Southampton Resurgence || When is the time to take them seriously?

Southampton's last 12 games in all competitions:

WWWWWWLWWWWW.

Statistically best defense in the league and one of the best in all of Europe. Second best offense in the league.

Is it a case of a midtable team having a good patch of form or are they legit?

Didn't Newcastle have 25 points from 11 games recently?

Yes and they finished 4 points away from 4th ahead of Chelsea, Liverpool and Everton.

If this Southampton does that it will incredible.

When I was looking at the table this morning I was thinking the same thing. They're currently playing one game/week which is making things a bit easier for them, but if they can come out of the Christmas/New Year period with a similar league position, then they really could be a legit contender for 4th place

decent team but yet to play, city, Chelsea and even arsenal or man unted

They really don't have to beat the top teams to do well though.Their only two losses have against Liverpool and Spurs in narrow losses.

As long as they beat the rest of the scrubs they are gonna be a massive pain the butt in the top 4 race. Which is what they are doing at the moment.

Villa, Wigan, Newcastle, Everton and even fecking Hull City have put together similar runs. They have a good team but squad depth and facing the bigger teams will eventually hurt them. They've already lost to Tottenham and Liverpool who are both poor this season.

They're extremely well drilled defensively though so I think they'll get at least a Europa spot next season. Arsenal, Chelsea and City are locks for the CL this season. They'll be in a battle with United/Liverpool for 4th.

Question... Do Everton get the last CL spot instead of 4th placed finished team if they win the Europa League this season or do both clubs go into the CL?

I hope they at least finish in the EL spots. Koeman seems like a manager who would do well in that competition, just like Martinez is doing now with Everton.

Think they will finish somewhere 5-7 depending on how other teams are doing. They will fall off eventually when New year hits.

Saying that, they have been playing exceptionally well. Pelle and Tadic have both been unreal signings while Wanyama-Schneiderlin have formed a very good partnership. They still have Jay-Rod to come back.

Gil, as far as I understand it, if a English team wins the EL that isn't qualified for CL through the top 4, all 5 teams will participate.
I like that much better than this nonsense when the 4th place team gets punished for another teams success, like back with Tottenham and Chelsea winning the CL.

Didn't they basically do the same exact thing last year?

I think they were like 3rd after 10-11 games?

They'll finish in a top 6 spot, for sure.
They won't be title contenders, I don't think.

I wonder how they will do next year if they get into Europe? Many teams struggle first time around.

Dnmac4 wrote:Didn't they basically do the same exact thing last year?

I think they were like 3rd after 10-11 games?

Indeed. They were even a point fewer off top than they are right now as well.
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The table last season after 11 games:
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The team this season is better than last. They also have a lot more depth too. Not saying they'll finish top 4 but they have what it takes to be playing in a European competition next season.

Will judge them on New Years while im hungover.

Their next four games are:

Aston Villa away
Man City home
Arsenal away
Man United home

We'll know much more after those games.

Reminds me of Liverpool last season a flukey/good run.

Doubt it will last, I really really want it too though.

Ideal top 4

Chelsea
Saints
Arsenal
City

It depends on what you mean by take them seriously. If the standard is a top four finish, then not until they demonstrate the capacity to continue picking up three points regularly when they're hit by an inevitable injury crisis. That they have a fairly competitive first team has already been established, the real test is how their depth stacks up when asked to contribute on a regular basis.

The only outsider in recent years who didn't drop completely off during January to April period was us in Pardew's first season.

The reason? We changed the system and bought Cisse/Ben Arfa into the side to give us renewed boost to carry us into the rest of the season.

Problem is with these teams, eventually what you do becomes stale as teams take you more seriously and your limited squad resources grow tired.

Both physically and mentally, you either do something to boost the team for the final months to get through the season. Or you fall away like the majority do.

The latter sits with Southampton IMO, I don't think they will even finish 6th if I'm honest unless they do what I said. The key players will drop off around Christmas as it's impossible for players with limited experience of winning to keep it up.

I wish them the best but it's just not realistic.

Mole does bring up a fairly good point about bringing in reinforcements, though I'd note that J-Rod returning will be a significant boost for them to allow them to rotate their front men more often.

Anything below 8th would be a failure for them in my eyes, they should be besting Swansea, however if they are surpassed by the usual crowd there would be no shame, assuming of course that it came about as the result of the usual fatigue and injuries, not careless play as so often happened in the back end of last season. I personally think they can finish above Everton and it would be poetic justice to see them leave Pocchetino behind at Spurs, however I do think Tottenham will catch up eventually.

7th or 8th is what I'm looking at, problem above all else is eventually they will go through a patch of games where they really struggle.

Question will be can come out the other side positively? And not drop too many points.

It's doubtful, how they handle that is key and quite frankly I don't expect it to be handled that great.

Koeman has come a long way from that God awful stint at Valencia. Where he dropped Joaquin from the team for reaching two minutes late to a team talk but included Banega who got picked up by the police for drunk driving. Yes, I remember him quite well.

But I hope Southhampton continue this lovely form they are in. Apparently only they and Chelsea realise how daft the rest of league is when it comes to defending.

Abramovich wrote:Reminds me of Liverpool last season a flukey/good run.

Doubt it will last, I really really want it too though.

Ideal top 4

Chelsea
Saints
Arsenal
City

You mean the one in we went on a 14 continuous win streak or the 38 game one that saw finishing second in the table above you over the course of the season?

Yeah that was flukey as hell ok

So what do you make of Southampton this time around???

What a contrast a good run makes:

Last 5 games

Man U (A) W
Arsenal (H) W
Chelsea (H) D
Palace (A) W
Everton (H) W

The 5 games before that:
Sheffield Utd (A) L
Man Utd (H) L
Arsenal (A) L
Burnley (A) L
City (H) L


They went from relegation form and falling off, to incredibly coming back with a title winning form against top teams.

They'll stick around now. they've combatted the tough fixtures a a mini-meltdown