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Southampton At Norwich City The Verdict
Sunday, 21st Nov 2021 21:36

Another game of two halves that saw Saints completely dominate the first half and then struggle to keep the momentum in the second half, ultimately throwing away all 3 points with two lapses in concentration.

An irate fan after the game thought that the game was thrown away by Ralph Hasenhuttl's substitutions particularly the decision to take off Che Adams and replace him with Theo Walcott who is fast becoming the brunt of the wrath of a section of the fanbase.

Whilst I would agree that it was probably not the change I would have made either, it was not what ultimately cost us a game that should have seen us take all three points and move up to 8th in the League, if we had done so then every one would be happy, we didn't but it shows how close we are to getting things right.

But in my opinion what ultimately cost us the game where two goalkeeping errors, having taken the lead after only 4 minutes through a nice finish from Che Adams we really should have gone on and won it, we had the momentum and indeed when we went in at half time the stats showed total dominance with 12 attempts on goal with the home side registering just 1, but that one attempt went in.

Last season Alex McCarthy seemed to have a weakness at his near post and that reared its head against at Carrow Road when he allowed two attempts to slip into the near post when he really should have done better.

A goal up and completely in command the lead lasted barely 3 minutes when Pukki headed in a cross at the near post, the keeper had got his angles wrong, but he should still have kept the header out.

Saints still dominated the first half but the damage had been done and we would pay for it.

The second half saw Norwich come out fighting, but the truth was that we rarely looked like conceding till we did, as a team unit we coped well, Ralph Hasenhuttl made a couple of substitutions fairly early in the half and brought on first Broja for Elyounoussi and in doing so changed the shape and then Walcott for Adams.

The latter was a strange move given that Adams had scored and looked the most likely to do so again, but we still had Broja and Adam Armstrong on and so players who could score.

Walcott did not have a good game and he capped it by missing a great chance in the dying seconds putting a close range header wide when he really should have hit the target, but he was no worse than Broja who never really got into the game, but didn't seem the get the stick Walcott did from some.

But although we were not creating the chances we did in the first we still looked comfortable and a draw looked the least we would get, but then came another poor piece of goalkeeping.

Ironically McCarthy had made a find save just a few minutes earlier when he kept out a Pukki shot at his near left hand post, but when Hanley headed down in the 79th minute it was on target but not with any real power, it should have been easily saved, but once again the keeper could not keep it out.

These are the things that win you games, having a keeper that can make the saves at the right time and this was not the situation here.

I have said in the past that we are gambling a little in not having a truly Premier League class keeper at the moment, I thought that Fraser Forster should have got the nod ahead of the first game of the season and his displays in the League cup have made me think that should still be the case.

Alex McCarthy is not a bad keeper as back up, but I feel that he doesn't have the concentration for long runs in the team,, I think Norwich was a game too far for him, they were only brief lapses, he was ok for the remainder of the game, but keepers have to concentrate for all of the 90 minutes they can't afford one lapse let alone two.

Those berating Ralph Hasenhuttl should think on a little, if his keeper had performed to the standard expected then today we would be 8th in the League., a manager can't legislate for individual error. We are not quite there yet, but we are getting nearer each week.

So this was a disappointing result, but it is not a terminal blow, we have had a good run and now we need to put together another one, perhaps it won't start next week at Liverpool, but there are some winnable games after that and we can move forwards.

For me a good team needs a good keeper and at the moment we don't have that, if we had then we would have won this game, in January we really need to look at what we can do, whether that is a bid for West Brom's Johnstone or we go for a loan deal for Manchester United's Dean Henderson I don't mind, I just think it is a position that has now been a problem for the past 4 years, we need to deal with it sooner than later.

Photo: Action Images



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stmichael added 13:55 - Nov 23
2nd half was a shambles and we looked like conceding on several occasions.
On 60 minutes I said I would take a point all day long as only one team is winning this game and it ain’t us.
The substititions were literally mind boggling.
Square pegs in round holes with KWP and Diallo.
And Theo is so awful at the mo it’s like someone has taken over his body.
And then there is Nathan Tella .
Manager has to do better..


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