Saints 2 Norwich 1 - Reactions

[tajjuk]

You can never make assessments until everyone has played everyone, we had one of the hardest first 10-12 games out of anyone, pretty much for the rest of the season we have the easiest fixtures.

 

We are also going in the right direction whilst other teams like Bournemouth, West Ham, and Everton are going in the wrong direction with harder fixtures.

 

Starting to look more like a team as well and it looks like the team with a bit of confidence are buying back into the philosophy a bit more.

 

Hopefully we can now go pick up a point against Newcastle (who are no mugs it seems under Bruce), 3 wins on the bounce seems to be asking too much.

 

Just think as well we'd currently be 12th if we had held on at Arsenal. And we are amazingly only 6 points away from 6th FFS, if we manage to go on a run we could suddenly be looking at challenging for 7th, not relegation which is crazy to think about considering the results.

 

Ings getting injured is a massive worry, don;t know where we'd be without him, he now has more goals than Kane and Salah this season.

Edited 4 December, 2019 by tajjuk

[eurosaint]

It's jot negativity, it's being realistic. The result is obviously fantastic but we still have some very clear weaknesses and I don't have loads of confidence that we will surge on now and get out of trouble. Redmond needs dropping and soares needs replacing in Jan.

 

Many posters seem to concentrate only on the poorer performers and ignore the fact that we were really good for over an hour !

There were many pluses tonight, maybe we should celebrate them !!

[The Kraken]

Many posters seem to concentrate only on the poorer performers and ignore the fact that we were really good for over an hour !

There were many pluses tonight, maybe we should celebrate them !!

Maybe we can do both; celebrate a win and Highlight other areas for improvement where we might get undone against a better side?

[Give it to Ron]

Many posters seem to concentrate only on the poorer performers and ignore the fact that we were really good for over an hour !

There were many pluses tonight, maybe we should celebrate them !!

 

Long, Ings, Djenepro, Bertrand and JWP were good.

Shine taken off by lack of brains in team they have one goal scorer you keep him in your pocket.

I thought subs were good.

I thought Bertie was back to his best did a lot of talking and calming down players.

 

 

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[whelk]

Maybe we can do both; celebrate a win and Highlight other areas for improvement where we might get undone against a better side?

 

Last 3 games have been so much better. Yeah we are still a bit sh1t but there is a bit of hope now. After Leicester I had none.

[Killers Knee]

Great first half for Saints, not sure if it was lack of legs or positional discipline that caused the game to swing in Norwich's favour, but somehow we scraped by. Ings keeps up this form, an England call up could be on the cards, then Liverpool will buy him for £100m.....

[ericofarabia]

Norwich easily the worst team that’s played at St Mary’s this season. Could/should have been way more comfortable.

 

We’re one point off 12th! Not bad for a team that would probably have been dead and buried without the last two results.

 

Norwich and Watford were both pretty woeful for most of our last 2 games, but, and its a huge BUT, both could, well fair to say, should have scored equalisers in injury time .... take 4 points away and give 1 each to the bottom 2, things could have been so very very different.

 

Fine Lines indeed.

 

Mind you if VAR hadn't taken so long to award the peno at Arsenal, and add 3 mins more injury time, we would be in 12th place above Bomo!!

 

Yes very fine lines indeed!!

[tajjuk]

Maybe we can do both; celebrate a win and Highlight other areas for improvement where we might get undone against a better side?

 

It's a while before we have to play a better side, most of the team from like 9th down seem a much of a muchness.

[The Kraken]

It's a while before we have to play a better side, most of the team from like 9th down seem a much of a muchness.

Norwich and Watford are clearly the weak links In the division, As I said in my earlier post we need to take advantage of our December run.

[spyinthesky]

I am likely to be shot for this but I have sympathy with whoever plays right back in our formation.

 

Most clubs who have decent attacking left backs will push them up and often double up on our right back position.

 

I like Djnepo but he is not good of protecting his right back and I was hoping that Ralph would bring on Romeu sooner than he did to put more protection into midfield

 

In my view 4-3-3 is our best formation but, of course, 4-2-4 paid dividends in the first half.

 

Anyone think that was a stone wall foul on Shane Long on the edge of the box?

 

Norwich were given a free kick for a similar but less obvious foul soon after.

[Vancouver Saint]

Relief is the word for me. Would really appreciate winning a game handsomely without the inevitable clinging-on, desperate crawl over the finishing line but how many times would we have conceded that equaliser recently? So happy we didn't and thrilled with 3 points and out of the relegation zone.

 

Games are won or lost on such fine margins and commentators and press ride the momentum wave, so with seven points from our last three games and us moving up the table not down, let's feel good about it!

 

With a new CB or two (what's happened to Danso?) in the transfer window and either a revitalised Valery or a new RB too, we could have the making of a decent mid-table team. Djenepo is class. Ings is in good form. We saw what Redmond could do last season...he just needs his confidence back. Boufal is gifted, needs to graft harder.

 

On to Newcastle - a decent point there, possibly three would be nice to keep this little run going.

[stevy777_x]

Many posters seem to concentrate only on the poorer performers and ignore the fact that we were really good for over an hour !

There were many pluses tonight, maybe we should celebrate them !!

 

People like to have a moan.

21st century spoilt brat syndrome.

 

Be happy FFS, we ve just won 2 in a row at home, out of the relegation zone and we have played really well for 180 minutes out of the last 270.

[Dusic]

6 points from 2 home games. Can't ask for more than that.

 

We are awfully ****e once put under pressure though.

 

Will be interesting to see how Ralph sets us up against better teams where we will need an extra body in the midfield.

[Lighthouse]

We never make it easy for ourselves, that last ten minutes we just looked frozen and terrified. Kept asking myself ‘how the f**k is he unmarked there?!’ Anyway, we got there in the end so credit to them for that. I’m not sure bringing on Yoshida really helped, just seemed to invite pressure on us and take it off their terrible, terrible defence. We just lost that tempo from about 60 minutes onwards. I don’t know if it’s a mental thing or a fatigue thing.

[Dig Dig]

It seems it will take time for confidence in this team to be restored a little but the main positives from Arsenal and today is the return to a style of play that gives us a chance to get results and makes us look dangerous going forwards. Get to January with head above water and we will hopefully (surely?!) improve the defence.

[Whitey Grandad]

Was at the other end, so I might be wrong. But why didn’t McCarthy narrow the angle for their goal instead of giving him half the goal to aim at?

We were sitting right behind the shot and there was a only very tight gap between McCarthy and his near post. Pukki is a very good goalscorer and he was in control here.

[shurlock]

Result more important than the performance when you’re playing sides at the bottom. The Arsenal and Norwich fixtures came at the right time in that they both like to play out from the back (to the point of being cavalier) which obviously suited the press. Newcastle away on a Sunday will be a more interesting test, not least of RH’s powers of motivation and our focus.

Edited 4 December, 2019 by shurlock

[Jonnyboy]

This all seems really negative - we are out of the relegation zone and 1 point off 12th.

 

Newcastle, Villa & West Ham to come - could be out of the woods by Christmas.

 

What, on 40 points?

[Bob76]

Three points the priority, very reasonable first hour and very poor last twenty. Ings immense, JWP and Djenepo very good. Redmond just not on it at present. Working hard but confidence looks low. Farke shored them up with the two CMs brought on, Tettey picked them up. Caught square for the goal but Pukki took it well. Subs went wrong, would have kept Long on as an outlet unless injured. That said, only really a couple of chances although the Byram slice at the end was shocking.

 

Long spoke to Yoshi and said he had to come off, right in front of us that's why he was dubbed

[VectisSaint]

 

Should have been completely out of sight by the time Stephens had his standard brain fart and let Pukki in to score.

 

Hardly a brain fart, left exposed by Cedric being out of position, one player can't mark two attackers. The only negative thing you can say about Stephens there was that the whole defence was playing a stupidly high line and a well placed path undone them. Think Cederic could have stopped it even from his poor starting position. Thought other than that Stephens had a very solid game, Bednarek got caught out of position couple of times but he was recueed by team mates. JWP had a good game tonight, his corners were much better, and he didn't give the ball away repeatedly like he did on Saturday. Hojbjerg though was dreadful in the second half, you really want your captain to keep a cool head, but PEH looked extremely nervous and flustered. Thought Bertran had a great game first half, then went completely missing second half, no attacking threat at all. Redmond is struggling for confidence, looks to have lost a half a yard of pace from last season and that is costing him. Ings is becoming a massive player for us, not just his goals but his energy and enthusiasm, has a weird way of running but it is effective. McCarthy's distribution is awful.

Well done Saints, we needed that second win. Long way to go though, we still look poor, but at least we are better than two sides. Need to find a third now.

[austsaint]

Must be on the wind up? We were being dominated in midfield and bringing on Romeu helped stem that. If only Adams had got on the end of the cross near the end to open his account

 

Yes, that's true - we were being rolled in midfield and Romeu tightened things up, but by taking Djenepo off so early it took all our speed and counter attacking threat away and invited Norwich into it - their midfielder Tettey ran the show in the second half. But what an important 6 points...Watford and Norwich. PEH was very good tonight, Ings, Bertrand and Djenepo also. Fair play to JWP in the first half - his corners and free kick kept the pressure on. I thought Adam's cameo was good and he deserves more game time. Even Long did his job well for 70 minutes or so.

 

Surely the Club will strengthen in January - CB and CM now that the table position is not adrift.

[Jonnyboy]

Hardly a brain fart, left exposed by Cedric being out of position, one player can't mark two attackers. The only negative thing you can say about Stephens there was that the whole defence was playing a stupidly high line and a well placed path undone them. Think Cederic could have stopped it even from his poor starting position. Thought other than that Stephens had a very solid game, Bednarek got caught out of position couple of times but he was recueed by team mates. JWP had a good game tonight, his corners were much better, and he didn't give the ball away repeatedly like he did on Saturday. Hojbjerg though was dreadful in the second half, you really want your captain to keep a cool head, but PEH looked extremely nervous and flustered. Thought Bertran had a great game first half, then went completely missing second half, no attacking threat at all. Redmond is struggling for confidence, looks to have lost a half a yard of pace from last season and that is costing him. Ings is becoming a massive player for us, not just his goals but his energy and enthusiasm, has a weird way of running but it is effective. McCarthy's distribution is awful.

Well done Saints, we needed that second win. Long way to go though, we still look poor, but at least we are better than two sides. Need to find a third now.

 

Stephens and McCarthy's fault.

 

Plus we are above three sides.

[HarvSFC]

Please run the ball into the ****ing corner when in such scenarios as tonight.

[shurlock]

Hardly a brain fart, left exposed by Cedric being out of position, one player can't mark two attackers. The only negative thing you can say about Stephens there was that the whole defence was playing a stupidly high line and a well placed path undone them. Think Cederic could have stopped it even from his poor starting position. Thought other than that Stephens had a very solid game, Bednarek got caught out of position couple of times but he was recueed by team mates. JWP had a good game tonight, his corners were much better, and he didn't give the ball away repeatedly like he did on Saturday. Hojbjerg though was dreadful in the second half, you really want your captain to keep a cool head, but PEH looked extremely nervous and flustered. Thought Bertran had a great game first half, then went completely missing second half, no attacking threat at all. Redmond is struggling for confidence, looks to have lost a half a yard of pace from last season and that is costing him. Ings is becoming a massive player for us, not just his goals but his energy and enthusiasm, has a weird way of running but it is effective. McCarthy's distribution is awful.

Well done Saints, we needed that second win. Long way to go though, we still look poor, but at least we are better than two sides. Need to find a third now.

 

Bednarek playing everyone onside was also culpable for their goal.

[hypochondriac]

Maybe we can do both; celebrate a win and Highlight other areas for improvement where we might get undone against a better side?

Which is obviously what people are doing. Highlighting how brittle we look doesn't mean we can't still be really happy that we got the win.

[Reinhard]

We play good when we want to improve the result, i.e. want to make a goal. We play weaker when we want to hold a result.

[SW5 SAINT]

I guess that makes you too young for the 3-3 draw at the Dell where Boro equalized in the last minute with only 9 men. Ugh! They've been doing this to us for years. Glad we could hold on to the 3pts tonight. Vital woin!

 

I remember that one only too well, with the boro fans singing we’ve only got 9 men after we equalised......

[Jimmy_D]

Hasenhuttl deserves praise for the tactics tonight.

 

Long starting really helped with the high press, and that's probably the main reason we made Norwich look so poor. They couldn't string any passes together at all, I lost count of the times Krul was forced to lump it away and gave up possession, and their only threat they could muster was through fairly ineffective long balls.

 

It was only when they started to manage to keep possession as we tired towards the end of the game that they managed to get a toehold. Fortunately we'd already done enough to squeeze out the win.

[sadoldgit]

We never make it easy for ourselves, that last ten minutes we just looked frozen and terrified. Kept asking myself ‘how the f**k is he unmarked there?!’ Anyway, we got there in the end so credit to them for that. I’m not sure bringing on Yoshida really helped, just seemed to invite pressure on us and take it off their terrible, terrible defence. We just lost that tempo from about 60 minutes onwards. I don’t know if it’s a mental thing or a fatigue thing.

 

I think it is a bit of both. When you lack confidence you probably feel more fatigued. We were in control of the game and looked comfortable until they scored. We looked a different side after that and looked very tired for the last 10 minutes or so. Not being able to keep a clean sheet is a major problem for us and you really think that we need to score 3 a game to get anywhere. Still, given how bad the results have been at St Mary’s I am not going to complain about back to back wins.

[kjurwi]

Bednarek playing everyone onside was also culpable for their goal.

 

To be fair, Bertrand played him onside aswell.

[woodsaint]

JWP with another assist and his corner led to the second goal as well. Another committed performance to go with the set pieces. We would be many points worse off without him, yet according to some on here hes s****

[Lighthouse]

JWP with another assist and his corner led to the second goal as well. Another committed performance to go with the set pieces. We would be many points worse off without him, yet according to some on here hes s****

 

The two are not mutually exclusive, although I did think he was decent tonight.

[Tamesaint]

Thought the substition for Romeu was very needed but came 10 minutes too late. We were losing the midfield and needed Romeu's power.

 

How you see Saints's current position is a good test of whether you are a pessimist or optimist. On the one hand we have only just beaten the worst 2 teams in the league. On the other we are just 2 points from mid table.

 

With teams like Bournemouth going on losing runs and looking at our upcoming fixtures, I think that we have grounds for optimism.

[Red]

Hasenhuttl deserves praise for the tactics tonight.

 

Long starting really helped with the high press, and that's probably the main reason we made Norwich look so poor. They couldn't string any passes together at all, I lost count of the times Krul was forced to lump it away and gave up possession, and their only threat they could muster was through fairly ineffective long balls.

 

It was only when they started to manage to keep possession as we tired towards the end of the game that they managed to get a toehold. Fortunately we'd already done enough to squeeze out the win.

 

Agreed. If you watched Ralph interview immediately after the game - he explained his tactics and subs, and all made sense. Basically with 3 games in a week we could not maintain the intensity (both physical and mental) after 60 mins and coupled with Norwich changing and going for it (nothing to lose) he had to change it to give us more protection.

 

Most players showed an improvement over recent games - some more than others. Don't get the negativity and intense slagging of certain players - can't expect every player to have a blinder each game even for the top sides. Cedric was average - not sh1t. Mistakes happen in a game, particularly when you are in our position at the bottom of the table and crowd on your back if you make one. Given where we were prior to the Arsenal game and our totally shattered confidence, I am amazed how well we have done - it's a slow and nervy recovery but it's a great one all the same

[SNSUN]

If this is papering over the cracks, then long may it continue. We have 26 days to try and keep pace with mid-table in order to try and attract some starting first XI talent to St Mary’s.

[Wade Garrett]

We were sitting right behind the shot and there was a only very tight gap between McCarthy and his near post. Pukki is a very good goalscorer and he was in control here.

 

Okay, thanks for that.

[whelk]

I think it is a bit of both. When you lack confidence you probably feel more fatigued. We were in control of the game and looked comfortable until they scored. We looked a different side after that and looked very tired for the last 10 minutes or so. Not being able to keep a clean sheet is a major problem for us and you really think that we need to score 3 a game to get anywhere. Still, given how bad the results have been at St Mary’s I am not going to complain about back to back wins.

 

Not sure about your arithmetic. We have won our last two game by scoring 2 (not 3).

Seem like far fewer teams are keeping clean sheets these days but don’t know if that is actually true or I just have a sh1t Fantasy Football defence.

[Maggie May]

I remember that one only too well, with the boro fans singing we’ve only got 9 men after we equalised......

 

Me too. Crazy second half. I remember Gazza getting some stick (and giving it back) at the end.

[thorpie the sinner]

Many posters seem to concentrate only on the poorer performers and ignore the fact that we were really good for over an hour !

There were many pluses tonight, maybe we should celebrate them !!

 

Totally agree, you can get swamped by the negativity

[DT]

Overall, it's a good feeling this morning. Sure beats waking up with that horrible sinking feeling when you remember 0 points again

 

 

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[Charlie Wayman]

Result more important than performance so I'm pleased with that. It seems Cedric is tonight's scapegoat but I thought he was ok. Any 'errors' he made were all deep in Norwich territory and on another night he could have had a goal.

 

Agree. No point reading comments by idiots like Ottawa and DT who have been season long Cedric haters and can't wait to stick the knife in irrespective of what actually happens on the pitch. As they never set foot inside SMS their views at best are worthless based on film clips so best ignored.

[sadoldgit]

Not sure about your arithmetic. We have won our last two game by scoring 2 (not 3).

Seem like far fewer teams are keeping clean sheets these days but don’t know if that is actually true or I just have a sh1t Fantasy Football defence.

 

I know Whelk but we could easily have conceded in the last minutes of both games. The fact that we didn’t was down to poor finishing rather than good defending. Do you feel confident of the points when we are only 2-1 up?

[Cabrone]

Plenty of moaning but.......7 points from the last 3 games, one being away at Arsenal....I think it's safe to say that everyone on here would have bitten your hand off for that haul.

 

The main thing these wins should be doing is improving confidence. After the Leicester result the team lost belief and it was always going to take time to recover from a result like that......but we should be on our way now.

 

Fingers crossed we can keep this going with at least a point at Newcastle and another 6 points or more from the remaining December fixtures.

 

Che Adams to start for me and Cedric dropped.

[norwaysaint]

I only managed to watch the last ten minutes, so I only saw the match while they were the more threatening team. My first comment was "Why aren't we playing anyone at right back?" after the third attack in a row when uncontested down that area of the pitch. They were literally strolling into our right back area and putting balls in for the strikers and nobody was doing a thing about it.

[sadoldgit]

Agree. No point reading comments by idiots like Ottawa and DT who have been season long Cedric haters and can't wait to stick the knife in irrespective of what actually happens on the pitch. As they never set foot inside SMS their views at best are worthless based on film clips so best ignored.

 

I thought Cedric did ok as well. There were some errors but then that is our defence for you. As for playing well for an hour, just to point out the obvious but games last over 90 minutes. We don’t kill teams off and find it hard to manage out games. The moment Norwich scored our mentality changed and they were in the game. Hopefully this will help the confidence and there is certainly something to build on. Looking forward to Newcastle.

[musesaint]

Still have doubts about RH’s tactics.

[Charlie Wayman]

A point a game will keep us up. Scoring twice against a packed defence augurs well for the future. Obviously we need to pace ourselves for 90 minutes rather than 70 but otherwise we looked far the better team, more creative and purposeful. Another good performance from Ward Prowse suggests he has turned some sort of personal corner, long may it last. Good to see him passing forwards creatively at last.

[Sheaf Saint]

Che Adams to start for me and Cedric dropped.

 

While I'm sure he couldn't do any worse than Cedric, I don't think we should be playing Che at RB

[Saint86]

I thought James warde prowse and ings were superb. Owth long and djenpo we finnaly have a shame and look balanced and effective on the attack. Leaves boufal and redmond to fight for the other spot.

[austsaint]

I thought James warde prowse and ings were superb. Owth long and djenpo we finnaly have a shame and look balanced and effective on the attack. Leaves boufal and redmond to fight for the other spot.

 

Nicely done.