Saint86

He was benched for Coventry, Blackburn, Watford. Starts either side of that... So this was his second start. To state he's overplayed, and then attack and blame the manager is laughable.

The only thing that is mind boggling is that none of us are surprised with how it ended.

What an absolutely laughable thing to blame the manager for. Get a grip ffs.

Yup, last game for saints as well. What a day.

Absolutely fucking pathetic today. Lost to an injury ravaged team with a bunch of academy players. All this in a must win game where our attackers messed about like it was a training game. Jokers.

Totally lost the plot here.

Lost the plot here. Incredibly poor today. Adams and Brooks in particular treated it like at training game and their profligacy and casualness has certainly helped cost us.

We are wasting so many chances here.

Embarrassing finishing today.

https://x.com/SouthamptonFC/status/1781390801810940396 Like it or not, he's a key part of our game. Pretty apt example truth be told - since playing it to baz led to a goal against today's opponents. We play the ball around the back to draw teams on and break - and Macca and Lumley are no where near as good at that as Baz was.

How was that a fantastic tackle? He took out brooks and completely missed the ball?!?!?!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68857595 Maresca making more excuses for his side to drop points in advance... what is he playing at. Its a must win game for them?1?!?!

Lately, and Watford was a great example, we've used Baz, che, and other runners to go long repeatedly after drawing the oppo on to us, and to really good effect. That is off the cards with Lumley and Macca's kicking/throwing. People might find our football boring or ineffective, but it works - and being forced to change it now is a risk with respect to how it will impact the side. If we wind up in a situation where Leeds or Leicester don't need the win, or where teams are pushing up on us with a high line etc. the other two keepers just don't have the distribution to get us out effectively - and without that ability to mix it up we may well struggle. Not to mention our defence are going to expect to be able to pass it back and around very nearly at the back.. I don't know how the rest of you feel about Macca and Lumley, but their touch and positional play is no where near as good as Baz's, and Macca is as likely to find the touchline as our own players if kicking to the halfway line 😅.

Has banana skin written all over it. Hopefully we can get an early goal to settle the nerves - but failing that we simply have to just get the job done no matter how scrappy it ends up being.

I mean, we had posters who were blaming him for the watford goals and who are utterly oblivious to how good his distribution is and how important it is to our play. Anyone who thinks its a good thing going into 3 must win games (and likely play offs) without our first choice (and frankly only keeper that suits our style of play) is absolutely deluded in my opinion - this weakens the team unquestionably. We are going to go into must win games at Leicester and Leeds, as well as play off knock out matches with either Macca or Lumley. The former is a liability with the ball at his feet and anything at his near post, the latter is just a poor keeper although at least he can do the sweeper role to a degree. The only silver lining i can see is that it might actually introduce some concentration in our defence who seem to constantly switch off for fatal 5-10min periods in games... If it puts an end to the casual play consistently evidenced by our defenders (which is frankly the overwhelming reason we concede goals) maybe we'll get away with it...