Match Day Thread Unofficial match thread for Norwich (ko Sat 20th 3pm)

Well looks like we have an easy game next week against a team that struggles to score...

 

Bloody hell how wrong was I?

 

Unfortunately so, so true. Something needs sorting. Of course I’ll get Ralph bounced but this is rather much par for the course.

 

Even more annoying: we would have been joint 7th if we won today.

 

We have something of a make-piece squad, starved of investment and a manager that has been doing okay for us recently and am sure he wishes he had more quality more than any of us do as he has to face it every day. Ralph is doing his best, he may have been called the 'Alpine Klopp', but that's as far a comparison goes. He isn't great, he suffers tactically during a match and if he was really good, he would not be with us. We do well one week, not so well the next - we suffer from mistakes on and off the pitch - it's what's it's about being a Saints fan.

 

Don't beat yourself up about this. It was in the stars as some say! New manager, struggling performance all season, relegation fodder, and we turn up to give them a game, literally! It's happened before, many times, and we know it will happen again. That's the Saints Way. The one absolute certainty we have as fans of this Club, is we can never be certain on game outcomes. It goes with the territory.

 

Nice to see Adams get on the sheet again though. I have doubted him!

 

We had the freedom of our left wing all game, but our lack of a natural left back, and left sided midfield player meant we couldn`t exploit it fully. Broja was anonymous - I was hoping he`d provide more of a handful for their CBs than he did. Theo did nothing of note as usual, except miss the target with a free header. McCarthy had an off day - got away with completely missing a cross, should have easily saved their second goal, and probably the first too.

 

The RB at LB thing just doesnt work. We all know KWP just turns back inside every time.

That said, that isn't the reason we lost today. If we had a good left footed LB we would improve as a team, but KWP is competent, it would just be ideal if he was left footed!

 

How about: to give us three at the back and allow our fullbacks to operate higher up the pitch?

 

I don’t agree. For the second game running he put in some decent crosses with his left foot.

 

Agree, and from what I`ve seen Perraud`s delivery is no better than Cedric`s was.

 

I wonder if Thierry will come in soon and never look back.

No, not Redmond, but the real Thierry Small.

 

No way Romeu to be the one to make way

 

I’m with you. Diallo was MOTM first half, but a different player second half. Also, for once Romeu wasn’t even on a yellow.

 

Only a matter of time, considering the results the B team are having lately.

 

Ralph has said he’ll be rotating a fair bit over the festive programme.

 

I think this pretty much explains the mood today. Who wasn't looking at the table at lunchtime to see how far we could climb?? Apart from the second half against Wolves, we've played really well this season with unexpected points against the two Manchester clubs. We've also managed to turn those draws and clean sheets into wins and put together a decent run. No one expected it to end today. People still haven't cottoned on that there are no easy games in the EPL. Similarly there are no games that aren't winnable. Roll on Anfield!

 

Initial thought was Alex could have done better with both goals (particularly first) but not sure how fair that is?

Think Norwich were probably good value for the win overall, we really were dreadful in that second half. As bad as I've seen us in a long time.

Thought Sargent made a huge difference as he was obviously told to try and pin KWP back as we killed them down that side in first half. We had no answer for it either.

Bit concerning to create so little against the worst side in the league.

Decent ground. Poor atmosphere in away end. **** drive home.

Utfs.

 

I said at HT we would lose that. We can only ever put one good 45 minutes together - and to make it worse, we never score enough in those 45 minutes to compensate for the other 45. Today was basically a repeat of the Villa game, except for the goals we conceded.

Indeed, one of those comparisons with the Villa game was how much joy KWP and Ely were getting down the left side...but with regrets that they didn't do more. Neither played badly in either game (far from it), but when the opposition gives you that much room for 45 minutes, the end product should be greater.

I need to watch back the first goal, to see if Sally was blocking his view. But even if that excuse does exist for the first, I couldn't find any excuse for the second.

We were so good for 45 minutes. So, so good. So, so annoying.