benjii Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Guly was terrible. Lambert looked like he was off. Flat game. But hey. 3 points. If you think Guly was terrible your opinion is worthless. Christ, how clueless fan someone be? Guly and Schneiderlin controlled the game. They were our best players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustMike Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Spiderman MOM by country mile, Steve played well but needs to work on his final ball a bit. Guly, well what can you say, did nothing apart from score 2! It's what he is paid to do I guess Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidthesquid Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Funny game really. In some ways we won at a canter - Palace barely had a shot in anger - but the ten minutes after we scored and for about fifteen minutes early in the second half they looked surprisingly good and we looked surprisingly flustered. But job done (again) and move on. Having Schteve gave us a much better balance, do Prado was pants, apart from a couple of goals!!!, and when we click, the passing is beautiful to watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustMike Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 If you think Guly was terrible your opinion is worthless. Christ, how clueless fan someone be? Guly and Schneiderlin controlled the game. They were our best players. About as deluded as you by the looks of it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypochondriac Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 There is no way guly was our best player. Two well taken goals which I thank him for but there were also quite a few of his usual traits like wasting possession, giving the ball away easily and looking like he is on a different wavelength to the other players. It's why he is the most frustrating player ever. One minute he will do something sublime and the next something atrocious. He is so unpredictable but I suppose when it falls into place it works really well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S-Clarke Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 ah bull****, boro score. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saintscottofthenortham Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Just waiting for the compulsary weekly "Guly is ****" thread to be started. Can`t understand why it hasn`t. What a stupid post. Last week Guly was actually a hindrance on the pitch and I actually believe we would have done better with 10 men. Today, he was shít, but managed to pop up with two goals, the first a fantastic move and a good header. Doesn't change last week or change the fact that yet again he was below par. Play like that most weeks and he won't get away with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OttawaSaint Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 ah bull****, boro score. Fuvk! But now there is more pressure on West Ham, can they handle it??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benjii Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Some right mongs on here today. Thank goodness I don't pay for this ****e any more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trousers Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 ah bull****, boro score. Reading going like a steam train too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Window Cleaner Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Fuvk! But now there is more pressure on West Ham, can they handle it??? Who knows, might not be a bad game to watch, think I'll look in anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lighthouse Posted 26 December, 2011 Author Share Posted 26 December, 2011 (edited) ah bull****, boro score. Or alternative, Hull are losing. A draw would have been nice there, but TBH I'd always have that one down as a home win. Boro have always been a home team, just like us. All we can do is keep winning. Saints won Leeds lost Hull lost Cardiff drew Leicester drew Only Boro, Blackpool and Reading won out of our rivals, so far, and the latter two are still 11/12 points adrift of us. Edited 26 December, 2011 by Lighthouse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chez Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 (edited) decent display from us. We totally dominated and how the BBC website has us only having 52% possession I will never know. They countered now and then, but other than that we just ran the game through Cork and Morgan. I felt we had found form at Fratton and it showed here with a confident display. All we need is a just a little more cutting edge in the final third like we had earlier in the season and we will be unstoppable. Keep playing like this and we will win this league. Davis 7 nothing to do really so you could give him a 10 for a perfect display, but probably best to save that kind if mark for when he has to get us out of jail. Kicked ok, good decisions, claimed and punched what little he had to, threw out well and swept well too. Richardson 9 Yet another very very good display. Parr was woeful, but Richardson didn't give him a sniff. Dribbled well, distribution decent and the cross for the goal was as good as you will ever see. 20 minutes against Millwall apart he has been absolutely outstanding this season. In a team of top performers can he be mentioned as a possible player of the season candidate? Fonte 10 Outbloodystanding again, What a 6 weeks this guy has had. Back to his absolute best. Currently looks even better than he did in League 1. Bullies forwards, but now doesn't dive in. Jos 10 Was he attached to Murray with velcro? Could not have had him in his pocket more if he tried. Great on the ball too. A yard of pace is all that is missing, but in the Championship he looks top notch. What a signing he is proving to be. The partnership is perfect, two ball playing, ball winning centre backs. You could search for years for that combination. Fox 7 Some decent stuff, especially his handling of Zaha, who looks an outstanding talent by the way (if prone to reacting to a bit of professionalism). I'm fed up of his long diagonal balls, but many were good today. On the odd occasion I'd like him to dribble to the byeline like Richardson does and get that corner, but he prefers the big-D ball, which is much easier to defend. Some good crosses, one corner deserved a goal it was so good, but others were overhit. Room for improvement. De Ridder 7 some utter ****e crosses under no pressure that you can only live with if he is going to beat his man and put it on a plate for Guly, which he did. He seems to be on a different wavelength to the rest, but if we give him 5 or 6 game sin a row maybe he would find it. Work rate was good and he won the ball back a lot, which we have missed in Chaplow's absence. Morgan 10 faultless, well he did lose it once I suppose, but touch, passing and movement were top notch. Always available and never with any worry he took the ball from all comers and got us moving. In the end they resorted to hacking him. Cork 8 lots and lots of good stuff and the midfield area was totally ours. I would have liked to see just a few more late runs, but that might have left us open, so no complaints from me. A big decision from Adkins to pick between the three centre midfielders and I think he got it right as these two have been excellent and deserved their chance. Mind you how Hammond was dropped after last week I will never know. What a fantastic choice to have. Come the end of the season I want to see the whole league struggling to choice between them for the team of the year never mind our side. Lallana 6 Not a huge impact on the game, but some lovely touches as usual. Quite a battle between him and Zaha in the first half and he just managed to get his foot in to keep hold of Zaha who could well have caused havoc if he did not do his job right. Ever so slowly he is returning to the form pre injury. If Fox passed to him more than once a game maybe he would be more effective. Guly 7 Good finishes, and kept his wonderful goalscoring record going. Not sure his all round game was all that. He got involved more and he had more room as he dropped so deep, but he still looked a little miffed maybe? Lambert 8 Another solid display and held the ball up wonderfully well again. Right on his game right now. Connelly - not on long, but looks smaller and less powerful every time I see him. I don't want to write him off, but I don't get excited when I see him coming on Hammond hardly touched it. Edited 26 December, 2011 by Chez Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypochondriac Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 There is no way guly was sh1t today. He wasn't amazing but he did what was asked of him and I'm happy for him to be like that every week! All I'm saying is that one scoring performance has nothing to do with previous performances in previous games. Scoring today doesn't make last weeks performance against Portsmouth any less frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ART Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 After today and the reaction once again of all the big mouths, I find myself asking who are the REAL SCUM these days. I hate to think how things will be if we succeed in returning to the Premiership. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 I'm afraid Lallana is just not delivering at mo. his end product today was v poor. Its been a long time now since he played well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gemmel Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 If you think Guly was terrible your opinion is worthless. Christ, how clueless fan someone be? Guly controlled the game. They were our best players. I'll have a pint of what he's drinking. Guly certainly didnt control the game. However, he scored both our goals and we won. So it's hard to criticise, but without those two headers, he wouldn't have got more than a four out of ten Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St_Tel49 Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 I just can't understand how Guly keeps scoring.... It sounds and probably is the most ridiculous thing to say....he scored 2 goal..but was ****ing awful! Thought MS was superb today and Steve DR played well too. Hopefully can pick up at least 7 from these 3 games though. I don't think he was awful. He tries things - sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. When they don't he can look an idiot and when they do he is a genius! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Morgan mom by miles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypochondriac Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Nice to see some more balanced opinions about guly rather than 'he was sh1t' or 'those people who slagged guly off are pr1cks'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saintedwill Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Morgam was my MOM today his passing was intelligent and he ran the show in midfield. There was one pass he played through the Palace defence which took out three or four of them - sublime. Showed real Premiership quality today (which we have seen in flashes) and was a class above. Best shout I heard today from the moaning bloke behind: "Come on Guly - apart from scoring two goals, you've done nothing". Maybe someone needs to teach him the basics of football. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint Garrett Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Guly wasn't 'awful' but he was far from as good as he has been. Right place right time for the 2 goals, so happy for him, but he is one of the most frustrating players ive ever watched play. If he hadn't scored today people would be wanting him dropped. Defence was very comfortable. 2 great crossed for the 2 goals. Morgan MOTM, although Cork was also outstanding. Lallana not quite there at the moment, flashes of brilliance without the end product but couldn't drop him. Lambert didnt do a lot, but his link up play was very good. Also his presence drew defenders away from Guly and I think this is what happened for the 2 goals. Good to see SDR starting and doing well...had a few dodgy crosses but his tackling was superb. Onwards and Upwards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St_Tel49 Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Good win against a decent side! One negative for me today was our support. Completely outsung by the 3K Palace fans, it was embarrasing. About 5 minutes after we went 1-0 up. The ground was deafingly silent, as it took them a few more minutes to get back behind their team. Embarrasing that the loudest song (sung by the most peole at one time ) was STEEEEVE wen SDR got on the ball. Our support although good in numbers, was awful in terms of noise and support for our team, Like we were 2 nil down and bottom, not 2nil up and top. If this is how its going to continue as we progress as a club on the pitch, Id rather be abck in League one with 17k fans turning up to vocally support the team..from today's noise, we do not deserve a team playing as well as ours is at the moment. Please everyone prove me wrong on Friday and sing your ****ing hearts out for the lads! FFS COYR! Frankly, I didn't hear much from the Palace fans and I am at the Northam end of the Kingsland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saintmatt Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Good win against a decent side! One negative for me today was our support. Completely outsung by the 3K Palace fans, it was embarrasing. About 5 minutes after we went 1-0 up. The ground was deafingly silent, as it took them a few more minutes to get back behind their team. Embarrasing that the loudest song (sung by the most peole at one time ) was STEEEEVE wen SDR got on the ball. Our support although good in numbers, was awful in terms of noise and support for our team, Like we were 2 nil down and bottom, not 2nil up and top. If this is how its going to continue as we progress as a club on the pitch, Id rather be abck in League one with 17k fans turning up to vocally support the team..from today's noise, we do not deserve a team playing as well as ours is at the moment. Please everyone prove me wrong on Friday and sing your ****ing hearts out for the lads! FFS COYR! I noticed this and mentioned it to my mate as well. I think this is symptomatic of us winning so consistently at home (i.e. moreso than at any point in the club's post-war history); people are used to it and expect it now. When wins used to be few and far between, they were celebrated more as they were more of a novelty. Not saying it's right, it's just the way it is. Anyway, great to be a Saints fan at the moment, and long may it continue! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nexstar Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 I'm afraid Lallana is just not delivering at mo. his end product today was v poor. Its been a long time now since he played well. Yeah, like last Sunday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Window Cleaner Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Nice to see some more balanced opinions about guly rather than 'he was sh1t' or 'those people who slagged guly off are pr1cks'. Still think Guly needs some R+R, perhaps a little jaunt home to Brazil for a week or so, only Morgan has participated in more games and then probably with less minutes on the counter as well, thing is Morgan is just 22 and Guly is pushing on 30,today was his 25 th start of the season I think with 1 sub appearance as well,that's a lot of games for a Brazilian, probably a whole season over there and no doubt a full season's appearances in Italy as well. NPC football is punishing for players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Durman Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 If all Guly did was score 2 goals may I ask that he does only that for the rest of the season. Goals change games. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is put the ball in the back of the net. Well done today Guly!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dune Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 whu 1 up. http://www.firstrowsports.tv/watch/99660/1/watch-birmingham-city-vs-west-ham-united.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bourne Valley Saint Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 For those of you creaming yourselves over this result, I think the opposite. Yes, we deserved to win in the end but the performance was not that of a team at the top of the table and unbeaten at home. We gave the ball away on numerous occassions and invited Palace to run at us. Palace should have had a penalty at 1-0 early in the second half and up until we scored again, I feared that we would concede. Too often the simple pass is not made and we play ourselves into trouble and a better team would have pinished us. However, two well taken goals by Guly were the difference and hopefully we'll start playing again as we did against the likes of Middlesborough, Watford and Brighton soon. It's great to be top and we are there on merit but let's not get complacent and delude ourselves that this was a great performance ...... it wasn't. As for the crowd, from where I was in the Kingsland, I thought our support was ok for a sterile Boxing Day fixture! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Appy Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Good win against a decent side! One negative for me today was our support. Completely outsung by the 3K Palace fans, it was embarrasing. About 5 minutes after we went 1-0 up. The ground was deafingly silent, as it took them a few more minutes to get back behind their team. Embarrasing that the loudest song (sung by the most peole at one time ) was STEEEEVE wen SDR got on the ball. Our support although good in numbers, was awful in terms of noise and support for our team, Like we were 2 nil down and bottom, not 2nil up and top. If this is how its going to continue as we progress as a club on the pitch, Id rather be abck in League one with 17k fans turning up to vocally support the team..from today's noise, we do not deserve a team playing as well as ours is at the moment. Please everyone prove me wrong on Friday and sing your ****ing hearts out for the lads! FFS COYR! Christ, get your head out of the palace fans backsides. Boxing day is always a poor atmosphere, it was today from both sides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S-Clarke Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 whu 1 up. http://www.firstrowsports.tv/watch/99660/1/watch-birmingham-city-vs-west-ham-united.html Birmingham look utter utter dross, don't think we can bank on them doing us any favours today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wes Tender Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Many have Morgan as the MOTM, but I thought that Cork was even better. He was responsible for some great ball-winning tackles and showed the same sort of spirit and endeavour that epitomises Chaplow. But with Schneiderlin beside him, he and Cork were winning the battle for possession in midfield. As Chez says, how did the Beeb have it as only 52% possession? I'd have thought more like 65% at least. Kelvin didn't have a serious shot to save, the defence was rock solid, the midfield dominant. It was only up front that we didn't flatter. Too often, the ball was played towards the box and when a good shooting opportunity arose from it, the player receiving, preferred to pass sideways rather than having a shot. Lambert did not have much fall for him, but proved to be effective in other ways with his strong holding play, positioning and movement causing problems for his markers. Likewise Lallana was also not at the races either, but both he and Lambert provide enough threat by themselves to tie up defenders and Guly is just one man too many to mark as he was today, where effectively because of two pin-point crosses, he had free headers for both goals. I can't remember another game this season where we had such an abundance of very accurate long cross field passes picking out a wide player in space. De Ridder was often the target, but although he had a decent enough game, I wish that he would take the ball to the byeline a bit more often rather than cutting in. That ability is something that we have come to expect from Richardson and his crossing from the byeline this season has been a potent weapon, resulting in more than a few goals. The result was good as a confidence booster after a few glitches in the past few weeks and good to get back to winning ways at home after the last draw. What a shame that we couldn't have won that match and continued the record breaking run, but there must be other records for unbeaten home matches beckoning too. Regardless of whether West Ham win, we are still setting the pace in this division and frankly it doesn't matter what they do provided we keep winning. It would really be nit-picking to mention that the referee was really appalling. We had occasion a couple of times to sing "you don't know what you're doing" and Palace were even inclined to chant that too. I liked the left side lino though; he didn't appear to know when we kicked the ball out, especially in the first half, much to the annoyance of the Palace fans. The past few home matches, the atmosphere has been very flat. Why is that? We're top of the league halfway through the season, playing some exciting football, looking eminently capable of making a sustained go at going up as champions on this form. Sometimes a reason for a flat atmosphere is that block 43 is filled with JCLs, or that there is an empty block between 42 and the away fans. But Palace brought good support which was right up against block 42. Perhaps they didn't make enough noise to get us to reciprocate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dune Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Birmingham look utter utter dross, don't think we can bank on them doing us any favours today. Yep, they whu are murdering them. We are gonna have to up our game on the road or we'll drop out the top two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chez Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 For those of you creaming yourselves over this result, I think the opposite. Yes, we deserved to win in the end but the performance was not that of a team at the top of the table and unbeaten at home. We gave the ball away on numerous occassions and invited Palace to run at us. Palace should have had a penalty at 1-0 early in the second half and up until we scored again, I feared that we would concede. Too often the simple pass is not made and we play ourselves into trouble and a better team would have pinished us. Do not agree with this at all. We made a decent outfit look ordinary. We nullified Clyne and Zaha, two of the best talents on the championship, and didn't give Murray a sniff. In fact the opponents didn't create a single chance. We created a few and two that were so good that we scored. We dominated possession. We ran the game throughout and because of it were comfortable. We kept a clean sheet and never looked stretched. We entertained the fans with some great passing, plenty of movement and good football. We looked like a top of the table side if you ask me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derry Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Hoiveldt was excellent today and really gave us solidity winning everything and covering the back four. Schneiderlin looked like a real playmaker today and hit some very good medium and long balls to the forwards his best game this season. The formation with SDR wide gave us so much more. SDR seemed to be trying too hard at times but did two absolutely outstanding things besides having a very effective game. The cross for the goal was outstanding as was the chase of Scannell when he was clear away and winning the ball. Lallana several times took too many touches when an easier option was on and both he and Morgan gave the ball away several times when facing their own goal just playing it over their heads without looking when there were options in front of them but none behind them. Sometimes Lallana and Guly showboat too much and give the ball away but two excellent finishes. The rest of the players played well at a high tempo making us too good for Palace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Thought we were ok today, was a fairly routine win in the end. We weren't back to our best by any stretch though. We played well in the first half but invited them onto us way too much in the second. Thought Morgan was excellent as was Cork, Lambert had an off day but they marshalled him very well. De Ridder was good but his crossing must improve - ok he put a decent ball in for the first goal but all too many times he got to the byeline and then put in a terrible cross. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syd_barrett_saint Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Still can't understand why so many at the ground and on here are moaning about Guly. Apart from the two goals (and its ridiculous to start a sentence like that when you are defending a player) I thought he was one of our better performers today (only Morgan and Jos stood out more for me). He made a few silly errors and miscontrols as per usual, and I think that side to his game just sticks in some peoples minds too much. They didn't cost us, don't usually cost us, and he offers so much more to the team, not just including his large amount of goals and assists. My only doubt with Guly is whether we should play him in some away games, especially the freezing cold oop north ones. Apart from that he should always be one of the first names on the team-sheet this season, whether up front, in the hole, or on the wing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supersubpuckett Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Hey, we beat a team on a good run and in the top ten. Apparently we controlled most of the game too, so all in all a solid performance after our recent wobble. All the comments about ugly doing no.thing apart from two goals sounds like the sort of games mlt used to have for us and lots of posters can't help creaming themselves over him! Having said that I think he's crap and we need to replace him with a more consistent, ruthless and energetic striker soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papa Shango Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 My full thoughts on the game can be read here : http://www.thesaintshub.com/saints2-0palace.html Thought De Ridder had by far his best game in a Saints shirt, tracking back and working hard like he never has before. Hooiveld was total class, as was Guly. Happy days Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bourne Valley Saint Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Do not agree with this at all. We made a decent outfit look ordinary. We nullified Clyne and Zaha, two of the best talents on the championship, and didn't give Murray a sniff. In fact the opponents didn't create a single chance. We created a few and two that were so good that we scored. We dominated possession. We ran the game throughout and because of it were comfortable. We kept a clean sheet and never looked stretched. We entertained the fans with some great passing, plenty of movement and good football. We looked like a top of the table side if you ask me. We all see things differently and I seldom criticise the team or the players and I see no reason to do so today. However, I feel that we shall have to play a lot better against Bristol City and Brighton if we are to maintain our automatic promotion push. Yes, there was some fantastic cross field passing but a lot of other shorter passing that went astray and gave away possession. Earlier in the season we passed other teams off the pitch but I feel that we are not now so dominant in this respect. As a matter of interest and I seriously can't remember, when was the last time we scored from open play with a shot from outside the box? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saintscottofthenortham Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Nice to see some more balanced opinions about guly rather than 'he was sh1t' or 'those people who slagged guly off are pr1cks'. Am I so wrong to be so utterly f****d off with Guly for failing to turn up at the derby? He is lazy and far too often it costs us. Yes today, in the end, he done well. Last week though showed just how much he can cost you and unfortunately it came in the Derby at Fratton. Granted, he actually managed to bring the ball under control today which was an improvement on last week, but still, several times today he layed the ball off to Fox or Spiderman and instead of running into the acres of space down the line he just stood on the half way line, and watched the ball be played forward and was STILL stood there when Lallana eventually, with no options because the lazy F*CK is stood on the halfway line, gave away possession. But because he scored two goals today it's ok for him to carry on this way? So many around me see it, I'm amazed that on here everyone beats themselves off over him. The single most frustrating player I have ever watched, because as I have said on here in every single bloody Guly discussion, when he can be bothered to turn it on my golly he is good. Just a lazy player who is not in my good books purely because of last week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weston Saint Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Guly does have his weaknesses, and many of them, but his goals and assists put him as one of the top strikers in the division. If his allround game was as good as his scoring/assist he would be playing for one of the top 5 and regularly featuring for Brazil. I would have him in my side every week. Something Adkins seems to agree with. Agree with Derry's comments above as well. Hoiveldt was majestic and as ever read the game very well. Schneiderlin had one of his best games and if he can continue in that mode week after week we will all be purring rather than frustrated criticism. Lallana has definately lost a bit in the last few weeks but he has class and his form will return. De Ridder gave us something different, the pace we lack when Chaplow is missing. Think he was trying too hard at times. Lambert held the line well and although he did not score following a great save in the first half his reputation went before him. An important cogg in todays win Palace looked a decent side lacking that final penetration but credit to our whole defence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gemmel Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 For those of you creaming yourselves over this result, I think the opposite. Yes, we deserved to win in the end but the performance was not that of a team at the top of the table and unbeaten at home. We gave the ball away on numerous occassions and invited Palace to run at us. Palace should have had a penalty at 1-0 early in the second half and up until we scored again, I feared that we would concede. Too often the simple pass is not made and we play ourselves into trouble and a better team would have pinished us. However, two well taken goals by Guly were the difference and hopefully we'll start playing again as we did against the likes of Middlesborough, Watford and Brighton soon. It's great to be top and we are there on merit but let's not get complacent and delude ourselves that this was a great performance ...... it wasn't. As for the crowd, from where I was in the Kingsland, I thought our support was ok for a sterile Boxing Day fixture! If you didn't enjoy that or think we were very good, "Football" might not be the sport for you and certainly "Saints" aren't the right team for you. I'm afraid that is about as good as it gets. We totally dominated our opposition, created numerous chances, scored two goals, played some fantastic football, limited them to three very weak (Never going in) shots on target, were always in complete control and bossed the game from start to finish and tactically were light years ahead of them. I worrry for some of our fans, what we are seeing right now is as good as we have had it or likely to have it for a long time. Just enjoy...... Oh and we were brilliant today Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BARCELONASAINT Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 It's funny how divided opinions are about Guly. I was firmly in the "he's crap" camp when he first came here. Now i firmly believe in the player and it is obvious NA believes firmly in him from his long run in the side. I watch his performances, his movement, his passes and he is a quality player without doubt in my mind....we are very lucky to have him on our books. I can remember a certain Le Tiss being slated by fans for being lazy and poor at the defensive part of his game but he had pure genius about him when it worked and scored goals that kept this club in the top tier of English football. Guly has the ability to be a class player for us. Those of you that slate him i urge you to give him a chance, his goals just might be the difference between Championship and Premiership football next season! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saintscottofthenortham Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 We all see things differently and I seldom criticise the team or the players and I see no reason to do so today. However, I feel that we shall have to play a lot better against Bristol City and Brighton if we are to maintain our automatic promotion push. Yes, there was some fantastic cross field passing but a lot of other shorter passing that went astray and gave away possession. Earlier in the season we passed other teams off the pitch but I feel that we are not now so dominant in this respect. As a matter of interest and I seriously can't remember, when was the last time we scored from open play with a shot from outside the box? Considering how Palace set themselves up we done very well to play some of the football we did. If SDS had managed to put a few more decent crosses in instead of fluffing the final delivery then we would have had even more chances. I'm with Chez, Palace are a very good side and we didn't give them a sniff. We have played much worse and still won. Stop worrying me thinks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpine_saint Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 that Chapper's injured knee had given way in training again and that his return to the side will be set back for another few weeks. It's in the build up thread somewhere or other. B*gger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saintscottofthenortham Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 It's funny how divided opinions are about Guly. I was firmly in the "he's crap" camp when he first came here. Now i firmly believe in the player and it is obvious NA believes firmly in him from his long run in the side. I watch his performances, his movement, his passes and he is a quality player without doubt in my mind....we are very lucky to have him on our books. I can remember a certain Le Tiss being slated by fans for being lazy and poor at the defensive part of his game but he had pure genius about him when it worked and scored goals that kept this club in the top tier of English football. Guly has the ability to be a class player for us. Those of you that slate him i urge you to give him a chance, his goals just might be the difference between Championship and Premiership football next season! True. As I said before, I find him frustrating and labeled his overal performance as shít based on what I have seen him do before. I struggle to watch someone fail to do such simple things when the next minute I'm watching them create a moment of magic (The flick to SDS away at Reading). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperMikey Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Davis 6 - Didn't have anything to do today. Frazer 7 - Not his usual bombing-forward self today as Steve was playing further forward than Schneiderlin/Chaplow usually do, but did his job well and put in a great cross for the 2nd goal. Fox 7 - Did well, put some good crosses in from deep and kept Zaha quiet all day. Didn't get forward very much but we tended to attack down the right today, so it's understandable. Fonte 7 - Solid, wasn't really troubled by any of the forward 3. Could maybe work on his long passing a bit but that's a small criticism. Hooiveld 9 - Can't fault him at all today, absolutely brilliant. What a find by Nige & Co! De Ridder 8 - Was fantastic, running at his markers and putting crosses in all game. He works so hard and really got stuck into his tackling today. Only criticism is his crossing needs to be improved, but that's it. Lallana 6 - Quiet game for him, we attacked down the right mostly but Adam did okay. Put in a few good challenges when he drifted inside and linked up well with the rest of the midfield. Schneiderlin 9 - Absolutely sublime, one of the best performances i've seen at SMS this season. Every pass hit its target and he broke up play really well in the middle. Has to start vs Brizzle. Cork 8 - Outshone by Morgan today but a very solid performance from him today. Won the ball well, passed it nicely and tracked everything they put through the middle. Lambert 7 - Was used in an aerial role, but still put in a good shift. Had one opportunity to shoot where he passed instead, reckon we should be encouraging him to shoot more often because he's got that in his locker. Guly 6 - Took his goals well, but he really frustrated me today. At times he would just stand there and look at play going on instead of actually moving or doing anything. No attempts to win anything in the air, no attempts to win the second ball either. The problem with Guly today is that he was doing the simple stuff wrong - he wasn't keeping possession in key areas of the pitch and he was misplacing passes everywhere. The annoying thing about him is that he can do the simple stuff wrong and then pull something out of the bag like his 2 goals today. Don't get me wrong, I really rate him when he's on his game, but recently he's looked like he doesn't give a stuff, and people are starting to get really frustrated with him. Think he needs a talking-to from Nige & Co, just to make it at least look like he's trying! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidthesquid Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 From the BBC Possession Southampton 52% Crystal Palace 48% Attempts on target Southampton 6 Crystal Palace 2 Attempts off target Southampton 2 Crystal Palace 3 Corners Southampton 6 Crystal Palace 1 Fouls Southampton 16 Crystal Palace 9 Yet again we seem to concede double the freekicks the opposition do despite having more of the ball and being on the offensive more. Are we dirty or was today's ref another w***er in black? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ottery st mary Posted 26 December, 2011 Share Posted 26 December, 2011 Guly does have his weaknesses, and many of them, but his goals and assists put him as one of the top strikers in the division. If his allround game was as good as his scoring/assist he would be playing for one of the top 5 and regularly featuring for Brazil. I would have him in my side every week. Something Adkins seems to agree with. Agree with Derry's comments above as well. Hoiveldt was majestic and as ever read the game very well. Schneiderlin had one of his best games and if he can continue in that mode week after week we will all be purring rather than frustrated criticism. Lallana has definately lost a bit in the last few weeks but he has class and his form will return. De Ridder gave us something different, the pace we lack when Chaplow is missing. Think he was trying too hard at times. Lambert held the line well and although he did not score following a great save in the first half his reputation went before him. An important cogg in todays win Palace looked a decent side lacking that final penetration but credit to our whole defence. This for me.... Well done to NA for his selection today.. Big credit to Spiderman and Cork for running the middle of the park........Keep it up Morgan..you could be a star one day... Well done De Ridder......More of the same with more games this lad will terrorise defences.... Jos a super find and together with Fonte.....a great partnership.. 3 more points against Brizzle please Saints. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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