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Comment | Southampton V Coventry City The Verdict
at 16:04:35
Excellent post Horton Saint. Armstrong and others have been guilty of this on several occasions this season, but it is tough to expect forward players to track back to the extent we do. Answers some of the queries on our fitness levels. Also really good possession teams are drilled to get the ball back asap when they lose it (Man City are masters at it). Again this involves a lot of chasing. Unfortunately we are a long way off having the squad who can achieve this for 90 minutes so a little pragmatism wouldn't go amiss from time to time. We have not actually conceded that many goals from playing out from the back. Our biggest weakness is over-committing when going forward and being vulnerable to a quick break or a diagonal punt or a cutback, when we over complicate things approaching goal. We could solve a lot of that by taking the Bill Shankly approach of shooting as much as you can since it either goes in or goes out. |
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Comment | Southampton At Bristol City The Preview
at 14:35:20
Wouldn't be surprised if he "rests" AA and plays Mara in the middle with Edozie or Brooks out wide. If not Brooks may well replace Stuey. |
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Comment | Hearts Striker Linked With Southampton
at 10:42:13
Looks like Ben Brereton Diaz is available on loan from Villareal. Will probably go to Sheffield Utd but must be worth a try if Adams is on his way |
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Comment | Southampton At Preston North End The Verdict
at 12:09:28
Could I just add to the comments on the away support last night. Only watched it on Sky but I thought they were superb. A number of people in my office commented on it this morning. Brilliant and more of the same on Saturday please |
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Comment | Southampton At Middlesbrough The Preview
at 13:10:21
Nick . I agree witha lot of what you say but RM has to temper his ideology with a dose of pragmatism and reality so we dont start every game with a 2 goal disadvantage. On the subject of SR, whilst agree the jury is very much out and they have made some very poor decisions, there is no point in bleating about them because they do own the club and they are not going anywhere. The prevoius post mentioned that data doesn't work. That is nonsense. The two massive overachievers in the PL are Brighton and Brentford. The common theme is that they are both owned and run by gambling geniuses who have huge data analytics behind them. Their budgets are little different to ours. Man City, who have the best transfer track record in the PL by miles, also employ a lot of data techniques on both transfers and monitoring players. I could never work out why Pep sold us Lavia, he is so good and such a Pep type of player. Could he be that they had spotted something with his physique? Currently out for 6 weeks again. |
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Comment | Southampton V Leicester City The Verdict
at 16:10:20
Sorry Nick but although a leader would help, it is not the root of the problem. That I am afraid lies with RM and to some extent the fact that he did not get enough of the right type of players in during the window. His possession based plan is flawed because he is only executing half of it and choosing to ignore some basic principles that are there because they work.
If he insists on playing out from the back then fine but particularly when pressed that has to be executed quickly with a 3 to 4 pass movement to beat the first line. Not further and further back into ever more dangerous areas. You also have to be able to knock it long mainly to mix it up but also because if they are pressing there has to be space behind. To be fair Bazunu did just that very well on several occasions eg our goal and demonstrated by the fact w e "only" had 55% posession. On the subject of nobody hanging back at corners etc that is totally down to RM. We are not a tall team and will lose a lot of corners which will come out to edge of box. With only 1 or 2 players on the edge we will lose a lot of second balls. With nobody behind them we will conced a lot of goals. His other big failing is that our midfielders play too much facing the wrong way and rarely on the half turn. They also seem unwilling or unable to effect the game.
Smallbone was truly dreadful on Friday, failing to execute the basics, find space or hit killer balls. Unfortunately I think you can only play 1 maybe 2 of Charles, Smallbone and Downes, so he will need to get Stuey or Alcaraz humming otherwise we are f*7k7D. Most will not agree but I think we are OK up front both wide and centrally, but only if we start to deliver quicker and better quality ball behind defences. i will be amazed if we get anything out of Tuesday. Good side with a coach who is everything that RM is not. |
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Comment | Southampton Name Price For Che Adams ! Bournemouth And Wolves Hover.
at 14:42:22
I would have no problem with Adams going since we know he is not Prem standard and although he may do well in the Championship we do have to have one eye on a team that can keep us in the Prem i.e. give Tella or a new signing or a kid a proper chance. Whilst I actually like AA for his work rate you must have been watching a different player to me for the last 2 years. His first touch is appalling and the main reason he has not done better. The same applies to Adams. |
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Comment | Southampton V Brentford The Verdict
at 13:59:23
Can anyone explain to me what we are trying to do on our goal kicks? We either wait ages for Bazunu to hoof it down field or make 2 short passes and then Bazunu hoofs it down field. None of our CBs are comfortable playing out under pressure. Brentford spotted that last night and went 4-4-2 on our goal kicks which with most of the hoofs aimed at Sulemenia meant they got ball back. Like all of our play we are too predictable and easy to play against. FFS lets gamble a bit. |
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Comment | Watt View - A mixed bag but turnaround is a starting point
at 23:26:47
Agree with most of the comments on here but just a couple of extra thoughts:
We were not good in the first half and the defence and midfield still look very uncomfortable with the 5-3-2. Djenpo in particular but to be fair he ran his socks off and was dangerous coming forward.
Ralph actually had Armstrong and Aribo ready to come on before the second goal and chose to hold them for the corner. So he was at least prepared to roll the dice at 1-0.
Dilemma now is how we line-up on Saturday since we effectively finished playing 4-2-4 which would be entertaining but unlikely on a long-term basis. Also does he keep going with the youngsters /new signings who have all been pretty good? IMO keep rolling the dice.
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Site Scores| Forum Votes: | 3 | | Comment Votes: | 35 | | Prediction League: | 0 | | TOTAL: | 38 |
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