Ronald Koeman has not got many things wrong this season, however Im afraid he did get the tactics badly wrong against Sunderland.
Football is a very simple game and the trick is not to over complicate matters when the team is disrupted, in my preview to this game I intimated as much when suggesting that Toby Alderweireld should be restored to the centre of defence, with Fraser Forster missing it is important to have a strong defence in front of his replacement Kelvin Davis, playing Alderweireld in midfield not only weakened our defence but meant the midfield was not firing on all cylinders either.
Last week against Spurs according to pundits in the media both goals were attributable to the two central defenders, whilst that was harsh especially in the case of the opener and Jose Fonte, the truth is that the difference between winning and losing a game is often pivotal moments when a player is caught out, often for the only time in a game.
This was the case again on Saturday up in the North East when Saints were basically caught out and ended up conceding two soft penalties, both in the same manner when our central defence was caught at sixes and sevens.
Apart from these two incidents Saints in the main loked comfortable throughout despite being awful first half when they seemed unable to keep the ball and kept putting passes astray, in the second they improved and indeed looked a better unit with 10 men, however by then the damage had been done.
As I said Ronald Koeman does not make many mistakes, but this time I feel he has, there is no room for sentiment in football, yes Yoshida has come in and done a good job but the reality is he cannot do it over an extended period of time, he lacks that concentration, Fonte has had a good season, but he needs someone around him who is strong, it was ironic that he gave away the first penalty in that although this was the first conceded by Saints all season, Fonte himself has got away with around 4-5 that have been shown as stone wall in the TV replays.
But we have to put this defeat behind us and get back to winning ways and that means remembering what we do well and doing it rather than complicating things, we need to get that team spirit back, it has been damaged in recent months and that has not been helped by the attitude of some supporters against certain players Pelle and Mane to name but two, inadvertently we have created the wrong atmosphere for the team to play in, we have three games we need to change that.
With Spurs losing this result has not damaged us as much as it could have, however it really should have seen us pulling away from Spurs rather than now still being behind them, we also have to watch out for Swansea who are right behind us and in form.#
But lets not forget that this has still been a brilliant season whatever happens, there is still time to make it even better still lets all March On.