Food for thought

[Saintru]

As we head into the international break it is worth reflecting on things so far.

 

Plenty of fans have sounded the bells of doom after defeat yesterday. However we have no define right to beat Norwich, a team who beat ManU and Arsenal at home last year, finished above us and have made some good signings. A poor decision and AL's shot being 2 inches nearer the keeper and we may have won. Would the posts still sounded gloomy? I doubt it.

 

I think we have made a solid if unspectacular start to the season, we look better at the back and don't look like getting hammered by teams, yet we have not created a lot either. 4 points represents a decent enough start. Some may be have hoping for more, but if we had lost to WBA on te opening day I am sure fans would be happy enough.

 

VM has been panned for his performance yesterday, but has otherwise played well, Merson was impressed with him on opening day, stating that a top 4 team should have come in for him. Let's face it he was outstanding against Barca last year, so he is not a bad player for one bad game. However MP needs to really think about his team. Will Dani and Rickie be able to play up top together? Having MS, VM and JWP in midfield may be a problem, are they all similar one paced players? Is this the right combination? By not having Shaw or JRod yesterday meant we were always going to be short of pace in the team, therefore the Norwich defence could hold a high line. MP has also seemingly got into a predetermined sub policy. AL goes off for GR and MS goes off during the second half. Yet AL was playing well in both his last games (certainly 2nd half Sunderland) and then taken off, this does not make sense. It is ok to have money to spend, but these players have to fit into the team and as fans have already said, Cork is an unlucky player, superb last year and Morgan is a shadow of himself next to VW.

 

We now lack a pacy winger to get beyond the back 4 and a creative midfielder to play that slide rule pass. Many years ago the late Alan Ball used to say that Saints could do with a player who can make that type of pass......several years on we are still searching for the player that can consistently open teams up with telling passes.

 

I think most pundits can see that we will be a decent team by listening to comments made. However a lack of goals from open play towards the end of last year and the begining of this year is a concern that MP needs to look at. If not it will be a case of many 1 nil wins and 1 nil defeats.

[CB Fry]

Could be a rerun of the Hoddle year.

 

Pretty darn tedious but we won plenty of games one-nil and generally very solid most weeks (Tranmere excluded).

 

Hello Dalek.

[paulwantsapint]

To be fair I would probably take a hoddle or WGS type season where saints get lots of clean sheets & 1-0 wins

 

Teams have lots of similarities

Solid keeper

Dominant cb

Flying lb

Hard working cms

Dangerous front line

 

Manager who doesn't speak English ( hoddle spoke hoddle, WGS spoke Scottish )

[WealdSaint]

A very fair summary