Southampton 1 Aston Villa 0 Post Match weekend ruined again thread

[BoVillan esq]

Slightly better 2nd half, you could put that down to the fact that Soton simply felt no pressure to go on and kill the game off, left with a few choices, we either stay with this and hope it comes good, settle for a relegation battle, if we survive prey to the fact we have Smith in charge hoping that keeps us up, big gamble that, or, we cut him adrift now and look to push on from last season with new blood in charge, if that's the case we need to do that now in the international break.

Problem is I don't see Purslow as the kind of action man to make that kind of decision. 

[Jon Crofts]

Huffed and puffed second half, a good 10 minute spell at the start should have seen us level at least, a complete lack of creativity though, a sad end if that's to be Smith's last game.

[KevinGage]

Whatever else can be said, it doesn't look like Smudger has lost the dressing room.

But for all the improvement second half, Martinez made the better saves.

I know there was talk of Europe etc at the start of this season.  But after the scars of 2015/16, it's still always a race to the 10 wins and safety for me.  How soon we get them dictates how good a season we'll have.  Last year we raced to 8-9 wins by the midway point, but was played out in a backdrop of empty stadiums and whole thing had a sense of falseness about it. I don't think we'll be getting nine away wins this year. 

That said, I'm still in the Smith in camp. But can fully understand why others may not be.

I'd back him to keep us up and give a full pre season to someone closer to a first choice.

[saint13]

He's got to go. We are up to our necks in trouble & look miles away from being a fluent team.

[LukeJames]

Even after the improvement in the 2nd half, I dont think we made McCarthy make a single save?

[TonyD]

The weird thing is that we have been truly shit in the last 5 games. - BUT we aren’t a million miles away from competing with the teams.

As Sexual Ealing said : something isn’t right at VP.

What has happened to us?

Anyone have a clue?

[villadelph]

He threw on Keinan Davis to rescue a point.. that's all you need to know.

We're wasting time at this point.

[RichardBatchelor]

Decent second half but you could tell we wouldn’t score. Mings and Martinez kept us in it first half.

Fine lines.

[Steve67]

Even with the players we have out, to come back in, we still look weak.  Tonight, Dean changed the formation around five times out of sheer desire to change things.  For that, I can't blame him but it smacked of desperation.  Our midfield is so poor.  I thought Mings played well but the likes of Bailey, El ghazi, McGinn all looked very poor. They scored a lucky goal, dropped really nicely for him.  We were slow to react and Southampton we much better than us and they are nit a good side by any stretch. We look devoid of craft, desire, confidence and physicality.  Not a good combination.

[PaulTheVillan]

Bye Dean.

Time is up.

[paul_e]

Got what we deserved.

You can't only play for 20mins per game and expect anything other than what we got.

Cash and Emi M did well. Everybody else meh.

I fail to see how Dean keeps his job after this.

Can't agree with the bold bit, Mings was the best player on the pitch by a very long way tonight, he held us together for he first half hour when the rest of the back 4 were all over the place.

[ROBBO]

The starting midfield was the weakest in a long time, where was Sanson?

[jwarry]

 
[/quote]

Sadly I think he’s done. Doesn’t know what side to pick or where the players he does pick should play. Buendia was poor until he moved out wide, Bailey is lazy and mcginn isn’t a holding midfielder. We are deep in the brown stuff.

You could be right but the other side of the coin is that he may have stumbled on a better way to use the players in that second half.

To be honest I’m glad there is now a 2 week break as he needs to regroup and get players back and fit

And as Spuds and Geordies have snapped up the only two decent managers readily available I think we have to stick with Dean til Xmas at least

[martyn ellis]

OK we were poor first half, a lot better 2nd, but I still wasn't convinced we would score (1 on target). But the most interesting thing for me - a reflection on Sky coverage and the piss poor uselessness of VAR, was the fact that the commentators went on and on about El Ghazi being lucky to still be on the pitch (he was but do they really need to hammer it home evry couple pf minutes), but the blatant penalty on Mings got one replay, one mention and was not even considered by the man at Stockley Park. It beggars belief. We probably didn't deserve anything by the end but that sickens me even more than the poor performance.

[sickbeggar]

Confidence is utterly shot. Took us till half time to get things together after the early goal. Much better 2nd half but too late. Played the ratboy formation which sort of hints at being out of ideas. Davis coming on....dear god.