Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 1-3 Southampton

[chunki-hunki]

Thought we were utter dog second half and majority of 1st.

Had a little spell of good football but just like usuall it didnt last, i think we have a long season ahead!

I do hope there shall be improvements in the future,

On a brighter note... Blue Voice was amzing tonight! non-stop. Could someone please tell me the words to the song that went on for ages it's been bugging me! "we'll be coming... we'll be coming" that one please.

 

[palexander]

I agree with you, how we can have someone that talented sitting on the bench is unbelievable .

I cannot believe it is a 'footballing' decision - if it is, then Tilson is a bigger mug than even I've accused him of being in the past.

Something must be going on behind the scenes. I for one have heard he isnt the best trainer - but even so, what a talent :(

 

[haveaguiness]

I cannot believe it is a 'footballing' decision - if it is, then Tilson is a bigger mug than even I've accused him of being in the past.

Something must be going on behind the scenes. I for one have heard he isnt the best trainer - but even so, what a talent :(

But Matt Harrold was apparently a world beater in training :)

 

[Medway Blue]

Yes, but someone with "vision" would have known that Sankofa was NOT the player to pass to under those circumstances! :thump:

That's not the point though, is it? Something COULD have happened from that, who is anyone to say that he was the wrong person to pass to? Sankofa was in the best position of anybody, a threatening position, and Sawyer saw that (when no-one else would have) and threaded through an awesome pass (which no-one else would have). The fact that he saw and made the pass demonstrated his superior ability - what the player that he passed to does, or doesn't, do with the ball is NOT Lee's problem.

 

[steve54]

I'll ask you the same question,Freedman was awful,and offered nothing.

Freedman looked good in the first half he got the free kick for the goal and tried to bring others into the game but the secondhalf he looked knackered

 

[Medway Blue]

I cannot believe it is a 'footballing' decision - if it is, then Tilson is a bigger mug than even I've accused him of being in the past.

Something must be going on behind the scenes. I for one have heard he isnt the best trainer - but even so, what a talent :(

Ugh, I know. I don't think it is a footballing decision. I just think that Tilly has an admirable, but often mis-placed and frustrating, blind loyalty to some players that means he won't drop them, even if he has a better option in their position!

 

[OldBlueLady]

That's not the point though, is it? Something COULD have happened from that, who is anyone to say that he was the wrong person to pass to? Sankofa was in the best position of anybody, a threatening position, and Sawyer saw that (when no-one else would have) and threaded through an awesome pass (which no-one else would have). The fact that he saw and made the pass demonstrated his superior ability - what the player that he passed to does, or doesn't, do with the ball is NOT Lee's problem.

Beg to differ there as well, so if the worst ATTACKING player in your team is in the best position but you just know that he's 80% sure to mess up, you're telling me you pass it to him when there's another less obvious opening to a player who is only 40% to mess up?

 

[AlexSFC]

Saints fans - 10/10.

 

[palexander]

Beg to differ there as well, so if the worst player in your team is in the best position but you just know that he's 80% sure to mess up, you're telling me you pass it to him when there's another less obvious opening to a player who is only 40% to mess up?

Ah come on, if he looked up, saw Osei open and then thought "**** that" and turned away to pass somewhere else, everyone would be annoyed.

He probably didnt even have time to judge who is was - just looked up, saw a blue shirt and played it.

Was an excellent pass, the right pass - and it doesnt matter it went to Osei - who may well have cut it back to Francis to cross and we score from it?

 

[haveaguiness]

Beg to differ there as well, so if the worst player in your team is in the best position but you just know that he's 80% sure to mess up, you're telling me you pass it to him when there's another less obvious opening to a player who is only 40% to mess up?

The thing is they are all (and ill use this term loosely) professional footballers, so they should all be able to do something with the ball. It's not like Sunday league football where you have clearly worse players than others that you may not want to pass to.

 

[DTS]

Not sure if I am just super negative but I cant belive some of the ratings here.

Milldy - 7 Made a great double save early on but still let in 3
Sankofa - 3 Woeful - Worst player in ten years
Francis -5 Was poor at times but out of position and I felt did ok
Barrett - 4 Missed his header for 2nd, not good enough
Friend - 5 No berter than Herd, Great goal but he simply cant defend
Laurent - 5 Tried hard but did nothing
Grant - 7 Some vital interceptions and work so hard
Macca - 6 Played well at times
Moussa - 7 Creates so much for himself and worked hard
Barney - 6 Again worked hard and won a few headers
Freedman - 5 Forgot he was playing at times.

Pretty woeful overall....I am going to bed.

 

[bazzashrimper]

Yes, but someone with "vision" would have known that Sankofa was NOT the player to pass to under those circumstances! :thump:

Maybe if Macca had shown that kind of vision and passed to Sankofa in that kind of situation he would be well practiced and would have managed to keep the ball on the pitch.

OBL - you like Macca, fair enough, but don't let the bias blinker yourself on Sawyers qualities. Macca is better when we are defending, Sawyer is better when we are attacking.

 

[Medway Blue]

Beg to differ there as well, so if the worst player in your team is in the best position but you just know that he's 80% sure to mess up, you're telling me you pass it to him when there's another less obvious opening to a player who is only 40% to mess up?

Osei isn't the worst player on the team, and neither is he so bad that you should EXPECT him to mess up. I thought you were ever the eternal optimist? He was in an excellent position from which something could have happened. It didn't this time, but if the same thing happens in the next game, something might come of it. How anyone can say 100% that it won't is beyond me - can you predict the future? With that pass, Sawyer tried to get some creative passing going, he opened Soton up. It'll come off eventually, and I'd rather see our players at least attempting to open up the other team, rather than passing the ball 5 yards sideways or backwards and never advancing into the final third.

 

[ibwiajwa]

Went to the game with a Southampton mate - he went to the away end with his daughter and we met up in Planet Pizza afterwards (Nice little place by the way). He was obviously delighted with his evening (At least he paid for the pizza....). Both of us felt that they had a good away performance. They broke quickly (unlike us) and had decent shots on goal (unlike us). OK, they got lucky with the terrible refereeing for the first 'goal' and the awful deflection for the second but their approach was correct for the conditions - hit the ball hard at the goal and you might get something.

As for us.....

Mildenhall: MOM. Without him it would have been five or six. Can't be blamed for any of the goals IMO. Really good distribution too. One fantastic thrown pass was utterly wasted because Laurent was far too slow to react.

Friend: Excellent first half with good passing and reasonable defending, although he struggled with their attack at times. What a free kick though! In the second half he caught the crap passing lurgy from the rest of the team.

Sankofa: One good ball in and some decent clearances but he couldn't attack a toy bunny in the latter part of the second half. He seems to need so much time to make up his mind what to do. A lovely through ball inside the defender from Sawyer, one of the few bits of real quality from either side, found Sankofa only for him to kick it out for a goal kick.

Barrett: Along with Sankofa, he was found napping when David kicked long to Lallana for their third goal. One surging run but otherwise rather anonymous.

Francis: Dreadful attempted clearance caused the second goal. Late in the second half he put a free kick in a good position straight into the wall. Composed defending at times but his deliveries and passing were fairly second rate tonight.

Moussa: Looked threatening at times but the Saints defense quickly worked out that he was going to cut inside every time and snuffed out the threat pretty well.

Grant: Looked like the player we had in the first half of last season tonight. Couldn't pass water.

Macca: A lovely ball into the box in the second half. Started some moves but needs to pass FORWARD from time to time.

Laurent: Gave Harding a fairly torrid time in the first half but faded badly. In the 15 minutes before he came off he gave the ball away every time he got it.

Barnard: No service at all. Good in the air. Wasted a good move by straying offside - not much else to say.

Freedman: Had a wretched evening. One good surging run in the first half but is so easy to knock off the ball at the moment - they can't all be free kicks. His passing was poor too.

Sawyer: Played pretty well - pacey and good on the ball. Start him next time.

The problems were collective. We don't break quickly enough at the moment. Our midfield lacks penetration. We lack width on the left. We make at least two major defensive errors per game. We offer no threat from corner kicks because nobody can whip the ball in and we have no imaginative strategies from set pieces.

To be fair, a cursory glance at the back of the programme shows the massive difference between the size of Southampton's squad and out own. To make matters worse, three of our players are out on loan. We just didn't have the quality at the key times tonight and had no luck at all. I can't really see us getting out of the division this season without some new blood or decent loan signings.

 

[Andy_S]

You are kidding OBL? Sawyer shouldn't have played that ball because Sankofa was unlikely to deliver quality? If we're going on that theory then Sankofa would never touch the ball beyond the halfway line and McCormack would never touch the ball within 40 yards from goal.

 

[Medway Blue]

Ah come on, if he looked up, saw Osei open and then thought "**** that" and turned away to pass somewhere else, everyone would be annoyed.

He probably didnt even have time to judge who is was - just looked up, saw a blue shirt and played it.

Was an excellent pass, the right pass - and it doesnt matter it went to Osei - who may well have cut it back to Francis to cross and we score from it?

Exactly.

The thing is they are all (and ill use this term loosely) professional footballers, so they should all be able to do something with the ball. It's not like Sunday league football where you have clearly worse players than others that you may not want to pass to.

Exactly.

Maybe if Macca had shown that kind of vision and passed to Sankofa in that kind of situation he would be well practiced and would have managed to keep the ball on the pitch.

OBL - you like Macca, fair enough, but don't let the bias blinker yourself on Sawyers qualities. Macca is better when we are defending, Sawyer is better when we are attacking.

Hmmmm.....I think if Macca would have played that pass rather than Sawyer, OBL would have loved it.

 

[Andy_S]

The problems were collective. We don't break quickly enough at the moment. Our midfield lacks penetration. We lack width on the left. We make at least two major defensive errors per game. We offer no threat from corner kicks because nobody can whip the ball in and we have no imaginative strategies from set pieces.

That does indeed sum it up in a bitesize chunk. :'(

 

[DTS]

Saints fans - 10/10.

If were talking in terms of weirdness and ugliness then agree. What a bunch of freaks.

 

[Medway Blue]

The problems were collective. We don't break quickly enough at the moment. Our midfield lacks penetration. We lack width on the left. We make at least two major defensive errors per game. We offer no threat from corner kicks because nobody can whip the ball in and we have no imaginative strategies from set pieces.

I think you just summed up our problems in 5 lines. Email it to Tilly!

 

[bazzashrimper]

Osei isn't the worst player on the team

James I agree with you on Sawyer, but this one :stunned:. The manager switches the defence every match to try and keep Osei out of trouble. He works hard, seems like a really nice bloke but unless he improves very soon - when he gets released in the summer he will probably struggle to find another football league club.