Southampton: Did we lose on purpose?

[The Rock]

Clearly we didn't have our best 11 on purpose, but seemed to lack much desire at all. Southampton was pretty mediocre. The whole tie reeked as a set up to lose and focus on the League.

[Hoppus]

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Piazon did miss that ball because Slav told him?

[Mince n Tatties]

When you look at Odoi miss.

[davew]

Clearly we didn't have our best 11 on purpose, but seemed to lack much desire at all. Southampton was pretty mediocre. The whole tie reeked as a set up to lose and focus on the League.

Who knows, certainly looked like a lack of effort at the end and almost letting them get a 2nd goal.

[Matt10]

Did we lose on purpose? No. I would say the agony on the look of players as they missed their shots or passes would say no.

We just played too hesitant, simple as that. No need for any consipracy theories. It was a good experience for the boys I'm sure though.

[Sgt Fulham]

If you go by missed chances then we lose or draw all the time on purpose. No we didn't but we didn't throw everything at Soton to win.

[Mince n Tatties]

Did we lose on purpose? No. I would say the agony on the look of players as they missed their shots or passes would say no.

We just played too hesitant, simple as that. No need for any consipracy theories. It was a good experience for the boys I'm sure though.

Good experience?
We were playing Southampton ( no win in 10) not Barcelona.😭

[Lighthouse]

It was all a bit of a damp squib. We should have lost by more and never looked interested until the latter part of the match. As for losing on purpose. I think we give the players and coach far too much credit. We are not that clever just not that good and toothless.

[Carborundum]

We have one decent striker and wait until the 76th minute to bring him on.  Did we lose on purpose?  No. Did we do everything to win?  No

[Woolly Mammoth]

We have one decent striker and wait until the 76th minute to bring him on.  Did we lose on purpose?  No. Did we do everything to win?  No

Agreed

[hovewhite]

We have one decent striker and wait until the 76th minute to bring him on.  Did we lose on purpose?  No. Did we do everything to win?  No

Dissapionting all round!

[Bill2]

Was the team selection an attempt by Slav to show how weak we are in certain positions?

[Bassey the warrior]

Didn't see the game but I'm not too unhappy. The play offs are our number 1 priority.

[MJG]

No

[bobby01]

Was the team selection an attempt by Slav to show how weak we are in certain positions?

If it was, I for one am sick of all the mind games and in fighting. Just sort it out, same nonsense every window.

[MikeW]

This - straight from The Guardian:

It is a measure of Southampton's growing strife that this slender victory over a Championship side with problems of their own was not enough to stop their fans turning on Mauricio Pellegrino near the end, greeting the manager's decision to withdraw Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg by directing loud boos and mutinous chants at the away dugout at Craven Cottage.

Less than 24 hours after Virgil van Dijk marked his Liverpool debut with the winner in the Merseyside derby, the £75m centre-back's former club were closing in on a place in the fourth round of the FA Cup thanks to James Ward-Prowse's first goal of the season when Pellegrino decided to make a late change in midfield, replacing Hojbjerg with the more defensive Mario Lemina with 10 minutes to go. In one angry moment a comfortable workout for the Premier League strugglers, who kept Fulham at arm's length for most of the afternoon, became a reminder of their darkening mood.

"You don't know what you're doing," was the cry from the away end at Craven Cottage. Pellegrino was entitled to argue otherwise, given that his team held on for their first win since 26 November, but the fault lines were clear. On this evidence, it is difficult to see the situation improving until Pellegrino leaves, even if Southampton reinvest the Van Dijk money in new signings this month.

On the bright side, at least they avoided falling victim to a Cup upset, making sure that they seized the opportunity to put an awful run behind them. Survival has become the top priority for a club who were once held up as a model of stability, but Pellegrino was not in a position to take the FA Cup lightly.

Fulham's curious infighting helped. The club are 10th in the Championship, four points off a play-off spot, and thrashed Ipswich Town 4-1 on the same night Southampton lost to Crystal Palace. Yet there was an air of uncertainty on their bench. Slavisa Jokanovic has made no attempt to hide his displeasure with Fulham's transfer plans this month and there is no guarantee that he will be their manager for much longer.

Jokanovic issued the opposite of a rallying cry on Friday, suggesting that the club might as well sack him if his thoughts on signings continue to be ignored, and perhaps that explained a bitty, timid performance from the underdogs, who wasted their best chance of forcing a replay when Denis Odoi hooked over an empty net after a fumble by Alex McCarthy in the 76th minute.

Lucas Piazon saw a shot blocked by Maya Yoshida after enterprising work from Ryan Sessegnon, a youngster who continues to be monitored by the country's top clubs, and Tim Ream headed over, but there were few reasons for Southampton to fret. Most of the flourishes came from the visitors, who thought they had taken the lead when Shane Long blasted a shot past David Button after being released by Steven Davis's flick in the 10th minute. It was a confident finish from Long, who ended 1,320 minutes without finding the back of the net when he scored against Palace, but Southampton's budding goal machine was denied by a tight offside call.

Southampton were moving the ball well, as is their way, but as usual they were crying out for some incision in the final third. Promising attacks were breaking down too easily. Sofiane Boufal broke down the right and found Ward-Prowse, who dragged a shot wide.

However Ward-Prowse showed more conviction when he had another sniff in the 30th minute, though the goal was a mess from Fulham's perspective. Davis was allowed to protect Yoshida's long punt and shuffle a pass to Boufal on the edge of the area, then Long's touch bounced off Kevin McDonald and through to Ward-Prowse, who used his left foot to swipe a low shot past Button.

Fulham toiled without Tom Cairney, their most influential players, and Southampton ought to have killed the contest in the second half, but Hojbjerg failed to smuggle Long's cross past Button in the 53rd minute. Jack Stephens later headed against the bar with the goal gaping.

If there was a concern for Pellegrino, it was that his side's lack of ruthlessness would undermine them. Yet Fulham were afflicted by the same weakness and never tested whether a centre-back partnership of Stephens and Yoshida will make Southampton forget about Van Dijk

[Baszab]

Norwood must have been told to lose - no pro footballer could have played that badly consistently over 94 minutes

[Robbie]

A perfect result for us. Lose to a PL side and get on with our main business.

[WolverineFFC]

I thought the match was a pretty fair representation of both sides myself. Southampton are a mid level premier league club which is struggling. If they were on form they would have won 2 or 3 nil. Fulham did not start their best player, Carney or their best form striker, Kamara. So they lost.

I took 2 things out of the game.

1) Their is a slim difference between the bottom half of the Premier League and the top half of the Championship. I think most understand this. The game reinforced that. Back to the Championship chase.

2) There were 4-5 Fulham players who look out of place against the level of a Premier League team. Replace those 3-4 players (Expecting Tom is Prem level) and you have a bottom half Premier team. Yeah???...

[terryr]

Very strange OP
Please......you really believe that?????