itsbeautifuloutside

Southampton 0

Match Report:

You know the press have been going on for months about how this was “Nigel’s team”, well today what I saw was Nigel’s team, set up as poorly as Nigel did it and with as many plan B’s as Nigel had…

In short it was complete and total shit and Pooch seriously dropped the ball with this setup, they were poorly prepared and our ability to change things around was limited by our very thin squad (in quality terms).

Frankly, I would rather forget about both WBA games this year, piss poor is perhaps being generous as a description.

Player Ratings:

Boruc: A couple of dodgy passes but apart from that it would have been much worse without him in goal, started rollicking defenders after about 10 minutes and should have kept going quite frankly, this was a team performance to get annoyed about but from Arthur I would give him a solid 6/10.

Yoshida: He was incredibly culpable for the third goal but we were chasing it and I can see he was trying to do something and make something for us, shame he completely missed his tackle though! Did all right but, in common with the rest of the defence, basically got bitched by WBA’s attacking three. A game to forget, shame about all the adoring Japanese fans (and there were loads at this game) 4/10

Hooiveld: Patchy, did a better job as a left back than he did as a centre back but, a bit like Maya, did okay without ever looking like he was going to stop WBA securely or permanently. Pulled all over the place by Long and Lukaku, 4/10

Clyne: Probably our best defender but still culpable and lost Lukaku for the second goal after being pulled all the way into their half and then not following his man back properly. Still showed an attacking threat going forward and could have scored a couple of good goals, shame he didn’t have anyone in front of him, no one had anyone in front of them if you were a full-back… 6/10

Fox: Going to get pilloried by some people, frankly I thought he had a really hard time of it as Lallana buggered off and never turned up during the entire time he was on the pitch. I understand why he got red carded, technically it could have been, but in reality it was just a piss poor performance by a piss poor referee. We are going to miss Fox and Shaw for the remaining games, I wonder who’s going to play left back because this will cause us trouble? 6/10 for his efforts, shame about the red card which wasn’t really, as annoying as he can be at times we will really miss him in this run in.

Davis: Lots of industry with little quality today, I saw him try but there wasn’t enough going on around him for even his little legs to make up for. Like most of our midfield, bypassed and forgotten, still, he was probably the best of them for this game which is not saying much, 5/10.

Jack Cork: Taken off and it was a mistake, I understand why he was taken off, the idea was to create more of an attacking game but instead it just gave Lukaku the run of the back four, 5/10 for a half but poor final ball and half a game means he can’t get any more than that.

Schneiderlin: He got better as the game went on but he basically didn’t impose himself at all, this could have been down to the fact that even though we outnumbered them in midfield nobody actually play through midfield but anyway, a poor game by his standards 5/10.

Lallana: Floating inside, no final ball, no through ball, inadequate shooting, not protecting his full-back… Bloody awful 2/10, there was one lovely bit of skill about three minutes in which stopped him getting 1/10 otherwise it was that bad and Pooch should’ve changed him out for puncheon way before the second half finished or at least told him to get on the wing and blood stay there!

Southampton

Possession

• Southampton 57%
• West Brom 43%

Shots

• Southampton 16
• West Brom 11

On target

• Southampton 4
• West Brom 9

Corners

• Southampton 7
• West Brom 6

Fouls

• Southampton 9
• West Brom 11