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Reply | Utterly pathetic management as automatic promotion thrown away.
at 14:41 23 Apr 2024
I think you'll find that our percentage conversion of shots on target to goals is the fourth best in the league.
We are equal with Ipswich, Norwich and PNE and therefore better than Leeds, Leicester, WBA and other play off contenders.
So the issue is not scoring because there we are good.
Going further, the best players for Saints in terms of shots to goals are Edozie, Adams and Aribo. Two of those three do not feature regularly - go figure.
In terms of opposition shots on target to goals conceded, we are way down the list - second from bottom. Sort of hints at where the issue is perhaps. |
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Reply | Desperate Tories - or tactical masterstroke?
at 14:30 23 Apr 2024
Is "Rishi doing something about it.." worth removing some of the safeguards to our democratic system?
Was it in fact the "system" that prevented him taking action and therefore he's justified in forcing through what some would claim is an inhumane law (and others may see as justified)?
Many of these migrants have come from places which require a certain determination and courage to escape from. Unless such people are securely held the moment they set foot on a Kent beach, I suspect that the authorities will never see them again. Ergo the risk of a flight to Rwanda is vanishingly small and not going to have any deterrent effect.
For the small percentage who may be at risk of a flight out of the UK, there is always Sue, Grabbit and Runne Solicitors, willing to take the fees to defend them.
I also guarantee that the activist groups will mount yet more legal challenges before a plane leaves.
Is this not Rishi pandering to the xenophobe in all of us to rescue a few seats in what will be a massacre should he ever have the courage to ask the nation to judge him? |
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Reply | Moving seats
at 11:58 23 Apr 2024
Moving from Kingsland to my couch. |
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Thread | Desperate Tories - or tactical masterstroke?
at 11:55 23 Apr 2024
The UK welcomed around 37.000 immigrants last year who did not have permission to be here.
Rishi and cronies want to send around 2,000 to Rwanda - a year - as a "deterrent".
In order to do so he and his whips bullied and arguably overrode the safeguards built into our democratic system. His Gov't ignored Parliament and bulldozed this through.
At the risk of triggering the latent racists among us and in the hope of sparking a genuine debate, is this the right answer? Were the means to achieve that answer justified by the ends? What will be the next Gov't (Tory Party) v Parliament issue be? |
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Reply | Leeds or Ipswich?
at 11:43 23 Apr 2024
I'd prefer to play Leeds.
I think they are very front foot and better suited to the RM way.
That said, I'd like RM to find a different way for the playoffs - but he won't. |
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Reply | FA Cup
at 11:40 22 Apr 2024
I've only seen FA cup games this season that feature Saints.
The rest of the games mean nothing to me.
the football calendar could be cleared in a stroke by just selecting two PL teams at random and saying that they will be in the final - we don't need the games.
Also with two Manc clubs in the final, why not have it at Anfield or Goodson or Villa PArk? Why clog up the rail lines to London, move the game to suit TV and leave a lot of "happy" fans out, late at night, in London? |
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Thread | The rest of this season - and next
at 10:11 22 Apr 2024
Short of an unlikely series of results, we're in play offs and stating the bleeding obvious, we will get promoted or stay in the Champ.
If we get promoted, we'll have enjoyed a day out at Wembley and be looking forward to some good teams coming to SMS. My feeling is that the club has no money for serious recruitment and that a stay in the PL will see us lose more games than we win and survival may be all we can hope for.
Perversely if we do get promoted the style RM likes to play will be better suited to that league but again, I think teams already there play it better than we do and we will need something a little different. I am no confident that RM can provide "different".
If we stay in the Champ (and arguably we are perhaps a year or two ahead of the plan anyway) then I fear that many of the teams mid table this season will be real contenders. At least three of them Coventry, Boro and Hull have teams that are rebuilds from previous seasons and if they are kept they will be contenders. Add in the three relegated teams and promotion next season is not a guarantee.
I cannot see the owners asking RM to move on and I can't see him departing for "better opportunities" elsewhere. We are the best opportunity he's ever had!
I would hope that the obvious shortcomings of this season are addressed. We lack players of sufficient quality in some areas and I think the game management needs to be improved. If we accept that that we will make a lot of chance, score few of them, then we need to stop letting goals in. That speaks to needing a new CB and a new system. Personally I'd like to go 3-4-3 but again, not the RM way.
I'd also like to see less BS from the manager. Absolutely understand that he has to say one thing to the media and a different thing on the training pitch but some of his statements are embarrassing. Saying we've outplayed the opposition but lost 2-1 is utterly pointless. He knows why we lost - not enough shots or shots on target - and that's what needs some honesty.
My view is that promoted or not, RM is here to stay and whilst I hope some new players will arrive, unless they do, we'll be here again next season.
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Reply | Saints should Keep RM whether we get Promoted or Not
at 09:52 22 Apr 2024
In my opinion, comparing us with some of the teams in the lower third of the league is not correct.
We have had many more advantages than most of them in that we had perhaps four/five players with recent PL pedigree, a decent fan base and whilst I disagree with RM's "system", at least a plan to play to. The fact that the "plan" fails to account for the strengths/weaknesses of the opposition, is beyond some players and apparently only lasts 75 minutes in any match, is galling and frustrating, but there is a method.
Changing managers and having managers looking over their shoulders at the Board is not good. Having a squad rounded out with kids is not good. Having the pressure of dropped points meaning more to them than us, is not good. So overall I think the comparison is false.
Would I keep RM next season? Clearly nobody is asking my opinion on this but I'll put up a thread on my view. |
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Reply | Saints Announce New Season Ticket Details- Good For Some A Kick In The Teeth For
at 13:11 18 Apr 2024
Seems I need to make the most of my tickets for the Stoke game at home because I won't be going next season.
I'm a Kingsland boy usually - Block29/30 partly because I like the view from there; partly because at my age mixing it with aggy away fans is not something I welcome; partly because I arrive at the Central station and walk in thru the industrial estate. Seems that two out of those three will not be available next season.
The view will be the same but I'll be near the away fans. My experiences with them has never been good and I don't wish to repeat it. It also seems I'd have to come in over the bridge and then navigate the space between the stand and the bike racks with a lot of away fans giving it large around turnstile F?
No thanks.
Time to buy that TV subscription for me. |
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Reply | 3 home games in next 8 days
at 09:15 18 Apr 2024
Well, shows how much I know about football!
Humble pie at Chez 901.
I've said elsewhere that the team (certainly v PNE) was forced upon RM but nonetheless a few wins and a stumble elsewhere and we're a lot closer to the top two than I expected. |
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Reply | What Brought About Russell Martin U Turns Against Preston
at 09:11 18 Apr 2024
The team v PNE (and the result) has got us RM doubters in a quandary.
My view of RM is that he has stubbornly kept to a plan that sees a team going out to play that includes players in the wrong positions, a system that requires players to be better than they actually are (some defenders don't want to pass a ball between two opposition players 20 yards from goal) and stutters where we need to put on foot on the gas or chase a goal.
And why? Because it's "his way".
Perhaps beyond "his way" is the fact that many PL play the possession game and and RM's got ahead of himself a bit. We've seen Leicester play this way and aside from their recent stumbles, they've made it work, arguably with a better defence.
Against PNE however he was forced to remove the GK who many of us think is the weakest link in the team, kept JS on the bench and restored some players who played well a few months back and then seemed to fall out of favour.
Now either he has read all the threads here, decided we were right and changed his team or he was forced into the moves by injuries or he is a tactical genius (no evidence of that) or he got lucky and the players coming in had something to prove and went for it.
Personally I think RM has a little too much of the necessary managerial quality of always being right and sometimes if a player is questioning his way, he reacts like a sulky kid and drops them from team and bench. When he thinks they've learned their lesson (or when his other options are unavailable) he has to bring them back. It's certainly a way to manage high performing players, but not the only way and perhaps not the best way.
I'll wait and see the team for the weekend. I hope he plays the same team in the same formation but actually playing back to back games with the same team probably has not happened this season? |
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Reply | Stadium Update Meeting
at 17:03 16 Apr 2024
I'm guessing that a third of home fans arrive via the industrial estate and if that is going to be away fans, its means a long detour?
WHy is the club making life difficult for its own fans? |
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Reply | Four things from watching the highlights on sky
at 09:57 15 Apr 2024
Without VAR it was never going to be handball.
Stephens did NOT "win" a free kick. The defender committed a foul and JS went down very easily.
Overall, I agree with those here that JS should NOT be appearing in midfield. He adds nothing and arguably takes away by failing to track players, failing to pass the ball quickly, failing to be creative.
He is however the golden son of RM at the moment and I'm sure is int he team just so RM can bait us. |
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Reply | Nothing Says More That Youre A C**t
at 08:23 12 Apr 2024
There is no hope.
Mr Jelly, I wish you well in your rabbit hole and hope that the weather is good and the "elite" missing.
I remain surprised at how an articulate and thinking person able to apply critical analysis to situations, continues to apparently think as you do.
Or perhaps you are a creation of the conspiracy designed to keep people like me guessing? |
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Reply | Mike Channon
at 13:00 11 Apr 2024
I was introduced to the Dell as a 14 year old in 1971 and told that if I worked hard and progressed, one day I could play on that turf. In the meantime, here's the players boot room and a pile of boots to clean - see you later.
I can tell you that Channon had big feet.
I did eventually play at the Dell (but not for Saints - for Hampshire) and I did play against at least one of Channon's brothers in a Sunday League game.
He was a great player and probably deserved better treatment than we gave him.
Best Saints striker I've seen? Perhaps Ron Davies or Martin Chivers?
Best opposition striker I've seen against us? Perhaps Aguero (but I think Foden may soon eclipse him). |
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Reply | Consistently inconsistent - the RM effect?
at 12:54 11 Apr 2024
I would suggest that this season we have scored a number of goals that owe as much to luck as tactics and individual players.
Adams - for whatever reason - has missed a number of sitters this season. He knows, we know it, RM knows it. I get why RM keeps him in - because he is perhaps the best fit striker we have and give him enough chances and he will score - but it's been the same all season. Picking out the Boro game is like saying we beat Leeds and therefore should beat everybody else.
The Ipswich late goal was entirely avoidable. Yes the red card was debatable but at 2-2 away from home to the top of the league, 10 men, what you do is play nine at the back and leave one up. You don't carry in playing as though we want the 65% possession to continue. LAck of a plan B cost us, not a scuffed shot.
The point I'm making is that our players do seem able to have a series of good games. Rather they play well for 1 or 2 games and then fall away again to mediocrity. Why is that?
I suggest that it may be because of constant changes to the first 11, to tactics being compromised to incorporate favourites, to wildly differing tactical instructions from RM (see the Blackburn game where hardly got half the team over the half way line - against a team who got thumped 5-0 this week).
If a player starts to play well in a position then surely pro manager 101 is to keep him there and keep the system that gives him the ball/space. It's not to move him around (how many positions has AA played this year?) or to put him in places he cannot cope with (JS) or to go from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 on alternate weeks.
For me, this is a sign of lack of experience from RM who has the best squad he's probably ever had but is learning in the job and is seemingly hampered by his ego. |
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Reply | Nothing Says More That Youre A C**t
at 10:50 11 Apr 2024
Cloud seeding etc has been tried many times in many places and so far as I can see from the admittedly limited reading I've done, the results are inconsistent and never guaranteed.
To link what is a scientific exercise in meteorology with Covid, is where credibility starts to get strained.
If we were for a moment to believe that Covid was an invention that all the world's Gov'ts - regardless of political stripe - agreed upon in 2019 and 2020 (no evidence of that) and that their intention was to keep us all at home, which arrived with wrecking the economy of the UK and many others, (plenty of evidence for that), who benefitted?
If you're about to tell me the "elite" were the beneficiaries, please tell me who they are and what they stood to gain?
And no, I do not believe that Covid was an invention nor that it was an attempt at population control. |
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Reply | Top 3 dropped points ...
at 09:23 11 Apr 2024
The maths is easy - we could get an automatic place if other mess up.
The realistic facts are that the team above really only need a couple of wins to get us in the playoff places.
If I were manager right now, I'd have people watching the other play off teams and be planning how to play against them. I'd also decide on a first 11 and play them together (barring injuries) over the next 6 games. No more meddling! |
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Site Scores| Forum Votes: | 95 | | Comment Votes: | 43 | | Prediction League: | 0 | | TOTAL: | 138 |
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