Southampton 2017/18 monthly season review – September
September hasn’t been as enjoyable a month as some would’ve thought it may end up to be. With all three of our league defeats so far this season coming over the last four weeks and a victory against Crystal Palace to lighten the mood.
There is some agendas to praise, but a lot to complain about. Two goals from those four games just isn’t good enough however, there have been glimpses of brilliant football so there’s no need for panic just yet!
Southampton 0-2 Watford – Premier League
I think it’s easy to say that this was the most shambolic of our four performances and the most disappointing result.
First of all, not scoring at home again is terrible but not being able to score against a side like Watford (in fairness they’ve made a brilliant start) is despicable.
Not only that but the performance was shocking as well, one shot on target which was a half attempt late on in the game, giving the ball away lazily and conceding two avoidable goals from long range.
There was no determination from the lads in this game which may have given them the desire to turn it around against a struggling Palace side in their next game.
Crystal Palace 0-1 Southampton – Premier League
Pellegrino clearly said something to the players after the Watford game because they put a real shift in to get the three points away from home, especially against a side who were and still are seriously struggling.
An early goal from Davis helped us massively in terms of controlling the game and staying solid. There weren’t really many chances to score besides the goal and Forster had to make a few brilliant saves to deny Palace but with a Mario mastermind in midfield we were always going to get something from the game!
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- Grading the Southampton Transfer Window Part 1: Departures
- It’s time to talk about Gavin Bazunu
- Rain clouds on the horizon? Southampton beat Plymouth Argyle
- A lament for Southampton legend James Ward-Prowse
Southampton 0-1 Manchester United – Premier League
After arguably the best performance of the season so far, the boys pulled out another which competed with the win at Palace, despite losing.
After a mixed first half where we conceded and didn’t really try much to test David De Gea and the United defence, the second half was all us. I don’t think many fans were expecting the team to get anything from this game but they probably didn’t expect how much of a shift they put in during that particular 45 minutes of football.
Dominating possession, shutting out United when they had a sniff of goal but also playing some flowing football and creating chances. Despite losing and not scoring once again, Saints deserved something from that game and performances like that against the lower ranking sides will almost guarantee points.
Stoke City 2-1 Southampton – Premier League
Another disappointing result this time at the hands of Stoke. I think there was too much optimism going into this game after the performances against Palace and United but also the bad run of form from Stoke.
Two poor goals to concede and one brilliant one from us meant that Stoke got the points in the end, even though it was debatable that we deserved something.
However, having said that, the performance wasn’t near that of the previous two games which is a real shame as it was these sorts of games that we were thriving to play at the beginning of the season and that could’ve been part of a brilliant start.
All I can say about the upcoming fixtures is that we need to act quickly over the international break on any flaws and consistent mistakes as we have three very winnable games coming up during October and a few in November too! Confidence is everything in football and a win after the break at home to Newcastle will do the team and fans good going into the next handful of fixtures before our dreaded winter period!