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Saints 0 Spurs 2 Merry Christmas!!!


Ohio Saint

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To answer my own question from the match thread, it was Davis who gave it away for the first, not Clasie (Clasie slid in for one of the ineffectual challenges).

 

From memory, Clasie won that ball. It just kinda pinged off whoever it was he was tackling (I forget). Bit unfortunate really.

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Bullet point analysis:

 

We sold a spine of great players 2 summers in a row - that was unavoidable in the main as they had their heads turned.

 

With them went the team spirit that only successive promotions can engender.

 

Replacing with cheap foreign mercenaries has failed and there is a lack of spirit and character and leaders. Board take the rap for that.

 

The team aren't fit enough

 

The team aren't as good as we have been used to.

 

The academy is either being ignored or the conveyor belt of world class talent has shuddered to an abrupt halt.

 

Drop Wanyama but don't sell in Jan unless stupid money is offered - let him rot in reserves till summer 16 then sell.

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Why not they were two well worked chances and two top class saves !

 

Let's be under no illusions here. Spurs completely soft-pedalled the second half, and could've pushed for more goals if they'd cared to. Dembele and Eriksen drove through our midfield seemingly at will. We fluffed our two presentable chances, but we didn't deserve a draw and probably wouldn't have got one even if Mane and JWP scored.

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The first sentence is wrong. So didn't bother to read the rest.

 

Fonte was dire and culpable for the first. Cedric was dire and involved in both goals. Van Dijk very poor for the first. Bertrand poor for the second.

 

Losing the ball in the middle of the field opened us up and for the second Bertrand wasn't even in his position as he was caught forward and didn't get back. The back four is the least of our problems, midfield and up front is a cluster**** which then exposes the defence when the ball is turned over as it was time and again today.

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If what I have heard is true then expect a lot more of these performances. The management are struggling to maintain a cohesive squad unity, a number of players are disillusioned and Koeman's relaxed attitude has not been working.

 

We've become too easy to score against. Any half decent team just needs to wait until we make an inevitable mistake and coast home to an easy win. We could be due an embarrassing result on Boxing Day, but no matter because half our fans will be relishing the chance to give Walcott another round of applause.

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Losing the ball in the middle of the field opened us up and for the second Bertrand wasn't even in his position as he was caught forward and didn't get back. The back four is the least of our problems, midfield and up front is a cluster**** which then exposes the defence when the ball is turned over as it was time and again today.

Watch the Kane goal and tell me Fonte, Cedric and VVd weren't anything other than abysmal for it.

 

You can't say today there back 5 were ok.

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You really are a clown. You want to replace Pelle with Charlie Austin? I wonder why no other Premier League club has gone near him....

 

What about Jordan Rhodes - reckon he can do a job for us too?

 

You really are a clown. You want to replace Pelle with Jordan Rhodes? I wonder why no other Premier League club has gone near him....

 

 

How dare Batman have an opinion!! How bloody dare he!

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Watch the Kane goal and tell me Fonte, Cedric and VVd weren't anything other than abysmal for it.

 

You can't say today there back 5 were ok.

 

I didn't try to absolve the defence but the back four is the least of our problems. When a team is in possession in the opponents half and prematurely loses the ball to a quick counter attacking side the defence will often be out of position. Abysmal was Davis giving the ball away, Clasie, Fonte then VVD were naïve, Kane needed to be obstructed early on but all the tacklers didn't stay on their feet so missed their chance. The midfield and attack were the real problem with the exception of Clasie who looked a decent player.

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Austin had more goals in the PL last season than Pelle....

 

I watched him for QPR the other night, his movement and runs were very clever and he was a threat all night in the box with exceptional finishes for his two goals. A better finisher than anybody in this club.

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If what I have heard is true then expect a lot more of these performances. The management are struggling to maintain a cohesive squad unity, a number of players are disillusioned and Koeman's relaxed attitude has not been working.

 

Disillusioned in what way - they want to leave or not happy with the way things are being managed?

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I think our main problem is that we lack pace. Pelle, Tadic, Davis, Wanyama and Claise are 5 of our front 6 and they aren't quick. As Leicester and even teams like Palace are showing speed kills. We are trying to play tidy football which works in the first half hour when we're fresh, but falls away badly after that. While I know they are hard to come across, add a lighting quick player into the mix and I think we'll be a lot better for it.

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Does anyone remember that daily mail article (may have been Martin Samuel) that people went mental about on here? It said something like we may be defying expectations last year but we wouldn't get away with it if we carried on doing it? You have to say he called it superbly...

 

I remember the article well and he may be proved right, but I also remember he that he didn't offer one single piece of advice as to how we were supposed to stop players having their head's turned, wanting higher wages, and CL football.

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Everton managed it...

 

Yeah that's true, so far they have. I don't know what they're wage structure is but I suspect it's quite a bit higher than ours though. I don't think they had such a number of players wanting out at the same time either. I would have loved the board to say "no sale" back in Summer 2014, I think we could have done it with Lallana and Shaw for definite, Chambers too, but I wonder how many want-away players you can have in a side without it affecting the team spirit. I flip between thinking the board did what they could and had no choice - but at least got top dollar, to thinking they should have been tougher and kept the team intact. All I'm saying about the Martin Samuel article is that he didn't say what we should do to stop it happening - is it really as simple as just saying "no sale"? What about when a player won't extend the contract?

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Been back half an hour.Apologies to all who I informed this morning of a long awaited Saints win. My main point here is that Spurs were made to look good by yet another abysmal performance by most of our players.Both Spurs goals were gifts and apart from that didn't even bother to score more because they knew they could coast the rest of the game as we were so poor.If we get a good offer for Wanyama then snatch their hand off because as a midfielder he sure knows how to pass to the opposition.RK needs to kick some arse and sort out the mercenaries because I personally wouldn't pay their wages on that display today.Kevin is no Friend of ours.

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Try living in London.

 

Spuds have been crawling out the woodwork all season. going on about Saints being their feeder club for manager's, coaching and players.....although they all fail to name 4 players that have gone from Saints to Spuds in the last 20 years, because there isn't. They get very upset when our player's leave for big clubs.....and ermmm that's not spuds, even though they are bigger than saints.

 

What is even worse even Palace fans are getting on the band wagon....out last night with a couple of them and they going on about how Palace are going to be the next big club and they are going to break into the top 4 in coming seasons!!!!! What the **** they are only in their 3rd season in the premier and it's the first time they have lasted more than 1 season and now they are going to win the ****ing thing.

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I think our main problem is that we lack pace. Pelle, Tadic, Davis, Wanyama and Claise are 5 of our front 6 and they aren't quick. As Leicester and even teams like Palace are showing speed kills. We are trying to play tidy football which works in the first half hour when we're fresh, but falls away badly after that. While I know they are hard to come across, add a lighting quick player into the mix and I think we'll be a lot better for it.

 

Agree with this

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It may be time to promote Reed and Seager to the bench. For me Davis and JWP are a problem with lots of nothing. Wanyama is ill disciplined and isn't holding but all over the place not shielding the back four, he needs reining in. One last chance could be holding alongside Romeu with Clasie in the Davis role then if Pelle is picked (although I'd drop him and on reflection play Mane up the middle) with a choice of Mane, Juanmi, Tadic and Long.

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Why are so many people choosing now to point out that Wanyama can't pass the football? He is one of the least talented passes of the ball I have ever seen at this level and that was obvious from minute one of his first game. His passing isn't going to improve, not in the short term or the long.

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Been back half an hour.Apologies to all who I informed this morning of a long awaited Saints win. My main point here is that Spurs were made to look good by yet another abysmal performance by most of our players.Both Spurs goals were gifts and apart from that didn't even bother to score more because they knew they could coast the rest of the game as we were so poor.If we get a good offer for Wanyama then snatch their hand off because as a midfielder he sure knows how to pass to the opposition.RK needs to kick some arse and sort out the mercenaries because I personally wouldn't pay their wages on that display today.Kevin is no Friend of ours.

 

We were told by the brains trust on here that it is not (always) necessary to turn a profit or even recoup some of the transfer fee for a player - simply having their services for the entire duration of the contract is good value in itself.

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I can't be doing with this whole thread, but it's the same old thing I've said for a couple of months;

 

Confidence and belief. Our heads drop. As soon as we concede, our heads drop, and that's our issue.

 

It was tangible. Having gone two down, did anyone in the entire ground believe we were going to claw it back?

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I can't be doing with this whole thread, but it's the same old thing I've said for a couple of months;

 

Confidence and belief. Our heads drop. As soon as we concede, our heads drop, and that's our issue.

 

Clearly it's an aggravating factor; but it's not the root cause. We've played sloppily this season, even when on a good run of results; and our creativity/scoring problems date back to last season, when nobody was talking about team confidence. Quite the opposite.

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I can't be doing with this whole thread, but it's the same old thing I've said for a couple of months;

 

Confidence and belief. Our heads drop. As soon as we concede, our heads drop, and that's our issue.

 

Spot on. Very tough to turn that kind of ship around. Not sir I have seen the answer on here yet.

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I love driving home 200 miles after watching that pile of ****. In some ways it was worse than Liverpool.

Since the second half against Bompey we have been total rubbish.

Today Pelle, Fonte, Cedric, Davis, were poor. Wanyama & Tadic were appalling. Total rubbish. It's like playing with 9! Wanyama is simply not interested. He can't pass & now he's walking round the pitch disinterested. Tadic waves his arms round moaning yet can't be arsed to help in defence.

Pelle is getting fed up with no service & zero support from referees.

We have no pace or width without Mane. He was our only threat all match.

People moaning about Classie yet ignore just how poor Tadic has been for ages have clearly never played at any standard.

I wasn't Austin's biggest fan, but he would certainly give us more of a threat than what we have.

Redmond, Graham (wolves), Gray, Roofe, Townsend, would all add pace & width. I would even try & get Chambers back. Young English talent. Let's stop with all the overseas buys & either play the youngsters or invest in young British players.

Don't like saying it, but we need to be careful we are not headed into a relegation battle.

Simply not good enough IMHO.

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I think our main problem is that we lack pace. Pelle, Tadic, Davis, Wanyama and Claise are 5 of our front 6 and they aren't quick. As Leicester and even teams like Palace are showing speed kills. We are trying to play tidy football which works in the first half hour when we're fresh, but falls away badly after that. While I know they are hard to come across, add a lighting quick player into the mix and I think we'll be a lot better for it.

 

pace pace pace. we are flat, slow and offer no counter at all. long offers us that pace when he comes on and we look like we coukd be dangerous playing into the channels as in behind but he lacks any real technique.

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It was tangible. Having gone two down, did anyone in the entire ground believe we were going to claw it back?

 

Certainly not the players. And there in lies the problem. No character or bottle in the team to turn it around when things are against us. No leaders on the pitch to rally them. Who boll+cked the back four for their school boy defending for the first goal? it wasn't just today either you never see a saints player tearing a strip of another for a mistake. It's almost like sloppy errors which lead to so many goals are a matter of course and absolutely fine. A good team spirt isn't all about being mates, it's about being able to raise players around you and if that means giving one of yours a roasting when they need it then so be it. I don't see this happening at all.

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Clearly it's an aggravating factor; but it's not the root cause. We've played sloppily this season, even when on a good run of results; and our creativity/scoring problems date back to last season, when nobody was talking about team confidence. Quite the opposite.

I think its a significant factor, hence my post.

 

We're not a bad team, weren't a bad team today.

 

But I've never seen a Saints's side struggle going a goal down, psychologically, like that.

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Oh Big Vic, was my favourite player the last two seasons, but now I have lost faith - just as he has.

Davis... has become Telfer and Jermaine Wright - lots of effort, very little real talent.

Positives - Clasie improving each game, ditto Cedric and Gazza.

We need a striker, a central creative goal scoring attacking midfielder (not an easy find!), start playing Romeu and (much as i love him) a commanding leader at centre back to replace an increasingly fallible Fonte.

 

But Merry Christmas one and all, it's a crazy season and a few wins can change everything. Keep your spirits up, we'll be OK and hopefully an exciting couple of signings in January and it's all rosy. As another poster pointed out, we're only 8 points off a champions league spot!

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I can't be doing with this whole thread, but it's the same old thing I've said for a couple of months;

 

Confidence and belief. Our heads drop. As soon as we concede, our heads drop, and that's our issue.

well my head will drop at the hammers with all the alcohol I'm going to have ,so theirs better not,coys

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It may be time to promote Reed and Seager to the bench. For me Davis and JWP are a problem with lots of nothing. Wanyama is ill disciplined and isn't holding but all over the place not shielding the back four, he needs reining in. One last chance could be holding alongside Romeu with Clasie in the Davis role then if Pelle is picked (although I'd drop him and on reflection play Mane up the middle) with a choice of Mane, Juanmi, Tadic and Long.

 

Little harsh on Davis. Lots of people being hypocritical about him - seems he has a blinder and is MoM one game, bringing energy and creativity, and the next he's some ageing donkey who lets the game pass him by. Perhaps though his inconsistency is the thing that's bothersome.

 

Not exactly like he's alone in that regard, tho

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Disillusioned in what way - they want to leave or not happy with the way things are being managed?

 

The second. Some believe the managerial style is too relaxed and others are getting away with not pulling their weight. Maybe Koeman's comments after the game mean this will stop.

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Such a shame after last season but you can't keep selling your best players and expect improvement. We've gone so far backwards and still plenty on this forum have their heads in the sand.

 

It isn't good enough.

 

Some have had their head in the sands all season. I always felt we would be in a relegation fight and we need to roll up our sleeves and start scrapping. Thank goodness we are out of Europe and the League Cup, I think we need an early exit out of the FA Cup and concentrate our energies on staying up. We are in for an exciting ride !

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