Player Ratings

[Tetteys Jig 851]

Not seen anything on this, but I was at the game and watched the match on sky after, here''s what i thought:

Ruddy: 7.5 - made a couple of excellent saves but wasn''t exactly bombarded. Collected crosses well and kept the back 4 well organised. Kicking was a bit dodgy.

Whittaker: 9 - my man of the match. He was outstanding with everything he did defending and going forward. Martin will find it tough getting back in the side. I guess the captain situation was a clue with that. Only slight critisism was when he could have squared to RVW to score.

Turner: 7 - solid at the back and much more comfortable alongside Bassong. Osvaldo turned him at one point but Ruddy spared him blushes

Bassong: 8 - absolute rock and first name on the team sheet. It was easy to see how much we''ve missed him today. I remember one goalsaving challenge in particular where if he''d got it wrong, we could have conceeded a penalty but that''s what we come to expect from him.

Garrido: 7.5 - solid performance from Garrido today. I suspect he''s fighting a losing battle with Olsson but on this showing, i''d be hard pushed to change things. There''s no need to fix what''s not broken. He, like Drury with Hucks is often having to do the defensive work of 2 players as Redmond rightfully so was causing havoc down the left most of the time.

Fer: 8.5 - ran Whittaker close to MOTM, dominated the middle, fine assist and some world class tackling shown. Perhaps could have done better with his chance first half, but he is the complete centre mid we''ve waited about 20 years for. Outstanding

Johnson: 8 - passing was much better, still not great, but he kept it more simple today and it paid off. He bossed the centre along with Fer and if he can play like this every week, he''ll win his battle with Tettey/ Howson. I was very critical the first two games, but he was much better this weekend. He was however lucky not to conceede a penalty.

Snodgrass: 5 - not one of his better days, he kept working hard though which shows excellent character. It seems everything he tried failed to come off unlike Redmond the other side. He''ll have better days and probably wasn''t 100% yet.

Redmond: 8.5 - superb, sublime, whatever other superlatives i can say. We have found a real gem on current evidence. He improved his decision making from the Everton game. Every run he tried was successful and his goal was awesome. Not the most defensive minded but gets stuck in and if he has more days like today, i''ll forgive him staying forward. 2 points that could have been better were his wayward pass to Howson that would have put him 1 on 1 and his choice to shoot when RVW was square but then i suppose his selfish streak paid off when he shot for the goal. Pilks has a battle on his hands getting back in.

Elmander: 7 - pretty generous 7 but i think that''s because we''ve missed a player who can link play up as well as him. Some clever flicks and intelligent passing, some came off some didn''t and perhaps didn''t win enough in the air. He might have done better from 6 yards, but in fairness, he did well to even beat the Southampton player to the ball in the first place. On the whole it was an encouraging performance from him.

Van Wolfswinkel: 6 - No goal but not as anonymous as the previous games. Elmander up there helped. He worked harder but still could do a bit more in my book. As he admits, he''s still learning our game. Some great evidence of world class off the ball movement unfortunately wasn''t seen by both Whittaker and Redmond at key moments. I''m happy with what i''ve seen from the first 3 games on the whole though.

Sub - Howson: 6.5 - Gone with a mediocre rating, as he was nothing special but held his own. Was unlucky Redmonds ball to him wasn''t better when through on goal.

Summary: A pleasing and entertaining game. We were lucky that missing 2 or 3 big first half chances didn''t come back to haunt us, the penalty appeals evened out and we both should have had one. Webb controlled the game well on the whole despite the penalty errors though. Southampton looked tidy, but a bit like us at Hull, were a bit wasteful and tried to be too pretty when it wasn''t really working. Going forward they look the part but still a centre back short in my book. Interestingly both Clyne and Shaw didn''t play. As for what we need, i''d say cover down the right, preferrably someone who can also do a job in the middle behind the front man and i''d also like a centre back to compete with Turner and Bennett but more importantly add some mobility if Bassong is out as i''d hate to see us lose Bassong with our current partnership options.

[Yelloow Since 72 56]

Reasonable ratings JS, but I would have had Fer top at 8.5 and Whittaker at 8. Serious mistake when he didn''t make the pull-back to an unmarked Rvhave W who could well have scored. RvW would have 8 for me, as he could have scored from that or Redmond''s chance. Excellent header to Fer who almost scored from it. Not his fault he didn''t get more service.

Otherwise, I agree.

[vos 176]

Generally agree but a few observations:

Ruddy - looks back to his best. Very reassuring how he comes out and deals with crosses in to the box. When releasing ball from hands to clear repeatedly sliced to the right. Do not think this was intentional.

Bassong - A little hesitant in dealing with high balls but superb on the ground with several examples of clever footwork. Never flustered.

Johnson - Always busy and closing down. Very good workrate.  Needs to improve passing and make more use of the simple ball in to space to better passers.

Snodgrass - Worth a 7 in view of workrate and covers a lot of ground in providing cover for defence. Agree crossing needs to be a bit better. The latter comment could refer to other players.

The Wolf - Early days and it is clear he needs to adjust to the physical side of the English Game. Will definitely need some bustling support up front. Will be very interesting to see how he is performing after say another 5 games.

Overall. We are looking much more positive this term (apart from the Hull debacle). Four up front on many occasions. In the first half in particular that Whittaker was quite well forward with Turner playing more to the right to cover. 1,3,3,4 !!! Has CH been reading this website.