Son 5 Lack of service, but don't sub a player in scoring form
Aurier had a poor game but it happens. I like him as a RB, he presses at the right time to keep the intensity up. His crossing could be better but he makes up for that by consistently being in the right place and having enough confidence to use his left foot on occasion.Getting worried about Aurier.
Can't cross the ball at all and is prone to numerous defensive mistakes per game.
Also, he's now been pulled up for 2 foul throws this season, and there was another one in the first half that was missed by the ref. A foul throw is criminal for me, it's so so basic.
Really hoping that a Poch pre-season/Poch full back midas touch comes off for him.
Lol who’s this joker? Definitely a WUM. Surely?Sissoko MOTM for me, but only just. The whole team was poor today.
At least Sissoko tried, he has been a changed player this season
It was a dreadful choice to replace Lamela with Son and not Sissoko.
Switch Son the let flank, Alli middle and Lamela right.
Really fucking struggle to understand Poch's rationale in both initial selection and mid-game tactics and if he tries to palm off on his that we played well or denied 3 points because of luck/referee/whatever then it'll be pouring oil onto an already burning fire with me!
Incredibly poor decision by Poch to start Sissoko in place of Eriksen.
He makes so really daft team choices sometimes.
Sissoko is just not good enough for us in the attacking three.
Should have started with Lamela.
Stop it Poch, You're Scaring Me
This is turning into a bit of an annus horribilis for the great giver of hugs and blubber of tears, and a very big chunk of it is his own doing. Some of his selections and applications today were whack.
Forget some of the AVBesque stuff we've seen this year, I can live with that, this game was full Sherwood, and you never go full Sherwood.
Any selection of Sissoko baffles, and I don't care if it's because "he does what Poch asks" because if Poch is asking him to take no risks with the ball, not cover his RB well enough, and make the most perfunctory functions look difficult, then that scares me even more than Poch picking just because he's a big athletic unit who runs abaaat a bit.
At least as baffling, maybe more, was him leaving Wanyama on the bench. I thought we'd learnt along time ago that the Dier/Dembele CM pairing was a tempo vortex. These two were were dreadful today, insipid, ineffective, ponderous and laborious with and without the ball. Poch's answer seemed to be to move Sissoko back to form a CM3 second half, which was like putting a plaster on a fucking shark bite.
The overriding theme of this season has been Pochettino's complete inability to get to grips with our midfield situation. I can barely remember a week when he got it bang on, he's making poor personnel selections, poor tactical applications and some weeks, both. Today was another debacle. I can't remember us having so little control of a game against such a weak opponent. How the fuck you select Dier over Wanyama to play next to Dembele is baffling. Last season proved unequivocally that he was our best CM. He does the things that a Pochettino teams needs, he presses like a ****, is ferocious, dynamic and moves the ball simply, quickly but efficiently. His skill set can mitigate a multitude of tactical sins, arses that Dier just can't cover.
What jumped out and bit our cocks off today was just how much we miss Eriksen. We didn't just miss having someone who has the brain to link the midfield to the attack, we also missed him in his duel role as auxiliary CM, the guy that steps back and does the things that ditherers like Dembele and Dier just can't do, move the ball with a bit of incision and alacrity from the middle, not just the final third.
The midfield quagmire was exacerbated by every one of our forwards playing in clown boots. None bigger than Alli's. I know the conditions were difficult, but surely this means you have to take more care about what you do, not fucking less, a theory lost on Alli it seems. How the fuck Son got hooked before Alli is another mystery, or it would be if it wasn't for the fact that Poch has form.
Poch needs to get to grips with this midfield issue. Get Onomah back, buy someone - both even. Because the future is not Dier or Dembele, and it definitely isn't fucking Dier and Dembele.
Individual
Vorm - OK, no dramas.
Aurier - This is just the Walker scenario all over again really. Yes, he's robust and dynamic, gets up and down the pitch well enough, but his actually delivery when he gets up there is unreliable and lacks composure or vision most of the time. And we still came undone down his flank a few times, which is supposed to be the area where Trippier is most compromised. If thats the case, lets just have the defensive deficiencies of Trippier and some decent delivery ? No ?
Sanchez - Ropey start but I actually thought he got his foot in several times where it mattered, and eventually had a pretty good, if slightly erratic game.
Vertonghen - Decent.
Davies - Another fairly decent game, solid defensively, as Southampton seemed to target our right side, but also didn't really contribute much in terms of end product.
Dier - Dire.
Dembele - Why do you guys do it to yourselves, I said last week if he could manage two games running I'd be fucking amazed, let alone the rest of the season. Like a Turtle on smack today.
Sissoko - He wasn't terrible, he just isn't good enough to be playing in this team when there are players like Lamela, KWP or me available. Makes the simplest things look like the Krypton factor. And I completely blame Pochettino for his selection.
Alli - Poor decisions, poor control at vital times, was not good and should have been pulled off before Son.
Son - not great, but no idea why he gets hooked and Alli gets to keep chucking buckets with paper shavings over the audience.
Kane - A lot like Alli really. Bumbled about then when he got the best chance of the game he fucking skewe.......did a wonderful, fantastic cross shot.