Useful Idiot

Well, I think that today was the first sign of him implementing something that looked like an actual style to the team's play. We mixed the passing up more, alternated between crossing and pass and move, had players joining up from deep and drifting inside from wide positions. Everything I thought we wouldn't get while he was manager. If we keep doing that, I'm happy to change my mind about him. I thought our previous lack of bravery with the ball was horrific to watch, but today that seemed to turn a corner. Wednesday's game is basically a free hit, not expecting anything much from it, but if we try to recreate what we did today next weekend I'll be happy!

oh, I'd also prefer Gabbi or Austin on for Long, obviously

Judging by the importance of a result and the necessity of not allowing Everton I see Pellegrino going all out for the point, but without midfield options he'll probably just make sure that everyone man marks their opposite number, both in and out of possession. I expect the team might be: -----------------Forster----------------- Cedric---Yoshida-------Van Dijk---Bertrand ---------JWP-----------Hojbjerg---------- Tadic----------Boufal-------------Redmond ----------------Long-------------------- Personally I'd prefer Stephens in where JWP is and Tadic and Redmond out for JWP on the right and Hesketh on the left. Don't see that happening, though.

That write up seems to suggest that he prefers a highly rigid formation with little space for creativity, strange that's the way we seem to be playing, isn't it? Little space for flair players or those who take chances and drift from their positions to join the attack.

I can't see how setting up to park the bus against Brighton the moment we scored is good management or confidence boosting. The manager's setup makes him and the team look like risk averse cowards and saps any remaining spirit from the players. We have to be braver and look to mix our play up a bit, doing the same thing week in, week out simply isn't working. He has an ultra-defensive mentality that is sapping any remaining vestiges of creativity from the team and I can only see us getting worse under his stewardship.

I have seen no evidence of Pellegrino being a good man manager or coach. Our players are all performing worse than they were last year and most seem to have a sulk on. There's not enough leadership or backbone in the squad and a lot of moaning C-units. We need either someone with a strong character to drive them on, motivate them, and instill some sense of belief in the team, or an appointment that makes the home fans feel enthusiastic to lift the team at home. MP seems like a nice guy but also appears to lack any of these qualities and also seems tactically inept.

Are you being ironic? Vietto's 5'8" and weighs about 10 stone. Not that he's a bad player, but I certainly wouldn't describe him as strong or powerful.

A couple of speculative links from a seemingly dubious source today: http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2017/10/26/odds-update-bookies-make-southampton-41-favourites-to-sign-luke/ Seems unlikely at best. http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2017/11/01/newcastles-aleksandar-mitrovi-joining-southampton-in-january-wou/ Just what we need! A striker that gets sent off more frequently than he scores, sounds perfect!

I think it's a large slice of both. The central/defensive midfield we play (Lemina aside) offers little creativity or support to a striker. None of Romeu, Davis or JWP get forward enough from CM into the space near the opposition area. Playing Tadic and Boufal wide reinforces the fact that whoever we play as a lone striker is isolated. We get very few touches outside the opposition box and have little movement to draw players out to allow high quality chances. This has been a problem for both managers, and is down to a lack of either a Lallana-type midfielder who can recover possession, is comfortable on the ball and can link play or a pacy goal threat like Mane. What was even worse today was trying to park the bus for 85 mins, and I'm sure that was mostly down to the instructions from the manager. Incredibly frustrating to watch and completely cost us two points. Also, why the hell does Boufal keep getting shunted wide left and why is Tadic playing on the right? Both have repeatedly shown that they are not as effective from those positions. Either play one as a 10 to try to get Gabbi some support and the other on their natural side or drop one for Long up top. Also, today was a good illustration for why Long shouldn't play wide. His best attribute is pressuring the opposition CBs and that is completely lost when he's shunted out on the right. He's not really that useful tracking back, he's more effective closing down.

To be honest, I don't think signing VVD will help the Scousers that much if they don't sort out their midfield. Defensively it's completely useless.

Tadic on the left! W00T!!!!!

We also had a far stronger squad before Puel took over and, thanks to Koeman dumping us out early, no Europa League group stage to worry about. We are worse this year than we were last with a stronger squad and fewer games.

McCarthey with an absolute howler.

This is the lineup I wanted to see a few weeks back. Hope Long can pull their defence around and create space for Gabbi to run into! Would prefer Tadic and Redmond to play on the other wings though, would probably allow faster play with fewer touches taken.

I agree completely. The squad last year was even weaker than it is this, with obvious gaps in defense, midfield and up front. Puel did well to get anything out of them.

Which had absolutely nothing to do with them having a powerful, technically good, goal-scoring target man and a pacy, unpredictable goalscorer in the team to give the opponents other things to think about and create space for them to work in. We have neither, now. I'm sure Koeman would do wonders by transforming Redmond into Mane and Austin into Pelle. Most of our issues are due to the squad being far weaker in attacking areas than it has been in previous years. I think Guardiola would struggle to get anything out of the dross MP has to work with.

2011-2013 stats, can't find anything more recent: The chance that a goal will be scored off a corner kick appears to be roughly 3%. Michael Caley at the Washington Post recently analyzed a set of nearly 13,000 corners taken in the English Premier League between 2011-2013, finding: Only 17 percent (2,157) "produced a legitimate shot attempt." Of those shot attempts, 370 were scores. Corner Kick Success Rate (data provided by Opta) Caley links to a study by Chris Anderson and David Sally at Soccer by the Numbers, which showed that EPL teams converted corners between 0-7% during the 2010/11 season, with the average team converting corners into goals at 2.2%. At that rate, the average team would score by corner kick about every 10 games.

On average in the Premier League 0.022-0.03 goals are scored per corner, so a team will usually score about 3-4 per season.

Lots of hard work but very rarely looked dangerous and the mancs were pretty much in control throughout. Still don't look like scoring. Our forward line is terrible and our midfield can't buy a goal between them.

According to that spreadsheet that posted a while ago Redmond's overall pace isn't great. However, he is fast over 5-10 metres. Boufal is quicker over the same distance though.

I'd go for a team that defends like this: -------------Forster------------- Cedric--Yoshida--Hoedt--Bertrand JWP---Romeu-----Lamina---Tadic ----------Gabbiadini------------- -------------Long--------------- But allows Tadic the freedom to drift inside and Gabbi to either move into the box to support Long or to hang back and have a long shot or two. Austin for Long after 60mins if we need a goal.

Forster has occasionally looked shaky but has made some excellent saves. Bertrand has looked completely disinterested. Is he still carrying that knock that got him subbed off against Swansea? Yoshida and Stephens are hit and miss, as a partnership. Really poor in the air. Cedric started poorly but generally looked slightly improved defensively as the half wore on. Lemina and Romeu have worked hard and look like our best players. Davis works very hard and has decent technique. He's also not quite creative enough to make anything happen in the final 3rd. Tadic and Redmond have been passengers. They need to step up their game. Gabbiadini has had no service at all. We need to hope that Huddersfield burn out after 65mins and our better players start to find some space. COYS!

Mike Jones should be demoted. Fer jumps into Tadic early in the game = Swansea free kick. Romeu wins the ball cleanly and his follow through takes him into Carroll. Swansea free kick + yellow card for Romeu. Blatant penalty for a bad tackle on Tadic = nothing. Dangerous scissor tackle on Redmond = nothing. Redmond gets between Fabianski and the ball = yellow card Redmond. Bartley blocks a shot with his arms in an unnatural position (although close to the ball) = nothing. Jones is completely useless at his job and should face disciplinary action.

Mike Jones is an inconsistent, weak referee.

I suppose by posting that you're saying we have the 8th most expensive squad in the league and so eighth is par for our team, thus Puel has matched expectations?