Southampton 0-0 West Ham Utd (11/09/21)

[sendô]

Well that was a frustrating game to watch.

Fair play to Southampton, they came with a game plan and it very nearly worked for them. They were compact defensively and worked as a unit, doubling up on players and pressing fast and in numbers when we got near their final third. Antonio was shackled virtually the entire game, hence his frustration and lashing out that led to two really quite silly bookings.

They weren't great going forwards for the most part, but then neither were we. It seemed to be one of those games where an attritional team drags the more skillful team down to their level - something we did quite often under Allardyce (shudder).

Frankly, they were more deserving of the win by the end (especially after Dawson's mad rush of blood), and I'd have happily taken 0-0 as a decent result were it not for Antonio's red and subsequent suspension for Sunday's visit of Man Utd.

Still, 4 games in we're still unbeaten, and we're disappointed with an away point and clean sheet. We're also 3 points better off than last season in corresponding fixtures.

[SA_Hammer]

Lol...I've just been on the fighting cock...we have 23 pages on this match thread...they have 128 pages on their palace game...and none of it is good..long may it continue...Chelsea up for them next

[larryberyl]

love to see the scum suffer !

as for us a good point as we looked jaded after internationals. hopefully we are back to our spikey best next game

[Up the Junction]

[YorksHammer]

I actually thought we looked mostly alright for the bulk of the second half, just with nothing happening/coming off at the business end of the pitch. Southampton played the way we did for much of last season and it nearly came off for them at the end.

The first half was dire from both sides.

My two biggest takeaways were that Vlasic looks like he'll be good for us once he gets properly embedded, and that you could see why we didn't sign Armstrong to play as a lone frontman for us.

[Up the Junction]

The opposition view: Southampton
https://www.kumb.com/story.php?id=136195

[HammerAl]

Southampton fans are genuinely some of the most deluded and arrogant fans in the league. I used to work with a load of them and they are such an odd bunch. ‘By far the better team’ - you would have thought they had all the possession and peppered our goal with attempts.

[sendô]

I thought those comments were mostly fair. Most recognising we are a good team in form, most happy with a point and clean sheet whilst restricting our chances. They probably were the better team. We did not play particularly well and would have been fortunate to nick all of the points given they hit the post and had one cleared off of the line at the end.

Still, it's a good sign for us that we played crap away from home but still came away with a point.

[hammerofthedogs]

"The London Stadium or whatever the f*ck it's called now is worse than St Mary's. Anyone who has been there will tell you what a sh*t, no atmosphere bowl it is. There's finishing 6th and there's having the soul of your club trampled on. Sadly we all know those days are gone, so it's all about big soulless grounds now."
- Gennaro_Contaldo

and your point is...

[mushy]

"The London Stadium or whatever the f*ck it's called now is worse than St Mary's. Anyone who has been there will tell you what a sh*t, no atmosphere bowl it is. There's finishing 6th and there's having the soul of your club trampled on. Sadly we all know those days are gone, so it's all about big soulless grounds now."
- Gennaro_Contaldo

and your point is...

Empty seats in every part of the home crowd on Saturday and plenty of them.
Shocking for a non TV match on a Saturday at 3pm.
As for atmosphere? Forget it.

[TokyoVibe]

I didn’t think we played badly and generally dominated possession (which seemed to be saints tactics) but weren’t quite on it.

Stephens in particular chose to use ice hockey type tactics with a few breakaways and didn’t go punished.

Southampton played ok for about 10 mins. I don’t think they did enough to win it, and if west ham played the way they did not sure I’d be happy. While we gave the ball away a bit Southampton gave us back to us regularly.

[Crossd_Hammrs]

Lol...I've just been on the fighting cock...we have 23 pages on this match thread...they have 128 pages on their palace game...and none of it is good..long may it continue...Chelsea up for them next

It's very difficult to post on the KUMB match thread during and just after the actual match.
I spent about half-an-hour trying to post a comment before saving it and failing to post it much later too.

[Aceface]

The opposition view: Southampton
https://www.kumb.com/story.php?id=136195

"The score may have been 0-0 but we all witnessed a thoroughly entertaining game of football today. End-to-end, ding-dong stuff."

Holy moly, they must have some quality charlie down on the south coast.

[Burnley Hammer]

Southampton fans are genuinely some of the most deluded and arrogant fans in the league. I used to work with a load of them and they are such an odd bunch. ‘By far the better team’ - you would have thought they had all the possession and peppered our goal with attempts.

In all honestly, they're probably not saying much different to what our fans would say if it was the other way around. The biggest delusion is in thinking that our fans are less deluded than all other fans. We're all the same really.

[sendô]

"The score may have been 0-0 but we all witnessed a thoroughly entertaining game of football today. End-to-end, ding-dong stuff."

Holy moly, they must have some quality charlie down on the south coast.

To be fair, compared to the dross that they usually have to endure, that probably was entertaining for them.

[Ironing Board]

The game was pretty entertaining, with just that extra bit of quality missing to add a few goals. The build up play, and some of Southampton counter attacking, was good to watch.

[Up the Junction]

It's very difficult to post on the KUMB match thread during and just after the actual match.

That'll be changing soon, CH. Watch this space.

[Billydinho]

The game was pretty entertaining, with just that extra bit of quality missing to add a few goals. The build up play, and some of Southampton counter attacking, was good to watch.

Sorry?

[Ironing Board]

Sorry?

You can't understand English?

[yakandyeti]

I think any fan can look at a 0-0 and say we should have won that, it's normal to have selective memory and think of the one of yours that could have gone in whilst not elevating the opponent's equally good opportunity in the same way. Given their expected goals were 0.78 and ours 0.74 I don't think anybody could feel too hard done by with a draw or a 1-0 in either direction.

I get we couldn't have spent £40m on a striker as well as Vlasic but gutted we couldn't find a million or so for Broja's loan fee or someone similar. It may not even be our first option if we lose Antonio, we might still opt for a false 9, but just to have the option on the bench would let us change things around. Still, Moyes knows it better than me!