BRIGHTON AWAY

Can Saints get a win? And who should start, Tadic or Boufal..... or both???

Thought it would be a draw but not as confident now as no Lemina, ankle injury. As such suspect both Tadic and Boufal will start which would not be my choice. Davis will clearly start with Romeau and I personally would play McQueen if he stays 433 with Boufal Long and Gabbadini.

Ig he is brave great chance to go with 3 at the back with Lemina injured and play Bertrand and Cedric as wing backs but giving the midfield some support. I would have
Forster goal (no real option)
Hoedt, VVD and Yoshis back 3
Romeau sat in front
Midfield of Davis, Cedric Tadic and Bertrand
Long and Gabbadini up front.

Starting Boufal and Tadic has been done by Puel, doesn't work.

Tadic and Boufal play similar roles in a way and I agree we should only have one on the field. Unless Saints play 3 at the back, I would play Hoedt in defence and give VVD a bit of a free role in midfield.....but that's not going to happen.

Well we at least got a point. As expected Tadic and Boufal started, Yoshida, and Long dropped and with Hoedt in defence JWP came into the midfield.

Not a great game from two sides that I predict will both finish bottom half of the table but probably survive. We started brightly passed the ball around confidently and took the lead following a foul on Boufal on edge of box. JWP took and hit angle of bar and post and Davis was first to react and put away the rebound, not a great view as opposite end of the ground. For most of the half we remained in control without really creating many chances, Tadic had a good sight of goal but took to long then shot wide. Forster saved a header and generally looked okay first half, then just before half time a bit of panic in saints area as a couple of crosses not dealt with very well and ended up with a good chance headed over. Boufal was taken out just before half time and Swarbrick, yet another hopelessly out of his depth referee just gave the guy a talking to. Brighton were physical and carried on with Boufal the main target.

Second half we started again well but lost a soft goal, firstly looked a like hand ball in the build up so keen to check that on Motd. a deep cross to Murray at the far post was headed back to goal, lot of debate if Forster should have saved, got his hand to it, but he didn't move his feet, if he had sure he could have saved,. Should also have been a defender there on Murray. Gabbadini had a shot blocked that went over for a corner. Then Brighton had a chance with a shot on goal but a great block by VVD. We had a couple of half chances towards the end. Redmond came on for Boufal after 70 minutes but did nothing, Hojberg and Long came on with 10 minutes left for Tadic, cant believe he got subbed, and JWP.

So a point but same old issues.

What does Tadic have to do to get dropped, again he made few contributions, fell over and doesn't play for the team,
JWP had a chance to stake a claim for first team football, he simply didn't take it being very ineffective
Pellegrino is far to cautious sticks with the same pattern even when chances arrive to do something different, subs always to late in the game
Redmond is not a premiership player. We desperately need a decent goalie firstly to start but also maybe push Forster to fight for his place in the team.

On positives, VVD had another strong game, looked very assured, Hoedt looked much stronger, Bertrand and Cedric got forward well

Forster 5, maybe a bit harsh as he did make several catches but just not mobile
Cedric 7 ran all day, got forward well having a good season
Hoedt 6 solid display
VVD 7 looked assured unlucky for corners when he went up, defended well but think he will score soon.
Bertrand 7 much better player without Redmond
Romeau 7 back to form won a lot of tackles, trying to get him and Lemina working together is the key to our season
Davis 7 got the goal and generally a much better game
JWP 5 looks awful at the moment, cannot be picked purely for dead ball kicks
Boufal 6 did try to make something happen, didn't get much protection
Tadic 5 would love to see him dropped and just see if the team can deliver without his "creative" touch, I am sure they can.
Gabbadini5 didn't do a lot though service was poor

Subs
Redmond 5 didn't do much, one cross field pass straight into touch!
Long not long enough to make an impressions
Hojberg same as Long

Thanks for the report Matty. Apologies guys for the lack of recent posts. Currently holidaying in Vietnam (someone has to do it).

what a tough life!

My daughter has been on Bali for the last 3 weeks comes back this week, me and the missus have got it all wrong!

You do indeed Matty. Yep, the weather here is warm/humid but the beer is cold. So all is good.

Thanks for another great report Matty