Saint Martini

The total lack of defensive structure is just unbelievable at times. The amount of times players get into vulnerable positions during games where they don't have cover to me indicates that there is no clear structure for defending as a team. It's just 1v1 everywhere and the players are not good enough for that and it's gotten worse since RM left. In my opinion he hade the wrong structure for a team fighting relegation and way to risky for the quality of players but at least there was a structure. I just don't understand what Juric is trying to do at all.

He was fit at the World Cup in 2022 and van Gaal chose to play Noppert who made his debut at the first World Cup game. He's fit right now and the new coach picks Wellenreuther. Sometimes its been injuries but it's definitely not just that.

It's all relative I guess. Pretty much every goalkeeper in the Netherlands is going to be okay with the ball at his feet I just wouldn't consider it a strength (a big improvement on McCarthy but that's pretty much a given). He's always had a reputation as a big talent in the Netherlands, made his debut at Feyenoord at a young age and also for the national team. Whenever I've seen him play I've never understood the fuss. I think him losing his spot to Wellenreuther at Feyenoord and the amount of different goalies the Netherlands have tested since he made his debut are quite telling.

I hope we stay far away from Bijlow. I've seen perhaps 10 matches with him over the past few seasons and I've never understood why people thought he's any good. He makes a few good saves but he's not that commanding in the air and a bit error-prone. He's had an extensive list of injuries (especially for a goalkeeper) and I don't think he's that good with the ball at his feet either. If we're looking at goalkeepers in Holland that lost their starting spot we should rather be looking att Ramaj at Ajax.

The way he switched off for their second was unforgivable, he was ahead of Longstaff and then just stood there while he jogged past and got an easy finish. That's on him first and foremost even the uncertainty of not knowing what you and your teammates are supposed to be doing doesn't help. On the other hand I thought he was good in the previous matches he played but I disagree on having him that far forward. His strength is that he can progress the ball from deep either through dribbling or quick 1-2s as well as turning up in the final third every now and then. I'd play him next to a more conservative DM behind the more attacking midfielders as a box-to-box midfielder.

Nah, its not about having a leader next to him its about having a proper sitting DM next to him. Since Lavias injury he's been asked to be the positionally sound player off the two central midfielders because neither AMN or Diallo are very disciplined positionally. Last season he more often then not played next to Romeu which gave him license to make forward runs and get on the ball further forward. He is just a lot more suited to that roll (more box-to-box then DM). I'm am absolutely positive he'll show an uptick in form as soon as Lavia is back in the team. But this does highlight a problem in the team. When Romeu wasn't available last year we played shit because we didn't have a replacement for him. This year we get Lavia in but let Romeu go so the problem is the same. We tried to solve this with AMN but he's all over the place and more of a replacement for Ward-Prowse then Lavia. The same goes for Diallo which makes three players for two positions and one for the other.

Inn

Somehow he really gets under Fernandes' skin. Really funny to watch.

Totally agree on the bad decisions part but not sure about the reason. He's taking a lot of shots from subpar positions (wide & outside the box) when there often are better options available. It was very apparent yesterday but he's done it all season and I hope that this is something Ralph is working on with him. As soon as other players stop starting making runs because they know AA is taking a shot anyway the problems upfront will just become bigger.

Mane came from a smaller league then Lyanco so its hard to say if he had been more impressive. Pelle hade pretty much failed at every club until he got to Feyenoord when he was already 27 years old. Impressive? Sure if you judge him by just the two seasons at Feyenoord, otherwise not so much. As Turkish said both of them didn't exactly play at the top of their game in the first few matches. Now back to Lyanco. Judging by the highlights he was downright awful. But his opponent for the day was perhaps one of the more extreme examples of a physical forward in English football atm. A more "European" forward would probably have suited him better. Give him time to settle. He's 3rd choice for the coming months so its not like he'll have to perform on the pitch week in week out right now anyway.

His first ever goal in professional football! Its been a long time coming.

https://zuishek.medium.com/southamptons-press-and-the-hypnosis-of-pep-guardiola-2dcf986923e5 Tactocal analysis of our pressing against City.

My god he is frustrating. He has the technicals skills to succeed and he has the physical attributes to succeed but his decision making is just so poor. Jenas pointed out two situations on MOTD where he could have easily created a big chance but he makes the wrong choice when the right one is soo obvious. Dribbling inside when you have a 4-on-2 counter?! Trying the cutback when only Adams is there being marked by two defenders and Armstrong is free as a bird at the far post. It's like he always wants to do something extra when he is at his best when he plays simple and to add to that he likes to slow the play down when he is most dangerous when he comes at the defence with speed.

It doesn't matter if a stoppage in play had occurred or not. If the ref blows the final whistle he can still go back on that and award the penalty after.

Noticed this too but I think its more to do with ball progression being next to impossible with the congested central midfield. Newcastle essentially played with 3 CBs and 3 CMs against 2 FWs and 2 CMs for Saints. That meant a possibility to overload with one of the 10s + FB + FW on either flank but meant we were one short centrally when we got in promising positions. The opposite 10 should be the one coming into the box with one of the CMs but we usually only did this with one of them and not both at the same time. I think Armstrong curled in three or four crosses from the left side top corner of the box only for it to be too high for Adams and nobody coming in late at the far post. Not sure if both Armstrong (and Adams to a degree) drifting wide was by design but I don't think it was the right choice. It meant that one of our best finishers was consistently not in a position to do just that. The players were just not playing to their strengths.

Walcott should be on the bench after his "performances". Not sure Redmond is the answer, he tends to be even more ineffective on the right side and Djenepo isn't suited to playing on the right as well. For me Elyounoussi should get a chance even if the two RB option perhaps could work (hard to judge how Livramento would work higher up the pitch).

Southampton should try to sign Onana from Ajax. With his contract up next summer and him being suspended a few more months (he can start training with his team in September) he's available on the cheap. He really wants to go to a big CL club but those are not interested atm. If Saints can offer him PL football plus a lowish release clause he might be tempted. Onana gets a possibility to show he can handle the PL, Saints will have (one of) the best goalkeepers in the PL for at least one season and financially everybody gets something out of it.

Hoedt showing off his skills for Anderlecht tonight. Pathetic defending for Vitesse's 3rd goal. Loses the ball, doesn't bother tracking back. How Lazio conned Reed & Co. into believing he could play in the PL is beyond me.

Don't agree he is generally soft. He's quite active coming for crosses for instance. He came 7th for high claims last season despite only playing 30 matches. For me the whole situation is on Salisu. By the time the ball is close enough to come for it the ball is also low enough for Richarlison to head it. That means he's giving Richarlison an easy chance to just head it past him by moving forward. Salisu just has to head it up over the bar.

Even if Livramento wasn't as impressive second half he still kept their left side quiet for most of the half. The problem was on the left. Perraud, Salisu, Djenepo and Romeu were having a lot of trouble with positional changes from their attackers which created huge gaps. Not sure who the main culprit was but the communication between those four was terrible. Going forward Walcott was a blackhole. No runs, no dribbles, no passing, just nothing. How he got to stay on after HT is baffling considering we actually have a decent bench. Djenepo was better going forward but really needs to get his head up and pass and not just dribble until he loses the ball. I really liked his 1-2 with Perraud but he should have passed back again. In the end we gave Everton 2 goals, they gave us 1 and they scored a goal out of nothing. Not good enough and certain questions surrounding squad selection. Really don't understand excluding S. Armstrong, Djenepo & Walcott staying on so long and the point of Djenepo going to LB at the end if not for fitness issues.

https://statsbomb.com/2021/08/southampton-season-preview-2021-22/ Statsbomb are less gloomy than I am of Saints chances this year. Let's hope they're right and not me.

https://statsbomb.com/2020/11/doppelgangers-in-practice-adam-armstrong/

The thing with Sorlöth is that his playing style isn't "big man striker" but gets labelled as such because he is tall. I'd say his style is quite similar to Ings with a combination of dropping deep and making runs in behind. I think he actually would work quite well with Adams who is capable to play as aa traditional target- man.

There's some interesting stuff in Mitchel Vorms transfer to Spurs from Swansea. To get out of paying FC Utrecht anything they made Vorms transfer a free transfer and argued that the swap deal was only Davies for Sigurdsson. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/swansea-city-win-court-battle-11398740 So to get out of paying Newcastle anything Saints would have to trade Obafemi for another random Blackburn player and then sign Armstrong on a free transfer (i.e. very unlikely).

I live in Sweden nowadays but I'm Dutch and watch Dutch football more then Swedish. Got both the Dutch first and second division covered.