Southampton - The Verdict.

Yep - I guess it's been a gradual decline through last couple of seasons. Hastened by our relegation and the loss of the heart of our team. Sad to see.
 
Think it showed how far we’ve fallen

My thoughts too mate and even more so when you consider that we have, for my money anyway, lost only two key players. Namely Ramsdale and Ake, the rest were bit part players who were interchangeable and replaceable and the fact that we never backed up with any real quality is why we were stuck with the Bananarama of Premier league football, Fraser and the Wilson twins.

Where do we go from here ?
 
My thoughts too mate and even more so when you consider that we have, for my money anyway, lost only two key players. Namely Ramsdale and Ake, the rest were bit part players who were interchangeable and replaceable and the fact that we never backed up with any real quality is why we were stuck with the Bananarama of Premier league football, Fraser and the Wilson twins.

Where do we go from here ?

For me Fraser is the biggest loss. The decline started when he stopped playing for the team. Without him Wilson didn't get the service he wanted and then he stopped making an effort too.

Ake was the best player but there was only ever so much he could do and for all his efforts AFCB still conceded a record of 60 goals for 5 seasons.
 
My thoughts too mate and even more so when you consider that we have, for my money anyway, lost only two key players. Namely Ramsdale and Ake, the rest were bit part players who were interchangeable and replaceable and the fact that we never backed up with any real quality is why we were stuck with the Bananarama of Premier league football, Fraser and the Wilson twins.

Where do we go from here ?
Obviously to the lake.
 
Why bother with all that crap about ‘we owe them one’
If that was their idea of payback then I’d hate to see them when they don’t give a toss
Maybe Cook thinks we owe them 2 now.

Saddest thing is we could have relegated them back along at St Mary's. I still have some of the anger I felt that day simmering inside. That performance was as shocking and poor as anything since.
 
I thought the opening 10 minutes we were pretty good.
Once they 'scored' their first (offside) goal - which came out of nothing - we sort of lost confidence and gave up.
So, I think we have a squad that could have beaten them on another day, but for whatever reason we're just not there mentally.
Not sure what the answer is -- when someone's, e.g., depressed, you don't just tell them that they're well paid so they should snap out of it. Our team is collectively 'depressed' and they're having trouble rising out of it.
 
Yesterday was one of the worse defensive performances I’ve ever seen in a game of football.

I mean Rico, honestly, WTF was that bloke doing?

At least try and do your job. Trying to think of a worse individual performance in recent years
 
Yesterday was one of the worse defensive performances I’ve ever seen in a game of football.

I mean Rico, honestly, WTF was that bloke doing?

At least try and do your job. Trying to think of a worse individual performance in recent years
Unfortunately it's not a one off, given jw said the players were knackered, that can't be said for Rico as he's hardly played recently. But hence he'd rather bring mepham on in place of Rico, shows how poor he was.
You can say maybe confidence lacking etc, but being so badly out of position is nothing to do with confidence. I'm not saying we were going to win the game, but that 2nd goal just before half time was the killer
 
Unfortunately it's not a one off, given jw said the players were knackered, that can't be said for Rico as he's hardly played recently. But hence he'd rather bring mepham on in place of Rico, shows how poor he was.
You can say maybe confidence lacking etc, but being so badly out of position is nothing to do with confidence. I'm not saying we were going to win the game, but that 2nd goal just before half time was the killer
Rico’s positioning was poor for the 2nd but not forget the entire back 4 were not good .
Even for the 2nd cook goes to ground far to easily
Carter vickers was a accident waiting to happen and Stacey all game wanted an extra 2-3 seconds on the ball
 
Yesterday was one of the worse defensive performances I’ve ever seen in a game of football.

I mean Rico, honestly, WTF was that bloke doing?

At least try and do your job. Trying to think of a worse individual performance in recent years
A bit over the top that comment .
For the goal he was woefully out of position but to say the worst ever performances is a little dramatic.
Take that goal out of it, and he was ok first half.I’ve never been a fan of Rico but the entire back 4 were garbage .
 
The entire back 4 were a shambles....you'd have to wonder why Rico was over on the opposite side of the pitch for a Southampton throw in though.....i can't believe he's done that off his own back.....that has to have been an instruction from Woodgate.
Stacey was every bit as bad as Rico imo....his defending for the first goal was comical and then followed that up with a brain dead pass for the third.....Rico was sh1te but i"m not sure other 3 defenders deserve any less criticism.....We don't have a calming influence or anyone who is able to organise a back line.....Steve Cook doesn't inspire confidence in any of them.
 
Rico’s positioning was poor for the 2nd but not forget the entire back 4 were not good .
Even for the 2nd cook goes to ground far to easily
Carter vickers was a accident waiting to happen and Stacey all game wanted an extra 2-3 seconds on the ball

For the second goal, RoRo switched off and has lost his man who is running past him, (picture 1) and who goes on to score. All of the defenders have been sucked in to a really small section of the pitch. It happened quickly but I'd imagine there should have been communication between Rico and Cook to make sure whoever didn't go with 17 should have come more central. Rico is in no man's land when the chest flick takes it past him (picture 2) but you do wonder if he has given himself that extra time so he isn't outpaced in a sprint if Southampton get a chance to attach quickly. Ultimately, Cook is too far wide to cover effectively (picture 3).

Until I looked at it I'd never have contemplated the first key culprit was RoRo. I'm not trying to cane him, he is young and learning, but it shows how much the casual fan (it might just be me!) misses live as he had escaped without criticism.
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Watching Sheffield United who are 1-0 down to a team 16 places above them but showing more grit and determination than our lot.
 
The entire back 4 were a shambles....you'd have to wonder why Rico was over on the opposite side of the pitch for a Southampton throw in though.....i can't believe he's done that off his own back.....that has to have been an instruction from Woodgate.
Stacey was every bit as bad as Rico imo....his defending for the first goal was comical and then followed that up with a brain dead pass for the third.....Rico was sh1te but i"m not sure other 3 defenders deserve any less criticism.....We don't have a calming influence or anyone who is able to organise a back line.....Steve Cook doesn't inspire confidence in any of them.
Steve cook could see the entire pitch from where he was .
 
Not a surprise to see the usual scapegoats getting all the flak.

For me the biggest disappointment yesterday was Pearson. Looked completely off the pace, like a kid in the playground following the ball around with no positional sense, lots of key misplaced passes leading to Stains chances.

Noone came out of the game covered in glory but I expected better from Pearson.
 
Not a surprise to see the usual scapegoats getting all the flak.

For me the biggest disappointment yesterday was Pearson. Looked completely off the pace, like a kid in the playground following the ball around with no positional sense, lots of key misplaced passes leading to Stains chances.

Noone came out of the game covered in glory but I expected better from Pearson.

He looked very casual a lot of the time to me, as if he thought it was an exhibition match or a testimonial, and JWs comments about the next 9 matches being "cup finals" shows the focus was elsewhere and the players knew it.
 

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