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Comment | Southampton At Leicester The Debacle
at 09:08:19
The funny thing about Leicester is that they play almost the same as us, ie quite a lot of tippy tappy, but press hard, and catch the oppo on the break. The difference was that last night our players, in defence looked petrified of losing the ball but most importantly, when LFC had the ball, DID NOT PRESS.
But Leicester aren’t Man City, they are a well organised and very fit team who have a (whole) game plan unlike us who only have half one: and I am convinced that if we had pressed them as much as they pressed us, then the result would have been different. It’s as if RM has coached them so far - got past the introduction and moved on to chapters 1,2 and 3 - but left it at that.
So why is that?
Well there are three likely answers (and probably a combination of them):
1. RM hasn’t got past chapter 3 himself and doesn’t know how to coach more into the players, but hopes/thinks that the players will work it out for themselves,
2. For some reason the players are not as fit as they should be (already on the beach?).
3, The players are over-rated, not as good as they think, lazy old sods, complete bottlers and are scared sh*tless of getting injured so won’t give 100%.
So what now?
I have come to the sad conclusion that MOST IF NOT ALL THE PLAYERS AND THE MANAGER IN THEIR HEART OF HEARTS DON’T REALLY WANT TO BE PROMOTED. They have resigned themselves to this because they are all on cushy numbers, earning a million p.a. upwards, they all think they’ll get jobs elsewhere - but in the PL? only with the bottom teams at best - so why kill yourself for a club that seems to them to be stuck in a rut?
I’ve said before that we are fast becoming like Middlesbrough last season, ambitious in theory but not good enough for the PL in practice, and I reckon that, Iike them in 22/23, this is going to be our best season in the Championship, ie knocked out in the playoffs, for many a year.
Season ticket next year? Looks less and less likely.
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Comment | Southampton V Watford The Verdict
at 18:37:39
onetowatch: first thank you for the response. I'm not saying that RM got it right or wrong about JS, simply that he has been made a complete scapegoat on this website for a long time, which I think is unjust because it is the whole team who should carry the can for failure, not one individual (I mentioned last week that Nick said he was not blaming JS for the result but he then went on to mention his name eleven times - obsessive or what? ) And so far as Shea Charles is concerned, all the times I have seen him, he has not struck me as anything more than OK, and he was certainly worse than that earlier on in the season. Better than JS? I don't think obviously so, so I guess we will have to agree to disagree about this one. |
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Comment | Southampton V Watford The Verdict
at 14:42:47
We seem to be witnessing an increasing amount of tosh coming out of this site!
As if the persecution of Jack Stephen’s wasn’t enough, now the next target (actually ongoing for a while now) seems to be the making of what you see as questionable substitutions, which to you are “baffling”. All I can say is thank Christ you’re not the manager!
Did you really not witness the fact that it was a warm day, and after 75 minutes a lot of our players were visibly struggling? So substituting them regardless of for whom wasn’t baffling it was plain logic.
And just to underline the point, apart from a couple of long term injuries, and the odd exception like your favourite(not) player, virtually all our team has stayed injury-free, save the occasional knock. Might it just not be a decent bit if game management by our manager? Compare this to say to the likes of Ipswich or Biro who’ve had to cope with massive injury lists.
Unless you’re a Man City or an Arsenal, substitutions are always going to upset the rhythm a bit and inevitably there will be a degree of square pegs and round holes.
But oh no, for you the subs are always “baffling”.
I’m tempted to quote that wonderful line from one of the Pink Panther movies when Clouseau addresses a man with a white stick and says” What ees ze matter? Are you blind or something?”
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Comment | Southampton At Blackburn Rovers The Verdict
at 12:29:42
OK Nick, so when you say you’re not blaming JS 100% for the team’s performance by saying he was in the wrong position etc, fine. And fair enough, you state that it’s not about individual players; but you did spend a large part of your main article discussing Stephens - in fact YOU MENTIONED HIS NAME NO LESS THAN ELEVEN TIMES! GO ON COUNT THEM! MORE EVEN THAN RM/“MANAGER”! - which most people would reckon speaks volumes about what you really thought of his performance. And it’s not as if this is the first time: time and again you go on and on about him. For goodness sake, change the record!
(And for what it’s worth, when you say it was our worst performance of the season, you ignore an alternative view which is that just maybe they decided, maybe even wanted, to play a defensive game. Boring and dull yes. But that is the way they chose to do it … and surely it’s at least a minor plus that we didn’t lose…?)
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Comment | Southampton At Blackburn Rovers The Verdict
at 09:38:37
Once again you put the entire performance down to JS. What a load of tosh. It was the whole team and watching the game on a download, DULL was the best description I could come up with, as it was 100% clear from the way we played that the tactic was “DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES LOSE”.
So was this RM answering his critics who had complained of his/the team’s inability to come up with a (no risks) plan B? It seems more than likely because:
* The team played as if they had been told not to even think about shooting when 20+ yards from goal, but, keep possession, get to the byline and hope to cross and hustle a goal or win a corner.
* Time and again players went down the middle, messed around without chancing their arm with a shot, and the ball ended up being passed sideways or backwards.
* If you count the shots on and off target since the turn of the year we’ve been averaging around 13 per game. Yesterday It was 7.
Earlier in the season we had some howitzer goals from the likes of Rothwell, Stuart Armstrong, Aribo, even Smallbone. So we know we can be more adventurous, even aggressive, but is caution - aka boring - now what we’ve got to look forward to for the next few weeks? I guess we can’t have it both ways, but, however we do it, I still think we will all be thanking RM for getting us to the playoffs when we get there.
But the question we will then be asking is, for the knock-out games, should we - indeed can we - go back to how we used to play? Or having got ourselves into this mindset of safety first, will we be able to snap out of it at the touch of a hat?
I reckon most of us would answer, we’ve done it before, so why not again, but will it be enough to get us promoted? Don’t bet the house on it. |
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Comment | Defence Is The Best Form Of Defence
at 22:16:56
I do find it ridiculous that you blame our entire loss of form on RM including Jack Stephens in the team
I’m sorry but that is rubbish. JS may not be Roy Keane but then we are not Man U. He’s nothing like as bad as you make him out to be and furthermore you seem to have this idea that including KWP in the team (rather than him?) and all our problems will be solved. Hogwash. There is one very simple reason for our drop off in form. The team is knackered. Why? Because playing tippy tippy for 40+ games is exhausting the players and, as others have said, the rest of the league have found us out, JS or no JS.
You also seem to continually voice the opinion that we have the best squad in the Championship. We haven’t and we never will have. Maybe we cost (almost) the most but everyone knows price certainly does not equate to quality. You only have to look at the sides around and above us. What’s that expression about the table never lying…?
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Comment | Southampton V Middlesbrough The Verdict
at 22:51:08
Yes, rubbish finishing by the usual suspect(s) didn’t help, but ultimately I put yesterday’s result down to RM waiting too long to bring on the later subs. We could all see that the players were tiring around about the 75/80th minute and that’s when he should have done it. But he didn’t and paid the price.
I know others have also suggested at least some of the squad were only giving 90%; but you could equally argue it was understandable because they want to last out the ten games they have left to play in the next five weeks (plus the playoffs, which is surely our lot now).
And if we are brutally honest Boro could easily have scored twice if not three times, so maybe a draw was actually a fair result.
But regardless of yesterday’s outcome, what came to mind is that we are increasingly looking like Middlesbrough themselves were last season, ie a team good enough to get to the playoffs if not better, but…
And this is what concerns me. Given that Boro are this season stuttering after falling at the last hurdle in 22/23, like them we have shown plenty of glimpses of quality throughout the last eight months, such that we could be judged good enough for automatic promotion. But after yesterday’s performance, can we really say we good enough to make it through the playoffs?
Forget about whether we are good enough for the PL - we aren’t - and OK yesterday maybe we were suffering from a bit from “three-weeks-off” undercooked-ness, but frankly, unless we improve A LOT in a short space of time, at best we are going to struggle to win the playoffs, and at worst, we are doomed to one if not several more seasons in the league for also rans. |
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Comment | Southampton V Sunderland The Verdict
at 10:59:24
How many of us were saying after Sunderland’s second went in, “Oh Christ, here we go again…”? And yet , in the last quarter of an hour or so, Sunderland showed exactly what can go wrong when you over-press: they lost the ball and in effect gifted us at least one of our goals.
So not exactly an easy game but again three vital points.
On the subject of Bazunu, I cannot understand this tactic of his holding the ball at his feet to tempt in the oppo’s forwards. He did it at least half a dozen times yesterday and the result is invariably a rush of tippy tappy passing that often ends up with either a rushed kick up field, or worse losing the ball and putting the backs all under pressure. So single-handedly and unnecessarily he turns comfortable possession into danger within the space of a few seconds, when the occasional long kick over the top would be no worse, and sometimes better.
His alternative distribution at the moment is a long kick/roll to a midfielder tracking back who is most of the time going too fast to be able to control the ball and lay it off. As you say, “too often it gave Sunderland a 50/50 chance of winning the ball and even if our man won it he was heading back towards his own goal with little option.”
So yes there is a bit of variety in his distribution, but why not also include a few long kicks - and maybe a long goal kick or two as well? - to confuse the opposition. I am convinced that we get into a mess at the back because our players especially GB have this “possession-at-all-times” mantra fed into them and they just cannot think out of the box (in more ways than one).
PS. Personally I’m not as anti-JS as everybody seems to be. Yes he may not be as skilled as others but he did make a couple of saving tackles yesterday. And in any case everyone cocks it up from time to time, like Brooks and Downes did on a couple of occasions yesterday and no one has taken them to task. |
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Comment | Southampton At Birmingham City The Verdict
at 21:29:27
Yes a victory is a victory, and 10/10 for digging in right to the end to secure it but Oh my goodness what very ordinary defending against a team that is fighting for its life and was, latterly at least, down to ten men!
That said though, virtually every team in the Division has something to play for, which I reckon could still be the case for a few more games yet. As a result, everyone is going to be going hell for leather to scrape together those few vital points that will drag them up a notch and unpredictable results become likely, eg QPR beating Leicester. (Currently I reckon there are as many as nine promotion and ten relegation contenders but conceivably by April Fools’ Day, things will be clearer and the mid-table, “on-the-beach”, candidates should by then be more apparent).
In the meantime, I wouldn’t be surprised if our next few games are like v Birmingham, ie tight matches but hopefully with an improving up-front performances. So how do we make sure our quality squad doesn’t commit harm kiri, aka improving our defence, without changing the system?
I know others have highlighted this but, judging by Birmingham’s first and third goals, not to mention recent howlers against Hull and Millwall, the positional play of our back line continues to be patchy at best, resulting from FAR TOO MUCH BALL-WATCHING!!! Haven’t the likes of Manning and/or the rest of the back four ever heard of man-to-man marking?! It’s so infuriating when such an easily corrected error continues to plague us.
I commented last week about the number of goals we have conceded being comfortably ahead of our nearest rival, and of course this only got worse after Saturday. So to stop the rot, our defenders must WATCH THE MAN NOT THE BALL! Because if/when they do - which importantly at most will require modest the slightest tinkering to RM’s much beloved (not) tippy-tappy - I am pretty certain our defence will instantly become much more watertight.
I do not believe an automatic promotion slot is impossible for us so long we stop leaking silly goals and tighten up at the back. So COME ON RUSSELL,JUST TELL THEM TO STOP BALL-WATCHING…YOU KNOW IT MAKES SENSE!! |
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Comment | Southampton V Birmingham City The Preview
at 14:09:40
"The main thing is not to press the panic button".
Eh? In which case, when is??!!
I was always told, whatever you do, don't be the last to press it... |
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Comment | Southampton At Liverpool The FA Cup Verdict
at 09:55:35
I did not see the game and in fact only saw the goals on TV, and certainly two of them looked fairly similar to our usual woeful defending.
And that is the point isn’t it? which you seem to gloss over saying it was our inability to put the ball in the net which cost us the game.
I’m sorry but that is UTTER RUBBISH! The reason why you lose games is because you let goals in, not because you don’t score enough/any!
In the last 6 games our rivals for promotion have conceded the following number of goals:
Leeds 4
WBA 5
Hull 5
Ipswich 10
Leicester 6
And how many have we let in?
13!!!!
So comfortably the worst! And certainly nothing like required promotion form of any description!
And if by general consensus Ipswich are punching above their weight, what does that say about us?!
So as you can see our immediate requirement is NOT a striker, WHAT WE DESPERATELY NEED IS A MUCH BETTER DEFENCE; CARRY ON LIKE THIS AND WE REALLY WILL BE WELL AND TRULY STUFFED!!! |
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Comment | Southampton V Millwall The Verdict
at 10:35:07
Headlines in the Echo said that Neil Harris had studied the way we played against Gillingham (when he was manager there) and got his now Millwall team to play accordingly.
Meanwhile Russell Martin said after the game that the reason we lost was because we gave away two crap goals.
Whoever is right, Millwall played with great purpose, suggesting they were a damn sight better prepared for the game than we were, ie “know your opponent” was key. Indeed on one occasion they (Millwall) were able to get five - yes five! - players forward to our two defenders (but still did somehow contrive to make a mess of it). But did such a thought (of studying how Millwall play) even cross RM’s mind? Well given the way we played - “stick to the system” - I would say that, if he did, then it was cursory at most, because we seemed to continue our one-dimensional style throughout the match and to little avail, the relative positions of the two teams suggesting massive overconfidence on his and/or the players’ part.
We read about what an incredibly talented squad we have. The fact remains that, from now on, if he doesn’t start plotting every game more carefully, and most of the players (with a few honorary exceptions) don’t try one helluva harder for the full 90 minutes, then our quality will not prevent us from sliding down the slippery slope, because every opposing team has got us well worked out.
As it is I sensed a certain air of resignation, if not exactly desperation, after each goal creeping in to the team on Saturday. Hopefully RM isn’t a one-trick pony but he’s got to start showing us evidence to the contrary and pdq. I’m not losing faith yet but, if he doesn’t, like Private Fraser said, “WE’RE DOOMED!”
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Comment | Southampton V Hull City The Verdict
at 08:18:20
What we saw on Tuesday was the downside of badly executed tippy-tappy.
Whether or not Edozie or Adam Armstrong or Mara or Rothwell were playing below par, the reason we lost was because we let in two goals at least one of which (the second) and conceivably the other were of our own making, ie faffing around trying to play out from the back against a team that was onto us like rats up a drainpipe.
And yet, with no change to the defence at half-time but still with a number of subs on for H2, the machine spluttered into action, and we played a much longer game out of defence. So why on earth didn’t they - or couldn’t they - do it in H1? Simply because RM told them not too, ie THE MANAGER THOUGHT THEY COULD COPE WITH A HARD PRESSING OPPOSITION WITHOUT CHANGING THE STYLE OF PLAY; overconfidence in other words. The trouble was Hull are a very fit and determined team. So unlike say Huddersfield who clearly ran out of puff, our expectation that they (Hull) would do the same simply didn’t happen. Result? 45 minutes just was not enough to get back into the game.
Did we start with not the strongest team? Well maybe, but isn’t it more that the players will do what the manager tells them (play out from the back with quick short passing) but, if its not working and obvious mistakes being made, there is no one on the pitch who has the vision or skill or confidence or pizzazz to change things.
So forget all these demands for strikers, goal keepers, defensive midfielders, god knows what, what we need is … Flynn Downes!
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Comment | Southampton Promotion Campaign Will Go To The Wire
at 17:16:23
Settling for 2nd place is ludicrous. We absolutely must go all out to win the league. There will be bumps in the road for every team, including ourselves but, when every outcome is quite possible, settling at this stage for second best is just negative thinking, like aiming for the summit of Everest and settling for base camp. |
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Comment | Southampton At West Bromwich Albion The Verdict
at 07:07:36
Some would argue that doing the same thing over and over only leads to the madhouse. Friday night’s performance proved that for us this simply isn’t the case. We repeated what we have done for 25 games before Tuesday’s game and voila…!
A terrific game, which surprised me, not by the performance but the result, which only goes to show that, as I said earlier in the week, LUCK PLAYS A VERY IMPORTANT PART IN THE OUTCOME OF FOOTBALL. MATCHES. Was JS guilty of a handball? No doubt VAR would have given it. But did JS then make a world-class save off the line? No question. Should SA have had penalty? VAR would certainly have given that too.
All cases of luck either for or against us but whatever, it all added up to…a Saints victory regardless.
But I must praise you Nick for giving a very objective view of JS’s overall performance, which was fine and emphasising that it’s the team performance that counts not individuals. Loads of contributors (on the Forum and here) have a real downer on Jack and seem to want a perfect 10 every time out of him he walks out onto the pitch and an 8 or 9 simply won’t cut it.
Has it not occurred to those bozos that some players are always going to better than others, some will have off days and some will have on days, but most importantly we are now playing as a superb TEAM of human beings,with all their foibles and weaknesses but yes strengths, because they are not automatons.
Of course every fan is going to get hacked off over a poor pass or a missed opportunity, but if you look at the game yesterday, AS A WHOLE, it was a superb TEAM performance so let’s accept it as such and stop criticising individuals.
COYS
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Comment | Southampton At Bristol City The Verdict
at 15:39:21
Well it had to happen sometime, everybody gets taken apart occasionally, especially when your luck’s not in. But last night, had KWP’s volley not been saved or SE’s looped off the bar, who knows? A draw at least, maybe even a win, but it wasn’t to be.
Many will say our passing was poor (true), we looked tired (true, particularly in H2), we couldn’t cope with Bristol City’s pressing (true) and quick countering (also true). And there will be lots of clamouring about it being a strange set-up, we didnt have a plan B, Shea Charles is no substitute for Flynn Downes etc.
But when things don’t go your way, you try that much harder, mistakes are magnified, errors creep in, confidence drops a notch and…well we all know the rest…
What matters now is where we go from here. I would frankly be amazed if we don’t lose at least one of next three games (WBA) because a single loss in such a long run would be pretty unprecedented, especially when you’re playing twice a week.
But that isn’t the point. What the players need to do is:
1. carry on with what they are doing, knowing that bad days at the office happen, so get over it.
2. resist the temptation to tweak much if anything, injury/suspension requirements aside, the team would just get in a muddle, but do have someone guarding the back post for the oppo’s corners!
3. absolutely not get downhearted and panic, even if other teams have worked us out, they still they have to exercise it, have the luck with them, and at the same time none of our efforts come off.
4. know that the up-and-coming matches are going to be more of the same, ie hard pressing against us followed by a quick counter, and be ready for it.
5. West Brom will likely be a problem (they concede few goals at home); but Hull and Millwall average only 1.5 and 1 goals away whereas we average over 2.5 at SMS. Remember we are better than all of them.
Quality teams always stumble and we WILL march on.
COYR |
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Comment | Southampton V Huddersfield Town The Verdict
at 10:25:29
PS. Whilst I agree in theory with what SaintStu7 says about it being “disappointing to concede 3 you can’t take anything away from the team with 5 in reply”, I seem to recall a certain Mr K Keegan coming unstuck after saying something similar when he managed Newcastle… |
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Comment | Southampton V Huddersfield Town The Verdict
at 08:11:54
Talk about an eight goal thriller!
Am I the only one with no faith who thought we’d have real problems coming back from 2 down? I gave myself a good talking to afterwards to convince myself of what RM said earlier in the season that this team never gives up: how right he was!
High points: every goal especially the howitzer from JR, accompanied by our general enthusiasm, tactical awareness and never-say-die attitude in H2. And the atmosphere! Wow! Amazing, especially in the second half. Certainly the best 45 minutes of the season so far.
Low points: the whole of H1. We were pressed hard and struggled to cope, resorting to long balls over the top especially to RF which invariably went stray. Our passing though generally was pretty poor and we seemed to stand off too much which led to both their goals. And finally SA, who I thought had a poor game and was taken off early, and just hope it isn’t his old injury coming back.
Summary: Huddersfield pressed us in H1, which is the way to play us, so we just have to realise that this is only the beginning of our fight, and yes it really is a fight, to retain second spot. We dealt with it very well in H2, but others will have seen it and I am sure that we will face more of it as the season draws on. |
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