improved under Ralph? 

When is a fair time to review his tenure, has he been given long enough? 

[Nemi]

Also doesn’t take a genius striker to realise that Bednarek loves to dive in and over commit himself, so it doesn’t take very much to stitch him like a kipper

[RedWillie]

Toothless up front. All our forwards were/are not good enough. Build up too slow, no pace, no threat. Bollox.

[Charlie Wayman]

No excuses, we just do not have a single reliably creative player in the squad. They are all straight line thinkers always doing the obvious straight forward things. Comfortable day out for their defence, all they needed to do was sit back and let us cock it up every time. Playing at a snail's pace with as many backward passes as forward ones is a huge concern at this level.

Agree with many on here that JWP is not at the races this season, a shadow of the player we had 18 months ago. Makes you wonder if he has gone stale on Saints and wants away. Hard to see where our next goal is coming from let alone a winning run. The support was fantastic yet we still end up losing, if that doesn't motivate players then what will? 

Edited 26 September, 2021 by Charlie Wayman

[Shroppie]

Just now, Ivan Katalinic's 'tache said:

Too slow, too predictable, too Ralph.

Agreed to an extent, but that team was good last week, so there was a case for no changes. But I still think it was the game to start Broja instead of Adams, and Djenepo instead of Redmond (or Livramento pushed forward, KWP RB and Perrauld LB)

[Micky]

16 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

I personally think we are clearly better than Norwich. Possibly better than Newcastle and Burnley too. Otherwise it's very close. 

Are these the only positives you can offer....?!  We may be better than Burnley but you can bet your bottom dollar they will bully us out of the points in a relegation battle. 

[Shroppie]

Too pissed off to say much but their back 3 were basically too good for us, especially in the air. If we’re bringing Long on for a goal, it’s desperate. Perhaps Ralph thought he’d win something in the air.

Redmond wasn’t bad, but had no real threat. Adams seems to have lost the ability to shoot. I’d probably still play them both next week as Broja can’t play and Redmond is a better defensive factor than Djenepo, but after that there have to be changes.

Really missed Ings. We had three or four chances when we won the ball on the press to create shooting chances, but no-one took anything on with conviction. Also need Armstrong S back. He can shoot, pick a pass and has a brain. Today it was all too slow.

Jiminez was brilliant for his goal but certainly made fools of Bednarek and Salisu. Did they dive in when they should have shepherded him away?

[Totton Saint]

33 minutes ago, Mikey88 said:

Do we actually have a plan for how we want to play with the ball? Or is our only plan to counter off a turnover? Genuinely couldn’t say what our style of play is.

Too leisurely and slow on the ball. Passing back and sideways as if victory was a given and no need hurry. All  the crude balls over the top too.

we know we are scraping the barrel bringing Long on

[verlaine1979]

Someone said above that we've got no finishers and we've got no creativity. That's it in a nutshell. Generally only the top sides can afford to have both, but to have neither is just such a failure of management at all levels of the club. Instead our crown jewel is JWP, the walking equivalent of a dull 0-0.

[rooney]

Lack of quality upfront, poor decision making and no urgency. Livremento our best player by a mile and he is only 18 fcs.

[stknowle]

23 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said:

I'd swap Adams with Broja. But yes agreed, Armstrong and Djenepo our most creative midfielders

Which has to be a major worry. The bloke has 2 assists to his name in his entire time with us. 

[hypochondriac]

6 minutes ago, Micky said:

Are these the only positives you can offer....?!  We may be better than Burnley but you can bet your bottom dollar they will bully us out of the points in a relegation battle. 

I think that if Ralph gets his act together we can get done better results. Our defence is better than last year but our midfield and attack is currently poor. We badly need Armstrong back and we need to play some of our pacy exciting players. Walcott was a completely pointless signing and we don't have many options offensively. If we get some injuries in defence then you'd have to say we look like relegation candidates. 

[Chris cooper]

Kwp is not a left back .. Romeu today went missing in midfield along with golden balls jwp.. both were atrocious today Lost count of the turnovers today was like watching a basketball match .. feel sorry for Armstrong nothing to feed off of .. redmonds decision Making again is league 1 standard and if we are bringing on Shane long we are definitely doomed 

[warwicksaint]

We have absolutely no threat to offer through the middle. Every single attack we do is out wide, overlapping runs and try and pick someone out in the middle, which never happens because our crossing is shit and we have no aerial threat or movement in the box anyway.

Every single game there’s a massive gap in between the midfield two and strikers. Would like to either see JWP push higher in attack and play that CAM role, or we drop a striker and play a 4-2-3-1. This current system just means strikers are isolated and our only threat is winning the ball through pressing or aimless crosses into the box

[Suhari]

8 minutes ago, verlaine1979 said:

Someone said above that we've got no finishers and we've got no creativity. That's it in a nutshell. Generally only the top sides can afford to have both, but to have neither is just such a failure of management at all levels of the club. Instead our crown jewel is JWP, the walking equivalent of a dull 0-0.

He's the heartbeat of the club. So I've heard.

[Vancouver Saint]

My god, some short memories on here. Brilliant performance against City last week, relegated this! C'mon. Yes, it's very frustrating we just don't seem to play well at St Mary's or get the results we deserve. I saw two pretty even teams today, with us having the edge and the better chances, undone by a punt up the park, a poor bit of defending and a well-taken goal. End of.

[Chris cooper]

1 minute ago, Vancouver Saint said:

My god, some short memories on here. Brilliant performance against City last week, relegated this! C'mon. Yes, it's very frustrating we just don't seem to play well at St Mary's or get the results we deserve. I saw two pretty even teams today, with us having the edge and the better chances, undone by a punt up the park, a poor bit of defending and a well-taken goal. End of.

Punt up the park ?? I’d have Raul over any of our shite strike force the guy made mince meat of bednarek and Salisu put both of them on their arse before Cooly stroking the ball home .. was great vision and awareness by their keeper ..

[S-Clarke]

Just now, Vancouver Saint said:

My god, some short memories on here. Brilliant performance against City last week, relegated this! C'mon. Yes, it's very frustrating we just don't seem to play well at St Mary's or get the results we deserve. I saw two pretty even teams today, with us having the edge and the better chances, undone by a punt up the park, a poor bit of defending and a well-taken goal. End of.

In a small-microchasm of a single game at the start of a single season, yes, that's what you saw.

But spread that over an entire year and you'll see that is the description of us most of the time. The odd defensive showing against a good side, but bottling it against the teams at home we should be beating. The quality of the attack won't really be called to the fore against City as we won't really be attacking, but when we need to win a game or score against an 'even' side, we fail. Every.single.time.

Results like that against Newcastle and Wolves make the great efforts against City pretty pointless really, as it counts for nothing.

[The Cat]

A dull match between 2 teams who seemed hell bent on having a "who can play the worst pass out of defence" competition rather than actually putting together some coherent attacking play.

Eventually we came up trumps with a terrible piece of defending that got punished like it deserved to. We huffed and puffed but never really looked like scoring. 3 of the starting front 4 were completely ineffective going forward although at least they did their jobs in pressing the Wolves defenders into making mistakes and turned the ball over high up the pitch especially in the first half.

A crap atmosphere, tepid football and people wearing shirts of other random premier league teams in the stadium really didn't make for a particularly enjoyable afternoon.

 

[Lallana's Left Peg]

5 minutes ago, Vancouver Saint said:

My god, some short memories on here. Brilliant performance against City last week, relegated this! C'mon. Yes, it's very frustrating we just don't seem to play well at St Mary's or get the results we deserve. I saw two pretty even teams today, with us having the edge and the better chances, undone by a punt up the park, a poor bit of defending and a well-taken goal. End of.

 

It's about the bigger picture.  4 league wins since January 4th.  Those league wins against teams placed at the time 20th, 18th, 17th and 14th.  Also in that span 26 goals scored, 56 conceded.  Club is heading one way and anyone pretending otherwise is deluded.  It's happening this season or next unless a takeover happens and we get investment.  I accepted earlier this month after Semmens initially gave us all hope in May investment might be coming.

 

No-one is blameless - players can do better, Ralph can do better etc. but in the big picture the club cannot succeed in the Premier League in the current circumstances.

[Shroppie]

3 minutes ago, Chris cooper said:

Punt up the park ?? I’d have Raul over any of our shite strike force the guy made mince meat of bednarek and Salisu put both of them on their arse before Cooly stroking the ball home .. was great vision and awareness by their keeper ..

Yes, it was a punt up the park. With which Jiminez did brilliantly, and Bednarek showed again his biggest weakness is in that sort on one on one situation.

[OttawaSaint]

The problem is, we need to score to win. Where’s that goal going to come from?

Adams P71 G13 18.3%

A Armstrong P6 1G 16.7%

Redmond P172 G20 11.6%

Elyanoussi P22 G4 18%

Djenepo P51 G3 5.9%

JWP P275 G31 11.3%

Romeu P186 G5 2.9%

No one better then a goal every 5 games...

 

Edited 26 September, 2021 by OttawaSaint

[OttawaSaint]

double post

Edited 26 September, 2021 by OttawaSaint
double post

[Saint_Jonny]

We've had some good results from difficult games at the start of the season, so we are obviously disappointed not to win that today. More so that we've lost it. Fucking frustrating today, so familiar to games at St Marys the last 3 or 4 years. Just turgid, pondering shite going forward. 

[DT]

Setting Oriel back there dictates that the game is super slow and we lack any penetration or cutting edge. But when we get a clear chance like the one Armstrong had he provided a clearly championship standard shot, straight at the keeper. Awful. Really has the look of someone who needs four or five opportunities to get a goal.

Che looked like he's allergic to shooting, JWP decided to do floaty chips for free-kicks or not clear the first man, offering a supremely lily-livered exhibition of not being captain material. Bednarek looked like a 12 year old in a trial getting hit by a custard pie. Redmond was his usual fluffup self, flattering to deceive no-one except Ralph, who clearly is in love, KWP played like he really didn't want to be here anymore (as per rumours of deadline day), and bringing on Long was just about the ultimate rubbing of our noses in it. Terrible, terrible performance and it has been this way for months. Time to let the new man take over

[Viking Saint]

1 hour ago, Pamplemousse said:

Focus on defending because we'll need to against Chelsea. After that, get the attack fine tuned.

 

Think playing KWP over Perraud was a mistake. KWP is good but if we're going to play Livramento, we need a left footed player on the left.

If he insists on playing Tino and KWP, at least play them both on their natural side

[cloggy saint]

1 minute ago, DT said:

Time to let the new man take over

And this new man is .....?

[Mr X]

1 minute ago, DT said:

Setting Oriel back there dictates that the game is super slow and we lack any penetration or cutting edge. But when we get a clear chance like the one Armstrong had he provided a clearly championship standard shot, straight at the keeper. Awful. Really has the look of someone who needs four or five opportunities to get a goal.

Che looked like he's allergic to shooting, JWP decided to do floaty chips for free-kicks or not clear the first man, offering a supremely lily-livered exhibition of not being captain material. Bednarek looked like a 12 year old in a trial getting hit by a custard pie. Redmond was his usual fluffup self, flattering to deceive no-one except Ralph, who clearly is in love, KWP played like he really didn't want to be here anymore (as per rumours of deadline day), and bringing on Long was just about the ultimate rubbing of our noses in it. Terrible, terrible performance and it has been this way for months. Time to let the new man take over

Who is the "new man" that's the question? 

[FarehamSaintJames]

40 minutes ago, Mr X said:

I prefer him over bednarek at the moment to be honest 

A traffic cone is more useful.

[OttawaSaint]

JWPs set pieces have been utter gash. He keeps floating free kicks behind the attacking players. Where’s that whipped delivery he’s known for?

[OttawaSaint]

2 minutes ago, cloggy saint said:

And this new man is .....?

Knowing our luck Saints will promote Redmond to player manager...

[obelisk]

I guarantee that if a Saints player somehow ended up in Jiminez's position with a an open goal in front of them they'd pass it to the 'keeper. And nobody would be surprised.

[OttawaSaint]

3 minutes ago, obelisk said:

I guarantee that if a Saints player somehow ended up in Jiminez's position with a an open goal in front of them they'd pass it to the 'keeper. And nobody would be surprised.

Yep.

[S-Clarke]

5 minutes ago, obelisk said:

I guarantee that if a Saints player somehow ended up in Jiminez's position with a an open goal in front of them they'd pass it to the 'keeper. And nobody would be surprised.

I reckon they'd have passed it backwards.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

Am I the only one thinking that Bednerak should have pulled Jimenez to the ground? As soon as he knew he was done, the only thought in his mind should have been to get him to the ground. Pretty sure he would have only got away with a yellow. Although I guess, he was beaten physically by Jimenez anyway.

[Teddeer]

Just now, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Am I the only one thinking that Bednerak should have pulled Jimenez to the ground? As soon as he knew he was done, the only thought in his mind should have been to get him to the ground. Pretty sure he would have only got away with a yellow. Although I guess, he was beaten physically by Jimenez anyway.

Is Jiminez even that strong? He's no Lukaku that's for sure. Bednarek shouldn't be getting bullied by him.

[JRM]

14 minutes ago, The Cat said:

A dull match between 2 teams who seemed hell bent on having a "who can play the worst pass out of defence" competition rather than actually putting together some coherent attacking play.

Eventually we came up trumps with a terrible piece of defending that got punished like it deserved to. We huffed and puffed but never really looked like scoring. 3 of the starting front 4 were completely ineffective going forward although at least they did their jobs in pressing the Wolves defenders into making mistakes and turned the ball over high up the pitch especially in the first half.

A crap atmosphere, tepid football and people wearing shirts of other random premier league teams in the stadium really didn't make for a particularly enjoyable afternoon.

 

Terrible experience all round really mate! Looked a good 4000 empty seats again, can see why people don't bother sometimes. Leeds at home in a few weeks on general sale will be loads of Leeds in home end. 

We played some decent stuff at times but look so toothless up front, a good forward line for the championship which is where we heading at this rate. 

[Saint_lambden]

Truth is, without Stuart Armstrong we create little to nothing. Redmond, Elyounoussi and Djenepo are not good enough for this level. The former two slow the game down too much and the latter has no end product once he skips past a man. As a collective unit we lack belief in front of our own fans and wouldn't surprise me at all if we ended up with more points on the road than at home because our style (whatever it actually is) seems to suit it much more. 

Added in that our set-pieces have been terrible for ages now and it's little wonder we aren't much of a goal threat. 

Ruling next weekend out as pretty much a non-starter, if we don't get at least 4 points in the home double header v Leeds and Burnley then we're in big trouble. 

[Dorchester Saint]

1 hour ago, Shroppie said:

I don't think Jack would have been done by Jiminez like Bednarek was.

Bednarek did a job v Man City .

[Shroppie]

8 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Am I the only one thinking that Bednerak should have pulled Jimenez to the ground? As soon as he knew he was done, the only thought in his mind should have been to get him to the ground. Pretty sure he would have only got away with a yellow. Although I guess, he was beaten physically by Jimenez anyway.

I think that's what Jack would have done.

[Shroppie]

Just now, Dorchester Saint said:

Bednarek did a job v Man City .

Agreed, but a different game. Bednarek is great at last-ditch blocks and tackles, not so good exposed one on one in open play.

[Toussaint]

1 hour ago, Pamplemousse said:

We're not going down, don't worry. Norwich, Watford, Burnley, Newcastle, Leeds are worse than us.

The only team that is definitely worse than us is Norwich. The others are at least as good. Leeds will come back.