So, how was the first half?
By: Mike |
1 Comment
Quite good… aside from the shambolic goal, unlucky injury, woeful finishing and slightly harsh sending off.
Category: Match Reports
Saints in urgent need of patience
By: Mike | Add Comments
Firstly, apologies for the lack of posts - holidays and all that! Before going away I was subjected to the Blackpool game, the less said about that the better. More promising was the Birmingham game; albeit against less motiviated opposition in a less important match.
There are 2 things currently lacking that could suddenly see Saints become a force in the division, rather than relegation candidates. Firstly some defensive stability and nous - frankly this seems less likely with each game so let’s forget that for now. What Saints could improve is their gameplan when dominating possession, which on the evidence of the season so far, will be most of the time.
Currently Saints seem a little to eager to make the killer pass - against Blackpool Schneiderlin was doing a painfully accurate impression of Steven Gerrard on a bad day with hollywood passes finding the crowd every other minute. Hopefully the manager will impress upon the team that by working the ball around with a decent level of movement and control they will eventually create better openings.
It’s 6 games in 16 days coming up and we need to take at least 9 points from the 5 league matches if we’re to move away from the relegation zone. All of the games, home and away, are tricky but winnable - if we show the form we showed against Derby rather than Blackpool.
Category: Saints Team NewsDerby 0 Saints 1
By: Mike | 2 Comments
Saints got their first points of the season with an impressive performance and victory against freefalling Derby. Adam Lallana got the goal and there would have been more but for some weak finishing and good goalkeeping. Derby were poor and their lack of pressing allowed Saint’s passing game to click on several occasions.
Despite Derby’s struggles an away victory in the league is always a very good result so credit to the players and staff for the result and performance. Whether Saints can maintain their form on the ball and alloy it to better defending (especially from set pieces) will determine whether we can achieve anything better than a relegation battle this season.
Category: Match ReportsSaints 1 Birmingham 2
By: Mike | 1 Comment
Match Summary
Whenever Saints start the season badly (and let’s face it, that’s always) I often fall back to the old cliche “It’s a marathon not a sprint”. Well, as Paula Radcliffe showed this morning, you can still come 23rd in a marathon - you just hurt for longer. It’s still far too early to say how Saints will do this season but already it feels like a pattern has been set.
Saints passed the ball well for the most part with far more movement off the ball and more chances created then we’ve seen for the last few seasons. However, as at Cardiff, you always felt the taller, more powerful and more experienced opposition would eventually win out. As the game wore on, Birmingham realised that they didn’t need to chase Saints in midfield they could just pack their defence and attack confident that our defence would crumble before theirs.
Losing to two of the better sides in the league is no cause for alarm in itself, especially as we could easily have got results in both games. However, most teams in the Championship plays the way Brum did in the second half yesterday and we are too lightweight both in attack and defence to deal with it. The sale of Andrew Davies to Stoke, as looks likely from Poortvliet’s comments today, will mean the loss of the one player in our squad who could have improved yesterday’s showing markedly.
Ratings
Kelvin Davis: 6 - Made some fine saves when left exposed but still doesn’t command his area the way a top keeper would.
Lloyd James: 7 - Needs to improve his defensive positioning and resist the temptation to hit it long but some of Saints best moments came from his roaming down the right to link up with McGoldrick.
Chris Perry: 6 - Not the centre-back expected to threaten from set pieces so goal was a bonus but overall the defence was shaky, in part due to Perry’s weakness in the air.
Michael Svensson: 6 - Was dominant first-half but still needs more games. Possibly overcompensating for Perry’s lack of height in trying to win everything and is then being caught out of position.
Andrew Surman: 5 - I’ve always felt Surman is a better centre-midfielder then left-winger and he’s even more out of position at left-back. Improved slightly as game wore on but too easily beaten in the air and on the deck.
Simon Gillet: 6 - Gave the ball away a few times but showed huge work-rate across the entire park. Perhaps he would be a better full-back option with Surman moving into midfield?
Morgan Schneiderlin: 6 - Looked very classy on the ball first-half but couldn’t get involved second half when Saints needed someone of his quality to move further forward and create chances.
Adam Lallana: 5 - Started well enough but didn’t create enough in the attacking midfield role.
David McGoldrick: 6 - Always gave Saints an out ball and showed some excellent touches but never looked likely to continue his scoring streak.
Lee Holmes: 5 - Similiar to Lallana, made stuff happen when given the chance first-half but simply couldn’t provide the centre-foward with enough support.
Stern John: 5 - Looked very rusty and really stuggled to hold the ball up which is where he excelled last season. Also missed a very good chance just before Birmingham’s equaliser which would probably have reversed the result.
Manager: 5 - Obviously hamstrung by the experienced players who’ve left and the side initially looked good but failed to react to a far better showing from Brum in the second half. Failed to give adequate reasoning behind the lack of bench options - even if you’re doubtful over one of your defenders you need some attacking options like Wright-Phillips or Dyer.
Birmingham: 7 - Look like a good championship side, big and strong at the back with a stupendous number of options up front. No guile or creativity but that won’t matter until/unless they get promoted.
Ref: 7 - Didn’t have any major decisions to make, didn’t break up the play too much and generally did ok. The rotund linesmen infront of the Itchen was a bit flag-happy to both sides though.
Man of the Match: Cameron Jerome - The enforced change were he came on for Nafti really benefited Birmingham as he provided a powerful and pacy threat down the flanks and middle. Benefited from Surman and James trying to get forward and being caught out at the back but looks like he could cause havoc amongst Championship defences this season.
Category: Match ReportsExeter 1 Saints 3
By: Mike | Add Comments
Saints progressed to the second round of the Carling Cup after a tough away tie against League Two Exeter. Frankly we were the worse team in the first half, despite taking the lead through a Lee Holmes goal, but improved in the second and two David McGoldrick goals sealed a home match against Birmingham in round two. Stern John made his first appearance of the season and acted as an improved focal point for the attack, it’ll be interesting to see if Poortvliet plays both John and McGoldrick up front against Birmingham in Saturday’s league game.
Category: Match ReportsCardiff 2 Saints 1
By: Mike | Add Comments
You can change the players, you can change the manager but some things never change for Saints. We always start the season badly, we always let in late goals and we always concede from set pieces. Against Cardiff we managed to achieve all three despite a spirited performance which was full of effort, if not quality. That could in part be put down to the poor conditions but the fact is that we’ll need to grind out points home and away if we want to spend the season looking to the play-offs instead of the relegation zone.
Michael Svensson was back and if he can return to even 70% of the player he once was it will be a huge boost. He’s a natural leader in defence that Saints have missed so badly in his absence and given the lack of able competition at the back we’ll need him to start more league games than not this season. Another obvious bright spot for Saints was the goal, with Surman and McGoldrick both hinting that this season they might convert their promise into more assists and goals this term (as they’ll have to!).
Looking ahead, we’ve got the tricky away tie to Exeter in the Carling Cup then the home game against Birmingham on Saturday. For a young side momentum is even more important that usual and I get the feeling that one win could become a decent run but another defeat, with difficult games looming, could leave us with the all too familiar feeling of falling behind the early pace.
Category: Match ReportsPennies found down back of Rupert’s sofa
By: Mike | Add Comments
Normally Saints signing a promising young player, especially one interesting Premier League clubs, would be a cause for celebration. The player in question is Morgan Schneiderlin; an 18 year old midfielder from Strasbourg who is a France under 19 international. We’ll have to wait till the new season to find out how good he is and how he copes to the English game. However signing someone for a fee possibly rising to £1.2m has raised another question regarding Saint’s finances.
Namely, where has the money come from? Here are some of the possibilities:
Category: TransfersBacked into a corner
By: Mike | 2 Comments
The appalling state of Saint’s finances led to some pretty extreme measures being announced on Friday the 13th. 3 of the 4 corners at St. Marys are to start the season closed, the gates are to open 15 minutes later on matchdays and Saints are seeking council approval to stop subsidised bus travel. The corner closures affect roughly 700 season-ticket holders as well as others who regularly sit in those areas, the only open corner next season will be the family area inbetween the Chapel and Kingsland stands.
As one of those season-ticket holders affected I’ve been offered the choice of a refund or a seat move - anyone know where the best view is at St. Marys? The biggest worry for those not directly affected by the closures is the impact the changes will have on the atmosphere at matches with next season, especially as blocks 1-3 were the second noisiest area after the Northam stand.
The ongoing dispute regarding Jan Poortvliet’s compensation doesn’t help to inspire confidence that planning for the new season is going smoothly. Nor does the wait to see if any of the following out-of-contract players are going to be retained: Mario Licka, Darren Powell, Nathan Dyer, Alexander Ostlund, Simon Gillett, Inigo Idiakez and Jermaine Wright.
All of which doesn’t exactly ramp up excitement for the new season, despite the fixtures being announced today. It’s Cardiff away first up with Notts Forest away as the last game of the season. At least Saints have signed 2 players before the start of the season, Lee Holmes joins from Derby and Chris Perry joins after his successful loan spell at the end of last season. Only Saints could announce they are intending to give youth a chance then sign a 35-year old within a fortnight!
Category: The ClubNew managerial menagerie takes over
By: Mike | Add Comments
At various stages during his first spell in charge at Saints Rupert Lowe appointed Stuart Gray, Steve Wigley and Clive Woodward (not as manager, but still). Each time there were rumours that the masterplan was to adopt a more continental-style structure without a traditional manager- just specialist coaches.
Obviously his time away from Saints hasn’t persuaded him to deviate from the masterplan and it didn’t even take a couple of weeks for Lowe to go even further. Today Saints replaced Nigel Pearson and appointed two dutch coaches, Jan Poortvliet and Mark Wotte, alongside Stewart Henderson and Dave Hockaday as the new coaching team. Poortvliet will take the role of Head Coach but Saints are saying that the four will work together interchangeably.
Saints fans will undoubtely be split (aren’t we always!) over the departure of Pearson and will be mostly sceptical about the new coaching setup unless/until results vindicate the decision. The most worrying part of today’s announcement was the multiple references to money or lack thereof. Indeed Saints are actively boasting about taking the cheap option and it looks like we’ll have a very young side next season with academy players training with (if not making up) the first team.
The silver lining of seeing kids given a fair chance in the team and the outside chance that Poortvliet will be a poor man’s Wenger will probably persuade the fans to back the side at the start of next season. But if we don’t start the season well then there will be so much fan unrest that more boardroom turmoil would be inevitable.
Category: ManagerialEnd of Season Awards Part 1
By: Mike | Add Comments
Time for the first ever “Saints @ The Offside Annual End of Season Awards thingy”.
Award for Best Player
Start with an easy one. I know Andrew Davies won the official gong but for me the one player most responsible for us staying up, and thus the only possible receipient of this award, is Stern John. 19 goals, with no other player getting into double figures, tells its own story but the lack of good crossing or final passes throughout the season meant he made many of those goals himself through his power and good touch on the ball.
Franny Benali award for being a nutter
From the likes of Mark Dennis, Benali himself even up to more recent examples like Patrick Colleter, Saints have a rich history of players just as liable to kick one of the opposition into the stands as the ball. In recent seasons our demise has coincided with a lack of grade A, top class nutterdom. I’m going to say Kudos then to Youssef Safri who, while not in the same league (literally or figuratively), as previous alumni has shown a streak of temper to collect 2 reds and 6 yellows this season. The fact that many of our best performances have come when he’s been pulling the strings in midfield and some of our worse when he’s been suspended show the rest of the squad need an upgrade in mentalness.
Légion d’honneur for finest capitulation
That would be the Saints team who travelled to Hillsborough and thanked the visiting supporters by conceding 5 goals in 24 minutes, 4 of them in a 14 minute second half spell. Remember that Wednesday themselves only finished 16th! They fought off strong competition for this award from the sides at Preston away (5-1, 3 in the last 15 minutes) and Hull away (5-0, 4 in the second half).
Category: Features
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