verlaine1979

Even teams who excel at playing it out from the back don't pass it multiple times into the six yard box under that kind of pressure. It's not clever, it's stupid.

Brooks and Fraser crossing to Stewart would certainly be a dimension we haven't had all season.

Trading five minutes spells of dominance. But they've engineered notably better chances while on top. As usual, nobody for Saints really willing to take responsibility for creating something - just hoping that the opportunity to play a killer pass occurs organically as a result of holding onto the ball long enough.

Sure, I get the managerial logic. It's just at odds with the economic strategy of developing to sell. Archie Gray and Jobe Bellingham are both within a couple of months of Dibling in age, and both played the best part of 40 league games for Leeds and Sunderland. Dibling played a total of 2 minutes for us in the league. Maybe they're just vastly better players, but it seems unlikely given Dibling's international performances and the general air of expectation around him. The club get a lot of credit for playing Shaw young, but in reality we only did so because we were forced by injuries to give him a decent stretch in the team, after which he became irreplaceable. I take the point about previous generations of Under 21s clearly proving themselves not good enough, but isn't it widely accepted that our youth teams spent a good decade or more in the wilderness after the 2005, from which we've really only just recovered?

Has this really been the case? I thought Dibling looked dangerous in his few cameos over xmas, but as the season got tighter our willingness to give minutes to youth players vanished completely. Likewise, when Manning was dogshit and Bree was still injured, you'd have thought Meghoma's good showings in the cups would've been worth an experimental start against weaker opposition, but again, nothing. SAA got a couple of games at the start of the season, but after that didn't get a look-in. This season we haven't been a club that puts any faith in youth - cups and a few minutes here and there is the bare minimum.

I'd much rather not make it and be looking for a first professional contract as an ex-Chelsea youth player than an ex-Saints youth player. Perceptions matter, and it's been about a decade or more since our academy had a reputation on par with theirs. Teams like Saints have to grasp the nettle - if you believe in developing youth as a viable business model, you have to play them before other teams would be comfortable doing so. There's no point waiting for them all to hit their early 20s stride before you find out if they're good enough in competitive play. Dortmund are obviously at a higher level than us, and their teenage recruits are better than ours, but they've still been comfortable playing the likes of Bellingham, Sancho, Reyna and Pulisic in the league and Champions League at 17.

There's a difference between playing out from the back and playing at the back. A possession game that involves your CBs having the ball more than your midfield is a very different proposition to the City/Barca model. But as our attack and midfield are not technically accomplished enough to maintain possession in the opposition half for long periods, we end up having to go backwards because we are pathologically opposed to giving the ball away. But then we find out that - gasp - our CBs also aren't really good enough to play keep-ball indefinitely. It feels literally idiotic to watch at times.

Oof, that's textbook. Two goals from players ghosting in unmarked at the far post, one from a giveaway playing out from the back, and one where a static defense are deceived by the simplest movement from the CF.

I don't think we are technically that good. Certainly not good enough to pass quickly and accurately, or for our more skillful players to keep possession under pressure. In our own half, we pass side to side until we invite pressure and lose it. In attack, we pass side to side with no clue how to move it beyond the defence until we lose it or it goes back into our own half and the cycle starts over.

One of the most annoying things is you just know with utter certainty that we'd have fucked up that break if it had been us with a four on three. But Leics absolutely clinical with every pass.

Ah, so tney look like a technically much better side than us. Whenever we're trying to beat their press or move the ball through midfield, everyone looks like they're about to shit themselves in terror as they try to protect and offload the ball. In contrast their passing and movement are for the most part crisp and controlled. This is what Strachan meant when he talked about propaganda football.

I do find it odd that the team completely falls apart without Downes, and yet it seemed far from certain at the time that he wanted to join us. What was the plan if he'd turned us down?

We played much, much better football as recently as the games after the covid season break.

I doubt that Solak would be able to just arbitrarily fire Ankerson. He isn't an employee, he's the founder of a company Solak invested in. I'm sure DS has considerable power at board level, but it won't be as simple as snapping his fingers in displeasure.

Bloody hell, Adams finds the corner with his side foot. Miracles do happen!