Saints 1-1 Ipswich - Match Thread

[Sheaf Saint]

2 minutes ago, aintforever said:

Surely if we offered him enough he would have stayed. 

We will have offered him exactly what we felt he was worth based on the qualities he showed in the years he was with us. 

Let's not rewrite history here. Adams was an extremely limited PL striker, who would have done no better with the chances we created today than the players they fell to. 

Archer may not have managed a league goal yet, but IMO he's already shown he has better movement and finishing ability than Adams ever had.

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

1 hour ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

Nessie does seem to be missing a little sharpness right now, which to be fair seems reasonable after the best part of two years out

 

1 hour ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

When you're our size it feels like you have to get promoted with a Lambert or Vardy in your team

Last year, we should have raided League 1/2 for a couple of strikers. Evidently £7m buys you very little!

Ross Stewart is getting better each time he plays. Yes, he is slow but he held the ball up well a couple of times and provides a target whereas the rest of forwards are midgets. 

Thought RM's initial subs were ok, though BBD really is clueless. But replacing Fernandes with Aribo was a mistake. 

Annoyed with the defending at the end. They can't score if the ball is in their half. Aaron Ramsdale had the right idea booting it up to Ross Stewart in injury time and when the ball worked its way to their corner flag that was a good couple of minutes spent without danger. But when defending a corner, you've got to have a release and having no-one on the edge of the penalty area was just asking for trouble.

[vectraman]

12 minutes ago, aintforever said:

Surely if we offered him enough he would have stayed. 

He was shit, and we should have got far better than Ché. If the question is why didn’t we keep him, then the answer has to be our recruitment is total and utter shite. Che was a busted flush here, and we shouldn’t and didn’t keep him. We just replaced him with crap. 

[hypochondriac]

I just think it's really really difficult to persuade a quality prem striker to come here with the money and wages we have. Simple as that. 

[Bobsmith]

Russell Martin is usually OK at setting the team up from the beginning. What he is typically not great at is adapting in game. When we're only 1-0 up you don't bring on Armstrong and Aribo, neither contributing anything and made us noticeably weaker. Personally think Russ has until the international break to get a win otherwise he's gone. And rightfully so

Edited September 21 by Bobsmith

[Dusic]

43 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

I don't know how you worked that out. They had plenty of good chances, 15 to 20 or so. The only surprise was that they didn't score earlier 

Can I just double check that you mean that you think Ipswich had 15 to 20 good chances to score today?

[gio1saints]

I think Archer played so-so / alright and was basically unlucky a few times. The balls sent up to him if it was RS might have stuck better. 

RS looked a nuisance to me up front when he came on and I’d keep him there.  Certainly gave us a physical presence in the middle up front. Please stay away from defending deep & giving away stupid free kicks which he should know better though! 

BBD looks shot to me. Sorry to say it but Not a good buy on performances so far imo. Does not have pace to go around a player does not have tricks to go around or through a player does not dominate physically except by playing rough giving away free kicks and has just one predictable pass when he’s at Left wing - the square ball inside. Had his chance and blew it over the bar. He’s a nasty player alright but don’t see much else. Surely Cornet offers more or indeed Kameldeen.

Ramsdales two great saves. ✅. Would be goals most other goalies. Lallana class is permanent. Mateus will be a star ( though probably not playing for us) as will Tyler. 

Ipswich played better than the last two times we played them but they did not win this time. That is progress no matter what and that sockeger of a late goal draw probably deserved on balance of chances. 
Lots to criticise first half but overall that was our best performance of the season and we are now seemingly able to put together longer and longer spells of domination. Too few points but performances improving. Those calling for him to be sacked are not getting Xmas card from me or my dad either. 😎
 

[Toussaint]

1 minute ago, Bobsmith said:

Russell Martin is usually OK at setting the team up from the beginning. What he is typically not great at is adapting in game. When we're only 1-0 up you don't bring on Armstrong and Aribo, neither contributing anything and made us noticeably weaker. Personally think Russ has until the international break to get a win otherwise he's gone. And rightfully so

Have to agree, those substitutions significantly weakened us. Aribo and AA are nowhere near premier league quality. 

[S-Clarke]

I thought we needed to turn up today, and we didn't to be frank.

I thought Ipswich deserved at least a point, this is an Ipswich team who are on par with us and one of our rivals, but for big portions of that game they were much better than us.

If we cannot compete to be better than Ipswich then I struggle to see how we can compete against anyone in this league.

We simply don't create enough openings, we are incredibly easy to defend against and even easier to attack. 

Bright spots obviously Dibling and Fernandes, but it really wasn't great. BBD continues his impression of a carthorse it has to be said, he looks naff as hell. You don't go 19 games without a win in the PL if you're a good player, period.

Onto the next one I guess. I just have a feeling that this season is going to be the worst in our history by some distance, and we've already finished bottom in this league twice before.

[Chris cooper]

1 minute ago, Toussaint said:

Have to agree, those substitutions significantly weakened us. Aribo and AA are nowhere near premier league quality. 

Was the same at Everton the subs weakened us wen we had momentum 

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

3 minutes ago, Bobsmith said:

Russell Martin is usually OK at setting the team up from the beginning. What he is typically not great at is adapting in game. When we're only 1-0 up you don't bring on Armstrong and Aribo, neither contributing anything and made us noticeably weaker. Personally think Russ has until the international break to get a win otherwise he's gone. And rightfully so

This time, it looked the other way around. Our midfield was overrun to start with but then bringing on Les was sensible and we were the better team in the second half.

Forgot about the other Armstrong substitution. Wasn't a surprise he did absolutely nothing.

[scumbag]

I'm getting old and time seems to race by...but the level of decline since poch & koeman seems crazy.  We didn't seem genuinely in control at any stage really - at home to Ipswich...I guess we'll only find out how much of that might be due to Martin if/when they sack him. 

[saintant]

1 minute ago, OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint said:

This time, it looked the other way around. Our midfield was overrun to start with but then bringing on Les was sensible and we were the better team in the second half.

Forgot about the other Armstrong substitution. Wasn't a surprise he did absolutely nothing.

Was anyone apart from RM surprised that our midfield was overrun until he brought on Big Les?

[HarvSFC]

The officials were shit today for the match. Ipswich players going down at every opportunity and the ref stopping the game each time, we started doing it and we were getting the same soft fouls, but it ruined the flow of the match. Lallana got booked for winning the ball and then he evened it up a minute later, booking an Ipswich player for a foul which wasn't a booking. Also ignored there being two balls on the pitch, which should stop the game. We were obviously using a bit of gamesmanship, with the ball boy clearly being told by a member of staff not to get the ball despite standing a few yards next to the ball, but the rules are the rules. Also 7 minutes added time, where from? He blew soon after 97 minutes as well despite the Ipswich goal. Not that we were playing for another goal, mind.

But, can't use the officials as an excuse. It's another game leaving you thinking where the goals are going to come from. Archer had three good opportunities. The one where he hit the post, the one where he worked a similar position to the one Dibling found himself in for his goal, but he hit it at Muric and the one where Fernandes passed up a shooting opportunity and played it across the goal, but Archer wasn't ready for. He did at least run this week, which was an improvement on last week. He's just not a good focal point for the attack. Each time Ramsdale went direct to him, he couldn't keep the ball.

One slight on Martin was his subs again. The match didn't need a triple sub, but he thought. I will also repeat once again, as I do every week that he doesn't need to play all five of his subs every match. The top managers don't do so because it disrupts their side too much. Guardiola doesn't use all five, Slot today only used 3 in Liverpool's 3-0 win and Klopp rarely used all five. Ugochukwu for Lallana did make sense, especially with Lallana on a yellow as he had to avoid making some tackles. But, Ugochukwu looked uncomfortable and clumsy on the ball today and didn't do much in breaking Ipswich's attacks. BBD still looks a bit poor. He runs in slow motion, but still gets put out wide and when Fernandes gave him a ball on the edge of the box he just swung a leg at it that didn't move the ball anywhere near to testing Ipswich's goal. No composure at all. Stewart puts himself around a bit, but again looks a bit clumsy on the ball and doesn't jump for the ball in the air despite his height. Armstrong had no impact on the match. Probably the sub I'm most critical of. Strikes me as Martin getting one of his favourites on, like when Stephens would come off the bench last season. We have Cornet, who should be ahead of Armstrong in the pecking order. Aribo was a late sub, no time.

A couple more nit picks, is that we don't shoot from distance with these tactics and hope to get a deflection, like Ipswich did today. Sometimes it comes off! And we were told last season that our passing game would make the opposition tire out as the match goes on, but I don't think I've ever seen it happen.

Onto the positives. Lallana's good once again, at 36. Martin has often said the team needs Stephens in the line-up for his character/leadership. But if you watched Lallana closely today, he never stopped barking orders, or leading the team. I have the faintest hope that Lallana's leadership may make Martin surrender that he doesn't need to play Stephens. His ball through to Dibling for his goal was also top quality.

THB looked good again. He may have been a victim of the start of the season tactics. He has a good partnership with Bednarek, they proved that last season and they both looked good again today. THB may just not be able to play in a back three. He did come through the City academy and I doubt they ever played a back three.

Dibling's still class. You just know Chelsea put a sell-on clause in the deal when they gave him back to us, which is annoying.

Taylor did give us more balance. I love KWP, but he needs to play on the right.

Fernandes is a gem. I knew nothing about him when we were linked and feared he was another SR dud, but he's very good. I'd go for him as MotM today.

Ramsdale, Sugawara, Downes and Fraser also put in good performances.

It's just shit the way we drew the match.

 

 

[Patches O Houlihan]

 

14 sides with an xG rating. We are third highest, but only one goal. It's not lack of chances, its not taking them

 

[die Mannyschaft]

I don't understand our tactics, nor does anyone around me. What's the point standing still with ball and wait for opponents to close close down, pass at last minute then next person does same until loose ball. May as well lump it up front. Subs didn't do anything just slowed game even more. We can't defend due to starting all moves level with AR it's asking for trouble.

[Dragon_man]

Ipswich were worthy of the point IMO. If we can't get the better of a fellow promited teams at home, you just know we we're in for a long hard season.

Lack of a outright proven striker is the biggie for me. With one of those I could see us winning games here and there and getting enough draws to survive.

As others said, subs didn't help. No idea what went through RMs mind. I'm sure Dibling and Fraser are capable of 90minutes FFS.

 

 

[Lighthouse]

8 minutes ago, HarvSFC said:

Ramsdale, Sugawara, Downes and Fraser also put in good performances.

I didn't think Fraser was that great, personally. The others I agree with.

[Lighthouse]

1 minute ago, Dragon_man said:

I'm sure Dibling and Fraser are capable of 90minutes FFS.

Dibling was quite clearly cramping up when he came off.

[SaintJackoInHurworth]

Martin got a lot more right today than he has for most matches this season. However, when it came to it he made one key error which cost us the game. That error was taking Fernandes off and replacing him with Aribo. Before that we were in control of midfield but after that the midfield opened up for them and we were under the cosh. The result was the equalising goal.

In addition, it was also Aribo's failure to stand up in front of Morsy's shot that also caused the goal. If he had stood up (or not been on the pitch) the ball wouldn't have deflected off him and Ramsdale would have saved it.

That's a double failure from one decision and it has cost us the win.

[danjosaint]

46 minutes ago, Galway saint said:

Be interesting to ask the recruitment team how on earth they thought our forward recruitment was going to score enough goals to keep us up. arguably we have a no better forward line than last season.

seems weird that they can 

RM is not without his faults but he deserves better than he has been given in the forward department 

 

But he has TP a striker who maybe not the best but scores goals and would give the cb's something to worry about and a good chance better than what we have, but RM did say last week his job is to pick a side to win games, we'll how's that working out, stubborn shit manager who using us as his cv for his nxt job

[Lighthouse]

3 minutes ago, danjosaint said:

But he has TP a striker who maybe not the best but scores goals and would give the cb's something to worry about and a good chance better than what we have, but RM did say last week his job is to pick a side to win games, we'll how's that working out, stubborn shit manager who using us as his cv for his nxt job

1. Onuachu has never scored a goal in England.
2. Russ has changed a lot of things during his time here, in terms of formation and player selection. He’s many things but not stubborn.
3. Every manager is using us as a CV entry for a better job. Anyone who isn’t is crap, unmotivated and happy to pick up a pay cheque.

[saintant]

Just now, Lighthouse said:

1. Onuachu has never scored a goal in England.
2. Russ has changed a lot of things during his time here, in terms of formation and player selection. He’s many things but not stubborn.
3. Every manager is using us as a CV entry for a better job. Anyone who isn’t is crap, unmotivated and happy to pick up a pay cheque.

Very difficult to score from your back garden.

[woodsaint1]

On the plus side, at least some of our recruitment looks very good - Fernandes, Suga and Ramsdale definitely improve us. Lallana and Taylor both good additions on a free. The other new signings - BBD and Archer, they're not setting the world alight on performances so far, but still a long season. Think both need a goal to get their confidence up

[cambsaint]

Thank's Saints for ruining my birthday in the last minute

[manina-pub]

Did anyone else notice the first song at half time ?

 

Earth Wind & Fire

Do you remember the 21st night of September ?
 

(Fair play to the DJ)

[Matthew Le God]

Not marking any player on the edge of the box at set pieces is a ridiculous tactical choice. It was a disaster waiting to happen throughout the game.

[gio1saints]

30 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

I didn't think Fraser was that great, personally. The others I agree with.

He is playing like a shorter but nippier version of BBD. Certainly he is Not as offensively minded as when he’d was playing for us last year. He had the big giraffe marking him and I thought he’d get joy but he never took him on or turned him once. Him and BBD are very “ professional” about how they play safe safe safe don’t take chances keep possession but neither added value today. I guess at least Weeman has some defensive values which BBD does not nor did Sam E. I’d have put Sam Amo left wing last fifteen and said give it a go son. But we don’t have that option…

Edited September 21 by gio1saints

[SfcPhil]

It costs us many points last season, not being able to find a 2nd goal when we were on top. When I saw it was 1-0 on 85 minutes, I just knew what what going to happen. I feel we don't have the overall quality to compete in this league, we have a few Premier League quality players, but not a team full. This is going to be a long, depressing season, but I preferred the Championship anyway.

[spyinthesky]

I thought it was a decent game for two teams battling out at the bottom end of the Prem.
The quality has definitely improved in recent times.
A draw was about a fair result but to lose in extra time was a real kick in the nuts.
Didnt expect to be impressed with Lallana but thought he did OK

[Micky]

1 hour ago, aintforever said:

Surely if we offered him enough he would have stayed. 

We didn't need him to stay, what we needed was to get somebody better than him in, but we didn't, we got worse, a lot worse. 

[danjosaint]

4 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

1.  
2. Russ has changed a lot of things during his time here, in terms of formation and player selection. He’s many things but not stubborn 

So how come he cant see the most basic mistakes being made, the lack of detail that's required in epl, he's wedded to this possession based football, how's that not stubborn regardless if he goes 433 or 5atb, he can't see AA is not a central striker, he can't see Stephens is a liability, he thinks bringing on Aribo to help see out a game is the right call, I'm sorry but at least make us hard to beat, he can't as he hasn't a scooby about setting up a defence,  that will not change, I've seen positives in Dibling, Fernandes, Suga, Les obviously Ramsdale and THB funny enough better in a 4, that's half a decent side to build around 

[Lighthouse]

3 minutes ago, danjosaint said:

So how come he cant see the most basic mistakes being made, the lack of detail that's required in epl, he's wedded to this possession based football, how's that not stubborn regardless if he goes 433 or 5atb, he can't see AA is not a central striker, he can't see Stephens is a liability, he thinks bringing on Aribo to help see out a game is the right call, I'm sorry but at least make us hard to beat, he can't as he hasn't a scooby about setting up a defence,  that will not change, I've seen positives in Dibling, Fernandes, Suga, Les obviously Ramsdale and THB funny enough better in a 4, that's half a decent side to build around 

None of that is stubbornness. He’s tried plenty of new ideas, there’s no quick fix. He went to five at the back at the end of last season, which helped cover McCarthy’s distribution flaws. When it wasn’t working this season he switched back to a four. He’s dropped, changed and utilised a large number of different players. AA has very rarely played as a central striker and he didn’t today. We defended well enough today, certainly better than we have so far this season, and their only goal came from a badly marked set piece. As for your last sentence, those ARE the players we appear to be trying to build a team around.

[hypochondriac]

1 hour ago, Bobsmith said:

Russell Martin is usually OK at setting the team up from the beginning. What he is typically not great at is adapting in game. When we're only 1-0 up you don't bring on Armstrong and Aribo, neither contributing anything and made us noticeably weaker. Personally think Russ has until the international break to get a win otherwise he's gone. And rightfully so

Genuinely not sure what other subs I would have done. Lallana and Dibling had to come off when they did and Fraser had no preseason. 

[SNSUN]

2 hours ago, Sidney Fudpucker the 3rd said:

We went 1 up and I said to my colleague in work, 'you just know Ipswich will equaliser or score two in injury time. They did it so many times last season.' 

Approaching 90 mins he said, 'you're hanging on.....'

A few minutes later he looked at me and said 'what did you say? You should have had money on that'.

 

As soon as we scored I had a few quid on Ipswich to score next. Loathe to say it but I just had a feeling we'd shoot ourselves in the foot having hit the post and not taken chances. 

Our saving grace in the Prem this season is that there are other shit teams beside us. We just need to get the win from somewhere... anywhere... for confidence.

[SNSUN]

26 minutes ago, cambsaint said:

Thank's Saints for ruining my birthday in the last minute

Happy birthday anyway! 🍺

[Jack]

Dibling, Sugawara, Fernandes and Ramsdale are fully PL quality. The rest are faking it and need to step up, or we’ll be down by Xmas

[Lee On Solent Saint]

14 minutes ago, SNSUN said:

As soon as we scored I had a few quid on Ipswich to score next. Loathe to say it but I just had a feeling we'd shoot ourselves in the foot having hit the post and not taken chances. 

Our saving grace in the Prem this season is that there are other shit teams beside us. We just need to get the win from somewhere... anywhere... for confidence.

The trouble is, those shit sides will probably still beat us when we play them. I really can't see Wolves still being down there, they will definitely get rid of O'Neil before we get shot of Martin. Everton will find a way to get points too. I think it's going to be us and Ipswich relegated for definite, with the third spot between another four or five clubs.

Edited September 21 by Lee On Solent Saint
More

[skintsaint]

31 minutes ago, spyinthesky said:

A draw was about a fair result but to lose in extra time was a real kick in the nuts.

Wait what?

[sfc4prem]

4 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

The trouble is, those shit sides will probably still beat us when we play them. I really can't see Wolves still being down there, they will definitely get rid of O'Neil before we get shot of Martin. Everton will find a way to get points too. I think it's going to be us and Ipswich relegated for definite, with the third spot between another four or five clubs.

Agreed. We had too much to do over the summer to our first team (and squad) to stock it full of players of enough quality to stay up.

[Kenilworthy]

1 hour ago, HarvSFC said:

The officials were shit today for the match. Ipswich players going down at every opportunity and the ref stopping the game each time, we started doing it and we were getting the same soft fouls, but it ruined the flow of the match. Lallana got booked for winning the ball and then he evened it up a minute later, booking an Ipswich player for a foul which wasn't a booking. Also ignored there being two balls on the pitch, which should stop the game. We were obviously using a bit of gamesmanship, with the ball boy clearly being told by a member of staff not to get the ball despite standing a few yards next to the ball, but the rules are the rules. Also 7 minutes added time, where from? He blew soon after 97 minutes as well despite the Ipswich goal. Not that we were playing for another goal, mind.

But, can't use the officials as an excuse. It's another game leaving you thinking where the goals are going to come from. Archer had three good opportunities. The one where he hit the post, the one where he worked a similar position to the one Dibling found himself in for his goal, but he hit it at Muric and the one where Fernandes passed up a shooting opportunity and played it across the goal, but Archer wasn't ready for. He did at least run this week, which was an improvement on last week. He's just not a good focal point for the attack. Each time Ramsdale went direct to him, he couldn't keep the ball.

One slight on Martin was his subs again. The match didn't need a triple sub, but he thought. I will also repeat once again, as I do every week that he doesn't need to play all five of his subs every match. The top managers don't do so because it disrupts their side too much. Guardiola doesn't use all five, Slot today only used 3 in Liverpool's 3-0 win and Klopp rarely used all five. Ugochukwu for Lallana did make sense, especially with Lallana on a yellow as he had to avoid making some tackles. But, Ugochukwu looked uncomfortable and clumsy on the ball today and didn't do much in breaking Ipswich's attacks. BBD still looks a bit poor. He runs in slow motion, but still gets put out wide and when Fernandes gave him a ball on the edge of the box he just swung a leg at it that didn't move the ball anywhere near to testing Ipswich's goal. No composure at all. Stewart puts himself around a bit, but again looks a bit clumsy on the ball and doesn't jump for the ball in the air despite his height. Armstrong had no impact on the match. Probably the sub I'm most critical of. Strikes me as Martin getting one of his favourites on, like when Stephens would come off the bench last season. We have Cornet, who should be ahead of Armstrong in the pecking order. Aribo was a late sub, no time.

A couple more nit picks, is that we don't shoot from distance with these tactics and hope to get a deflection, like Ipswich did today. Sometimes it comes off! And we were told last season that our passing game would make the opposition tire out as the match goes on, but I don't think I've ever seen it happen.

Onto the positives. Lallana's good once again, at 36. Martin has often said the team needs Stephens in the line-up for his character/leadership. But if you watched Lallana closely today, he never stopped barking orders, or leading the team. I have the faintest hope that Lallana's leadership may make Martin surrender that he doesn't need to play Stephens. His ball through to Dibling for his goal was also top quality.

THB looked good again. He may have been a victim of the start of the season tactics. He has a good partnership with Bednarek, they proved that last season and they both looked good again today. THB may just not be able to play in a back three. He did come through the City academy and I doubt they ever played a back three.

Dibling's still class. You just know Chelsea put a sell-on clause in the deal when they gave him back to us, which is annoying.

Taylor did give us more balance. I love KWP, but he needs to play on the right.

Fernandes is a gem. I knew nothing about him when we were linked and feared he was another SR dud, but he's very good. I'd go for him as MotM today.

Ramsdale, Sugawara, Downes and Fraser also put in good performances.

It's just shit the way we drew the match.

 

 

Agree officials were awful and ref looked like we was willing a penalty opportunity. But I had the stopwatch on the game and it showed 8 extra minutes. So 7 minutes was not a bad decision. Regarding the extra ball, I have a feeling that ball boys are not allowed to enter the field of play.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

46 minutes ago, cambsaint said:

Thank's Saints for ruining my birthday in the last minute

Happy Birthday to you
Sorry Saints made you feel blue
But let me offer a congratulation
And hope we pull out of relegation

[Sarnia Cherie]

1 hour ago, S-Clarke said:

I thought we needed to turn up today, and we didn't to be frank.

I thought Ipswich deserved at least a point, this is an Ipswich team who are on par with us and one of our rivals, but for big portions of that game they were much better than us.

If we cannot compete to be better than Ipswich then I struggle to see how we can compete against anyone in this league.

We simply don't create enough openings, we are incredibly easy to defend against and even easier to attack. 

Bright spots obviously Dibling and Fernandes, but it really wasn't great. BBD continues his impression of a carthorse it has to be said, he looks naff as hell. You don't go 19 games without a win in the PL if you're a good player, period.

Onto the next one I guess. I just have a feeling that this season is going to be the worst in our history by some distance, and we've already finished bottom in this league twice before.

Spot on as usual. I felt so upbeat when Dibling scored in the opening minutes and hoped we would build on that. BBD missing such a good chance to put some space between us and Ipswich went to waste. I didn't expect to be thinking about 6 pointers this early in the season but here we go again. 

[RedWillie]

1 hour ago, Lighthouse said:

Dibling was quite clearly cramping up when he came off.

The lad was knackered. Put his all into the game. I saw glimpses of MLT

[Whitey Grandad]

1 hour ago, Dusic said:

Can I just double check that you mean that you think Ipswich had 15 to 20 good chances to score today?

Absolutely. A better team would have punished us.

[saintant]

49 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

None of that is stubbornness. He’s tried plenty of new ideas, there’s no quick fix. He went to five at the back at the end of last season, which helped cover McCarthy’s distribution flaws. When it wasn’t working this season he switched back to a four. He’s dropped, changed and utilised a large number of different players. AA has very rarely played as a central striker and he didn’t today. We defended well enough today, certainly better than we have so far this season, and their only goal came from a badly marked set piece. As for your last sentence, those ARE the players we appear to be trying to build a team around.

AA has quite frequently been used as a central striker for RM and he played there against Everton despite the world and his wife knowing he is totally ineffective there.

[st alex]

According to Sky's match report Fabrice Fernandes came close to scoring. 
https://www.skysports.com/football/southampton-vs-ipswich/report/505854

[Thripp87]

Don’t worry folks about the 95th minute equaliser, I hear that Bednarek has extended his lead in the pass completion stats this weekend so we have reason to be cheerful.

[Convict Colony]

1 minute ago, Thripp87 said:

Don’t worry folks about the 95th minute equaliser, I hear that Bednarek has extended his lead in the pass completion stats this weekend so we have reason to be cheerful.

I don't know some of his passing out from the back was horrific 

[Whitey Grandad]

34 minutes ago, Kenilworthy said:

Agree officials were awful and ref looked like we was willing a penalty opportunity. But I had the stopwatch on the game and it showed 8 extra minutes. So 7 minutes was not a bad decision. Regarding the extra ball, I have a feeling that ball boys are not allowed to enter the field of play.

IFAB 24th January 2023,
 

“If an extra ball or other object enters the field of play during the match, the referee must:

STOP PLAY (and restart with a dropped ball) only if it interferes with play*

ALLOW PLAY TO CONTINUE if it does not interfere with play and have it removed at the earliest possible opportunity“