mrfahaji

Sorry but I'm not sure the MOTD highlights were substantial enough to conclude that it was a good performance. If anything the lack of highlights should have indicated how poor we were.

Most of what I saw on Saturday has been said already, aside from most people willing to write Cardiff off as a dreadful, lucky team rather than a team who stuck to a gameplan to which we had no answer (and hence why we didn't deserve to win, even if the ball was in their half more than ours). Equally, no-one needs to be reminded that Shane Long was/is terrible - but there was a specific thing about his play that really bugged me. Whenever we had the ball in wide but not especially attacking positions, Long turned away from play and headed for the box/far post. The problem was, he was the only player available to support the man with the ball, and should have been coming short or at least making a run down the line. There was one time that Valery had the ball just behind the half way line, with no support other than Long. In order to pick out a cross, Valery would have had to run half the pitch and beaten three or four defenders in the process. And this happened all the time. Surely in those situations you have to make yourself available and try and keep the attack going, let someone worry about getting in the box if you can't. I don't know whether this was what he'd been instructed do, whether he misinterpreted the instructions, or whether it was just another example of him being rubbish. It showed how important a decent front man is, without one our play was flat and lacking in ideas. I agree that Redmond didn't have his best day, but it can't be easy when you are the only person capable of making something happen.

A great first touch which he followed up with a terrible second touch... The problem with Austin starting is that defences tend to be quite focused & resilient for the first 15 minutes of games, and Austin can only last about that long. Not sure what the answer is though, because I fully agree that Long was abysmal today and offers very little.

Maybe so, but a one trick pony is still better than a no trick donkey.

Broadly agree with the rest of your post but don't think this is true. They had a plan to prevent us playing and executed it perfectly. Aside from the Valery run and goalmouth scramble, how many times did you think Cardiff's goal was living a charmed life? They prevented us playing out from the back, stopped us getting down the wings and basically said "if you want to beat us, you're going to have to play through the middle of us", and we weren't up to the challenge. Sure, their gameplan lent itself first and foremost to getting a point rather than a win, but if there was a side that didn't deserve to win the game it was us for our combination of awful players and lack of ideas.

Wondered the same, think we’ll miss him. Especially with Long up front, need more of a goal threat.

I can't understand how someone can be a professional footballer, mostly in the Premier League, for over 10 years and still have terrible ball control. Reminds me of seeing Fabrice Fernandes trying to head a football - when a technical skill is so obviously missing, why aren't they (the players or the coaches) working on it at every opportunity? To me it suggests they don't care enough to be better at what they do.

More to the point, if he had fallen over, he would have taken Crouch with him as Crouch was using him as leverage for his jump. However, I think it's unfair to judge Stephens for that, unlikely that you could make that sort of decision in real time. I think the reality is that Stephens went to jump for the ball, with his arms up the way any player does, then on feeling his shirt being pulled and his leap impeded, instinctively puts his arm up further to appeal for a foul. In hindsight it looks like a stupid thing to have done, but it is also something which is understandable in the heat of the moment.

I think mainly because McCarthy gave him nowhere to go, if he had continued to the right he would have been taken out from the side. Instead (if my memory serves me right, I'm not currently looking at the replay), Barnes seems to hesitate/stop before going over forwards/to the left. I'd love to think that it was simulation, but on this occasion I can't see it.

Burnley would probably argue that things don’t even “even themselves out” because if they were in front they could have played a different game and won. If you didn’t watch/follow the game live then maybe you check the score later and think “not a bad result”, but when you spend 39 minutes crossing your fingers or biting your nails as to whether we can hold on for a win, it is frustrating/depressing/annoying when you find a way to lose the lead with less than a minute left.

People are rightly criticising Long for not taking the ball to the corner, but there was also a moment in the previous passage of play (in injury time) where I couldn’t believe quite how bad his ball control was (even allowing for it being Long!) I struggle to believe that people playing football every day for so many years can continue to be quite so appalling with the ball at their feet.

Fair argument, I will watch again on replays later as I was watching an intermittent stream on 4G and my battery died at FT. However, from the one or two replays I did see, I still felt his arm was in an unnatural position - it seemed to be straight up in the air (and his left arm wasn’t doing the same). Perhaps I’m wrong in blaming Stephens but it looked more of a conscious decision to put his arm up rather than a combination of elevation and foul. “Boxing his arm in” is an interesting take, you mean Crouch fouled in such a way that he couldn’t bring his arm down? Sounds unlikely but I agree that if that happened then it’s unlucky from Stephens’ point of view.

Long was terrible in the dying minutes but Stephens is an idiot. Why on earth has he got his arm in the air? Appealing for a foul? Maybe he should be less scared of heading the ball.

I thought the yellow was for the dissent tbh. It doesn’t always have to be a booking if it’s not a penalty.

Bardsley really is a horrible piece of sh1t. Makes Ashley Barnes seem tolerable, ha. Talking of Barnes, not really sure where he was meant to go, would only be ‘engineering’ if he kicked the ball away and deliberately didn’t go for it.

Would a loan with obligation to buy if we retain our Premier League status not have been a viable option for all parties? The only outcome where Genk/Maehle lose out would be if we were relegated and he was terrible.

We need 'a' pacy player. Redmond having pace is a myth. Quick feet yes, but not straight line speed. Armstrong offers more from that perspective.

If that happens, for the sake of people who have Austin on the back of their Saints shirt, they should give him the number 10... could probably just add a "GU" (or a UG) in pen...

Hang on, is our manager talking about interesting possibilities...?

A good shot, and a good save. But one you'd probably expect a goalkeeper to make. If it was Alisson they'd probably be replaying it all the time, but I didn't watch the replay and think "how on earth has he kept that out?!" On a related note, I'm impressed with Armstrong's reliability when it comes to shooting - often forces the keeper into a save (or a defender into a block) from shots where the average Saints player would miskick or balloon over the bar.

Of course Valery can and probably will improve, but he is still pretty terrible going forwards. Looks like he has no idea what to do with the ball when he gets it. Don't think Gerry Taggart is the answer on the wing, he was always a centre back and is now 48.

Palace were the better side, but I'm not sure it was quite the daylight robbery so many are making it out to be. We had a decent spell in the first half, before falling to pieces for a while, culminating in conceding a terrible goal. We rallied for a period in the second half and actually managed to score during this spell, something that we have previously struggled to do. For the rest of the game, it was scrappy and frustrating, of which some credit of course has to go to the way Palace set up, but on the other hand I don't recall them peppering our goal or us constantly being under the cosh - even when they hit on the break, it wasn't like they looked destined to score every time.

Yep, very impressive.

Not for the first time in his career.

terrible all round leading up to that goal and for the previous few minutes.