mrfahaji

I still find him quite frustrating at times. He takes a long time to make decisions when he receives the ball. One of his strengths is that he is rarely sloppy in his passing, so doesn't lose possession in defensive areas giving the opposition chance to break. However, on the flip side when we are on a break ourselves, play is often held up when it goes to him. One example of this yesterday came just before Davis had his super 20 yard run into the box. We had a few players up but JWP slowed it all down and Palace got back to defend. Yes, you could argue that he then passed to Davis who went on a run and nearly scored, but JWP should have been making that sort of run in the first place, before the defence had had chance to regroup. Also, for someone who can strike a dead ball so well - though I wish the commentators wouldn't say it every time he takes a set piece, it's like buzzword bingo - he needs to be better at crossing from open play. At one point near the end the commentators said "Ward-Prowse, puts one in low this time", well actually, he just scuffed the cross. He has definitely improved, and there is reason to think he can continue to improve, but just because he scored a goal doesn't mean he necessarily put in a motm display. One reason I am hopeful under Puel though is that I have noticed him improving specfically in certain areas, much like (though not to the same extent as) Redmond. I wondered if Redmond was ever going to make it due to his one dimensional, predictable approach to the game, but Puel has clearly identified and improved those areas.

Hmmmmm, lots of holes in this argument! I'm not set for or against the idea particularly, but there are plenty of 'sensible' reasons why it wouldn't work as well. You can't use one example of where it has worked to support the entire rationale. That's like me saying "this coin always lands heads up", tossing it once, getting heads and saying "see, that proves it." The fact that we have people disagreeing over the handball* shows the problem with subjective decisions, especially when there is a question of 'intent'. In the NFL, the video refs need significant evidence to overturn the 'ruling on the field', which I think would be a good rule of thumb, but it's one thing to decide whether someone's foot was in bounds, or whether the ball touched the ground, but quite another to decide whether a player intended to handball or meant to kick the opposition player in the face. * You might counter that only Whitey Grandad is arguing that it wasn't a penalty, but you could easily have a scenario slightly less clear than the one yesterday, where the consensus is split.

You've made it look like my post was a negative one by isolating that quote! First half I had to make do with the radio, which even though it was London Radio not Solent, didn't actually make us sound that bad, but I'm not sure how much can be gleaned from listening to commentary. When I read the match thread there were lots of negative comments, not necessarily from the usual suspects. Had a text from a friend at the game, saying "It's been terrible. Yoshida and Cedric have been ok but everyone else has been rubbish."

Phew! By all accounts we were dreadful first half, but I only saw the second after not being to find any streams. Certainly deserved to get a goal based on the performance, but I didn't think it was ever going to come. Profligacy at it's best! Defenders know Redmond likes to cut back on his right, so to see him drive to the byline instead was fantastic, and is a dimension that's been missing from his game until recently. Dusan Tadic take a bow. Puts Long through twice, first with great feet and a weighted pass and then with a sublime pass that I'm not sure anyone else could produce. He then sets up Davis with an inch perfect pull back, he started the move for the goal when he reads the ball out from the corner (Puncheon I think, runs in to clear and Tadic drops off to receive it), and then knocks on for Cedric to lay on the third goal. Plenty of other nice pieces too, but for people who wanted to take him off - who else is going to be that prolific in creating chances?! Glad that JWP got a goal, but I do find him too slow at times. Everything is very deliberate, and when we break the move slows down when he gets it and we often have to start again. He is, at least, careful with possession and rarely see him sloppily giving it away. His pace is a killer but at least he is showing some determination. Yoshida is a hero!

Not signing Sakho looks to be having a detrimental effect in more ways than one!

That Cedric booking came from our own breakaway but JWP being too ponderous on it again.

Because neither can score. Having two of them on the pitch doesn't make us twice as likely to score... As for taking Tadic off... have you seen the chances we've at least been in the position to squander? Who else could be relied upon to produce those sorts of through balls? Romeu to miss two games? Great, that's all we need.

Wish Davis could have hit it then. However, in that one instant he did exactly what Ward Prowse should have done when he got the ball, we had a man over and JWP was too slow to capitalise.

I've been watching the second half and Palace have only had one meaningful attack, and then another ambitious effort which lead to a corner. Hardly raining shots...

Might need to investigate this... don't you need to set up VPNs etc to watch it? Always sounds complicated when I look into it...!

Hate it when I can't find streams that don't buffer or crash every few seconds... having to resort to radio!

And Puel would probably faring a lot better if we had Lukaku up front instead of Rodriguez...

To be honest, I always look forward to Southampton playing with a healthy mix of excitement and trepidation, and it doesn't matter where we are in the table for that to be the case. In fact, as much as football is about the jubilant highs and gut wrenching lows, there is also something to be said for watching a game knowing that, while the 90 minutes still consumes me, an undesirable outcome doesn't have grave consequences!

What is the relevance of that? (genuine question, not being facetious or angry) Don't think anyone is giving him credit for the signing?

Spot on.

As much as it's going to make scoring in this one difficult, the fact that Gabbiadini is so close to returning already is a positive for me. Thought he might be out for another few weeks at least.

That's a bit rash, wanting to sell him already.

There's often a surge at the bottom of the table around this time of year and people regularly underestimate what it will take to stay up because in January the teams at the bottom look incapable of putting more than a handful of points together, but in those circumstances there's usually a new manager just around the corner who is going to get a response from the team. We still have to be careful, as I think Hull and Swansea are both able to catch us, but the reason I'm still fairly relaxed about it at the moment is we have 10 more games to find 2 wins. We may struggle for goals, but we're also not a bad side. Surely we can muster those points from somewhere.

We came closer to scoring from Tadic's corners than JWP's. Not denying he has a decent delivery from set pieces, but if we have other players on the pitch capable of putting in a good ball as well, I'm not sure this alone is worthy of keeping him on if he's struggling to influence the game.

For all your negativity (except for your "we can finish above Everton" posts, please stop them!), I do actually see your argument here - if people are going to use the lack of quality players to excuse the manager (which I am one), we can't suddenly heap praise on him if we start winning with a brilliant first eleven. The caveat I'd add here though, is that even our strongest eleven is not mouth wateringly good - and at times in previous years, it has been. Yes, it is up to the manager to get the best out of the players, but with the exception of Long & Tadic, which outfield players have dipped in form? And they are both inconsistent even at the best of times. When they read out the teams at Wembley I looked at my dad as if to say "not much comparison is there? We could get a thrashing" - in truth I was overestimating United, but it also highlights being underwhelmed by our own strengths. Yet despite not having the greatest team, we still play well and rarely look a poor side. Since you thought Rodriguez was outstanding, you would probably say he was the right choice to start the game. However, for all his good runs, he demonstrated time and again that he doesn't have that extra edge needed to turn a half chance into a goal and the move regularly ended once it was up to him to do something with the ball. Not only does our entire play take on an extra dimension with Gabbiadini, but of course if we score in the first half as we may well have done with him playing, we are probably having a very different discussion (or not one at all) due to a different result.

Do you think someone has told Forster he needs to come off his line a bit more? Yesterday felt like that - to say he didn't look comfortable is an understatement but it seemed like he was making a concious effort to do so!

I suspect there is also a link between the Puel-out brigade and an inability to distinguish between there, they're and their.

No, not remarkable, but good enough to suggest we can be a lot better next year, and certainly not bad enough to warrant being fired.

Stunning or expected? Or stunning simply because we now don't expect them?! I only saw them once or twice (not on MOTD), but to me they looked like saves a keeper should be making. Admittedly, it's at least nice to have him make those which hasn't been the case of late.

Agree with most of this. Regarding the individual analysis, think "sitter" is a bit harsh on JWP but he should definitely have done better. Afobe's was an easier chance! Tadic. The main thing that stood out for me yesterday was how even within a game he is inconsistent. But more than that, his attitude seems to exacerbate whichever cycle he is in. Yes he fluffed a decent chance in the first few minutes, but generally he was thriving with the space afforded to us, regularly opening up the defence with key passes and through balls. Then came a spell where he wasn't getting the ball much and his head drops, his passing becomes lackadaisical, and you can almost read "well what can I do, it's not going my way" in his body language. Fast forward another 15 minutes, he misses another good chance (though was also a bit unlucky), and from then on out everything he touches comes off, he's beating players, he has you on the edge of your seat until half time. There's no denying he makes things happen from an attacking perspective, he just needs to show a bit more mental resilience when the going gets tough. I was actually impressed with Redmond, especially first half, and I was very critical of him earlier in the season. He was buzzing around, and seemed to be doing everything with a bit more urgency (while still doing things crisply) than he used to. Boufal was horrific against Spurs but think he is being unfairly criticised for yesterday. Yes his introduction coincided, not coincidentally, with us losing shape and being outnumbered, but his job was to make something happen and unlock the defence. It's difficult to do that when your team barely have the ball, but nevertheless he did do a few things that could have led to a goal. Rodriguez had an encouraging game, in the sense that he made good runs and got in behind the defence, even had a couple of decent efforts. However he never looks convincing when he has the ball at his feet, he looks heavy legged and a far cry from the fleet footed player he once was. Someone mentioned Fernando Torres to me yesterday and I thought him an excellent comparison, at Chelsea he wasn't suddenly a bad player, but had clearly lost that sharpness from his injury that meant he was always a shadow of the Liverpool player. Steve Cook made a brilliant tackle when Long was nearly through on goal, but he never had to do that with Rodriguez, was easy for him to get back and win the ball. And that's Steve Cook. And as for Jay throwing a strop for being subbed... you're on the pitch to score, you haven't managed it, so maybe be grateful you're starting he game and getting that amount of time in the first place.