obelisk Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 Typical season opener from Saints. Defence all at sea. Midfield kept giving it away. Attack had a couple of chances but not much service. Too slow. Looked unfit.
OttawaSaint Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 Just now, Jonnyboy said: When did we last win on an opening day fixture? 1997 or something. MLG notes. I’m only joking
RobM Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 No creativity and not enough from midfield. Worryingly few options to change the game from the bench too.
Scully Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 We almost stole a draw but Saints deserved to lose that on balance. Not sharp enough and Palace were pretty stalwart.
OttawaSaint Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 Two cracking saves by Guiata. We were shit but he was the difference.
Bananaman Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 well that was fucking dreadful... lost everything in the middle.
Mr X Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 Going to be a long season if we don't get midfield reinforcements.... its not just one new face we need either on that evidence!
gammon cheeks Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 Redmond has been gash ! 5 goals last season says it all ! We would be mad to let Boufal go as we have no one on bench that can change a game
whelk Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 2nd from bottom so early in the season is worrying 1
S-Clarke Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 Could have been a similar score line to the Burnley game last year, it was certainly a similar performance though. Inept for 90% of that game to be honest, everyone looked off it from min 1 to min 96 - bar maybe 5 or 6 mins in the middle somewhere. Dreadful, dreadful performance from Redmond. Awful showing from Smallbone too, not sure what he adds. We were playing with 9/10 men for most of that. Ings and Adams starved of anything decent to work with as the width just didn't produce. We finished last season well, but I hope we haven't rested on our laurels. Need to keep improving to keep up with this league.
Baird of the land Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 Typical very poor start by saints. Fortunately i expected that sort of garbage and put zaha in my fantasy team. Redmond was particularly abominable, smallbone rather anonymous, Djenepo very rusty. Let's hope Armstrong is back pronto! Huge pressure now on tough home game against Spurs.
S-Clarke Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 (edited) Just now, Baird of the land said: Typical very poor start by saints. Fortunately i expected that sort of garbage and put zaha in my fantasy team. Redmond was particularly abominable, smallbone rather anonymous, Djenepo very rusty. Let's hope Armstrong is back pronto! Huge pressure now on tough home game against Spurs. Bit OTT to say huge pressure at this stage! Will probably lose that, but perform a lot better. We're no more than mid table, wobbling between 10th-14th, we'll finish in that sort of range this year. Edited 12 September, 2020 by S-Clarke
gammon cheeks Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 Felt sorry for Ings ans Adams .....very little service from a plodding midfield with no threat
woodsaint1 Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 4 minutes ago, OttawaSaint said: Two cracking saves by Guiata. We were shit but he was the difference. He really wasnt, we were just utterly dreadful and tested him a whole two times. Pushing the full backs on and losing it cost us the goal. Back to sidewards and backwards passing again. Final third was pathetic
Wsaint Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 Wouldn't mind seeing a LM RM and CM come in before the window shuts. Redmond so inconsistent, Djenepo very raw and tripping over himself, smallbones not ready either. Once Salisu is up to speed our defence may not look so fragile. Noone really impressed today, Ings maybe but he had fuck all service. Adams was okay in the second half, bit of strength but feels like we could've done with another week or so of pre season.
S-Clarke Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 Just now, Wsaint said: Wouldn't mind seeing a LM RM and CM come in before the window shuts. Redmond so inconsistent, Djenepo very raw and tripping over himself, smallbones not ready either. Once Salisu is up to speed our defence may not look so fragile. Noone really impressed today, Ings maybe but he had fuck all service. Adams was okay in the second half, bit of strength but feels like we could've done with another week or so of pre season. a CM at absolute most in my opinion. I've said before we need more on the flanks, Redmond has no real competition pushing him from the left. Boufal isn't a winger either, and isn't reliable enough. Sims isn't good enough either, so we do need another wide player IMO, but we'd certainly need to sell more to get one.
cloggy saint Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 8 minutes ago, whelk said: 2nd from bottom so early in the season is worrying Please tell me you're not being serious? You're genuinely worried after ONE game??
Micky Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 Lots of the ball but no creativity, didn't get behind them enough. Their keeper had to make 2 good saves to keep us out though, so some positives. At the back though, I thought we looked woeful, luckily palace were happy to let us have the ball and play on the break. Not a great start, but when do we ever start a season strong.
Lincs saint2 Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 Same poor central defence, par for the course. Frustrating as it is. draw would have been fair. But when is football fair
S-Clarke Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 1 minute ago, cloggy saint said: Please tell me you're not being serious? You're genuinely worried after ONE game?? He's not being serious 😉
Shroppie Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 11 minutes ago, whelk said: 2nd from bottom so early in the season is worrying But an equaliser and we'd be 2nd
CanadaSaint Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 2 minutes ago, woodsaint1 said: Pushing the full backs on and losing it cost us the goal. Back to sidewards and backwards passing again. Final third was pathetic Pushing them up is part of our game but I think they were going too early - clogging up the quick forward pass lanes, and leaving Stephens and Bednarek to play ping pong, and making us vulnerable to a fast break. It looked just like the team Ralph fixed after the Leicester game. Romeu was poor today and Smallbone looked very "journeyman" - we REALLY missed Armstrong. And we gave away a lot of free set piece headers in our box. A lot for Ralph to work on, but he will.
redkeith Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 Moved the ball far too slowly, apart from the blind pass from Romeu which lead to their goal. Redmond was awful, but Smallbone got better in the second half when he moved off the wing. Adams and Ings looked to play off each other but with no decent service. Everyone else was average, apart form Long, who seemed to have forgotten what the round thing was during his summer break. Makeshift defence for them combined with our good record at Selhurst made it somehow inevitable.
Micky Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 3 minutes ago, cloggy saint said: Please tell me you're not being serious? You're genuinely worried after ONE game?? More worrying, please tell me you're not serious about thinking he is serious..!
Matthew Le God Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 Well that was disappointing! Saints lacked the spark they had from the end of last season. It wasn't a terrible performance, just a meh performance and unable to break down a packed home defence who sat behind the ball (see the 70% vs 30% split in possession).
skintsaint Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 only thing I can find comfort in is that with only one preseason friendly I am sure we will improve.
Shroppie Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 We missed Armstrong's ability to pick a pass and his shooting. There's no replacement available for him. Both Djenepo and Boufal might pull something off, but they are very much individual players who don't have vision.
S-Clarke Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 1 minute ago, Shroppie said: We missed Armstrong's ability to pick a pass and his shooting. There's no replacement available for him. Both Djenepo and Boufal might pull something off, but they are very much individual players who don't have vision. I'm not sure what Ralph see's in Smallbone during training to suggest he's a like for like for Armstrong? Smallbone looks like a bog standard clogger midfielder to me, doesn't look like he has attacking instincts and likes to play the safe pass. Good option in the squad and he will mature I'm sure, but he's certainly not an Armstrong replacement.
Cabrone Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 Well what a surprise, we lost on opening day. Can't shake this hoodoo, we have the worst opening day form in the league, reliably playing like a sack of spuds year in year out. Won 2 out of 21 opening fixtures, last opening win against West Brom in 2013. Shocking stats. Romeu was wasteful, defence were caught asleep more than once, strikers were shot shy and Redmond's finishing was all over the place. Maybe next year Ralph should hypnotise them so they think it's November rather than Aug\Sep. 1
davefizzy14 Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 Very disappointing start. We were not on our usual level today. Ings and Adams didn't have much service atall. Few things for Ralph to work on and he will before next game.
striker Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 Palace could have had more goals, out D needs work. Can't believe we didn't score, 3 great chances; Che (great save), Ings (great save), Redmond (just being Redmond).
whelk Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 10 minutes ago, Shroppie said: But an equaliser and we'd be 2nd A real tight division this year
OttawaSaint Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 I know it’s not that illustrative but quite telling how poor we were if Vestergaard played only 45 minutes but led for our players in the FPL bonus system. Big week coming up, we’ve got to be much better,
Baird of the land Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 20 minutes ago, S-Clarke said: Bit OTT to say huge pressure at this stage! Will probably lose that, but perform a lot better. We're no more than mid table, wobbling between 10th-14th, we'll finish in that sort of range this year. Just think if we lose to Spurs we are suddenly going away to a Burnley team we've foundered against before with zero confidence and zero points and the idea of a nice start could become a horrendous one..
Didcot Saint Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 We looked sluggish, and short of match practice. Why only one preseason match? Palace had 4. Redmond terrible, clueless, so frustrating as at the end of last season we would have won that easily. We are desperately short of a creative midfielder. JWP’s England call up must of gone to his head as he was terrible. This was the old Saints playing, not the vibrant team at the end of last season. Palace stifled us and were terrible with no attacking intention whatsoever, just to stop us playing which to be fair they did very well. Pre season optimism down the toilet.
Convict Colony Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 7 minutes ago, trousers said: Do we know why Bednarek went off? He was shit
Matthew Le God Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 13 minutes ago, Didcot Saint said: We looked sluggish, and short of match practice. Why only one preseason match? Palace had 4. Redmond terrible, clueless, so frustrating as at the end of last season we would have won that easily. We are desperately short of a creative midfielder. JWP’s England call up must of gone to his head as he was terrible. This was the old Saints playing, not the vibrant team at the end of last season. Palace stifled us and were terrible with no attacking intention whatsoever, just to stop us playing which to be fair they did very well. Pre season optimism down the toilet. We didn't.
S-Clarke Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 Just now, Convict Colony said: He was shit Could have been equally him or Stephens to be honest, both way too slow to be playing in a line that high. I'm sure we didn't press that high last season? Vestergaard wasn't any better. Salisu soon I imagine.
CanadaSaint Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 8 minutes ago, trousers said: Do we know why Bednarek went off? Given what Vestergaard did with his first two passes I think it's clear that Ralph wanted the back two to stop farting around and get the ball forward quicker.
Dusic Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 (edited) Don't like Ralph moaning about the pre season, Arteta said they only had one session with all their players together so sure its been the same for most teams. As the club are so secretive we don't know how many minutes players had during pre season but a load looked off the pace. Romeu showed why Ralph always preferred PEH until it became clear he was leaving. Tidy on the ball but too slow today and was done after 70mins but we didnt have anyone to bring on. Not a disaster but a shame not to start well again, and Spurs then Burnley away is a tough couple to follow. We have a decent starting XI but as shown with the subs today, very little beyond that. Probably only at CB that there is any genuine competition for a place. Nothing from the two fullbacks and 10s who were very poor. Edited 12 September, 2020 by Dusic
HedgeEnder Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 57 minutes ago, woodsaint1 said: He really wasnt, we were just utterly dreadful and tested him a whole two times. Pushing the full backs on and losing it cost us the goal. Back to sidewards and backwards passing again. Final third was pathetic We weren’t utterly dreadful for fucks sake
woodsaint1 Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 Palace had just 120 passes lol. The lowest for a winning team since they did it against City in 2018. Reflects even worse on us. Poor
Winnersaint Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 Surprised no muppets have been on here yet to moan about the long hard struggle ahead yet!
HedgeEnder Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 2 minutes ago, woodsaint1 said: Palace had just 120 passes lol. The lowest for a winning team since they did it against City in 2018. Reflects even worse on us. Poor Yep, first game of the season, let’s all wet the bed
Dorchester Saint Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 1 hour ago, OttawaSaint said: 1997 or something. MLG notes. I’m only joking 7 years ago sadly.
woodsaint1 Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 11 minutes ago, HedgeEnder said: Yep, first game of the season, let’s all wet the bed Just offering an opinion. As usual anyone who is critical is deemed to be wetting the bed 😴. You're getting a bit wound up taking two of my comments to task
S-Clarke Posted 12 September, 2020 Posted 12 September, 2020 15 minutes ago, HedgeEnder said: Yep, first game of the season, let’s all wet the bed I don't think anyone's wetting the bed.
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