Half Term report

From this BBC article

Southampton, 13th

It has been a stuttering start under Mauricio Pellegrino following the summer departure of Puel. Southampton have had difficulty scoring goals and look very unlikely to emulate last season’s top-eight finish.

Will the Saints board finally cash in on the £70m-rated Van Dijk in January? The Dutch defender has been back in the side after the acrimonious failure of a move from Liverpool in the summer but has not been at his best and was dropped at Chelsea.

Team rating: 5/10.

**Manager: ** An understated character who has had a difficult start to life in the Premier League. How Pellegrino fares in the future may be shaped by the expectations of Southampton’s hierarchy.

Nothing there to really disagree with, we seem to have lost any team cohesion, maybe the Van Dick situation is causing more problems then it would seem.

I also don’t think the constant rotation helps, wasn’t this something Puel was castigated for.

I said it over the summer and I’ll say it again, we really should have given Claude another season…

1 Like

Not much to disagree with there for sure, but it’s hardly an in depth half term report: its like getting just the PE teacher’s comments, signed off by the Headmaster / Headmistress in a 1000 pupil school.

Shaped by the expectations of the hierachy says it all, he’s staying and we’re selling.At least then he could play some of amazing youngsters so we get relegated with them having some game time.

Unfortunately we are at a stage now where you need to look at the fixtures and asterisk ‘must win’ games. Sadly yesterday was one of those.

After Tottenham and Utd we have a must win game against Palace. They’ve turned a corner now though so that will be anything but a gimme.

We will need something at Watford before another six pointer at home to Brighton.

We have made hard work of the promoted sides this season so literally none of the games are what you’d consider easy.

As far as the manager goes, yes he rotates too much. Especially at centre back. Getting shot of VVD probably helps this to an extent. He needs to pick a settled side and play to its strengths. Redmond cannot be in it. I saw a stat the other day that showed he was in the top 2 or 3 for players having the most number of shots without scoring a single goal. It was over 30 I believe. Woeful.

If Austin is crocked/banned then he is going to have to find a way to get the rest of the team on Gabbiadini’s wavelength because realistically Shane Long isn’t going to score us any goals and we all know we can’t keep a clean sheet for toffee.

We are also lacking leaders out on the pitch. Davis is a quiet character who leads by professionalism rather than shouting and demonstrating organisation and passion, which is probably what we need right now. Beyond him there is Yoshida and Romeu, both of whom have been substandard this year in my view.

I would have given Puel another season too but I suspect we are in a small minority. You have to wonder how much damage was done behind the scenes with the Fonte situation and this season with van Dijk. Very odd that he wasn’t even in the squad yesterday unless he is being kept fresh for Spurs. The club obviously saw something in Pellegrino but he needs to step up. If there are problems within the squad he needs to suggest changes and the club needs to back him. We are not shite as our resident doomsayer will have it, but we have been misfiring for some time. Perhaps Charlie’s injury is a blessing. Les needs to open the wallet big time.

1 Like

I’ve got sympathy for anyone managing Saints. I really do. On the way out of the Arsenal game, I was chatting to Goatboy about the standard of our footballers, and even though pretty much every Premier League standards is excellent compared to the layman, it’s really in those fine margins that games are won, drawn or lost.

Think of every pass as something that can go wrong, or go better, then think about every weighted ball that is a bit long, or a bit short, that gives the opposition time to reorganise and/or counter.

We’re not quite good enough for the game we want to play with the players we have. A more realistic board might realise this, and be prepared to work within the tight parameters they are setting themselves. If someone like Allardici walked in, he’d immediately be looking at our most effective players, sussing out how to get them more effective. He’ll do it even if that means lumping it up to the big man.

We’re a bit stuck. I think the fans know what sort of team we have. We’re not good enough to be a cut-price, south coast, non-union Barcelona, and barring some run of wet dream success we’re not going to be. What we need to do is to address the obvious deficiencies in the scoring department, either by getting new staff in or picking something that suits the players we have. Probably a bit of both.

I mean at this point, with Cortese gone, Liebherr no longer primary owner, Ralph never having a fucking clue, who’s driving this Southampton Way shit? Les Reed? Give me strength.

4 Likes