Missed this one, doesn't sound like i missed much though. 

Great free kick from Alonso. It was a long way out. 

Other than that, thought we struggled to break them down, played lots of intricate passes, and when we did break through our finishing was poor. 

Unless Bats is injured I can’t see the reason not to play the guy. 

a win is a win. played better in the second and for sure, our margin should have been higher. good stuff nevertheless

Finishing needs to be better. But I thought the performance was top notch. And result even better

one thing that I don't agree with was the subs. Despite the win, I thought the subs did not make sense. We were just 1-0 up and if soton had equalised, we would have needed hazard. Subbing him off could have proved really costly.

11 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

I think it works well against teams that playing more open, Southampton have had a defensive mindset all season so it was always going to be hard to get it to click against them.

Yes, it's worked very well this season and especially last time, against a pedestrian defence such as Huddersfield, who have midfield as slow as my grandma when Van La Parra isn't on the pitch and Hogg gets injured and they bring on Dean Whitehead (I thought he'd retired). However, although it was a fairly open game and space was available to exploit, Southampton do have players in defence and midfield that can close down pretty quickly so Hazard's, Willian's and Pedro's interplay with their little flicks and dummies have to be 100 % accurate to create goalscoring chances. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case yesterday although we had opportunities. Bringing on Fabregas and Morata to create a new dynamic in attack was exactly the right thing to do, as a one goal lead for us is precarious nowadays.

 

Gritty win.  They won’t all be a work of art, but we got the job done and were the better team all game.

Courtois - my MOTM. Austin denied twice by him in crucial moments of the game. First half very good reaction to Cahill's letting Redmond behind his back very unprofessionally + very good foot work all the time.

Azpilicueta - good offensive contribution but very bad defending again. I still don't want this man to be our captain. 

Christensen - another good performance. Wouldn't say great, cuz he didn't have much job to do, but when he did, he was on his top.

Cahill - also good. Shaken at times, but at least he could've managed to react fast. 

Kante and Baka - solid performance. They didn't create anything and their contribution in our attack was close to 0, but at least we built a rock solid middle.

Alonso - the biggest contender for MOTM.

Moses - not good enough.

Willian, Pedro and Hazard - not good enough. The Lack of forward made them struggle a lot and they weren't that effective as they were supposed to be. That's shame because they looked at very good shape. At least Hazard and Willian. I really hope Morata or Bats starts next games. I don't care who, just this forward position is needed. We got lucky against Huddersfield and yesterday as well to score our first goals due to opponent goalkeepers mistakes. This isn't happening =  winning isn't happening. We just cant break through without forward. That's it. Just walking around and praying Hazard, Willian or Moses to pass 2 players and to find open man. 

 

Edited December 17, 20178 yr by Pendergast

Seems like a fairly prosaic win where we struggled to finish. 

Thought we played pretty well against a good team, definitely not the one get smashed by Liverpool and Leicester City lately. First half was even, after the last second goal before HT we stepped up, created enough to put them away, poor finishing and good GK kept us away again. In the end, we closed out the game pretty well, for once we didn't just long punt away in the last 10 minutes. We tried to keep the ball and done well, and the Alonso yellow was pretty classy. I thought Morata should have came on earlier, after he came on we looked a better team. It's probably Conte just want give him as much rest as possible, knowing he never used to play around this time of the year.

2 hours ago, Pendergast said:

Courtois - my MOTM. Austin denied twice by him in crucial moments of the game. First half very good reaction to Cahill's letting Redmond behind his back very unprofessionally + very good foot work all the time.

Azpilicueta - good offensive contribution but very bad defending again. I still don't want this man to be our captain. 

Christensen - another good performance. Wouldn't say great, cuz he didn't have much job to do, but when he did, he was on his top.

Cahill - also good. Shaken at times, but at least he could've managed to react fast. 

Kante and Baka - solid performance. They didn't create anything and their contribution in our attack was close to 0, but at least we built a rock solid middle.

Alonso - the biggest contender for MOTM.

Moses - not good enough.

Willian, Pedro and Hazard - not good enough. The Lack of forward made them struggle a lot and they weren't that effective as they were supposed to be. That's shame because they looked at very good shape. At least Hazard and Willian. I really hope Morata or Bats starts next games. I don't care who, just this forward position is needed. We got lucky against Huddersfield and yesterday as well to score our first goals due to opponent goalkeepers mistakes. This isn't happening =  winning isn't happening. We just cant break through without forward. That's it. Just walking around and praying Hazard, Willian or Moses to pass 2 players and to find open man. 

 

Can you give one good reason why you dont want SUPER DAVE to be our Captain

It should have been 4 or 5 nil. Only the post and the brilliant Foster kept the scoreline down. We were good but Southampton were harder to play than Huddersfield. Alonso free kick was a work of art. All in all a good day at the office. Come On West Brom !!!

Edited December 17, 20178 yr by TheBluesBrother

21 hours ago, acidicleo said:

good that alonso picked yellow...

he will miss cup midweek and can play on weekend

Could get fined for that! So obvious he was trying to get booked. Sitting above watching it was becoming cringe worthy with Alonso making out he was wasting time! The fine is not for the time wasting but for deliberately getting booked so he misses a game he probably wouldn’t have played in. The system isn’t there to deliberately get booked to decide when you miss a game.

Edited December 17, 20178 yr by Richard P

Better game than some have thought on here. If we had added a second goal when we had so much of the play we wouldn’t have had a worry towards the end of the game. Score could have been anything without the saves and better finishing. The win well and truly deserved.

1 hour ago, Richard P said:

Could get fined for that! So obvious he was trying to get booked. Sitting above watching it was becoming cringe worthy with Alonso making out he was wasting time! The fine is not for the time wasting but for deliberately getting booked so he misses a game he probably wouldn’t have played in. The system isn’t there to deliberately get booked to decide when you miss a game.

Yeah, but it's not the first and won't be the last. It's right up there with cynical tackles to stop counterattacks.

Just watched this one. Pretty boring game really.

Thought both teams struggled with the bounce of the ball on the wet pitch. We failed to take advantage of their lapses and nearly paid for it but Austin could not punish us. 

Thought Pedro and willian were poor. Terrible final passes from both of them. Would say Kante man of the match as he broke up their play many times.

Final sub was baffling as Moses was one of our best players and defended well. They nearly got in behind zappa a few times.

Also poor form on our match winner for that booking. Fa should add an additional match to the ban when things like that happen.