Saints 2 Norwich 1 - Reactions

[OldNick]

You have toremember that we are still very brittle after the long time of SMS not feeling home. It is a small step at a time so the players can start to fee they have things under control.

Cedric is poor , whilst i I only saw highlights in the dying seconds when he slipped to leave ther fullback to have a shot, he didnt attempt at first to get back to him it was only when it rebounded that he rected which would have been too late.

As for their goal it looked to me that cedric left too much between himself and our centreback s to alow Pukki in. Good finish to be fair.

Long is so underrated by people here, whilst he is an awful finisher he must be awful to play against as he doesnt give up and at you all the time. Great leap for his header to set up Ryan as well.

[OldNick]

One thing that was alarming was that our passing accurancy was only 68% , 1 in 3 passes going adrift, that is awful

[John Boy Saint]

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?

Don’t think anyone is, the last 10 minutes last night reminded me of many moons ago when we played Spurs on Boxing Day, pretty sure not long after WGS came in and we beat them 1-0, driving home Mrs JBS said “did you feel the stadium atmosphere change when the clock clicked to 80 minutes, everyone was nervous?”. Last night as we were into the 80 minutes the atmosphere certainly did change from us fans in the ground as many feared the inevitable.

 

I thought everyone played ok, with the odd exception, even Cedric with his brain fart hoof into no mans land in added time, for a bloke who has played and won at such a high level you did wonder WTF!! I have a feeling that despite his waywardness he is in the team in the hope that someone snaps him up in January and chucks a bit of cash in the pot rather than just walking away in June.

In a similar vein and amazingly a player who seems to dodge the forum bullets is Højbjerg! Aside from his rasping shot (at the behest of the crowd) in the first half, he was pretty inert and anonymous and seems to have reverted to treating the ball like a baked potato just out of the oven, with the finger often being pointed at JWP for the backwards pass PEH seemed to have that switched on as a default setting last night, that said what the heck he was playing at when the Norwich defence parted like the Red Sea before him giving a clear route to goal, and he opted run diagonally towards the corner flag and a cluster of Norwich defenders instead. I quipped to the chap who was late in beside me and was woofing down his burger at an indigestion inducing rate that PEH had seen he hadn’t quite finished his tea and didn’t want to disturb him by scoring a goal!

The other player looking pants at the moment is Redmond, boy he is so predictable soft in the tackle and easily stood up by defenders, he gets the ball high up the pitch and e v e r y t h i n g s l o w s r i g h t down.

 

Still another 3 points in the bag, back to back home wins, hopefully that will give the lads a bit of belief to build on.

 

Finally having driven from Basingstoke to Leicester across to Stamford then back home to pick up Mrs JBS and then to Southampton I was starving Marvin as I walked into SMS and opted for the Steak Pie from the new concourse menu, I have to say it’s was pretty damn good. (Cue Turkish to admonish me now and ignore all the above )

Edited 5 December, 2019 by John Boy Saint

[disconnect]

Obviously a great and very precious win to stop Norwich on their mini-revival and get us another win. 2 wins in 2, now got to keep on picking up points.

 

Thought the first half we were by far the better team, and were maybe a bit unlucky not to go in further ahead. Krul pulled off a couple of good saves, but we looked in complete control. Obviously the second half we began to tire and they had to put the pressure on so was always going to be a bit tight, although we did have a couple of opportunities where a better ball may have killed off the game.

 

If Cedric was improved from the last few weeks he must've been beyond awful before. Definitely the weak link last night - a combination of poor crosses (one or two good ones, but a few times he could've put it on a plate and just aimlessly smashed it to no one), some bad passing, and positioning (for the goal and near the end was woeful). At one point he was in the centre forward position, didnt win the ball and they broke down our right and nearly scored... Even though Valery has his faults, I cant imagine him doing worse than Cedric last night.

 

Thought Ings was good again, JWP and PEH did a decent job in the middle and the two wide players looked dangerous. Always feel like we could score more / are a little wasteful so allow these teams to come back into games, but cant complain too much after a win!

[rooney]

Full marks to the fans who sang their hearts out when we were under pressure in the 2nd half. This undoubtedly helped as confirmed by Benderak in his post match interview.

[eurosaint]

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.

 

I take your point but even the top teams tend not to dominate for the full 90 mins, my view is that 60 good mins is better than 30 good mins (which Norwich had) and gives you a better chance to win the match !

We all suffer as fans in the late stages as we struggle to hold the lead and I totally agree that confidence (which is the key) may well improve after these recent results !

Bring on the Geordies....

[Whitey Grandad]

You have toremember that we are still very brittle after the long time of SMS not feeling home. It is a small step at a time so the players can start to fee they have things under control.

Cedric is poor , whilst i I only saw highlights in the dying seconds when he slipped to leave ther fullback to have a shot, he didnt attempt at first to get back to him it was only when it rebounded that he rected which would have been too late.

As for their goal it looked to me that cedric left too much between himself and our centreback s to alow Pukki in. Good finish to be fair.

Long is so underrated by people here, whilst he is an awful finisher he must be awful to play against as he doesnt give up and at you all the time. Great leap for his header to set up Ryan as well.

 

I don’t think that Cedric was as bad as some have stated. For their goal he was covering a player on their left wing and Stephens was too far towards the centre leaving a gap between them. Pukki just belted through it and a simple straight ball played him in on goal. We were overloaded on that side of the pitch due to a quick breakdown of our attack. I haven’t analysed it more thoroughly yet but I suspect that someone on the right of midfield was missing.

[Give it to Ron]

I don’t think that Cedric was as bad as some have stated. For their goal he was covering a player on their left wing and Stephens was too far towards the centre leaving a gap between them. Pukki just belted through it and a simple straight ball played him in on goal. We were overloaded on that side of the pitch due to a quick breakdown of our attack. I haven’t analysed it more thoroughly yet but I suspect that someone on the right of midfield was missing.

 

It started with a poor kick from Keeper we had pushed up and it fell short leaving us exposed.

My problem with Cedric was why he was playing centre forward after Yoshida came on he left massive hole for them to exploit for an experienced player he isn’t that wise.

Thought Bertrand was very good talked to others far more last night.

 

 

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[warsash saint]

Apart from 3 points, biggest highlight last night was hearing my young nephews band 'The Vitrines' being played first during half time break

 

Nice touch by the club to give a local band some exposure:)

[Kingsland Codger]

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.

 

A clear shove in the back and it was in the penalty area. All those around me were vociferous in their appeals - and this is in the Kingsland stand which gives an idea of the depth of feeling. To be fair to Kevin Friend, his view would have been front-on and he would more likely have seen Long fall to the ground. The lino, however, was bang in line and for him not to have flagged was a an abrogation.

[waylander]

One thing that was alarming was that our passing accurancy was only 68% , 1 in 3 passes going adrift, that is awful

 

Partially due to their attempted passing being more ambitious than the backwards and sideways of previous games.

[Give it to Ron]

Anyone think Adams was decent? Shame he came on when we were defending rather than attacking but he had a half decent touch, put in one really good cross someone should have gambled on. There's a good striker in there somewhere. Think with him, Ings and Long we're fine for strikers. Not sure why Obafemi gets a look in, he doesn't look ready at all. Championship loan for 6 months would do him a lot of good.

 

I do I think he will come good just needs nurturing and given time I think he is better option than Obafemi.

 

 

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[Toussaint]

Redmond looks horribly low on confidence out there. He's trying but everything he tried didn't really work.

 

Was impressed with JWP in the closing stages, made some good interceptions and stayed really calm with the ball.

 

He looks off the pace, unfit and slow, it could be a confidence issue, could be fitness, could be a number of things, but I thought he was our weakest link last night and should have been hooked for Boufal, we may have scored again rather than hanging on grimly.

[Toussaint]

Anyone think Adams was decent? Shame he came on when we were defending rather than attacking but he had a half decent touch, put in one really good cross someone should have gambled on. There's a good striker in there somewhere. Think with him, Ings and Long we're fine for strikers. Not sure why Obafemi gets a look in, he doesn't look ready at all. Championship loan for 6 months would do him a lot of good.

 

I thought he looked much sharper and hungrier than previously, I know we got away with it but had we gone on the offensive rather than the panicky defensive substitutions I felt it was his chance to break the scoring duck.

[Sheaf Saint]

A clear shove in the back and it was in the penalty area. All those around me were vociferous in their appeals - and this is in the Kingsland stand which gives an idea of the depth of feeling. To be fair to Kevin Friend, his view would have been front-on and he would more likely have seen Long fall to the ground. The lino, however, was bang in line and for him not to have flagged was a an abrogation.

 

It was a clear shove, but the replay showed his fall was overly-dramatic and not proportionate to the force of the push. I think that's probably why it wasn't given.

[Vienna07]

I think he's a great Manager. I've known him for years. He is smart and a fighter. But yes, it does not work. He adores "Southampton" about (during his last visit in Austria) but what matters is success. Team seems anxious and I see little progress. Hold the league and let them part as friends.

[Give it to Ron]

I think he's a great Manager. I've known him for years. He is smart and a fighter. But yes, it does not work. He adores "Southampton" about (during his last visit in Austria) but what matters is success. Team seems anxious and I see little progress. Hold the league and let them part as friends.

 

I think it’s not all his fault his assistants and coaches have not helped him much.

Last 3 games he has been spot on tactically and subs. Some players continue to let him down but you could see at end how much it means to him and team.

We are still poor but am hoping a new assistant and recruitment team can help him more.

Keep changing manager isn’t helping plus we can’t afford his contract to be paid up.

 

 

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[Wurzel]

Anyone think Adams was decent? Shame he came on when we were defending rather than attacking but he had a half decent touch, put in one really good cross someone should have gambled on. There's a good striker in there somewhere. Think with him, Ings and Long we're fine for strikers. Not sure why Obafemi gets a look in, he doesn't look ready at all. Championship loan for 6 months would do him a lot of good.

 

Think he just needs that confidence boost that will come with his first goal. There was one cross from Cedric (I think ) on the right that fizzed across the 6 yard box about 2 yards in front of him. A player with confidence would have gambled and been on the end of it but you could almost sense he was just holding back a fraction. Guess that also comes with not being a regular, Ings would probably have expected Cedric to put it exactly where he did, Adams needed to wait and see, by which time t was too late.

 

Still think he'll come good for us, but he's oing to take time.

[Baird of the land]

Another very nervous finish. It's a shame we weren't able to put on a convincing 90 minute display but it's 3 points.

 

Don't really approve of the extra defender sub as it didn't really make us more secure as Norwich should have really scored. Would prefer to see someone like obafemi replacing long in that scenario.

 

Most played well first half.

Thought Redmond worked very hard for the team and still worries defenders, just things not quite clicking for him. Thought his one lung busting run to byline aside Cedric was pretty mediocre.

Adams showed a couple of flashes but still looks a work in progress.

[Lazlo78]

In a similar vein and amazingly a player who seems to dodge the forum bullets is Højbjerg! Aside from his rasping shot (at the behest of the crowd) in the first half, he was pretty inert and anonymous and seems to have reverted to treating the ball like a baked potato just out of the oven, with the finger often being pointed at JWP for the backwards pass PEH seemed to have that switched on as a default setting last night

 

Stats can be deceptive, but they paint a very different picture to PEH's contribution than the section quoted above:

"Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg: Won possession in the midfield third 18 times in Southampton's 2-1 win over Norwich, a record in a Premier League match since we started collecting data from 2009/10". 4 aerial duels won (out of 6), 8 successful ackles (of 10 attempted), 70% pass succes rate (42/60), 3 key passes etc. They list him as a clear MoM. Not a perfect performance, but far from what you describe.

 

I am not sure why we even have "forum bullets" (sadly we do), but I don't think PEH dodges many - my overall impression is that there is consensus that PEH, Romeu and JWP are all sub-standard for Premier League. So he gets a lot of harsh comments too, yours included...

[warsash saint]

I know it's been said many times for previous games, but the amount of fans leaving at 88 minutes was ridiculous!

[Lighthouse]

I know it's been said many times for previous games, but the amount of fans leaving at 88 minutes was ridiculous!

 

Why? There are plenty of people with an hour or more drive home, early starts this morning, kids on a school night etc.

[Whitey Grandad]

It started with a poor kick from Keeper we had pushed up and it fell short leaving us exposed.

My problem with Cedric was why he was playing centre forward after Yoshida came on he left massive hole for them to exploit for an experienced player he isn’t that wise.

Thought Bertrand was very good talked to others far more last night.

 

Thanks. Cedric was back in his rightful place for their goal but he had two players to cover and Stephens was too central which left a gap between them.

 

Anyone think Adams was decent? Shame he came on when we were defending rather than attacking but he had a half decent touch, put in one really good cross someone should have gambled on. There's a good striker in there somewhere. Think with him, Ings and Long we're fine for strikers. Not sure why Obafemi gets a look in, he doesn't look ready at all. Championship loan for 6 months would do him a lot of good.

 

yes, I liked the look of him. Nice touch and good running but by that time we were playing more cautiously.

 

A clear shove in the back and it was in the penalty area. All those around me were vociferous in their appeals - and this is in the Kingsland stand which gives an idea of the depth of feeling. To be fair to Kevin Friend, his view would have been front-on and he would more likely have seen Long fall to the ground. The lino, however, was bang in line and for him not to have flagged was a an abrogation.

 

Two hands in the back but nowhere near enough to send Long sprawling the way that he did. A light touch that I wouldn't describe as a shove. The slight delay between the touch and the leap is a good indication.

 

Another very nervous finish. It's a shame we weren't able to put on a convincing 90 minute display but it's 3 points.

 

Don't really approve of the extra defender sub as it didn't really make us more secure as Norwich should have really scored. Would prefer to see someone like obafemi replacing long in that scenario.

 

Most played well first half.

Thought Redmond worked very hard for the team and still worries defenders, just things not quite clicking for him. Thought his one lung busting run to byline aside Cedric was pretty mediocre.

Adams showed a couple of flashes but still looks a work in progress.

 

That worried me too. Suddenly we are all back on the edge of our penalty area invited them to attack.

 

I know it's been said many times for previous games, but the amount of fans leaving at 88 minutes was ridiculous!

 

It was a very cold night with rail strikes meaning that the last train was at 10pm apparently. I will always stay to the end but I can understand those that can't.

[OttawaSaint]

Stats can be deceptive, but they paint a very different picture to PEH's contribution than the section quoted above:

"Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg: Won possession in the midfield third 18 times in Southampton's 2-1 win over Norwich, a record in a Premier League match since we started collecting data from 2009/10". 4 aerial duels won (out of 6), 8 successful ackles (of 10 attempted), 70% pass succes rate (42/60), 3 key passes etc. They list him as a clear MoM. Not a perfect performance, but far from what you describe.

 

I am not sure why we even have "forum bullets" (sadly we do), but I don't think PEH dodges many - my overall impression is that there is consensus that PEH, Romeu and JWP are all sub-standard for Premier League. So he gets a lot of harsh comments too, yours included...

 

This!

 

I thought PEH and JWP were really good tonight, harrying the Norwich players and winning the ball back countless times. These sorts of things go unnoticed because it's not a killer ball for a goal chance or a great shot or whatever but are still vital to getting the 3 points.

[derry]

Saints players in the main I think are basically thick which is a large part of our problem. Last night in the dying seconds of injury time a player who is an international, played in a winning European Championship team acted like a complete idiot. He had the ball about thirty yards from the corner on the touchline, what did the idiot do, no, he didn't get into the corner or even pass to somebody close for them to get into the corner he lofted the ball into the centre of the field in front of Norwich defenders who immediately counter attacked ending in the two shots that finally was shot over. We could easily have conceded there.

 

Cedric is a clown. He or the ball should have gone into the corner to try and see the game out by playing off defenders for more throwins and corners like proper teams do. The previous week he only had to trip over the ball to give Obefimi a tap in instead he blasted it. Memories of Long in a similar position was touched by a defender went to ground and the defender came away with the ball and Watford scored with seconds left. All he had to do was knock it into the corner and chase it down. Last night for the Norwich goal he was close enough to Tetty in the centre of the field to either tackle him or stop him but because he was in the middle of the field saw no danger so didn't bother. One pass later it was in our net.

 

Top players in top teams don't have this mindset they are battle hardened and know what to do to deprive the oppositon of any advantage. Our players are paid millions but play like rank amateurs.

[Toussaint]

Saints players in the main I think are basically thick which is a large part of our problem. Last night in the dying seconds of injury time a player who is an international, played in a winning European Championship team acted like a complete idiot. He had the ball about thirty yards from the corner on the touchline, what did the idiot do, no, he didn't get into the corner or even pass to somebody close for them to get into the corner he lofted the ball into the centre of the field in front of Norwich defenders who immediately counter attacked ending in the two shots that finally was shot over. We could easily have conceded there.

 

Cedric is a clown. He or the ball should have gone into the corner to try and see the game out by playing off defenders for more throwins and corners like proper teams do. The previous week he only had to trip over the ball to give Obefimi a tap in instead he blasted it. Memories of Long in a similar position was touched by a defender went to ground and the defender came away with the ball and Watford scored with seconds left. All he had to do was knock it into the corner and chase it down. Last night for the Norwich goal he was close enough to Tetty in the centre of the field to either tackle him or stop him but because he was in the middle of the field saw no danger so didn't bother. One pass later it was in our net.

 

Top players in top teams don't have this mindset they are battle hardened and know what to do to deprive the oppositon of any advantage. Our players are paid millions but play like rank amateurs.

 

It was nearly deja vu from when Peter Crouch did something similar against Villa in the relegation season, that ultimately cost us very dearly. We got away with it last night

[Sheaf Saint]

It was nearly deja vu from when Peter Crouch did something similar against Villa in the relegation season, that ultimately cost us very dearly. We got away with it last night

 

It was Everton.

[tunit]

One thing that was alarming was that our passing accurancy was only 68% , 1 in 3 passes going adrift, that is awful

 

I think that stat can be quite mis-leading when we're hanging on at the end. A hoof out of defence and clearance into the stands goes down as an incomplete pass. I'd like to see what the pass accuracy was before the last 15 minutes

[OttawaSaint]

Saints players in the main I think are basically thick which is a large part of our problem. Last night in the dying seconds of injury time a player who is an international, played in a winning European Championship team acted like a complete idiot. He had the ball about thirty yards from the corner on the touchline, what did the idiot do, no, he didn't get into the corner or even pass to somebody close for them to get into the corner he lofted the ball into the centre of the field in front of Norwich defenders who immediately counter attacked ending in the two shots that finally was shot over. We could easily have conceded there.

 

Cedric is a clown. He or the ball should have gone into the corner to try and see the game out by playing off defenders for more throwins and corners like proper teams do. The previous week he only had to trip over the ball to give Obefimi a tap in instead he blasted it. Memories of Long in a similar position was touched by a defender went to ground and the defender came away with the ball and Watford scored with seconds left. All he had to do was knock it into the corner and chase it down. Last night for the Norwich goal he was close enough to Tetty in the centre of the field to either tackle him or stop him but because he was in the middle of the field saw no danger so didn't bother. One pass later it was in our net.

 

Top players in top teams don't have this mindset they are battle hardened and know what to do to deprive the oppositon of any advantage. Our players are paid millions but play like rank amateurs.

 

Agree with all of this. We are a small team and with what we spend you get what you pay for. You can legislate a defender who makes a mistake or two or isn't that good at playing it ouit from the back if they work hard and do opther things well, but Cedric doesn't do anything well.

 

- can't mark, gets caught ball watching

- gets the wrong side constantly and is easily beaten in the air

- can't cross or make the easiest of passes when he needs to keep a cool head

- had no left foot, at all

- makes horrible, horrible decisions time and time again

- wanders out of position and then just ambles back

 

Can't wait until we never see him ever again in a Saints shirt, hopefully another team is dumb/desperate enough to buy him off us.

[tajjuk]

I think that stat can be quite mis-leading when we're hanging on at the end. A hoof out of defence and clearance into the stands goes down as an incomplete pass. I'd like to see what the pass accuracy was before the last 15 minutes

 

I think its actually more intentional, we often attempt to play direct balls into the channels purposely to then give the ball to the opposition in a position where we can force a turnover and score from it.

 

Also generally we are quite direct, it can look a bit aimless at times probably because we lack the quality to pull it off consistently but the idea is to get get quick balls forward to counter and score in the transitions, I just think our players are not very good at it.

[derry]

It was nearly deja vu from when Peter Crouch did something similar against Villa in the relegation season, that ultimately cost us very dearly. We got away with it last night

 

Yes I can see him still scuffing the shot to the keeper and the ball being hoofed into our half. That stupidity was the difference in staying up or going down. We ought to pay particular attention to intelligence when recruiting. I have a theory that because of the US College system the US will eventually dominate world football. It will take a decade or more but eventually they will attain the same dominance as the US women already have.

[OldNick]

Thanks. Cedric was back in his rightful place for their goal but he had two players to cover and Stephens was too central which left a gap between them.

 

 

 

yes, I liked the look of him. Nice touch and good running but by that time we were playing more cautiously.

 

 

 

Two hands in the back but nowhere near enough to send Long sprawling the way that he did. A light touch that I wouldn't describe as a shove. The slight delay between the touch and the leap is a good indication.

 

 

 

That worried me too. Suddenly we are all back on the edge of our penalty area invited them to attack.

 

 

 

It was a very cold night with rail strikes meaning that the last train was at 10pm apparently. I will always stay to the end but I can understand those that can't.

I think you will see he was looking at the midfielder and not covering anyone else, he was too far away from the middle IMO

[hackedoff]

Starting to show just enough to convince the owner not to spend anything in Jan.

[Sheaf Saint]

I think you will see he was looking at the midfielder and not covering anyone else, he was too far away from the middle IMO

 

Just watched the highlights again to check if there was another player on the outside that Cedric was covering, and there wasn't. His positioning for that goal was dreadful.

[DT]

Starting to show just enough to convince the owner not to spend anything in Jan.

 

We need a central defender and central midfielder of considerable skill and experience, at the very minimum. £40m would do it, avoiding the £70m plus loss of going down. But that is very unlikely, obvs

[Wes Tender]

It was a clear shove, but the replay showed his fall was overly-dramatic and not proportionate to the force of the push. I think that's probably why it wasn't given.

 

It wasn't a soft little push, it was a hefty shove in the back and clearly a penalty. We all had a good view of it in the Chapel Family corner, and even if the useless prat Friend didn't think that he had a clear enough view of it, the linesman certainly did. What is VAR for if not to clear up incidents like this?

[DT]

It wasn't a soft little push, it was a hefty shove in the back and clearly a penalty. We all had a good view of it in the Chapel Family corner, and even if the useless prat Friend didn't think that he had a clear enough view of it, the linesman certainly did. What is VAR for if not to clear up incidents like this?

 

He probably would have given it if Long had not dived QUITE so much. Getting pens (like that) is mostly acting, and he fluffed his lines a bit. But yes, agreed. VAR should have taken a look. Was it being used last night?

[Whitey Grandad]

It wasn't a soft little push, it was a hefty shove in the back and clearly a penalty. We all had a good view of it in the Chapel Family corner, and even if the useless prat Friend didn't think that he had a clear enough view of it, the linesman certainly did. What is VAR for if not to clear up incidents like this?

 

VAR can never judge the intensity of a push. It really was very feeble, little more than a touch and not enough to send Long sprawling the way that he did.

He probably would have given it if Long had not dived QUITE so much. Getting pens (like that) is mostly acting, and he fluffed his lines a bit. But yes, agreed. VAR should have taken a look. Was it being used last night?

 

He possibly might have got a penalty for it but it would have needed to be more definite.

 

VAR is used in every Premier League game this season and that incident would have been examined.

[verlaine1979]

As someone said above, their goal started with McCarthy botching a kick out. We were set up for it to go long, but he only managed to slice it around half way. Put us on the back foot immediately, and we weren't set to defend the simple through ball.

[Lazlo78]

Just watched the highlights again to check if there was another player on the outside that Cedric was covering, and there wasn't. His positioning for that goal was dreadful.

 

Watch it again and this time look for what Cedric is doing. Twice he pushes up to press Cantwell and at the time of the screenshot he is following Cantwell's run after releasing the ball. Stephens and whoever in CB/CM should back him up didn't deal with the 2 on 1 situation Stephens was put in, but I fail to see how this is Cedric's fault as he was doing another job at the time.

[simo]

Thought the atmosphere was a lot better last night , fans really got behind the team in the last portion of the game . My nipper commented he hasn't heard the fans as loud for ages said "The stadium was shaking when we started singing come on you reds"

[Jonnyboy]

Watch it again and this time look for what Cedric is doing. Twice he pushes up to press Cantwell and at the time of the screenshot he is following Cantwell's run after releasing the ball. Stephens and whoever in CB/CM should back him up didn't deal with the 2 on 1 situation Stephens was put in, but I fail to see how this is Cedric's fault as he was doing another job at the time.

 

Over the top criticism of Cedric in my opinion. I thought we wanted our wingback bombing forward to try and win 3-1 rather than inviting pressure to concede the, almost, inevitable equaliser.

[Reinhard]

 

With a new CB or two (what's happened to Danso?) in the transfer window ... .

 

To be sarcastic - Danso still has to wait a few years until he is familiarised with the higher standard of the PL compared to the Bundesliga. Meanwhile he is the U21 Captain of Austria and will be in the national pool for the European Championship next year.

 

To be serious - he sits on the bench more or less regularely and we know it can get pretty fast that he is needed and then he can show what he is capable of. Maybe RH finds one or the other is tired after two games in 4 days and we will see new personnel on the pitch next Saturday ...

[Whitey Grandad]

Over the top criticism of Cedric in my opinion. I thought we wanted our wingback bombing forward to try and win 3-1 rather than inviting pressure to concede the, almost, inevitable equaliser.

 

We don’t know whether he is following Ralph’s game plan or doing all off his own volition. If the latter then we would expect Ralph to convince him otherwise.

[Saint_clark]

We don’t know whether he is following Ralph’s game plan or doing all off his own volition. If the latter then we would expect Ralph to convince him otherwise.

They mentioned that he's happy to run down his contract and leave for nothing in the summer, my guess would be he wants to try and do things that stand out (get into the box to score, push up to win tackles) in order to get noticed more.

Noone except saints fans will pay too much attention to whether it was him or Stephens more at fault for Norwichs goal.

 

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[Whitey Grandad]

They mentioned that he's happy to run down his contract and leave for nothing in the summer, my guess would be he wants to try and do things that stand out (get into the box to score, push up to win tackles) in order to get noticed more.

Noone except saints fans will pay too much attention to whether it was him or Stephens more at fault for Norwichs goal.

 

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Holes in defence are rarely the fault of just one player.

[Lazlo78]

Holes in defence are rarely the fault of just one player.

 

Spot on. Someone needed to put pressure on Cantwell, so Cedric probably did as he was expected to. Maybe PEH should have spotted the runner behind him, maybe Stephens should have been closer to Pukki, maybe Bednarek shouldn't have been positioned so deep that there was no offside. It's a team game so we shouldn't always look for a single culprit for every goal against...

[DuncanRG]

Saints players in the main I think are basically thick which is a large part of our problem. Last night in the dying seconds of injury time a player who is an international, played in a winning European Championship team acted like a complete idiot. He had the ball about thirty yards from the corner on the touchline, what did the idiot do, no, he didn't get into the corner or even pass to somebody close for them to get into the corner he lofted the ball into the centre of the field in front of Norwich defenders who immediately counter attacked ending in the two shots that finally was shot over. We could easily have conceded there.

 

Cedric is a clown. He or the ball should have gone into the corner to try and see the game out by playing off defenders for more throwins and corners like proper teams do. The previous week he only had to trip over the ball to give Obefimi a tap in instead he blasted it. Memories of Long in a similar position was touched by a defender went to ground and the defender came away with the ball and Watford scored with seconds left. All he had to do was knock it into the corner and chase it down. Last night for the Norwich goal he was close enough to Tetty in the centre of the field to either tackle him or stop him but because he was in the middle of the field saw no danger so didn't bother. One pass later it was in our net.

 

Top players in top teams don't have this mindset they are battle hardened and know what to do to deprive the oppositon of any advantage. Our players are paid millions but play like rank amateurs.

 

We won the game, mate.

[Gingeletiss]

He probably would have given it if Long had not dived QUITE so much. Getting pens (like that) is mostly acting, and he fluffed his lines a bit. But yes, agreed. VAR should have taken a look. Was it being used last night?

It’s either a foul under the laws, or it’s not, you can’t decide not to give it because ‘he fell too hard’. It was a foul, it was in the area, so under the law, should’ve resulted in a direct free kick.....a penalty.

[Baird of the land]

The long incident was never a penalty.