 | Your
Report | Southampton v Preston North End Your Report added at 22:44:28
It looks like we're trying to play Russell Martin football again, <sigh>, but without intensity, conviction, or purpose. Speed of play is awful (can't even use the term "speed" to describe it). Second by a distance to every ball. No leadership or communication on the pitch. I could only ever count five players in attack, and wondered where the other five were. I still don't think we'll get relegated, but we're in a relegation battle now. With the personnel we've got we should be much further up the table. When things are this bad all across the squad, you have to blame the manager, and I don't see him turning this around. |
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Report | Southampton v Swansea City Your Report added at 19:09:16
Admittedly, though I had high hopes for this match, I also wasn't holding my breath, because the autumn international breaks don't do the club matches immediately following them any favors. Too often it feels like everyone's back at square one upon returning to the office, and part of me can't blame the players. (I honestly don't know how players can be expected to perform after having traveled halfway around the world for five days of traning/playing for another team, or spending a sleepy week at Staplewood playing table tennis.) Unfortunately for me, the economic bubble that is the international game shows no signs of bursting anytime soon. Until then, I'm afraid I'm likely to give each post-international-break match a miss. :-( |
| Your
Report | Southampton v Swansea City Your Report added at 18:46:54
Admittedly, though I had high hopes for this match, I also wasn't holding my breath, because the autumn international breaks don't do the club matches immediately following them any favors. Too often it feels like everyone's back at square one upon returning to the office, and part of me can't blame the players. (I honestly don't know how players can be expected to perform after having traveled halfway around the world for five days of traning/playing for another team, or spending a sleepy week at Staplewood playing table tennis.) Unfortunately for me, the economic bubble that is the international game shows no signs of bursting anytime soon. Until then, I'm afraid I'm likely to give each post-international-break match a miss. :-( |
| Your
Report | Southampton v Middlesbrough Your Report added at 18:57:29
At eight times zones away, I confess that until yesterday I'd not got to see the lads play since the Wrexham match. Yesterday we looked organized, and I didn't think Boro offered much going forward. (Their goal doesn't go in without that freak deflection.) I have to say, though, that it didn't look like we were playing with any strikers; we were ghosts at best in the attacking third. Until we can find people who can reliably put the ball in the net i don't see us proceeding very far up the table. |
| Your
Report | Southampton v Arsenal Your Report added at 07:27:22
I'll second the mention of Smallbone. He cost us a point today. He used to be a lot more inventive, and even imperious. Now he makes Flynn Downes look like Usain Bolt. |
| Your
Report | Southampton v Manchester City Your Report added at 04:43:25
Great effort on our part! In truth, though, the scoreline also reflects Citeh's inability to get out of their own way (which in many ways is the story of their season). |
| Your
Report | Ipswich Town v Southampton Your Report added at 20:43:32
Occasionally we were a bit fortunate not to concede—particularly on set pieces. But we rode our luck, kept our shape, and capitalized on a leaky keeper. Now if only Wolves hadn't won (and looked good doing so, although their derby opponents Villa seem slightly lost these days), we'd be slightly better positioned in our four-team relegation-candidate mini-league. It remains odds on that we and our fellow promoted sides are set for the drop. |
| Your
Report | Ipswich Town v Southampton Your Report added at 20:29:46
Occasionally we were a bit fortunate not to concede—particularly on set pieces. But we rode our luck, kept our shape, and capitalized on a leaky keeper. Now if only Wolves hadn't won (and looked good doing so, although their derby opponents Villa seem slightly lost these days), we'd be slightly better positioned in our four-team relegation-candidate mini-league. It remains odds on that we and our fellow promoted sides are set for the drop. |
| Your
Report | Nottingham Forest v Southampton Your Report added at 18:56:52
On the one hand, we should have closed down shots/crosses on all three of the goals against. On the other, the first two weren't high xG strikes. So in some ways Forest made the most of luck. Despite our flailing about in the first half, if those first two goals don't go in perhaps we eventually win the match comfortably. We're still relegation fodder. But at least there could be some excitement in what remains of the season. In sum, over the last two matches there have been some encouraging spells in which we're at least learning that, with the right tutelage, perhaps some of our players are EPL quality after all. |
| Your
Report | Southampton v Brentford Your Report added at 18:43:05
We don't have the personnel to compete in the EPL, and today it was made worse by the obviousness of our being in between two managerial systems. We didn't look like much of anything—save for cannon fodder. |
| Your
Report | Crystal Palace v Southampton Your Report added at 01:24:03
<Sigh>, this match proved that we do not have the personnel anywhere on or off the pitch to compete in the Premier League. Anything we get from this season has to be seen through such a lens—because any hope we draw from following matches, no matter how valuable it is, will be short-lived at best. |
| Your
Report | Aston Villa v Southampton Your Report added at 19:43:18
(Meanwhile, if there's any ray of hope here it's that we won't be held to ransom for a striker in the January transfer window, because we're effectively relegated now and won't need goals … .) |
| Your
Report | Aston Villa v Southampton Your Report added at 19:39:57
Though today's villain was ultimately THB, one wonders what this year's points haul would look like had we played Wood from the season's start and not aspiring hairstylist Stevens. |
| Your
Report | Southampton v Everton Your Report added at 01:36:30
A few observations, fwiw:
1. Coming into the season, I've had Everton pegged for relegation. Today they were poor, and are relegation-fodder indeed! (But a January cash injection from new ownership may end up saving them.)
2. Everton's offense (if you can call it that) made us look fairly assured in defense. Even when we were caught out we somehow made it look like we weren't. I wonder how long we can pretend until it becomes the real thing. Two games running of not being punished when we should've been could be just the tonic.
3. If anything keeps us up, it's Ramsdale's hands. (That sounds a bit naughty; but, truth be told, we still look pretty flaccid. [See below.]
4. We rode our luck, and took pretty much our only gilt-edged chance. Credit to Dibbling and Armstrong for making that happen.
5. We still seem to not know what to do in attack.
6. And this is the most emphatic observation: Our speed of play is nowhere near where it needs to be. I'm unsure why, but both Man City and Everton played to our pace(lessness). We need to be quicker to every ball and much quicker and much more deliberate in attack, on the wings and in the middle of the pitch.
7. The past two weeks' results have flattered us. But perhaps we can build on them. |
| Your
Report | Manchester City v Southampton Your Report added at 20:50:15
I dunno, a whole lot of "meh" for me. We should have lost by more, but defended gamely. (Ramsdale's got some good hands!) Still, it felt like a microcosm of this season: We lack quality, sometimes claw our way into games; but no one can put the ball in the net. The whole season has been and will be like this. Our return to the Championship can't come soon enough. |
| Your
Report | Arsenal v Southampton Your Report added at 20:07:42
A better outing than Bournemouth. But one has to ask where that was on Monday night. And how much longer can our team sheet be "randomly generated?" I still maintain that RM is a good Championship manager. But he's not ready for the Premier League. |
| | YosemiteSaint
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