Saints v Chelsea Match Thread

[ericb]

Chelsea were very good as were their fans. If ever a side needed their own fans to step up and really get behind the team then yesterday was a good example but, once again, it never happened. It's a walk in the park for visiting sides at St Mary's. You don't have to sing, just make some noise, we attack the Chapel in near silence, bizarre at a football match.

 

Romeu was really the only player to come out of that with good marks, beaten by the better side but we're better than yesterday's performance. Bounce back against the Italians.

 

Couple of things here about the supports, Chelsea where loud but also has a bus load of tourists with them, one of whom spent the whole first half filming the game (and himself) on his iPad.

 

As for our support something needs to be done about the lack of noise from the chapel. Ok the northam wasn't at it's best yesterday but the chapel is actually a joke and I know for a fact that the players aren't happy about how silent it is.

 

 

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[scotty]

Couple of things here about the supports, Chelsea where loud but also has a bus load of tourists with them, one of whom spent the whole first half filming the game (and himself) on his iPad.

 

As for our support something needs to be done about the lack of noise from the chapel. Ok the northam wasn't at it's best yesterday but the chapel is actually a joke and I know for a fact that the players aren't happy about how silent it is.

 

 

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I'm not disagreeing eric, but out of interest how do you know that as a fact?

[eddie]

The shame is that Chelsea went forwards over the summer and we have gone backwards due to complacency

 

your expectations are absurd

 

one higher league place every year from bottom to winning the league in 20 successive seasons?

 

success and going forwards isn't measured in terms of beating the best complete team in the league right now (liverpool also)

 

we've had some good results already this season, but better still is the fact our team has quality youth players, tries to play against the opponent (unlike Puel's predecessor, who wasn't a risk taker; setting up for the counter attack, playing 5 at the back even, balls into the big CF Pelle - not exactly the beautiful game is it...)

 

the club is financially better off than it has been in previous decades, and the club structure is such that we lose our head of recruitment and still manage to make some excellent buys two years later (granted they may have been on the map by Mitchell but anyway). we lose our 'best manager for years' and a new one seems to have found his feet already. we lose our best player Mane to a 'rival' (Saints are clearly the second favourites to the title), but redmond's excellent form, Tadic newfound creativity (for club and country) and a boufal goal of the season two hours of game time into his Saints career have given us more than hope that things can look up.

 

or are you saying that having players that would rather be elsewhere (mane, vw), who are driven by money (to china), with a manager that has no care for youth and prefers defensive football, is somehow a step up? if all you care about is league position then saints isn't the club for you.

 

but, as it happens, we will still have some great results this season, the kind that are talked about the whole week after at work and in the pub. we are playing inter milan at home this wk, as southampton. I feel more a part of the club now than I did 5-10 years ago, it has the balls to stick to its principles amid a culture of monetisation and the rest of it. good football, 9th in the league in a competitive table. we march on

[trousers]

Milan won't be the pushovers everyone are predicting.

 

I've not seen one post saying Milan will be a pushover, let alone "everyone". Thursday will be a difficult game. I think people are simply suggesting that Milan aren't as good as Chelsea, which is true.

[ericb]

I'm not disagreeing eric, but out of interest how do you know that as a fact?

 

Because it came out of the mouth of two of our most senior players, it's an issue for the whole team though and one that the club are bothered about too but don't know how to resolve.

[John Boy Saint]

Couple of things here about the supports, Chelsea where loud but also has a bus load of tourists with them, one of whom spent the whole first half filming the game (and himself) on his iPad.

 

As for our support something needs to be done about the lack of noise from the chapel. Ok the northam wasn't at it's best yesterday but the chapel is actually a joke and I know for a fact that the players aren't happy about how silent it is.

 

 

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Never been any different, I thinks it's in our DNA, Lawrie McMenemy always said that we were a quiet bunch as a crowd way back in his day, and that the players had to get the crowd going. He did say that once we get going we can be as noisy as anyone.

I think yesterday going 1-0 down so early just knocked the stuffing out if all of us fans and players.

 

As for the game, once again we slipped back into that too slow mode, and opting for the square ball rather than popping one over the top, for the likes of Redmond, Martina, and Bertrand to run onto, summed up towards the end when McQueen had acres of empty pitch to run into, had started on his way then had to check his run because Jose pretty much passed it square and by then behind him.

Once more the only player to cover himself in glory for us was Romeu who was superb all afternoon, Clasie has me scratching my head especially when you have the likes of Reed in the squadwho to my mind is far more dynamic and not scared of anyone he is up against (that said having run himself into the ground on Wednesday this one was too soon for him), just needs game time to get match conditioning, but ability wise I would be controversial and say Reed is the better prospect. Tadic is another to frustrate, first 5 minutes a joy to watch then pretty much vanished, I would have thought the arrival of Boufal would have upped his game.

 

At the end of the day Chelsea have a lot of expensive players on the pitch, and yesterday showed they have found their old selves again, after the blip of last season, and got an on paper result.

[saintadam]

Chelsea parked the bus and they are a quality team.

Two individual mistakes cost us, Davis terrible defending for their first goal. Martina for their second was even worse.

 

Well well, now its time to start picking up some serious points. Easier games ahead.

[rick1976.4.38]

we played well yesterday,only problem was Chelsea aren't the team of last season and played really well

five at the back and strangled us to be honest

we wont be up against a Chelsea every week,so the bedwetters get over it.

we r still a good team and that was a good game of football,if we had a hazard or a costa maybe the result would have been different.

onwards we go and up next internationalize,should be another good game,they r still struggling,so hopefully the chance to get a result against them.

[Charlie Wayman]

 

Whilst the warm up was the same it wasn't at the usual intensity or discipline. I think it was taken by a different coach.

 

Yep, noticed that as mentioned earlier. Also not all seemed well down there on the front bench. Dave Watson seemed to be ignored by Puel & Black, Dave is usually very active in the technical area but didn't show much at all yesterday whilst SG seemed to be calling the shots on subs as well. It was much the same the other night against the Wearsiders. Hope that's not trouble brewing.

[sandwichsaint]

we played well yesterday,only problem was Chelsea aren't the team of last season and played really well

five at the back and strangled us to be honest

we wont be up against a Chelsea every week,so the bedwetters get over it.

we r still a good team and that was a good game of football,if we had a hazard or a costa maybe the result would have been different.

onwards we go and up next internationalize,should be another good game,they r still struggling,so hopefully the chance to get a result against them.

 

Slightly over-doing it to say we played 'well' yesterday. To beat Chelsea we need to have everybody at 8's and 9's and for them to have a bit of an off-day, the way they played yesterday the result was never in doubt from their first goal onwards. As it was we had most of our players at 4's and 5's, we looked tired and leggy with lots of slow possession and lots of poor decision making and quite a few unforced errors, obvs we did play well in short bursts but no real penetration or end product. The 'well' bit was that we stuck at it, rode our luck, and didn't get hammered! Could easily have been 0-3 or 0-4.

 

Chelsea were very good, we had a collective off-day, didn't really see that one coming. Hopefully we can get back on it on Thursday but the fans need to be patient, a gritty 1-0 will be a great comeback from Sunday.

[Saint_clark]

Really the amount of times CA put his hand up for Martina , to pass the ball. And for him to totally ignore him, then pass backwards. Or the numerous times, he could of swung over the ball, and didnt. And the one time he did we nearly got a goal!. Or his poor positioning and lack of pace to get back. Well done CA & OR for saving his arse!! Perhaps you were watching a different game to us!!!

 

That's not Martina, that's the team. We seem so afraid of passing it forwards or attempting switch balls sometimes, even when players are in acres of space on the opposite side.

This refusal to play the ball then leads to the forward players giving up on making runs.

[Wes Tender]

Really the amount of times CA put his hand up for Martina , to pass the ball. And for him to totally ignore him, then pass backwards. Or the numerous times, he could of swung over the ball, and didnt. And the one time he did we nearly got a goal!. Or his poor positioning and lack of pace to get back. Well done CA & OR for saving his arse!! Perhaps you were watching a different game to us!!!

 

Did you read my post correctly? I made no criticism of Austin and praised him for getting the ball in the net, unfortunate that it was so marginally offside. I made no mention of Martina either, although I don't disagree with your assessment of his part in the game. So if you read my post again, where do you disagree with my opinion?

[Sour Mash]

That's not Martina, that's the team. We seem so afraid of passing it forwards or attempting switch balls sometimes, even when players are in acres of space on the opposite side.

This refusal to play the ball then leads to the forward players giving up on making runs.

Agreed, we don't play the early ball often enough. Austin made plenty of runs in the first half without it getting played through to him.

[St Louis]

Personally it felt a little weird that we had lost a game, even against one of the 'big boys', so I think this shows how far we have come as a club.

 

We have been on a fantastic run, the whole squad have been playing well, the manager has us playing a great style of football... can we just brush this one under the carpet and move on for now, no need to panic

[100%Red&White]

Never been any different, I thinks it's in our DNA, Lawrie McMenemy always said that we were a quiet bunch as a crowd way back in his day, and that the players had to get the crowd going. He did say that once we get going we can be as noisy as anyone.

I think yesterday going 1-0 down so early just knocked the stuffing out if all of us fans and players.

 

Well, that just says we're mostly not very good 'supporters', reasonable attendances but more 'spectators'. Support from Northam/Kingsland end of the ground was lively first 10-15 minutes yesterday, but that early goal just shows how fragile the home support is. The other end of the ground just come across as a bit shy and polite. Renaming the 'Chapel' may be a start. Our 'support' certainly didn't help matters yesterday, a lot of our players have come from the continent where support is far more fervent these days, they must scratch their heads at the lack of encouragement from the stands.

[doddisalegend]

Well, that just says we're mostly not very good 'supporters', reasonable attendances but more 'spectators'. Support from Northam/Kingsland end of the ground was lively first 10-15 minutes yesterday, but that early goal just shows how fragile the home support is. The other end of the ground just come across as a bit shy and polite. Renaming the 'Chapel' may be a start. Our 'support' certainly didn't help matters yesterday, a lot of our players have come from the continent where support is far more fervent these days, they must scratch their heads at the lack of encouragement from the stands.

 

 

We've always been the same we sing when we are winning. The early goal pretty much killed any atmosphere from the saints fans. All around crap afternoon really.

[Fitzhugh Fella]

I've not seen one post saying Milan will be a pushover, let alone "everyone". Thursday will be a difficult game. I think people are simply suggesting that Milan aren't as good as Chelsea, which is true.

 

Prior to the away fixture the prevalent view was Milan were not interested and we would win. Ok not everyone are saying the same now but have see. Quite a few "we should win" comments.

[DT]

We are very good until the last third. We need more directness, and a striker who is a 'natural' poacher/goalscorer. But Chelsea were very good. PS Forster, close your legs

[tajjuk]

They were set up for shut out and got the early goal that meant they could just do that. It will be a blip, we won't beat every team especially ones as good as Chelsea, hell I reckon we'll have a good chance of beating them away when they are expected to be more on the front foot.

 

We should take heart from a team like that coming to St Mary's an essentially coming to park the bus, but the team needs to expect that, we won't get treated as the plucky underdogs anymore, the big teams know we can hurt them and outplay them because we have for the last 3 years. So won't expect many teams to come to St Mary's to try and out play us.

[Saint86]

We've always been the same we sing when we are winning. The early goal pretty much killed any atmosphere from the saints fans. All around crap afternoon really.

 

Well, we sang our hearts out once they scored, and continued to make a lot of noise for the next 15minutes before chelsea grew into the game.

 

By that point it was clear than bar a major feck up we had lost.

[Saintandy666]

It was good to get down to a match as I haven't been able to see as many live as I used to, so it was nice to be back in that sense.

 

Shame about the result. Chelsea were just too good - very effective side who scored two early goals in each half and then shut us down. Yes, we had the possession and the ball, but they closed us quickly and didn't enable us to do much with it. It wasn't the funnest game to watch, but Chelsea were very effective in their plan. We'll have better games and more chances going forward. I didn't think we looked terrible at all - so I'm very confident of a top half finish once more. Looking forward to Thursday and Inter now!

[Saint_clark]

We've always been the same we sing when we are winning. The early goal pretty much killed any atmosphere from the saints fans. All around crap afternoon really.

 

Not always. League One we always used to belt out OWTS after conceding a goal until we got one for ourselves.

[Baird of the land]

One of those frustrating games where you wonder how things would have panned out of they hadn't of got the early goal.

Hopefully the team can bounce back and get revenge against inter midweek.

[warsash saint]

PS Forster, close your legs

 

& then lets in Costa's shot later in the 1st half

[derry]

2nd time this season we have conceded the first goal in a game due to Davis ball watching and not going with runners, and then making half hearted attempts to recover by dangling a leg. Not good enough for a player of his experience

 

Both goals were avoidable. Davis is milky and doesn't make enough effort to get in tight. Often he fails to mark up, waving an arm at others as if that's enough. Unfortunately the fact we have to provide two midfields each week means that Davis and Clasie are a compromise. Hoijbjerg with Romeu and one of the others would probably be our most effective midfield IMO. Yesterday only Austin put a real shift in up front but was outnumbered, Redmond and Tadic didn't really get into the box to help and Davis and Clasie both contented themselves playing comfort zone football in front of the Chelsea defence. With Bertrand and Martina not really performing we were really toothless.

 

Chelsea were prepared to mix it physically but we didn't really get stuck into Hazard, Pedro and Costa and hassle them, they were allowed too much room. The game was lost by two well struck shots that were allowed by loose marking. Romeu was excellent and worked his socks off.

[mrfahaji]

I blew my top at Martina with about ten minutes to go when Boufal did well against a couple of their players on the byline, passed it back to Cuco who should have whipped one in. Instead he controls it, and gives the defender chance to get a block in on the cross, which they did. Then there was the pathetic defending for Costa's goal.

 

Chelsea nearly scored a second when Clasie lost it in the middle, and then turned to the ref claiming a foul instead of chasing back.

 

There were a few players not on their game (or perhaps nullified by Chelsea), but these moments can't help but stand out.

 

I thought we were decent for half an hour after they scored, I felt that if we kept playing that way eventually we would create some openings, but in the end we ran out of steam/ideas.

[DT]

I blew my top at Martina with about ten minutes to go when Boufal did well against a couple of their players on the byline, passed it back to Cuco who should have whipped one in. Instead he controls it, and gives the defender chance to get a block in on the cross, which they did. Then there was the pathetic defending for Costa's goal.

 

Chelsea nearly scored a second when Clasie lost it in the middle, and then turned to the ref claiming a foul instead of chasing back.

 

There were a few players not on their game (or perhaps nullified by Chelsea), but these moments can't help but stand out.

 

I thought we were decent for half an hour after they scored, I felt that if we kept playing that way eventually we would create some openings, but in the end we ran out of steam/ideas.

 

 

i fail to see what Clasie adds to the team. Can we not sell him to Everton?

[mrfahaji]

i fail to see what Clasie adds to the team. Can we not sell him to Everton?

 

I tend to agree. Davis was disappointing yesterday and was poor for the first goal, but he does carry the ball well, and is occasionally creative - when Tadic is off form or being double man marked, Davis is often our best creative source (which is a pretty damning indictment of our team, but still). Not sure I've ever seen Clasie do anything decent. I would say that yesterday when he went off we did seem a bit more open in midfield, but that was probably because we replaced him with Boufal who was obviously going to play further forward as we chased the game.