Saints 1 Swansea 0

[Patrick Bateman]

Thing is near me is a few moany old bastards who have no excuse as 50/60+. Simple to think it is a new breed of fan but genuinely just think some just don't want to be happy. Just look at this place and imagine sitting near some of those cnts.

 

I hear you, but then they've probably spent 40/50 years going along and moaning. Some people just like a f**king good moan. I bet they still found something to moan about after we spanked Sunderland 8-0 ... "too much sideways passing" or "we'd have scored 10 if we'd signed xyz"

[doddisalegend]

Exactly this! Trouble is, it's easy to be negative and the sky/football manager generation want to either reboot the game to win or just expect to be Man Utd. Unfortunately the Dave Jones era started 19 years ago and we haven't played at the Dell for 16 years, so that's a huge generation gap that doesn't appreciate the 'position' of Saints in the football pyramid. Christ, it's now over 11 years ago we were relegated FFS.

 

As they just lost to Watford (worse team in the league according to some forum experts) I don't want to be UTD ta...

[View From The Top]

I thought it a piece of pi_ss win. Nice to have choices up front wen everyone is fit.

[New Forest Steve]

What an absolute WO space Clasie is OMG what a difference when Hooberg came on. If we had won 3-0 as we should have then would be no whinging

 

Clasie is toilet! Should be out the door to lightweight I drop stronger farts than him....

 

So what exactly did Clasie do wrong today ? Some idiots on here just love a good witch hunt, constantly picking on certain players. The ignorance never ceases to amaze me.

 

Jorde Clasie is a very capable midfielder and a big asset to the squad. He constantly makes himself available as an outlet for others, to receive the ball and move it on quickly and his distribution over distance is excellent. Sure, he can seem anonymous (but so can Davis) but that means nothing ..... doing the spectacular isn't his game. He's very underestimated and will get better and better with game time.

[The9]

Exactly this! Trouble is, it's easy to be negative and the sky/football manager generation want to either reboot the game to win or just expect to be Man Utd. Unfortunately the Dave Jones era started 19 years ago and we haven't played at the Dell for 16 years, so that's a huge generation gap that doesn't appreciate the 'position' of Saints in the football pyramid. Christ, it's now over 11 years ago we were relegated* FFS.

 

*from the Premier League - we managed one out of the Championship in 2008 as well. I'm also not sure they'll have forgotten us being in League One only 5 and a bit years ago - but appreciate your point about people just assuming we have some God-given right to win every game - though for 5 years we've won a LOT more than we've lost and we seem to have too many who just can't handle not being amazing every match.

[The9]

Tadic was brilliant I thought. Created so much and if people could finish would have had 3-4 assists.

 

To be fair he was up against Kyle Naughton second half, and he has been utterly stealing a living since he was at Spurs - we got three crosses into the box from that wing in the first two minutes of the second half alone.

[The9]

There is a reason Redmond's finishing was poor, everyone knows what it is!

I feel sorry for him actually, give him a run out wide where he is more comfortable and play Austin/Long down the middle.

 

Why oh why you bring on a proven goal scorer and have him play on the left of the three when the one who is centre of the three is a natural winger is beyond logic.

 

The reason was because Austin started in the left wing position, and ran up the wing to pull the full back out wide, Redmond went into the space he created and received the ball, then ran into the left wing position as Austin went into the box for the cross. It worked REALLY well a couple of times. When the ball went down Tadic's side he also played as a conventional target man.

[fanimal]

Steve, not a witch hunt at all, never would, I respect he is part of the team; but when you have seen Steve Williams, Nick Holmes, David Armstrong etc and see an anonymous non tackling non shooting backward passing clueless journeyman like JC you have to be allowed a little moan at the every least! And he sells so many of his passes short too! Truly awful today and all around me concurred.

[Heisenberg]

forgotten us being in League One only 5 and a bit years ago

 

Nobody has forgotten this, but alot of us choose not to obsess over a very short period in our recent history.

 

13 years ago we finished 8th and got to the FA Cup final

[SuperSAINT]

Watching the highlights. We look pretty slick.

 

Adding Boufal into the mix is going to unlock some defences.

[St_Tel49]

Let's hope Charlie Austin is finally starting to force himself into Puel's plans. 2 games, 3 goals and it looks like he's on a bit of a roll.

 

He does seem to have some odd critics on here, do they want us to score goals or not? If you don't pick Austin then who else is going to step up to the plate? JRod? Maybe. Redmond? Long? I don't think so.

 

Also so what if he's only lasting 40 mins?

 

If he sticks one or two in the net in that time and blows out then sub him for someone who runs a lot. We've got lots of then but only 1 natural finisher. Also if you pick Austin regularly his fitness and sharpness should improve.

 

I'd build around him, feed his strengths and the goals will flow.

 

I don't think that Charlie has any real critics. Puel is being criticised for not starting with him whereas, IMHO, Puel did exactly the right thing in bring him on against a tiring team where his relative lack of peak fitness is less exposed.

[St_Tel49]

Steve, not a witch hunt at all, never would, I respect he is part of the team; but when you have seen Steve Williams, Nick Holmes, David Armstrong etc and see an anonymous non tackling non shooting backward passing clueless journeyman like JC you have to be allowed a little moan at the every least! And he sells so many of his passes short too! Truly awful today and all around me concurred.

 

Yeah - Koeman, Puel and their coaching teams clearly know nothing . As it happens I thought that he had a mixed game today with one or two misplaced passes in dangerous location but he mostly played quite well including one shot which was actually on target, in contrast with the rest, and one peach of a through pass for Long

[New Forest Steve]

What an absolute WO space Clasie is OMG what a difference when Hooberg came on. If we had won 3-0 as we should have then would be no whinging

 

Steve, not a witch hunt at all, never would, I respect he is part of the team; but when you have seen Steve Williams, Nick Holmes, David Armstrong etc and see an anonymous non tackling non shooting backward passing clueless journeyman like JC you have to be allowed a little moan at the every least! And he sells so many of his passes short too! Truly awful today and all around me concurred.

 

Go on then, I'll let you have your little moan I still disagree. IMO all he's lacking is a run of games to really get going ...unfortunately for him there's a lot of competition for places in our midfield

 

btw I was about in the Williams days as well ... now there was a natural talent !! I used to love watching him, then he bu**ered off to Arsenal in his prime !! ..... some things never change

[Appy]

Looking straight at it from Block 41 - he made sure he fell over the outstretched leg of the defender who hadn't played the ball and was impeding his ability to get the ball as the ball was running out of play, not sure if there was contact, but there doesn't need to be.

 

He dived.

[The9]

Nobody has forgotten this, but alot of us choose not to obsess over a very short period in our recent history.

 

13 years ago we finished 8th and got to the FA Cup final

 

Indeed, but the point being made was that kids don't appreciate where we "usually" finish - but where we usually finish wasn't even in the Premier League within very recent memory, so compared to anything except a very short period in the early/mid 80s this is good.

[The9]

He dived.

 

He fell over a leg. On purpose.

[wild-saint]

strange comments on here.

 

i watched my team play well, create a bunch of chances and win. I also watched my team continue to get to grips with a completly new way of playing and start to look like a team. personaly im excited about this season. we are up and running in europe and the league.

 

what the **** is wrong with half of you in here?

[The9]

I don't think that Charlie has any real critics. Puel is being criticised for not starting with him whereas, IMHO, Puel did exactly the right thing in bring him on against a tiring team where his relative lack of peak fitness is less exposed.

 

Agreed, any criticism of Austin is from him looking ill-suited to something he probably shouldn't be being asked to do, and from the improvements in the fluidity of the team with him on the pitch today I think Puel has decided to find a way to play to his strengths when he's on the pitch - which I don't think anyone is expecting to be for all 90 minutes at the moment.

[John Boy Saint]

strange comments on here.

 

i watched my team play well, create a bunch of chances and win. I also watched my team continue to get to grips with a completly new way of playing and start to look like a team. personaly im excited about this season. we are up and running in europe and the league.

 

what the **** is wrong with half of you in here?

I think too many moaners base their views on regularly beating their 4 year old kids playing FIFA whatever the year is.

Also people should sit on rows A B or C and just see how different the game looks and the view of what the players actually see on the pitch, as opposed to the view most of us benefit from higher in the stands.

[Jonnyboy]

Lazy Motd commentator just called Bertrand "Redmond."

[The Cat]

Redmond MOTM according to Danny Murphy on MOTD. Also said great credit should be paid to Puel for playing him up front which is quite at odds with a few comments on here.

[wild-saint]

strange comments on here.

 

i watched my team play well, create a bunch of chances and win. I also watched my team continue to get to grips with a completly new way of playing and start to look like a team. personaly im excited about this season. we are up and running in europe and the league.

 

what the **** is wrong with half of you in here?

 

 

and another thing i meant to say and expect to get slaughtered for. i actually really like redmond in central role, misses aside i though he was awesome today.

[CB Fry]

MOTD raving about Redmond, man of the match by a mile, great recruitment by the club etc etc.

[Matthew Le God]

Redmond MOTM according to Danny Murphy on MOTD. Also said great credit should be paid to Puel for playing him up front which is quite at odds with a few comments on here.

 

That is because some Saints fans write-off the performance of a player on the basis of one or two events within the game and don't look at the game as a whole. Redmond apart from two very poor misses played very well today and Swansea struggled to cope with him running at them.

[Lord Duckhunter]

They did the same after the Sunderland game as well , but what do ex pro 's who are now pundits know compared to the experts on here . As someone said " everyone can see he's not a striker , except Puel". And Puel is only playing him up front because he's stubborn & thinks he's clever.

[S-Clarke]

They did the same after the Sunderland game as well , but what do ex pro 's who are now pundits know compared to the experts on here . As someone said " everyone can see he's not a striker , except Puel"

 

Too much is read into 'positions'. He plays in our attack, seemingly has the freedom to roam and run from the left, right and through the middle. He's instructed to get in the box when other's have the ball as the coaching staff/manager have obviously seen something there. It wasn't his day today finishing wise, but he is already a integral part to our attack and how it functions.

[petts]

Fair comment from Tadic hear, doubt it'll be listened to? http://www.tribalfootball.com/articles/dusan-tadic-urges-southampton-fans-to-be-realistic-4147178

F'kin bedwetter ?

Edited 18 September, 2016 by petts

[Hamilton Saint]

strange comments on here.

 

i watched my team play well, create a bunch of chances and win. I also watched my team continue to get to grips with a completly new way of playing and start to look like a team. personaly im excited about this season. we are up and running in europe and the league.

what the **** is wrong with half of you in here?

 

Par for the course. Has ever been so.

[Mr Biscuits]

A good performance as far as I'm concerned. I find it quite annoying to watch us pass back to Forster from the edge of their penalty box but en I just have to remind myself that we are actually keeping possession and just working it around calmly until something breaks for us. Having said that, Cedric had a couple of silly passes which nearly gifted Swansea. Tadic needs to be sure someone is there when he does yet another back heel.

Romeu was a rock in midfield, Martina did well when he came on playing in front of Cedric.

 

Redmond..... He's just not big enough to boss other players, works far better running at the defence or onto a through ball. Having said that I just don't get how or why anyone would hold the ball up when they are one on one with the keeper. That was frustrating and it wasn't just Redmond doing it.

Was it me or did they change to 4-3-3 at the end?

[Saint in NZ]

Much more fluid performance today. Finishing still a major problem though. Shocking miss by Redmond. Whichever way you look at it, only 4 goals scored in 5 games! Charlie the only recognised striker in the team (as it was today) and questions rage about his fitness. Rather than debate if he should start or come on as a sub, isn't the main concern about why, when he's had so long to work on it, he still isn't at peak fitness? Think the club owe it to the fans to be more upfront on the fitness of all its players, Rodriguez, Boufal etc. You guys pay for the tickets, I get to watch from a distance at a fraction of the cost. There should be an outlet for fans to question the officials directly.

[Singapore Saint]

My key take aways..

 

- Fonte didn't give away a penalty (although not through lack of trying)

 

LOL

[John Boy Saint]

Redmond MOTM according to Danny Murphy on MOTD. Also said great credit should be paid to Puel for playing him up front which is quite at odds with a few comments on here.

Hmmmmmm the same person who claimed Wayne Rooney is one of the best passers in the league, in the Watford analysis. That boat has sailed Danny Murphy.

 

Interesting that Redmond copped it in the ear off Long, Austin, Davis, and when he fannied about towards the end and decided to go on another fruitless selfish run, instead of passing to Davo to run it into the corner, VVD was giving him a prolonged tirade of stick.

The lad obviously has talent, just hope that someone is working to improve it because he is far from the finished article........ Just got to hope the Thierry Henry comment hasn't let all the Genie out of the bottle.

 

As for yesterday's game, thought we looked pretty good, and it's not that the other team is poor we are just dominating them. Just need to speed up just a little in the final 1/3 and get the ball in the back of the net, rather than the oppos given time to set themselves up to defend like Ice Hockey players

 

................... Looking at the last 2 results: think we might have played Watford at the right time ;-)

[JRM]

I thought we played well, clearly the better team and on another day could have been 5-0. The ref didn't give us anything in the first half and from my angle it looked like a penalty with the defender sliding in getting no where near the ball.

 

Decent noise from the Northam and Itchen north, I was in Kingsland centre for a change and the negativity of many fans did my head, booing, grumbling throughout, one old boy just shouting "get it forward" aimlessly. I like what Redmond offers us going forward but he does need to work at his finishing, with him and Long on the pitch you do feel we need several chances per goal which will cost us at times.

 

All in all an excellent week for Saints, it will be interesting to see what side we play against Palace would be good to get a run going.

[suewhistle]

Rather than debate if he should start or come on as a sub, isn't the main concern about why, when he's had so long to work on it, he still isn't at peak fitness?

 

This topic came up in the pub after the game and the tentative conclusion was that he _is_ looking a bit trimmer, and maybe he's similar to the example of Lambert who said he never took care of his body until he came to Saints. Remember he came from a dinosaur Redknapp team (!) and that Lambert progressed over our seasons going from L1 to the PL. Let's hope he progresses on that track. He's certainly strong enough, we know he can finish, so a bit of extra fitness and sharpness and carrying a few pounds less around can only be a good thing.

[suewhistle]

I hear you, but then they've probably spent 40/50 years going along and moaning. Some people just like a f**king good moan. I bet they still found something to moan about after we spanked Sunderland 8-0 ... "too much sideways passing" or "we'd have scored 10 if we'd signed xyz"

 

Back in the 70's we beat someone like Stoke 5-0 under the floodlights. The Guardian report commented on overhearing fans grumbling as they left the Upper West Stand after the match.. One of the first ever fanzines was called Junk Mail (as it had its genesis at The Junction Inn) and contained a column written by "Milton Whine", which riffed on exactly this theme!

[Heisenberg]

That miss from Redmond

[Sheaf Saint]

I thought we played well, clearly the better team and on another day could have been 5-0. The ref didn't give us anything in the first half and from my angle it looked like a penalty with the defender sliding in getting no where near the ball.

 

Decent noise from the Northam and Itchen north, I was in Kingsland centre for a change and the negativity of many fans did my head, booing, grumbling throughout, one old boy just shouting "get it forward" aimlessly. I like what Redmond offers us going forward but he does need to work at his finishing, with him and Long on the pitch you do feel we need several chances per goal which will cost us at times.

 

All in all an excellent week for Saints, it will be interesting to see what side we play against Palace would be good to get a run going.

 

Nope. It was a clear dive and the ref got it spot on. Long got a very heavy first touch (imagine that!) and realised he wasn't going to get to it before it went out of play, and you can see on the replay he was quite blatantly off his feet and going to ground well before any contact was made.

 

The disallowed goal though - that's another matter. Redmond was quite clearly onside watching the replay.

[Charlie Wayman]

I missed this game as on holiday somewhere in the Med. Reading comments on here we had a god match but people are still nervous. Two things fans need to bear in mind - according to many Swansea were a very poor side so do we only win against very poor sides? Of course not, they looked a poor side only because we made them look like a poor side. Remember how we"only" scraped a draw against useless Watford? Look at them now, not that poor at all flying high and thrashing Jose's all- conquering heroes. Get used to the idea that we are not at all a bad side. Finishing is an issue but we can't expect Austin to do it on his own, he just isn't fit enough to last 90 mins let alone start every game especially when we play three in a week. He may well feel frustrated but believe me the trainers will know more about his conditioning than we or he and we certainly do not want any passengers on the pitch who may cost us a sub after only 30 or 40 mins.

 

Let's enjoy the win and wait for the bigger picture to emerge, give Puel a chance and maybe after all we are in for one very big surprise this season?

[tajjuk]

Hmmmmmm the same person who claimed Wayne Rooney is one of the best passers in the league

 

Yeh not really sure that's a very outlandish statement, he has a huge range of passing, can cross well, finds good through balls, can switch the play etc.

 

Hence why he keeps getting played deeper to act as a playmaker.

[Lallana's Left Peg]

I think we played really well. I thought Swansea were poor but I don't think that's the reason we played well. I was impressed with everything we did bar the finishing, but I don't think it is a day to dwell on that too much. It could have easily been five or six. I didn't like the way we handed the initiative back to them after we scored but that happens so much in football it's like an accepted thing.

 

I was mostly impressed by the players mental resoluteness - it could have easily been one of those days but I aside from the frustration in front of goal it didn't stop us from remaining focussed at both ends of the pitch.

 

I spoke to someone recently who had a stint in the medical science department at Man Utd in their Academy. Apparently when you look at the stats of playing twice a week versus once a week then the increased chances of injury are far higher than most perceive so that is why a lot of Managers rotate. You also have to factor in fatigue which will impact a players performance as well if they play twice a week (depending on the amount of running their position demands). Rotation comes at a cost of momentum, cohesion and understanding on the pitch but over the course of a season it has massive benefits in terms of injury prevention. You just have to balance that against the overall quality of your team and the opposition to determine what to do each time. Some you'll win, some you'll lose.

[Sour Mash]

Nope. It was a clear dive and the ref got it spot on. Long got a very heavy first touch (imagine that!) and realised he wasn't going to get to it before it went out of play, and you can see on the replay he was quite blatantly off his feet and going to ground well before any contact was made.

 

The disallowed goal though - that's another matter. Redmond was quite clearly onside watching the replay.

 

There doesn't need to be contact for there to be a foul.

[lloydie]

Clasie is toilet! Should be out the door to lightweight I drop stronger farts than him....

 

We won and controlled the game comfortably bar our shooting and you moan at Classie? Nice.

[FriendlySaint]

So what exactly did Clasie do wrong today ? Some idiots on here just love a good witch hunt, constantly picking on certain players. The ignorance never ceases to amaze me.

 

Jorde Clasie is a very capable midfielder and a big asset to the squad. He constantly makes himself available as an outlet for others, to receive the ball and move it on quickly and his distribution over distance is excellent. Sure, he can seem anonymous (but so can Davis) but that means nothing ..... doing the spectacular isn't his game. He's very underestimated and will get better and better with game time.

 

Thought he played well. I thought all of our players played well, hence we were dominant for the whole 90. Just a shame Redmond can't shoot, because everything else he did was good.

[FriendlySaint]

A good performance as far as I'm concerned. I find it quite annoying to watch us pass back to Forster from the edge of their penalty box but en I just have to remind myself that we are actually keeping possession and just working it around calmly until something breaks for us. Having said that, Cedric had a couple of silly passes which nearly gifted Swansea. Tadic needs to be sure someone is there when he does yet another back heel.

Romeu was a rock in midfield, Martina did well when he came on playing in front of Cedric.

 

Redmond..... He's just not big enough to boss other players, works far better running at the defence or onto a through ball. Having said that I just don't get how or why anyone would hold the ball up when they are one on one with the keeper. That was frustrating and it wasn't just Redmond doing it.

Was it me or did they change to 4-3-3 at the end?

 

Swansea changed system to 4-4-1-1 when they brought Montero on for Ki. Not sure exactly what to call their system in the last 10 when Baston came on for Cork

Edited 19 September, 2016 by FriendlySaint

[Sheaf Saint]

There doesn't need to be contact for there to be a foul.

 

True. But in this case, Long quite obviously wasn't impeded trying to get to the ball. He knew he wasn't going to get to it so he tried to buy a penalty by falling over in front of the incoming slide instead.

 

Ref got it absolutely right IMO.

[Whitey Grandad]

True. But in this case, Long quite obviously wasn't impeded trying to get to the ball. He knew he wasn't going to get to it so he tried to buy a penalty by falling over in front of the incoming slide instead.

 

Ref got it absolutely right IMO.

 

That's how I saw it but I thought that a yellow card was harsh.

[ErwinK1961]

There doesn't need to be contact for there to be a foul.

 

Pretty much how Vardy won most of his penalties last year.

[stevegrant]

Not sure exactly what to call their system in the last 10 when Baston came on for Cork

A mess.

[sandwichsaint]

Well done Puel and well done players, two excellent results this week and it seems like the rotations/selections worked out pretty well in the end. Bigger tests ahead, Sparta and Swansea both v poor but we can go to West Ham with every chance of a positive result. We certainly seemed a bit more coherent yesterday than in the previous home games and could (should) have won by three or four. Looking fd to seeing what we can do once Boufal comes into the team. Puel also seems to be using subs well both in timing and personnel.

[scotty]

Pretty much how Vardy won most of his penalties last year.

 

This.