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Reply | Details of Stadium changes & fan parks!
at 16:32 7 May 2024
And this has nailed the whole purpose.
The club wants fans to get there early, buy their overpriced and undervalue drinks and food and now stay longer after the match and spend yet more money.
Not for me - nor I suspect many others.
If block 29/30 is going to be under siege from away fans during and after a match, why would I want to stay?
If I want decent food and drink in Southampton, there are dozens of places I'd go in preference to SMS.
The club however wants to make 90 minutes of dull and boring football the centrepiece of a "matchday experience".
Well good luck with that. |
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Reply | Russell Martin Lays Out Play Off's Strategy For Ross Stewart
at 14:52 7 May 2024
I find it very hard to criticise Adams and AA when by any measure of Championship statistics, they are more or less where we finished in the league.
The "what if" game is in the realms of fantasy football.
What if we had discovered in our junior teams somebody like Bale, Walcott, Bridge who came into the first team and scored 12 goals?
What if we had found a perfect keeper busking on the street corner and recruited him?
What of, we had found a manager who player to the strengths of the team and not forced them to play in a system unsuited to this league?
(OK - I'll give you the last one). |
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Reply | I've tried, but I can't accept it
at 14:46 7 May 2024
Good afternoon Mr SaintNick
The key point I wanted to emphasis but was perhaps lost is that RMs latest statements seem to be directed, not at bolstering the confidence of the team and giving them good vibes ahead of games coming up but rather defending himself and his methods. IN other words he seems to be getting his retaliation in first.
Further, football players are by and large not the most articulate of people and nuances in messaging will often be lost or misinterpreted. They will take a literal meaning over a metaphor any day.
If RM is saying things in a more direct manner to his players but trying to paint a picture for the owners and the media that is different, this is dangerous ground. He risks building a false edifice which - should it crash and burn - will destroy his, and our club's, integrity.
It's also very unsettling for him to be claiming credit for something that at the end of the day is in his job description. |
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Reply | Details of Stadium changes & fan parks!
at 10:32 7 May 2024
For me this plan is a disaster.
I'm a Kingsland boy and having the away fans next to me is not welcome.
I also come in through the industrial estate (along with thousands of others) and if that route is not available, it means a detour.
(Presumably the bus from the station will also have to go elsewhere now?)
My typical match day experience is to arrive 15 minutes before the game, get in, get to my seat, stifle my frustration at our boring tactics, spend 20 minutes getting out of the stadium at the end, walk to the station in 25 minutes. and hopefully get the 5:30 or 5:40 train. This plan will put an end to that. |
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Thread | I've tried, but I can't accept it
at 10:23 7 May 2024
The latest statement from RM is something I should ignore and move on from - but I can't.
He seems to be saying that he should have credit for keeping together a team when "two thirds" of the squad wanted to leave and that getting to the playoffs was all along the master plan.
I'm calling BS on that.
A first team squad is what, 20 players, 22? Saying that 12 to 14 wanted to leave is literally unbelievable.
We know that JWP and a couple of others (Tino, Tella etc) were sold because the club needed the money, Did they express a desire to leave?
We know that some were not wanted (Tall Paul, etc)
We know that some clearly wanted away but I doubt that was more than a handful.
A better measure might have been to ask the squad after the run of four defeats early in the season, who wanted away?
I just don't buy the statement and I see it as RM trying to buy compliments.
Then to suggest that a play off place was his "plan"?!
With arguably one of the best three squads in the league and his "system", to suggest that he had met his target is either delusional or he's seeking to weight his annual appraisal.
To suggest that a play off place is "success" screams a lack of ambition and perhaps (dare we whisper it) a lack of belief in his own system.
I really hope that we win the lottery/playoff and get to the PL> If so, I hope the owners have a good hard look at the managerial set up and alongside some investment in the team, consider improving it.
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Reply | Desperate Tories - or tactical masterstroke?
at 16:50 1 May 2024
Genuine question.
If we get a boatload of immigrants with no permission arriving from France, why can we not take them back on the next ferry and drop them back in Calais? |
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Thread | My invite to a season ticket in the Northam
at 16:42 1 May 2024
Has just arrived.
Standing - at my age - no thanks.
So my reward for having bought tickets in the Kingsland this season is an increase of 10-15% in prices; being next to the away fans; having to go a long way around the ground to reach turnstile F.
I fear that the disaster I saw against Stoke will be the last game I will see at SMS.
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Reply | The case for sticking with Russell Martin
at 15:15 1 May 2024
Most managers have studied the game for years and have a plan, a system that they believe is effective. The very best coaches in the UK and Europe have gravitated to teams with pretty much unlimited funds to buy players. The result is that the quality of players can (and does) mask a number of flaws in their preferred systems. Those flaws are most often exposed when they need to chase a game from a losing position. When their game needs urgency and a degree of reckless attacking, we see the problems of trying to change the mindset of players who have been told for months to keep the ball.
Teams of lower quality need to have much simpler systems to play because individual players will make errors or fail to follow the plan. In these situations, the manager needs to find a compromise between possession based tactics requiring technically good players and pacey football. By pacey I mean get it forward quickly to speed merchants or play one touch football or try to achieve overloads in certain areas of the pitch.
In my view RM has strayed too far towards possession which he sees the better PL and European clubs use well because they have better players.
Leicester and Leeds and especially Ipswich (all finished above us) have a better blend of slow, slow, quick, quick, slow. Leicester because they have quality. Leeds because they has passion and drive. Ipswich because a lot of their players were in L1 last season and don't know any other way (and a very rich sponsor).
We may be the best of the rest in the Champ, we've all seen that possession and slow football is not enough to get promoted except in the lottery of the playoff.
This is something that RM could have fixed before Christmas - and chose not to. This is why I think he's a few percent short of what we need.
I'm not calling for his head but equally I'll not be overjoyed if he stays because I can't see him changing his views and playing to the strengths of the squad and the requirements of this league rather than his own "vision". |
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Reply | Should Russell Martin Put Out Another Reserve Side For Leeds United Trip
at 09:20 1 May 2024
He should be looking at his fit players, deciding his first 11 and then think about how many he can leave out rather than risk injuring.
It's also a case that some players will want to play because they need to be involved and others welcome the rest and do not think that their form will suffer if they do. Only RM can do that.
The above though means he needs to know his preferred starting 11 in the play offs - and I don't think he does. |
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Reply | 5 Things From Saturday
at 10:01 30 Apr 2024
I'm sorry Mr StMichael but you are offside here.
I've never met Mr Nick but simply giving us the opportunity to comment and complain and praise is not "influence".
I'm not a user of social media but I suspect that there are forums (Facebook, Telegram, Twitter) where many fans vent their feelings and as such picking on this forum, which you have to be a member of to comment, is a little unfair. To then suggest that the facilitator is more to blame than others here who are no fans of RM, doubles down on that.
I do not like the way RM chooses to play. Whatever happens in the next month or so, I hope that next season if he is still with us, he looks hard at the weaknesses in his system and how a good side will exploit them and makes changes. That might be personnel or shape/tactics but something has to change.
Threads elsewhere are correct in that at the very top level, the game is about money. The owners of the top 6 (7?) care little except for dividends or in the case of the Middle Eastern owned clubs, reflected glory and prestige. That sort of mentality is filtering down the leagues and SR are a good example of wannabe's to that exclusive club.
Picking RM as manager was a move calculated to advance up that greasy pole.
And if the fans don't like the way we play, the overbearing ego of the manager, the changing of the away end in what can be described as a moment of madness, then tough on the fans.
To say that the criticism of the manager and all other aspects as above is out of line. |
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Reply | Southampton Should Not Fear Anyone In The Play Offs.
at 16:53 29 Apr 2024
RM will not change the way we play.
The players (based on last Saturday) are either not good enough to play it, have lost faith in it (and perhaps RM?), have seen Leeds, Ipswich and others counter it easily.
We therefore have to hope that RM can motivate the team to get back to pass and move whilst learning something from the games we've lost this season.
I think that is a vain hope and we will see more of the same.
If I were a supporter of Ipswich, Leeds, WBA, Norwich or Hull, I'd be wanting to meet us early doors before taking on real opposition in the final. |
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Reply | Premier League to introduce spending cap
at 16:48 29 Apr 2024
It'll be ignored by those funded from the Middle East because they have the view that "our" rules should not apply and because they have money, they can do what they like.
There will be so many exceptions and exemptions that it will be meaningless. |
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Thread | Do we complain too much?
at 12:00 29 Apr 2024
Those of us who follow Saints at more than a casual level have this season been led to believe that promotion was something that the owners wanted (despite the fire sale at the start of the season), was something that RM was brought in to achieve (but we don't like his style of play), was something that with our squad and loanees, should have simply achieved.
None of the above have proven to be anything other than vague hopes and misplaced expectations.
The position of the owners is a mystery even now. Are we a feeder club or one with ambition?
The position of RM is more complex. We, the fans, do not like the way he plays but we are going to finish 3/4 in the table and therefore it works against most teams in this league. It does however seem to have left the players bereft of confidence at a crucial time and perhaps (who knows) he has lost the dressing room. I remain of the view that he is a 98% manager and when you need somebody to be 101%, he's not the man.
Our squad has always been short of at least three players and now, at the sharp end of the season, it shows. There are failings there which, promoted or not, need to be fixed.
The threads here have pointed out all of the above, time and again. We have not held back in our criticism of owners, manager, players.
We have therefore become a self fulfilling prophesy, predicting problems and frustrations and then revelling in them when they come true.
How many posters here? A couple of hundred tops?
How many season ticket holders? More than 30k at each of the last few home games?
We posters here are in a minority and whilst that may be balanced by the degree to which we "care" about the team and club, we will always be a minority.
Many relegated clubs, especially those who lose a lot of players, are mid table for at least a season. Arguably we have therefore exceeded expectation?
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Reply | 5 Things From Saturday
at 11:48 29 Apr 2024
My 5 takeaways.
1. Why start with 4/5 bench players but no apparent change of shape/tactics/system to accommodate them?
2. Harwood-Bellis was - in my view - exposed for the goal but equally failed to get close enough to their striker and allowed him to shoot. Even then McCarthy should have stopped it.
3. Playing with Mara is worse than playing with 10 men. He gifts the ball to the opposition so it's more like 12 v 10. He's had his opportunities, failed to show anything and should now be moved on.
4. To arrive at the last home game with no idea who the first 11 is (not even the 11 who finished the game) is unforgivable.
5. The Stoke fans were pretty good and our support wilted perhaps for some of the reasons here, i.e. lack of fight in the team, lack of a Plan B from RM, having all of the ball and none of the shots,
6. I lost count (of this list) and the number of times forward players made their run and were ignored by the midfielder with the ball. That is either because the run was too early, the midfield player was too slow or -worst of all - the midfield player was under orders to keep the ball at all costs and not risk a pass that the opposition might intercept. The first two probably do account for a number of missed opportunities but I suspect the majority is the latter reason and if so that is poor coaching. |
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Reply | Drop KWP too much of a liability
at 16:28 25 Apr 2024
Then reason teams attack us down the wings is because the RM way sees the FBs pushed on. The space behind them is meant to be defended by the forward press (high block in the coaching manuals) and what is sometimes called the funnel, i.e. the FBs wide and in midfield mean that the opposition goes down the centre and into our CBs.
Unfortunately a long ball can undo all of that and leaves the space behind the FBs empty and with only two CB's they are reluctant to move across and cover. Add in the fact that KWP does charge forward but the left back is usually more hesitant and gets caught between attacking and defending and creates a dog leg making an offside play difficult, and the whole system can be undone.
Basically however the width in our team is up front and midfield and we are very narrow at the back.
That is not KWP's fault or even whoever is the favourite son at left back these days. It's a fault in the system and one that's been there all season.
The weaker teams cannot break the system (except of course for sunderland and Bristol) but the better teams can - and do.
Telling the FBs to stay put doesn't work either. Look at Boro at home and the Blackburn 0-0. Without them adding width up front our passing game stalls. Yes, we let in fewer goals but we have hardly any shots.
Radical change now is not the time to experiment.
Personally (and I know the only person RM listens to is the face he sees shaving) I would play three CBs - push the FBs on - play a proper strong holding mid (if we had one) and perhaps play with two up front (but would prefer three). |
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Reply | Drop KWP too much of a liability
at 15:20 25 Apr 2024
That team is not just (another) change in personnel but a change in the way they play.
If we want to pass and move, then why are Bree, Stephens, Downes, Adaws in that starting outfit?
The first three are essentially negative players designed to stall the oppostion but add nothgin to our pasing game
I've said elsewhere now is not the time for complete change of style. |
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Reply | Play off reality
at 14:58 25 Apr 2024
So a way of playing that has put us in the top four, won more games than lost, beaten WBA twice, Leeds once and most teams below us, scored us 24 more goals than we've let in, should be abandoned?
For what?
Playing as we do I absolutely agree that winning the play offs is unlikely. Changing that radically and asking the players to take positions they've not played all season will not see us get to the final.
We need to get real here. |
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Site Scores| Forum Votes: | 97 | | Comment Votes: | 43 | | Prediction League: | 0 | | TOTAL: | 140 |
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