Intro and Team News
IBO Reporter - channonite
|After almost continual disappointment in the league, since that win against Liverpool, the Premier League Champions of last season, way back on the 4th January, I think it fair to say that Saints fans hopes were not to high going into this game. Statistics were bandied about before the match showing that since the turn of the year we had the worst record of any Premier League club. Not something to be proud of. In fact, if it wasn't for the excellent start to the campaign, when Saints were all too briefly top of the table, then that would have been relegation form. There are myriad reasons for the catastrophic loss of form, but injuries to key players figure pretty highly.
So, changes to the team were few, Minamino returned to the lineup, having been ineligible to face his employers in the last match. The big news, as it turned out, was the return of Danny Ings from injury and not just to the bench, but the starting lineup.
Fraser Forster was retained in goal, but what was happening in front of him was both complex and difficult for the fan to work out what was happening. Ralph seems to have tried many different formations to keep the supply of chances flowing and seems to have settled on a dual system of three at the back when in possession, changing to four when out of possession. This needs intelligence and flexibility from the players to work and up until this match, the earlier version of it hadn't clicked into place.
In front of Forster during an attack, this weeks 3-2-3-2 team was:
- Bednarek, Vestergaard, Stephens
- Ward-Prowse Armstrong
- Walker-Peters, Minamino, Redmond
- Ings, Adams
When defending it switched to a more conventional and familiar 4-2-2-2:
- Walker-Peters, Bednarek, Vestergaard, Stephens
- Ward-Prowse, Armstrong
- Minamino, Redmond
- Ings, Adams
Clearly this puts a lot of pressure on Walker-Peters to get back from forward positions when transitioning. Would it work this week though?
The graphic below just shows how they line up at kick-off!
Minimino was much more involved in the action, but was knocked off the ball way too easily
Southampton
- 44 Forster
- 2 Walker-Peters
- 35 Bednarek - Booked 44' (Salisu 45')
- 4 Vestergaard - Booked 54'
- 5 Stephens
- 19 Minamino
- 8 Ward-Prowse
- 17 Armstrong
- 11 Redmond
- 10 Adams
- 9 Ings (Obafemi 76')
Substitutes
- 1 McCarthy
- 12 Djenepo
- 14 Obafemi
- 22 Salisu
- 23 Tella
- 27 Diallo
- 32 Walcott
- 40 N'Lundulu
- 47 Ferry
Crystal Palace
- 31 Guaita
- 2 Ward
- 8 Kouyaté - Booked 77'
- 6 Dann
- 27 Mitchell
- 25 Eze
- 4 Milivojevic (Schlupp 65')
- 44 Riedewald
- 9 J Ayew - Booked 45' (Batshuayi 72')
- 20 Benteke (Mateta 78')
- 11 Zaha - Booked 90'
Substitutes
- 1 Butland
- 3 van Aanholt
- 10 Townsend
- 14 Mateta
- 15 Schlupp
- 22 McCarthy
- 23 Batshuayi
- 24 Cahill
- 34 Kelly
