Saints 1-2 Brighton - Match Thread

[obelisk]

Brighton wanted it while Saints have no idea what to do with the ball.

Epitomised in the last seconds there where we preferred to pass it around the back rather than put the ball into the danger area. Did we have a shot in the last 20 minutes?

[LaptopSaint]

Against stiff competition that was the worst second half of the season. And I include Man Utd. Not sure where we go from here. Bournemouth away looks dodgy that’s for sure. 

[Chapel End]

9 minutes ago, nta786 said:

It’s the fear of the unknown I think which have us all defending Ralph at all times.
Right now I can’t tell if these players are Championship quality and Ralph has got more than the sum of the parts.

Alternatively, the theory is Ralph should definitely be doing better with what he has at his disposal.

My verdict is that it is somewhere definitely in the middle. 
I look at a squad like Leeds who have just gone up and think ours is better/should be doing better. 

That just about sums it up better than I could, thanks 

[LGTL]

Lost 10 of the last 12. That’s nearly a 1/3 of a season FFS!!

[Bewildered]

No urgency or fight and no Plan B tactically.

[CylonKing]

Atrocious! Really poor. Our passing was abysmal and never really troubled them. Very disappointing.

[Saint Keef]

We are "officially" in a relegation battle and we are "officially" shit.

[Micky]

From top to bottom every single player was crap, every one of them.  If we got relegated I couldn't give two fucks.  With that level of effort and commitment we deserve nothing less.  We are shyte. 

[vectraman]

4 minutes ago, Suhari said:

Get. It. In. The. Box.

Exactly this. Get the big men up, get the crosses into the box.

Us? Fart about in midfield and pass it about in our own half and lose it. Baffling. Just go route one, we are losing for God's sake 😡

[Baird of the land]

Truly abysmal. Once again why does the other manager make a change at HT while Ralph twiddles his thumbs. Saints were terrible in the first half and lucky to be level.

Whole 2nd half felt we had zero desire to pass the ball forward, just slow backwards passing.

[Wiggles31]

Get rid of Ralph now. That performance is unacceptable. What is our identity these days?! Other than to gift goals, have zero threat, sideways/backwards passes, defensive errors every game. 
 

Fucking fuck off. 

[Saint Scott]

I've been raplhs biggest fan even through the 9-0 defeats. But zero plan b every game. Players look clueless with no creative spark. Time for a change

Edited 14 March, 2021 by Saint Scott

[Turkish]

1 minute ago, egg said:

That was an absolute fucking shambles. 

Clueless all over the pitch. 

Outclassed by Brighton ffs.

I think that second half was one of the worst I’ve seen, clueless everywhere. Absolutely dreadful everywhere. 

[Master Bates]

[IronCitySaint]

Outrageously pathetic performance. The best we will get this season is 17th and without a major change relegation beckons next season. I think we all know nothing will change.

[DT]

Predictable

[stknowle]

Time and again this season I've seen opposition managers make a tactical switch at half time that has significantly altered the game and swung it in their team's favour. I have never seen Ralph do this or make his own switch to effectively combat the oppo's change in tactics. A manager needs to be able to do this. 

[washsaint]

Embarrassing performance, Ralph has absolutely no idea how to turn this round.  We play so slowly and ponderously and everything is sideways, backwards to the wings where we give it away.

Absolutely no cutting edge, urgency or confidence.  Ralph looks very, very stupid after his 'cleverness' midweek.

We are in trouble.

[whelk]

Get Scott Parker 

[Chapel End]

Just now, Baird of the land said:

Truly abysmal. Once again why does the other manager make a change at HT while Ralph twiddles his thumbs. Saints were terrible in the first half and lucky to be level.

Whole 2nd half felt we had zero desire to pass the ball forward, just slow backwards passing.

We weren't terrible in first half, we were worse in 2nd half

[Kenilworthy]

A crucial game - not a single yellow card. Shows our pathetic lack of competition, Ralph must go now

[Maggie May]

Posters like CB Fry have to be wondering if they’ll keep their “we are safe” schtick up. 

[BotleySaint]

Problem is, all the teams below us are showing fight and picking up points. We can barely muster a shot on goal.

Ralph may not be a bad manager. But would a new face at least shake things up?

[Saint-Reece]

Embarrassing, in trouble now. Starting to severely doubt Ralph now. 

[beatlesaint]

That second half was as inept, hopeless and half arsed as I have seen in a long long time.....from any team, not just Southampton 

[Toussaint]

Just now, davefizzy14 said:

This performance against an awful side. Ralph can't be happy with this.

Brighton aren’t awful, we are, the win against woeful Sheffield United changes nothing, our form is no better than West Brom

[redkeith]

That was pants. Created next to nothing  after 2nd goal.

Dialo played well, but other than that we were poor, particularly the subs. 

We are in a scrap now.

Edited 14 March, 2021 by redkeith

[Graffito]

That was a very very worrying performance. Not one single positive. Same old failings. Utter tripe.

[Saint_lambden]

Not a single shot in the last 30 minutes. Absolutely pathetic. No urgency, far too many of them drifting and got what we deserved. 

Haven't got a hope of beating Burnley playing like that with the form they're in. 

[Wallington Saint]

Why did we wait for injury time to start pushing forward!!??

 

[Manuel]

In the build-up the female commentator described the game as a relegation battle.  I laughed...I'm not laughing now

[Chez]

1 minute ago, badgerx16 said:

 

Every team knows how we play, and how to beat our system.

 

this. There seems to be a complete lack of awareness from Ralf that perhaps our formation isn't helping us. Brighton suffocated us thrpughout the entire game. What was the response?

[Turkish]

1 minute ago, washsaint said:

Embarrassing performance, Ralph has absolutely no idea how to turn this round.  We play so slowly and ponderously and everything is sideways, backwards to the wings where we give it away.

Absolutely no cutting edge, urgency or confidence.  Ralph looks very, very stupid after his 'cleverness' midweek.

We are in trouble.

Does the same thing week after week, so predictable.

[Halo Stickman]

Clueless manager, clueless players. Absolutely abysmal performance.
Yet again.

[Baird of the land]

Just now, Chapel End said:

We weren't terrible in first half, we were worse in 2nd half

I  disagree, brighton were much better than us in the first half and should have been in the lead, if not for a combination of a decent fraser save. their player slipping

[whelk]

Just now, Turkish said:

Does the same thing week after week, so predictable.

Newcastle second half 

[The Cat]

1 minute ago, obelisk said:

Brighton wanted it while Saints have no idea what to do with the ball.

Epitomised in the last seconds there where we preferred to pass it around the back rather than put the ball into the danger area. Did we have a shot in the last 20 minutes?

I don't think we had any shots after Adams missed and then the free kick was deflected wide. That was at least 25 minutes before the end of the game.

[Whitey Grandad]

1 minute ago, Wallington Saint said:

Why did we wait for injury time to start pushing forward!!??

 

We didn’t. We never started pushing forward.

[gammon cheeks]

Ralph plays the same way all the time ...on current we are going down ....Brighton dont have players better than ours but played better and were far superior 

[skintsaint]

cheers Saints. Enjoyed that.

 

[markr27]

Bertrand - backwards. JWP - backwards. Redmond - backwards. Bednarek - backwards.

Overcooking the thinking all of the time. 

[LuckyNumber7]

That second half was completely unacceptable. Looked like we had settled for a 2-1 defeat.

This squad really needs a major overhaul but we all know that's not going to happen.

[BotleySaint]

No team spirit at all. No communication. All playing for themselves. Surely it's down to Ralph to develop in a better direction?

Edited 14 March, 2021 by BotleySaint

[Wurzel]

Yet again opposition manager makes a tactical change at half time, we don't make one at any time in the game.

[Lord Duckhunter]

I bet the happy clappers from weds now realise how fucking  stupid they are. You can not go through the motions one week and they switch it back on the next. Perhaps Potter will say some nice things about us and make them happy.

 

That was as bad as anything Puel, Pelligrino and Hughes dished up, yet the excuses will keep coming and the blindness towards his failings will continue. 
 

Golden bollocks is fucking woeful without OR, can’t tackle or disrupt, and passes backward and sideways every fucking time. The centre halves look like strangers, does Ralph even drill them. Puel had Stephens & Yoshida playing to a far higher standard than these two. The club is soft as shite. Soft arsed manager, captain and players, yet some fans lap it up. 
 

 

[Archers Road Stand]

We deservedly lost that. Awful, dull and predicable football in that second half. 

Ralph gets outdone by another manager at half time. 

Bottom of the form table over the last 15 games, throw in a second 9-0 humiliation and a record breaking amount of defeats in a row. RALPH OUT. 

 

[Saint_Tony]

beyond shocking in that 2nd half. We are lucky we got so many points early on in the season. Only hope now is to start employing the same tactics as we did in the Chelsea game to pick up the couple of points we need. 

[davefizzy14]

Why bring our best player off when we are chasing the game? N'Lundulu should have been bought on a lot earlier. The performance second half was inexcusable, no intent to get forward quickly.

Edited 14 March, 2021 by davefizzy14

[Convict Colony]

Thought everyone was pants

[Kingsbridge Saint]

Brightons goal - all our players daydreaming, walking and marking space. No idea going forward, nothing. We are as bad as Sheff Utd, WBA and Newcastle and are in a fight to stay up now. Absolutely fucking dreadful. Ralph needs to step up or ship out.