Poor Hasan,sounded as if he had a bad head cold too! I like the occasional shots of Hornets appearing and jesting with the chap. I will show this to Mr IBB if Palace fail this afternoon,it may encourage him.
Seems like it is now a thing to have a shouty person do a review after the game for views. Have to admit I'll stick to from the rookery, even when we lose they don't go in to meltdown
Yesterday was the passing of the baton. In one brilliant summer we have become what Southampton have been over the past years. I genuinely believe this current squad will be one of those teams that you look back at in a few years and can't believe so many great players were at the club at one time and it's truly special. Richarlison, Chalobah Doucoure and most importantly Silva will all be Champions League regulars over the next 10 years, I have absolutely no doubt about that and it's truly incredible to have them all here at once. We'll one by one lose each of those names but it sets up a model and more importantly the finances for the club to sustain itself in the top flight for years to come. The man that has made it all work though is Silva, genuinely an outrageously good coach who has made me appreciate for the first time the difference one man can make. One negative, I can actually understand where Marco was coming from in his press conference Thursday. Had he got what he wanted for the defence to match the work in the midfield and attack this could honestly of been a season where we challenged the European places, I genuinely think our starting 11 is as good as anything outside the top 6; it's very rare a team of our size accumulates this many top talents all at one time.
I know it is early in the season but this start - not just the results but the manner of them has rekindled my enthusiasm. Is it too early to hope we have finally found a two season manager?
The way the team is playing ATM though, I'd keep it unchanged for next week if possible. Pereyra is undoubtedly a better player than Cleverley - but Clevs has looked reborn this season and definitely does not deserve to be dropped. Let Pereyra fight his way back in, because we know he will. And we will need Cleverley's pressing next week I suspect...
He won't be, but it won't be our choice. Marco is destined for the very, very top in management and I fear the next big club to lose a manager will take him. Some great tweets from Southampton accounts: Fresh Saints @FreshSaints Credit where it's due, Silva's #WatfordFC impressed me. Reminds me of an early Poch. They smothered us from the off #saintsFC Fresh Saints @FreshSaints 18h18 hours ago Replying to @FreshSaints They bullied us physically and you could clearly see that each player knew their role. They were in complete control #saintsFC
Your stats are giving me goosebumps! It will be fascinating how Silva sets us up against Citee. I know they are pretty awesome but can we push them all the way? Will get very excited by the end of the week.
I hope it's not too early to say we have a realistic chance this season to be best of the rest, and should a top 7 have a shaky season a Europa spot is not out of the question
It's too early to come to that conclusion. We have a history of good first half of the season and fading post Xmas.
Marco will be with us until a big club come in for him, which is inevitable. He could very well be another one season manager, but for all the right reasons.
With the current dirth of England midfielders I can see Cleverley going to Russia if he maintains this form. Will no doubt be an update on Milner but all squads require a hardworking versatile and experienced player as backup. Wonderful times ahead.
It doesn't bother me but it actually verges on disgusting the way they talked about him there. Every manager starts somewhere and their xenophobia is astounding. Jeff Sterling, who never played the game or took part in it, talks more sense. When pushed to name someone British beyond Rowett, Thompson just falls back on cliches because he actually doesn't have an answer so just tries to tie the answer up with words rather than anything meaningful.
Looking back at those highlights the passages of play on 44 and 46 minutes were like the Zola days. The little flick from Gray on the first one shouldn't be underestimated either.
I'm warming to Kabasele. I still think he lunges in a lot for my liking due to not having great positional sense (Understandable being ST turn CB but still) but he's put in some strong performances that are showing he's maturing. Kaboul has always looked good in a back 4. It's a back 5 where he ***** himself.
First time I've seen that. What a truly bizarre rant. I'm sure he thinks it's perfectly fine for the top clubs to get foreign coaches of course
I disagree because the pundits said that the Premier League was too important for the likes of Silva, then they said that Silva is good for us and will want to go somewhere massive. These pundits know their onions.
I expect Cleverly's industry might be less effective vs teams near the bottom setting up defensively when they play Watford a home. Wouldn't be suprised to see Pereyra or Zarate come in as a number 10 for these games. Until there are injuries or a drop in a form it seems harsh to change the team. Depending on Carillo's fitness either Pereyra or Zarate might come in on the wing.
This came to me as I was cleaning the car.To the tune of the handbags on the floor,disco classic 'I Will Survive": Once we were afraid with Nutty Walt in charge. Wondering how we may score when Troy's an extra,extra large. We spent oh so many games with our heads in our hands Hoping Walt would say something that we might understand. But now we're back,new man in place His name is Marco Silva and he's got a slightly grumpy face But he seems to have the knack of defence,midfield,attack And we're on track! So go on score,score four or five Perhaps we've now got a team that will easily survive. We have players who can run It all looks rather fun! Let's hope we can continue when Man City come...
Nothing extra to add in terms of the performance, agree with virtually every post on here. We were magnificent and are making the opposition look poor. Our most important signing of the summer could well be Silva - just goes to show what a difference a decent coach makes. If I was Gino or Scott right now, I'd be going over Chalobah's and Doucoure's contracts to make sure they are watertight as the only down side to their fantastic performances is that other clubs higher up the food chain will start to take note (being slightly more clued up than the "expert" pundits). You only have to look at Southampton to see an example of a club that's had so much talent plucked from it, season after season. Injuries aside, the current players seem undroppable right now. But there will be different challenges ahead where the class of Pereyra is needed, and of course some are bound to drop their form slightly as the games go by. I've still got the disappointing prem seasons of 99/00 and 06/07 (and the end of last season) burnt into my brain, so everytime we win - and win convincingly - I'm going to make sure I enjoy it! Nothing else to add, so here's some pictures of the game I've collected that you've probably all seen but just in case you haven't......
Is it only me or do any others here feel that Femenia's injury was caused by a deliberate forearm smash to the face by Boufal, masquerading as putting his hands up to defend himself in the tackle. Looks even worse in slow motion. Also one more small piece in the jigsaw of team spirit creation by Silva was the way every Watford player in and around Saints penalty area rushed to Doucoure when he scored. You usually see one or two players who seem blase about a goal and only congratulate the scorer on the way back to the centre circle.
Reading the comments in the Guardian write up nearly every saints fan to a man think that Boufal is a waste of space. Looks like we dodged a bullet there much like Iturbe.
Flagged up on Twitter by @James_Dodwell - the crap written in the Sun. Jeez, were they actually at the game, or is it just another example of the anti Watford bias in the press??
Possibly - although he's made the move his own by adding a forearm/elbow smash to it in case he misses with the karate kick