Match Day Thread SAINTS vs Crystal Palace - 3/3/15 - 7.45 K.O

team for me;
-------------forster----------
clyne----font-----alder--Bert
wany----Schneider--Davis
mane-----long-----tadic

Don't change too much, no 3 at back, lead with long. Given his ltd chances long has actually done quite well. Would be interested to see goals/min compared to Pelle.

 

in the admiral before the game, so don't you dare steal my table, anybody

 

I couldn't bring myself to read the Post-match West Brom thread, so thought I'd just ignore it completely and come here.

At least the game is midweek so I have a chance of shaking off the doom and gloom that's been weighing heavily on my shoulders. Football can make me so depressed!

Wonder if Toby can play up front? Seems he can play everywhere else. Why not?

 

I think someone is really going to get hammered by us soon....we've dipped in form but we are playing good football...i would be more concerned if our football was poor and a dip in form..

I see Mane being the man this time.

 

My honest opinion on the "goal drought"? Luck. Nothing else.

Football teams score on average every nine shots. Occasionally you get runs of bad luck. And in return you get games where you have one shot and win 1-0. Or you have 21 shots and score 8.

We're generating shots. It'll pass.

Vin

 

This!

 

If Yoshi gets dropped he should be very disappointed as he is playing the best I have ever seen him. He had another very good game on Saturday.
A good problem to have I guess.
Our defence isn't the problem and I really noticed Forsters reactions on Saturday when we fluffed chance after chance......he looked as frustrated as we do. The players failure to get their win bonus's must be irrating

 

New ideas in attack. Djuricic looked good against liverpool committing defenders, weird he didnt get a go against west brom when we were struggling again.

Forster
clyne fonte toby/yoshi bertrand
vic morgan
tadic djuricic mane
long

Hopefully the serbian connection will get tadic to remember he's a decent player and start affecting games positively again.
Gives nice positive options from the bench with jwp and pelle for a more direct approach if it needs mixing up.

 

An interesting perspective. Luck does play a huge part in sport, to an extent that's rarely fully acknowledged. However, luck plays into confidence,and vice versa. You'll always get runs where the ball just won't bounce for you, you play the right pass but it gets intercepted through shear fluke, you just don't quite connect with the ball and the shot dribbles off your foot, etc.After a while, confidence starts to drain away, especially from a striker. What does a manager do then? He has to find a way of instilling belief, but perhaps he also needs to bring in a fresh pair of legs, and a fresh head, in front of goal. Wtf has happened to Sam Gallagher btw?

 

Becomes harder to imbue belief when the goal drought goes on...confidence must be rock bottom at the moment. If we had the same number of points, but the results were shuffled, there would be no problem. Luck (or rather chance) has a big effect here. A change has to be introduced...as I suggested before, the team need a break away, golf day...something like that. Team building, rather than even more training.

 

The team I'd play:

----------------------Forster---------------------
-------Fonte-----Alderweireld---Yoshida-----
--Clyne-------Morgan---Vic------Bertrand----
-------Long--------Pelle--------Mane---------

 

In the Seventies, they'd have gone on the piss together

 

We are a little more sophisticated than alehouse brawlers now Archers

 

That era feels like ancient history now, doesn't it? Less than half a century ago, but another world in many ways.

Best not get too sentimental; the haircuts were awful. The football wasn't bad though, just a bit slower and the tackles could be more "robust" than you'd get away with now.

 

Nice to come on here and see a bit of optimism. Lot of wet sheets on other sites today! Palace are on form and will prove tough opposition. I think the only thing missing from saints is confidence. On Saturday one or two players (wanyama and clyne) just seemed a little slow to react to the 50-50 ball handing the advantage to WBA. Despite all that we only lost by one goal and we're still 5th in the table. Amazing.

Long and Steve Davis both added energy to the attack ad I think Reed could also raise the tempo. We really just need to move the ball around a bit quicker and we'll be OK.

So hopefully

Forster
Clyne Toby fonte Bertrand
Schneiderlin
Davis Reed
Long Mane
Pelle

Subs Davis JWP Wanyama Yoshida Elia Tadic Djuricic

 

We are 6th not fifth....Liverpool went above us yesterday.

 

I'd go Long off of Pelle, Mane on the right and Tadic on the left, rest of the team picks in my opinion. Would be fine seeing Davis, JWP or Djuricic playing as no.10s though, but legitimate no.10s not a third CM.

 

Either Elia and Djuricic have to start creating assists, or Tadić and JWP have to get back to their early-season form. The latter are the only players we have who have more than 3 assists in the PL, with 7 and 6 respectively.

That, by the way, is for those of you who think that JWP doesn't offer anything to the team.

 

Temporarily

 

RonKo targetting 5 wins from eleven to get European qualification?