 Sunday, 25th Aug 2013 09:52 At West Brom Saints were focused and disciplined, this week they were disjointed and seemed unable to find any flow. The big question before this game was all about whether Rickie Lambert can play in the same side as Dani Osvaldo, after this performance the jury has to be firmly still out, Saints had plenty of possession in the second half but they lacked the focus they had against the Baggies a week earlier. Sunderland shocked the St Mary's crowd in the 3rd minute with a goal that showed that Saints defence is still vunerable at set pieces, put bluntly it was a shocking bit of marking as four players followed a feinting run leaving Giaccherin all on his own for a free header, a few minutes later Rodriguez looked to have put Saints level, but he was ruled offside, after the benefit of watching it on TV I have to say the linesman got it right, yes it was very tight, but J Rod in leaning forward had just put himself behind the back man, though there were only inches in it. At half time there were two changes off went Schneiderlin and Shaw and on came Clyne and Osvaldo, sadly out of the window went Saints actually knowing what system they were playing, at any given time the players seemed to be constantly interchanging, one minute Lambert would be up top, the next in the centre of midfield or on the wing, it was likewise for Osvaldo and Rodriguez, to be truthful we just didn't seem to know who would be where and when they would be. The strength of Saints at West Brom was that they had a system and stuck to it, the players all knew what job they had to do and what everyone else had to do, against Sunderland we seemed to throw the system out of the window to accommodate Lambert and Osvaldo in the same team, with Shaw off we went as near like for like as we could, a full back for a full back, but with Schneiderlin off we didn't put in the obvious replacement in Cork, or even another midfielder in Ramirez, we bought on Osvaldo and this upset the balance of the team. We were lucky that Sunderland were poor, against a better side we would not have got away with this, but the fact is we had so much time on the ball that we got away with it, however we seemed to create little apart from when we slung balls in the box, yes we passed a lot but Sunderland just put up two banks of four and most of the time just watched us pass along the half way line, too many times we could find no penetration and too many times the man on the ball didn't know who would be where and what runs he would be making. Rickie Lambert seemed to be trying too hard, of course he will feel under pressure for his place, that is natural, but he seemed to feel he had to score and there were a few more long range efforts from him than usual and this didn't benefit the team play overall. But on the plus side it was good that we could still pick up a point even when giving an early goal away and struggling in front of goal ourselves, last year we lost to Sunderland in similar fashion, this year we didn't and picked up a point, expectations were higher, but we need to keep our feet on the ground sometimes, if we are to build on last season its going to be about picking up points were last season we didn't, turning defeats into draws and draws into wins, we have done that in both the opening games and that's an encouraging sign, keep doing that and we will be fine. So Saints sit in the lofty heights of 4th on Sunday morning and that's good to see, however there is still a long way to go and as we know from last year, where you are after 2 games or even 4 games means nothing, its where you are at the end of the season that counts. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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