v Southampton (a) - 16/12/23

[NeilInBristol]

With the squad paper thin and Southampton winning again, my head says we will lose but after another home win following a raft of away wins my heart says we will continue with our incredible away form..

2-3 rovers. Come on you blues!

[Admiral Nelsen]

I remember when JDT came in he spoke about avoiding the Dutch disease - i.e. passing it about for its own sake. I wonder what he would make of Southampton this year?

 

On the face of it this is a really tough game, but I've got a feeling that we'll cause them a few problems, even with our stretched squad. Whether that will be enough to take the points is another question, but I can see both teams giving the other chances. Optimistically going for 2-2. 

[Tugayisgod]

2 hours ago, NeilInBristol said:

With the squad paper thin and Southampton winning again, my head says we will lose but after another home win following a raft of away wins my heart says we will continue with our incredible away form..

2-3 rovers. Come on you blues!

They only drew last night 1-1 with Coventry.

Hopefully the extra days rest for us will be important

1-2 for me

[chaddyrovers]

                    Wahlstedt 

          Hill Carter Wharton Pickering 

Brittain Tronstad Wharton Sigurdsson 

                   Szmodics 

                     Ennis 

              

[only2garners]

They have drawn their last 2 away games. They are unbeaten since 23rd September after a bad start but 5 of those 13 games have been draws and Rotherham managed a draw there so it's not an impossible task.

Another new ground for me on Saturday.

[Polky]

I watched the Coventry v Southampton match last night.

Saints had a lot of the ball and Coventry looked to counter down the wing. I think our real lack of pace in the squad will mean we’ll struggle to counter them on Saturday.
 

I would possibly replace A.Wharton with Travis to help with the defensive work. 
 

Saints had 72% of the possession last night, so this might be a shift too far for the lads, who looked knackered on Tuesday.

[arbitro]

Last season Tomasson has the measure of Martin as we did the double over Swansea. In the away match we sat in with a four and a five when they had the ball and the press was more intense when they crossed the half way line. We scored three on the counter and limited them to next to nothing. I think Tomasson will come up with a similar game plan with the emphasis on countering.

[Mattyblue]

Don’t rate him one bit, but the quality of their players in comparison to Swansea’s will get him plenty of results anyway.

[G Somerset Rover]

Not been to St Mary's since 2001 when Tugay scored one of his trademark rockets, and Hignett scored the winner right at the death. They were the days.

Not a fan of Martin, and hopefully JDT can get the better of him once again as Arbitro says!

[tomphil]

Would we be tempted to make a lot of changes for this in and rest some legs in the hope of preventing more injuries ?

Give others a chance like a cup game and hope for the best ?

Busy Christmas period coming up so it might be worth a gamble.

[Mercer]

Even though Martin is a vastly overrated managed, I see nothing but a loss for us on Saturday given the quality of player they have and our threadbare squad with many running on fumes.

To mitigate the almost inevitable disappointment of losing, I'd stock your Christmas war chests with a double on Saints win and Adam Armstrong to score anytime.

4-1 to Southampton.

 

 

[wilsdenrover]

8 minutes ago, tomphil said:

Would we be tempted to make a lot of changes for this in and rest some legs in the hope of preventing more injuries ?

Give others a chance like a cup game and hope for the best ?

Busy Christmas period coming up so it might be worth a gamble.

Wouldn’t that result in a load of untried teenagers having to play?

I think hoping for the best might be somewhat of an understatement.

[G Somerset Rover]

4 minutes ago, Mercer said:

Even though Martin is a vastly overrated managed, I see nothing but a loss for us on Saturday given the quality of player they have and our threadbare squad with many running on fumes.

To mitigate the almost inevitable disappointment of losing, I'd stock your Christmas war chests with a double on Saints win and Adam Armstrong to score anytime.

4-1 to Southampton.

You’ve given us all some early festive cheer with this prediction, Merce.

A Rovers win is now a certainty.

 

[davulsukur]

Like Leeds, Southampton's players will be just too good for ours. 

We'll put a shift in but it'll be a 2-0 defeat for us.

Armstrong guaranteed to score.

[roversfan99]

We could do with freshening up but it's really difficult at the moment.

Hill seems an obvious one but hopefully Brittain will not play as a winger as he is clearly out of place there.

Travis is another who could come in, he still is for me a far better option than Garrett and he could stiffen up the midfield.

Szmodics could do with a rest and Moran too, it massively weakens us but maybe something like the below with those 2 ready off the bench:

Wahlstedt

Brittain Hill Carter Pickering

Travis Tronstad Wharton

Markanday Ennis Sigurdsson

Obviously if he has enough in the tank then Szmodics for Markanday.

[Mattyblue]

Can’t say from what I’ve seen of them both this season that Travis is a ‘far better’ option. He’s far more experienced, certainly, but he hasn’t been pulling up many trees when in midfield this term.

Edited December 14, 2023 by Mattyblue

[wilsdenrover]

19 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

We could do with freshening up but it's really difficult at the moment.

Hill seems an obvious one but hopefully Brittain will not play as a winger as he is clearly out of place there.

Travis is another who could come in, he still is for me a far better option than Garrett and he could stiffen up the midfield.

Szmodics could do with a rest and Moran too, it massively weakens us but maybe something like the below with those 2 ready off the bench:

Wahlstedt

Brittain Hill Carter Pickering

Travis Tronstad Wharton

Markanday Ennis Sigurdsson

Obviously if he has enough in the tank then Szmodics for Markanday.

45 minutes each?

[jim mk2]

They'll be far too strong for us and I can't see anything other than a defeat 

And assuming he's in the Saints team the immutable law of the ex will come into play and Adam Armstrong will score.

He's at his right level in the Championship

 

 

[tomphil]

1 hour ago, wilsdenrover said:

Wouldn’t that result in a load of untried teenagers having to play?

I think hoping for the best might be somewhat of an understatement.

But we'd do similar in the cup if needs must and it's by no means guaranteed we'd get pounded.

Sometimes the bigger picture is more important.

[wilsdenrover]

10 minutes ago, tomphil said:

But we'd do similar in the cup if needs must and it's by no means guaranteed we'd get pounded.

Sometimes the bigger picture is more important.

Very true.

Unless there’s a risk of injury, I don’t think I’d ‘chance’ it against Southampton (given there’s then no game for a week)

I’d be more inclined to rest one or two against Huddersfield and/or Rotherham.

I most certainly wouldn’t be playing any key players against Cambridge in the cup.

Edited December 14, 2023 by wilsdenrover

[joey_big_nose]

1 hour ago, roversfan99 said:

We could do with freshening up but it's really difficult at the moment.

Hill seems an obvious one but hopefully Brittain will not play as a winger as he is clearly out of place there.

Travis is another who could come in, he still is for me a far better option than Garrett and he could stiffen up the midfield.

Szmodics could do with a rest and Moran too, it massively weakens us but maybe something like the below with those 2 ready off the bench:

Wahlstedt

Brittain Hill Carter Pickering

Travis Tronstad Wharton

Markanday Ennis Sigurdsson

Obviously if he has enough in the tank then Szmodics for Markanday.

Interesting call... we do have a full weeks rest next week so I think it's likely Szmodics will be play this one. Moran might be dropped as he had such a bad game. 

Despite everyone being knackered I will be quite surprised if we make any changes except maybe Hill coming into the side and Brittain playing right wing to make us a bit more solid. 

Once we get into the mad run from Watford until Rotherham New Years day (4 games in 11 days!) I think we could be moving more towards more unsual setups.

An issue for us is the mids on the subs bench (Travis and Garrett) JDT obviously does not want to play as pivots picking up the ball from defence, presumably as he is concerned their control is too poor to hold onto the ball. It seems if they play they need to either fit in further up the pitch or at full back. Which basically means there is no cover for Wharton or Tronstad. So Adam and Sondre are going to be playing a lot of football.

[roversfan99]

10 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

Interesting call... we do have a full weeks rest next week so I think it's likely Szmodics will be play this one. Moran might be dropped as he had such a bad game. 

Despite everyone being knackered I will be quite surprised if we make any changes except maybe Hill coming into the side and Brittain playing right wing to make us a bit more solid. 

Once we get into the mad run from Watford until Rotherham New Years day (4 games in 11 days!) I think we could be moving more towards more unsual setups.

An issue for us is the mids on the subs bench (Travis and Garrett) JDT obviously does not want to play as pivots picking up the ball from defence, presumably as he is concerned their control is too poor to hold onto the ball. It seems if they play they need to either fit in further up the pitch or at full back. Which basically means there is no cover for Wharton or Tronstad. So Adam and Sondre are going to be playing a lot of football.

I guess at least with those 2, Tronstad didnt play for a number of weeks and Wharton regularly is subbed before the end. Szmodics always seems to play 90 minutes.

[philipl]

Selection, where injuries still permit a choice, more than most weeks will depend on what JDT sees in training- too many mistakes and iffy performances on Tuesday night.

Play like Tuesday and Southampton will punish us so this will be all about making best use of the ball when we have it which won't be that often.

Southampton have added a bit of steel and direction to the pass pass pass of Russell Martin but here's hoping JDT has sussed him and his players again. 

Like Leeds, their defence can be got at if we ever get the opportunity. Unlike against Leeds, we had better take those opportunities.

[simongarnerisgod]

southamptons defence is`nt great and their goalkeeper is terrible,we need to get some shots off because he`s really suspect,nothing id`e like to see more than russell "mr perfect" martin`s face like a wet monday in january at 4.45 pm on saturday😁

[rigger]

13 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

southamptons defence is`nt great and their goalkeeper is terrible,we need to get some shots off because he`s really suspect,nothing id`e like to see more than russell "mr perfect" martin`s face like a wet monday in january at 4.45 pm on saturday😁

And let's hope it is still the same at 5.05 pm.