Leicester 0 Saints 0 - Post Match

[shurlock]

Yep, and five easy points thrown away against a half-hearted Chelsea and Leicester. Mike Dean contributed on Saturday but all SFC’s doing tonight. Lazy, slow, defensive, subs far too late and wrong, Hughes is not an answer. Hopeless owners, Chairman, players, Reed and Wilson.

 

Tonight showed Puel being sacked wasn’t the issue, it was hiring Mr Sleeping Tablets in the summer. Leicester will be down next year if they don’t make a change in the summer, they were shocking, almost as bad as Saints, who were diabolical, with a much better squad at their disposal, not least Vardy and Mahrez. Definitely problems there but their owners will replace Puel with somebody decent, unlike Reed.

 

Total nonsense. Leicester won't go down with Puel. For all his faults, hes much better than Pellegrino.

[Saints foreva]

Wonder which player will be spouting the usual PR ******** after this game?

 

PEH has been thrown out a fair bit recently so he may take a break.

[hasper57saint]

And there was me believing Pillockgrino cocked up his subs and Hughes has just gone and done the same thing. Charlie should have been brought on to play alongside Shane. Leicester are already on the beach and we didn't even burst their lilos.Hello Brum,Tractor boys et al.See you in September.

Edited 19 April, 2018 by hasper57saint
Mis spelling

[Baird of the land]

Wonder which player will be spouting the usual PR ******** after this game?

 

PEH has been thrown out a fair bit recently so he may take a break.

 

Davis the captain?

[sotonjoe]

Well, you’ve got to hand it to Les, finding a manager who would actually make us worse than Pochettino took some doing, but he managed to pull one out of the bag again.

[S-Clarke]

Yep, and five easy points thrown away against a half-hearted Chelsea and Leicester. Mike Dean contributed on Saturday but all SFC’s doing tonight. Lazy, slow, defensive, subs far too late and wrong, Hughes is not an answer. Hopeless owners, Chairman, players, Reed and Wilson.

 

Tonight showed Puel being sacked wasn’t the issue, it was hiring Mr Sleeping Tablets in the summer. Leicester will be down next year if they don’t make a change in the summer, they were shocking, almost as bad as Saints, who were diabolical, with a much better squad at their disposal, not least Vardy and Mahrez. Definitely problems there but their owners will replace Puel with somebody decent, unlike Reed.

The genuine reason as to why we have been relegated has been the constant ‘silent’ downgrading of our team, replacing with rubbish and going for cheap/clever managerial appointments. Puel, MP, both absolute garbage.

Ross and Les hang your heads in shame.

[monosaint]

Because there are more important things in life than a bunch of millionaires playing football.

 

I love saints but it is only a game

 

I am with you. More important things to worry about. Let's enjoy whatever ride the teams wants to take us on.

[ALWAYS_SFC]

Well, you’ve got to hand it to Les, finding a manager who would actually make us worse than Pochettino took some doing, but he managed to pull one out of the bag again.

 

Oh Dear....

[badgerx16]

Well, you’ve got to hand it to Les, finding a manager who would actually make us worse than Pochettino took some doing, but he managed to pull one out of the bag again.

Que ?

[Micky]

Well, you’ve got to hand it to Les, finding a manager who would actually make us worse than Pochettino took some doing, but he managed to pull one out of the bag again.

Been on the sauce...?

 

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[mrfahaji]

A point not enough really, but also felt like playing two up top when we were already losing the battle in midfield, and pretty much everywhere, would have handed even more control to Leicester.

 

Earlier in the season I felt like we had a good team, but when I look through the team today I’m less sure, especially when you factor in lack of spirit and fight. McCarthy, Cedric, Yoshida, Hoedt, Bednarek, Hojbjerg, Redmond, JWP, Davis, Tadic, Long. Would any of them look out of place in fellow relegation sides? Would we be clamouring to get them if they were about to be relegated with another side? Then you have players like Romeu, Lemina, Boufal, Gabbiadini & Bertrand, who have demonstrated obvious quality but are either too inconsistent or have been ruined by the manager.

 

I still firmly believe that a better manager than Pellegrino (I.e. any other human being) would never have had this group in a scrap, but I no longer look through the team on the pitch and wonder how these players aren’t doing better.

Edited 19 April, 2018 by mrfahaji

[shurlock]

And there was me believing Pillockgrino cocked up his subs and Hughes has just gone and done the same thing. Charlie shonild have been brought on to play alongside Shane. Leicester are already on the beach and we didn't even burst their lilos.Hello Brum,Tractor boys et al.See you in September.

 

Seems like he's overreacted after playing two up front against Wigan (where result apart we were poor) and Wham (where we were shocking). After Long went off, we lost any pace in the side to keep their CBs honest. He did rectify things with Redmond's introduction but by then it was too late.

[Suhari]

Gone with a whimper. Powder puff.

 

Was SO avoidable though, which is the frustrating thing.

 

I remember comments last year, from Blackmore, that players were frustrated by standards apparently slipping at the club. What are the standards now?

 

#thesouthamptonway #numbtoit

[S-Clarke]

Seems like he's overreacted after playing two up front against Wigan (where result apart we were poor) and Wham (where we were shocking). After Long went off, we lost any pace in the side to keep their CBs honest. He did rectify things with Redmond but by then it was too late.

 

It's a sad state of affairs when your only pacey options are Long and Redmond. When you look at it like that it's no surprise what's happened.

[St Marco]

Let's not scapegoat Hughes here. You may not like what he's doing or agree with his tactics, but he was handed a crap hand. There's very few managers who could've turned us around given the time and shyte he's had to work with. Not his fault at all.

 

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Couldn't disagree more.

 

Hughes is not to blame for where our club is. None of it is his fault.

But his job, the one he is probably getting paid a vast amount of money for is to keep Saints in the PL. To stay in the PL you need points correct? Not 'point'. Meaning we need to win games. You will not win many if any games with the tactics and team selection he put out today. I am sure most people would be understanding if we went for it and lost. But setting up the way we did the message was clearly don't lose rather than win. Which is the same as we had before.

 

Who knows if having another person up front would of made a difference but having people further up the pitch would have helped us to get forward. Our tactic was punt it up to Long and hope he can do something. That isn't going to win you anything...

[Disco Stu]

Well, you’ve got to hand it to Les, finding a manager who would actually make us worse than Pochettino took some doing, but he managed to pull one out of the bag again.

 

I yearn for the Pellegrino days to return... Such enthralling football.

[ART]

Taking off Long we absolutely feel apart. Austen was awful and Hughes decision to go with Bertrand as captain since he arrives had lost of true inspiration that the likes of Maya would have given us.

Add to all this the recall of Steven Davis sums up how we're letting chances slip away.

Why weren't Sims and McQueen involved?

Answer??? Probably cause Bertrand is influencing who's getting a game.

[mrfahaji]

It's a sad state of affairs when your only pacey options are Long and Redmond. When you look at it like that it's no surprise what's happened.

 

Especially sad as Redmond doesn’t even have pace.

[S-Clarke]

Especially sad as Redmond doesn’t even have pace.

 

Yeah, sorry. He's one of these players with fake pace! His pace is really a myth....he stops with the ball well though.

[patred44]

personally I thought we looked as if we had Sunday on our mind rather than the relegation fight..

[nta786]

on the plus side, stopped the losing run, and can the statistician tell me when was the last time we kept a clean sheet in the Premier League?

 

I am not even angry today as I was after Newcastle and WHU, I've told myself we are getting relegated and quietly warming up for a Championship season next year.

 

Yes, it is still possible to stay up, but the chances of me sleeping with Miss Universe is probably higher.

[Baird of the land]

Yeah, sorry. He's one of these players with fake pace! His pace is really a myth....he stops with the ball well though.

 

Redmond annoyed me. Had the ball in dangerous area of space near the edge of their box. Rather than shoot he shovels it all the way over to the left. Complete buck passing which is so rife in this team. At least sims would have tried to take them on.

[S-Clarke]

on the plus side, stopped the losing run, and can the statistician tell me when was the last time we kept a clean sheet in the Premier League?

 

I am not even angry today as I was after Newcastle and WHU, I've told myself we are getting relegated and quietly warming up for a Championship season next year.

 

Yes, it is still possible to stay up, but the chances of me sleeping with Miss Universe is probably higher.

 

Funnilly enough, it was the 0-0 at home to Stoke. An equally tepid affair. Which amazingly MP was still in charge of.

[mrfahaji]

Couldn't disagree more.

 

Hughes is not to blame for where our club is. None of it is his fault.

But his job, the one he is probably getting paid a vast amount of money for is to keep Saints in the PL. To stay in the PL you need points correct? Not 'point'. Meaning we need to win games. You will not win many if any games with the tactics and team selection he put out today. I am sure most people would be understanding if we went for it and lost. But setting up the way we did the message was clearly don't lose rather than win. Which is the same as we had before.

 

Who knows if having another person up front would of made a difference but having people further up the pitch would have helped us to get forward. Our tactic was punt it up to Long and hope he can do something. That isn't going to win you anything...

 

Is it not how we set up vs Arsenal and Chelsea though? Where we scored 4 goals?

 

It might have been an inept performance, but it’s very easy to draw conclusions from the result alone.

 

Perhaps the naivety was thinking that a formation which at least partly worked against top sides who have a lot of the ball would also work against a team that like to counter attack. Or maybe the mistake was thinking if our players showed the same application as they did vs Arsenal & Chelsea, we’d do ok against an “on the beach” Leicester. Yet we should all know by now that our players don’t maintain such a level in all matches.

[doddisalegend]

Good to hear the Leicester fans enjoy Puel football as much as we did though !

 

 

In fairness they should have won that game at a canter we were shyte.

[ozzyman]

I agree with almost everything that has been said, we are a mediocre team playing mediocre football mediocrely.

 

We cannot play blood and thunder football, it is not in the DNA of most of the players and the team as a whole. They think they are better than that.

 

All the clubs we are competing against down the bottom have some balls and are prepared to put it on the line. That's why they can get surprise results against the better sides and grind out wins against the lesser sides. Hughes seems to have quickly caught the Saints manager malaise of only playing one up front and pack the rest of side with defensive minded and predictable players. The real nail in the coffin was taking off Long for Austin, when all of us would have gone with both up front for the last 20 minutes. Christ ...we needed to win this game and Hughes seemed more concerned about holding onto a point. On that basis we might as well have kept Mope.

 

We are deservedly going down, the real shame is that it is with a whimper and really could have been avoided.

[SKD]

Taking off Long we absolutely feel apart. Austen was awful and Hughes decision to go with Bertrand as captain since he arrives had lost of true inspiration that the likes of Maya would have given us.

Add to all this the recall of Steven Davis sums up how we're letting chances slip away.

Why weren't Sims and McQueen involved?

Answer??? Probably cause Bertrand is influencing who's getting a game.

 

:lol:

[S-Clarke]

personally I thought we looked as if we had Sunday on our mind rather than the relegation fight..

 

Well they are still aiming for Europe remember.

[stknowle]

Redmond annoyed me. Had the ball in dangerous area of space near the edge of their box. Rather than shoot he shovels it all the way over to the left. Complete buck passing which is so rife in this team. At least sims would have tried to take them on.

 

Thought exactly the same. Had a chance to go at his man and shoot, totally bottled it.

[S-Clarke]

Thought exactly the same. Had a chance to go at his man and shoot, totally bottled it.

 

Standard Redmond, that's his game. He never takes people on. Non-player.

[LaptopSaint]

I remember thinking before the Newcastle game... chin up lads, three wins from seven should do it. We're now down to three wins from four. Sobering.

 

What are the odds on us needing to beat Man City on the final day to stay up? Maybe they could bring on Keane and Van Nistelrooy just to take the p1ss.

[pimpin4rizeal]

Never thought I'd be saying this but long is probably our most important player since Hughes has been in charge, once he went off we had zero pace up top. Not sure why hughes brought on Davies instead of a more pacy option like Sims or Redmond earlier either. If the pan was to bring Austin on you need some pace around him

[Baird of the land]

Let's not scapegoat Hughes here. You may not like what he's doing or agree with his tactics, but he was handed a crap hand. There's very few managers who could've turned us around given the time and shyte he's had to work with. Not his fault at all.

 

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Don’t agree. You can look across at Swansea who appointed a championship manager to see a manager how a manager can affect results. 1 point in 4, you might as well have kept pellegrino for that and not had to pay as much compensation.

[nta786]

Funnilly enough, it was the 0-0 at home to Stoke. An equally tepid affair. Which amazingly MP was still in charge of.

 

oh yes, how could I forget.

 

I daren't think when was the last one before that, must be 2017.

[S-Clarke]

Never thought I'd be saying this but long is probably our most important player since Hughes has been in charge, once he went off we had zero pace up top. Not sure why hughes brought on Davies instead of a more pacy option like Sims or Redmond earlier either. If the pan was to bring Austin on you need some pace around him

 

It's obvious to us all, which is why it's all so frustrating. Pace and power in this league is what gets you results, being able to get in behind and pull on the high lines operated by certain sides in this league. We have zero of either really, lots of nice passers, but no one with any ability to get in behind or down the sides which is why you often find us going backwards.

 

That's not a fault of Hughes but the fault of the recruitment over the last 2 years - and you also have to question how much of an influence MP and Puel had, as anyone with a brain could surely work out that we needed pace.

 

Put it this way, the only thing keeping us remotely competitive was someone like VVD at the back – quality player. So work this out, we sell him for £75m, don’t replace him and also don’t buy any attacking pace. It really is beyond parody.

[saint-crinny]

Whilst I've publicly been saying we're going down since December, I've always been clinging to the usual football fan shred of hope that we'd turn it round somehow.

 

Tonight ended that last bit of hope in a truly abject display that you can only say showed we've already given up this season. Watch us play well against Chelsea, ultimately lose, and then play terribly to go down with a whimper against Bournemouth.

 

To be honest, I'm done with this lot - clear out in the summer and actually get some players who play with a bit of fight and desire to be here and want to achieve, including a number of our younger players.

 

And really not sure Hughes is the man for us in the Championship - judging by tonight's bizarre subs.

 

This season has been a total shambles from start to finish, top to bottom.

 

And if we now somehow win the FA Cup, it will probably be my favourite ever.

[Batman]

Don’t agree. You can look across at Swansea who appointed a championship manager to see a manager how a manager can affect results. 1 point in 4, you might as well have kept pellegrino for that and not had to pay as much compensation.

 

Kind of agree. Another poor decision by Reed and co

[nta786]

Don’t agree. You can look across at Swansea who appointed a championship manager to see a manager how a manager can affect results. 1 point in 4, you might as well have kept pellegrino for that and not had to pay as much compensation.

 

yes you are correct there.

 

Swansea will stay up due to that positive managerial bounce. They won against both Liverpool and Arsenal on the trot, take those out and they'd be in the bottom 3. We haven't managed back to back wins yet all season I don't think.

 

 

Also, just wanna add Cedric who really should have whipped that ball in first time towards the end of the game when we had numbers in there, Long who should have scored when it fell for him luckily, and then in the first half when he had an absolute mare of a touch. That second half, we should have switched to a 352, Long and Austin up top with Tadic in behind, Romeu and PEH in CM. I am sorry Hughes, but Davis is NOT the player you need as an impact sub for a goal, he would maybe a good sub if we had the lead and need composure to see out a win. Like our previous games, a night of ifs and buts.

 

Also an honourable mention to Roger East, officiated well. It may have been different if we had him on Saturday and not Mike Dean.

[adysaint]

I'm actually feeling pretty positive - I did think beforehand it would be a draw. We struggled last 20 and I was happy not to get beat.

 

I also like having 29pts now. The multiples of 3 from there go nicer - 29 / 32 / 35 / 38 etc.

 

We will very obviously beat Bournemouth and then we'll see what we need to do from there.

 

I don't subscribe to the: "We've only won 1 game in x - what makes you think we'll win 3 games in y?" theory. Sunderland had done nothing to suggest that they'd get anything from the games they left a few seasons ago.

When you're in the poo poo anything can happen.

[maysie]

https://audioboom.com/posts/6819733-boss-mark-hughes-speaking-after-the-draw-at-leicester

 

Basically was scared of getting nothing from the game

[striker]

Hughes got it all wrong. Played the same "counter attack" team that worked against Arsenal and Chelsea, when he needed a much more direct team that can score goals (rather than just punt it to Long and hope). Should have went 2 or 3 upfront with Austin and Long.

[Saint86]

Be honest guys.

 

If we had attacked that Leicester set up with our players we would have lost.

 

You know it, and Hughes Knows it. He took the point.

 

Maybe it will be crucial. Maybe it won't.

 

But it is not Hughes' fault that we had to beat a Leicester side with 5 games to go. A side that are perfectly set up to hit on the counter (possibly the best in the league for this), and with a team that can't defend for toffee....

 

The point was a good one. We have Bournemouth, Swansea, Everton and City to go.

 

Get 3 wins. Or hell, even 7 points might do us.

Edited 19 April, 2018 by Saint86

[Saint in Paradise]

I read in the Daily Echo that quote "The Saints players trudge off the pitch and there are some very concerned looks from Les Reed and Ralph Krueger in the directors' box.

 

Finally at last they appear to realise what a pair of out of their depth idiots they have been for the past couple of years.

[Badger]

I'm actually feeling pretty positive - I did think beforehand it would be a draw. We struggled last 20 and I was happy not to get beat.

 

I also like having 29pts now. The multiples of 3 from there go nicer - 29 / 32 / 35 / 38 etc.

 

We will very obviously beat Bournemouth and then we'll see what we need to do from there.

 

I don't subscribe to the: "We've only won 1 game in x - what makes you think we'll win 3 games in y?" theory. Sunderland had done nothing to suggest that they'd get anything from the games they left a few seasons ago.

When you're in the poo poo anything can happen.

 

Not if you aren't prepared to attack they don't.

[saint77]

Be honest guys.

 

If we had attacked that Leicester set up with our players we would have loss.

 

You know it, and Hughes Knows it. He took the point.

 

Exactly this had we gone 2 up top Leicester would of smashed us

[Whitey Grandad]

I am with you. More important things to worry about. Let's enjoy whatever ride the teams wants to take us on.

 

It’s really not important in the wider scheme of things. Wherever you are tomorrow look around you and you will see plenty of people who don’t know about our predicament and just don’t care.

[Shroppie]

It won’t be a total disaster for the club and it won’t be anything like a disaster for me.

Get real.

 

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[shurlock]

Hughes got it all wrong. Played the same "counter attack" team that worked against Arsenal and Chelsea, when he needed a much more direct team that can score goals (rather than just punt it to Long and hope). Should have went 2 or 3 upfront with Austin and Long.

 

And we would have got smashed pal. Your little experiment ended at West Ham. Leicester have too much pace in their side, especially as the immobile Romeu was struggling all game. That's not to say we shouldn't have taken more risks at the end of the game -or indeed started the game with a back four. But of all the things Les Hughes got 'wrong', not starting Long and Austin isn't one of them.

[Shroppie]

The side seemed content to defend for a point towards the end, which seemed a little odd.

I don't think they were content, but Leicester came at us strongly once JWP went off, which was a mistake. Going two up front would have left us more exposed. No, I'm not happy with a point but it's better than none.

 

And yes, I was there.

 

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[DT]

Bunch of prima donnas playing for their next club, not ours. Not much any manager could do about that, but we sacked Pellegrino three months too late. Which is incompetence at board level. Time for the clean out.

 

 

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