Lloris - 5 - Some good saves, but he needs to be more confident in catching the ball instead of punching, and was badly at fault for the second goal
Walker - 7 - Decent
Chiriches - 4 - Southampton got played in behind him a couple of times, needs to be quicker to turn around and defend
Dawson - 7 - Pretty good mostly
Rose - 6 - A couple of nervy moments, but got an assist for the goal and did well
Lamela - 5 - A few nice ideas, but he gets tackled far too often for my liking, which is why I think he should play as a striker. Got stuck in though which was good to see
Eriksen - 7 - Some decent passes. Didn't neglect defensive duties as much as I worried he might
Dembele - 6 - Worked hard, but gave the ball away a couple of times and didn't offer a huge amount going forward
Sigurdsson - 7 - Good outlet on the left, I liked his link up play with Adebayor
Soldado - 6 - Some really exciting attacking play, that cross for Ade's first goal was outstanding. But...loses a mark for some shocking misses, of which there have been far too many from him for a "poacher" to justify
Adebayor - 9 - What more can you say? Today had everything. Excellent finishing technique, good link up play with his team mates, running at pace at the opposition, unpredictable movement, hold up play...performances like this were what got him that large contract in the first place.
Subs:
Bentaleb - 7 - Calm, composed, helped us retain possession...everything you want from a youngster in his position making his debut. Very impressed.
Chadli - 7 - Eh??? Where did that come from? Actually managed to beat a man and deliver a good cross!
Defoe - N/A - No real time.
Sherwood - 9 - Well well well. I had my head in my hands when I saw this starting line-up. And I think that, if he continues to play like this, we will find ourselves getting spanked, as we were vulnerable at times when they had space from there not being proper defensive cover from midfield. But today, it worked a treat. Southampton weren't prepared for this kind of gung-ho football at all. The players were motivated, tactically disciplined, created what felt like more genuine goalscoring chances than we created all season under AVB and were deserved winners of the game. Most pleasing was his use of substitutions, which raised eyebrows at the time but all paid off fantastically well. The fact is, Sherwood has achieved two important things that AVB has not this season - scoring 3 goals in a league game and beating a team in the top half of the table. Southampton have been excellent at home since Pochettino took over just under a year ago, to put things into perspective Arsene Wenger, Brendan Rodgers, Manuel Pellegrini, Rafa Benitez, Roberto Mancini and David Moyes have all tried and all failed to beat him at St Mary's, but Sherwood did it today.
Like I said, I don't think that today's kind of tactics are sustainable in the long run...there must be a reason that defensive midfielders exist after all. But today was easily our best performance of the season, an impressive win in a fixture that lots of people had written us off in. IMO - 3 points gained today that would not have been gained under AVB.
