Swindon 1 v Saints 0 Post-Match Reaction

[tommi]

No shape, No width, Wotton in midfield, Lallana doing his own thing, Davis saved us again, another corner nobody went for.

 

No substitutions until far too late, one up front, no width, no wonder we didn't perform.

 

Get back to basics, proper shape, play the players in their proper positions or leave them out.

 

Paterson wide right, Lallana never stays wide left so no width, three central midfielders FFS and we were second best, murdered down the touchlines again.

 

The bloody problem is that we need wide players to be available to the midfielders to spread the play, stop the opponents wide, get down the line and get loads of crosses in to the strikers.

 

Until we get proper wide players, Holmes, Gobern, or Mills (when fit) on the left. Thompson maybe Gillett on the right. Hammond and Schneiderlin in the centre.

 

Get in a proper centre back, put Lallana, Lancashire, etc back in the reserves to learn how to play.

 

We have no pace, are ponderous, pedestrian and undisciplined in defence. I'm prepared to give Pardew a chance but he has to start demonstrating he is making a difference because it is the same width-less crap we have watched in the past.

 

Football is all about teamwork and players complementing each other together with proper balance none of which applies to the team at present.

 

If it hadn't been for Davis again we would have been hammered.

 

 

Sums it up perfectly.

[Neilza]

Just on way home now, i could write an essay into all the problems and what went wrong tonight.

 

The formation was 4-5-1 but Lallana drifted from the left and Patterson isn't a right winger, first problem.

 

Secondly we are lazy, no closing down, no urgency, nothing. Harding did alright, the rest of the back four were sh1t. James got beaten everytime, Thomas and Olly just humped the ball forward every time giving away possesion.

 

Wotton - less said the better, cheers went up when he was subbed!

Lambert couldn't do everything himself but the one thing he needs - support, he got zilch of!

 

Ap left the game floating along, playing into swindons hands. The fans all started making sub gestures and singing "substitution" to the saga song tune!

 

Against Huddersfield we were poor but I thought they pased the ball well, Swindon on the other are awful, truly awful and what does that make us?!?!

Edited 18 August, 2009 by Neilza

[VectisSaint]

Just got home, what a truly appalling display. Only Harding comes out of that garbage with credit. Even Davis for all that he kept us in the game was nervy and his kicking and distribution was poor. Swindon were awful, but they were still streets ahead of us.

 

Absolutely gutted, sadly for some of us we have to live with that up here tomorrow.

 

Great support tonight again, 3000 Saints deserve more.

 

As for the tactics and substitutions by AP, well beggars belief.

 

18 points behind Colchester after 3 games, says it all.

[Wes Tender]

I've just about calmed down enough to focus my thoughts on the abject lump of ****e that passes for some of our current team.

 

I recall reading some comments on the Charlton site critical of Pardew, saying that sometimes he does things tactically that raised their eyebrows. I'm beginning to see what they mean. Why on earth Wotton ever gets into the first team is a mystery to me. I heard the loudest cheer of the evening from the Saints fans when he was substituted off and detected the irony from my radio speakers. I'm pretty sure that it was a cheer for Wotton's removal rather than a cheer for Gobern coming on. Then we had to wait until 10 minutes from the end before Pardew made his first substitutions, while Merrington and probably every other Saints fan in the land had been shouting for something to be done at the start of the second half, I would think.

 

The possession stats, the corner count, the shots on goal, all tell of a very one-sided match. How have we sunk so low that we can be so comprehensively outplayed by Swindon?

 

I really do think on the evidence so far this season that we ought to keep the new signings only in the team, put all of the old squad in the reserves and replace all of them with new signings. The old team can play reserve football and cover for injuries. While in the reserves, they can be coached again, starting with the football basics, like how to man mark at set pieces, how to pass properly, how to create movement and space.

 

Pardew said from the beginning that he expected every player in the team to give an 8 out 10 performance every game. I get the impression that the only Saints player worthy of that score tonight was once again Kelvin Davis.

[Seaford Saint]

Just on way home now, i could write an essay into all the problems and what went wrong tonight.

 

The formation was 4-5-1 but Lallana drifted from the left and Patterson isn't a right winger, first problem.

 

Secondly we are lazy, no closing down, no urgency, nothing. Harding did alright, the rest of the back three were sh1t. James got beaten everytime, Thomas and Olly just humped the ball forward every time giving away possesion.

 

Wotton - less said the better, cheers went up when he was subbed!

Lambert couldn't do everything himself but the one thing he needs - support, he gets zilch of!

 

Ap left the game floating along, playing into swindons hands. The fans all started making sub gestures and singing "substitution" to the saga song tune!

 

Against Huddersfield we were poor but I thought they pased the ball well, Swindon on the other are awful, truly awful and what does that make us?!?!

 

I was there tonight, and Swindon were not awful. Their No 11 was a better outfield player than any of ours IMHO. Same for their number 14 who marked Lambert out of the game. As for Lambert, he looks like a donkey to me, slow etc. Is he fit? If Lambert plays like he did tonight for a month or so, he willl have to be dropped.

 

Wotton gets a lot of stick on here, but I watched closely and he made a lot of passes, broke up moves and did OK. Where ever Saints problems are on the pitch I don't think Wotton is the worst problem we have, there are two or three larger problems to deal with before you get to him.

[Under Weststand]

Oh dear things not going well at all, From the sounds of it we were outplayed again. We really need to address the lack of strength/power & pace in midfield hopefully Hammond will not change his mind tonight & will be in by Satuarday. And we have to get 2 commanding Mobile CB's. Send Lancashire out on Loan, he seems totaly shot from last years experience & this years so far. We also need to inject some pace up front also.

Time for Pardew to start earning his money now, we have to show more fight & resolve. Somehow he has to change this awful melancholy loosing atitude we have around the place at the moment. We just seem to be driffting hoping that things will change somebody has to do it take this club by the scruff of the neck and shake it out of its malaise. Sooner rather than latter PLEASE.

[for_heaven's_Saint]

I was there tonight, and Swindon were not awful. Their No 11 was a better outfield player than any of ours IMHO. Same for their number 14 who marked Lambert out of the game. As for Lambert, he looks like a donkey to me, slow etc. Is he fit? If Lambert plays like he did tonight for a month or so, he willl have to be dropped.

 

Wotton gets a lot of stick on here, but I watched closely and he made a lot of passes, broke up moves and did OK. Where ever Saints problems are on the pitch I don't think Wotton is the worst problem we have, there are two or three larger problems to deal with before you get to him.

 

LOL! You have to be joking right?! He was absolutely awful! Misplaced every passed, lost every header and barely made a tackle. I will be happy if he never pulls on a saints shirt again.

[oxfordshire_saint]

Just got home after sitting through that 90 mins of utter toss.

 

A lot of things should have hit home to Pardew tonight that he should have already known:

 

- for all his shouting and arm-waving, Paul Wotton is a totally woeful footballer. The rare times we tried to play through the midfield rather than hoofing it, the moves just died when the ball reached Wotton because he was either too slow, his first touch too poor or if he did manage to trap it he would then lose it, whether he was trying for a simple 5 yard pass or long ball. Churchill was a good leader, but I wouldn't have wanted him in a football team.

 

- If you haven't troubled a keeper after 80 minutes, perhaps a substitution earlier may have been a better choice? If 3,000 travelling supporters can see it, why can't the man who's being paid handsomely to make the tactical decisions?

 

- Lancashire will never make it at this level. He's a semi-competent ball winner at the back, but so are a lot of people playing Sunday football. His distribution, like Wottons, is a disgrace for someone who calls themself a professional footballer.

 

- if teams decide to chase and hustle us, we lose all of our composure. We clearly need to work on ball retention under pressure, rather than just panicking and lumping it.

 

- Rickie Lambert will not score goals if we play him as a lone striker and without wingers! The poor fella had no support and no service.

 

- our midfield was all over the place. Hopefully the signing of Hammond will go some way to sorting it. Lallana put the effort in but didn't seem to have a defined position, nor Melis. Was Paterson meant to be a right winger or striker? He seemed as confused as us.

 

We need some serious work on the training ground and some serious re-inforcements, otherwise it'll be a long season.

 

I thought Pardew was a good apointment, but he lost a lot of faith with his complete lack of tactical nous tonight.

[Seaford Saint]

LOL! You have to be joking right?! He was absolutely awful! Misplaced every passed' date=' lost every header and barely made a tackle. I will be happy if he never pulls on a saints shirt again.[/quote']

 

Nope I was there and I can see as much as anyone. This scenario with Wotton reminds me of how Jermaine Wright was viewed on here and also to an extent, of Kelvin Davis in his early days. Wotton may be crap/limited but we have a couple of other dire/woeful players out there who are well ahead of him and require immediate attention/cull.

[DG]

Christ i don't know where to start...thanks to Kelvin for keeping it "respectable" (on paper at least).

 

Wotton - why why why why why why why why why?

Thomas - FYI if the opposition kick it and the ball is harmless floating towards the keeper don't kick it out for a corner ffs!

 

Give up on the rest, but why the substitions came so late and with no Gillet i just can't work out, when the whole away section start chanting time for a sub and making the sub justure its time to start panicing.

 

No confidence, no hope, if someone offered safety right now i'd rip their arm off.

[saintpat]

A difficult start to the season and if my head ever ruled my heart, it would be totally acceptable. My head has told me, since Leibher took over, that a mid table finish would be good and that we'd be lucky to be far from the relegation area by Xmas. My heart told me we'd win 3 of our first 4 and Pardew would be able to turn a group of players severely lacking in confidence(and some in ability) into a team capable of getting into the play-offs

Little pre-season for Pardew, and no one at the club who has the slightest idea of how to conduct transfer business in the football league. Managers around the country go to their boards, tell them who they would like, money permitting and the board go out and negotiate. Saints have NO ONE on the board with enough experience to do that at present, which makes life very difficult.

 

It's a long hard road and it's going to be very difficult driving and it's FAR too early to start calling for Pardews head, I am always of the impression that it takes 2 years for a manager to get the team to a position where they play how he wants them to play, week after week and when fans can finally make a judgement.

However, I am slightly disturbed that having watched 2 games and listened to one that we have no attacking plan except 'hoooooooooof'. It is also VERY worrying that with no passion and no invention on the pitch, Pardew has SO LITTLE faith in his bench that he didn't put any of them on until less than 10 minutes to go. I didn't hear Wottons name mentioned until he was being subbed- a central midfield player should be at the heart of everything going on- Spiderman was mentioned constantly, OK, he may not have had a great game, but at least he was involved. Gillett has obviously done something SERIOUSLY wrong to fail to get any minutes. Some people on here may not rate him too highly, however even his fiercest critic must accept he would be more of a positive influence than Wotton.

Oh well. I'm back at St Marys next Tuesday, hopefully we'll have 2 new Central defenders, one new striker and our new midfield general by then. But then again- this is Saints!!!

[niceandfriendly]

FOR F**KS SAKE THAT WAS PATHETIC. AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGHHHHH.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right got that out of the way. Just got home after watching the most gutless, woeful, inept performance I've seen from Southampton for many years - in fact I can't remember many worse.

 

One up front has never worked for any club, I've always said that and against a team like Swindon it's a disgrace that we played that formation. It showed right from the start that we were scared of them and would not be attacking them. I bet Swindon couldn't believe their luck when they saw Lambert alone up front.

 

Pardew is starting to look a LOT like Burley. Playing people out of their positions and making substitutions way, way too late. Every single Saints fan there tonight realised something needed changing after about 5 minutes, but Pardew took 80 minutes to make ANY changes what so ever in terms of formation or subs. Pathetic. He brought on Rasiak with 1 minute of stoppage time left, embarrassing and so frustrating.

 

We have a midfield who clearly don't want the ball and a team who don't want to give it to them, yet we have a player in Gillett (who always demands the ball and does something positive with it) sitting on the f**king bench. Brilliant.

 

My player ratings, for what they're worth:

 

Davis 10 - No reason why not to give him full marks. Without him it would have been 3 or 4.

Harding 7 - One of the only players who can hold their head up high after tonight

Thomas 2 - Totally unprofessional. Starting arguing with their fans after one of two of them gave him some stick. Lost his man every single time, including their goal.

Lancashire 1 - I'm sure this guy is a nice lad, but he is a bad footballer.

James 4 - Had energy but was always the wrong side of his marker for each set peice. Gave the ball away a lot.

Patterson 4 - Not his fault Pardew played him on right wing. What the hell was AP thinking?

Lallana 5 - Tried his hardest to do something, but never really did.

Wotton 2 - Hoof. Hoof. Hoof. Rubbish. If only he was a good player, because he clearly cares, but he's not good enough.

Schneiderlin 3 - Too weak. Did try hard though.

Mellis 6 - Looks a decent prospect actually.

Lambert 4 - Missed a sitter and his free kicks weren't great either but he played alone upfront and had no service at all, so can't be blamed.

 

Pardew 0 - Clueless. Hope this isn't a sign of things to come with him.

 

It's not even worth rating the subs as they didn't have long enough to do anything.

 

I'm glad that's off my chest, but it needed to be said. If we don't bring in at least 2 players before Brentford we will definately lose. I'm not a doom and gloom merchant at all, but after watching that tonight it's clear the players we have aren't good enough and we need new personel urgently.

 

Ffs.

[Seaford Saint]

A difficult start to the season and if my head ever ruled my heart, it would be totally acceptable. My head has told me, since Leibher took over, that a mid table finish would be good and that we'd be lucky to be far from the relegation area by Xmas. My heart told me we'd win 3 of our first 4 and Pardew would be able to turn a group of players severely lacking in confidence(and some in ability) into a team capable of getting into the play-offs

Little pre-season for Pardew, and no one at the club who has the slightest idea of how to conduct transfer business in the football league. Managers around the country go to their boards, tell them who they would like, money permitting and the board go out and negotiate. Saints have NO ONE on the board with enough experience to do that at present, which makes life very difficult.

 

It's a long hard road and it's going to be very difficult driving and it's FAR too early to start calling for Pardews head, I am always of the impression that it takes 2 years for a manager to get the team to a position where they play how he wants them to play, week after week and when fans can finally make a judgement.

However, I am slightly disturbed that having watched 2 games and listened to one that we have no attacking plan except 'hoooooooooof'. It is also VERY worrying that with no passion and no invention on the pitch, Pardew has SO LITTLE faith in his bench that he didn't put any of them on until less than 10 minutes to go. I didn't hear Wottons name mentioned until he was being subbed- a central midfield player should be at the heart of everything going on- Spiderman was mentioned constantly, OK, he may not have had a great game, but at least he was involved. Gillett has obviously done something SERIOUSLY wrong to fail to get any minutes. Some people on here may not rate him too highly, however even his fiercest critic must accept he would be more of a positive influence than Wotton.

Oh well. I'm back at St Marys next Tuesday, hopefully we'll have 2 new Central defenders, one new striker and our new midfield general by then. But then again- this is Saints!!!

 

Gillett in place of Wotton must be a plausable idea.....it gets my vote

[oxfordshire_saint]

Davis 10 - No reason why not to give him full marks. Without him it would have been 3 or 4.

Harding 7 - One of the only players who can hold their head up high after tonight

Thomas 2 - Totally unprofessional. Starting arguing with their fans after one of two of them gave him some stick. Lost his man every single time, including their goal.

Lancashire 1 - I'm sure this guy is a nice lad, but he is a bad footballer.

James 4 - Had energy but was always the wrong side of his marker for each set peice. Gave the ball away a lot.

Patterson 4 - Not his fault Pardew played him on right wing. What the hell was AP thinking?

Lallana 5 - Tried his hardest to do something, but never really did.

Wotton 2 - Hoof. Hoof. Hoof. Rubbish. If only he was a good player, because he clearly cares, but he's not good enough.

Schneiderlin 3 - Too weak. Did try hard though.

Mellis 6 - Looks a decent prospect actually.

Lambert 4 - Missed a sitter and his free kicks weren't great either but he played alone upfront and had no service at all, so can't be blamed.

 

I agree with all of that apart from a 10 for Kelvin.

 

He made some wonder-stops, but his distribution still leaves a LOT to be desired, so an 8 IMO.

[niceandfriendly]

Gillett in place of Wotton must be a plausable idea.....it gets my vote

 

It's so obvious.

 

Gillett = Good passer, demands the ball, wins tackles, calm on the ball.

Wotton = Hoofs everything, can't tackle, too slow, perfect Saints player really.

[niceandfriendly]

I agree with all of that apart from a 10 for Kelvin.

 

He made some wonder-stops, but his distribution still leaves a LOT to be desired, so an 8 IMO.

 

Are you thinking of the time when he sliced the ball straight out of play in the second half? If so Thomas played it back to him on his left foot (Kelv is right footed) at about 100mph, so it's not surprising it was a poor clearance. I can't think of too many times he gave it away other than that though?

[oxfordshire_saint]

Are you thinking of the time when he sliced the ball straight out of play in the second half? If so Thomas played it back to him on his left foot (Kelv is right footed) at about 100mph, so it's not surprising it was a poor clearance. I can't think of too many times he gave it away other than that though?

 

I do remember that one and admittedly, it was a hospital pass, but he did do it a couple of other times too.

 

If Kelvin receives a passback and there is an opposition player within 20 yards, I always get nervous.

 

As a shot-stopper though, truly world class tonight.

[Handyman]

As I said to some of you, just because of your previous history you have no divine right to turn up and beat anyone down there.

 

Its a tough tough league

 

Leicester seemed to cope quite well with this league!

[Griffo]

Just back myself, and I can only echo what others have said. That was ****ing awful. It is plain to see that we needed width. Swindon got down the flank and to the byline time and time again and got us turned and put crosses in to a dangerous area. All Lallana did was cut in and float a nice high cross into the box from deep which is easy to be headed away. No penetration either, ****e all round. For 3,000 saints fans there too, the atmosphere was pretty bad too. Obviously there was nothing on the pitch that inspired us, but the support was still well below standards.

[kpturner]

Nope I was there and I can see as much as anyone. This scenario with Wotton reminds me of how Jermaine Wright was viewed on here and also to an extent, of Kelvin Davis in his early days. Wotton may be crap/limited but we have a couple of other dire/woeful players out there who are well ahead of him and require immediate attention/cull.

I was there and I agree.

[Saint_Jonny]

Just got back, everything thats been said sums up my thought tbh. ****ing ****ty day, nearly died on the magic roundabout before the game.

 

Lanchshire: NOT GOOD ENOUGH

 

Wotton: **** OFF!!!!!

[LGTL]

Just got home, jesus it was awful. Worse i've seen since Bristol Rovers in the Cup.

[Leslie Charteris]

According to the Echo, "Alan Pardew admits Saints are likely to be something of a Jekyll and Hyde team for a while."

 

So when are we going to see Mr. Hyde, Mr. Pardew?

[matthieu]

Just got back from the game and my god, what a load of sh*te that really was. The 3,00 saints support were as always fantastic and deserve better than that cr*p on show tonight. here's a few observbations i've made

1) Hoof ball doesn't work when you have 1 up top and nobody supporting him

2) We're not a rugby team - we are allowed to pass the ball forwards every now and again, no just sideways or backwards. I know Davis is our best player but we don't need to pass him the ball every 2 minutes!!

3) What is the point in having a midfield if we just lob it straight over them.

4) Paul Wotton should not be a professional footballer.

5) Alan Pardew's tatical knowledge is worrying.

 

Davis. 8/10. Few good saves, kept us in the game to be honest, needs to work on his kicking.

James. 2/10. Too small, weak and not good enough to play at this level.

Harding. 7/10. If he carrys on playing like he is, he'll leave in January.

Thomas. 4/10. Supposedly CCC ability. I'll believe it when I see it.

Lancashire. 4/10. Too inconsistant and needs to work on distribution.

Lallana. 5/10. Few nice touches, offers nothing else really

Schneiderlin. 3/10. See Lallana.

Wotton. 1/10. This guy is truly shocking. End of.

Mellis. 5/10. Didn't disgrace himself, will turn out to be ok, looks a bit lightweight.

Patterson 2/10. Can't head, pass, shoot and has the same amount of strength as bambi. Looks lost on a football pitch and falls over too much.

Lambert. 6/10. Felt a bit sorry for him with no support.

 

Gobern. Not enough time.

Saganowski. See Gobern.

Rasiak. See Gobern.

 

Pardew. 0/10. Where do I start? 4-5-1 dowsn't work. Lancashire and Wotton are crap and why-o-why did it take him 80mins to realise it wasn't working when most of us realised that after 8. Needs to give the team the biggest kick up the arse in the world apart from saying "we were unlucky, there's always next week" attitude.

[Arizona]

Just back, f*ck me that was absolute gash. Travelled all that was for one decent free kick and Lambert missing a sitter. I don't know what Pardew was thinking with the substitutions and why he took so long brining them on. 82nd minute IIRC when he decided we might need to mix things up a bit. We couldn't even bring on the subs properly. When Swindon wanted to make a change, the player stood up off the bench, they signalled the 4th official and made the change. We on the other hand had Rasiak stood scratching his arse on the touchline for about 10 minutes. Think we were well into injury time before he eventually wandered on. I can only assume Alan must have walked in on Gillett slamming Mrs P up the sh*tter for him not to get a game ahead of Wotton. How that halfwit earns a living as a professional footballer is beyond me. Seriously worried about Pardew. Today it wasn't just a case of needing to know the players better or not having the players available. He just didn't seem to have a clue. As for the players themselves.

 

Davis - 6 Don't know what everyone's raving about. A couple of decent saves, a couple of average, comfortable saves, but his kicking was way off. How many times did he put it out of play well in our own half.

 

James - 6 Reasonable enough game, pretty forgettable.

 

Thomas - 6 Pretty good in the air, and won a lot on the ground. Distribution shocking.

 

Lancashire - 5 Wasn't all that bad by his standards. No real howlers, but not a good player by any stretch of the imagination.

 

Harding - 7 MOTM He did well defending against two very good right sided players. The short, black RM was particularly good IMO.

 

Paterson - 2 Not a roght winger. Hopeless. How he stayed on 2nd half is beyond me.

 

Wotton - 2 "Sunday league" would be his agent bigging up his tallents.

 

Schneiderlin - 3 Powerpuff Girl.

 

Lallana - 2 Nothing from him except running into tackles. Gave Harding no help at all.

 

Mellis - 4 Like Lallana, but had the sense to offload it a few times before he was challenged.

 

Lambert - 5 Had our only 2 chances. Missed a sitter, decent free kick. F**k all service

 

Subs:

 

Touched the ball about 3 times between them. Saga had one decent flick on and lost a header against a guy a foot taller than him. My last memory of Gobern was of him running onto the pitch. After Rasiak came on I had just enough time for a quick p*ss before full time.

 

Pardew - It was like some horrible flashback to Burley in 2007. Clueless. Crap selection, no tactics, retarded use of subs.

[saints triumph]

After reading through these posts and reading Pardews verdict I want to know were they of 2 different games. Had I just read Pardews verdict I would have thought there was some room for optimism.

[trousers]

 

Pardew is starting to look a LOT like Burley. Playing people out of their positions and making substitutions way, way too late.

 

When Pardew was first appointed I made a comparison with Burley's style and approach and got slated for it. I maintain that they are similar types of manager.

[JB]

We were f*cking sh*t. Hoooooooof.

[Genk]

Lack of movement and creativity in midfield. You are never going to win football matches if you can't mark your men from set pieces. EVERY single set piece tonight I felt we were going to concede. Am i correct in saying that all the goals we have conceded so far this season have been from set plays? Im sorry but as a professional footballer, you should be able to do the basics and mark the opposition! Why did the substitutions take so long? Created the most in the last 5 mins of the game. Incredible

[kpturner]

According to the Echo, "Alan Pardew admits Saints are likely to be something of a Jekyll and Hyde team for a while."

 

So when are we going to see Mr. Hyde, Mr. Pardew?

Surely its Jekyll we want to see?

[Stu Man Do]

ok for whats its worth having just gotten back from witnessing perhaps THE worst saints display ive seen in the last 10 years heres my ratings, cant understand the reasoning behind a 4-5-1 yet with no real wingers, pace or tackling ability in the centre!

 

Davis -8 Distribution sometimes lets him down still not quite quick enough with an out ball but to be fair to him didnt have a lot on mostly as our idiot outfield players cunningly marked themselves with odd positional play. 2 Super stops, couldnt do alot for the goal.

Harding 6- Clearly an excellent defender but his default mode out ball appears to be hit and hope really needs to improve on this

Thomas - 3 Dodgey heading crap marking no organisational skills at the back few naff back passes as well almost cost us - shame he didnt chin wotton though :-(

Lancashire 3- I really feel for the poor bloke everything he did seemed to go against him poor marking i think it was he who lost his man for the goal but feel free to put me right

James 4- No attacking influence not much good in defence either but a couple of saving tackles gets him his 4

Lallana 3- Clearly a skillfull player but FFS stop doing your stupid step over back heely whats it you ALWAYS get tackled, didnt beat his man, doesnt play a wide position AT ALL our left side was crying out for a real winger to beat the right back and get in a cross ... I'm still waiting

Wotton 0- If anyone at the game knows of any reason he should get even 1 mark please let me know, all this guy does is mark space, crap passing and shouting at others for his mistakes mean this fella should really never ever ever play for us again.

Schniederlin 2 - powder puff sums him up tonight , he may develop into a top player but i dont think it will be with us

Melis 3 maybe 4 - Some good touches the man most likely to do something but still clearly expecting to get fouls like you would in the super protected prem

Patterson 4- not a winger why he wasnt allowed to play up front i dont know, not a winger again a mistake by pardew to play him there

Lambert 5- Continually had to drop back to midfield , to my mind to make up for wotton, near enough zero supply to him tonight

 

I wont bother with the subs, surely a manager of any quality could see we needed changes tonight and they didnt happen until 81 minutes had passed .... quality moment of the night though when the ball came into our end and some kid refused to throw it back until we got a sub lol

 

Pardew 2- Poor tactics and team selection, shocking lack of any subs until it was far too late not ideal!

 

Overall its not the defeat but the manner of it which really hurt, I felt pretty embarrassed for the team and other fans coming out of the ground tonight. If you could see some serious effort then fair play to lose sometimes but really tonight i cant think of ever really thinking we'd get back into the match. Hopefully we will kick on, on Sat! COYRS!

 

Lambert

[ooohTerryHurlock]

I was there and I agree.

 

+1

 

 

.... lallana for a start - far too light weight. May have been better to try to flog him and kept surman.

 

 

 

 

..... food was ok in hospitality though!!!

[Griffo]

About Davis' distribution, I remember a low, long hard kick that put us straight through on goal.. forgot who got put through though, but it was a genuine 1 on 1 chance.

[niceandfriendly]

Patterson 2/10. Can't head, pass, shoot and has the same amount of strength as bambi. Looks lost on a football pitch and falls over too much.

 

Agree with all you say apart from this. I feel sorry for Pato. He has a good game against Millwall, is then dropped and then played completely out of position at right wing.

 

I agree that tonight he was poor, but that's because he is NOT a right winger. Upfront he causes problems and will turn out to be a good player for us, but Aaron Lennon he aint.

[kpturner]

At least there was one funny moment when Spiderman missed a tackle down their left and rolled around waving to the bench like he had broken his leg. Then got up, received a pass and went on a mazy run. The Swindon fans went bananas at him

[trousers]

Leicester seemed to cope quite well with this league!

 

True. Although I do recall Reading similar 'panic stations' threads on the Foxes message board in the early stage of the season after a few dodgy results early in the season...

[kpturner]

Wotton 0- If anyone at the game knows of any reason he should get even 1 mark please let me know

I was there and to be honest I think too many people are giving him grief just because Wotton Bashing is currently in-vogue. There were plently of poor performances out there and he was far from being the worst.

[Crab Lungs]

AP inherited a mess left by 5 years of mismanagement by Lowe. We can't expect him to sort that out in 4 weeks.

 

Those extra 4 weeks wasted by Pinnacle's "never gonna happen" bid are now coming home to roost. Perhaps people's frustrations should be aimed at Pinnacle and the people that gave them oxygen rather than Pinnacle. Just a - no doubt unpopular - thought.

 

Give Pardew a chance - he is far from being the biggest culprit here.

 

Er, 5 years? Better check your facts.

 

Agree with the Pardew sentiment though.

[niceandfriendly]

I was there and to be honest I think too many people are giving him grief just because Wotton Bashing is currently in-vogue. There were plently of poor performances out there and he was far from being the worst.

 

I disagree. Nobody wants to dislike our own players. I actually like Paul Wotton, I think he's extremely passionate and he clearly wants the best for SFC. However it is so plainly obvious that he has no skill, ability or confidence. As soon as he gets the ball he looks to hoof it at every opportunity, and even the hoofs don't reach a Saints player.

 

Actually I do agree that he wasn't the worst. That goes to Lancashire or Thomas.

[Leslie Charteris]

Surely its Jekyll we want to see?

 

If I recall correctly, Dr. Jeckyll was mild-mannered and a friendly sort, one who might give away goals at set pieces, for instance, because he didn't want to be rude. I think the team needs more of the cruel, remorseless nature of Mr. Hyde to take their chances and to dispatch the opposition.

 

So, some defenders and a midfield (oh, and someone to play alongside Lambert) please.

[kpturner]

If I recall correctly, Dr. Jeckyll was mild-mannered and a friendly sort, one who might give away goals at set pieces, for instance, because he didn't want to be rude. I think the team needs more of the cruel, remorseless nature of Mr. Hyde to take their chances and to dispatch the opposition.

 

So, some defenders and a midfield (oh, and someone to play alongside Lambert) please.

Jeckyll was good, Hyde was bad. That is the way it works. When someone describes Jeckyll and Hyde performances they mean good and bad. We want good.

[RedAndWhite91]

It was dreadful! No creativity, no decent final ball. There was hardly any enthusiasm shown by many of the players, all I wanted to see at certain stages was a bit of passion, effort, hard work, but I didn't see it. Davis played well, Lambert tried hard and even Thomas looked solid 70% of the time. Wotton, again, failed to impress. My Dad came along to the game and he is a West Ham fan, and he was not impressed by what he saw, neither was I. Something has to change now, I am not going to start going on an all out criticising campaign against Pardew, I have faith in him and I hope he can see where we are going wrong and correct it. We lacked width and strength and at the end of the day we were completely outdone by a team who were most certainly better than us.

[kpturner]

I disagree. Nobody wants to dislike our own players. I actually like Paul Wotton, I think he's extremely passionate and he clearly wants the best for SFC. However it is so plainly obvious that he has no skill, ability or confidence. As soon as he gets the ball he looks to hoof it at every opportunity, and even the hoofs don't reach a Saints player.

 

Actually I do agree that he wasn't the worst. That goes to Lancashire or Thomas.

I don't mid you disagreeing - even if you are wrong ;-)....actually reading you post again it looks like you are agreeing with me anyway.

[Crab Lungs]

Oh dear things not going well at all, From the sounds of it we were outplayed again. We really need to address the lack of strength/power & pace in midfield hopefully Hammond will not change his mind tonight & will be in by Satuarday. And we have to get 2 commanding Mobile CB's. Send Lancashire out on Loan, he seems totaly shot from last years experience & this years so far. We also need to inject some pace up front also.

Time for Pardew to start earning his money now, we have to show more fight & resolve. Somehow he has to change this awful melancholy loosing atitude we have around the place at the moment. We just seem to be driffting hoping that things will change somebody has to do it take this club by the scruff of the neck and shake it out of its malaise. Sooner rather than latter PLEASE.

 

 

Spot on. I fear its those roll yer sleeves up characters we're so desperately missing though

[Viking Saint]

Two New centre backs are a must, if this team is going to even achieve lower half safety this season.

 

apologies if this has been mentioned before, but I think Bobo Balde has been released from his last club......worth a shot???

[Stu Man Do]

I was there and to be honest I think too many people are giving him grief just because Wotton Bashing is currently in-vogue. There were plently of poor performances out there and he was far from being the worst.

 

Fair enough if thats what you think I couldnt see it myself and ive defended wotton plenty of times before. Lets take his set piece defending, when is it a good idea to mark space? or mark a player already being marked and thus get in the other defenders way? Perhaps his shocking sideways/backwards distribution impressed you or the way he is in no poistion at all most of the game, neither able to clear out the midfield or get back to defend in time. In your opinion who was the worst performer? And what mark out of 10 would you suggest wotton would get?

[Alain Perrin]

There were plenty worse performances than Wooton. Maradona he ain't, but to make him a scapegoat is wrong IMO. He's the only big un we have in the middle and, much as I rate Gillett, he's not the tallest.

 

Lallana contributed far less. He needs to work out how to play on the wing, or how to sit on the bench. Too much flash, too little product.

[saintrich]

Swindon played the lone striker role alot better than we did - Paynter had support from midfield. Lambert had support from no-one.

Swindon played with width and pace with Mcnamee and that lad on loan from Bolton. We had Paterson, who is an half decent striker but by no means a winger.

Swindon had a better 'hole' player in McGovern who offered decent distribution and got a couple of shots in. We had Lallana who showed a few touches and got pushed off the ball.

Swindon had players who protected the back 4 and overran our midfield in douglas (got given their man of the match) and timlin... we had lightweight Schneiderlin and hoofer wotton.

Swindon had full backs with pace and willing to get forward.. we have lloyd james who gets into opposition half and crosses straight to the keeper.

 

Swindon don't have the best players, but their players all play in the right positions and offer the correct attributes you want.

 

We have nothing... no pace, no strength, no creavity, no enthusiasm.

 

Lancashire, James, Wotton need to be released asap.

 

I don't think I need to mention our ineptitude from defending corners.

Edited 18 August, 2009 by saintrich

[Alain Perrin]

Fair enough if thats what you think I couldnt see it myself and ive defended wotton plenty of times before. Lets take his set piece defending, when is it a good idea to mark space? or mark a player already being marked and thus get in the other defenders way? Perhaps his shocking sideways/backwards distribution impressed you or the way he is in no poistion at all most of the game, neither able to clear out the midfield or get back to defend in time. In your opinion who was the worst performer? And what mark out of 10 would you suggest wotton would get?

 

I'd mark Lallana lower than Wooton. Lallana failed to do his job and gave Wooton a master class in playing backwards.

 

Football tricks do not a footballer make.

[kpturner]

Fair enough if thats what you think I couldnt see it myself and ive defended wotton plenty of times before. Lets take his set piece defending, when is it a good idea to mark space? or mark a player already being marked and thus get in the other defenders way? Perhaps his shocking sideways/backwards distribution impressed you or the way he is in no poistion at all most of the game, neither able to clear out the midfield or get back to defend in time. In your opinion who was the worst performer? And what mark out of 10 would you suggest wotton would get?

Personally I would mark him a 3 (which is pretty crap), but above Lallana and Paterson who (in this game) were largely ineffectual (although Paterson is no winger).