Southampton A Post Match Thread

[teblin]

I would have considered under for the last 20 to stretch them.

[st albans fox]

1 minute ago, winteriscoming said:

I really think Rodgers missed a trick my taking Fofana off and not bringing width on. He had Albrighton, Ricardo and Under on the bench. Instead he brings Perez on and the middle gets too congested. We needed to spread the play wide and open them up especially as we’re playing against 10 men. 

We did work the ball wide more quickly second half to give that player more one on ones but we didn’t solve the conundrum of getting two on ones and the wide man to the bye line cutting the ball back and turning their centre backs. Would have expected rodgers to have dealt with that better ....

[deep blue]

15 minutes ago, Hales said:

I watched the first half but missed the second as I had to go to my night shift. Sounds like I didn't miss much! I guess if we don't win, don't lose! I'm puzzled by a few things. Madders clearly isn't right yet he continues to persist with him. Praet, Ricardo and Under don't get any time at all? Praet and Ricky are coming back from injury so maybe he is managing them but how can they build up match fitness, confidence and momentum if they never play? They are not going to be happy to never play for much longer I should imagine especially when Madders is playing and he isn't ready either. The argument could also be used that they are clearly more disciplined too. Surely Praet was worth a shot to team up with Timmy down the right? Under is going but his pace possibly may have helped? Its all very well playing your unchanged strongest team but there are weak links at the moment and others deserve a chance. Kel is a prime example of that! It's always the same team with the same subs. 

Some good points there.  I'm particularly puzzled how Brendan can cite tiredness for an excuse when he has picked essentially the same 11 that played so recently, and how in particular can Praet not get a sniff. He could've added some much-needed dynamism to our play. 

[Vestan Pance]

Looking at the Stats we had 23 shots last night, the 9-0 we had 25 shots, so it's not hard to see where it went wrong.

 

 

[Hales]

6 minutes ago, deep blue said:

Some good points there.  I'm particularly puzzled how Brendan can cite tiredness for an excuse when he has picked essentially the same 11 that played so recently, and how in particular can Praet not get a sniff. He could've added some much-needed dynamism to our play. 

Agreed! Tiredness is a strange one. The one who should be tired and lacking energy at the moment is Fofana due to his fasting yet he seems the most energetic. The body language of some is off. Madders for example has lost his swagger and doesn't look like he is enjoying his football at the moment. He needs to give others a chance. He wants to keep the squad together but he cannot just leave them festering on the bench either.  

[winteriscoming]

15 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

We did work the ball wide more quickly second half to give that player more one on ones but we didn’t solve the conundrum of getting two on ones and the wide man to the bye line cutting the ball back and turning their centre backs. Would have expected rodgers to have dealt with that better ....

I just think it’s an area we could of exploited earlier in the second half. It might not of worked but imo it would have been better than having Maddison and Perez playing the same role. 

[SHANE_]

10 minutes ago, deep blue said:

Some good points there.  I'm particularly puzzled how Brendan can cite tiredness for an excuse when he has picked essentially the same 11 that played so recently, and how in particular can Praet not get a sniff. He could've added some much-needed dynamism to our play. 

Praet would offer nothing against a deep block. His game is about running and there was no space to run into... 

[sdb]

1 hour ago, Ricey said:

Oh and can we talk about stoppage time! The red card and the injury to Vardy took over 4 minutes in the first half and there was also a sub in there, Fofana breaking fast and lots of time wasting by Southampton. Yet only 3 minutes was added.

 

Second half there was 2 goals, 3 subs and countless free-kicks and goal-kicks that Southampton were taking around a minute to take. Yet only 3 minutes was added on.

 

This is why teams time waste as there is never any repercussions.

100000%

 

Time added on is arbitrary. Every week.

[escape2victory]

Can’t fault the effort just a real lack of quality in the final third. 
 

Im a big fan of Castagne, but he had a bit of a mare, needless free kick to give away for their goal, and had a lot of ball in decent wide areas but lacked the quality, and I would say that’s the area of his game he needs to improve on, is a brilliant athlete, up and down the wing all game and decent 1v1 defender, but his crossing delivery is poor.

 

I like having Thomas in the team purely because he has a left foot, but he looks poor as a wing back. The times I have seen him play well is as a left back and is able to come from deep and play good combinations with Barnes. As the wing back he doesn’t have that, and plays it far too safe to be an effective wing back.

[Clever Fox]

8 hours ago, hejammy said:

How many goals have we scored from corners and set pieces when Evans, Cags and Fofana have gone up for them? They're strengths are clearly not attacking headers. Gone are the days of putting Walshy upfront. If we started playing hoofball at 80 mins I guarantee BR would have got a lot more stick and there is no suggestion that the result would have been any different. 

They've all scored goals at different times, but your right it's not their forte. Defending is.

With a little bit of Coaching that area of their game could be improved.

Brendan's job is to win games, the how doesn't matter. Do we think any less of him because it was Evans who scored last night, Of course not. That's my point.

Southampton weren't offering much of an attacking threat, so we could have utilized one of the CBs better. just to disrupt the Southampton defense. By wining a few headers in the box.

There's no such thing as Hoof ball in Football, that's just a fans interpretation of the game. 

Was it hoof ball when we won the league or when Evans hit a long ball to Kelechi for the winner last week against Palace.

Of course not. It's what was needed to win the Game a long ball into the Channel that took a lot of defenders out of the game and then a wonder finish from Kelechi. 

For the Manager It's results that count, that's all the record books show. not the how.

 

That's all I'm saying, it's done now and we move on but we did miss an opportunity to possibly win the game and yes we could also have lost it. That looked the lesser of the two options given how much we controlled the game.

 

[Md9]

Beat Newcastle then 10 points out of 12 isn’t bad for any team at any stage of the season. Hopefully a few teams can help us out between now and the end just Nick a point or more from some teams around us. It’s nice to not rely on any one else and do it on our own but right now just let a few teams around us drop a few 

[Finn Claw II]

Makes the Newcastle game more important but I can’t see West Ham wining 5 on the spin.

 

if United beat Liverpool it’s not a terrible weekend.

 

6 points should be more than enough for CL.  

[UniFox21]

Too slow, too passive and didn't take our chances. We have a weeks rest best we go again

[when_you're_smiling]

I like Friday Night Football - but bloody hell if it doesn’t go your way it niggles at you for the rest of the weekend.

[volpeazzurro]

Logic surely would have been, within ten minutes of them going down to 10 men, to take a defender off and bring players on that could add width and spread or stretch the play. Bringing Perez on with Maddison merely cloggs up the middle with two players essentially just doing a similar job. If you stretch the play you also wear the opposition out. Southampton did well and never looked too troubled. Reminds me of Micky Adams, bring your centre forward off and bring a winger on or bring a forward on and take the wingers who are going to get the ball to him off. Poor tactics by the manager for me. There seemed to be no plan, just stick any old players on and hope for the best.

[AmyLGK]

Im still rather annoyed about that game...also, I wonder why Ricardo wasn't brought on 🤷‍♀️

[Fox1norfolk]

50 minutes ago, Clever Fox said:

They've all scored goals at different times, but your right it's not their forte. Defending is.

With a little bit of Coaching that area of their game could be improved.

Brendan's job is to win games, the how doesn't matter. Do we think any less of him because it was Evans who scored last night, Of course not. That's my point.

Southampton weren't offering much of an attacking threat, so we could have utilized one of the CBs better. just to disrupt the Southampton defense. By wining a few headers in the box.

There's no such thing as Hoof ball in Football, that's just a fans interpretation of the game. 

Was it hoof ball when we won the league or when Evans hit a long ball to Kelechi for the winner last week against Palace.

Of course not. It's what was needed to win the Game a long ball into the Channel that took a lot of defenders out of the game and then a wonder finish from Kelechi. 

For the Manager It's results that count, that's all the record books show. not the how.

 

That's all I'm saying, it's done now and we move on but we did miss an opportunity to possibly win the game and yes we could also have lost it. That looked the lesser of the two options given how much we controlled the game.

 

Also being a bit more street wise. Any of The Top Six would have dribbled into the penalty box and engineered contact, scream and fall down, penalty.

[filbertway]

I'm hoping actually not getting lucky in this game makes Rodgers re think his approach for the Newcastle game at least. Give me some delicious width and attacking players. We might be able to fit our best players in on paper, but it'll be to the detriment of the team as a whole.

[foxfan92]

1 hour ago, Vestan Pance said:

Looking at the Stats we had 23 shots last night, the 9-0 we had 25 shots, so it's not hard to see where it went wrong.

 

 

Just 2 more shots needs - with 4 and a half goals per shot!

[Guest Col city fan]

The sending off genuinely didn’t do us any favours. We know we find it more difficult to break down sides when they park the bus

What we needed last night was an open game to give us the space to get behind their defence 

 

[st albans fox]

8 minutes ago, Col city fan said:

The sending off genuinely didn’t do us any favours. We know we find it more difficult to break down sides when they park the bus

What we needed last night was an open game to give us the space to get behind their defence 

 

Once they had a man sent off my mind set was that at least they won’t be able to score so we only need one if it becomes v tight attack v low block. 
 

and yet we managed to concede ........ that will irk rodgers the most 

[Corky]

Tiredness may have been a cause but also nerves too, this is a huge time for the players and manager with top 4 and a cup final coming up.

 

They are giving their all, you can see that, we just didn't have enough quality.

[Guest Danny Clender]

[MGLCFC]

I wonder if fans from other clubs go into meltdown when their team loses to so called inferior opposition or if situations change in a game. For example, did Chelsea fans say they have blown a CL place when they lost to WBA and drew with Brighton, both home fixtures they would have expected maximum points. They got one, from their last 2 expected win home game, we got 6. Keep calm, we are still in an extremely strong position and now have a full week to recover and build again.

Edited 1 May 2021 by MGLCFC

[ian__marshall]

Don't understand what the overreaction is. Had we won I'd have said we're pretty much in the CL next season regardless of results until the end of the season as it would have required West Ham and Liverpool to win 4 out of 5 and us not to pick up another point which I think is highly unlikely. As such assuming we win at Newcastle, all we've done is push this back by a week and that's assuming our rivals pick up maximum points this weekend. 

 

As for the game, Southampton are a stubborn side. They were well organised and dug in. Maddison was wasteful in possession and Vardy missed some absolute sitters that 6 months ago he'd have stuck away. I wasn't convinced by the subs either. Perez was effectively nullified by not playing in the number 10 role, and Albrighton for Thomas meant we lost Castagne's attacking attributes, whilst Albrighton didn't really add a great deal as his strength of crossing the ball into the box was negated as they packed the middle of the back line with big lads. 

 

What we needed last night were intricate technical players who are good with the ball at their feet and have them playing just inside the Southampton penalty box rather than getting the ball out wide trying to stretch their defence. Any ball's into feet would have caused Southampton nightmares as they'd face the dilemma of having to get tight but risk giving away a penalty or standing off and allowing us space to get off a shot or open up a goalscoring opportunity. Brendan has to get smarter at breaking down these stubborn back lines if we are to push on. 

 

Regardless a point away at Southampton isn't the worst result in the world so there's really no need to panic. 

 

 

Edited 1 May 2021 by ian__marshall