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Saints 1 Cardiff City 2 post match dissection

Crab Lungs

By Crab Lungs,
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sadoldgit

sadoldgit

Posted
Posted

How did we contrive to lose that? Cardiff are a very poor side but once again we have plenty of possession but don’t put enough pressure on their goal. We gave away 2 soft goals again, the second our not unfamiliar Keystone Cops defending from the moment Stephens gave the ball away. Ralph didn’t look a happy bunny for most of the match. Perhaps we should play all our home games away in future. We just seem pants at St Mary’s.

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Bridge

Bridge

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Posted

Ralph's first biggest mistake today was picking that starting 11... Why play Long against a team that was going to sit deep, completely pointless.

 

Second mistake was packing the midfield like that had no effect on the game what so ever. Game was slow as there was no outlet to pass to. The only chance was for a player to run at Cardiff which only came form Stephen's and Valery.

 

Third mistake was late substitution's and to bring on Moi what the f uck did he do? I didn't even see him touch the ball ffs.

 

We have gone completely backwards with this game as a team gutless performance by all...Go away and get your act together watch those video's and sort it out!!!!!!

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Batman

Batman

Posted
Posted (edited)
Arsenal away will suit us, we're so much better when we play on the counter attack.

 

The new manager bounce is over. We are another Swansea...

 

We are crap and cannot keep clean sheets to save our lives and now have Shane long leading the line

Edited by Batman
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Dark Munster

Dark Munster

Posted
Posted
Pretty shameful how we have thrown away three of the most winnable matches we had left.

 

We now go into a tough run nowhere near the points we should have on the board.

 

The laziest, most complacent, suicidal transfer window in our history may well just come back to bite us very badly. Sh ite.

I’ve been trying to come up with a word to describe our window. Suicidal fits perfectly.

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OldNick

OldNick

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I am trying to come to terms with thinking over a 12 game period are we going to get 1 or more points than Cardiff. Whilst today loses me some confidence in that, but I still think we will.

Finishing 8th under Puel wasnt so bad was it lol.

The little bits I here from the club tell me we have no money and tbudgets are being cut left right and centre.

'Trust in Les' leaving us wit Forster 80k pw CA 60-70kPw Boufal 50K Pw Eli 40K pw Carillo 40k pw etc etc etc thats where our transfer kitty is

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Saint_John

Saint_John

Posted
Posted

Totally BRAINLESS performance from a number of players today

 

Redmond spend the last 15 mins of the game arguing with everyone, the Chapel, the Ref, the Linesman, his own teammates after their no 3 got one over on him (pull back i think) and he ended up being booked.

Totally BRAINLESS from Redmond. He should have been taken off and we would have been better with 10 men, rather than him going around arguing with everyone.

 

After we scored I'm shouting DON'T give away any cheap free kicks because that is their tactics to pump Free kicks into the box (from open play they create very little) and what does Elyounoussi do. Slides into one of their players when he couldn't get the ball. The ball is then pumped into the box from which we fail to clear it.

Why, why, why give away a cheap Free Kicks that allow then to bring up all their Defenders !!!

Totally BRAINLESS from Elyounoussi

 

These are just 2 of the number of BRAINLESS performances from a number of players today.

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OldNick

OldNick

Posted
Posted
Totally BRAINLESS performance from a number of players today

 

Redmond spend the last 15 mins of the game arguing with everyone, the Chapel, the Ref, the Linesman, his own teammates after their no 3 got one over on him (pull back i think) and he ended up being booked.

Totally BRAINLESS from Redmond. He should have been taken off and we would have been better with 10 men, rather than him going around arguing with everyone.

 

After we scored I'm shouting DON'T give away any cheap free kicks because that is their tactics to pump Free kicks into the box (from open play they create very little) and what does Elyounoussi do. Slides into one of their players when he couldn't get the ball. The ball is then pumped into the box from which we fail to clear it.

Why, why, why give away a cheap Free Kicks that allow then to bring up all their Defenders !!!

Totally BRAINLESS from Elyounoussi

 

These are just 2 of the number of BRAINLESS performances from a number of players today.

have you got a mirror in your house? Take Redmond off and play with 10 men lol
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OldNick

OldNick

Posted
Posted
You didn't watch in the last 15 to did NOTHING but argue with everyone, Teammates, Ref, Linesman etc HIS HEAD WAS GONE !
Probably ****s on here were going to blame him, people sit in the background waiting to have a pop at him again once things are not going right
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jasoneuelllfanclub

jasoneuelllfanclub

Posted
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We were atrocious today. So static and lack of urgency. When Redmond is ineffective we offer nothing else. Ralph got it badly wrong today. To not sub long after an hour when he was even more hopeless than normal was bull****. That was the time to regain control of game. Bertrand was very poor. Seemed to wrestle oppo players to the ground everyone. Clearly lacked match fitness. Offered no pace.

 

Sent from my SM-A320FL using Tapatalk

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derry

derry

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Going down to 10 men after 72 minutes was a blow but I'm not sure the manager noticed because he did the same against Crystal Palace. Last week I defended Stephens because Crouch headed the ball onto his arm but his crass incompetent giving the ball away was ridiculous. The manager must take a great deal of the blame for today. If our tactics against spoiling physical teams parking the bus is forming triangles in our own half and passing the ball sideways only shoves the possession up to 67% we are not going to win many. Stephens was only still following the game plan.

 

When you play four at the back the wing backs become full backs that didn't happen. We bring on a 6' - 4" striker with a good finisher plus Redmond, don't start me on Elyanoussi. Hojbjerg was all energy, no subtlety and atrocious passing, for God's sake shoot man when you get the chance, no, take two more touches and lose the opening.

 

For goodness sake mix it up, maybe sometimes pass it to get numbers up and then play their game, stick the ball in the mixer and like they did fight like hell or get the wingbacks running out wide and get to the bye line with strikers and midfielders attacking the box. Passing for the sake of it, allowing opposition that want to funnel back and defend deep isn't going to cause them trouble. What's wrong with the original plan we were sold. Press the opposition and attack with pace.

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GazzerMaBoy

GazzerMaBoy

Posted
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Absolutely this, 100%, Bravo...!!!

 

I thought that the essence of the style of play that Hasenhuttl promised to bring, would be the high pressing game, players hunting in packs to dispossess the opposition high up the park, pressurising their defence into mistakes which we could punish. In short, the style of play that Pochettino brought us, which was fairly new to the PL at the time and taught to him as a disciple of Bielsa, who is currently revitalising Leeds. But even under Pochettino in his pomp here, there were teams who stifled his game plan by parking the bus throughout the match and then hoped to hit us with a sucker punch against the run of play from a set piece or the ball over the top. Neil Warnock is another wily old bird like Dyche last week, capable of a strategy to frustrate creative passing teams by allowing them to keep possession until they get to the last third of the pitch, and then closing the space down. The only realistic way to score against a defence like that is from set pieces, incisive defence splitting through balls, or shots from distance. Without Ings, or the likes of players like Tadic or Gabbiandini, we lacked the guile to create the defence splitting passes, or the players capable of anticipating when they might be created. On more than one occasion, the ball was slipped through and nobody was there, and it went out of play to groans of dismay from the stands. Tippy tappy dribbling in the box by Redmond or J W-P was ineffective, as they didn't have the space. Too often we were afraid to shoot from the edge of the box, and set piece balls into the box were ably defended.

 

As it should have been clear to Hasenhuttl that Cardiff would sit back and invite us to break them down, did we need the three central defenders? The extra player either in the midfield or up top would have given us more chance of winning the balls in the midfield and then breaking more quickly into their box. As it was, by the time we broke forward, their defence was packed. I'm afraid to say that this was like watching any typical game against the likes of West Brom or Stoke under Puel, the Clown or Hughes. After a bright start, as the match progressed, the sideways and backwards passes and throw ins became more and more frequent.

 

By half time, it looked already like a bore draw, neither side looking capable of scoring. But having scored first, Cardiff were even more likely to close up shop, waste time and frustrate us. Thankfully we equalised through Stephens and with enough time to go for it and maybe even gain all three points, except there are few teams out there at the moment less capable of defending at the end of a match. Stephens giveth and Stephens taketh away once more, giving them possession sloppily from which they went forward to score the winner. Their chances of breaching our defence had been increased by Hasenhuttl taking of Vestergaard and the excellent Valery (although he might have been carrying a knock). Once again, we conceded right at the death late in injury time, and the fans streamed towards the exit before the final whistle, deflated and dejected by a sub-standard performance against a really poor Cardiff, who had done the double over us.

 

There was some reason for optimism before the match when it was clear that we had Bertrand back, also Yoshida and Hojbjerg, but Armstrong was a big miss, as was Ings, so we lacked firepower up top. Long has if anything become a worse player recently. If he is incapable of scoring goals, at least he used to offer an outlet for the ball over the top, or 100% nuisance effort. Recently he has offered very little of either. As for Elyounoussi, what exactly does he bring to the team at all? Tadic would have brought something really positive and inventive and we miss him badly. I wouldn't be bothered if Elyounoussi never played another minute for us. Valery was good today, as was Bertrand and Redmond. The defence was generally OK, but the balance of the team was wrong, too many at the back, not enough in midfield or up top.

 

Having decided that we could ship out Gabbiadini and Cedric in the January transfer window and not replace them at all, we now look desperately short up top with Ings out, and potentially weak if we have injuries to Valery/Bertrand/Targett. We will at least have Yoshida, Armstrong and Lemina to add to the choices.

 

I still think that we have enough to keep us up, but it is typical of us to not capitalise against the teams around us and then to perform against the better teams. It is disappointing that Hasenhuttl got it wrong today, but I believe he will have learned from it and will make the adjustments so that we don't make the same mistakes again so easily. So they're off to a sunshine break at Tenerife. If it was me, I would have told them that the break there was a reward for if they played well, giving 100%, and that sorry lads, you didn't, so you're not going.

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Saint_John

Saint_John

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Probably ****s on here were going to blame him, people sit in the background waiting to have a pop at him again once things are not going right

 

I was sat in the Chapel only a few yards away from his MOANING and MOANING and MOANING. His head was TOTALLY GONE in the last 15 mins, just because their No3 got one over on him and he ended up being booked for it. As I said before we would have been better without him in the last 15mins.

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Lighthouse

Lighthouse

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Posted
You didn't watch in the last 15 to did NOTHING but argue with everyone, Teammates, Ref, Linesman etc HIS HEAD WAS GONE !

 

That was pretty much it for me, first time I've left before FT since Chelsea were 3-0 up here a few years ago (Was literally 5 seconds away from the exit stairs when Stevens, decided to stick around). With about 3 minutes of normal time left and a goal down, Redmond did a fantastic job of time wasting. A good 2 minutes spent arguing with the ref. Even talked himself into a booking, cracking job there. :thumbup:

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stevy777_x

stevy777_x

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Posted
So much wrong with today, but then the cast was set 3-4 years ago when we started selling any quality in the squad and bringing in sub-standard players. Officials were poor today too. Think it’s going to be real stretch now and IMO 70% chance we’ll go down.

 

Stop being pessimistic, there is nowhere near 70% chance that we will go down. If you really believe that, stick 100 quid and it will pay your season ticket for next year.

But obsiously you won't as there isn't a 70% chance that we will be relegated.

Some men are dramatic.

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stknowle

stknowle

Posted
Posted

That was awful. 1 star awful. Everything slow and ponderous and in front of an opposition defence given all the time in the world to be settled and organised.

On the few occasions we got into shooting positions we seemed too scared/too reluctant to try.

Carry on like that and this is only ending one way.

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OldNick

OldNick

Posted
Posted
Tell you what - These two couldv'e done a lot better than most our players today.
Yeah and I read on here that Hoj should be first name on the teamsheet and then today apparently he was rubbish. Cardiff came and did a job on us, I didn't have a good feel about today as all the planets seemed to be lining up against us.

We have made a simple job harder but we need to stick together . Cardiff have a united cause due to the tragic event, that will fade and they have now a lot of goodwill from the neutrals wanting them to stay up on the back of this.

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Chewy

Chewy

Posted
Posted

Today hurts on so many levels

1) Obviously lost to a relegation rival (and we're definitely in the mix now)

2) Cardiff didn't deserve anything from that game, they were dreadful

3) we were somehow worse. Sure we had more of the ball, but that's because we had spare players at the back to take the ball instead of up top where we might actually have hurt them

4) Ralph lost a bit of his sheen. We all know long instead of Austin was the wrong call, we all know elianonymous was a pointless waste of a sub, we all know 5 at the back left us short up top in a game we needed to win. Not only pointless but cowardly IMHO. And sure it helps Stephens look good by striding out from the back nicely, but when he can't defend and this play is instead of having another forward, it's rather pointless

5) our captain had a shocker. How many chances to shoot do you need? You have to take a chance, especially when our only 'goal threat' is Shane long

6) just shows how woefully inept we are up top. Our attacking and creative options are basically An injury prone ings , Armstrong and Redmond. With two missing we were always likely to be screwed. How on earth we ended up like this is something the board genuinely need to answer for. Austin can score but can't run, which you'd get away with in a game like today unlike Shane who can't score, and seems to have even lost the ability to run. How bad must Gallagher be to be behind these two? If he's genuinely worse, please sell him.

 

I'm sure there's some more. Horrible, horrible day and result. Doesn't mean we are down, but does mean we need a seriously quick turn around.

I really hope Ralph learns from this. Sometimes you need to be brave, there's no need for 5 at the back in some games. Quite frankly we could have 8 and it wouldn't make any difference with some of the individual errors. We must stretch teams who sit back, and if that means surrendering some possession theN fine. And please, never, ever, ever put mo on the pitch again. An utter waste of a footballer.

 

Couple of minor plus points. Thought Bertrand was fine for his comeback. Not amazing, but ok. Aside from Stephens, most of the defence looked untroubled until that final calamity (wrong end to know who was at fault in the box, obviously saw THAT pass!)

 

Thought Valery was probably motm. Not much to choose from obviously, but given his age I thought he was very good. Will be great in the championship ...

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Shroppie

Shroppie

Posted
Posted
Anybody mentioned Bertrand on here yet? I'm usually a great fan of his, but he didn't look match fit today - I think Targett would have offered quite a lot more today, especially as he has been played in most of the games since Bertrand has been out.
I'd agree. I don't think he offered any more than Targett. We also missed Armstrong badly. He's an intelligent player who can unlock packed defences and shoot well from distance.

 

Valery was excellent. He could be the next big thing. Apart from his disastrous pass out at the end, Stephens was good. Vestergaard and Bednarek didn't seem to do anything wrong, but the corner for their first should have been dealt with

 

Redmond I thought was well shackled and there weren't players around him moving to help him. After a couple of great games, JWP disappointing and Long really wasn't useful today. But Austin and Gallagher did no more when they came on. We are desperate for a striker. I hope two weeks will get Ings and Obafemi back.

 

In all my years of supporting Saints, I can think of few results that were more gutting than that. When we equalised I thought not good, but ok. Then kamikaze defending that I thought we'd seen the last of. Ralph had a job to do.

 

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

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doddisalegend

doddisalegend

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Posted

Went pretty much how I thought it would. Since Ralph has arrived we've done ok against sides who want to play and give us opportunities to win the ball high up the pitch and break on them. The last three games we've played teams who want to sit deep and either try to counter fast (like palace) or play for set pieces (like Cardiff and Burnley) in hope of nicking one or two goals. We've been found wanting because we just don't have the guile or skill, in the squad, to break down deep lying defences and we are always prone to defensive errors. For large parts of todays game Cardiff barely had a man in our half of the pitch and our players seemed to have no idea how to breach the blue wall.

 

 

The squad was poor before Ralph arrived and that lack of quality is still there. Ralph has them working harder and better organised but they are still in the main poor players. All of which makes the lack of January signings even more frustrating.

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Supersubpuckett

Supersubpuckett

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cardiff parked the bus, offered little threat but knew we can't attack or defend so waited for their moment or an error from us.

 

always been a fan of long for his industry and the trouble he brings to defences, but today he gave us nothing - just kept falling over.

 

redmond back to his headless chicken running around with no final ball

 

nobody wanted to shoot

 

we had no idea what to do once in the final third and our general passing was sloppy

 

a great illustration of the consequence of our approach to the transfer window

 

lost count of the number of opportunities (esp in first half) to get the ball quickly into the flanks for long or redmond to run on to but chose the stop and pause option, thus losing the initiative and allowing cardiff to re-group - reminded me of puel and mope teams

 

am thinking not to bother with a ST next season, if they can't be bothered to put their hands in their pockets then neither can i

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SaintTex

SaintTex

Posted
Posted

we have gave away 3 precious points in stoppage time in the last 2 games to Cardiff and Burnley.

 

It's these little things, these little moments that happen to teams who find themselves looking up at teams like Cardiff and Burnley from 18th place in early May.

 

troubling times.

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CB Fry

CB Fry

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I about three weeks we've gone from hopefully looking up the table and dreaming of a decent second half of the season to the thumping dreadful realisation that we are the same sack of sh it team we were under Pellegrino and Hughes.

 

The only thing we've got to celebrate is yay, yay, yay we've got rid of some players let's all high five each other and yay yay yay we're playing a cluster of a Championship at best level players but hero worship them because they happen to be young.

 

Hopefully we will still do enough to stay up, but losing to Cardiff home and away does not suggest we are capable of doing enough.

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Batman

Batman

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Posted
I about three weeks we've gone from hopefully looking up the table and dreaming of a decent second half of the season to the thumping dreadful realisation that we are the same sack of sh it team we were under Pellegrino and Hughes.

 

The only thing we've got to celebrate is yay, yay, yay we've got rid of some players let's all high five each other and yay yay yay we're playing a cluster of a Championship at best level players but hero worship them because they happen to be young.

 

Hopefully we will still do enough to stay up, but losing to Cardiff home and away does not suggest we are capable of doing enough.

 

Yep, agree

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The Cat

The Cat

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Posted

Ridiculous to let that goal in at the end. We'd snatched what could have been a crucial point. Just keep possession and see the game out.

 

Cardiff basically did what Palace did but the difference today was that they did it from the start of the game. It's the obvious tactics to use against us at St Mary's because we don't have enough creativity to break teams down and will always let a goal in because there's normally a point where we switch off at the back.

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