Southampton Banter Archive October 19 2014

19 Oct 2014 09:24:44
I do recall a few weeks ago I jokingly said about Saints beating QPR 8-0 on here, but I didn't expect that score line at all yesterday! The mechanics behind the build up play second half were top class, even with the Sunderland defence going completely pear shaped. And that's without saying we could have scored more.
Does any one else feel there was an inevitability to this? Since Pochettino first brought the high pressing game to Saints and we dominated so many games there's always been the dreamer inside me thinking if we could just be more clinical we could win by a big score line. Koeman seems to have found that in Pelle, Tadić, and the rest of our midfielders lately. Bravo Saints, same again next week?

19 Oct 2014 16:25:06
We are doing so well because we are not letting goals in as our back four have been top class, I will not include our 10 million pound keeper in the reasons why. He still looks far from the top class keeper a lot of you think he is. I wonder how he will deal with Crouchy next week ?

The question I was going to ask was whether Gardos will play against Stoke so that we can utilise his extra height?

I agree to an extent about Forster, there's been moments when he has spilled the ball or not been in the best of positions to make the save however what I have felt is a greater confidence in him than when Boruc played in goal for us. Out rightly the reason for this is he is a commanding present, every time a ball comes into our box you can hear him screaming for the defenders to get it away. He's definitely a motivating force in our success and he has made his fair share of saves, such as when we played against Newcastle and West Brom. Remember this is only his first season in the BPL, give him time to really bed himself into the league first.

As for Gardos, no doubt he deserves a run out, surely it's more likely to come in the cup however?

Forster imo is the reason for the defence success.
The defence look so much more confident with him between the sticks, it's comparable to Boruc and Gazza last season.

Could be that they're not carrying Lovren and Luke anymore though.

20 Oct 2014 16:22:02
I think the defence look more confident because they are much better than last seasons. Bertrand is ( and not knocking Luke) a better defender than Shaw, Clyne has become almost world class, Fonte looks more comfortable playing along side Toby or Gardos. We are picking the ball up more easily in midfield this year due to the engine of Davis and the pure genius of Morgan in the tackle and our new manager has us playing with a shape that stops us being caught on the break by the opposition. In other words we are good all over the pitch but still think Boruc is a better keeper in many ways. Forster shouting at his defence is great yes but if he makes many more mistakes and misjudgements he may be getting a mouthful back at some stage soon. The main reason for our ability to keep the ball better is our centre forward who holds the ball up so well and the natural vision of Tadic to see a pass before the opposition has time to blink. We will not win every game very few teams do but I really believe we will become more and more difficult to beat. The refreshing thing is our managers attitude to the team and even after beating Sunderland 8 - 0 he was still prepared to say we didn't really play that well in the first half. An honest and great acquisition for SFC. Just going to repeat myself but please make the Stoke game a sell-out on Saturday and then maybe people may get the message that if you want to watch the Saints you may have to get a season ticket and not just pick and choose the games you want to go to. Finally I hope that Sky TV are really kicking themselves for not showing any of our games live and restricting the country of seeing us in action. QPR, Burnley, Leicester, West Brom, Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Stoke, Swansea, Sunderland etc. were all thought to be a better choice than us. How wrong they were.

Forster has the best shots to save ratio in the league, I think he's a top class player

25 Oct 2014 09:47:39
Have you looked at the amount of shots he has had to save in comparison to the other keepers, it's less than half. Some of the shots he has saved he has done so clumsily and our back four have had to help him out. Statistics rarely paint a true picture, I really hope I am wrong about him. Not saying he is not potentially a good keeper but if you pay £10 million he should have it all but he hasn't.