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Southampton At Leeds United The Verdict
Monday, 4th Apr 2022 09:14

Saints ended their four match losing streak with a hard fought point at Elland Road, but it was not without it's faults nor controversy, but despite what Leeds very own Ted Lasso said post match, Saints deserved a point and possibly more.

Ralph Hasenhuttl reverted back to what is virtually his first XI with the only real rasing of eyebrows pre match being the inclusion of Ibrahima Diallo in place of Stuart Armstrong.

Leeds manager Jesse Marsch claimed after the game that Leeds deserved to win, in truth a draw was a fair result, but it could be said that Saints had the better chances but again failed to take them.

Marsch is a strange figure, he seems to be on the verge of hysteria during the game, when he made a substitution he almost seemed to have a nervous breakdown screaming at his coaches, you would have thought that they had sent on the wrong man, perhaps they did.

They should have taken the lead when Che Adams laid the ball back for Mohammed Elyounoussi who from around the penalty spot hit the ball straight at the Leeds keeper, in fairness he seemed to slip as he went to hit his shot, but he really should have done better.

The pitch seemed a little unstable again, players on both sides seemed to lose their feet as they went to kick or turn.

The referee Anthony Taylor attracted the wrath of both sets of supporters who felt that he waved play on when there were fouls, Saints main moment came in the lead up to Leeds goal, Broja appeared to be racing past his man and bundled to the ground, Taylor waved play on.

This made Saints lose concentration and within 30 seconds the home side were ahead, it was a lapse in concentration from Saints who really should have defended a scrappy goal better.

But within minutes the game was nearly level again, Che Adams putting the ball past Meslier but it was scrambled off the line, some felt that Elyounoussi should really have scrambled it over the line.

So Saints were one down at the break, but that would not be the case for long, Kyle Walker Peters went on a mazy run that ended with him being fouled on the edge of the box, this was James Ward Prowse territory and he duly obliged.

The game could have gone either way after that, Leeds played their usual game of piling forward gung ho and in the main Saints dealt with it, Leeds questionable decision came deep into injury time when they screamed for a penalty, the referee waved it away as he had done for both sides during the game.

So who played well and who didn't ? in defence we were mainly tight except for a couple of dodgy moments, Kyle Walker Peters was outstanding both in defensive duties and surging forward.

In midfield James Ward Prowse worked the hardest although Oriol Romeu wasn't far behind, out wide Ibrahima Diallo was brought in too cut out Leeds counter attacks being more defensive minded than Stuart Armstrong and he could walk off the pitch knowing he had done a good job.

On the other side Mohammed Elyounoussi was largely annonymous, on one hand that was perhaps not a bad thing as you could say he wasn't doing anything bad, but on the other hand he didn't influence the game and really should have scored.

Up front Che Adams was our best attacker, Armando Broja struggled to get into the game, in the second half when we played forward on too many occasions he failed to get in a decent challenge and the ball came straight back at us, he has many good qualities, but knowing how to defend from the front is yet to be one of them, personally I would have brought on Adam Armstrong to harass their back line.

When the change came in the 90th minute Shane Long won three headers in quick succession to flick the ball on, that was more than Broja had won all game.

Broja will be a class act but he is young, he is still learning, sometimes you have to know when to give a youngster a rest in a game.

If we had brought on Nathan Tella earlier we might have sneaked a winner, likewise Adam Armstrong, we failed to harass a suspect Leeds back line enough.

But all in all it was a satisfying point, we went to Elland Road with Leeds full of confidence and we matched them for work rate and allowed them few chances, although they shaded possession, we had more attempts on goal and double those on target than the home side.

A couple of tough games coming up, but hitting 36 points we aren't going to go down and neither are we going to get into Europe, of course we need to get points on board and aim for 9th place which is only 1 point above us, but we have to keep an eye over our shoulders, as Leeds in 16th are still only 6 points away.

With 8 games left we can play with a little more freedom and I think we need to get players such as Nathan Tella and Adam Armstrong more game time, they are the future of the club and we need to see if they can reach their potential.

Ironically if we are to finish the season on a high it will probably be away from home where we have to do it.

Photo: Action Images



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felly1 added 11:40 - Apr 4
A decent away poin against a team that have won their previous two games whilst we stopped our 4 game losing streak so all in all I'm happy with that.
I thought we looked good in patches of play and opened up Leeds with some nice quick interchanges but we also looked very open defensively and got a few lucky breaks as I thought it was a Pen at the end when Diallo clipped their attacker.
Your report is harsh on Elyonoussi in my opinion. He wasn't at his best yesterday and should have done better with his effort on goal but it was on his weaker left foot. He's already scored twice as many league goals than either Nathan Redmond or Moussa Djenpo have managed the previous two seasons and twice as many as Adam Armstrong this season.

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Saintaxidriver added 11:55 - Apr 4
A point was a fair result but I feel we are back to where we were after the first few games of the season. Having good spells isn't going to win us many games and although I have accepted it as just part of the fun of being a Saints fan, Ralph still mystifies with his choices. Our shape for most of the match was not very convincing and as usual he left it way too late to bring subs on and change anything.
On the players I think the defence did OK but got away with it a couple of times. Midfield looked good at times but disjointed with players seemingly not sure where they were supposed to be playing. Playing Diallo cut down our attacking options tho I thought Adams put in a shift as he always does. Broja seems to have lost form since all the hype which might be good in terms of us buying him but he needs a break.
Also Ralphs explanation about Redmond and Dnepro was strange. Redmond has played well when given a chance this season and feel he is a far better player than Ellyonoussi who is very inconsistent and always tries too much.
Like earlier in the season we are failing to take chances and not making the most of good positions around the box.
On the plus side another JWP work of art and maybe KWP should play up front as he seems to be able to dribble better than most players in the Prem Lge!
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SaintPaulVW added 12:12 - Apr 4
It was always going to be an interesting game with both Managers having a good idea how the other would play and trying to outwit the other.

Leeds played 4222, sounds familiar, so we started with a Diamond in midfield 4 1 2 1 2.

However Leeds seemed to outplay us for large stretches in the first half. We switched on a bit after their first goal. The defence had played fairly well up until this but the goal looked like a bit of a mixup with no one really taking control.

Second half we again started a bit slowly but then came into it. KWP took on half the Leeds team and then JWP unleashed an absolute belter.

Then the usual end to end stuff, both sides not really being able to do much in the final third to be in danger of actually finishing anything.

I thought we looked good. Better than we have done for weeks, so I will take that as a positive.

Defence looked good, Salisu, KWP and Tino all played well, Midfield was operating at 80%, although Diallo looked the best I've seen him so still room for improvement, Attack needs some smarts, Che- too many weak shots, extra touches and wasteful flicks and Broja left looking his age. He needs a rest. I thought Tella perked things up when he came on. Imo Armstrong should have been given a chance too.

Leeds crowd was noisy but Saints fans were sounding louder at the end.

Good match to watch. Valuable point.

COYR
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Farlow added 13:10 - Apr 4
I find the critism of Elyonoussi strange as he is one of the main reasons of our
improved form.Good point hard earned,still think we need a proper goalie.
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landsdownsaint added 15:37 - Apr 4
Great point against a team fighting every inch . It’s a good season for us even with the slip ups , we got so much talent out there & on top probably the best set piece taker in the world , it’s great when yer watching the game with a Leeds mates & they all had too go out the room when We got the free kick that lead to his goal … we need to show JWP a bit more love sometimes coz there’s other clubs that would
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Colburn added 18:23 - Apr 4
I thought we were easily the better team, scuppered by an awful pitch, sticky and fluffy and also by a poor referee. The foul on Broja was obvious and he would have been away. He gave Leeds silly little free kicks when they fell over but didn't give us the same. It probably was a penalty for them with Diallo but the game should have been over by them. I actually didn't think Romeu and Adams had particularly good games if nit picking, I certainly don't think Elyonoussi was that bad, in fact off the ball he was very good, the bits which aren't easy to see sometimes. The subs were indeed too late and more time for Tella would have been appreciated and caused their defence problems. But overall, the pitch was the toughest opponent so it's not a great game for making judgements on performances. We looked better than them and got something out of the game thanks to another gem from the skipper. The only other thing I feel needs mentioning is how better a balance we seem to have with Perraud on the left but the other two are virtually undroppable. Could KWP play a little further forward, winning the ball high up the pitch...?
3

SanMarco added 19:00 - Apr 4
Reasonable performance on the whole, good point, fair result - let's have a real go at the wobbling Chelski.

Oh and no mention of Forster's deplorable goalkeeping for their goal...
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Boris1977 added 23:36 - Apr 4
Same old flaws etc. Is the consensus that Ralph has got the team he wants now and therefore the last month of results is down to his managerial limitations or rather the limitations of the squad available to him? Over the last few seasons the nth degree defenders of Ralph have pointed to inheriting a bloated in adequate squad, injuries, unjust var decisions and officials decisions that have gone against us. These factors cannot be applied this season, to the same degree at least, but with a better squad than we've had in three seasons we are still roughly in the same league position and suffer the same weaknesses.

Over this weekend of matches Brentford and palace, teams we should be viewing as equals, have stuffed our next two opponents - does anyone think that we are likely to have similar success against Chelsea and arsenal?
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