Voting was locked for this match at midnight on Sunday 10th April but you may still add your mini match reports. Note that members and non-members alike were able to vote.

Your Southampton v Chelsea Match Reports

WestSussexSaint added 17:07 - Apr 9 Chelsea the world champions showed up today but Saints made them look like it. Wrong formation which was obvious after 5 mins and yet it wasn’t changed until we were 0-4 down. The players looked like they were already planning their summer holidays. Only Fraser Forster gets credit today as without his saves it could have been double figures.
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Mattsgrandad added 17:10 - Apr 9 Atrocious display by all. Never seen so much lack of fight and ideas. How do you fire up a team like that. A month ago there was talk of top ten and Ralph touted for united. What a joke. This was more than an off day., an apology is required from everyone.
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silverspringsaint added 17:12 - Apr 9 Well, let us say it first - Chelsea were very good today, though they did not have any opposition on the field to talk of! Aside perhaps from Forster, all Saints players ought to donate their match fees to charity. Awful! Powderpuff attack, non existent midfield, Keystone Cops defending! I don’t generally get into the debates about Hasenhuttl - but another failure to put out a motivated, prepared team is a worry. I hope the new owners are going to give him a rocket after this! It isn’t up to Ralf to decide when and whether he leaves! Not sure why Romeu was off so early. If he wasn’t ready to play, why was he on the field to start with? Salisu has to realize he is not the second coming of Beckenbauer and buckle down quickly. We will surely be better against Arsenal!?

10

codge added 17:28 - Apr 9 What to say well first of all there are a lot of players today who are taking money under false pretenses,namely they think there football players. Secondly to say we are any better in the middle of defense we’re in denial,don’t know other than the fact it was a good job that there are goalposts and crossbars or we would be looking at another 9 nil.Other than Forster and KWP couldn’t see a lot of effort today,don’t know where we go from here but hope we get this sorted out soon.

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mattthelegend added 17:53 - Apr 9 How do modern day professional athletes put out such a pitiful display like that and expect to get paid. Watched the Man U game before that and all they have to do is turn up and get paid. Game needs a serious reset. We still have to pay sky high prices and get served up that drivel. The game is rotten to the core.
5

I_would added 17:53 - Apr 9 Yet more humiliation via the Austrian clown.
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CommonSaint added 18:00 - Apr 9 A dreadful performance from the team not many out there that can hold there heads up. Chelsea played us at our own high press and we had no answer, might as well not had a midfield, bright spot we looked marginally better when Smallbone came on. How can the whole team have a off day together????
2

Boris1977 added 18:05 - Apr 9 As Brentford did last week at Stamford bridge so Brighton did today. The marker for teams of our ilk and their performance against the teams we are due to play next has returned an emphatic result. Next up arsenal. Anyone think we can match Brighton's result? We need a manager who understands Saints players strengths and weaknesses and play accordingly and change if necessary. The stars align for a few months each season and Ralph gets it right. The other two thirds of the season are a mix of abject failures and scrapped points here and there. The Ralph disciplines will bristle but he's not the man for this job. So many of our players get praised for their performances by outside voices and yet Ralph can't turn that obvious ability into regular positive results and performances. Motivation is a massive part of being a manager. Ralph cannot do that. The board need to find someone who can while keeping the talent we currently have in the squad.

5

Boris1977 added 18:08 - Apr 9 Disciples
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SanMarco added 18:14 - Apr 9 This happens too often under this manager. We were VERY, VERY lucky it was ONLY six today. The matches at Liverpool and Villa were also fiascos that could have easily been a lot, lot worse. Was the embarrassment today worth it? Does Ralph contribute so much that it is worth these humiliations? Ralph is more than happy to take the plaudits after good results so he has to explain to us why, for at least the fifth time under him, we have ended up praying for the end before the half time whistle has even blown. That was a virtually full strength team today and there was no early sending off. So, for me, it is shameful and if Ralph feels it is wholly the players' fault then he needs some new players pretty quickly. I can honestly see us conceding double figures one day under this man.

6

AmericanSaint added 18:44 - Apr 9 Wow - WOW. Where the heck did all that come from? So, JWP has a howler and just an overall , Salusi was awful today and responsible for 2 if not 3 of the goals and if not for FF and the woodwork, it would have been worse. While I am fan of RH, he needs to shoulder 75% of this fiasco. What the heck was removing OR for JV about? Elyounoussi should have come out and we change to a 5-4-1 system. I see that RH made comments after the game about changing/abandoning the high press for next week at Arsenal. So why did he do that at HT? Ok rant over. only 3 players should get credit/paycheck for this game - FF, KWP and CA.

7

claus5 added 19:23 - Apr 9 What a shambles that was, Fraser aside they can all hang their heads in shame. At least we can now put to bed the claims that the so called best fans all sit/stand in the singing section, hardly any of them left with 20 minutes to go! Move on a hope for better next week is all we can do.
5

Bawdrip added 19:40 - Apr 9 Completely outclassed. Very painful to watch.
5

SaintPaulVW added 20:41 - Apr 9 Appalling. Game was over after 20 minutes. Salisu totally at sea. Formation totally wrong. Tino looking like a 19 year old repeatedly failing to track back. Adam A just is not anywhere near adapting to the Prem league. Everyone taking too many touches before shooting. Adams's finishing ability completely deserting him. I can't see why Ralph is saying give up the high press for next week, the players were there a week early! They just stood back and watched the Chelsea players pass the ball about from about 5 yards. Fair credit to Chelsea they wanted it more and hit first touch shots on target. Bozo fans of all ages should stay off the pitch tho. Valery, Diallo, Smallbone and Forster were the only bright spots. Smallbone and Valery played far better at rightback than Tino. Take the point on the fans. When the game goes against you the noise is supposed to go up. Not stop. Once again Ralph has produced a binge season. He deserves some slack for the underinvestment in our squad but looking at it in the round I don't really see any progress this year. And to cap it all, Kevin Friend produced his usual fine performance. COYR

2

AmericanSaint added 23:44 - Apr 9 Oh one point I forgot to say - In the USA Effan Okoku (spelling?) is the WORST TV pundit there is. He should never do a live Saints broadcast again. Wow - he was pathetic and so negative about everything.
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AmericanSaint added 23:44 - Apr 9 Oh one point I forgot to say - In the USA Effan Okoku (spelling?) is the WORST TV pundit there is. He should never do a live Saints broadcast again. Wow - he was pathetic and so negative about everything.
0

Block8 added 14:55 - Apr 10 Forster played well and that's about it, formation and tactics were way off, most of us fans noticed before Ralph and the game had finished before it was changed. Very, very poor all round!
1

Foreverred added 20:45 - Apr 10 That was a totally gutless performance, I can take being beaten by the better team no problem, but I can’t take our team not putting the effort in after the first twenty mins, these are supposed to be professional footballers, well I didn’t see much of that yesterday, it’s was headless chicken time no leadership on the pitch, and the tactics were all wrong, it was obvious to me Chelsea would come out fired up after the week they had,why Ralph believes we can match the best teams talking the game to them from the start, we may get away with on occasions like spurs and West Ham away, but when we play a more compact formation we can stay in the game longer and invariably get a draw from it, or a narrow win against the top sides .Yesterday we were totally overrun in midfield, and exposed down the wings, leaving large gaps in the middle of the park. It’s was obvious from early on that changes had to be made, but Ralph failed to do so, Ely, should have come off for Diallo ,and valery or Perrault on for the unfortunate Adam Armstrong at 3.0 down, pushing s Armstrong into a more forward role, at least we could have made a game of it, without the total surrender it become. Sorry Ralph you were very poor tactical yesterday and not for the first time . Players have be dropped for-this dreadful display .lets have players in who want to play for the badge.

1

saint901 added 18:57 - Apr 11 I'm amazed Salisu got more than 2. I'm also surprised that SA scored as highly as he did. His body language was poor and he was lost most of the time. Big up Forster because otherwise it was double figures. Likewise Smallbone when he came on.
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