FULHAM AT ST MARY'S

Can Saints double their points tally with a win?

I have a feeling the ground will be somewhat less than full as the match is being televised and Fulham are not really one of the league's glamour sides.

This will be a difficult game as Fulham are good on the counter attack but hopefully Berbatov wont play as think although a lazy sos and so still very skilful and his first touch is excellent.

Suspect being on telly will be only about 25k which will be disappointing as think will be good game, shame saints don't do the £1 a game for Under 16s that WHam are doing when we play them (they do 3 games a season). As a ST holder it wouldnt bother me if they had these type of offers, much better to fill the ground and get new fans attending.

Really need a win but going for 2 - 2. Neither team has had a draw yet

Life back in the PL has been a chastening experience so far, the Aston Villa match excepted, and with one win from 6 and only three points, Saints need to win. Fulham are beatable and are one of the teams we should beat if we want to stay up this season.
A clean sheet would be nice but I doubt we'll get one with that defence.

matty07uk wrote:
Really need a win but going for 2 - 2. Neither team has had a draw yet

I think you could have the score on 89 minutes there Matty. SaintMike's prediction...

Saints 2 Fulham 3

I never usually make a prediction but I'll go for Saints 4 Fulham 2, as I don't see us keeping a clean sheet. It's a cliché but these are the games Saints must win.

I've read some rumours that Ramirez is injured, bruised/dead leg or something like that. Let's hope it's not true.

Yep, Ramirez and Clyne both injured, they have dead legs. Training ground injuries apparently. What with Cork and Lee's injuries, etc, it makes you wonder just what Saints are doing on the training ground?

FFS, what is Adkins playing at? Takes off Puncheon and Lambert and replaces them with Chaplow and the useless Guly. Same error as he made against Manchester Utd. I think Fonte might well have saved Adkins' job for now.

I hope Saints get a new defender in the January window and get rid of the awful Hooiveld for good, he's given away two own goals and two penalties so far this season. He's a decent Championship defender but a piss-poor PL one, he's out of his depth.

We're lucky to have got a point from this game but it's definitely 2 points lost. We are going to be lucky to stay up.

Well have to agree Fonte may have saved Adkins job, for now, with that late equaliser. While I have some sympathy losing Ramierez and Cline you do have to ask questions about why so many injuries, possible just bad luck but that is what originally put out Lee. Cannot be the tackles because we dont make that many in the actual games! The sympathy disappears however when yet again he makes a strange set of substitutions. I am sure he will say Puncheon and Lambert were tired and had to change it as Fulham were getting on top but to do both when he did just questions what he was thinking plus Lambert at St Marys is always a threat, tired or not. Also yet again you could see the impact on the rest of the team, they couldnt understand why Lambert was going off. Have said it before but Adkins needs to stop reading to much and forget the clever stuff.

Started brightly with a header from Lambert going wide before we took the lead with for once a corner from lallana that didnt go deep and Fonte got in with a looping header from left side of box into the far corner. When you consider the size of the fulham team they will not be happy to concede 2 goals from headers. Saints nearly got that all important second with a great move which saw rodrigues lay the ball off to Lambert who deliberately opened his body to side the foot the ball agonisingly wide by a couple of inches. Sometimes Rickie just blast it but was on his left foot and goalie was well and truly beaten.

Richardson went down injured with no one around him though Fulham carried on playing. Taken off on a stretcher so doesnt look good, opposite end but looked like knee or hamstring. Maya was move to right back and you have to have sympathy for the guy as he had a torrid afternoon being played out of position, think he is left footed and that is 3 positions he has played in I think 5 games!

to be honest we looked fairly comfortable in the 1st half just some corners that were cause for concern, Gazzinger doesnt come for crosses but made a decent catch from a header from a corner. Lallana had a couple of chances having created good positions but failed to shoot and his pull backs found no one. Lallana still seems to want to do the clever stuff, especially when the cameras are there and think he needs a good old plain bo**icking to start turning his flash performances into match winning performances. We had a goal disallowed for Lambert climbing, have to say Clattenberg gave us nothing again, every foul we made was a booking yet identical tackle from Fulham went without punishment. Beginning to wish for Championship refs who not perfect but at least were consistent, dont like refs giving thumbs up to players (fulham) arm around the waist etc. Saw Clattenberg at the Olympic final and one of those younger refs who believes his own PR still he missed a handball by Maya in second half so could have been worse!

second half we started brightly. Despite a foul in the build up that again Clattenberg missed Schniederlin who had a good game crossed for Lambert who should have done better than volley high over the bar. Rodrigues then went on a run and had a shot from distance that Schwarser gathered at second attempt, Worth a shot but for once actually had Lallana outside him in a good position but shot was on target. Fulham had a good header well saved by Gazzinger. Then we got into the subs game, First Puncheon taken off with Chaplow coming on after 60 minutes the Lambert off for Guly. Puncheon one seemd a bit premature and Lambert one really strange. Guly seemed to go into central midfield but couldnt quite work out. As expected we then concede another soft own goal. Ball bouncing aorund on right side, unable to clear properly ends up on left side Risse totally unmarked shoots but going wide and Hoovield again sticks out a leg and diverts into the net. Poor call from Jos similar to arsenal goal.

Scrappy affair from then on and we struggled to pose any real threat, not surprising when you take off Lambert. Then looked like exactly same as Manure game when Richardson shot home after ball was pulled back though possible offside in the build up. Saints looked dispirited but as we were losing all of a sudden clattenberg started giving us free kicks which previoulsy he ignored. Fox took one, hit deep and Fonte at far post headed home to set up a frantic last 5 minutes. Couple of corners with a bit of pin ball but ball never dropped to a saints player to finish the game with a win.

Point better than nothing but really 2points thrown away with again strange substitutions. Losing Richardson early on made life difficult and Maya was really not at home at Right back. Hopefully ramirez and cline will be fit for WHam, we should claim unable to travel for their international games. We either need to bring in another defender or work on the training ground to improve the defence who are being pulled ragged.. Its not all down to players, look at cup matches where lower league sides can match the top teams, get the tactics right, recognising your weaknesses and address them.

gazzinger 6 Would like to see Boruc start, not at all confident on crosses but a great save and will improve.
Ricahrdson 6 shame he went off as looks okay
Fonte 9 good in defence and 2 goals
Hoovield 5 struggling to cope at the higher level
Fox 6 better game and decent delivery for equaliser
Maya 4 Really struggled at Right Back and his passing was way off the mark
Schneiderlin 8 got in plenty of tackles and at least let them know he was on the pitch
Davis 7 times when he gives the ball away but does work hard
Lallana 7 could be excellent but he needs to keep it simple
Puncheon 7 worked well and took on a more defensive role with Maya at RB
Rodrigues 7 worked well won the ball in the air well despite getting clattered a bit
Lambert 6 Not one of his best game but service was not great and had a decent header, just wide and a volley over, no one else did that today so think adkins needs to watch the game again.

Subs

Chaplow 6 didnt really get into the game
Guly 6 what position he was playing, lively last 5 minutes

Here's an illuminating (not to mention damning) stat:

BBC Sport ‏@BBCSport Great stat this: Southampton have now dropped 11 points from winning positions in the PL this season, the most in the division by far (Opta)

That says it all and it certainly can't continue in that vein.

On a positive side if we can improve our defence and know we can get ourselves into winning positions the we could have a decent 2nd half of the season, providing we get in some quality defenders, and an ugly ball winning full of energy midfield player.

Yes, it's easy to forget that the season's only 7 games old (although they way things have been going, it feels a lot longer), there's all to play for.

Plenty of Twitter rumours abound this evening that Nigel has been sacked. Probably rubbish but you never know. I wouldn't call for him to be ditched at this early stage but he's probably on borrowed time and he needs to learn from his mistakes quickly. If, by the end of November, things haven't improved then maybe that's time for him to go. We're out of the relegation zone but only because 3 other teams are worse than Saints are!

At least there's a 2 week break from the league now, time for the walking wounded to recover and Saints to get themselves together.

Don't think any substance in the so called rumours, but do think Cortese will be ensuring he has a Plan B and will have a replacemnet lined up if results havent improved by November.

Although the break gives a chance for players to recover that is only if they dont get called up for international duties (Ramirez, Fox, Cline, Yoshida, Mayuka, Davis) plus I think this stop start season probably is something Adkins has not had to deal with before, must make trainign with key players missing difficlut. yes affects all clubs but a new experience for us.

Thanks Matty, that was a great read.

I think this headline writer must have seen my score prediction....

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/english/southampton-2-3-fulham-fonte-s-late-header-rescues-point-for-saints-1-2565286


I thought there was evidence of some improvement in Saints' defending, and really we should have had this match sewn up by half-time. The disallowed goal, and close misses by Lambert and Puncheon, I think 3-0 at half-time might have been fair.
I agree the substitutions were weird, I thought Rodriguez was less of a goal threat than Lambert, and I would have taken him off before Lambert. And I would have liked to see Mayuka brought on rather than Guly.
I think I read when Ramirez was signed that he had rarely played the full game and I am wondering whether he may be having a bit of trouble adjusting to the English game. And maybe the same could be said for Lee.

Nostromo wrote:Here's an illuminating (not to mention damning) stat:

BBC Sport ‏@BBCSport Great stat this: Southampton have now dropped 11 points from winning positions in the PL this season, the most in the division by far (Opta)

That says it all and it certainly can't continue in that vein.

If Saints had maintained their winning position in those games they would now be 4th in the league, only Chelsea would have more points, Spurs and Albion would be ahead on goal difference.

If Saints had maintained their winning position in those games they would now be 4th in the league, only Chelsea would have more points, Spurs and Albion would be ahead on goal difference.

But Blackpool had a great start to their season in premiership and look what happened to them!