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Comment | Southampton V Manchester City The Verdict
at 19:08:18
All true: the Premiership is now two leagues in one. But (and I know this isn't the thrust of your article but) the reason we are going down is poor performances against the teams around us. It's no use picking up plucky points against the likes of Chelsea, United and Spurs if we then lose to fellow strugglers such as Leeds, Wolves and Forest. For some unfathomable reason all three managers this season have approached those kind of 'must win' games with what I can only assume is some kind of 'safety first' approach which invariably ends with our being turned over, normally by the odd goal. Witness the continued selection of players like Elyounoussi and Diallo over guys like S Armstrong, Djenepo and Walcott - players who might just make something happen going forward. It's hard to see us picking up another point this season without things changing fast.
My biggest concern is that we might struggle in the Championship too. It's a tough league and we'll obviously be losing at least five of our best players this summer. The club needs some kind of rebuild from the ground up, hopefully keeping players like Mara and Edozie who will be more effective at that level, and bringing through some players from the Academy to create what by necessity will be a new-look Saints team. We might need a season or two to consolidate but we WILL be back. What we DO NOT need is another chaotic season of chopping and changing and cash being flung around on an assortment of panic buys. I think for clubs like Saints stability is the key to survival, at least until we get a sheikh of our own. |
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Comment | Southampton At Chelsea The Verdict
at 20:26:24
Fantastic performance and result. We finally have a manager who seems to know what he's doing and who has the respect of the players. Just a couple of words of caution:
1. We are still not scoring goals from open play. I'm sure Onuachu just needs a goal to kick-start things but it's the inability of our forwards to convert chances that got us into this mess, so they need to start finding the back of the net pretty quickly.
2. The Chelsea result will count for nothing if we lose to Leeds next week. Anything less than four points from the next two games would be failure.
I felt resigned before yesterday, now suddenly I'm feeling nervous. Never easy being a Saints fan. |
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Comment | Southampton At Brentford The Verdict
at 09:25:37
I was one of those calling for RH to go and I stand by that - we had a year of poor results under Ralph and that was too much. I don't even entirely blame the board for appointing NJ; while his CV might not have been exactly stellar there was enough in there to suggest he might have something to offer. Unfortunately, it's now clear out he's totally out of his depth, stubbornly sticking with bewildering team selections, losing matches by half-time then claiming 'we we're better in the second half' after the opposition had the game in the bag. Above all, his constant bitching about the players gets my goat: blame ALWAYS stops with the manager, and Jones has as good as said that if the players can't play to his system he'll just keep doing it until they get it right. Yes, that might eventually happen but by then it'll be way too late to save our season, if we've not already passed that point.
The test now is how SR deal with this. They have shown that they're prepared to chuck money at a problem so are they prepared to cut ties now and break the bank to get the manager we deserve? Personally I would rather have seen that 50 odd million spent on a decent manager than on players apparently brought in to warm the bench. I am convinced this squad is better than results suggest, so where now Sport Republic..? |
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Comment | Southampton V Nottingham Forest The Verdict
at 13:44:29
I was one of the supporters calling for RH to be sacked and I stand by that. I was also prepared to give NJ a chance but it's already clear he is way out of his depth. He has turned a half-decent set of players into something resembling a mediocre League 1 squad. I feel sorry for any player who joins us as he'll just turn them into fodder too. The owners need to admit they got this one wrong and act now, if only to ensure we can mount a realistic challenge for promotion back to the PL next season. Playing like this we'll be lucky to the stay in the Championship. I've been watching Saints since 1971 and last night was just about the most depressed I've ever felt after a home game - at least during the Branfoot era we had MLT to bail us out. I dread to think what a decent side could do to us; Forest were poor but we made them look like Brazil. |
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Comment | Southampton At Fulham The Verdict
at 19:42:17
RH had to go. Barring a slightly freakish result at Spurs our last good performance was a win at WHU on Boxing Day 2021. We have been going backwards ever since and ended last season in relegation form. I was surprised at the NJ appointment - it's always a gamble bringing in a manager from the lower leagues: you might get a McMenemy or you might get a Paul Sturrock - but I was happy to give the guy a chance. In fairness he wasn't really sold to us as a tactical genius but on his passion and his ability to improve players. Unfortunately I'm not seeing much evidence of either.
I really can't see us beating an improving Forest side on Wednesday but all we can do is get behind the team, make a load of noise and hope for a miracle. We've done it before so it can happen again :-) |
| | blubberboy
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