Southampton Banter Archive February 24 2015

24 Feb 2015 14:23:35
having watched the liverpool game, a few observations.
The whole game Elia was making excellent diagonal runs towards the box. I deliberately sit 25 rows back so i can see the whole picture of the game much better. I don't think it was until late in the second half that he was actually picked out. But he kept trying . Further more elia amd matty t do not combine well. It make be lack of experience with matty but when elia and matty were trying to combine, often one stopped when the other didn't want them too, so overlapping play didn't come off. This meant service to the middle from that side was non existent. We are also playing too slow when on the ball. It took morgan coming on to speed up the game, something jack cork did superbly. Movement of the ball exists, but it very narrow, almost walking pace . And only short distance. Apart from elia darting into spaces. Clyne also struggled to overlap on the right . With who ???? Davis and jwp too slow and not overlaping type of players .

27 Feb 2015 10:22:54
I agree that Elia was making great runs. But Mané makes those similar runs as well when he plays. The thing is, we want someone to find a bit of space to pick them out. That's why I think we should be having Tadic on one wing and Mané or Elia on the other. I think we really need his passing range from the very start of the game, not just as a sub for 20 mins. Even when he's not having a great game, Tadic always seems to create a bit of space and open the play up for others.

27 Feb 2015 17:57:13
I agree totally, Mane is a similar player to Elia. They both know when to go, not to go and where and when to make the diagonal run. But pointless without someone picking the run out. Clyne with Tadic, Bertrand with Elia and Pelle up front with Mane is a great formation.
I forget to mention, when Elia was doing all the runs, it was only Pelle that was being passed to. So he seems to have turned into a target player for the whole team. He is so much more than that!
Morgan S speeds up the game, can pick out anyone, anytime he likes.
So let's go at WBA all guns blazing!

24 Feb 2015 07:41:39
Many goals against us have come from mid field players shooting from 28 yards plus .

My suggestion. Train our players constantly to do the same and keep trying Forster to react quicker to these long distance shots.

I would especially concentrate on JWP as he is getting a bit of a barn door reputation.

Also I would like to see a bit more acceleration into the penalty area as we saw in the first 5 mins on Sunday. It puts more pressure on the opposition defence and BTW do more to take the pressure off Pelle.