Positives and Negatives v Southampton

Neil Dawson said:
I will take to my grave the continual frustration that we can rarely get arsed about the one game the fans are most arsed about.

The only good news is hopefully it’s put to bed the thought that Gaz is a premier league manager. He is a coach and a decent bloke and we should find space for him on the coaching staff but no more. I realise this is a dilemma for Blake and Hughes who will be planning to appoint him then sack him at some point in April and appoint Elphick.

His output today was an early Halloween horror show of tactical ineptitude. We had so many changes of direction in the first half it made the Liz Truss government look the model of stability. Whoever concocted inverse wing backs needs to be forbidden from anything in a changing room other than sweeping it. I assumed there must have been a Perspex tactics board and everyone looked at it from behind. You could understand it if we had been on a shocking defensive run but why unsettle a team that while not doing much going forwards had looked solid at the back.

So we confused the players with a new system and the horrendous five at the back with no players up the pitch when we broke. All against a team in turmoil. Changed our way of playing. Defeatist. I’m fed up with defeatist managers at this football club. We need to find a manager that wants to win a game from the off, not Parker in a tracksuit giving the subliminal message to the players they aren’t good enough to do this.

We then swapped the wing backs, gave that ten minutes before we realised we still didn’t have any more than Solanke up the pitch then changed to a back four with Smith on his wrong foot to accommodate Fredericks who was utter garbage. Meanwhile zero attacking on the left. Remember Zemura, Anthony and Billing triangles our most potent threat? Gone for ever apparently while we watch Tavernier and his league 2 final balls.

Don’t get me started on Christie. A man who couldn’t finish his dinner. So Stan, Dembele, Anthony, Moore all goalscorers on the bench while we play Christie and Tavernier with one goal between them all season because they work hard.

Second half was better but too many forward players on meant no structure, everyone getting in each other’s way and no meaningful shots as a
result.

Once again we have to leave a ground listening to ecstatic Saints fans. Seven different formations all causing chaos and no attempt to create our own identity or go at a team until behind. Let this be the end of all doubt and let’s go get a manager.
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I'm with you all the way on this Neil apart from your seeming pathological hatred of Christie. Yes I get his end product and shooting in particular are pants but he is everywhere winning balls back that are elsewise lost, chasing, defending, picking up the ball and moving forward. It's not his fault he doesn't half the time have an outlet to pass to when attacking.
 
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Putting aside the fact of who it was against - the reality is - we were due a defeat...and it was a narrow one.
So..we have to 'forget and focus' - we have to get more goals....that's the main criteria to fit the situation...next we play one of the 5 teams who have scored less than us...so it's up to us to contest that with more attacking verve ! End of .
 
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Old Cherry said:
Putting aside the fact of who it was against - the reality is - we were due a defeat...and it was a narrow one.
So..we have to 'forget and focus' - we have to get more goals....that's the main criteria to fit the situation...next we play one of the 5 teams who have scored less than us...so it's up to us to contest that with more attacking verve !
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Jeez your up late!!!
But then I suppose I am to!!
 
Had other commitments so couldn't watch the game live.

Came home, full of endeavour and expectation, only for it to be slowly drained away over the 95 minutes.

Thought we actually played pretty well.

Southampton were rubbish.

We have defended 80 per cent possession and won, so it's not like the shoe has never been on the other foot.

The crowd were terrible.

O'Neil tried to force the game, but when you add 3 of 4 players who are making their first PL appearances as influential substitutes, you really are wishing on a dream.

Rothwell
Stanislas
Demebele

It's a big ask.

Thought Lewis Cook was rubbish again, I don't understand the hype.

Back 4 were OK.

Tavernier talented, but lacking confidence.

Billing OK.

Solanke gets asked to do too much.

We are a good team, and that showed in our percentage stats, but we don't have a single world class player, and at this level you need at least 1 or 2.

Thought Gary O'Neil did the best he could, given what he has at his disposal.

It was a very unfortunate result, as they were ****************.

But we've gained 3 points doing the same thing to other teams this season.

Crowd, almost silent.

The writing was on the wall when the BBC pundit tipped us to win, Southampton are the only team in the 92 EFL teams not to have played and conceded, and we were the only team in the PL not to have been defeated in the last 6 games.

We always break records that shouldn't be broken.
 
zigger zaggar said:
I'm with you all the way on this Neil apart from your seeming pathological hatred of Christie. Yes I get his end product and shooting in particular are pants but he is everywhere winning balls back that are elsewise lost, chasing, defending, picking up the ball and moving forward. It's not his fault he doesn't half the time have an outlet to pass to when attacking.
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Play him deeper then. Not in a position where end product is everything.
 
kirsikka said:
Maybe GO doesn't have the strength of character for it or maybe he wants to keep a low profile whilst only a caretaker but it's costing us.
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If Gary won't do it get the social media team on it. They could use enough neutral video showing the use (or not) of VAR with a "VAR is back, how's it going?" type video.
 
SlowDownDerek said:
Southampton are absolute dross, comfortably the worst side we've played this season and we somehow managed to lose to them. Second half I thought was alright in many ways but, as will be our issue all season, we don't have PL quality forwards other than Dom and he's not going to score loads.

Still, I'd much rather be us than them. They're going down unless something changes there.
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You’re two points ahead of us, what makes you think you won’t be involved in the relegation scrap? Don’t get ahead of yourself fella, your little bounce after sacking Parker is over. We’re ****************, you should have beaten us….you couldn’t.
 
ThreeOneSaints said:
You’re two points ahead of us, what makes you think you won’t be involved in the relegation scrap? Don’t get ahead of yourself fella, your little bounce after sacking Parker is over. We’re ****************, you should have beaten us….you couldn’t.
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Of course we'll be involved in the relegation scrap, we've been hot favourites for the drop all season and we spent next to nothing in the summer as our previous manager said.

Obviously you'll be pleased with the win but you can't possibly be pleased with the quality of your side. They are dross as you well know. I think we were much the better side last night but obviously lack quality with the final ball like a lot of promoted sides.
 
The first half was so bad it has tipped me onto the side of the fence of not wanting GON as our permanent manager. The intensity levels from us were pretty embarrassing, much better in the second half but too little too late.

Sometimes it is good to adapt the tactics to counter the opposition, but sometimes you can mess everything up by over complicating things with needless tactical changes. Unfortunately last night falls into the latter category. So many changes in the first half how were we ever supposed to find any rhythm?

In terms of personnel, the more I see him play the more I am convinced that we can’t persist with playing Tav as an attacker at this level. As an energetic midfielder, yes. Even as a wing back maybe. But not as an attacker. At this moment in time his end product just isn’t close to being the required standard. We need players in the attacking positions who are capable of executing the final pass, players like Anthony or even Stan if fit. I’m really not sure why Zemura is sitting on the bench to accommodate Smith at left back either. The brave decision has to be made to drop either Smith or Fredericks so we can play one of our best attacking outlets.
 
Positives :
We do have some very skilful players and we seem to be playing with a lot of confidence. Some of the play to get out of incredibly tight situations with the ball at our feet was amazing to watch. Never thought I'd see an AFCB side of this quality at this level, so for me these things never get old.

Negatives :
We need more coaching for the sharp end of the pitch.
Once we arrive at the edge of the box, unless it is a quick counter-attack, too much standing around, too little movement, too many near sideways passes.
It just gives the opposition so much time to set their defence.
We need to move the ball quicker, run into spaces and pull defenders about a bit.
Once we get to the edge of the opposition's penalty area and stop, I almost switch off for a moment because to me it seems inevitable that we'll just play 100 passes until we lose the ball or it goes out of play. I'm sure there is a lot of coaching to be done in this area, players need to take on more responsibility for creating something instead of passing it to somebody else to do it for them.
A bit more selfishness and a bit more bravery in the opposition penalty area is required IMO. We need to make sure that the players know that they are allowed to be selfish from time to time. We still have a tendency to always look for the pass.
 
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Positives

There are at least 3 worse teams than afcb capable of getting relegated
Neto, mepham, senesi
Lots of huff and puff

Negatives

Poor quality decision making
Poor quality set pieces
Keeping zemura and anthony on the bench
Fredericks
Throwing on random subs

A bad day at the office for the manager and too many of the players
 
KingKieffer said:
The first half was so bad it has tipped me onto the side of the fence of not wanting GON as our permanent manager. The intensity levels from us were pretty embarrassing, much better in the second half but too little too late.

Sometimes it is good to adapt the tactics to counter the opposition, but sometimes you can mess everything up by over complicating things with needless tactical changes. Unfortunately last night falls into the latter category. So many changes in the first half how were we ever supposed to find any rhythm?

In terms of personnel, the more I see him play the more I am convinced that we can’t persist with playing Tav as an attacker at this level. As an energetic midfielder, yes. Even as a wing back maybe. But not as an attacker. At this moment in time his end product just isn’t close to being the required standard. We need players in the attacking positions who are capable of executing the final pass, players like Anthony or even Stan if fit. I’m really not sure why Zemura is sitting on the bench to accommodate Smith at left back either. The brave decision has to be made to drop either Smith or Fredericks so we can play one of our best attacking outlets.
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We could easily have won that game 3-1 and everyone would have waxed lyrical about our percentage stats and shots on target.

Today we were on the other side of it.

Overall, the team were dominant and got undone by Southamptons only presentable chance.

These are the games we need to win.

But sometimes, things don't work out as expected.

Overall, I think this is one of the best performances we have had as a team.

It's ironic how we have won games and been poor, but the one time we dominated and lost, everyone's wants O'Neil to be guillotined.
 
Won 3-1 with what chances? Their keeper had one relatively easy save to make all match.

People will wax lyrical if we're creative and unlucky. We weren't.

If we'd have won that game 3-1 I'd have celebrated the result but been concerned that we'd somehow fluked our way to the result.
 
dragonm8 said:
We could easily have won that game 3-1 and everyone would have waxed lyrical about our percentage stats and shots on target.

Today we were on the other side of it.

Overall, the team were dominant and got undone by Southamptons only presentable chance.

These are the games we need to win.

But sometimes, things don't work out as expected.

Overall, I think this is one of the best performances we have had as a team.

It's ironic how we have won games and been poor, but the one time we dominated and lost, everyone's wants O'Neil to be guillotined.
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Pretty much exactly how I see it.
I actually enjoyed watching that game and we contributed to it with some skilful play with great energy and pressing.
We just lacked a couple of goals but it wasn't for a lack of trying.
Sometimes you need a lucky bounce or somebody to do something brilliant to turn the game and yesterday it just didn't happen for us.
I always felt that if we could get back to 1-1 we would go on to win the game.
Unfortunately that first goal simply didn't come. We had opportunities. None of them came off. Probably not a lot the coach or the players can do about that. It happens.
 
I'm pretty sure we carved out more chances or half chances than the Saints.

Final ball was lacking.

Solanke always taken out wide, Billing off his game, set pieces woeful.

The one presentable dead ball opportunity we get from 20 yards, we hand to Cook.

It's predictable to any opposition manager that Cook now fxks up all our dead balls, whereas last month it was Tavernier.

We need better players, but in the meantime we are doing OK with what we have.

If Parker was in charge it would likely have been a bigger margin loss.

At least O'Neil went for the win.
 
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