I take your point on the fear factor in those substitutions, but I don’t think we should have been battling to hold onto the lead in the first place. And why sub Hojbjerg anyway? He’d been playing well, he and Romeu had the midfield under total control, and he didn’t look tired or injured. Breaking up the Romeu/Hojbjerg partnership put an end to that control.
I remember suggesting to SO5 at half time that Pellegrino could have looked to bring Sims on during the second half; I’d have brought him on for Davis, allowing Boufal (or indded JWP) to play more centrally, but without ceding control, As a like-for-like sub, Gabbiadini should have replaced Long a lot earlier; Shane had run himself into the ground, and was clearly tiring.
There was frustation from fans at the ground that it took so long for Gabbiadini to come on - his introduction was so late that he really had no chance to do anything much, with his skied shot being almost his first touch of the ball. There were jeers at Hojbjerg’s substitution, presumably for the reasons I’ve outlined above, plus the fact that we could all see that Long really needed to be subbed.
I’d agree that bringing on Tadic rather than Redmond for Boufal would have made more sense, but not until after Sims had replaced Davis, giving Boufal an opportunity to play more centrally.
I was hoping Sims would get a run, but for me he could only have replaced Long not one of the midfield as even for me that would have been a real risk.
I’ actually have had Lemons for Boufal but kept the same shape so lemons gave Bert more cover in the same shape.
But unless he was really flagging I would not have broken the PEH Oriel axis at all.
The substitutions are the most worrying thing for me. Pellegrino is always reacting (and too late) rather than spotting problems/tactical changes from the opposition and making a quick decision on how to adjust/cope.
The Hojberg change was again, baffling. Lemina gave us nothing extra so why bother?
The crowd were singing “you don’t know know what you’re doing” whilst one nil up. Says it all.
The crowd were also singing Gabbiadini’s name on around 65 minutes. This is about 5 minutes after I would have put him on as Long was clearly knackered.
If 5000 fans can see it why can’t Pellegrino?
I thought the line-up was wrong yesterday anyway. If he wants to help Redmond get some confidence he should have started him. He was on a hiding to nothing coming on for Boufal late in the game. Boufal had a half decent first half but was poor in the second.
As it was, when he came on Redmond looked like he was playing in fucking clown shoes. Got a big cheer when he (eventually) made a successful 3 yard pass to a team mate.
This would have been a perfect game for Tadic. More space/time in the final third would have been a good opportunity to get him going in the no.10 role. Instead we took the safe option of playing Davis.
Why not start Gabbiadini and bring on Long when their defenders are tiring? Saint CD’s nipper can see it, why can’t Pellegrino?
So a 1-0 win against a very poor Fulham side. Hardly a confidence booster is it? Watford will murder us if we play like that.
On the plus side: clean sheet for MC Car Thief. Bednarek did ok. JWP and Hojberg continue their good form and we had a fucking good time in the pub meeting some new drinking buddies.
Good work organising the venue Bucks. Nice to see you so utterly shit faced
Nothing to add to your post GB, apart from saying that Watford’s form / confidence is not a whole lot better than ours.
Was a cracking day before, during and after. Great to meet some new faces and catch up with most of the usual gang. And yes I did get a bit carried away (drank two at half time FFS). Mrs Bucks thankfully persuaded me to quit only about an hour too late
In the context of other results this weekend, an away win in a tricky 3rd round tie may not be the best of reasons to melt down.
Our krew down here have a Pet Forest fan who watches most of our games with us and provides some balance in our dissection of games. He was expecting to be embarrassed today. Feel well chuffed for him after what they’ve been through in recent years.
So, couple of questions about Saturday … where the fuck were we (oh sorry wrong thread …). Seriously though, what is the Lemon song (couldn’t catch the words) and which players do we still not have a song for ? As one of the newest Sotonians I shall forever wear the mantle of finding a song for Hoj Boj. Had to endure a family gathering in Warminster today (as the designated driver …) and then drive home to Carrotland. Thoroughly enjoyed my first Sotonians away day. COYR
Number of Premier League teams in action…
20 How many of those versus lower league opposition… 14
And how many got through at first attempt with a clean sheet to boot… 5
Away from home… 2
To a team that had just won four in a row at home… JUST THE ONE
Interesting that everyone agrees that MP’s subs are a worry, but no one can agree on what he should have done. The wonder of soccerball hey?
In my opinion he should have subbed Long for Gabby earlier (I think everyone agrees with this). I would also have switched out Davis for Lemina (it’s a fallacy that Lemina is a defensive midfielder - he can do that, but he’s also perfectly capable of being a box-to-box link, as he was most of the time for Juve).
Then, with Long off, we needed some pace, so I would have brought Sims on for Boufal, who by that point was giving the ball away more than making in-roads.
