Pep's laying into them parking the bus in his interview. Glad he's saying something cos this anti football shit is bollocks.
Yes but both teams are so tired mate. 3 nights rest seems good but it never is enough to give a player adequate rest both physically and mentally. Sterling just had that little extra.
We've lost a bit of zip but after the next game we get a week's rest and I expect everything to come back to normal intensity for us
People under estimate how difficult Shane Long is to defend against, he is the fastest player in the prem and strong as fuck. Was relieved to see him go off, Ferdinand said he was the hardest player to defend against.
How can one team with 70 odd per cent of the ball give more free kicks away than a team with 20 odd per cent - I guess it can happen but statistically tough. Thought the ref was very weak. If he’d made it clear early on time wasting wouldn’t be tolerated- things would have been okay but he positively encouraged Southampton and the game suffered as a consequence of his ineptitude. That vile **** Long wasted 5 minutes of the game on his own diving like a tart.
I think every team that plays in that fashion is in effect submitting to our football superiority by refusing to play anything that opens up the game.
Cannot blame them reminds me of a mismatch of 2 boxers where one just uses his hands to stop his opponents onslought and attacks rarely hoping for a lucky knockout hit.
Getting plaudits for not being knocked out is all they expect but to say they were unlucky to not share the result would be rediculous even in the corrupt fight game.
The difference is of course is that each round has to be scored by judges in boxing whereas goals alone affect the result of football so take your pick which you value most pure defence or pure football.
This was clearly a major tactic. Every tackle resulted in a Soton player ending up on the ground and the ref was very easily convinced by the antics that it was a foul. They even, at one point in the second half thumped the ball down in the corner to no one 'cos no one was there, simply for us to defend our own throw in!
We need to tighten up on corners. They really should have scored twice last night and a free header in the second half too. This will be the rags only game plan.
Add this to the soft goal at Huddersfield.
Height is a problem but we have to find a solution. Two corners were needlessly given away by Otamendi last night when we could have dealt with the situation better in the first place. Not blaming him entirely but they were both very preventable and very nearly led to goals.
The level of bus parking we are seeing now, is something new imo. This is not what we saw earlier or even the traditional Fat sam/Mourinho level negativity.
A defensive team in the past, would be perhaps a 451 who played deep & safe & tried to hit on the counter. In the last 10 mins they might go for kitchen sink defending & lumping/time wasting.
What we are now seeing, is teams kicking off, as if it's the last ten minutes & getting worse. The formation is more 5-5 in and around their own penalty area, for 90 mins. They are almost set up, just to block, in their own box.
But of course, we are actually still creating chances & missing them & imo, not taking seriously enough, the idea of shooting from outside the box. It's an afterthought rather than a plan. Mke it a plan & they have to come out, to stop it= gaps elsewhere.