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Cardiff 0 Saints 3 match reaction

Glasgow_Saint

By Glasgow_Saint,
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MotM vs Cardiff City (Away 2013/14)  

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  1. 1. MotM vs Cardiff City (Away 2013/14)

    • Gazzaniga
      11
    • Shaw
      4
    • Chambers
      0
    • Fonte
      6
    • Yoshida
      6
    • Cork
      3
    • Schneiderlin
      17
    • Davis, S
      34
    • Lallana
      88
    • Rodriguez
      126
    • Lambert
      7
    • Ward-Prowse
      1
    • Ramirez
      1
    • Gallagher
      1

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scorchio21

scorchio21

Posted
Posted

This was my first away game of the season and it turns out we picked a good one. Player performances as I saw them:

 

Gazzaniga 7 - Fantastic to see him finally put in an improved performance. He made a great fingertip save to tip it over the bar in the first half, and although it turned out there was an offside flag anyway, the crowd gave him some (maybe slightly sarcastic) support and he appeared to take some confidence from it. Shortly afterwards he made an impressive reaction save to shovel it round the post off a tricky deflected shot. He's still not a commanding presence in the area, at all, but did make several decent claims from dead balls and crosses. He does seem to have an alarming tendency to punch the ball vertically upwards, causing obvious havoc in front of the goal but got away with it today. Also he's clearly not comfortable on the ball, always seemed to let the striker close him down and the resultant distribution was mostly poor. He was the first to come over to the fans after the match despite being the furthest away, although we were a bit confused about what exactly he was trying to do - seemed to be trying to give his shirt to a specific person but failing.

 

Shaw 7 - Did the basics pretty well, but didn't get forward as much as he sometimes can, particularly in the first half when most of our attacks seemed to be down the right. But he did get forward more in the latter stages and produced a great run. He got clattered at one point in the second half in a 50/50 challenge and came out looking pretty groggy, hopefully there won't be any after-effects of that as we all know who tends to play if he's not available.

 

Yoshida 7 - A bit of a mixed performance by Yoshi. He seemed down on confidence in the first half and was largely responsible for Whittingham's golden chance. Passing exchanges between him and Gazza were like walking over a rickety bridge but we just about got through ok. He certainly seemed to grow into the match and made some commanding headers out of defence. In the second half he also put in a couple of superb tackles in dangerous situations. Should always be playing ahead of Hooiveld.

 

Fonte 8 - Jose showed how much we've been missing him. His performance here gave flashbacks of the first 8ish games and reminded us of how we at one point had the 3rd(?) best defence in Europe. Bossed the defence and ensured that their big Danish bloke could have very little impact in the second half. When necessary he put in perfectly-timed challenges to snuff out their threats. I didn't see any evidence of the 'knock' he's been carrying.

 

Chambers 8 - Clearly our best back-up player as on this performance he could be good enough for the first team. Defensively sound and he seemed to get forward a bit more than Shaw. The clearest aspect in which Clyne is still ahead of him is his crossing though. These were inconsistent, the first went over the bar and the second straight into the keeper's arms, but he did improve in the second half.

 

Schneiderlin 7 - He doesn't appear to be as influential on matches at the moment as he was throughout last season. Still a vital member of the 11 though of course and he was crucial as always in bossing the midfield and protecting the defence. It was his nicely-weighted through ball that put Lallana through for the first goal.

 

Cork 8 - Excellent performance by Corky today. He just seemed to be popping up all over the park, pressing, tackling strongly, winning the ball and starting attacks. He even had a decent shot on target from the edge of the area but unfortunately wasn't able to break his duck. IMO he's outshone Schneiderlin in at least the last couple of games and I'd be disappointed to see him dropped when Wanyama returns.

 

Davis 8 - Really commanding display by Davis and it's clear how he's become a mainstay of the side. He was pulling all the strings and linking up beautifully with Lallana and Rodriguez in particular.

 

Lallana 8 (MOTM) - He's quite simply unstoppable at the moment. Whilst never coming particularly close to scoring today, he was involved in virtually every attack and it was his composure and accurate cross that created the first goal. His skills and control are at times just ridiculous.

 

Lambert 7 - For whatever reason, Rickie doesn't seem to look quite as up for it at the moment as he used to. On the whole, it felt as though he was struggling to have much influence on the game, and yet you can't really argue against his smartly-taken goal and perfectly-weighted cross for Rodriguez to nod home. He largely seemed to be playing in a deeper role behind Jay-Rod until the latter stages, and I'm not convinced he's suited to that role. But with Jay-Rod performing as he is in the more advanced role, Rickie's probably going to need to find a way to fit into this system if he's going to keep his place in the team.

 

Rodriguez 8 - On the scoresheet again with two striker's finishes, he's currently showing that perhaps he is the natural finisher that I always believed he's not. Today he was timing his runs nicely and showed great positional sense to get in ahead of the defenders for his goals. He even showed an impressive work-rate which I thought was epitomised by a moment in the second half when he won the ball way back in the left-back corner, and a few seconds later was the man running onto a through ball around the halfway line that their defender could only boot into touch.

 

Cardiff put in one of the poorest performances we've played against this season, but it may have been a different story if Whittingham had buried his early chance. Other than that they didn't really have any clear-cut scoring opportunities. Heard very little from their crowd as well but I suppose that's to be expected when they're three-down fro most of the match. There was a nice moment of a sort of solidarity against egomaniac owners in which the Saints fans sang "You look better in the blue" and Cardiff responded with their chant of "Cardiff City, we'll always be blue".

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Roger

Roger

Posted
Posted
This was my first away game of the season and it turns out we picked a good one. Player performances as I saw them:

 

Gazzaniga 7 - Fantastic to see him finally put in an improved performance. He made a great fingertip save to tip it over the bar in the first half, and although it turned out there was an offside flag anyway, the crowd gave him some (maybe slightly sarcastic) support and he appeared to take some confidence from it. Shortly afterwards he made an impressive reaction save to shovel it round the post off a tricky deflected shot. He's still not a commanding presence in the area, at all, but did make several decent claims from dead balls and crosses. He does seem to have an alarming tendency to punch the ball vertically upwards, causing obvious havoc in front of the goal but got away with it today. Also he's clearly not comfortable on the ball, always seemed to let the striker close him down and the resultant distribution was mostly poor. He was the first to come over to the fans after the match despite being the furthest away, although we were a bit confused about what exactly he was trying to do - seemed to be trying to give his shirt to a specific person but failing.

 

Shaw 7 - Did the basics pretty well, but didn't get forward as much as he sometimes can, particularly in the first half when most of our attacks seemed to be down the right. But he did get forward more in the latter stages and produced a great run. He got clattered at one point in the second half in a 50/50 challenge and came out looking pretty groggy, hopefully there won't be any after-effects of that as we all know who tends to play if he's not available.

 

Yoshida 7 - A bit of a mixed performance by Yoshi. He seemed down on confidence in the first half and was largely responsible for Whittingham's golden chance. Passing exchanges between him and Gazza were like walking over a rickety bridge but we just about got through ok. He certainly seemed to grow into the match and made some commanding headers out of defence. In the second half he also put in a couple of superb tackles in dangerous situations. Should always be playing ahead of Hooiveld.

 

Fonte 8 - Jose showed how much we've been missing him. His performance here gave flashbacks of the first 8ish games and reminded us of how we at one point had the 3rd(?) best defence in Europe. Bossed the defence and ensured that their big Danish bloke could have very little impact in the second half. When necessary he put in perfectly-timed challenges to snuff out their threats. I didn't see any evidence of the 'knock' he's been carrying.

 

Chambers 8 - Clearly our best back-up player as on this performance he could be good enough for the first team. Defensively sound and he seemed to get forward a bit more than Shaw. The clearest aspect in which Clyne is still ahead of him is his crossing though. These were inconsistent, the first went over the bar and the second straight into the keeper's arms, but he did improve in the second half.

 

Schneiderlin 7 - He doesn't appear to be as influential on matches at the moment as he was throughout last season. Still a vital member of the 11 though of course and he was crucial as always in bossing the midfield and protecting the defence. It was his nicely-weighted through ball that put Lallana through for the first goal.

 

Cork 8 - Excellent performance by Corky today. He just seemed to be popping up all over the park, pressing, tackling strongly, winning the ball and starting attacks. He even had a decent shot on target from the edge of the area but unfortunately wasn't able to break his duck. IMO he's outshone Schneiderlin in at least the last couple of games and I'd be disappointed to see him dropped when Wanyama returns.

 

Davis 8 - Really commanding display by Davis and it's clear how he's become a mainstay of the side. He was pulling all the strings and linking up beautifully with Lallana and Rodriguez in particular.

 

Lallana 8 (MOTM) - He's quite simply unstoppable at the moment. Whilst never coming particularly close to scoring today, he was involved in virtually every attack and it was his composure and accurate cross that created the first goal. His skills and control are at times just ridiculous.

 

Lambert 7 - For whatever reason, Rickie doesn't seem to look quite as up for it at the moment as he used to. On the whole, it felt as though he was struggling to have much influence on the game, and yet you can't really argue against his smartly-taken goal and perfectly-weighted cross for Rodriguez to nod home. He largely seemed to be playing in a deeper role behind Jay-Rod until the latter stages, and I'm not convinced he's suited to that role. But with Jay-Rod performing as he is in the more advanced role, Rickie's probably going to need to find a way to fit into this system if he's going to keep his place in the team.

 

Rodriguez 8 - On the scoresheet again with two striker's finishes, he's currently showing that perhaps he is the natural finisher that I always believed he's not. Today he was timing his runs nicely and showed great positional sense to get in ahead of the defenders for his goals. He even showed an impressive work-rate which I thought was epitomised by a moment in the second half when he won the ball way back in the left-back corner, and a few seconds later was the man running onto a through ball around the halfway line that their defender could only boot into touch.

 

Cardiff put in one of the poorest performances we've played against this season, but it may have been a different story if Whittingham had buried his early chance. Other than that they didn't really have any clear-cut scoring opportunities. Heard very little from their crowd as well but I suppose that's to be expected when they're three-down fro most of the match. There was a nice moment of a sort of solidarity against egomaniac owners in which the Saints fans sang "You look better in the blue" and Cardiff responded with their chant of "Cardiff City, we'll always be blue".

 

Rickie wasn't off form today. Much better from him and Morgan was very good I thought. Shaw was better than chambers I thought.

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Ohio Saint

Ohio Saint

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Posted

I'm not gonna knock Gazza, not at all in this game, but it did make me smile when he made a save, then had to collect it from the air and ended up on the deck......Then he kinda held the ball out like a trophy and (in my imagination) and said "Look guys!! I caught the ball!!!" :)

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Ohio Saint

Ohio Saint

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Posted
Why do so many of our players miss games from being "ill"? Lovren's second away game in a month, Shaw has had a fair few. Seems to be something that is more of an issue these days? Over cautious from Saints?

 

I just put that down to a new terminology from the club. It could mean anything.

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Gemmel

Gemmel

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Posted
Why do so many of our players miss games from being "ill"? Lovren's second away game in a month, Shaw has had a fair few. Seems to be something that is more of an issue these days? Over cautious from Saints?

 

Regardless of who you are , any negative results from the tests we do and even if you are felling a bit under the weather.... you don't play. It is a 100% fitness or your not included.

 

This is entirely down to MP (Rightly or wrongly)

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sandwichsaint

sandwichsaint

Posted
Posted

Good stuff.

 

Oh for the joys of hindsight, sat in the pub before the game with a bunch of lads who were piling on Saints to win (10's 20's 50's!) on Saints to win 2-0, 2-1, 3-1, 1-0 (nobody had 3-0 though!). Couldn't believe what they were betting, I saw us getting absolutely Jack Sh from this game. The team is announced and all bets are off - no Lovren, no Davies, no Clyne.

 

As it was - probably the easiest 3 Premier league points you will ever see, Saints on the front foot from the off and we had too much for them in all areas of the pitch. Great to see so many players back on form, Yoshi back near last year's levels, Fonte a class apart, and Shaw back to his swaggering best. Morgan and Cork strutted the midfield as they reprised last year's form, Lallana unplayable for much of the game and Rickie looking back near his best. JRod enjoyed the freedom of the city while Davis roamed and prompted all day.

 

Sterner tests ahead but good to bank another three points,

 

 

Gazza 6 - much improved but a long way to go still. Kept Cardiff more interested than their general play deserved.

Chambers 7 - tidy show but he will have much sterner tests

Fonte 8 - imperious and not afraid to get down and dirty too, our most improved player?

Joshi 7 - back to last year's levels, mobile and aggressive, do or die defending but he still lacks quality on the ball

Shaw 8 - strolled through this, yep, an 18 year old strolling through PL football, scarily good.

MS 8 - back near his best, running, tackling, passing, he didn't stop from start to finish

Jack Cork 7 - great to see the old JC/MS combo in full flow; industrious and intelligent he kept us moving fd and never gave them a sniff.

S Davis 8 - WOW! For somebody that's always been a bit of a maker-up of numbers SD is rapidly becoming integral to the side - perfect for our set-up, runs all day and looks after the ball as well as anyone.

JRod 7 - right on his game, 2 great finishes and offered an attacking threat throughout,

A Lanalla 8.5 - has taken it to a whole new level - unplayable today, and so much of it is productive -not just a show pony, works so hard defensively as well.

RL 7 - much improved, linked well when he had it, sublime assist, clever (easy) goal, and chased and harried really well all afternoon.

 

Subs JW-P, GR, SG ... all came on and DAJFU.

 

Great comeback for Saints after a difficult run of games, fans good too.

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Zurichsaint

Zurichsaint

Posted
Posted
Why do so many of our players miss games from being "ill"? Lovren's second away game in a month, Shaw has had a fair few. Seems to be something that is more of an issue these days? Over cautious from Saints?

 

The hotel room hoovering team have had a couple of injuries, but we're hoping they'll be back up to speed in January...

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mcjwills

mcjwills

Posted
Posted
Why do so many of our players miss games from being "ill"? Lovren's second away game in a month, Shaw has had a fair few. Seems to be something that is more of an issue these days? Over cautious from Saints?

 

I think due to the high tempo of the game, 100% fitness is required to keep it up for 90 minutes, if not not 100% fit, your not risked as the weakest link is the one to break.

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Legod Third Coming

Legod Third Coming

Posted
Posted
Why do so many of our players miss games from being "ill"? Lovren's second away game in a month, Shaw has had a fair few. Seems to be something that is more of an issue these days? Over cautious from Saints?

 

In the Daily Fail article a while back it said they blood test the players every morning and can work out exact fitness levels (and whether they are even lying about how they feel, how well they slept). It was interesting that against Spuds Shaw tweeted that he felt fine but the club didn't want to 'risk' him.

 

This is what the fat man used to do at Liverpool. I think the reason it still seems to work for us is that there is one system from under-10 to first team so no matter who you perm they should know their job inside out (of course natural talent still counts for something so Lovren is de facto better in defence than Jos!!).

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krissyboy31

krissyboy31

Posted
Posted
Regardless of who you are , any negative results from the tests we do and even if you are felling a bit under the weather.... you don't play. It is a 100% fitness or your not included.

 

This is entirely down to MP (Rightly or wrongly)

 

Probably also decided because of the amount of games in a short period. Maybe if we had a full week till the next game, Lovren would have been risked and Shaw v Tottenham. At this time of the year teams have to use their squads, even if they are a little stretched, so leaving out the players that are a little 'under the weather' is the sensible thing to do.

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