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Thread | Man. City
by grumpy at 21:35 25 Apr 2024
I cant see them not winning the premier again. |
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Thread | Just how much money?
by mushinexile at 17:59 25 Apr 2024
Not so much a transfer fee but there will be competition in the market for the services of Adrian Newey, The best F1 car designer since Colin Chapman and quite likely the best of all time. Ferrari will pay any money to get him for the 2026 season, having secured the services of Sir Lewis Hamilton so I reckon that Mr. Newey can look forward to a lucrative bidding war (at which point the absolutely corrupt FIA will change the design rules again!) |
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Thread | Ex playere No.96 coming back?
by Butty101 at 12:18 25 Apr 2024
Apparently we are in for Oxlaide chamberlian. Would you want him back? Hes only 30 but had another unjury prone season. |
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Thread | Drop KWP too much of a liability
by robcoe5 at 10:06 25 Apr 2024
Need to play Bree and Jack Stephens instead of manning and KWP
Kwp gives us nothing defensively,
Play Armstrong and Che through the middle, Armstrong is making no runs when out wide
My team
McCartney
Bree
Bednarek
Bellis
Stephens
Downes
Charles
Small bone
Frazier
Adams
Armstrong
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Thread | Play off reality
by saint22 at 00:25 25 Apr 2024
Any team we face will be full of confidence that if they shoot on sight there is a good chance they will score, how many shots on target did Leicester have? 6 and scored 5? That is astonishing
That means we really need Downes and Aribo in the middle of the park stopping that happen
If any of them get near or in the box then all bets are off
Something drastic needs to happen
Jack back this weekend do we think as part of Wussells master plan? |
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Thread | 61 goals conceded in the League this season
by PatfromPoole at 14:16 24 Apr 2024
Four more goals conceded from our last two games against Stoke and Leeds, and we will surpass the figure of 64 conceded by Swansea last season.
When we appointed Brighton Buddha, common consensus seemed to be that we would not concede as many goals as Swansea as we had better players.
I predict that if Brighton Buddha survives the summer, Colin Calderwood will be the sacrificial lamb. |
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Thread | Flynn Downes and Ross Stewart
by PatfromPoole at 13:49 24 Apr 2024
Increasingly thinking that the season is going to depend on these two both being fit for the play-offs.
I imagine there may be one or two behind closed doors friendlies being hurriedly arranged.... |
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Thread | A loss of confidence at the worst time - or a one off?
by saint901 at 09:06 24 Apr 2024
The Leicester game was terrible (for us).
RM saying he saw a good match for 60 minutes? Really? Did he have a TV on the bench and was watching Arsenal?
One of the BBC pundits said after 20 minutes that it was like watching attack v defence and that the defence was in panic mode.
No organisation, no shape, no aggression or fight, no heart in the team to buckle in and make it a contest.
Is this is one off reaction to losing - not to Cardiff - but automatic promotion? Or was it just a one off as we are prone to (Sunderland away this season?)
My worst fear is that this is the players giving RM a message that they are fed up with his way of playing - and him - and as a lot of them will likely be away in the summer, they have nothing to win or lose at the moment.
Take that into the playoffs and we may as well concede now.
If the issue is that RM has lost the dressing room, I really hope somebody in management /ownership knows that and takes appropriate steps. |
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Thread | The front 3 last night
by Butty101 at 08:45 24 Apr 2024
I thought Brooks would be a great signing, but he really flatters to deceive. He dosent seem to be able to do it for 90mins. Offered nothing and has no pace.
Adam Armstrong has all the pace in the world, yet not once last night did he take his man on. Every time he passed backwards and the ball ended up on the halfway line.
Che i thought battled gamely but had little service. But then again im not convinced he was really showing for the ball.
Whats happened to Fraser, he was a key part of our record run. |
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Thread | our manager
by saint22 at 01:41 24 Apr 2024
Southampton boss Russell Martin told BBC Radio Solent:
"For 60-odd minutes I thought we were good. It was a really tight match. We played some amazing build-up, but it didn't come to enough.
"Their attackers were really ruthless and we were not.
"At the start of the second half we were so good, and were so on top and they scored against the run of play. And after that I did not like one bit what I saw from my team tonight.
Really?? why not come out and own up? You got it so badly wrong game after game that yet you thought we were "so good" what so good we lost 5 nil???
ffs grow a pair and show some humility, your arrogance and ego are getting us nowhere fast |
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Thread | Where are we at the moment?
by MattFinish at 22:37 23 Apr 2024
After a string of inconsistent results we found ourselves needing to beat Leicester to stand an outside chance of automatic promotion and we got hammered by one of our promotion rivals. At present it appears that the two top spots will be between Leeds, Leicester and Ipswich with probably Leeds and Leicester going up automatically. That leaves a playoff group of Saints, Ipswich, Norwich and WBA which is just about as bad as it can get. We certainly wouldn't be the team going into this on a high.
But where has it gone wrong. As you will be aware I wasn't the greatest fan of Russell Martin's style of football particularly the pointlessly precarious playing out from the goalkeeper at all costs. Having said that we went on a 26 game unbeaten run when at times we looked far and away the best team in the division.
The main issues as I see it though aren't the style of football but the striker and goalkeeper positions which have been the problem since Ralph was manager if not before.
It might be argued that being the joint top scorers in the division with Adam Armstrong on 20 goals and Che Adams on 18 that scoring isn't the problem but it is. Looking at the chances that particularly Che Adams has spurned this season I think both players could be on 37 to 40 goals.
In addition despite the apparent love for Gavin Bazunu I just don't think he's ready to be number one. Statistically last year he was the 2nd worst goalkeeper in the Premier League and this season he's statistically the worst goalkeeper in the Championship and you can't afford that if you're a promotion contender.
If there is a criticism of Russell Martin it’s his team selections and often puzzling substitutions that are usually reactive rather than proactive. One of the defining points of this season was Russell Martin's baffling decision to swap the defence around to enable the inclusion of Jack Stephens. We were on a 26 game unbeaten run when Martin decided to shoehorn him in. Before Stephens inclusion the defence conceded 7 goals in 12 games. After his inclusion we conceded 22 goals in the following 12 games. I'm not saying that this is entirely due to Stephen’s performances but we had a settled defence and there was absolutely no need to change it.
I've heard people say that we're unlucky that Leicester, Ipswich and Leeds have had such good campaigns but as far as I'm concerned our team and our squad are equal if not better than all of those teams apart possibly from Leicester. If you look at the list of games that we should have won and threw away we could easily have been promoted by now. If you look at the following results where we should have won or drawn we'd have an extra 21 points.
Sunderland (a) 0-5 – should have been at least drawing there (1 pt dropped)
Ipswich (home) 0-1 – should at least have drawn – (1pt dropped)
Rotherham (h) 1-1 - should have won convincingly (2pts dropped)
Huddersfield (a) 1-1 - should have won (2pts dropped)
Bristol City (a) 1-3 - should have drawn at least (1pt dropped)
Hull City (h) 1-2 - should have won (3pts dropped)
Millwall (h) 1-2 - should have won (3pts dropped)
Middlesbrough (h) 1-1 - should have won (2 pts dropped)
Blackburn (a) 0-0 – should have won (3pts dropped)
Cardiff (a) 1-2 - should have won (3pts dropped)
My biggest concern is what happens next. If we fail to get promoted we will lose KWP, Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Che, Downes and probably Fraser, Stuart Armstrong, Brooks, Rothwell, Sulemana and Aribo. McCarthy and Lumley are at the end of their contracts. We will need Sports Republic to completely rebuild the squad, which after the previous two transfer windows fills me with dread.
If we go up it will be a similar situation because this team is not good enough to stay up and particularly if we try and play possession football in the PL we’ll get annihilated.
The issue with a major squad rebuild under Martin is that it took 2½ months for the team to get to grips with the system so we’ll always be in catch up mode. I think whatever happens it will be time to look for a new manager.
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Thread | Don’t let your backside hit the door on your way out Russell Martin.
by saintmark1976 at 22:19 23 Apr 2024
I posted on April 2 after the Ipswich defeat that Sports Republic should roll the dice and sack him with Steve Cooper as his replacement.
Had they done so we would still be in the automatic promotion race. They didn’t, and it’s now plain to see that the players have given up on him and his ridiculous, ineffective, tippy tappy possession based nonsense.
Even if by some absolute fluke we win the playoffs I don’t want him to remain in charge.With his style of play, no plan B and ludicrous use of substitutes we would end up with less points than Derby when they last played in The Premiership. |
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