Match Day Thread Arsenal v Southampton Wednesday 16/12/20 6pm Amazon Prime

Yep i agree. He was running at them and scaring them. I thought when Djenpo came on we lost something. Really not convinced with him. I so much want him to do well, but not really seen yet. In the second half when they parked their bus, coach, double decker and 12:15 train rom Glasgow in their home third i really felt we wouldn't score, but with a swift counter attack they might.

 

But in that time have suffered much glee and not so much glee. Is your hair grey yet?

 

Haha very true. Some of the best days we’re the perennial rele dogfights and more recently the league one days.

 

.............and that will continue. Who wants to support a boring team that wins everything? We support a team and have learnt to make the most of the good times and recover from the worst times as we have and the team does. I am proud of them we are punching above our weight. Some might think that we should be classed in same category as Leicester and Wolves, but they have spent much more in the recent transfer seasons than we have, The fact we are where we are is amazing!!!
How's the selling of our club going?

 

Solid game for Darlow too.

 

I thought the problem with a lot of our crossing was that we tried to pick out the player... you shouldn’t do that. You should pick out the right area to put the ball into and leave it up to your team mates to get on the end of it. Quite a few times crossed we’re cut out because they appeared to be aimed at where the blue shirts were rather than the space they should be attacking. Often that space is between the last defender and the keeper.

 

I’m still just totally, totally confused how we didn’t win last night. Spoon boy unloaded the dishwasher in good time!

 

Absolutely. You said it right. It’s definitely the blue shirts that gave us bad luck.

 

so he says.......


Just saying.

 

Tweets gone AWOL
Whats the gist, physicist?

 

Overall, last night was a good performance without being amazing. It was a very good start and then we played “controlling” football rather than killing them off. We started the second half slowly (again) and it was about 50:50 as to how the game was going to play out from there until the sending off. We then only really had Moussa and Redders likely to unlock the bus as Theo and Stuey had left the field.

that’s not a total surprise as we’ve struggled against teams who defend deep for a while really. We’ve improved in that area but fans can’t expect an overnight shift to now being great at that. Our squad doesn’t have the depth of quality for that type of player.

I go back to Sunday and that Burnley win. I said then that game didn’t help our cause last night really. They weren’t a wounded animal last night but a scared one who barricades down the hatches.

7/10 for me

 

Spoon Boy forked it up! I knew it.

 

However good we are and however variable Stuart’s form can be, he always gives us something different by always wanting to run at teams with pace. Theo does it too, but Stu is less ‘thoughtful’ about it and more gung-ho. He just wants to get at them and that creates opportunities through forcing a reaction from the opposition to a slightly random turn of events. But Ralph has to protect the fitness of the players

Every game brings a new challenge for us and I’m looking forward to Saturday

 

We are a small club. We're not like Port Vale, but teams like Coventry and Stoke might be comparable. As Lawrie Mac once commented, Saints aren't even the best supported club in Southampton. That we are competing is testimony to the current manager. We just have to keep hoping that bigger clubs will decide that his style wouldn't work for them. Get the social media buzzing with the message that he's crap really. Oh, and Ings couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo while you're at it.

 

Use the blue then!

Despite my apparent calm response last night I was a sore Saint by the end. I was still proud of the team, and my anger wasn't at them, it was at everything else in life (!) and I was waiting for some arsehole to come along I could blow up at. Happened to be you, so my apologies.

1989? For crying out loud, why didn't you support Liverpool or with a little foresight Man Utd? Just remember, you signed up for this pain, you daft bugger! (see what I did there)

 

What happens to us at half time? We tend to start quick and have a pretty good first half, go down into the changing room and then come out and play the next 15/20 minutes at half pace and risk the game. Sheffield weren’t good enough to take advantage like Arsenal but this is a distinct pattern now

 

Good point, well made. I recall Redmond scoring in the first minute against someone from a low cross knocked in by Sims. In the post match interview, Redmond said he'd told Sims that if he got to the bye line to simply drive it in low and he'd try and get on it. As you say, FLT. it's what players look to do and then it's all about speed of thought.

 

Basically some twat moaning about all the backwards sideways passing last night.

3rd in the league ffs, clearly our style of play is doing something right.

 

Ive seen us play that back and side stuff before, with no point to it, but we are now always looking for an opportunity

I can understand people’s frustration a bit when we are trying to get through a low block from a decent team, but all teams struggle with that and we are always looking to improve

We win or we learn

All hail the Ralph

 

Spot on. My thoughts went back to the WBA v City game when in the last 5 minutes or so, City hit 3 or 4 crosses into the 6 yard box, with plenty of pace and players running onto them. They were dangerous to defend as well because the defenders were running towards their own goal.
Too many of our crosses were floated in, making them easy to defend and reducing the chances of a sliced clearance or a block turning into a deflection past the keeper for an OG.
Some of the blame though, IMO, should be shared by the attackers who sometimes become too static, waiting for the cross, rather than maybe dropping off, outside the box, pulling the defence out with them, thus creating the space to play the ball into, for players to attack.
Our corners became a bit one dimensional as well.