Post Match Reaction: Chelsea 3-1 SAINTS

[70's Mike]

Osvaldo was disappointing running into blind alleys, taking lots of touches and making little attempt to try and put anyone else in on goal. He looks very much a Me Me Me every time type of player.

 

who is not as good as he thinks he is

[WokingSaint]

Those of you criticizing Gazaniga do not know what you are on about. He had no chance with either goal and did everything else competently enough. I hope Boruc can make Wednesday but if not I would have Gazza ahead of Davies every time. I would also bring back RL and re introduce Gaston - we are lacking creativity in the final third

[Wade Garrett]

Why give Osvaldo a hard time? He was unlucky with a chip, and hit another from range that was close.

 

He didn't get decent service today. Our passing was uncharacteristically sloppy and I thought Chelsea were excellent.

 

Get over it. We had an off day and were beaten by a decent team. To scapegoat Osvaldo is really unfair.

[OldNick]

Those of you criticizing Gazaniga do not know what you are on about. He had no chance with either goal and did everything else competently enough. I hope Boruc can make Wednesday but if not I would have Gazza ahead of Davies every time. I would also bring back RL and re introduce Gaston - we are lacking creativity in the final third

I really hope your confidence is well founded as we can't afford another Norwich performance

[Whitey Grandad]

How Oswaldo stayed on the entire 96 minutes I'll never know. Ricky should have been on before half time as Oswaldo was playing worse than any striker I've seen playing for the club. He was diarrhea. sheer diarrhea.

Pochettino got his substitutions wrong seeing the players he had on the bench. I thought Gazzaniga did remarkably well and was confident and composed. He wasn't at fault for the goals rather defensive errors that could have been avoided.

Losing today really hurt when one realises how close we were to success.

Reality strikes home but we won't go forward relying on players like Oswaldo and Gaston. What an absolute waste of money and someone ought to step forward and admit how wrong they were to sign such crap.

 

How can you describe Gaston a poor when he's not even playing?

[melmacian_saint]

I really hope your confidence is well founded as we can't afford another Norwich performance

 

Are we going to judge a player's ability by a mistake in a mid-week match in a freezing November evening at 19 years of age?

 

Bit harsh I think you'd agree?

[Dalek2003]

Dissappointing result.

 

Going to start tumbling down the league now, can't see us getting much against Villa or Man City either.

 

Those who thought this season wasn't going to be another battle against relegation have just got a reality check I think.

 

Far too early to say such things. The game against Villa is crucial. If we win this one i think we have every reason to finish mid table.

[kwsaint]

Reality check, but we are neither as bad as the wrist-slitters would have us, or as good as our hype. My guess is that we will finish in the top half this season, but outside the top 6.

[Sour Mash]

Tough game against a very strong team, we could have probably done a little better. CBs, Wanyama and Rodriguez played well for me.

[Tamesaint]

Disappointing but the last 2 games have been a bit of a reality check. We are a good team and should be proud of what we have achieved but we are not a CL team yet.

 

This is hardly surprising. Less than 3 years ago we were playing Dagenaham & Redbridge. I am sure that we are on the right path and believe the future is bright.

[shirleysfc]

Tough game against a very strong team, we could have probably done a little better. CBs, Wanyama and Rodriguez played well for me.

 

I thought Rodriguez took his goal well but gave the ball away a lot after that.

[OldNick]

Are we going to judge a player's ability by a mistake in a mid-week match in a freezing November evening at 19 years of age?

 

Bit harsh I think you'd agree?

It was not about 1 mistake it was his overall performance on the night. If Boruc is out and MP puts Gazzinga in, i will not be wishing him to fail , like some do in the hope to prove their point aka Osvaldo and others in the past

[Graffito]

Mourinho saying the win down to going 442 and pressing us as we play from the back. They are not the first team to play 442 against us. If only it were that easy to counter our system they'd all be doing it. Having said that their substitutions improved them and our enforced substitutions didn't improve us. More about quality from the bench than tactics.

[OldNick]

Osvaldo was disappointing running into blind alleys, taking lots of touches and making little attempt to try and put anyone else in on goal. He looks very much a Me Me Me every time type of player.

Apologies Derry my cheap shot about the Bolton keeper was out of order.

[BlakeySFC]

Boruc out for 6 weeks, we're absolutely screwed.

[wild-saint]

Boruc out for 6 weeks, we're absolutely screwed.

good to see that the resident skates return with a defeat or two.

[S-Clarke]

Boruc out for 6 weeks, we're absolutely screwed.

 

I guess that means we're getting relegated, yes?

[Fitzhugh Fella]

I am incredulous that some on here are having a go at Gazzaniga. He had no chance with either goal. I actually thought his distribution was better than Boruc's.

 

Plenty of pretty passing football but we never posed a serious threat to their goal. It was the same last week at the Emirates. We are in danger of admiring ourselves too much in the mirror. Gary Neville said it all during the commentary “no power”. We are good enough to give Arsenal and Chelsea a good contest but in reality, a lot of our football does not actually achieve anything in terms of making opposition goalkeepers work. Rodriguez sums it up for me plenty of promising running but no conviction or purpose.

 

Osvaldo has been a big disappointment for me this season. I know he needs a run but he has shown nothing more than Billy Sharp to be honest.

[James]

I am incredulous that some on here are having a go at Gazzaniga. He had no chance with either goal. I actually thought his distribution was better than Boruc's.

 

Plenty of pretty passing football but we never posed a serious threat to their goal. It was the same last week at the Emirates. We are in danger of admiring ourselves too much in the mirror. Gary Neville said it all during the commentary “no power”. We are good enough to give Arsenal and Chelsea a good contest but in reality, a lot of our football does not actually achieve anything in terms of making opposition goalkeepers work. Rodriguez sums it up for me plenty of promising running but no conviction or purpose.

 

Osvaldo has been a big disappointment for me this season. I know he needs a run but he has shown nothing more than Billy Sharp to be honest.

 

A good assessment of the game. Although I disagree that Gazza couldn't have stopped the third, I think that Boruc would have kept that out.

[sotonjoe]

I know he needs a run but he has shown nothing more than Billy Sharp to be honest.

 

When did you decide to start trolling? I missed that.

 

Good effort though. Certainly more entertaining than your 'books'.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Pugwash]

I am incredulous that some on here are having a go at Gazzaniga. He had no chance with either goal. I actually thought his distribution was better than Boruc's.

 

Plenty of pretty passing football but we never posed a serious threat to their goal. It was the same last week at the Emirates. We are in danger of admiring ourselves too much in the mirror. Gary Neville said it all during the commentary “no power”. We are good enough to give Arsenal and Chelsea a good contest but in reality, a lot of our football does not actually achieve anything in terms of making opposition goalkeepers work. Rodriguez sums it up for me plenty of promising running but no conviction or purpose.

 

Osvaldo has been a big disappointment for me this season. I know he needs a run but he has shown nothing more than Billy Sharp to be honest.

 

Pretty much agree with this. I had a different perspective from most of the Saints fans being high up in the West(?) stand. Wanyama actually held his own (often on his own) against some very physical challenges and still came out best. He made some crucial tackles as well. Yes, his passing can be wayward, but he also made a couple of 40-yard pinpoint cross-field passes. Probably best of a fairly mediocre showing. Clyne played well, but thought Shaw looked off the pace for most of the game, although he put in some good runs later on in the game. Osvaldo poor and looked lost. Rodriguez, although he took his goal well, ran into too many blind alleys. Second half, the Chelsea players seem to have been briefed to wind up Morgan, so perhaps best he went off, before being sent off.

 

Might be worth giving Ramirez a run out against Villa?

[redder freak]

Despite the 3 goals, I think the main thing that let us down was our attack. We looked a bit toothless and lacking in confidence. Osvaldo didn't seem to offer much. I don't think we've found the best way to play with him yet, a bit like Ramirez. We missed Lambert, who gives the attacking players the confidence we lacked today. Hopefully he'll be fully fit to start on Wednesday.

[James]

When did you decide to start trolling? I missed that.

 

Good effort though. Certainly more entertaining than your 'books'.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Rather than making a cheap shot, perhaps you could explain to us what exactly Osvaldo has done, bar score one goal against a very poor Palace team.

[Pugwash]

A good assessment of the game. Although I disagree that Gazza couldn't have stopped the third, I think that Boruc would have kept that out.

 

Had a very good view of the third goal from my seat. Ba's sharpness and movement in getting a toe to a ball that he shouldn't have got anywhere near to turned a slim chance into an unlikely goal and Boruc wouldn't have down quick enough for that shot, let alone Gazza. For me, that move summed up the difference between our strikers and theirs - both in attitude and ability.

[Wiggles31]

Simply we were poor they were great. We were playing away to title contenders but it was dissappointing as we really were dreadful. Eye opener that the 4th spot is totally beyond us this season. Bit of a top 4 lesson we received today. More concerned about the injuries tbh.

 

As frustrating Osvaldo was not any of our other attacking players did much more. Schneiderlin, JWP and Lallana had their worst games of the season.

 

Blue line that shiz.

[Mikey88]

Disappointing game yes but lets take stock. After 13 games we are ahead of Man united and Tottenham. We are 2 points of the CL places. Some of the histrionics on here are embarrassing. The ones moaning loudest seem to be the ones who tell us we are mid table at best. If that's the case then surely they cannot complain about getting beat by a team like Chelsea.

[Chap in the Chapel]

Four years ago today we were talking about a 1-0 home win over Wycombe in League 1. Today we've far from disgraced ourselves at the home of a recent Champions League winner, managed by a guy who has never lost a home league game with them. To anyone who is seriously upset about a 3-1 defeat away to Chelsea: have a good think and a strong word with yourself. This result confirms what any rational Saints fan could have told you after the Hull game - we're decent, and at times very decent, but we're not top four material. I'm quite happy with my pre-season prediction that at best we'll finish eighth.

[rick1976.4.38]

this was a defeat to a good Chelsea side,the first half we we were good,if we had got the second ,maybe things might have been different

second half Chelsea were far the better team,we were second best to everything.

theres along way to go before we can say we will be a cl team,we have been shown over the last two games,how big the gap is.

we are still a good side though

my biggest gripe today,our support.or lack of,really disappointed.shame on most of you,get behind the lads.this is aimed at the lower tier,the upper may have been good

[trousers]

When did you decide to start trolling? I missed that.

 

Good effort though. Certainly more entertaining than your 'books'.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Good evening "soton" joe...

[Jonnyboy]

Went for Wanyama. Maybe Jos shouldve started as with him in the team we conceded less against the best team in England.

[USA SaintsFan]

We just need a good result against villa and we'll be back on track. Nobody on this forum should honestly expect to stay in the top 6/7 for that much longer with the difficulty of our next 10 or so fixtures.

[AussieDog]

At the start of the season Chelsea were my prediction for the title (don't laugh...), mainly because of the "Mourinho effect", so I don't think we should be too disappointed to have lost.

We were definitely 2nd best most of the game though. Maybe scoring so early worked against us as I felt we didn't press from the front so much (or maybe that's just because we had Osvaldo instead of Lambert in?), and I thought a lot of our players seemed off-key. Lallana, JWP, Schneiderlin in particular.

I was hopeful for Osvaldo, but I am getting impatient to see him come good. I certainly don't feel he has added to our team so far.

Our passing didn't seem to have it's usual crispness about it either, and first touches were letting people down meaning we were taking longer to pass the ball on.

You could see the uncertain-ness creeping into defence once Boruc went off. Hopefully Gazzanigga will rise to the occasion in his absence but it could be the turning point in our season (unusually pessimistic from me). Disappointed if Schneiderlin has taken a knock that keeps him out although Cork is a very able replacement if required (although I have a feeling it will probably be Davis coming in for him). I would imagine Harrison Reed coming on to the bench as well for Villa.

 

2 games 2 defeats, but I didn't think we'd get more than 1 point from the 2 games anyway. Injuries (and possibly suspensions) are the worry now for December as we have a really busy schedule coming up. If we're top 6 come January it will be an impressive performance. We've got to start scoring a few more goals though!

[dubai_phil]

Felt the pace and movement of their front 3 gave us all sorts of problems in 1st half.

How they set up with Essien in midfield meant that our MF was trying to play balls in to our front 3 from much further away than usual.

Their pace at the back also nullified the runs of JRod, and coupled with JWP being just slightly off on his crossing/passing.

We did hang on well and apart from one Supertanker-esque turn by VW he had a fine start to the game.

Then after he got clattered (seemed a thigh injury) he seemed to vanish.

First half, Ramirez should have been booked for persistent fouling (the ref actually gave at least 4 Free Kicks against him so add the number that weren't given....) and then should also have been booked for diving.

 

Then start of the second half we seemed to get our tempo back and pinged the ball around for fun. We give away a fee kick and Clyne is ball watching in front of JT and we get blown away. Oddly although he had been rubbish, felt that the Chelsea shape at the start of the 2nd half helped us.

Looked good but again lobbed balls into the box against JT & Cahill then I don't care whether you are Osvaldo, Messi or Ronaldo combined you aren't going to get anywhere near the ball.

 

Overall the game showed we are still a great technical team. But to break into the top 4 we need to move that ball around even quicker.

 

We also (I hate to say it) need to cheat more as the amount of diving by Chelsea players was atrocious.

 

On the Gazza issue, does he have a left hand? Their goal was going away from him and would have needed a superhuman effort to reach it, BUT he may have had an extra few inches of reach & time without the mid air twist to try and get his right hand to the ball. (The "steal/save" he made off the top of a Chelsea head was - one handed).

Luckily he then showed consistency by not getting his arm fully extended again when beaten for the 3rd. Whether you can blame him or not for the goal it DID look like he didn't even try to stretch for it. Perhaps the grief would have been left if at least he had been full out?

Anyway he is all we have no loan keeper (except from Barca) is going to come in and play from the back comfortably so he's gonna have to get game time. Stand up & support him.

 

Now VERY concerned that it could take us a long time (early Feb) to get the next 18 points we need to guarantee safety.

Edited 2 December, 2013 by dubai_phil

[lordswoodsaints]

Four years ago today we were talking about a 1-0 home win over Wycombe in League 1. Today we've far from disgraced ourselves at the home of a recent Champions League winner, managed by a guy who has never lost a home league game with them. To anyone who is seriously upset about a 3-1 defeat away to Chelsea: have a good think and a strong word with yourself. This result confirms what any rational Saints fan could have told you after the Hull game - we're decent, and at times very decent, but we're not top four material. I'm quite happy with my pre-season prediction that at best we'll finish eighth.

 

There is always some mug that goes on about the past.....blah blah blah, 4 years ago, blah blah blah remember how far we've come

Give it a rest, leave the past behind where it belongs, this is the here and now it's time to move on.

[trousers]

@BBCSport: How did @chelseafc break down @SouthamptonFC's notoriously stingy defence? @RobbieSavage8 tells you how: http://t.co/LzcciwBuCm #CFC

[Chap in the Chapel]

There is always some mug that goes on about the past.....blah blah blah, 4 years ago, blah blah blah remember how far we've come

Give it a rest, leave the past behind where it belongs, this is the here and now it's time to move on.

 

lordswoodsaints:

"This thread is exactly why I would end my support for the club if it was run by the fans or if a fan was ever elected to the board, 99.9% of them are ****ing numpties and I include myself in that."

 

How true.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

The 0.1 per cent.

[CanadaSaint]

I can't help but think that scoring so early may have hurt us rather than helped us. It seemed as though the early lead caused us to - deliberately or unintentionally - abandon the pressing game we normally throw at the stronger teams. Generally speaking, they actually out-pressed us, put our back four under pressure, and made it difficult for Shaw and (especially) Clyne to be as quick to go forward as we need them to be. One of the keys for me was the disappointing performance of Schneiderlin, whose "heat map", I'd venture to suggest, was concentrated some 20 yards behind where it normally is.

 

I can't make up my mind whether we just came up short against a very good team, or whether Mourinho out-managed Pochettino on the day.

 

Osvaldo needs to do less fan dancing and more rolling his sleeves up when the going gets tough, but I'm not convinced that's in his nature.

 

And I wouldn't blame Gazza for either of the goals he conceded. It's pitiful that some people will post utter tripe in a vain attempt to prove they were right with some over the top opinion they posted months ago.

[trousers]

There is always some mug that goes on about the past

 

And there's always someone who goes on about the people that compare where we are now with the recent past

[lordswoodsaints]

lordswoodsaints:

"This thread is exactly why I would end my support for the club if it was run by the fans or if a fan was ever elected to the board, 99.9% of them are ****ing numpties and I include myself in that."

 

How true.

 

 

Yours sincerely,

 

The 0.1 per cent.

 

Happy to be quoted and I stand by every word.

What I don't agree with is people banging on about where we were a few years ago,why not go back thirty years to when we finished 2nd behind Liverpool in the old div 1,we probably would have won it if Steve Moran hadn't been injured for most of the run in?

I could go on and on dragging the past up if you like but it has no relevance to our situation today,we mix it with the big boys now and if you've forgotten we also had a 27 year stint in the top flight so why not bring those years up?

You will never be able to move forward if you get shackled to the past,I don't care what we were doing 2,3,4 years ago I care about what is happening today,the memories are still there but they are not going to help our situation today.

[Seany S]

I'm afraid that our enforced substitutions unsettled and weakened us whereas theirs gave them a new impetus (that's what you get with a big expensive squad!)

No disaster having plummeted to seventh ( just above Man U !)

We are still doing well, it's only the expectations that have changed !!

 

Voice of reason right there.

 

After the Ba goal went in, I threw a bit of a wobbly and stormed out of the room as us blokes are prone to doing. But then I thought about it - not many teams are going to get anything at the Bridge this season, and it is another difficult away fixture out of the way. All of the positivity and talk of a top four finish really has raised my expectations too high I guess!

 

Am not really sure how much more game time we can afford to give Osvaldo if he is going to play like he did yesterday. He was ineffective, even if the odd refereeing decision went against him.

 

There were a few positives about the game. I thought Shaw looked sensational at times. One moment where he shielded the ball to usher it out for a goal kick, all executed under pressure from the Chelsea player, and whilst sliding on his knees - was particularly impressive. The fact we were able to compete effectively for 50-odd minutes with a side that are going to be in with a shout of winning every competition they are involved in was heartening.

[Chap in the Chapel]

Happy to be quoted and I stand by every word.

What I don't agree with is people banging on about where we were a few years ago,why not go back thirty years to when we finished 2nd behind Liverpool in the old div 1,we probably would have won it if Steve Moran hadn't been injured for most of the run in?

I could go on and on dragging the past up if you like but it has no relevance to our situation today,we mix it with the big boys now and if you've forgotten we also had a 27 year stint in the top flight so why not bring those years up?

You will never be able to move forward if you get shackled to the past,I don't care what we were doing 2,3,4 years ago I care about what is happening today,the memories are still there but they are not going to help our situation today.

 

One sentence is "banging on"? Your post is looking for things I've not said. Looking at the past is essential for moving forward as experience informs prediction and analysis. My original post mentioned Wycombe as it just provides a little bit of context to remind those whose heads are seriously down because we came up short against one of Europe's strongest teams that we're still not too bad ourselves at the moment.

[Window Cleaner]

Well I'd have to admit to rarely having felt so deflated after a match, probably because of the euphoria of scoring after 13 seconds.

Felt Chelsea pushed us back with ther incessant driving forward from midfield and that Ivanovitch caused us to shift some of our midfield effort to a defensive role. Some very disappointing performances for me above all JWP, thought he looked totally out of his depth and of course Osvaldo. The injuries and substitutions didn't do us any good either and I fear that we're now in for a bit of a struggle if Morgan and Artur are out for long. It's pretty evident that Gaston will only get a game when he's the last bloke in the SO postal district with a pair of boots and I'm not as big a fan of the Academy set up as many are. Gazzaniga just gives me the creeps, contrary to some I thought a decent keeper would have done better with at least the third goal. All we need now is for Victor to get a yellow on Wednesday and we'll take the thumping of our lives next week-end.

[trousers]

So, a summary of the season so far then....

 

The equivalent of four draws away to Chelsea, Arsenal, Man Utd and Liverpool.

7th in the league 2 points away from a champions league spot

Joint fewest goals conceded

Above Man Utd and Spurs in the table.

The team who restricted Chelsea to least passes at Stamford Bridge this season.

The team who had more possession and shots vs Arsenal at the Emirates.

The only visiting team to walk away from Anfield with any points so far this season

 

Happy days.

[DT]

I thought Rodriguez took his goal well but gave the ball away a lot after that.

That's pretty much his game. Gets into good positions, then head down and too fast into a defender's foot.

[John Boy Saint]

The last 2 games have probably not been a bad thing for us, just gives us a reality check. It keeps everyone's feet on the ground after the mountain of sunshine that has been blown up our backsides by all quarters of the media over the past few months, Villa will be a tricky game as they will have smelt the blood in the water.

As has been said before we just don't seem to have the pace in attack that has been used against us these last 2 weeks, and this goes back quite a way, it's almost like we want to score the perfect goal but in setting it up the oppos are allowed to get into position to snuff us out.

If Boruc being out for 6 weeks is true then we need to get behind Gazza he was cold off the bench and yet looked happy enough, I expect being a nipper amongst a team of nippers makes him feel much more comfortable.

JWP just had a bad day at the office, Big Vic does increasingly looks to be a menace, Osvaldo seems to becoming another ex Serie A enigma. Morgan is a bit of a blow although Jack is just as capable in a different style (if it's serious enough) Luke Shaw looked good in places but I think he showed a bit too much respect to the Chelsea players he was in combat with almost to the point of being soft: but then we don't know how much what of the injury that saw him being subbed last week was still lurking.

Still at the end of the day we are on the first page of the league table, I am sure that if many of us had been offered 7th on the first of December a week before the season kicked off the majority would have taken it.

[Roger]

Villa game is huge, if we don't win then city at home is tough, Newcastle flying, spurs isn't a gimme, cardigans Everton away tough and then Chelsea at home. Could easily slip down the league rapidly if we aren't in our game. Beat villa and we will have a big boost and will show we have mental strength.

[shurlock]

@BBCSport: How did @chelseafc break down @SouthamptonFC's notoriously stingy defence? @RobbieSavage8 tells you how: http://t.co/LzcciwBuCm #CFC

 

In short, they played hoofball second half.

 

Was surprised how many headers Torres won against Lovren not just in the second half but all game.

[melmacian_saint]

Went for Wanyama. Maybe Jos shouldve started as with him in the team we conceded less against the best team in England.

 

I'm sorry???

[SaintSteve]

Simply we were poor they were great. We were playing away to title contenders but it was dissappointing as we really were dreadful. Eye opener that the 4th spot is totally beyond us this season. Bit of a top 4 lesson we received today. More concerned about the injuries tbh.

 

As frustrating Osvaldo was not any of our other attacking players did much more. Schneiderlin, JWP and Lallana had their worst games of the season. Blue line that shiz.

]

 

We controlled the 1st half so poor is totally inaccurate.. Chelsea will be top two this season so nothing to panic about.. however, I still have not seen us play well offensively without Lambert in the starting eleven; Osvaldo was poor and Rodriguez is highly frustrating. We need to try Ramirez in the hole as we are struggling to break teams down.

[Barry Sanchez]

Villa game is huge, if we don't win then city at home is tough, Newcastle flying, spurs isn't a gimme, cardigans Everton away tough and then Chelsea at home. Could easily slip down the league rapidly if we aren't in our game. Beat villa and we will have a big boost and will show we have mental strength.

 

I believe I have been saying similar stuff all season and have been made public enemy no 1 on here, the press will then have knives out for our system and then the poachers will come.

I will say it again for all to see and record, the only way we will ever finish in the top 4 on a consistent basis (this is what Cortese wants) is too spend similar amounts to City and Chelsea on absolute premium players, that will not happen and neither will our Champions League escapade, it is that simple.