With Southampton being on the wrong end of three goals in Saturday’s friendly against Bundesliga side Borussia Monchengladbach in our final pre-season friendly of the summer, Saints fans weren’t slow to come forward with their criticism and concerns following the match.
Taking a 3-0 defeat without reply at St Mary’s Stadium left manager Mark Hughes saying all the right things at the full-time whistle as he met with the media when it came to talking in terms of using the game as a lesson and spending the next week in training working on the easy mistakes to identify from the match that requires improvement.
Southampton fans are no doubt largely on board with what he mentioned, improving our record on one v one situations etc, but the game also showed up one clear problem that’s been known all summer and has been known since last season, as it was key to us struggling in 2017/18.
Despite the names we carry in the final third of the pitch, goalscoring is a problem.
You can’t win a game unless you score ! Needed a striker last year, and this year and incoming is ……….. ????
— Roger Pellant (@laripa52) August 4, 2018
We got mugged by hermann the germann
— Elyounoussi (@RahilMajid) August 4, 2018
shockingly bad performance
— Stuart Hack (@HackStuart) August 4, 2018
Knew it all along,mark Hughes is a genius.
— matt deane (@mattdeane3) August 4, 2018
It will be alright on the night………………. ????
— terry couzens (@tcouzens1) August 4, 2018
Sounds very familiar if honest dude.
— Chris Brammer (@Brammered) August 4, 2018
Interesting hearing a lot of stoke fans saying the same thing
— The Troll (@TheSotonTroll) August 4, 2018
At least we scored… oh wait. Well at least we threatened…oh wait.
— Me (@RhysThomas2014) August 4, 2018
Not too shabby hahaha we were shite, didn't offer anything AT ALL
— Swainy (@connor__swain) August 4, 2018
are defence is shocking very bad
— Connor (@iiConzzy) August 4, 2018
This is a friendly.admittedly we were poor & they seemed to open us up at will but in our last performance in the league against city we were terrific & if we’d won today would it mean champions elect? No. Therefore defeat doesn’t mean we’re dreadful, some fans need to understand football rather than knee jerk to every ball kicked
Bertrand is not a leader, the dna if the team is to pass sideways and back, Austin is too slow and is more intent on bullying defenders, long and Redmond can’t shoot ie look at the Saints training video online. Lamina looked sloppy and Targett was left on his own on the wing. Don’t tell me that three games in a week knackered them, they are supposed to be professional athletes. Les you need to purchase that striker and defender we have all been craving.
We need two frontmen quick and strong able to hold the ball and good in the air..Pella and Ricky we miss you