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Saints 3-1 Fulham - Match Thread


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1 minute ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

I like Armstrong central. Look at the second goal, he drives forward with the ball. OR or Prowse would have just passed it there. 

Yeah, definitely. I think its horses for courses and you might want more a more defensive player in tougher matches, but you get so much from a CM willing to surge forward.

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Good win, 43 points looks semi respectful.

Che MOTM for me, great link up play, and a goal.

Considering how Jan -Mar went for Saints, I'll take a comfortable win like this.

Interesting that Saints looked more balanced and stronger, when Minimano was replaced. Like Djenepo he adds very little to the team and frequently loses the ball. Thank you Mr Liverpool but no thanks.

Redmond may be way too casual up front, but he does his defensive duties well. I guess that's why he is picked so often.

Anyway nice to have turned the corner, bit of hope for next season.

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4 minutes ago, macca155 said:

Good win, 43 points looks semi respectful.

Che MOTM for me, great link up play, and a goal.

Considering how Jan -Mar went for Saints, I'll take a comfortable win like this.

Interesting that Saints looked more balanced and stronger, when Minimano was replaced. Like Djenepo he adds very little to the team and frequently loses the ball. Thank you Mr Liverpool but no thanks.

Redmond may be way too casual up front, but he does his defensive duties well. I guess that's why he is picked so often.

Anyway nice to have turned the corner, bit of hope for next season.

Agree on Che MOTM, but it's remarkable how close Tella came to pinching it.

If he'd scored the second he so nearly took late on he'd HAVE to have been. After half an hour on the pitch.

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8 minutes ago, mcbendy said:

I'm sure I'm not the one to think that both Redmond and Minamino were awful today. Hopefully next season we'll have some upgrades...

Minamino try hard lightweight. Redmond, just lightweight. 

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11 minutes ago, SKD said:

Watch back; watch Vestergaard get dragged out side following his man, watch Stephens man run straight off Stephens and score. 
 

If once you’ve watched back you still think it’s Vestergaard’s fault, then give up watching football as you haven’t a clue. 

I like Stephens , I think he’s better than a lot make out, but it was clearly his fault. I felt he “guessed” where he thought the ball was going. I’ve noticed Bednarek does this a bit as well. It’s one thing making a mistake at centre half, but you have to learn from them. Neither Jack or Bednarek seem capable of doing so. Unless  they start to, they’ll not be playing much more. 

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Redmond and Minamino are fecking atrocious. 
And not just today. 
they contribute nothing.too lightweight,not quick thinking…..and I don’t want to see either in a saints shirt again. 
but unfortunately…..looks like Redmond will be a nailed on starter for the unforeseeable future …..and so does Taki,thankfully just another couple of games for him  

 

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1 minute ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

I like Stephens , I think he’s better than a lot make out, but it was clearly his fault. I felt he “guessed” where he thought the ball was going. I’ve noticed Bednarek does this a bit as well. It’s one thing making a mistake at centre half, but you have to learn from them. Neither Jack or Bednarek seem capable of doing so. Unless  they start to, they’ll not be playing much more. 

The problem with Stephens is that you can guarantee that he will give at least one or two clear goal opportunities to the opposition per match, even when he has a good game. At this level you can’t afford regular starters to do that.

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8 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

I like Stephens , I think he’s better than a lot make out, but it was clearly his fault. I felt he “guessed” where he thought the ball was going. I’ve noticed Bednarek does this a bit as well. It’s one thing making a mistake at centre half, but you have to learn from them. Neither Jack or Bednarek seem capable of doing so. Unless  they start to, they’ll not be playing much more. 

This is going to sound daft, but when stephens is playing well, he’s more than capable. For 99% of today he was playing well. 
 

His issue and the same with Bednerak tbh; is that he lacks concentration. Unless he sorts this, he’ll never be good enough at this level. 
 

Hopefully, like Fonte, he gets better with age. 

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28 minutes ago, Baird of the land said:

Annoying to lose the clean sheet but it was a quality finish by their kid.

Lovely to see Tella get off the mark. Made a real difference when he came on.

Thought Redmond was our poorest player today.

I dont know whether you are right but someone has to be the worst player like someone has to be the best one

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9 minutes ago, Toussaint said:

Say whatever you like about Stephens, but we are a far better team when he’s in it.

Yet when we went on our winning run at the start of the season, he wasn’t playing...

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9 minutes ago, sadoldgit said:

The problem with Stephens is that you can guarantee that he will give at least one or two clear goal opportunities to the opposition per match, even when he has a good game. At this level you can’t afford regular starters to do that.

Absolutely. I had to switch over and watch the play off. Absolutely superb!!

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1 minute ago, SKD said:

This is going to sound daft, but when stephens is playing well, he’s more than capable. For 99% of today he was playing well. 
 

His issue and the same with Bednerak tbh; is that he lacks concentration. Unless he sorts this, he’ll never be good enough at this level. 
 

Hopefully, like Fonte, he gets better with age. 

I think he has already got much better with age and experience. 

There were some jitters on here when he was first brought back in to cover for Bertie, but he's been mostly very solid and put in some absolutely crucial, and occasionally fearless, tackles and blocks in the few games back that have almost certainly saved goals.

I think he's earned consideration as an important squad member, and possible contender for a starting spot.

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4 minutes ago, SaveloyMush said:

If no defender ever made a mistake, there wouldn't be many goals!

I still love that stat that Alderweireld didn't make a single defensive error in his season with us.

But then get depressed after imagining what might have been if we could have kept him AND got VVD..

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I thought Stephens played well today - some really positive runs and a couple of goal-saving tackles. He gets a lot of stick on here but let's give him credit when credit is due. Felt Ralph was slow to put energy into the side - I would have subbed Redmond and/or Minamino a lot earlier - Fulham were threatening to score for a while before they did.

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59 minutes ago, VictiAbNonem said:

There's so much potential there for headlines, and much else!

Tella-vision, Tella-graph, Tella-phone, Tella-scope, Tella-kinesis, Tella-portation..

And Tella-vangelists for us worshipping fans ;)

Go on, Tella like it is…..

😄

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1 minute ago, Vancouver Saint said:

I thought Stephens played well today - some really positive runs and a couple of goal-saving tackles. He gets a lot of stick on here but let's give him credit when credit is due. Felt Ralph was slow to put energy into the side - I would have subbed Redmond and/or Minamino a lot earlier - Fulham were threatening to score for a while before they did.

Agree on Stephens entirely.

But think Ralph was restricted in his sub option by needing to manage Ings and Armstrong's minutes. Danny's not long back from injury, and Stu runs so hard so well that I think I'd rather get 70-75 minutes of him playing like that than 90 of him conserving energy.

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35 minutes ago, sadoldgit said:

The problem with Stephens is that you can guarantee that he will give at least one or two clear goal opportunities to the opposition per match, even when he has a good game. At this level you can’t afford regular starters to do that.

Bednerak alert

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47 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

No he isn't. A club that has spent 44 years out of 55 in the top flight is clearly one of the size where being in the league isn't a fluke. Far too big a sample.

Size of club isn't quantified by seasons in the top flight though.

Most people would agree size is down to number of fans and stadium capacity, and in that respect he was correct. Some similar size clubs are 2 leagues below us.

 

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Pretty straightforward win today, wouldn't expect anything less since Fulham were relegated and left some of their better players out.

Adams very good, I liked Tella for his attitude, pace and smile after he scored. Hope he gets a a decent amount of game time in the last 2 to help his development.

The 3 cb's all did well and Armstrong and Ward Prowse put in solid performances. 

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Back to back wins, nice feeling!

Fulham were poor but we did what we needed to do and never really got out of second gear ourselves. Tella was a real threat after coming on and lovely moment for him.

Aside from their goal Stephens was excellent and I would prefer him starting over Bednarek. With Salisu looking good Jan would be my 4th choice CB now.

Hate to pick on Redmond but he really was appalling today and offers us so little.

Otherwise a good day at the office. Now only three points short of Puel's total that got us 8th, been a strange old season!

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Pretty solid display - but won;t play many worse teams than Fulham.  Salisu, Tella, JWP, Adams all excellent.  Felt Minamino and Redmond were very poor: both are very slow thinkers and the game is too quick for them.

Minamino is just not suited to the PL.

Loved Tella's enthusiasm and beaming smile!

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23 minutes ago, Vancouver Saint said:

I thought Stephens played well today - some really positive runs and a couple of goal-saving tackles. He gets a lot of stick on here but let's give him credit when credit is due. Felt Ralph was slow to put energy into the side - I would have subbed Redmond and/or Minamino a lot earlier - Fulham were threatening to score for a while before they did.

He did play very well, but he still makes one big cock up every single game that leads to a clear opportunity and at this level it invariably gets punished. 

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1 minute ago, VictiAbNonem said:

Haven't seen anyone else do it, so thought I should mention Theo's lovely finish of our best goal today.

He gets a lot of (deserved and undeserved) stick, but definitely earned a bit of credit there.

It wasn't mentioned because it was deflected though, right?

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36 minutes ago, The Cat said:

Size of club isn't 1) quantified by seasons in the top flight though.

Most people would agree size is down to 1) number of fans and 2) stadium capacity, and in that respect he was correct. 3) Some similar size clubs are 2 leagues below us.

1) If the sample size was small... like Bournemouth's 5 seasons, then you would have a point. But 44 of the last 55 years for Saints in the top flight is a colossal sample size. You can't fluke your way to 44 of the last 55 years in the top flight by not being a club of a decent size.

2) We've averaged circa 30,000 every Premier League season at St Mary's

3) Regarding stadium capacity... St Mary's is the 17th biggest club ground in England, so it is in the top 20

4) A similar sized club being 2 leagues below doesn't mean you should be below your current level. That is a flawed point.

 

 

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12 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

It wasn't mentioned because it was deflected though, right?

I've watched it again a few times on Sky highlights and I'm not sure the deflection's significant.

Maybe it did help him, but he still took the chance really well.

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Poor game management at 2-0. Instead of bossing the game we suddenly let Fulham in behind us four times in a row - they finally scored on the fourth occasion. Midfield stopped pressing and the defensive line didn't adapt. A bit like Spurs at the start of the season.

Fortunately the goal woke us back up again and we got on the front foot and went after the third - which we should've been doing all along.

Nice moment for Tella and you could see the confidence boost it gave to his whole game. Needs more minutes.

Back to back wins. Heady days.

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15 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

1) If the sample size was small... like Bournemouth's 5 seasons, then you would have a point. But 44 of the last 55 years for Saints in the top flight is a colossal sample size. You can't fluke your way to 44 of the last 55 years in the top flight by not being a club of a decent size.

2) We've averaged circa 30,000 every Premier League season at St Mary's

3) Regarding stadium capacity... St Mary's is the 17th biggest club ground in England, so it is in the top 20

4) A similar sized club being 2 leagues below doesn't mean you should be below your current level. That is a flawed point.

 

 

What are you on about? We've achieved top flight status for ten years because of Lawrie McMenemy and Chris Nicholl keeping us in the top flight in the 1980s? That's your argument?

For a club our size, to stay in the Premier League is an achievement. The commentator is quite correct.

Newcastle and Villa have been down, Bolton, Sunderland have fallen far, Derby, Forest and many others can't get close.

Tell us about the eleven semi finals again.....

 

 

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18 minutes ago, VictiAbNonem said:

I've watched it again a few times on Sky highlights and I'm not sure the deflection's significant.

Maybe it did help him, but he still took the chance really well.

Have to watch it again but looked to me his original shot was just going along the ground.

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1 hour ago, mcbendy said:

I'm sure I'm not the one to think that both Redmond and Minamino were awful today. Hopefully next season we'll have some upgrades...

It was like playing with 9 men at times, luckily Fulham were poor and others stepped up and put in good performances. 

One more win needed to equal Claude Puels points total of 2017, will be good to hit that landmark. 

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3 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

Have to watch it again but looked to me his original shot was just going along the ground.

It's annoying on the highlights; it's the last thing they show and one of their graphics moves in the way of what seems to be the best view in the last seconds of the third angle replay..

From the live view I can't see a massive deflection. And have been reminded from my repeated reviews that Theo made a very nice little flick on to Adams to create the attack.

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9 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

What are you on about? We've achieved top flight status for ten years because of Lawrie McMenemy and Chris Nicholl keeping us in the top flight in the 1980s? That's your argument?

For a club our size, to stay in the Premier League is an achievement. The commentator is quite correct.

Newcastle and Villa have been down, Bolton, Sunderland have fallen far, Derby, Forest and many others can't get close.

Tell us about the eleven semi finals again.....

Nope, you clearly haven't understood any of it and twisted what I said into something else entirely.

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2 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Nope, you clearly haven't understood any of it and twisted what I said into something else entirely.

Your 44 out of 55 years shite us utterly irrelevant bollocks. I am glad you accept that now. 

Forest have won European Cup twice. Villa, Ipswich have won European trophies. Derby have won the league.

Anyway, its boring: the point is the idea that we

"have done well for a club of their size to be in the top league for the last 10 years" 

is correct.

 

 

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