Southampton v Aston Villa - Match Thread, Sat 22nd February, 3pm | Vital Football

Southampton v Aston Villa - Match Thread, Sat 22nd February, 3pm

JuanPabloAngel

JuanPabloAngel

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We go again.

Starting up the Southampton match thread to try and move away from the Spurs heartbreak.

No question this is another huge game - one of the rapidly running out that we HAVE to try and take something from. Big upturn in form for Saints since late December but if we play as we did for large parts of yesterday's gamne, we have no reason not to be hopeful of taking something.

Maybe not a must-win (actually, it probably is, in truth) but definitely a must-not-lose.
 
Definitely a 'must not lose', but ideally a surprise win, by any means possible.

The other alternative of course is having it postponed due to the weather and have it re-arranged and have SJM back for it.
 
Forget about spurs it happened and that's that, we need to go again. Be aggressive from the start but know when to change how we play in game. Got a feeling we'll win this, saints aren't great at home on the current showing at least.
 
I’ve figured out the problem. I keep predicting us to win. Every game. I’ve predicted a heavy loss so everything should be fixed now.

In all seriousness, one things I was thinking with this 3-4-3 is that it initially caught teams by surprise but now we seem to have the same problem we had in the 4-3-3... overrun in midfield.

If we had mcguinn and I was manager maybe I’d try sticking with the 3 but in a 3-5-2. Same wing backs. Mcginn spearheads the 3 with Douglas and nakamba behind.

Jack as a false 9 off Samatta would get him into the danger area much more often. (He’d be great how bergkamp used to play for Arsenal imo)

For now I’d be tempted to play Connor in the mcginn slot. we can’t defend so need all the attacking threat we can muster.

Edit: A 4-5-1 could also work in this way perhaps. I don’t wish us to sit back and defend but we have to strengthen up in front of the defence. The midfield is why the defence is so crap
 
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I think it is a game we need to win, but I'll probably think that about every single remaining game we have.

More importantly, it's a game we can win. Southampton have been putting in better performances since we gave them an injection of confidence a few weeks ago, but the monster we created is also ours to destroy.

A few of the lads showed glimmers of form on Sunday. Samatta and Reina were incredible, Jack was Jack, but (probably controversially) I also thought Drinkwater, El Ghazi, Douglas and Targett all showed glimpses of form in the first half that I hope will be built on. If we have Mings (PLEASE GOD!) back fit and Engels is sent back to whatever cage we have been keeping him in for the past few months, our defence should look a hell of a lot stronger too. Although, Mings was dreadful against Bournemouth so maybe I'm speaking too soon.

I trust Dean and the coaching team, but I personally want to see something close to this line up:

Reina
Guilbert Konsa Mings Targett
Nakamba
Douglas Drinkwater
El Ghazi Samatta Grealish

I don't rate Hause as a starter, I think he is adequate cover for Mings and a good cup-level player, but he should not be starting at the expense of a top quality midfielder such as Nakamba.

Only other change from the lineup against Spurs would be Mings for Engels.

Southampton don't have a pacey back line or a solid midfield so I think Grealish and Drinkwater flinging balls in behind their defence for Samatta and El Ghazi similar to how they did in the Spurs first half is our way to win this one.
 
Stephen Jay Hawkings said:
Southampton have lost 3 of their last 4 which may suggest their little mini revival is over.

If we could just get a couple of goals and give ourselves a cushion, so the usual monumental fuck up doesn't cost us.
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Absolutely. If Hey Douggie's shot had gone in against Spuds I don't think they were coming back from that. We will make mistakes in defence but we will have chances at the other end. We need to take them.
 
ldgavfc said:
I think it is a game we need to win, but I'll probably think that about every single remaining game we have.

More importantly, it's a game we can win. Southampton have been putting in better performances since we gave them an injection of confidence a few weeks ago, but the monster we created is also ours to destroy.

A few of the lads showed glimmers of form on Sunday. Samatta and Reina were incredible, Jack was Jack, but (probably controversially) I also thought Drinkwater, El Ghazi, Douglas and Targett all showed glimpses of form in the first half that I hope will be built on. If we have Mings (PLEASE GOD!) back fit and Engels is sent back to whatever cage we have been keeping him in for the past few months, our defence should look a hell of a lot stronger too. Although, Mings was dreadful against Bournemouth so maybe I'm speaking too soon.

I trust Dean and the coaching team, but I personally want to see something close to this line up:

Reina
Guilbert Konsa Mings Targett
Nakamba
Douglas Drinkwater
El Ghazi Samatta Grealish

I don't rate Hause as a starter, I think he is adequate cover for Mings and a good cup-level player, but he should not be starting at the expense of a top quality midfielder such as Nakamba.

Only other change from the lineup against Spurs would be Mings for Engels.

Southampton don't have a pacey back line or a solid midfield so I think Grealish and Drinkwater flinging balls in behind their defence for Samatta and El Ghazi similar to how they did in the Spurs first half is our way to win this one.
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Did you not see how their midfield completely over ran us at VP?
 
Despite Southamptons vast improvement in form, they still haven't been winning much at home, only 3 all season. Deano needs to get the set up right though, he surprised us by changing it at Burnley, maybe he can tweak it again by packing the midfield and catch them out.
Whatever he does we desperately need to get Mings back otherwise its probably another loss.
 
Villan57 said:
Reina
Engels Mings Hause
Guilbert Nakamba Drinkwater Targett
Luiz Grealish
Samatta

Or a variation of this with no bloody wingers
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If you could only chose one would you:

(A) Play a wingerless formation but you had to play Hourihane
(B) Play with wingers but Hourihane doesn't play and one of the wingers is El Ghazi

That thought should keep you occupied til the weekend :ROFLMAO:
 
garygaryshaw said:
Did you not see how their midfield completely over ran us at VP?
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I've watched them in more games than that this season and their midfield isn't the strongest. Danny Ings is keeping them floating in the same way Benteke did for us. They're overall a poor team with a poor home record. Our midfield has to do better this time, it's shown it can hold it's own in a few games against similar level of opposition this season.
 
If we cannot deliver in games like this then we don't deserve to play in this league, time for the players to stand up and be counted. Grealish cannot do it all.
 
CDX_EIRE said:
If you could only chose one would you:

(A) Play a wingerless formation but you had to play Hourihane
(B) Play with wingers but Hourihane doesn't play and one of the wingers is El Ghazi

That thought should keep you occupied til the weekend :ROFLMAO:
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ElGhazi every time for me at least he can play football
 
I thought Anwar had a decent game on Sunday , but we need someone to play closer to Samatta , so I would bench Anwar for an extra midfielder and play Super Jack No. 10.

I would prefer us to play 3-5-2 the way Sir Brian did.
 
sirdennis said:
I thought Anwar had a decent game on Sunday , but we need someone to play closer to Samatta , so I would bench Anwar for an extra midfielder and play Super Jack No. 10.

I would prefer us to play 3-5-2 the way Sir Brian did.
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Why not bench Hause for an extra midfielder and leave El Ghazi be since he got an assist and looked fairly dangerous on Sunday?
 
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