Something needed doing, the amount of lofted, often aimless balls from carrick into the box was getting tiresome.

also showed why he shouldnt be taking corners

paul scholes, hernandez and van persie were brilliant

hernandez looked good when he came on, good sign for the future

I don't want to say that Hernandez is back to his first season form, but was certainly better today. First touch was decent.

Actually it's game like today's when we miss Wayne Rooney.
It just brings a sort of belief in the team that we will score.
When ur quick dynamic passing and intricate wingplay is not working, u need ur attacking players to take the game by the scruff of its neck and get the team home.

RVP did well to get the hatrick but it was also a lot of fortune that we were able to score 2 goals in last 5 min.

We should not count on this in the future.

As I said on another thread, the game-changing subs came from Southampton. Puncheon, Lallana and Lambert were tearing us to shreads. No idea what Adkins was thinking taking them off.

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carrick and kagawa were poor today, tbh apart from the 2nd goal i thought evra did well

Can't wait till we get a settled backline and keeper, far too easy to score against at the minute.

By the way, Carrick completed 115/126 passes, which is 91%. Kagawa - 39/53 (91%)

who should start next game? De Gea or Lindegaard?

The full backs were awful today. Constantly caught out of position. I know it's a big part of the way we play with our full backs over-lapping but they should be told to stay and back and only go forward when necessary.

If Rafael and Evra continue to play like that throughout the season, we're going to be caught out numerous times at the back.

We were quite unorganised at the back today. We couldn't handle Lambert's physicality and Vidic made too many clumsy challenges today for my liking when trying to win the ball from Lambert.

Van Persie penalty miss aside which was shocking and something we'll never see again, you can be sure of that, he was very good in general play. His movement in behind the last man was fantastic. Always on the shoulder. If anyone was in doubt why we bought him then there's a very good answer. He will easily score 30 + goals in this side this season if he stays fit IMO.

We gave the ball away far too sloppily today which put the defence under needless pressure. Kagawa was bullied off the ball on a few occasions today but I didn't think he should've came off when he did. I would've brought Nani on for Welbeck to give us a bit more width because although Welbeck did quite well defensively today in tracking his runner and winning a few tackles, he didn't contribute that much going forward. He shouldn't play out on the left.

Sir Alex has to get credit for his substitutions today, which I've questioned recently. Scholes changed the game completely when he came on. He's much better used a substitute in this type of game when the opposition are tired because then he has room to move and dictate play. Had he played from the start, I don't think his influence would've been as great as he would've been put under enormous pressure as Southampton did well at pressuring our players and nicking the ball from them in the first half.

Hernandez also did very well today when he came on. Caused Southampton a few problems. His first touch was much much better today. Controlled it, laid it off and got in the box. He made the Southampton defence retreat and made us play higher up the pitch.

I can't quite believe what I'm about to say but we scored from a corner, an actual corner! If Nani could deliver the ball like that a bit more consistently, maybe we'd get a bit more joy from set pieces.

THis game is one example of why I place Ando over Cleverly. Cleverly is largely influenced by his partner and he is a bit deffensive minded. when he plays with a defensive partner like Carrick he will inturn play negatively and provide little going forward. today Kagawa lacked the support from midfield in attack for tht out ball. Ando will have ran at the defence putting them under presure allowing Kagawa space to create or at least pass the ball quickly and move into a better position.

Im not saying cleverly is badf, he is brilliant but for him to carry an attacking threat he needs a partner that does the same someone that pulls him up the pitch. I still think our best Midfield duo is him and Ando in attack and Ando and Carrick when we want attack and Defence.

Im begining to think Welbeck might need another loan move to work on his ability as a fwd. He looking more and more like a midfielder than fwd, good on the ball but cant attack or create chances for others. I know he has the ability but its gone AWOL.

Hernandez looked great I wished he cud have scored with his chance, but that was great defensive recovery in the end. I hope he starts next time but that would mean replacing Kagawa or RvP or maybe keep Nani on the bench then play RvP or Kagawa on the left with Chicharito at No. 9

By the way, Carrick completed 115/126 passes, which is 91%. Kagawa - 39/53 (91%)

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39/53 is not a 91% completion, I'm not saying either had a bad game, just pointing out the error.

39/43