bridge too far Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 obviously gutting but so many positives it's almost hard to be that angry. two good goals, clyne looks absolutely class, front three of puncheon, lallana and lambert looks very dangerous. davis and morgan did well. odd substitutions from nigel and poor defending cost us the game. ho hum. very impressed once again with saints though. Absolutely this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ART Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Game after game Adkins skews up a magnificent team performance, flow of play and takes off our best players, allows our opponents to get on top. Why oh why, can't he leave the team playing a blinder and spoil it all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Who? Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 We're a good team - we won't go down: we will keep improving. Proud of the performance. Adkins is a very good manager, but made mistakes today. So many positives! Onwards and upwards. Like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint Billy Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 I don't want to have a go at NA but if Lambert, Lallana and Puncheon were injured or dead on their feet then fair enough BUT those substitutions played a big part in the final outcome today. Have to agree with that, I have so much time for NA but the subs he made were outrageous to say the least. Why oh why remove our 3 best players from the game............major mistake! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Under Weststand Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Right had my moan, now the positives. There were some fabulous performances today SRL outstanding Lallana was a match for anyone. Special mention to Puncheon he was fantastic today Spiderman had a great game to. Ward Prowse doesn't look out of place either. We have hope but need to transfer that into results pretty soon. Lets be realistic we weren't likely to have many points after the first four games, but we need to start picking points up against Villa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mulletsaint Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Didnt follow the game, just got back from my youngest's christening. Was this a case of Fergie Time ? Bit concerned by some of the comments on here, sounds like the manager lost the game by a strange tactical switch and it seems we've received further confirmation of our defensive/GK weaknesses, if it were ever needed. Sounds like we put up one helluva fight and were good going forward though. TBH it's mainly a case of people being initially gutted at a last minute turnaround against ManU and as you say you didnt see the match. On the whole we were superb and for much of the second half we were bossing things. Two bad passes by Davis, a slip by Clyne and a really bad decision by Jos for the pen. Yes mistakes were made and none more so than Adkins' subs but we need to remember that virtually all of our squad and management have never played at this level. The main thing is to learn from these mistakes and I know Adkins at least will do so. If we're still making these mistakes at Christmas we'll need to worry. To run the two top teams in the country this close is not to be understated and for me this performance was even better than the City one and I hope this is a good sign moving forward. We aren't going to face that level of quality every week but we need to maintain our overall high level of performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badgerx16 Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Um.. taken the lead perhaps. But holding it, no. Let's not have a pedantic argument - we held the lead but failed to retain it until the final whistle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suomi Saint Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 To be honest, Nigel's judgement is starting to concern me. He should man up and tell Cortese to stick to his job. The substitutions came from "upstairs" I reckon. It's not hindsight as some have suggested. I shook my head in real time at ALL 3 substitutions. I'm so angry right now because the boys played out of their skins. Ward Prowse was amazing for a 17 year old, and Puncheon/Schneiderlin were just superb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOSaint Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 I just hope these two capitulations are just a part of the learning curve, our 2005 relegation was built on conceding late goals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohio Saint Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Game after game Adkins skews up a magnificent team performance, flow of play and takes off our best players, allows our opponents to get on top. Why oh why, can't he leave the team playing a blinder and spoil it all? No credit for the magnificent team performance in the first place then? You are saying that he was brilliant, then made a mistake. All the attributes of being human. Get over yourself, and just accept that sometimes, people have to learn from their mistakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niceandfriendly Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Absolutely this although i also forgot to mention JWP. boy have we got a talent on our hands! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thedelldays Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Adkins lost that game for us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badgerx16 Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 When does the loan window end? need good defenders ASAP There isn't one for Prem teams Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctoroncall Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 similar things were being said about Swansea and Norwich last season. It took Swansea five games to score a goal. Norwich didn't win a game until the end of September. Both ended up fine and while it doesn't necessarily follow that we will emulate them this year it's still early to panic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfc1976 Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Obviously willing to give Adkins a fair degree of goodwill given what he has done for us, but he lost us the game. The players he took off were the best for us because they offered us an outlet to take the pressure off. Without them we were trapped in our half, and with players of United's quality and defenders as poor as ours, we were asking for that. Staggering incompetence really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St Marco Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Exactly there are some huge positives. To be so close to winning a game against both United and City shows how far we have come. We are still progressing and going in the right direction. We have brought in some decent players and hopefully they will make that difference that we need. We are a very good side and we need to remember that. Adkins is learning and i'm sure won't make many mistakes. Our season really starts after the Arsenal game. It would of been nice to have won the Wigan game but there is still a long long way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mulletsaint Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Right had my moan, now the positives. There were some fabulous performances today SRL outstanding Lallana was a match for anyone. Special mention to Puncheon he was fantastic today Spiderman had a great game to. Ward Prowse doesn't look out of place either. We have hope but need to transfer that into results pretty soon. Lets be realistic we weren't likely to have many points after the first four games, but we need to start picking points up against Villa. All the players you mention were superb and punch was probably my MOM. JWP was outstanding in my opinion and his was an improved performance over that of the City game which is saying something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint_jas Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Not entirely sure why people are slating Kelvin for that - he saved a penalty FFS, and he can't really be blamed for any of their goals - he very nearly saved the first one. And what caused the penalty in 1st place an absolute ****e clearance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohio Saint Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Adkins lost that game for us Um, he nearly won it for us too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bristol_Benji Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Ludicrous substitutions. We played excellently, however that was one of the poorest managerial performances I've seen during a game in years. I've never been critical of Adkins before but today was simply ridiculous. Our 3 best players replaced by 3 who were lost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToreSF Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Strange to take off our three top performers, they must have been tired. Terrible zonal defending at the winning goal. We dont have the material at defense to use that kind of tactics, we should go for man marking from now on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohio Saint Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 E Our season really starts after the Arsenal game. I apologise for editing out the rest of your post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thedelldays Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Um, he nearly won it for us too. He lost it for us with mental subs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohio Saint Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 He lost it for us with mental subs So you don't credit him for taking the lead twice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CB Fry Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 He lost it for us with mental subs Yep. Although four of our back five probably not good enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Um, he nearly won it for us too. Starting to worry about Adkins cost us game IMO, puncheon was our outlet and srl great from corners, why put mayuka upfront and jay rod left? Fonte very poor again. Cortese will look at that as 0 points however well we played! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edmonton Saint Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 He lost it for us with mental subs Yep, you could see Lambert was knackered, so probably understandable that one, but should have brought on Lee for him as his workrate is what was needed. Puncheon and Lallana should have stayed on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint J 77 Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 (edited) A good performance again but still no points, very annoying. We can't keep playing well and have nothing to show for it. Hopefully the results will come but I'm not very happy this evening Edited 2 September, 2012 by Saint J 77 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stepgar Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 For all the people moaning about the Subs - OUR PLAYERS WERE KNACKERED!! AL had a perfect opportunity to close the ball down but couldn't - 2 minutes later he gets subbed. Punch ran and ran possibly his best game for Saints, RL I can understand the sub FWDS always get subbed, he was never going to be able to track back when required. UTD were always going to finish strong so I understand why the subs were made. I thought the LEE could have come on instead of Jay. Just my thoughts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadaSaint Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Very proud of the team - that's not a relegation side, and we still have players to bring in. Schneiderlin was superb, and Puncheon not far short, with others close behind. I don't but the "United didn't play" bullsh*t - they didn't get a chance to play. And I am now officially in the anti-Guly group. I don't blame him for the weak defensive header that led up to United's winner - I'd like to slap him for standing in the box after it, marking space instead of closing down the wide man who crossed it. He and Fox were stood there, marking nobody, like a couple of pussies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbyboy Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 The most telling stat for me is 8 goals conceded in first 3 games. That isn't form to get any points at all this year, let alone the forty we need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohio Saint Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Yep, you could see Lambert was knackered, so probably understandable that one, but should have brought on Lee for him as his workrate is what was needed. Puncheon and Lallana should have stayed on. I would have loved to see Lee come on too. A chance missed there IMO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dig Dig Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 similar things were being said about Swansea and Norwich last season. It took Swansea five games to score a goal. Norwich didn't win a game until the end of September. Both ended up fine and while it doesn't necessarily follow that we will emulate them this year it's still early to panic. People need to remember this. They won't though. Loads of teams start poorly points wise but go on to be fine. I've seen enough to feel like we're be ok if we keep playing our way. Not a time to bottle it now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotty Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 although i also forgot to mention JWP. boy have we got a talent on our hands! Just texted that to someone funnily enough, he had a really good game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Who? Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 I would have loved to see Lee come on too. A chance missed there IMO Lee should have came on to give us an option as we sat further and further back! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldNick Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Comic cut management by taking off RL with 15mins to go. Vidic and Rio must have yodelled. It took away height for defending as well. Jose is a liability twice he panicked in clearance and 1 resulted in a corner that led to a goal. KD needs to hoof the ball out and not be clever trying to bring others into play. We were very good in spells but I felt it was always coming especially after the bizarre subs and not doing the basic of pushing up in defence and pressing Scholes. A massive kick in the teeth and we need a bit of luck, it looked like we should have had a penalty in the ;ast minute. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint Martini Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Game after game Adkins skews up a magnificent team performance, flow of play and takes off our best players, allows our opponents to get on top. Why oh why, can't he leave the team playing a blinder and spoil it all? Come on, you think Manu getting on top was due to the subs Adkins made? They started pressing us back and after that Adkins replaced out wide players (fatigue perhaps) and Lambert to get more pace upfront. In all fairness they made very little impact but that had more to do with them never getting a decent ball because we were under so much pressure then them being awful. Individual mistakes cost us the game, nothing else. Clyne falling over (when he tries to head a ball he couldn't get near to instead of turning his attention to vPersie straight away. I'm not sure who was meant to pick up Ferdinand but that much freedom 8 yards out is comical, besides that Guly should have come out at Rafael more aggressively and earlier (he left Rodriguez two-on-one with Valencia and Rafael). Fonte made two mistakes in a row, first trying to volley away that cross when he had time and space to control his clearance and then not picking up vPersie. We played a very good match but we need to be able to defend better when under pressure if we're going to take points against the top teams. We won't be able to dominate matches from start to finish and even though Davis makes a good save on the vPersie penalty he was partly at fault for conceding it and he almost cost us another goal as well. Let hope we can play like this against the likes of Norwich, Villa & Reading. Do that and we won't relegate. Play like we did against Wigan in those matches and we're ****ed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CWD Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Some of our passing and moving is brilliant. Was really, really impressed with Punch, Lambert, S Davis, JWP and Lallana (again) but MOTM for me was Schniederlin. Immense today. Don't think he lost the ball once. Utd's defence couldn't deal with the movement of the front 3 and our midfield 3 absolutely dominated theirs. HOWEVER I'm concerned about our defence. I don't think any of Fonte, Hooiveld or Fox are consistent enough, which is concerning considering the lack of depth we have in this area. We have to cut out the silly mistakes which you get away with in the NPC, but the better teams will punish you, as they did today. NA's subs were poor, never seen Guly come off the bench and play well (and I'm not a Guly basher btw) and again today he should have closed the cross down better. Conclusion... Lots of positives, but lots to work on. we'll get there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidney Fudpucker the 3rd Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 NA got it totally wrong with the subs. Why is it that nearly every fan on here has been saying that we need an experienced GK & CB & we end up with a Japanese CB & a couple of young inexperienced keepers. **** £12m on one player. we've just demonstrated what happens when you don't address the real problem areas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint lard Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 If you are going to sub Lambert put Rodriguez in his place playing in his natural position. not out wide. One of Lamberts main attributes is holding the ball up,besides scoring,this is something that Rodriguez can do with great effect. whi did we buy him. he looks lost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOSaint Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 For all the people moaning about the Subs - OUR PLAYERS WERE KNACKERED!! AL had a perfect opportunity to close the ball down but couldn't - 2 minutes later he gets subbed. Punch ran and ran possibly his best game for Saints, RL I can understand the sub FWDS always get subbed, he was never going to be able to track back when required. UTD were always going to finish strong so I understand why the subs were made. I thought the LEE could have come on instead of Jay. Just my thoughts. OK point taken, but that doesn't explain why he didn't stick the players he put on in the right positions. Rodriguez should have been told to play up front and Mayuka out wide, as you noly need to take one look at Mayuka to tell he's not going to be winning any headers against the likes of Vidic and Ferdinand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glasgow_Saint Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Conceded 5 at home already this season! Only conceded 18 against at home all season in the champ...... Shows the step up. Very worried about KD - 8 conceded already, kicking has been very poor and as a last line of defense we are in trouble Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saintant Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Firstly, great performance going forward and really had them on the ropes until the substitutions. Thought until the three front men off we looked the more likely to score the next goal. Danny Fox is not up to it I'm afraid. Never got close to Valencia all game. If Luke Shaw has anything about him even at his young age he surely would do a better job than Fox. Ward Prowse is not looking out of place proving if you're good enough you're old enough. Fox is a complete liability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doggface Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 We were great in the main but same weaknesses remain. Fonte nowhere near the winner. Fox very exposed first half in particular. Davis kicking.... Jeez Key is this.... In championship l1, Adkins would get into winning positions then sit back and soak...usually won us games but in the prem you will get punished sitting back with world class players. City and utd, same story too deep. Cant wait to see Ramirez but we needed a top class cb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildgoose Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Adkins lost that game for us He also got us into the winning position in the first place! He's on a steep learning curve like the whole team. I thought the subs were strange but realised Lambert and Lallana may have run themselves into the ground. Puncheon being subbed was hard to fathom for sure. I could understand what NA was trying to do and if it had come off we would have said he pulled off a masterstroke! Brave brave decisions which didn't work...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mulletsaint Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 People need to remember this. They won't though. Loads of teams start poorly points wise but go on to be fine. I've seen enough to feel like we're be ok if we keep playing our way. Not a time to bottle it now. Exactly. Yep Adkins dropped a bollock but as I said he's learning too. We start getting on the team and manager's back this early after these opening fixtures and we'll deserve the inevitable car crash our season will become. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohio Saint Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 While I consider myself far from being a bedwetter or a conspiracy theorist, I am somewhat concerned that Cortese might be behind too many decisions regarding team selection. I have no real grounds to feel this way, but it certainly looks this way. Especially as I think there is little doubt that he is a major player in the transfer decisions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefuriousb Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 Strange to take off our three top performers Morgan, JWP & Davis all played the full 94 minutes. HTH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpine_saint Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 NA got it totally wrong with the subs. Why is it that nearly every fan on here has been saying that we need an experienced GK & CB & we end up with a Japanese CB & a couple of young inexperienced keepers. **** £12m on one player. we've just demonstrated what happens when you don't address the real problem areas. I am glad you wrote it and not me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ant Posted 2 September, 2012 Share Posted 2 September, 2012 That may not have been another famous win, but my word will it stick in the memory! Gutted for anybody that wasn't there today as for the most part the atmosphere was top notch. Had my head held very high on the walk home. Sure, individual mistakes eventually cost us but as a team we dug in well and played some lovely stuff. As much as I loved the players involved in our lineup last year, the way we've changed and added to the squad has given it the makings of a competent top tier team. For all the talk of United's mega away following we had them silent for most of the second half and it was only RVP's third that made them pipe up again. Let's face it, most realists fully expected that we'd struggle to pick up any points from the first 4 games. What I find heartening is the manner of defeat. OK, so that doesn't yield any points, but we've given both of Manchester's finest a decent scare and won't be playing teams of that calibre all season. We're playing with confidence and don't look over-awed. There was always going to be a harsh learning curve but I genuinely believe that we are beginning to adapt. We need to be more clinical when on the upper hand but that will come. Plenty of positives for Nigel to take forward and I hope that he's able to get those across to his players. As a final note, a massive "**** you" to all those that left at 2-2. Stay and support your team - or why were you there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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