SOUTHAMPTON (A) SUN OCT 16TH

Slacker

Slacker said:

My stream is lagging so much that we’ve just had the coin toss. I reckon we’ll be two up by half time.

I fancy us to get a point, Declan with the equaliser I reckon.

thornburyiron

25 shots and 14 corners and their keeper called into action about half a dozen times.

MrsGrey

MIAHammer said:

Is it just me or does Paqueta give the ball away a lot? I’d like to see his stats on incompleted passes.

71% pass accuracy today.

(Stats from whoscored)

OldCastleSwift

Didn't see the game so can't comment on the performance, but it sounds like it was same old, same old; slow start, go behind, force our way back into the game but not clinical enough to get three points.

Southampton have been poor this season so I think this was two points dropped. Slowly creeping up the league but we're definitely five or six points short of where we should be, IMO.

MIAHammer

chicagohammer said:

Did anyone mention our corners………..

At least the commentators have stopped going on about how we’re set play specialists.

jay_in_cpt

Much improved 2nd half, Paqueta and Scamaca a little wasteful today, they are exciting to watch but need more time and better end results, how many corners did we have...but hey,. a point is better than nothing...Promising signs if a little frustrating we didn't get all 3 today....

MrsGrey

jay_in_cpt said:

Much improved 2nd half, Paqueta and Scamaca a little wasteful today, they are exciting to watch but need more time and better end results, how many corners did we have.

14

jay_in_cpt

MrsGrey said:

jay_in_cpt said:

Much improved 2nd half, Paqueta and Scamaca a little wasteful today, they are exciting to watch but need more time and better end results, how many corners did we have.

14

That's loads and in all honesty we were poor for the majority of them, something we should seriously work on IMO.

chicagohammer

Have accept some blame here, foolishly made Bowen capt of my FF team , I KNOW!!

Lukerz

I really liked what I saw from Scamacca today, apart from his finishing. He won’t keep getting 5 chances a game. He has to convert a couple.

Considering we were missing both Zouma & Dawson, I was pretty happy with the performance overall but that game was so there for the taking.

buffybegood

Tbh most of Scamacca's chances were half chances at best; a lot of other players wouldn't even have managed an attempt. Difficult to be too critical of him imo, and he shoulda had an assist if Paqueta was better in the air.

EXETERHAMMER

From what I could see, we should have scored more. Southampton looked poor, 2 points lost there.

jay_in_cpt

2nd half we seemed so in control that a point is a little disappointing ....but as said, I guess a point is better than nil...

steve

Should have won it .But you win some draw some ,Just dont loose them on my watch

MIAHammer

steve said:

Should have won it .But you win some draw some ,Just dont loose them on my watch

Now the pressure’s on. Let’s see what you’re made of. The big test is this Wednesday.

Lukerz

I thought that was one of our best performances this season. We dominated the game after the first 25 minutes & we should have won. Just lacking a bit of quality in the final third, other than Rice.

Coufal is finished I think as an attacking RB. I don’t remember him doing one thing right.

jay_in_cpt

Harsh on Coufal IMO Luke 👍🏻

buffybegood

Must admit not much was made on my stream of a penalty claim for a "judo throw" on Soucek; by the sounds of it Moyes isn't a happy bunny about it. Looking forward to seeing another look at that, although I suspect we'll be lucky to get 2 minutes coverage on MOTD2 tonight as 5 of the Sky 6 played today so it probably won't get shown.

buffybegood

I've defended Coufal a fair bit this season, but he wasn't very good today tbh. We often attack down our left, leaving Coufal in acres of space on the other flank. Rice found him a few times with lovely cross-field passes that you can't help feeling would have used much more effectively by a better RB.

On top of that he was done for pace a few times, struggling to get back when Soton broke.

OldCastleSwift

jay_in_cpt said:

Harsh on Coufal IMO Luke 👍🏻

I actually agree with Luke. We all know that Coufal is a hard-worker and gives his all, but in the attacking third he really isn't performing, and hasn't done for a while. He's still a good defender, but with Bowen cutting inside as much as he does, we need our RB to be able to fill the gap and offer an attacking option, but Coufal just doesn't do that, IMO.

I believe he's taken a bit of a battering on social media tonight which is not fair or necessary; he's been a good servant and clearly loves the club.

chicagohammer

He has been pretty poor recently, to his credit, he gets into promising positions but ultimately fails to deliver, there were a couple of times today when I literally said out loud, “how did he fail to get a ball into the box from there”

He hustles and bustles but more often than not ends up going to ground, gets us a number of free kicks but the momentum is lost.

Lukerz

He was fine in the commitment area & fitness, always getting up & down the wing. But so much of our attacking play involves good full-back overlap & he just doesn’t deliver any quality when he gets the ball in dangerous zones. There were several occasions where he got the ball & his touch was poor, taking him wide or giving him too much to do & nearly every cross he attempted was blocked. He doesn’t deserve abuse but he is firmly behind Johnson & Kehrer for me as a RB option. I think we should just use him now as a defensive RB, where he doesn’t get forward.

Lukerz

I think if either Zouma or Dawson play, we win that. No way do we have that many corners & neither of those bury a header.

I didn’t think bringing Paqueta & Scamacca off did anything for us. We basically threw away the last 6 minutes with that change. Antonio & Lanzini could have come on for Soucek & Bowen/Paqueta & we could have gone more of a 4-4-2 to try & make our dominance count.

OutcastLondoner

Coufal’s fine as defender at RB but he can sometimes be a bit chaotic. I think Johnson and Kehrer are both better defensively. His attacking play was the advantage over Johnson but I don’t think he offers that anymore. I hope he can rediscover what his form because he was one of those who had us playing so well in his first season and losing what he offered has hurt the whole team.

Bazshuayi

I believe Paqueta gives the ball away more than others because he actually tries to find lines and gaps to create chances (as opposed to a safe sideways and backward pass which a lot do)

As for Coufal, yes he gets into good positions a good deal of the time but his end product (i.e. crossing because his shooting has always been horrific!) has dropped off a cliff

MIAHammer

Lukerz said:

I think if either Zouma or Dawson play, we win that. No way do we have that many corners & neither of those bury a header.

Most of our corners didn’t make it past the first defender.

OutcastLondoner

Bazshuayi said:

I believe Paqueta gives the ball away more than others because he actually tries to find lines and gaps to create chances (as opposed to a safe sideways and backward pass which a lot do)

As for Coufal, yes he gets into good positions a good deal of the time but his end product (i.e. crossing because his shooting has always been horrific!) has dropped off a cliff

Yeah I prefer Paqueta losing the ball trying to find people over the first few games where I thought he was a little anonymous. He seems to be trying to pass it quite early as well, which requires movement from others (Scamacca's been quite good at it).

OldCastleSwift

I suppose it'll take some adjustment for him and the rest of the squad. He seems to have struck up a good relationship with Scamacca already, but needs to find that with Bowen, Benrahma, Fornals and Antonio.

I will admit that I've been a bit disappointed with what I've seen of him so far, but I'm putting that down to him being at a new team in a new league. Hopefully in the second half of the season he'll become a much more influential player.

alderz

I’ve really enjoyed watching Paqueta so far. He’s definitely not at his best yet and is still adjusting to the team, but I think he is showing exciting signs

buffybegood

Yeah, he does a lot of one touch passes and flicks and stuff, which certainly help "break the line", but you need someone on the same wavelength to realise what he's going to do and make the appropriate run. As has been said, Scamacca seems to read his intentions quite well, and hopefully others will improve as they train and play together.