Thank God we managed to claw something out of this game, I thought Deeney was terrific when he came and really got our attack ticking, so well done to him. Just one really annoying tactical point, why when we split the centrebacks do we have Watson come back to receive the ball instead of Doucoure , who is clear the more talented player in possession and is actually capable of turning with the ball, beating a player and distributing it. Made absolutely no sense to me.
One more thing, I'm sick to death of our full backs. I agree a coach could, and should, sort of a basic defensive set up which Silva seems to be incapable of doing. But Janmaat and Zeegelaar without doubt are two of the worst full backs I've seen for us. The ease with which the pedestrian slow Tadic went past Janmaat today was shocking. Neither of them can defend and I'm not even sure they can be bothered to even do simple things like block crosses or hold a line.
The first half showed why Silva had to go. Looks like he realises it too, as in desperation he did two things he hates - playing two up front and bringing on Okaka when he didn't have to. I'd like to think Gino will get rid of him as soon as he's lined up a replacement (Joker?) but no point doing it if nobody's available
To be fair slither was going to change things in the first half and then was forced to take Tom Off due to injury, Grays first touch is horrendous and that's if he makes it. Hope slither try's something different by playing Deeney up top with Gray as Gray was so much more with someone making that first touch for him. How about Richarlison at left wing back he gets back and defends and go to 5 at the back ? Hopefully Toms injury ain't to serious as we will have to see more of the ginger pele. 1st half a joke thankfully they responded in 2nd. But really that just papers over the cracks. There will be 3 worse teams again this season that will be our saving grace maybe even 5 or 6 worse
We would be better off playing with 10 men than having Zeegelaar. We must be able to sign a left back who is better.
No we do not need Holebas back, he's absolutely awful. What we need is a new competent left back, as we have done for the past 18 months.
Well, we still don't have a proper left back then. How long has that position been a problem for now? It's a bit worrying that one week our transfer priority is the centre backs that are a priority, then a centre forward, then a full back, now probably a centre mid. Awful defensive performance from Zeegelar & Janmaat. That 40 yard shot from Janmaat was the worst moment of the game. I could not fathom what goes through a Dutch internationals head to make him shoot from there, it was just BEYOND stupid. One block from Kabasele in the first half was EXCELLENT. Blocked a certain goal. Gray looked SO much better in a front two and so much more confident. Honestly cannot see why Silva wouldn't do that next week, clear as day that it's our best option. I said it earlier and I'll say it again, 13th January 2018, Ben Watson should not be starting a Premier League game. I doubt there's a worse starting CM in the Prem. Pereyra dictating play from deep gives me boners, so much better when he can see the whole pitch in front of him. Rich needs some new tricks bless him. Love his attitude though. Full credit to Deeney, changed the game. Not Carrillo's best game. No idea why Silva took Gray off for Okaka when the D&G combo was working really well. I like Silva but stupid decisions like that make me doubt him. Reinforcements needed ASAP, in particular N'Dong and Femenia, Chalobah and Hughes back to fitness and we'll be just fine because there are some trash teams in the Prem.
First off can I just say a massive thank you to all the fans today. We didn’t get a win but the scarf waving and sea of yellow I hope did the Taylor family proud. On to the match and well, what can I say that hasn’t already been said? Long caused us problems all first half and both of their goals were attributed to awful defending and non existent man marking. Especially the first one, he just more or less passed it into the net when Zeegelar went AWOL. The second was almost as bad as we were ran ragged down one side and they deserved it for our lack of graft, intelligence and positioning. Yes Decoudre did come close and headed into the netting but overall that first half almost mirrors Huddersfield. Silva must of had stern words at the break as the second half was better. Great to see Grey get another one and yes it was a gift of GOD at the end (excuse the bad pun), but overall we just about scraped a point. Still thought we were awful yet again despite the fight back and Southampton let us back into it with some sloppy play. Silva needs to learn that we need 2 up top and get Okaka and Gray on vs Leicester as they are going to come at us from the off. Pleased with a point and stops our rot but we are so inconsistent in games when to play well and when to not give a *****. Again big shout out to the fans. We never got him a win but at least we didn’t lose.
I'm not having that goal as 'largely' his fault. Fact is even if he sprints back full pelt - and I accept it looks better in the post mortem for a player when they do that - Ward-Prowse scores that goal. He can't influence that from his starting position. What he would have denied himself by jogging back was any involvement if Ward-Prowse had missed and there was a rebound. But that never happened. As it played out it was just a team error with Saints nailing every part they needed to.
Fair play to Troy. I still think we need better but he was ******* superb today. Some days he seems to dominate centre backs and creates havoc, needs to get back to doing it more often now.
Is it handball if he heads it? In all seriousness Doucoure's reaction said it all, he looks for the ref and lino straight away. We're due a decision anyway so **** it.
From Marco's press on a possible 4-4-2: "We can use it. We reacted very well in the second half, we can use it more but it depends on my decision. What I don’t want to see is what we saw in the first half." Yes, please!
Ref was a nob anyway so I don’t feel guilty. Gray was getting his shirt pulled off his back - no foul. Tug of a Southampton shirt - freekick. Incredible inconsistency! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Got to ask, why take Gray off when he has just scored and put a player on who is so similar to Deeney? I honestly think after that disaster of a first half, the partnership of Deeney and Gray with Pereyra as the playmaker deep, we would have won the game. Listening to the radio on the way home, Derek Payne went through how we could utilise a Deeney-Gray partnership. We have to look at it. If we must, play Richarlison up front as a left winger and have Pereyra sitting deep getting the ball from defense and Doucoure and Cleverly (Chalabah when fit) doing the donkey work
So pretty much all agreed Marco you massive **** stop playing a lone striker , by themselves Deeney , Gray and Okaka look **** , 2 of them on the pitch together and we look much much better Surely someone on here has Marcos personal number to text him this simple but critical advice
I'm not sure I get this side. One moment it looks like the confidence and urgency has disappeared, and then they go and put on that second half display. Not a whole lot of quality on show, but plenty of grit. Of course it's not good enough to only start playing when you're 2-0 down - it makes it feel like an opportunity missed - but fair play showing some fight on the day where we remember the great man. I really want to see Silva succeed, and have the belief that he can, but he has to embrace fresh ideas. I feel like part of our problem at the moment is the opppsition knows exactly how we're going to set up, and thus knows how to deal with our threats. Deeney and Gray upfront in a 4-4-2 could be the answer, but just try something, anything new. Respect to him for making those big, early changes. I can think of plenty of past managers who wouldn't have done the same. I don't think it can be underestimated as to how important it is to get some of our injured players back. I'm not making excuses for some insipid displays of late, but at risk of stating the obvious, we are not Man City - we do not have a squad of 25 Premier League starters. The first XI is very good, but with a few exceptions there's not much beyond that if a top half finish is the target. That is not a shot at recruitment, it's just where we and most other teams outside the top 6 are at. If and when we get Hughes, Kiko, Chalobah et al. back to full fitness - as well as keeping everyone else off the treatment table - and we continue to struggle, I will hold my hands up and say this isn't our biggest issue at the moment.
Fair play to the team today, rediscovered the ability to through the game away in the first half like the Huddersfiekd game. Not sure what was said (and who said it) at half time but we came out with all the energy and desire missing from the first half. Lose the game and I think we would be in a real relegation fight. Having salvaged a point we are keeping our heads above water. Not sure why the manager keeps changing the team after 30 minutes - looks like an admission that he keeps getting the first 11 wrong. The team will only improve when Marco has to go on sick leave until June.
Come on, Marco! You're paid a very good salary because you should supposedly know better than people like me, who knew exactly how that first half was going to go when we saw your selection. How you thought Gray on his own was worth starting with is unfathomable. It's been okay away from home on occasions when we've caught teams on the break, but at home when the onus is on us to take the game to our opponents, we need Troy on the field. Okaka is the only player we've got who can play a lone forward role. Until he's ready to perform for more than twenty minutes a game, or we recruit new forwards, it needs to be Troy alongside Gray.
At half time....that was it. Another dire performance, losing 2-0 to a team on only 20 points that hadn't won for 9 games. It doesn't seem to matter who we play, we are garbage against everyone. The defence is a joke, and the wing backs a constant liability. We have a real problem on the flanks. These guys are just not good enough, yet we give Zeegelaar a 4 year contract and Holebas a 2 year extension. No doubt Janmaat is signing a new 3 year deal as we speak. It's extraordinary why the hierarchy have so much faith in these duds. The attitude shown in the second half was much better, but it should have been like that from the start. Any purist football has to be shelved. We have to scrap in out in every match. We need as many fighters in that side as we can muster. A point in the end was unexpected after watching the first half, and the Doucoure handball has saved Silva's job. I see no reason for an upturn in form though. Injured players are still injured and the current crop occupying the shirts are not good enough. Our chances of staying up are no more than 50/50. We got lucky today, which is very unlike us. It should have been a narrow defeat and that probably been a fairer result. Small margins indeed but a vital point which stops Southampton from closing the gap. But lets not pretend, this team is utter shyte right now.
1st half was one of the worst I’ve seen us play for a long time. Seeing Cleverley go off injured made in 10x worse. 2nd half was completely different. Playing with a partner seems to suit both Gray and Deeney, which makes me wonder why we still won’t try it unless we’re losing and desperate. I also don’t understand why Gray came off and think it wasn’t an awful decision from Silva. Okaka coming on killed our momentum imo They gave us a lot of time in midfield, but Pereyra stepped up when moved into CM. Shame Doucoure’s goal was actually a handball. It looked to me like we could’ve had 2 penalties for shirt pulling though so I guess these things even out
Haha, forgot about that! What made it even worse was that he had unmarked options on both touchlines but thought that no, the better option was to shoot from just outside the centre circle.
My 2 cents.. - We were the better team until their first goal. 2 stupid defensive mistakes gifted them 2 goals, and if they had players that could actually finish then it could have been 3 or even 4 at half time. We were very lucky to only be 2-0 down at HT. - Much better in the 2nd half. I thought Deeney was done here, but he played like a man possessed. How many headers and 50/50s did he win in the first 20/25 mins of the 2nd half? Suddenly Gray and the rest had some service, and we looked like a different team! - How does Silva not see that we look so much better with 2 up top? Both Gray and Deeney played so much better, and the former even grabbed a goal! - Embarrassing timewasting by Southampton. They employed this tactic way too early. - Terrible refereeing today. It was summed up for me when Okaka was hauled down on the halfway line and the ref gives a freekick to Southampton . What was going through the referee's mind? - Didn't see the Doucoure goal, but a lot of people claiming it was a handball. If it was, then that is surely justice for the abysmal officiating throughout the game. - Silva need to get a grip and make sure that we start games in better fashion. He clearly has his own ideas but anyone can see that we look a better side with 2 up top. - The guy behind me was whistling towards the end and it really hurt my ears. *****. - Why was Gray subbed off? He looked dangerous with Deeney alongside! - Another injury? Of course that was going to happen. - When can we expect Chalobah, Hughes etc. back?
It wasn’t me. I was just despairing that we had a corner and gifted the ball back to them by committing a foul and they went down our end and scored. However I did boo the second and at half time.
Even though Holebas has signed this new contract doesn't mean he's staying. The Pozzo's maybe think he could do a job in Italy and don't want to lose him for nothing.
