31 Jan 2021 09:53:57
We did get the rub of the green last night as I also think it was a penalty however given what happened to Watkins at West Ham it would have been a travesty if Ings ' equaliser' had stood so whilst we all think the rule is mad all most of us want is consistency which we got so that's fair enough. I do think though that Cash needs to be a bit careful defending the 18 yard box two penalties in recent games and was lucky with a challenge in another I think he will be being watched more closely by referees in upcoming matches. Whilst we have become much much better in game management since last year McGinn trying to usher the ball out in the 90+ minute led directly to the Ings 'equaliser' on occasion the ball needs to be booted into the stands so just boot it into the bloody stand and run the clock down that way. Football is as someone famously once said 'a funny old game' I thought we played really well against Burnley and got nothing, were distinctly mediocre against Southampton and got the 3 points, for the first time for a long time I thought we were outplayed in midfield in the first half and were under pressure on both flanks but at the end of the day we got the result so onto the next one 😀.
31 Jan 2021 11:40:59
Little bit annoying that in neither the post match analysis on Sky or MoTD any mention was given to McGinn going clear through only to be deemed to have fouled when almost everyone saw it the other way round and he could have arguably walked. We also had just as many clear cut chances and shots on target so don't quite understand the narrative that Southampton were all over us and robbed of the points while we were lucky.
There were definitely spells that they dominated and yes, the hand ball could've gone either way, but as we were all told after the City game, the rules are the rules. Get on with it.
Great away result, solid defending and quality up top when we needed it. Second most clean sheets in the league too so clearly a massive improvement. Well done to Smith and all the coaches.
31 Jan 2021 12:19:00
To be fair DBS although the reason for adjudging Mcginn to have caused the foul was wrong he did handball it so was the right decision to give the free kick to Southampton.
31 Jan 2021 12:30:56
I wasn’t sure whether as McGinn went past the Southampton player the ball caught the top of his arm and that was what I thought he was penalised for but I could be wrong.
31 Jan 2021 13:01:52
I agree, if he had went on through and scored it would of being chalked off for the handball either way imo, didn’t that happen in another game just this week? In reference to their goal it was simply offside there were no favours from var as we lost 2 Ollie Watkins already this season to such margins, also with the West Ham 1 their defender had his arms wrapped around Ollie when he scored and we lost the goal and wasn’t given a penalty either. I do believe we were lucky with the penalty to be fair, I think if ref had given the penalty that var wouldn’t of overturned it either, clear and obvious mistake is the basis and it could of gone either way so neither decision the ref would of made would of being clear and obvious mistake. I was glad ref didn’t go to pitch side monitor though.
31 Jan 2021 13:02:33
I agree with both of you guys, so to pick up on Johns point about being outplayed in midfield.
Although Barkley is a good player, I don`t think he is the player we need, he sometimes wonders about aimlessly, and offers no aggression at all.
Last night I watched Barkley very closely, and felt he goes missing an awful lot, he scored a great goal granted, but that was it for me.
Enter Sanson, I think this guy has most attributes that a modern day midfielder needs, and I also think he will help McGinn and Luiz more than Barkley does.
31 Jan 2021 15:46:13
Dave, I am more than a little conflicted with the Barkley position I think his link up play with Jack is great and he gives us that additional creativity which eases the pressure on Jack a little, however he doesn’t put in the hard yards that Luiz and McGinn do for example but does he need to? And is that really what we want him to do? I don’t know. Everything we hear about Sanson is positive but it appears he can play both as an offensive or defensive midfielder so when he plays it will be interesting to see what role we see him fulfilling and that will I think go a long way in determining what he club will do re Barkley.
31 Jan 2021 16:07:38
I’m with u on that John Barkley is good when we are on the front foot but last 30 mins I’d like to have seen marvellous come on for him, sit beside Doug and let maginn push further up cause he’ll drop back when we are older pressure better than Barkley, I’m excited to see sanson it’s a shame we don’t have a cup game to blood him in and get a peek as to his capabilities, don’t think last night was the time for his debut, West Ham probably be a better option. would be great if we could keep both Barkley and sanson but only at the right price.