Fabrice29

Having someone available to play at right back isn’t an excuse is it? It’s an explanation. If you want to miraculously come up with a fit right back we’ve had available then we’re all ears. Also if he’s weak now suddenly changing the formation, if he does, then does that mean you’d rather he didn’t?

I know what your point was and to clarify I’m saying it’s not true that he’s been mediocre at best. Slightly before Xmas (when I last checked) he was at the top end of performance charts similar to the ones he was with us. He had intercepted the ball more times than anyone had in a game this season against Brighton and was one of the best interceptors in Europe, just like he was when he was playing for us. He was in the top 5 of pass success in the league. His match ratings (albeit these are subjective) are consistently high.

Not sure that’s true. Pretty sure his performances have remained pretty consistent with when he played for us.

He’s had more game time than Cameron Archer this season in the league btw. Doubt there would be people clamouring to get him more game time if we were being offered a profit on him by QPR.

I feel like if it really was a shocking decision he wouldn’t be going to QPR and more importantly he wouldn’t be unable to get in the team after some pretty bang average performances.

Yup, didn’t see that first tweet. Good find.

As far as I can see there’s no suggestion of a clique in his replies from House. He even says in his replies he likes Manning. The clique stuff is nonsense.

Don’t turn this back on me. Man up and say sorry to the lady and I’ll stop.

You don’t want to be reminded of your own words anymore? 😢

1) Missing key alternative profiles which I’ve posted about in the January transfer thread 2) No issues with either in the sense that I think we’ve changed all 3 over the last 13 months and the same issues rear their heads every time. Not the problem. 3) No idea and it’s not relevant. 4) Ultimately poor, obviously. But as I’ve said in here and elsewhere the biggest difference is how ruthless we were and now wasteful we are. 5) in what sense? I’ll be going and wanting wins. Get some better options in the squad and get on a winning run and anything could happen. If we show apathy in the window the season will fade out. The idea that any season is a write off in January is nuts though, for a whole host of reasons. 5) Not a fan of the owner, messed up and mixed ideas below that, so it the lacks the clarity and plan that we had when we went up last time.

Do you not see the pattern there? You said it yourself, the poorer teams take out the tempo by nullifying the space. The better teams/more proactive ones back themselves to create their own problems and take a risk themselves by leaving some. In those Birmingham/WBA/Charlton games what happens once we’ve been ruthless and gone 3/4 up? Their tactics change, space is nullified and our tempo changes and each game the 2nd half is pretty much shut down. I’m not arguing the tempo changes, I’m arguing that’s only normal. To get better tempo against teams who nullify your space you need physical or alternative player types to create it yourselves. We don’t have that. anyway we’re done here, we are not going to agree and we don’t see it the same way. Good chatting anyway. A Journalist whose job it is to literally create content everyday for the website he wants you to engage with.

You don’t think content creators want you to engage with the content they create, no?

Okay, then yes, we’ve interpreted the games differently. I can’t fathom anyone watching the Oxford game and thinking they were pressing us all over the pitch and expecting the same spaces to exploited like they were against Charlton for example. And also I can’t believe anyone in that pub after the 2nd Brum game didn’t suggest maybe the team who got battered in the first game maybe wanted to do different tactics themselves 2nd time around that maybe affected the game? I’m up for discussing the merits of how we should have seen that coming and done something differently ourselves (I’d argue we don’t have the player profile for that btw) but the idea that it was just our choice that we decided not to do the same things is crazy and naive.

I didn’t say anything about House and a podcast. Secondly, you can absolutely say something that is true and even popular but still be creating and fuelling that narrative for content purposes. I never said they weren’t saying things that they don’t think is true.

Yea because all the teams you’ve mentioned first were proactive teams themselves who came after us, especially in the first halfs and left space to exploit. The teams you mentioned second were reactive tactically against us and meant the space was nullified so we have to try to manipulate the space ourselves by recycling possession. People massively forget the game isn’t all about our 11 players on the pitch. There’s another 11 players actively trying to implement their own game or nullify yours. That’s even before you get onto how goals affects games and people’s perceptions of them. The biggest thing that changed, apart from some tactical things regarding our base line, between Still, Eckerts first games and now is how ruthless we were.

This isn’t true though. We haven’t reverted to anything. And certainly not the tactics that bought us goals and points in this league. What’s actually happened is we’ve played teams who set up differently themselves and therefore that affects the players on our team too. You can’t pop the ball around teams like we did against Charlton unless they come hurtling all over the pitch like Charlton did. That’s where you end up recycling possession at the back because we’re trying to tempt teams in to play around them. Then you need to actually execute that well enough for it to be successful and then take your chances so it creates a significant moment to stay in people’s minds to register you actually did it. I’d argue quite a lot of the times we recycle possession we actually play into nice positions like we did against Charlton etc but then we misplace passes or miss chances and it comes to nothing. That’s the difference. Bad execution and tougher opposition tactics.

Go to print A tweet and a fanzine website post are not going to print ffs These people, especially House, crave and rely on talking points to do with Saints. They need you, the punter, to click on, read, engage with, share, discuss and reference their work to survive and thrive. I’ve never read that fanzine rubbish before that so no idea how often he posts but House and the echo need daily content and engagement. They do so by rehashing all week quotes they’ve got from a once a week press conference and they fill in content around it to engage. The same goes for Blackmore and Tessem who create narratives thoughout their broadcasts to fuel a podcast later on and then next weeks content. If you want to believe these people not only know the inner workings of an environment they are rarely in but also are trying to hint at it in some rebellious cryptic way when they do a tweet then good for you, but I’m going to continue to believe that the local echo journalist naming some names of players he likes is just doing that and hoping you’ll engage with it and his content that pays his way personally.

Just the 5 managers since Martin have picked them. All 5 had the opportunity and means to drop them if they thought it would help. That fairy liquid has gone to your head you big old misogynist.

Hilarious lines these from that article. The inference from Alfie House is that there is a culture issue - fine, I can see that inference (not really an inference if he literally says it btw but sure). "A clique of players who are running their own agendas" - Hang on - That's a massive leap from a post saying he'd like a culture reset. Then the very next line saying "I heard something last week" - cool, that's interesting who from? "not from anyone at the club or anyone who has spoken to any players" right so not from anyone who would actually know? Don't let that stop your point though eh. The idea that we replace lots of our players in an ideal world is lovely and something we have all wanted for a while. Zero evidence of any agenda or clique of players though, just complete and utter waffle until anyone actually proves it with something substantial and given we've had 5 managers now, all of whom had every possibility to drop this so called clique but have chosen not to, I'll probably not believe it really. Would also add the idea that it's so outrageous that a group of players quite liked the way they played when they were successful and might dare to suggest doing that again would help is pretty mad too.

I’ve been asking for more the whole season, am I ahead of the game? In his defence, he’s absolutely desperate for someone to aim for in the box and someone to play off outside of it.

And Armstrong. We only needed 1 they just had to be reliable.

Which would be true if Downs was good/available huh.

People said this last January and the results just got worse. Apathy is the worst thing that can be done and it starts at the top.

It would allow quicker release of passes to the left side of the pitch, like Scienza. You're right though, that's a secondary part.

It shouldn't matter, should be able to do both.