Southampton Banter Archive February 11 2015

 

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(single word yields best result)

11 Feb 2015 22:57:58
Mmmmmm. Almost bad enough up front to make me wish osvaldo hadn't gone to boca. might have to finally take pelle out my dream team. probably start scoring again then!

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11 Feb 2015 22:03:00
Well that was a very frustrating game. On the one hand we've bossed it, Forster has made no serious save at all for the entire game, so defensively bravo, what we want to see every week. Then you look at the attack and cannot believe that there weren't more clear cut chances. I know it's easy to blame the players out rightly, however I think West Ham gave us a next to impossible task there trying to break them down, knowing what hard work we make it for ourselves anyway. The two deep lines of four cut off all through balls and then every time we tried it anyway they crowded the ball to nullify the shooting space.

However Fonte's had a great shot that maybe on another day the keeper wouldn't have met. And then right at the end Tadić makes room and drives the ball too central to the keeper, he strikes at a corner maybe it goes in. But really those were our key chances at winning the game here.

I personally am not going to get too hung up on this particular result, yes it was our chance to move away from the chasing pack once more but I'm hoping that there's going to be lessons taken from these last couple of results and maybe a reaction when we play Liverpool in a week's Saturday. COYR

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Couldn't agree more with all you said. I think this is one of the toughest defensive set ups we'll have come across all season. And we shouldn't be kicking ourselves too much, we're still 4th and I trust Koeman to have a good go sorting out our lack of sharpness in front of goal in the next ten days.

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11 Feb 2015 21:59:36
Can we have picked a worse time of the season to start wasting chance after chance !!!!!!!

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12 Feb 2015 19:49:20
Jose having the same problem! TWO rubbish teams in the top 4.

Suspensions, injuries and poor form are making it difficult for Saints with our relatively small squad and it doesn't help when some of the team do not follow instructions.

RoKo knows the situation and will get it sorted but I will repeat what I have said before, this is a work in progress and we will see such problems. Frustrating, but hardly unexpected.

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11 Feb 2015 21:49:14
I said a few weeks ago that I wouldn't be surprised if Saints pick up more points on the road than they do at home between now and the end of the season, as they just haven't got the attacking players to open up obdurate defences.

Another blank at home, another game with barely a chance created. West Ham were basically playing with nine men and Saints still couldn't fashion an opportunity. It was hopeless.

One (injury time) goal in their last three PL games. None in eight for Pelle. What do they work on in training? It sure as hell can't be attacking movement. Everything is so laboured and one-paced.

No idea why, once again, they only had six players on the bench. Could they not have found an U21 player from somewhere? It's all very unprofessional.

Anyway, another clean sheet where he hasn't had to a damned thing to earn it for Forster. And that's the only positive to take from a season that is on the brink of running out of steam.

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12 Feb 2015 00:44:30
Just not sure why unless due to injury why we took Reed off and the only hope to score was Mane and he was taken off. Another clean sheet but after watching our rivals for the top six looking like they have goals in them we have no goal threat and to be honest can't see how we can stay where we are in the league. Koeman is fantastic but even he must see you can't be a top football team unless you score goals. 11 days until Liverpool so let's see if he can get it sorted otherwise we may see our season falling apart. WHY can't we have a decent effort from outside the box ? However 4 points out of six in the last two games is great unfortunately you are supposed to win your home games and draw the away games to be top 4 contenders, I think the players must be confused.

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Clean sheets won't get us into Europe this season. The teams around us are scoring for fun.
Reed was superb, our makeshift defence was strong but we really really need to sort it out up front.
Pelle isn't looking half the player he was.
Maybe its time to drop him and just run with pace up front (Mane, Elia, Djuricic)
Anyway RK. I'm making the 2000 mile trek to St Mary's for the Liverpool game. please sort it out

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Yes, the teams around us are racking up the goals currently, however every single one of them has had a striker crisis of sorts this season, ours seems to have come now. With only Pelle available there's only one way to really build up play with him and that's with long balls or to the feet, neither is working currently. If we had Long or Rodriguez available we would be able to try and play balls over the top more centrally rather than to the wingers. Likewise something we don't seem to have players doing is following in when the ball is played low across the six yard box, that was something we did rather well last season. I think we really need to take a gamble and try something different for the Liverpool game, whether it's matching them with 5 at the back so Clyne and Targett can be more involved with the attack, or playing Mané alongside Pelle in a 4-2-2-2 so he's more central in attack. Liverpool has a defence we should be exploiting.

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11 Feb 2015 21:42:10
All that possession and countless chances and half chances and still we can't score.

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