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Quality On Bench Can Help Us Come From Behind To Win
Tuesday, 19th Aug 2014 10:21

Saints didn't quite manage it on Sunday at Anfield, but the quality we now have on the bench should help us be able to turn games round and come from behind to win now.

One of the things that is rarely pointed out especially by Spurs fans when they are singing the praises of their new manager is the fact that under Mauricio Pochettino we never ever came from behind in a game to win it, the reasons in my opinion were quite simple, Pochettino never concentrated on building a squad or indeed using the options he had in the squad so rarely made decisive substitutions off the bench.

In fact most of his substitutions tended to be like for like and the system never changed.

We have to go back almost two whole seasons, to 22nd September 2012 for the last time that Saints came from behind to win a game, that was at home to Aston Villa when after trailing 1-0 at the break we stormed out in the second half and won 4-1, since then we havent won a single Premier League game in which we were at some stage losing.

But that could be about to change, Ronald Koeman has been looking to build a squad up, not just in numbers but in players who can change roles if needed, under Pochettino we were very monotone, Koeman has made signings that can adapt to different games, for instance Tadic can play out wide or in the centre, Gardos can play in central defence or in a holding role in midfield, Bertrand can play wide left as well as left back, in fact just about the only players who cant adapt from one position that Koeman has signed are Pelle and Forster.

Add to that that our youngsters are starting to come through and that Koeman shows that he will actually use them rather than only in an emergency as his predecessor did.

This all adds up to Saints now being able to change tactics and have options off the bench to do so, at Liverpool Koeman was able to change the shape of the team, bringing on Long in a deeper role than normal and then Isgrove to add width.

This bodes well, Koeman will adapt to games as they change whereas before either Plan A worked or it didn't.

If we can bring in another player or two before the end of the month then we will be strong in all areas and we still have Jay Rodriguez to return sometime between now and Christmas, when that happens there will truly be competition for places.

We are still a work in progress but already you can see competition in the side for the first time in ages, players know they have to work hard and they know that there are those coming through that could replace them, they also know that we are going to be flexible so that they will get a chance through reasons other than injury.

There are those who claim that last season's team was the most exciting ever, it was good that can't be denied, but I don't think it was as exciting as we perceive, when our system worked it was brilliant and we put teams to the sword, but when it didn't work then we were stumped and we can now look back and see that when we went a goal down that was it in terms of winning.

Now we have genuine options to come back and win games, Koeman's style is different, it doesn't rely on keeping the ball so the opposition cannot score, it is about attacking, I just have the feeling that we won't get too many boring games this season and that we might see a few fight backs the likes of which haven't been seen much in the last two years.

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slynch added 11:33 - Aug 19
But MP won, Roko lost!
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SaintNick added 12:06 - Aug 19
Oh I never thought of it that way, we are doomed then
4

ExiledSupporter added 12:11 - Aug 19
Let's get Wollscheid from Bayer Leverkusen (on loan with option to buy), Giudetti for c£5m and Zaha (either on loan or at cost of c£7m) and then our bench will look really strong!
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TreeHugger added 12:18 - Aug 19
i get what you are saying and i think long term RK will do equally as good if not better than MP...... but last season was the best football we have played for over 20 years. even games we lost we still dominated and i actually enjoyed watching us. MP did a great job and thats that. I do think he would have struggled to take us to the next level though and feel we now have a great opportunity to build a new culture, a different type of squad and continue with the long term plan. we have players who are coming in to take us to the next level. not seeing as a stepping stone to take themselves to the next level. Once the team gels and if the new CB is as good as Lovren...we could have a better first 11 and overall better squad. . ..however, MP did bring us the best football we have seen in a long time..that is a fact.
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SaintNick added 12:46 - Aug 19
I dont think it was the best football in 20 years, some games were but because we had a lot of possession it appeared better than it was, we beat the bottom five easily, struggled a little more against the middle 7 and fared badly against the top 7, we were flat track bullies.

The team under strachan was better to watch and had a better season in 02/03 than last season
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SanMarco added 12:54 - Aug 19
Agree with you TreeHugger. I think that we should not allow the manner of MoPo's departure and his bad behaviour to blind us to the fact that the football we saw last year was the best sustained period we have had since the early 80s.
I think we have to accept that the limited squad/lack of plan B criticisms are valid and maybe were partly due to the fact that he knew he was leaving and he was playing for the short-term, i.e. his own CV - "as high a league place as possible and as many points as possible and I'm off in May having undermined the Board and half the playing squad" is the way I see his thought processes. I hope I am wrong and those limitations are permanent because I would love to see him soon sailing over on to the Tottenham High Road at the end of Levy's boot...
2

bstokesaint added 12:55 - Aug 19
I've got to agree with Nick there. I loved the team we had under Strachan and although they might not have been as technically astute as Poch's team, towards the end of last season I was getting bored with watching us dominate games and with little or no end product. It was also actually quite frustrating to watch struggle when going behind. We did most of our impressive stuff before Christmas before essentially getting sussed out. I'm all for possession football, but it's no good having it if you do nothing with it. If RoKo wants to play a more attacking game then I look forward to witnessing it.
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bstokesaint added 13:00 - Aug 19
SanMarco I don't think Poch was thinking short-term. I've no doubt he ultimately wanted to go to a bigger club, but I think Cortese leaving and telling there weren't billions of pounds to spend helped make his choice quicker. With the league position already pretty much determined if he had been short-term he could have had a real go at the cup and atttempted to bolster his CV with some silverware. I personally don't feel blinded to the fact we played some brilliant football at times, but the same people were making the same criticisms from his early days and he failed to improve on that.
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rjh added 13:00 - Aug 19
Agree with comments, MP had us playing the best football I can remember in a very long time. We were great too watch, away from home especially. We had real pace on the break and totally dominated matches away from home which we had never ever done in the premier league. Remember Jay's goal at Newcastle or games at Fulham and Cardiff? MP did really well for us and RK is going to have to do exceptionally well to match him.
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rjh added 13:00 - Aug 19
Agree with comments, MP had us playing the best football I can remember in a very long time. We were great too watch, away from home especially. We had real pace on the break and totally dominated matches away from home which we had never ever done in the premier league. Remember Jay's goal at Newcastle or games at Fulham and Cardiff? MP did really well for us and RK is going to have to do exceptionally well to match him.
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SanMarco added 13:01 - Aug 19
No, No, No - Last year's side were comfortably better than Strachan's and played better football more consistently. Without that fluke win at Maine Road on the last day we would have been down in about 13th with 48/49 points. I know many swallowed the Strachan stand-up comic routine but to me he was lucky to take on a good but under-performing side that had been shaped by Hoddle. I can only remember two matches where that team were truly great and they were both against Hoddle's Spurs. Hopeful portent for a few weeks' time??
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SanMarco added 13:08 - Aug 19
bstokesaint - we will never know but I think MoPo would have gone to Spurs even if NC had stayed. MoPo is a pretty ruthless operator - of course he didn't believe Cortese's hot air - it just proved an easy 'out' narrative for him when Spurs came calling. Also I reckon that MoPo misjudged the importance of the Cup or to be fair thought that he put out a good enough team to win...
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WestSussexSaint added 13:09 - Aug 19
It will be interesting to see how the new team work against WestBrom on saturday. Last year West Brom and other similar teams knew that they just had to park the bus and let Saints play in front of them and frustrate the life out of the game as we didnt have a different tactic. Last season's match against the Baggies was a prime example, although we won with an indiviual bit of skill from Lallana, the tatics from MoPo just didnt work and it was the worst performance I saw all season.
2

ItchenNorth added 13:31 - Aug 19
I disagree that the bench on Sunday looked strong ! Perhaps when Gaston Ramirez is back and Jay Rod is fit again yes, depth filters down to the bench but Sunday nope. As good as Sundays display was we need another one or two players in the door, centre back being the obvious weakness despite Gardos 's arrival.
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SaintNick added 14:24 - Aug 19
This years bench Davis, Isgrove, Long, Taider, Cork, Hooiveld, Stevens, last years bench for the last game of the season Gazzaniga, Guly, Ward prowse, Hooiveld, Gallagher, Chambers Reed.

Chambers on the bench !!! People forget that under Pochettino he couldnt get in the team unless lyne was injured , but take him away and there was no game changers on it, now we have some firepower
1

BoondockSaint added 14:29 - Aug 19
MP best tactic was the high pressure, or to use a hockey term, close checking, especially against the big teams whose prima donnas don't like it. They expect everyone to be in awe of them.
But, as many have noted, as the season wore on, since MP had no clue how to change tactics in game (example: trailing by a goal with a minute left, we're knocking it back and forth after the goal keeper rolls it out to a back!)-the rest of the league let us tire ourselves out, and struck at the end for the win or draw.
I'm tired of "we had a lot of chances" or as the pundits saying "Saints gave them a good game" giving us a pat on the head for losing. Results are what count. This isn't figure skating-you get no points for style. Hopefully RK's endgame tactics will be more productive.
2

law101 added 15:17 - Aug 19
I really hope we don't sign this Alvaro Gonzalez. From what I can see he's not a typical wide man which is what we need, he doesn't assist or score goals either. The 8 million quoted for a 29 year old seems excessive. Again I don't understand why we are not looking at Nathan Redmond, he’s young, pacey, English, knows the league and is only going to get better for the 4 million quoted. QPR are about to sign Vargas, an attacking wide forward who would fit perfectly within our system. I hope I’m wrong but the signings of Taider, Gardos etc from the outside look like alternatives to top targets that Reed seems unable to attract, e.g. Vlaar, Townsend, Rojo etc.
1

abingdonsaint added 17:55 - Aug 19
Opinions eh?

The discussion about the 'best football' is entirely subjective, and depends on what floats your boat. I loved the football under Strach, but in my opinion there is no comparison with last season. Whilst there were some exciting individual matches, in pure footballing terms we never controlled games or played with the same fluency under Strach. We were often quite negative, particularly away from home against the 'big teams', and sometimes came a real cropper, like the 6 at Arsenal prior to the Cup Final. Under Poch, the only side to really find us out was Chelsea, and even then we were not at full strength in either game. Even when we lost there were still moments of sheer quality to enjoy. Some people find Barcelona boring. I don't. Opinions!

As Poch has now gone, and we move on, this is the last time I will say this, but the lack of a perceived 'plan B' was intentional in my view. He has his philosophy of how he wants to play, and for better or worse, he sticks to it. Courage of your convictions can be a strength or a weakness!

Finally, the Liverpool game did indicate that RK will mix things up a bit more, but as long as passing the ball is the priority then I will be happy.

Onwards and upwards......
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abingdonsaint added 18:11 - Aug 19
Ps.....Sundays game was a perfect example of my old 'performance against results' bugbear.

In many ways we deserved to win more on Sunday than last season. We had more clear cut chances, and Boruc certainly had more to do than Forster did. All you can ever do is perform to the best of your ability. Results depend on very small details.

Really bugs me though how little credit we get sometimes. Rodgers said Liverpool were not their usual fluent selves, and Jamie Carragher said last night that it was Liverpool's worst home performance since they last played us. Doh! What a coincidence Jamie! Our biggest strength is in central midfield, and we are very difficult to dominate because of that. There are two teams on the pitch guys!
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bstokesaint added 23:28 - Aug 19
I thought you're be used to it by now Abingdon. I heard at least one pundit in every game versus Man C, Man U, Arsenal and Liverpool say they just didn't turn up against us. Amazing coincidences.
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