| Southampton 0-0 Bournemouth - Match Ratings | Southampton were fortunate not to have been beaten by Bournemouth yesterday as the clash at St Mary’s finished … 02-04-2017 |
Harry Arter ballooned a second-half penalty over the crossbar before Forster denied him with a superb save from a left-footed drive late on to keep things at 0-0.
And while Puel was pleased with his goalkeeper, he also warned that they must be stronger, as attentions now turn to Crystal Palace on Wednesday.
“It’s a clean sheet but it is with luck I think. I prefer to get a clean sheet with strong defence and quality,” said Puel.
“I would also like to talk about the good performance of Fraser Forster who made some good saves to get one point today.”
“It was a good thing to be back at St Mary’s but it’s a disappointment because we wanted to offer a good result for all the fans.
“The most important today is to take one point because it wasn’t a good performance and we can do better of course.
“It’s important now to recover well and to start to think about playing Crystal Palace on Wednesday.”
Who is the better assistant referee? Gary Neville or Jamie Carragher?
The pundits were put through their paces by Premier League match officials PGMOL for a special programme - The Referees - Onside with Carragher & Neville - to be shown on Sunday on Sky Sports 1 at 7pm.
Part of their day of training included a role-play situation, where both the former England internationals ran the line and were tested with five different offside scenarios.
The duo also sat down with a number of the Premier League’s top officials to give an insight into what it takes to referee in England’s top flight, analysing some key decisions from the season so far along the way.
Who fared best? See Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville running the line as an assistant referee by hitting the video at the top of the page.
Watch ‘The Referees - Onside with Neville & Carragher’ on Sky Sports 1 on Sunday at 7pm after Arsenal v Manchester City on Super Sunday.
Two youngsters from Southampton’s Regional Talent Club have once again been called into the England Under-16s squad for upcoming internationals.
Phoebe Williams and Kayla Rendell will be involved for the Three Lions in Tournament delle Nazioni in Italy between Sunday 23rd April and Sunday 30th April.
Their opening fixture in Group B will be against Mexico in Lignano, before facing Slovenia and USA.
Southampton were held to a 0-0 draw by south coast neighbours Bournemouth on Saturday as their struggle to score goals at home continue. Despite claims by manager Claude Puel that his side did enough to win a tight game, Southampton were grateful for Harry Arter’s second-half penalty miss, which saved them from a first ever home defeat to their local rivals.
Clean sheets have been hard to come by of late and despite their goal leading a charmed life in the second half, Puel was delighted with a rare shutout. The point edges Southampton a step closer to guaranteed Premier League survival and they probably only need one win to secure safety.
Southampton have only scored 14 home goals all season and rarely looked like adding to that tally in the absence of the injured Manolo Gabbiadini. The rivalry between the two clubs is growing with every meeting but a minority of mindless fans let themselves and the club down by brawling with their Bournemouth rivals in the city centre.
6 – Puel had his hands tied by the injury to Gabbiadini but needs to find a solution to Saints’ scoring issue at St Mary’s. The biggest call was whether to start with the jet-lagged Maya Yoshida or Martin Caceres, who hasn’t played for 14 months, and the Frenchman got that decision right.
Player ratings (1-10; 10 = best. Players introduced after 70 minutes get no rating)
GK Fraser Forster, 6 – Didn’t concede but rode his luck at times, especially in the second half. Does not command his goal as much as a man of his stature should.
DF Cedric Soares, 7 – Another classy display from the flying Portuguese full-back. Easy to see why Manchester City and Barcelona are reportedly tracking his progress.
DF Maya Yoshida, 6 – Handled the threat of livewire Joshua King pretty well, barring one moment in the second half when he was outmuscled which could have led to a goal.
DF Jack Stephens, 6 – Did not making any glaring mistakes but found Benik Afobe a handful.
DF Ryan Bertrand, 6 – Can feel hard done by at the penalty awarded against him. The England man did not perform to his usual high standards.
MF Oriol Romeu, 7 – Battled away gamely in midfield and was not afraid to get involved in a battle with Bournemouth’s tough-tackling Arter.
MF Steven Davis, 6 – Made one crucial goal-line clearance to deny Southampton old boy Andrew Surman.
MF James Ward-Prowse, 6 – Looked buoyed by his recent England debut. Should have done better with a scuffed shot wide.
MF Dusan Tadic, 6 – Challenged to do his talking on the pitch after a recent rant against Puel, but apart from hitting the post he contributed little.
MF Nathan Redmond, 6 – Southampton did not get him on the ball enough. Worried the Bournemouth defence whenever he was in possession.
FW Jay Rodriguez, 6 – Could not repeat his scoring heroics in the 3-1 win in the reverse fixture despite a couple of openings in the first half.
MF Sam McQueen, N/R – Worked hard enough for the few minutes he was on.
FW Shane Long, 5 – Will have been annoyed not to start given Gabbiadini’s injury.
Alex Crook is ESPN FC’s Southampton blogger. Follow him on Twitter @alex_crook
Saints endured a frustrating 0-0 draw against AFC Bournemouth in their most recent Premier League encounter - their first at St Mary’s since February 4th.
“It is unbelievable that it has been that long,” explained Yoshida.
“It has been such a long time waiting to play back here and we saw before the game how excited everyone was to be back at St Mary’s.
“They expected a lot from us and that made the result that bit more disappointing. Hopefully we can put it right against Crystal Palace.”
Jack Stephens played alongside Yoshida in the heart of defence, as Saints recorded a clean sheet against the Cherries.
And the Japan international praised the performance and development of his most recent defensive partner.
“Jack has progressed a lot, I think,” he continued.
“But we still have a lot to learn together. In that sense, we have to help each other and improve each other.
“I feel really good playing next to him and hopefully we can look at getting more clean sheet together in the future.”
Despite creating a number of good chances and striking the post through Dušan Tadić, Saints were unable to find the crucial goal and earn all three points at St Mary’s.
“It’s hard to put your finger on it,” the captain admitted.
“We didn’t really hit the heights we would have liked to in the second half after a good first half performance – it’s a bit of a frustrating one.
“We thought we were in control for the majority of the first half and had a few good chances, but just weren’t clinical on the day to make the most of them.”
Despite the frustrating result, Saints will have an immediate opportunity to put it right against Crystal Palace on Wednesday night.
They then face West Bromwich Albion just three days later, and Davis knows how important this busy run of fixtures could prove to be.
“We said before the game it would be a big week for us,” he continued.
“The three games give us a good chance to try and get some consistency in our results and performances.
“So we will look back on our performance, analyse it to see what we could have done better and take the positives into Wednesday.”