Lallana's Left Peg

There are managers who stick to a system no matter what and wish to perfect it. There are also managers that adapt and tinker. Plenty of successful managers doing either. Jason Wilcox brought Russell Martin in to play a very specific way and Martin has done that to a tee. It is no guarantee of success. I'm not upset when we have 65%+ possession and create better and more chances than the opposition and only a lack of quality finishing prevents us from winning. When a game is too open and our defense is exposed to too many attacks in transition that is when the system fails but the onus is on the players to fix because the manager asks them to play a certain way and when they don't that is the consequence. We all know and understand how we're supposed to play, and when we do it we look good and play well. Aside from a a good spell under Ralph, it's been about 6 years since we could say that? He is still a very young manager and still very much in the ascendancy. I predict next season if we're a Championship club he will be linked with many jobs in the lower half of the Prem. He has made every team he has been manager of better, and has done it playing very good football. He will move onto better things long before we sack him, I've no idea what the bar is Saints fans think there is to be our manager but I think he's been a very good appointment. Of course, ultimately if by summer 2025 we haven't gone up the effectiveness of his football with the quality of team we'll have will be in question, plus he now has to negotiate a new DoF coming in. However, I would be very surprised to see a new DoF come in that has different ideas to the vision that is now being implemented.

What use is a point to us in this situation? It's win or bust in our scenario. It's disappointing how the arse fell out the team the moment we conceded but shutting up shop for a point isn't any good to us in my opinion. Plan A is a very good plan and more often than not executed very well. When we don't finish things go very very wrong and teams get confidence and belief. I also think our shapeless midfield exists out of possession from minute one, except we retain possession well enough for it never to be a problem. Martin sets up that midfield three to hold and progress the ball - he doesn't want a pure destroyer in there, let alone two. If they do their job properly our weaknesses aren't exposed. When they lose grip of the game in possession the weaknesses are evident.

Not much more can be said that hasn't, but I find criticism of the manager ridiculous. We should have been out of sight at HT due to the way he set up the team and has us playing. He can't make these players better finishers. The weakness in the tactic is always resilience defensively because we're set-up to have possession. We had possession, wasted chances, and the inevitable happened. It'll happen next time too if our players fail to score great chances. The Ross Stewart transfer continues to be the biggest regret of the summer. With a consistent number 9 we'd be top by 10pts.

Watford will be very physically strong and very quick on the break, but if we play well with the ball I think we'll be able to break them down and wear their resolve. Really need to be more than a goal up heading into the last 10 though because there are issues that will take Martin more than a season to resolve on that front.

That game annoyed me a lot more than Boro or Ipswich. Performances were decent against them. Today, given the circumstances, was really bad. You have to win in case others slip up. Two teams slipped up, and we played like it was the penultimate game of the season and we were mid table. Something doesn't seem right as we're too good to let this happen.

This can only be my last post today however whilst I acknowledge what you're saying (and the facts are the facts) I do think we should have scored lots more than 74. We should be on about 100. Which would then mean conceding as many as we have is a bi-product of little consequence, rather than the impactful consequence it is right now. The problem with conceding less is that much of it would mean at a cost of attacking so fluidly. I'd rather keep the system and have a more seasoned keeper than be more defensive and lose that attacking momentum. We would have won 3-5 today and everyone would be happy, but the same defensive issues were there but we wouldn't care cause we took enough of our chances to render that a non-issue (well, until next season). We battered Ipswich and didn't score so they got belief and we crumbled. It's happened too often this season. Take the chances and kill the game.

That is not an issue if you take your chances, because his teams create more chances than most. I'll take creating more chances that the opposition in every game, it's just unfortunate that we have a midfield who (Downes aside) don't defend our box well and a keeper who is learning the game, and a strikeforce that snatch at far too many chances. So conceding many is a symptom not a root cause. And if anyone thinks being more defensive is the answer here, would you then trust our strikers to take advantage of the one or two chances they get a game for us just to get a draw or snatch a win?

I can only assume the over-reaction in here is due to the disappointment of losing. We played well, and didn't do enough in both boxes. Martin can't make players hit the target or do the basics of defending your own goal. That's down to the quality of player not coaching, the system or anything else. You can argue perhaps he needs a more defensively minded team at times however I've seen us with the ball when we do that and we really create very little as ball retention and progression suffers. On the basis many teams only get belief against us because of how wasteful we are in front of goal, I can't help but feel the Ross Stewart signing not working out has been the primary cause of our downfall this season - more than anything else. There is blame and there are issues elsewhere, but the real lack of a proper striker to take advantage of the chances we create (and we create loads) stresses us everywhere else. And even if you say you can't foresee an injury, we had a chance to do something in Janaury and failed.

I was at the game with a friend who is a professional footballer and has been managed by the likes of Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique and it was very interesting to hear his comments throughout. For what its worth he thought we were brilliant and unlucky and he loves watching us. His only negative comments were a lack of quality up front and getting tired too early in the second half. I think we're just stuck in a little rut and things aren't clicking but we'll get there. Some players are out of form and its having an impact throughout the team.

There are a few conundrums Martin needs to figure out: 1. If our best form of defence is retaining the ball, then what he does when Downes is missing. Smallbone is half the player without him in the team, and Charles does not have the passing ability. It completely ruins our midfield. 2. Brooks may be one of our best players but it means Adam Armstrong plays up front and he doesn't perform there as well as he does when he starts on the right. 3. Teams are going to attack us now and whilst I don't want Martin to change the way we play at all we need a few answers to keep teams honest when they press us. I don't think he'll ever want the ball to be passed long which is usually a natural counter to a high press so really we need to change our shape a bit in the final third to offer better passing lanes as the ones we have right now have been honed for low blocks and the team seem a little rattled by a high press. It's all fixable 🙂

You just get the feeling that we may be trying to change too much at once and completely mess up our chances of promotion. I understood it would be a process. I understood there was a lot of mentality to change as well. I'm fine with individual errors when they are trying to change what they do and it's alien to some players. I really struggle with a group of players who are paid at the top end of this division showing meekness, lethargy and any sort of lack of cohesion which are all independent of the above. And, for that, the Manager is responsible. He will live and die by his beliefs and I respect that, but it doesn't matter what your beliefs are if your players apply that sort of attitude, and attitude is a reflection of the Manager (or their attitude towards the manager). The fans aren't to blame for having standards. Standards the club has failed to uphold for a few years now. There was plenty of support for the team on Saturday, but as the game went on the away end turned because it seemed the only people in that stadium who wanted to do something about losing were all sat in the stands and not on the pitch. That's unacceptable and our attacking play was fraudulent. EDIT: KWP tried to do something about it. No-one else. And he did something about it by running at players and dribbling, which is off-script for Martin.

The only time we look like making something happen is when a player goes off script. I get there are lots of new players. I get we're trying to instill a new playing system. But we still have enough quality to be creating a lot more. I kind of accept the defensive mistakes as they are doing what the Manager has asked. I have no idea what is going on in the final third and it was only when KWP decided to go for a dribble and liberate the rest of the team that we showed any sort of genuine intent and imagination in the final third.

If he's not going to sign a new deal we're not going to let him walk for free. £15m is a lot of money. It's only stupid if we don't reinvest.

It will take a few months for this team to be consistent at a level we want. Until that time, the extra quality we have over most teams will likely make a difference. It may have been easier to sell some players for less money earlier in the window, but that would be setting some dangerous precedents. Instead, we've had to find the balance between fighting for the right fees and getting the income in within a timely manner so we can still buy the players we want. We'll know if we've done that in a few weeks. If you'd have told me a few months ago that we'd take 4pts out of the first 6 available, look good overall and only crap defending at set pieces was the problem with getting 6pts, and we'd have a total of 50 or so shots in those two league games whilst also getting £130m in for Lavia, JWP, Tino and Salisu I'd be really happy.

It's going to be another three weeks until we know what our squad is for the coming season, and another month after that before we have any idea who our best team is. We'll be up and down until then. Burnley started terribly last season and it turned out ok for them. This is just a dose of reality of a club mid-transformation and having to get used to a lower quality of footballer on the pitch at St Marys. I'm still quite positive about our prospects this season. At least we have a clear identity and some intent.