 | Your
Report | Wrexham v Southampton Your Report added at 19:27:22
_Maybe_ we were a little unlucky. But i know, i know, you make your own luck in football—and that may well have been the case, because we were a step too slow when it mattered most. |
| Your
Report | Southampton v Swansea City Your Report added at 03:23:04
Had that poor intern hid a little bit further behind that tree in Middlesbrough a few months ago we'd be top of the league right now (as CJay80 also notes). |
| Your
Report | Lincoln City v Southampton Your Report added at 19:38:58
We had the quality to win this one, but were unlucky in the end that it didn't tell. Looked leggy, the classic mark of a side that's playing its first two per week competitive games of the season, and on the road as well. And so it followed the script: tired players concede late. On the bright side, surely we'll beat both Birmingham City and Imps at St. Mary's, so the "win at home, draw on the road" strategy, four points every two games, is still on. |
| Your
Report | Watford v Southampton Your Report added at 19:04:14
You hate to use the term "schoolboy errors," but here we are. Calamitous, comic defending in the first half. If we had taken our chances in the second half we could have won going away. I guess that that's the positive I'll take going forward. |
| Your
Report | Southampton v Bristol City Your Report added at 23:53:30
Tonight's match was not the easiest on the eye. Bristol City is always a banana skin! BUT, with the point (and our towering goal differential) we're guaranteed at least 5th place, and our unbeaten run continues. So we can focus on Wembley for Saturday,and Wembley again in May without our remaining league matches being much of a worry. |
| Your
Report | Southampton v Bristol City Your Report added at 23:34:11
Tonight's match was not the easiest on the eye. Bristol City is always a banana skin! BUT, with the point (and our towering goal differential) we're guaranteed at least 5th place, and our unbeaten run continues. So we can focus on Wembley for Saturday,and Wembley again in May without our remaining league matches being much of a worry. |
| Your
Report | Southampton v Arsenal Your Report added at 22:40:36
I think the best bit about today is that for the full 90 minutes we played _our_ game: nothing fancy, absorb pressure, speed on the wings, and counterattack as necessary. As the match wore on, I fully expected an Arsenal equalizer, which we allowed quite fecklessly. (Alas, this has been part of our game for some time now as well). But here's the thing: Despite the equalizer it never felt like we would lose. We stuck to the plan, played our game, and in the end—like we've done so many times in the past three months—it paid off. If Arsenal ended up looking quite ordinary, it was because they found out what fourteen previous sides have discovered lately: We play our game. We get results. We go to Wembley. COYY! |
| Your
Report | Middlesbrough v Southampton Your Report added at 21:22:44
I don't like the manager merry-go-round either. But in this case, at this point in his career, Eckert is out of his depth. (Maybe the same could be said of Still, actually.) The experiments we've undertaken this year have failed, and we need to acknowledge that. |
| Your
Report | Southampton v Millwall Your Report added at 20:35:21
So … effing … boring … and … pointless. (Good thing I traveled 5,000 miles to see it in person!) Where do I start?
1. Midfield = no man's land. If you're nostalgic for Martin-esque football—where the ball travels back and forth along a U-shape curve that tops out at the midway line with the purpose of always pinging back to the keeper—Saints are your team. (Right now I wish they weren't _mine_.) No one is available to collect the ball in the middle and run at the defence because they're too busy ensuring that passing only goes to the wings or keeper and stays there.
2. Players assigned to play out of position. Downes lines up as right back and pretty much stays there. Until Fellows subs on, our most aspirant attacking player is Stephens. Harwood-Bellis seizes on the tedium to serve as a de-facto center mid. I wasn't happy that Manning lost his mark so frequently because he doesn't track back—but then I realized he must do so because he's as bored as everyone else in the stadium!
3. We can see some of our best players on the pitch—but only for a half at a time, and never playing together as an entire team. The incessant like-for-like substitutions convinced me that Eckert isn't trying to win, he's solely trying to limit injury (as a U-20 manager might do). Which is all well and good for a pre-season game. But it's January.
4. No tactics. The whole thing looked like an extended training exercise sans strikers. Only one shot on frame the entire game (and if I'm not mistaken it occurred in the 97th minute!). Fortunately Millwall seemed more than happy to play along, and it ended up being a walk in the park for them. It's obvious why we're not scoring goals: Our strikers get no service.
All of which is to echo Nick's recent reports. What we need is to:
(1) Sort out the defence, with players playing in natural position.
(2) Give the strikers something to do.
(3) Get someone who can boss the middle of the park and run at defence.
(4) let players who can run at defence run at defence.
and—something that was on my Xmas list but still hasn't arrived—
(5) Ditch the 3-5-2 (which is more like a 3-4-0 the way we play it) and restore the 4-4-2. At least everyone on and off the pitch will enjoy the game.
I still think Eckert can do it (partly, alas, because it's clear we're not going up and we're unlikely, for now, to be relegated). But ask me in a fortnight's time and my mind may have changed. |
| Your
Report | Oxford United v Southampton Your Report added at 02:09:50
We also need an extra step on each play: Get on top of the ball when we shoot from distance, and challenge everything at the top of the box (on defense and offense)! |
| Your
Report | Oxford United v Southampton Your Report added at 14:34:03
We also need an extra step on each play: Get on top of the ball when we shoot from distance, and challenge everything at the top of the box (on defense and offense)! |
| Your
Report | Oxford United v Southampton Your Report added at 14:31:38
If freeing up the players to do what they naturally do got us five wins a month ago, we need to follow up by restoring a more familiar formation as well. Ditch the 3-4-3 (at least for the time being) and return to the 4-4-2 please. |
| Your
Report | Southampton v Coventry City Your Report added at 18:19:38
Fought to absorb pressure throughout, didn't take first half chances, gifted lifelines in the sending off and the equalizer, seemed to run out of gas in final stages. But it's the kind of competition we need to get used if we're to head up the table. |
| Your
Report | Norwich City v Southampton Your Report added at 19:34:34
I think it's fair to say we were a bit unlucky today and should have won the match. But entirely agreed we definitely need a Plan B for second halves especially. Eckert's worked wonders—when we're home and dry by halftime. But recent results suggest he's yet got a steep tactical learning curve. ¶ Meanwhile, poor penalty by Armstrong (he's got to sell it better), two goals via keepers beaten at near posts, and the return of the "hand of God" puts us to the sword. |
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