Saints 2 Barnsley 0 - Post Match Reaction

[Papa Shango]

My player ratings/report http://www.thesaintshub.com/saints2-0barnsley.html

[up and away]

All very easy in the end but there were long spells in the first half where we were not at the races. If Barnsley had Ipswich's attack we could easily have been in trouble today. As it was Barnsley puffed themselves out and run out of ideas along with breath. We just did not compete for extended periods in midfield at times because we did not get enough players in their faces at that point. Hammond was trying, Schneiderlin just does not take to that naturally and Guly was trying to figure out from Adkins exactly what he should be doing. We need the fit and on form Chaplow prior to injury that just does not exist at present. Puncheon has put in performances that indicated he could do the job, only to fade away when asked to repeat the feat. That leaves De Ridder and Guly to fill the slot and although Guly is not perfect, he can adapt and change position to Adkins plans that do work for to a certain degree. De Ridder can be good, but I fail to see the logic in playing with two attacking wingers when the main striker is not in his natural position to take advantage of such a formation. A formation that weakens the midfield that sometimes it can be self defeating because those attackers are just not getting the ball. I don't believe Adkins got too much wrong today and the efforts against Ipswich and Barnsley putting everything into the first halve showed.

 

Taking the Ipswich and Barnsley games together, we are just missing that extra ingredient that is Chaplow on the right, where his energy and tenacity gives us total control. But until we get that Chaplow back, Guly still looks the best pick for that position. We have a whole week to recover for Millwall but our current form is pointing at a draw, unless the central midfileders and Guly can do the job or we get someone else on form to replace Guly.

[beatlesaint]

Morgan was our outstanding player today by a country mile. he reminds more and more of Pires in his pomp

 

Is this the same Robert Pires who played wide attacking midfield for Arsenal and scored more than his fair share of goals ?

Apart from both being French I can see no comparison whatsoever.

[Verbal Kint]

Pires? That's one of the stranger comparisons I've heard...surely Pires goal scoring prowess was what made him the player he was...you can hardly say that about Morgan!

 

Ridiculous comparison! I'd say Michael Carrick is the best comparison. A great passer, a good engine and he's added the physical edge to his game now. He just gets better and better and he's still only 21! He will flourish in the premier league when he has the chance to play there. Still needs to try and add the killer through ball a bit more but as a holding midfielder i wouldn't swap him for any in this league.

[beatlesaint]

Hammond is like a child playing in a mans game ,they pass to him he makes no impression at all,so they then play between themselves and make progress. It is embarrassing that he is in the starting 11,he causes problems,he can't help it he is just way out of his element. I would score him 4 and that is generous, please put him out of his misery and don't play him again.

 

I'm not sure I would say he is that bad, in fact he isn't bad at all, its just that he is more a steady eddie defensive minded midfield player who I dont think is needed at home given the quality we have that he is keeping out the team.

 

Away from home when you need to dig in and repel all borders (Leeds last week) then fine, he's a decent selection. But not at home.

[shurlock]

Nothing wrong with sideways passing if it means we keep possession and the oppo is denied the chance to attack us. Its just an extension of getting men behind the ball albeit when the team has possession. And we're a championship side for a reason - its not as if we're not blessed with such talent or movement that we can pick out defense-splitting passes at every opportunity. Even playmakers/matchwinners like AL have a tendency to dwell too long on the ball. Its one reason why Cork was such a breath of fresh air when he arrived, though he hasnt subsequently hit the same heights.

 

That said, there were times today when an easy forward pass was available; yet we missed it. Its all too easy to get stuck in a groove of playing the ball backwards and do a Peterboro (the home game earlier this season) which then makes it hard to step up a gear.

 

The main problem first half was that both CMs and fullbacks sat too deep and allowed Barnsley to come at us while we had no width. The exception was Fox who defended high up the pitch and showed what could be achieved by pressing his man. It didn't help that both forwards weren't particularly effective. Lee's runs, usually v.intelligent, looked tired and headless today and Lambert's control was poor and seemed like a hangover from Tuesday.

Edited 10 March, 2012 by shurlock

[Saint Garrett]

Ridiculous comparison! I'd say Michael Carrick is the best comparison. A great passer, a good engine and he's added the physical edge to his game now. He just gets better and better and he's still only 21! He will flourish in the premier league when he has the chance to play there. Still needs to try and add the killer through ball a bit more but as a holding midfielder i wouldn't swap him for any in this league.

He's 22, 23 in November.

[Sour Mash]

Nothing wrong with sideways/backward passing in my eyes. If you don't like it, you'd hate to be a Swansea fan. Football is changing for the better in this country. Retaining possession is becoming vitally important. We do it superbly at our best (Not the first half today). You can only be effective and attacking if you have the ball and have some patience. Sometimes a backwards pass or a sideways pass can draw defenders in and open things up. Remember we have a great home record so teams will come to us and defend organised and deep. Something they didn't do at the start. We have to find ways to break those deep defences down, something that we criticised our players for when we were in League One...not having plan b's/c's.

 

Whether it's entertaining or not is subjective. Personally, I prefer to see us keeping the ball, working the ball around the pitch and wearing teams down, having various ways of playing and allowing our inventive and creative players to flourish. Having the diagonal ball to Lambert and the ball over the top of Lee to chase is allows us to keep teams on there feet against us and both those worked perfectly today which allowed us to get into a position where we could control the game but our ball retention is what sets us apart in this league imo. We as fans need to be patient and have trust in the players that they know what they are doing when they keep the ball. It's evident it's part of the plan..hence our goal kicks which are set up to allow us to keep the ball and not throw up the lottery of Lambert winning a flick on and someone hopefully mopping up around him. The statistics back that up.

 

Whether it's effective or not is not subjective though. We are top of the league.

Thing is we did loads of sideways/backwards passing, which ended up back with Davis/Hooiveld/Fonte just hoofing it, may as well play a direct ball early on.

[VectisSaint]

Some very unfair comments re Deano on here. He's our best off the ball player in my opinion (somebody very important to the team), always looks to get the ball down and pass it along the floor, has a better passing range than people give him credit for, and a terrific engine. I also can't ever recall seeing him lose possession! We should count ourselves lucky how intense the competition for midfield places is!

I can only assume that you weren't at the game on Tuesday then. He gave away possession so many times it was embarrassing, and every time it was after Guly or Chung or Adam had fought hard to win the ball back. Hammond is our weakest link at the moment, Morgan and Cork in the middle for me every time. Hammond's role really is only shoring things up away from home if we have some defendiong to do. I will concede that he was better today than Tuesday.

[View From The Top]

I thought we were poor today but credit to Fox, Lallana and Chung.

 

Canada Saint is correct we play too much sideway passes in midfield and lose the initiative. That said I thought Schneiderlin improved in the second half.

 

.

 

The had no out balls as we were far too narrow

[pressingon]

Nobody that anyone would remember. Just a guy with an opinion, like most on here.

 

There's a few people on here with good memories !

Your most welcome here: http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?36351-Who-are-You

[anothersaintinsouthsea]

Thing is we did loads of sideways/backwards passing, which ended up back with Davis/Hooiveld/Fonte just hoofing it, may as well play a direct ball early on.

 

In some ways it does look like you're just delaying a hoof but part of the advantage of this is that it draws the opposition out of position and streches the distance between their defence, midfield and strikers.

[doddisalegend]

Game of two halves .Great result made even better by WHU cocking up again.

 

Thought we were awful first half aimless punting, sloppy passing and no energy couldn't see us scoring luckily Adam stepped up with a decent strike.

 

Second half Lee fashions a goal out of skill and sheer bloody hard work. After Lambert and Lee came off we played some really great football and Barnsley couldn't get near us.

 

Things I took from this game

 

* Dean and Morgan just don't work together, both wanting to play the defensive midfield roll, with out someone to get forward. Once we added Cork in the second half the three of them where much better

 

* First half today (like tuesday) we went for longballs down the channels for Lee to playoff or longballs to Lambert to knock on for Lee and we looked poorer for it. When we played to feet ,like we did in the second half, we looked great.

 

* MOTM for me the much maligned Guly worked his socks off today.

Edited 10 March, 2012 by doddisalegend

[ART]

We Saints fans owe a big thank you to former Saint Simon Gillett who laid on the ball for Donnie's Jame Coppinger to score. Thanks Si.

[Saints foreva]

Poor first half, much better second half.

 

Davis - Didn't have much to do. 6/10.

 

Richardson - Done better than he did Tuesday night. 6/10.

Fonte - Good performance from him. 7/10

Jos - Solid for the majority of the game, unlucky with the 45 yarder! 7/10.

Fox - Done well, good range of passing and a good cross like usual. 7/10.

 

Guly - Quite poor first half but much better in the second half. 7/10.

Hammond - Didn't notice him in the first half but he got on the ball more often in the second half. 6/10.

Morgan - Kept busy for the 90 minutes and always looking to pass. 7/10

Lallana - Got better as the game opened up more. 8/10.

 

Lambert - Didn't really get into the game as much as you'd expect. 6/10.

Lee - Put a shift in, went a little quiet towards the end of the first half but good work for the 2nd goal. 7/10.

 

Cork - Midfield seemed to improve when he came on. 7/10.

Connolly - Disappointed that he seems above Sharp in the pecking order but Connolly done well. Passed the ball, moved around a fair bit and always wanting it played into his feet. 6/10.

Sharp - Wasn't on long enough to even give him a rating, which is a shame.

[Give it to Ron]

If we had found a way to consistently play forward from the midfield rather than sideways and back we would have won by six.

 

It didn't cost us any points today but it will before the end of the season, and it desperately needs fixing.

 

And if we're not going to reward Lee's intelligent runs with an early pass, we'd be better off not playing him.

 

Spot on I lost count first half where Guly and Lallana pulled off the defenders into oceans of space - Lee was making darting runs and Hammond,Fonte, Jos, Richardson and Morgan took so long we lost the space and were shut down.

The diamond improved us but it wasnt until Cork came on we started to move and up the tempo.

Morgan improved and ran the show after the first 25 and a toss up between him and Fox for my MOM.

[Give it to Ron]

Happy days. What a contrast to Tuesday. We played woeful in the first half yet went in one in front. Funny old game football. Have to say I thought Barnsley passed the ball better than us in that period, but a lot of the problems were of our own making. Lee had a poor first half and looked off his usual pace. He caused few problems and although he made runs most wouldn't have been found by Hoddle in his prime. Lambert didn't seem to find any space either and Lallana was very tightly marked. That left the midfield with no options and very quickly the defence was put under pressure and Jos and Fonte hacked and sliced clearances making things worse. I'm not sure what the solution would have been, but the move to a diamond wasn't it. I wonder if the sun in our eyes was a factor. Sounds a lame excuse to me.

 

As I said Adkins response was to go to a diamond. It didn't work as it just meant there was even less options with no wide midfielder. We scored from a set piece. So the formation change didn't play a part in that. Second half was very different, the diamond certainly did work (I think Barnsley countered the diamond in the first half by playing it themselves, but in the second they reverted to a flat midfield and we took them apart, but only after the second goal. Once we got it Barnsley simply went home. I'd be surprised if they have 20% of possession in that period. We totally controlled the game and the subs just strengthen us. They hit the post from a header near the end, but that was pretty much the only thing of note they did we were that dominant.

 

Davis nothing to do. Distribution quicker than on Tuesday.

Richardson 6 ball watched in the first half a few times but got away with it. Tried to get forward but had little impact. Not his best game, not sure the diamond suits him.

Jos 6 very poor first half, some terrible clearances, but decent second and kept Davies quiet.

Fonte 6 again some of his choices when passing out from the back were very poor. Put Guly and Richardson in trouble, but we got away with it. Pushed forward a lot in the second half so that will have caught the eye of some fans, but I was concerned with him being skinned by the sub. Was that a pen? I was right at the other end. Second half he was pretty strong though and we were never carved open so perhaps I'm being a little harsh. Just don't feel quite a confident with the pairing as I have all season, but that will pass!

Fox 9 Very very good game. Pretty much since I said he has impressed me he has impressed me. Good in the air and got stuck in too. On the ball he was his usual neat and tidy self.

Hammond 6 solid enough game, but not as good as Tuesday. First half the game seemed to pass him by a bit. Nothing to write home about positive or negatively, but perhaps the fact he didn't do much is not good?

Morgan 7 was busy and kept thing ticking over nicely. Strong and covers the ground.

Guly 7 decent work rate again, a couple of mis-controls (that had the usual grumbles) when running at pace, but really got hold of the game in the second half and looked to be enjoying himself. Started on the right, went to the head of the diamond, went up front then back into midfield. Versatile to say the least. Far too many fans on his back at the slightest opportunity. Sadly many seem to have made their minds up about him and rather than judge him on each individual game.

Lallana 9 got better and better as the game wore on.

Lambert 5 pretty poor game by his standards. Just didn't get a grip of the game like he normally does. Perhaps it was too congested, but he just didn't seem to find that space to receive those chipped balls and then bring Lee into play. If it wasn't for his reputation he could easily have been subbed earlier.

Lee 6 brilliant play to set up the second goal, but I thought he looked a lot less sharp than on Tuesday. Actually he had a bit of mare in the first half. He pulled out of a tackle, miscontrolled and ran offside a lot. None of his runs were found. Not his fault perhaps, but some we just not intelligent runs. He was just on a different wavelength to the others. Worst game for us so far I woukd say.

 

Cork 7 first class when he came on. Energy and movement

Connelly 7 perfect to close a game down. In the holes and tippy tappy possession stuff.

Sharp not on long but put himself about well. Almost got a chance to show his finishing prowess. Needs game time or he's going to be miles off the ball when we need him most.

 

Those marks are spot on IMO and well summed up as usual

[saintmatt]

I can only assume that you weren't at the game on Tuesday then. He gave away possession so many times it was embarrassing, and every time it was after Guly or Chung or Adam had fought hard to win the ball back. Hammond is our weakest link at the moment, Morgan and Cork in the middle for me every time. Hammond's role really is only shoring things up away from home if we have some defendiong to do. I will concede that he was better today than Tuesday.

 

OK, so he had a below par game against Ipswich - but so did a lot of others. Judging him over the season (slightly fairer!), I believe each one of the points in my post is valid. And for the record, I've only missed 5 games this season

[gingerone]

I am starting to wonder if any of you back seat critics have ever played a level of football worthy of being classed as competitive. I doubt it.

[saintmatt]

I am starting to wonder if any of you back seat critics have ever played a level of football worthy of being classed as competitive. I doubt it.

 

I often wonder this as well!

[Window Cleaner]

Just got back from the coast, chuffed with the result + West Ham only drawing at home again, they just have to beat Reading now or they're play-off candidates. Going to watch the match on video will give my appraisal tomorrow.

[lethallee]

Poor 1st half better teams than Barnsley would of punished us. More often than not we ignored Lee's runs down channels. When he did eventually receive the ball he was caught offiside unnecessarily. 2nd Half much better especially after Lambert went off and Cork came on. Fox and Morgan were our best players today over the 90 minutes.

[teamsaint]

not a great performance.......but 3 points is all that counts.

If NA thinks that Deano is worth a place in the team, if he thinks guly is the Right man for RM, if he wants to rest SRL, if he thinks SDR isn't worth a start, if he thinks the diamond is right for most of the game, if he thinks Lee is worth his place, if he wants us playing posession, or any other thing then its fine by me. Even playing Harding at RB

 

He is a wonderful manager, and I don't think i have ever had such faith in ANY saints manager.

[trousers]

Barnsley's Assistant Manager Dave Flitcroft gave his post-match thoughts at St Mary's Stadium.

"First 25-30 minutes I thought the boys did everything we planned," said Flitcroft. "They did everything they could."

"It was only when they scored it settled an outstanding team down.

"They move the ball quick and pass it well.

"It was quite overwhelming at times. They're the best team in the division."

[sfc4prem]

Love this little gem from KUMB. Knee jerk....:

 

" Well, just plain embarrassing that today. We've been found out by the worst side in the league. That sound *THUD* is the beginning of the end of out season- play-off failure beckons, and no, Im not joking

 

A leaderless, clueless, formation-free, tactical mess of a performance, without Green we should have lost 3-1.

 

The players dont know what they're doing- and it shows.

 

Still, Im sure Sam will sign another couple of players up and throw another bizarre formation together for a couple of games

 

by the way- did Gary o Neill actually touch the fukcing ball in the 40 minutes he was on?"

[Lazlo78]

Can someone explain to me when and where championship highlights are online on e.g. BBC or other UK sites?

[rallyboy]

the games are coming thick and fast this month so the aim today was to claim three points with the minimum of effort, no injuries, no suspensions - and with the chance to give key players some rest once the result was secured.

No cigar but job professionally done - unlike West Ham who had a very similar scenario and failed.

Ditto Birmingham.

The pressure is on, but we've been here before - let's not forget how Huddersfield enjoyed going head-to-head with us over three months...

 

Nice one Nige.

Let's just keep harvesting points.

[Tamesaint]

Keep the confidence up and we can string together a run of results that would send us back to the Premiership, and would put Adkins name down as one of the best managers in our history. (Certainly our recent history.)

 

/QUOTE]

 

How can this be the case? According to Charlie Wayman every time that we fail to win , Adkins is due for the chop.(seehis grudging acknowledgement of our performance today and his reaction to the Ipswich game.

 

Any one would think that he was a skate on a wind up.

[Lazlo78]

Great result and made even better with West Ham drawing.

 

Check out their forum they are having a meltdown

 

http://www.kumb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=139002&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=460

 

Looks suspiciously like this forum after a say... Donny defeat

 

The only difference is that they are right - they manager is crap and their team plays crap football. We are just being dramatic...

[Under Weststand]

Another great 3-points today, and with West ham dropping points to Donny its not been bad a day.

Reading that kumb site was hilarious, Jesus & I thought we could be drama queens on here, but they really go overboard on there.

But there is a long way to go & still a few twists & turns yet to come.

[yorkie]

Really strange we actually looked more threatening after Lambert Lee & Lallana went off!

 

What must teams think when Connolly, Sharp and Cork come on? Blimey is must be pretty disheartening for any team?

 

Come on you Saints!

[laughba]

I..... Think Tadanari Lee draws comparisons to... Tevez, chases lost causes, great team player, intelligent runs.....

[Dig Dig]

Morgan was our outstanding player today by a country mile. he reminds more and more of Pires in his pomp

 

I think he's more like a young Shaun Wright-Phillips.

[Dark Munster]

Saints are favourties to go up as champions following today's results

 

http://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/championship/winner

 

And click on the relegation tab, to see that Cheats FC are favourites to go down.

[Kingsbridge Saint]

Hammond is like a child playing in a mans game ,they pass to him he makes no impression at all,so they then play between themselves and make progress. It is embarrassing that he is in the starting 11,he causes problems,he can't help it he is just way out of his element. I would score him 4 and that is generous, please put him out of his misery and don't play him again.

 

Another 3 points today and Adkins continues to get things right. Hammond is captain of a side top of the Championship. Glad Adkins is in charge and not you. You would do wonders for dressing room spirit. Everyone on the bus? i wouldn't stand near you next to the door.

[Cosmic]

Morgan was our outstanding player today by a country mile. he reminds more and more of Pires in his pomp

 

I think he's more like a young Shaun Wright-Phillips.

 

Both are utterly bizarre comparisons.

[Fitzhugh Fella]

If we had found a way to consistently play forward from the midfield rather than sideways and back we would have won by six.

 

It didn't cost us any points today but it will before the end of the season, and it desperately needs fixing.

 

And if we're not going to reward Lee's intelligent runs with an early pass, we'd be better off not playing him.

 

Absolutely - I lost count of how many times Lee started to make his run but the Saints player in possesion had his head down.

[Thedelldays]

 

* MOTM for me the much maligned Guly worked his socks off today.

now you are being awkward lol

[View From The Top]

Absolutely - I lost count of how many times Lee started to make his run but the Saints player in possesion had his head down.

 

He also made runs that Hoddle in his pomp would have struggled to pick out. Whilst he works the line impressively there is a big difference between making a run and making the right run.

[jamesb]

This is good reading also from a West Ham fan:

 

Took my 9yr old to his first game. Perfect intro into life as a Hammer. Awful. Just awful. Long punts to Cole. Hopeful flick ons. And that was it. Doncaster were crap and a decent team would have shredded them.

 

No creativity in midfield. Nothing to feet.

 

Play offs not promotion. Even if we do go up, with that play we will be straight back down again.

 

Booed off by crowd. Season ticket holders deserve a medal for going to that week in week out.

 

Pity them!

 

Great win today, I thought strange substitutions but Connollys cameo was fantastic, his link up with Lallana a joy to watch. Glad Rickie got bit of a rest.

 

Was a pen for sure.

 

Fox outstanding as Morgan was.

 

This is in our hands now. COYR

[Chez]

This is good reading also from a West Ham fan:

 

Took my 9yr old to his first game. Perfect intro into life as a Hammer. Awful. Just awful. Long punts to Cole. Hopeful flick ons. And that was it. Doncaster were crap and a decent team would have shredded them.

 

No creativity in midfield. Nothing to feet.

 

who was it on here talking abut how average Morgan was and how Noble was the kind of creative player we needed?

[mcjwills]

And click on the relegation tab, to see that Cheats FC are favourites to go down.

 

I wish I had put a punt bet on saints as champions and skates as bottom club, wonder what the odds were on that at the start of the season?

[Professor]

He also made runs that Hoddle in his pomp would have struggled to pick out. Whilst he works the line impressively there is a big difference between making a run and making the right run.

If it's the midfield who are not playing up to Tadanari's standard, its they who should raise their game, not Lee who should reduce his. Morgan in particular is perfectly capable of playing at Lee's level and I can see more being made of Lee's ability and speed as the Saints' players adapt to him. The second goal yesterday was sublime as he took the ball from between two defenders and then went all the way round the back of the defence instead of just sending over a cross. By the time he set the ball up for Lallana the goal was wide open from 10 yards.

[Dangerous Albert]

Absolutely - I lost count of how many times Lee started to make his run but the Saints player in possesion had his head down.

 

Spot on

[View From The Top]

I wish I had put a punt bet on saints as champions and skates as bottom club, wonder what the odds were on that at the start of the season?

 

I've got a Saints promotion and skate relegation double, put on in August :-)

[saint lard]

As far as getting the result, it was great.

As for the performance,like many of late,we were pretty **** poor.

[Toadhall Saint]

In some ways it does look like you're just delaying a hoof but part of the advantage of this is that it draws the opposition out of position and streches the distance between their defence, midfield and strikers.

 

 

This IMO

[jamesb]

Both are utterly bizarre comparisons.

 

ha ha ha!

[krissyboy31]

Barnsley's Assistant Manager Dave Flitcroft gave his post-match thoughts at St Mary's Stadium.

"First 25-30 minutes I thought the boys did everything we planned," said Flitcroft. "They did everything they could."

"It was only when they scored it settled an outstanding team down.

"They move the ball quick and pass it well.

"It was quite overwhelming at times. They're the best team in the division."

TBF That's exactly how I saw it. Thought we were very nervous in the first half hour. Looked like watching the Pootvliet team on their way to relegation. Adkins changed it round with the diamond which allowed us to gain control of midfield (although lack width at time) Guly managed to get into the game, we scored and then completely dominated. Fox MoM for me. Thought he was outstanding, even when the rest of the team were not clicking.

[MongoNeil]

I wish I had put a punt bet on saints as champions and skates as bottom club, wonder what the odds were on that at the start of the season?

 

I got 16-1 on Saints being champions back in August.