Palace 1-0 Saints - Match Thread

[S-Clarke]

13 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Like we did against Liverpool last year and ended up 4-0 down at half time? You speak as if a draw is somehow a default setting and that even a one goal defeat constitutes a lack of effort. This is the Premier League, you have to work your backsides off just to not get spanked. If nothing else we’re keeping it tight at the back and we’re in with a chance in every game.

You seem to be adopting this ''we're only Southampton, we're lucky to even be a professional football club'' mantra that is flooding through all corridors of this club right now.

[Saints foreva]

13 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Like we did against Liverpool last year and ended up 4-0 down at half time? You speak as if a draw is somehow a default setting and that even a one goal defeat constitutes a lack of effort. This is the Premier League, you have to work your backsides off just to not get spanked. If nothing else we’re keeping it tight at the back and we’re in with a chance in every game.

Still think a striker wasn't a priority in the summer transfer window?

[Pamplemousse]

1 hour ago, Appy said:

Exactly, the weirdos online going “hope Lyanco plays so he can take out Zaha LMFAO” 

 

Sums most of our fans up. 

Lyanco is decent for what he is - a 4th choice centre back. And he was superb against Arsenal.

What went unnoticed amongst our fanbase was he played against Zaha without incident in the 2-2 last season. Our fans are morons for trying to hype Lyanco v Zaha up pre-game.

Zaha did have a mini meltdown in the first half for which he got booked but couldn't quite see why. Think it was a tackle but dunno by whom, was on the far side.

Edited 29 October, 2022 by Pamplemousse

[OttawaSaint]

2 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said:

We did have a go at them in the second half. Missed at least three good chances.

We didn't deserve to lose today.

I think we deserved to lose because if that first half, ridiculous tactics and team selection. How many "we were unlucky" will it take until some see this as a pattern?

[Pamplemousse]

16 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Like we did against Liverpool last year and ended up 4-0 down at half time? You speak as if a draw is somehow a default setting and that even a one goal defeat constitutes a lack of effort. This is the Premier League, you have to work your backsides off just to not get spanked. If nothing else we’re keeping it tight at the back and we’re in with a chance in every game.

This is the thing which, despite the recent defeats, makes me confident we won't go down. It's very fine margins that we're losing by - and we have been unlucky in games this season. Yes you have to make your own luck and yes we need to improve many aspects of our game. But we're not a million miles off, major surgery isn't required. We just need the rub of the green.

[Pamplemousse]

Just now, OttawaSaint said:

I think we deserved to lose because if that first half, ridiculous tactics and team selection. How many "we were unlucky" will it take until some see this as a pattern?

We have been unlucky though. Maybe lacking in confidence. I dunno.

One thing I've noticed is we’re not winning free kicks any more for Prowsey. 

[Harry_SFC]

5 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said:

This is the thing which, despite the recent defeats, makes me confident we won't go down. It's very fine margins that we're losing by - and we have been unlucky in games this season. Yes you have to make your own luck and yes we need to improve many aspects of our game. But we're not a million miles off, major surgery isn't required. We just need the rub of the green.

We have missed chances but we've also been very poor. It's not like we've had bad results but looked a decent side. Poor against Spurs, Man City, Villa, Wolves, Everton, West Ham, Bournemouth and Palace. We were awful against Leeds for 45 minutes as well.

Edited 29 October, 2022 by Harry_SFC

[InvictaSaint]

2 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said:

This is the thing which, despite the recent defeats, makes me confident we won't go down. It's very fine margins that we're losing by - and we have been unlucky in games this season. Yes you have to make your own luck and yes we need to improve many aspects of our game. But we're not a million miles off, major surgery isn't required. We just need the rub of the green.

Going to respectfully disagree. Whilst the relative defensive solidity is a plus, it means absolutely nothing if we don’t have somebody who can score 10-15 goals a season. And we don’t. Unless that changes in January, we will be relegated - of that I am certain. 

[Saints foreva]

1 minute ago, Pamplemousse said:

This is the thing which, despite the recent defeats, makes me confident we won't go down. It's very fine margins that we're losing by - and we have been unlucky in games this season. Yes you have to make your own luck and yes we need to improve many aspects of our game. But we're not a million miles off, major surgery isn't required. We just need the rub of the green.

The rub of the green requires a shite striker like Adams finding the net with the most simple chances. He doesn't do that and he hasn't since he joined us. 

Fan girls on her love XG stats, well heres one. Che Adams is significantly performing under his XG since being here and that's hilarious considering his first vs Man City was almost a 0 XG. The guy is shite and I wish we sold him in the summer so another club could deal with a striker that doesn't score goals. 

He's also refusing to sign a new contract, like Salisu. Two players who think they're better than they are. 

[LGTL]

Can anyone seriously argue that Ballard would be any worse then Che fucking Adams?

[Pamplemousse]

1 minute ago, Harry_SFC said:

We have missed chances but we've also been very poor. It's not like we've had bad results but have actually looked a decent enough side. Poor against Spurs, Man City, Villa, Wolves, Everton, West Ham, Bournemouth and Palace. We were awful against Leeds for 45 minutes as well.

I'll give you Spurs and Man City.

Villa, both teams were terrible.

Bournemouth we won and we did enough to get the 3 points. It wasn't pretty but we got them.

Wolves, Everton and Palace we didn't deserve to lose IMO, all three I left the ground feeling we didn't deserve the defeat.

West Ham we were lucky, that second half was a disaster.

I think we're better than where we are in the table. We're a team low on confidence and we need some luck.

How that gets solved is a different matter. A January marquee signing to get everyone excited? Change of manager?

[Forester]

1 hour ago, wooley7 said:

Adams has improved his all round game year on year but not his finishing. In Ralph’s usual system Adams is the ideal second striker.  In that role he will get that 7-10 goals a season, if he was playing with a decent partner who could finish, we would be in a much better position than we are currently.

Not getting that decent striker is really the issue.  Some are saying we had something agreed and fucked it up!

We aren’t playing great football but are definitely better defensively this season and have had some decent chances to win games we have gone on to lose or draw, like today.

We have a good amount of time to find a striker that can do the business and get 8-10 goals before the end of the season. Sounds easy but sure it will be difficult. Let’s hope that Sports Republic come up with something.

Spot on

[Pamplemousse]

4 minutes ago, InvictaSaint said:

Going to respectfully disagree. Whilst the relative defensive solidity is a plus, it means absolutely nothing if we don’t have somebody who can score 10-15 goals a season. And we don’t. Unless that changes in January, we will be relegated - of that I am certain. 

Agree with you about the striker. Think we'll just about stay up but we won't go anywhere (i.e. we'll be 15th-17th) until we do sign one.

[Pamplemousse]

4 minutes ago, Saints foreva said:

The rub of the green requires a shite striker like Adams finding the net with the most simple chances. He doesn't do that and he hasn't since he joined us. 

Fan girls on her love XG stats, well heres one. Che Adams is significantly performing under his XG since being here and that's hilarious considering his first vs Man City was almost a 0 XG. The guy is shite and I wish we sold him in the summer so another club could deal with a striker that doesn't score goals. 

He's also refusing to sign a new contract, like Salisu. Two players who think they're better than they are. 

He gets into good positions, that's the annoying thing. He does all the hard work, and then the actual thing he needs to do i.e. put the ball in the back of net, something goes wrong.

[Toussaint]

3 points off the bottom with Forest still to play, Newcastle and Liverpool our next two games. It’s only just struck me how important today’s game was.

[Pamplemousse]

Interestingly, and this is scant consolation, according to soccerstats.com we have had the hardest fixtures so far, other than Man Utd, and our remaining opponents (on paper) are a lot easier than all the teams around us. And that will especially be the case after Newcastle and Liverpool.

Our fixtures immediately after the World Cup are huge. That's where we have to be picking up the points.

[CB Fry]

4 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said:

Interestingly, and this is scant consolation, according to soccerstats.com we have had the hardest fixtures so far, other than Man Utd, and our remaining opponents (on paper) are a lot easier than all the teams around us. And that will especially be the case after Newcastle and Liverpool.

Our fixtures immediately after the World Cup are huge. That's where we have to be picking up the points.

I think the problem is that we are utterly terrible at winning "easy" games.

[obelisk]

Does anyone seriously expect a decent goal-scoring striker to willingly agree to join a team that's stuck in the bottom 3 at Christmas?

[woodsaint1]

12 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said:

Interestingly, and this is scant consolation, according to soccerstats.com we have had the hardest fixtures so far, other than Man Utd, and our remaining opponents (on paper) are a lot easier than all the teams around us. And that will especially be the case after Newcastle and Liverpool.

Our fixtures immediately after the World Cup are huge. That's where we have to be picking up the points.

We need it to be like the covid season where we came back from the extended break and hit the ground running. Be even better if we had a new manager with a fresh approach

[woodsaint1]

We have all the makings of a team sliding towards relegation unfortunately.

We dont score enough goals. T-3 worst for goals scored this season

We dont create enough chances. 4th worst XG rating (1.25)

We cant keep clean sheets. While we have a decent defence on paper, and theres some new faces who will take time to gel, we're still conceding. Although we're not conceding as many as the start of the season.

Defensively we've been poor in the PL for quite a while now, but we've always had enough goals in us. We desperately need to address this in January. We need 1 maybe 2 strikers, and ideally a no10. January is not a buyers window so expect us to have to pay over the odds. Hopefully SR recognise this and put the money up

[MAY-Z]

56 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

You seem to be adopting this ''we're only Southampton, we're lucky to even be a professional football club'' mantra that is flooding through all corridors of this club right now.

This is what Ralph has done to the club, it’s pathetic

 

ive said for a while now, Ralph is fantastic at one thing, making everyone think that we are a terrible club, so that less and less expectation falls on him

[kitch]

5 hours ago, Midfield_General said:

All huff and puff. Zero quality. When we do manage to carve out a chance we can't take it. Feel for Lyanco being played out of position but he doesn't have the quality on the ball to play where he was put today. More points lost against an average side. Way too many passengers contributing nothing - Aribo, AMN, Elyonoussi, Diallo. We've had a half decent little spell but that was normal service resumed. Only real positive is that a few other results went our way. 

Harsh on AMN, thought he was part of the changes that improved things second half.

[macca155]

Whether we get relegated or not will depend on some decent signings in January.

The defence is sorted and that needs to be celebrated. However the midfield is a car crash. Every opposition manager has pushed JWP back and ensured that our midfield is dominated.

On the infrequent occasions Saints do get the ball to the forwards they simply cannot finish. Che Adams is ok imo. His work rate is excellent, but he needs quality support up front. Maybe Ballard and Dibling are worth a go.

Ralph's tactics don't help, but above all else we need squad improvements. A midfield general and a striker are absolutely essential.

We seem to have too many players in some positions and gaps elsewhere.

All a bit of a mess and this year no-one is conveniently lying down and accepting relegation.

Edited 29 October, 2022 by macca155

[Micky]

46 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

I think the problem is that we are utterly terrible.

As always, you went on too long...!

[Jack]

Palace were sh*t, and we were worse. Predictably common occurrence this season. 
 

We just lack ideas and are far too easy to play against. For me that lands at the manager’s feet as we’ve seen far more from most of these players. 

[Saints foreva]

Haha those two Che Adams misses were worse on MOTD. Absolute shite striker. Wish we sold him in the summer when we supposedly had the chance. 

[Lighthouse]

1 hour ago, S-Clarke said:

You seem to be adopting this ''we're only Southampton, we're lucky to even be a professional football club'' mantra that is flooding through all corridors of this club right now.

Luck doesn’t come into it. We’ve consistently been buying the cheapest players in the league for several seasons now and to top it off our four best players have medium-long term injures. People are talking as if a one goal defeat is just the bog standard result you get for not even trying and that if you just say, “Have a go FFS!!” We might outperform squads which cost twice as much and win a thrilling 4-3 encounter.

Sure, I’d love for us to be doing a lot better. If anyone can arrange for us to win the quadruple five years in a row, then declare Southampton to be an independent sovereign nation and win the World Cup too, I’ll gladly take that. Sadly, where we are right now is the reality of what we’ve spent, no matter what anyone on here wants.

[warsash saint]

To be honest I'd rather have players like Lyanco in the team that gives it their all than someone like Elyounoussi that again showed today that he has been stealing a living at this football club for 4 years!!

[Brissysaint]

Just finished watching (had a late night last night) what a fucking shit show, I can’t even fault the defence really as palace have great pace upfront but the midfield is disgraceful, I have no idea how he thinks we can get away with having two weaklings against 4 or 5

 

Aribo is non existent I really don’t see what he offers, at least moi gets stuck in (doesn’t do much else though) che can hold up the ball sure but who the fuck is he going to pass too? Everyone else is 10 yards behind him and not even thinking about making a run because we’re so negative, case in point AMN (I think) had the ball on the half way line and JWP was gesturing to him to pass it back.

 

Edozie has to start and at least one of the kids that everyone keeps raving about, we’ve got the slowest front line in the league and they’re producing fuck all.

[Roo1976]

2 hours ago, Pamplemousse said:

We have been unlucky though. Maybe lacking in confidence. I dunno.

One thing I've noticed is we’re not winning free kicks any more for Prowsey. 

Right about JWP, wheres his drive and ambition as the captain to want to produce more than just a sideways and backwards pass?. I know i think he made a good opportunity for  Adams, but he seems well below what i think hes better at, which is drive on and create the chances. There was a time when Ron was in charge that he would come on for maybe 15-20 mins ,but now seems undroppable. 

Moi one or two good moments against the gunners and he starts yet again,why?.....Aribo ,was hoping  that he might add some flair we so much needed ,but sadly as yet hard to find a reason to keep starting him.

We must not see what Wreck it sees, we can can we, or does he think we are better the way he sees it?. But he still makes fundamental fuck ups every time we play ,no 2 halves are the same ,surely the players can see its not working out and take some responsibility?.. We are running out of winnable games from teams were more than capable of winning. Start Edozie and Mara for the next 2 games before the break,go on give us a bit of hope.4-4-2  Edozie AMN Lavia Djenepo go see how that works  Mara and Adams up front,give JWP a break and see what spark and motivation that might bring to his game .

[Kingsbridge Saint]

Che Adams simply has to stop adding to his catalogue of missed opportunities every week or he's going to get Ralph sacked and us relegated. Got to start scoring a few more son. It's shit or bust time.

[Archers Road Stand]

39 minutes ago, Kingsbridge Saint said:

Che Adams simply has to stop adding to his catalogue of missed opportunities every week or he's going to get Ralph sacked and us relegated. Got to start scoring a few more son. It's shit or bust time.

He is an awful striker. He misses sitters for fun. 

[Mixedkebab]

1 hour ago, Brissysaint said:

Just finished watching (had a late night last night) what a fucking shit show, I can’t even fault the defence really as palace have great pace upfront but the midfield is disgraceful, I have no idea how he thinks we can get away with having two weaklings against 4 or 5

 

Aribo is non existent I really don’t see what he offers, at least moi gets stuck in (doesn’t do much else though) che can hold up the ball sure but who the fuck is he going to pass too? Everyone else is 10 yards behind him and not even thinking about making a run because we’re so negative, case in point AMN (I think) had the ball on the half way line and JWP was gesturing to him to pass it back.

 

Edozie has to start and at least one of the kids that everyone keeps raving about, we’ve got the slowest front line in the league and they’re producing fuck all.

Well said. Our midfield was an absolute shambles in the first half (and several other halves this season). AMN at leat got his foot on the ball, found space and looked forward when he came on. Diallo and JWP look like a couple of little scrawny rats in midfield, fuck me could we do with a Wanyama and Schneiderlin combo. Aribo has been utter dogshit as well but I think that comes from our non existent engine which cannot provide a foothold for the more forward thinking players to express themselves.

The terrible first half illustrated that Ralph really isn’t the man to motivate this bunch of strange players.

 The only positive are a better goalkeeper and decent defenders we now have available. At least that’s a foundation but fuck me do I hate our pathetic midfield and toothless forwards at the moment.

 

 

[Mixedkebab]

6 hours ago, SOTONSEASTSIDE said:

Also someone I know, has heard Semmens bragging. How this is one big jolly for him!!

Let’s hope the smug corporate Twitter airline baiting plum is gone very soon, along with his away fan loving, lying mate Toby. Couple of clowns 

[OttawaSaint]

3 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

Luck doesn’t come into it. We’ve consistently been buying the cheapest players in the league for several seasons now and to top it off our four best players have medium-long term injures. People are talking as if a one goal defeat is just the bog standard result you get for not even trying and that if you just say, “Have a go FFS!!” We might outperform squads which cost twice as much and win a thrilling 4-3 encounter.

Playing the way we do we get fuck all. 

Noone is guaranteeing 4-3 results but Forest and Leeds both had a go at Liverpool and won.  BHA had a go at Man U and Chelsea and won.

If we are to lose I'd rather lose 3-2 than 1-0 and risk losing 4-0 to win 2-1. Playing the way we do, we're looking to win 1-0 but our midfield are far too sloppy with possession to allow that. 

Edited 30 October, 2022 by OttawaSaint

[STEVEADAMS]

11 hours ago, Micky said:

A hastily arranged 18:30 board meeting would be most welcome now. 

Who to take over though ?, we should have got Franck before the window.

[Pamplemousse]

3 hours ago, OttawaSaint said:

Playing the way we do we get fuck all. 

Noone is guaranteeing 4-3 results but Forest and Leeds both had a go at Liverpool and won.  BHA had a go at Man U and Chelsea and won.

If we are to lose I'd rather lose 3-2 than 1-0 and risk losing 4-0 to win 2-1. Playing the way we do, we're looking to win 1-0 but our midfield are far too sloppy with possession to allow that. 

Not sure I understand your argument. We beat Chelsea...

[Lighthouse]

3 hours ago, OttawaSaint said:

Playing the way we do we get fuck all. 

Noone is guaranteeing 4-3 results but Forest and Leeds both had a go at Liverpool and won.  BHA had a go at Man U and Chelsea and won.

If we are to lose I'd rather lose 3-2 than 1-0 and risk losing 4-0 to win 2-1. Playing the way we do, we're looking to win 1-0 but our midfield are far too sloppy with possession to allow that. 

All you’re doing is cherry picking other teams better results and saying we should be like that, without ever actually explaining what, “have a go at,” actually means. What do you want us to do, commit more men forwards and leave more space in behind? You mention Leeds and Forrest against Liverpool but not Bournemouth, why’s that?  Leicester lost 6-2 at Spurs, Forrest themselves lost 6-0 at City, even Man Utd found themselves 4-0 down at HT against City.

[stknowle]

9 hours ago, Pamplemousse said:

 

I think we're better than where we are in the table. We're a team low on confidence and we need some luck.

How that gets solved is a different matter. A January marquee signing to get everyone excited? Change of manager?

Both please.

Edited 30 October, 2022 by stknowle

[rooney]

6 hours ago, Kingsbridge Saint said:

Che Adams simply has to stop adding to his catalogue of missed opportunities every week or he's going to get Ralph sacked and us relegated. Got to start scoring a few more son. It's shit or bust time.

and it happens every week now.

[benjii]

9 hours ago, obelisk said:

Does anyone seriously expect a decent goal-scoring striker to willingly agree to join a team that's stuck in the bottom 3 at Christmas?

It'll be someone from a league where he gets paid 10 or 20k a week who can now earn 80k a week. So, yes.

But whether we actually sign that person or not remains to be seen.

[Toussaint]

A lot of criticism of JWP on here, I still think he’s our best player just having a bad season in the weakest, most dysfunctional (that’s on Ralph) midfield I’ve ever seen at Saints. I think he’s had a gutful and either counting down the days until Ralph gets the most deserved bullet ever, or he’s head is now elsewhere. I did notice after the Bournemouth game jubilant Ralph ran on tho the pitch to bask in the glory, he went to give JWP a cuddle and was completely shrugged off, he was having none of it. 

incidentally Ralph couldn’t have scurried up the tunnel any quicker at the end of today’s game. 

Edited 30 October, 2022 by Toussaint

[CB Fry]

6 hours ago, OttawaSaint said:

Playing the way we do we get fuck all. 

Noone is guaranteeing 4-3 results but Forest and Leeds both had a go at Liverpool and won.  BHA had a go at Man U and Chelsea and won.

If we are to lose I'd rather lose 3-2 than 1-0 and risk losing 4-0 to win 2-1. Playing the way we do, we're looking to win 1-0 but our midfield are far too sloppy with possession to allow that. 

If only we went out there and 'had a go' just like wonderful Leeds and wonderful Forest then we'd be absolutely sitting pretty now with a grand total of zero more wins than we've got right now.

Edited 30 October, 2022 by CB Fry

[InvictaSaint]

As a matter of interest, still no direct tweet from Blackmore about yesterday’s game. He always posts something - but not yesterday. And not today. Very odd. 

[Adkins' Bus]

2 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

All you’re doing is cherry picking other teams better results and saying we should be like that, without ever actually explaining what, “have a go at,” actually means. What do you want us to do, commit more men forwards and leave more space in behind? You mention Leeds and Forrest against Liverpool but not Bournemouth, why’s that?  Leicester lost 6-2 at Spurs, Forrest themselves lost 6-0 at City, even Man Utd found themselves 4-0 down at HT against City.

Seems a lot of people want a return to our old approach of high press that would often leave us exposed to taking a few spankings. However it was more entertaining and would occasionally bring us a good result. The same people would then complain and say they would just like to see us be more solid. 

[Appy]

12 minutes ago, InvictaSaint said:

As a matter of interest, still no direct tweet from Blackmore about yesterday’s game. He always posts something - but not yesterday. And not today. Very odd. 

He’ll be telling us how happy we should be to watch that utter drivel and how entitled we are. 

[wild-saint]

CHe Adams is fucking shyte. The only other team in the premier league he would start for is Wolves as they have even less options up front than us. 
 

Ralph H is so fucking negative it make Gareth Southgate looking adventurous. 
 

What was the point on spending all our cash on young players If the manager thinks none are good enough to start.

 

does anyone really expect us to sign a number 9 & 10 in January. We will probably get someone in at the end of January after fucking about for the whole month.

 

 

 

[Wade Garrett]

26 minutes ago, InvictaSaint said:

As a matter of interest, still no direct tweet from Blackmore about yesterday’s game. He always posts something - but not yesterday. And not today. Very odd. 

Not really.  He’s a massive Ralph apologist.  He’ll shout from the rooftops if we don’t lose.  After yesterday, he’ll just go back in his shell and by next weekend will have totally forgotten the game.

[Chez]

10 hours ago, Saints foreva said:

 

He's also refusing to sign a new contract, like Salisu. Two players who think they're better than they are. 

This is a problem. Our financial model can't allow players to walk on frees.

I mentioned this during the summer, it's all very well not selling Salisu (to Newcastle when we had the chance) and Che (potentially to Everton), but with contracts running down we needed to get them signed to a new one this summer. But that's not simple. Both will have had their heads turned and know they could have got a a big wage elsewhere. Also, both will know the longer they hold out the more they can demand.

When I suggested we might need to spend £100k a week, maybe more on Che and asked how many would be happy with that, there didn't seem to be many takers. He's just not worth that kind of wedge to us.

[adrian lord]

11 hours ago, Pamplemousse said:

We have been unlucky though. Maybe lacking in confidence. I dunno.

One thing I've noticed is we’re not winning free kicks any more for Prowsey. 

Another way of looking at it is that we have been extremely lucky not to go in at half time 3-0 down the last 2 matches. 

Edited 30 October, 2022 by adrian lord