qwertyell

1-0 in the book will look like a tight defeat, like we were perhaps a bit unlucky, but honestly we barely laid a glove on them. As expected. What else is there to say? There's no one single issue that, if resolved, will turn the ship around. The players aren't good enough for the premier league. Some of them won't be good enough for the championship.

Predictably dreadful. West Ham aren't much better. Just nothing there. Weak defence. Anonymous midfield that is neither destroyer nor creator. And the shittiest attack this side of Shitsville. We're not staying up. Won't even be close in the final shake up.

Premier League relegation: Nine teams in danger of dropping to the Championship - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64985188 73% chance of going down. Red hot favourites - the next worst side only have a 55% chance of relegation. According to this, anyway. Hard to dispute the bottom line though.

I think the recovery time from shoulder surgery is quite lengthy, though. IIRC Theo Walcott was out for about four months when he had it done at Arsenal. The club hedged their bets with Bella-Kotchap and crossed their fingers that his dislocation was a freak one off. But as it seems like there's a big weakness there now, it'll have to be fixed. Don't expect to see him again this season.

No, Prutton received a 10 game ban.

Even when we were 3-1 down I didn't think the team deserved to get trashed today - they played pretty well, in spite of having to deal with one of the best attacks in Europe with one CB for 70mins. The late penalty was a farce - the ref wouldn't have gotten out of there alive if it'd been the other way around - but I think we earned a bit of luck with the guts we showed. This game won't be the reason we go down. But the details - three goals conceded from three shots on goal - are certainly a massive contributory factor: we can't expect to limit sides to zero shots on target, and we can't expect to have to score twos and threes every week to get something from matches. Nice cameos from the subs for a change. Mara, Sulemana and Alcaraz will be good players in a few years. Probably for someone else, though. Can't complain about the fight shown. At this stage, that's all most of us hope for - don't go down with a whimper.

0-1 h/t. To be honest, I thought we played okay in the circumstances - losing both CBs is a massive blow, even if one of them is Bednarek. The goal is on Elyounoussi. Perraud has to cover his man, Kulusevski, moving inside. Perhaps he could've hedged his bets. But if the opposition full back is in that much space, it means your wide midfielder hasn't tracked him. On the injuries, I assume Bella-Kotchap's dislocated shoulder is the same one his dislocated earlier in the season. The club had a choice then whether to operate or hope he could manage it, and looks like we again made the wrong decision. You'd think there's no way back from here, but Spurs haven't been special and we've gotten into some decent positions. But there's no quality. At all. Walcott's pace has gone, so his fairly bright movement off the ball is rendered moot once he gets it and can't motor away from anyone. We've only got one more substitute window unless we get someone on at h/t. What to do? Lose, probably.

He's only been here 9 months. It's a waste of time people getting upset about the "wrong" attackers being picked. An attacker hasn't scored a league goal for us since November. There are no "right" options. It's just rearranging lumps of shit on the Titanic. This is a relegation squad. That's all there is to it.

Not a fucking chance we get seven shots on target.

He's emblematic of a transfer policy dictated by people who have all the statistics but no actual football knowledge. There was no joined up thinking behind his signing. We tried to sign Vitinha from Braga, who is quick, agile, aggressive and skillful. And when that didn't work out we switched our attention to Onuachu, who is the direct antithesis of those attributes. Stylistically, they couldn't have been more diverse. There was no plan. No thought behind how he'd fit into our squad or how suitable he'd be in this league. It was pure panic by a bunch of fucking amateurs who are convinced they've "solved" football on MS Excel. Might go okay in the Championship, if we're lucky...

Last 8 in the league: 1 goal from open play. 3 in total. Last 10 in the league: 0 goalscorers who aren't midfielders Ward-Prowse or Alcaraz. Just appalling attackers. Worst in the league. Added Mara, Edozie, Sulemana, Onuachu to Adams, Armstrong, Walcott and Elyounoussi, at a cost of around £70m and have gotten worse. About £100m we've spent on that shite all in. Edit: I forgot we also signed Croatia's number three Mislav Orsic impersonator.

Sure as shit isn't going to be us.

Think it's a bit premature to be slitting our wrists over other teams' results. Ultimately, it's up to us to somehow cobble together a competitive points total - probably with about six wins - and then see where we stand in the final shake up. If we can't do that, everything else is moot.

It's a myth that Martinez's size makes him bad in the air. It's all about the leap and the timing. (6' 4" William Saliba lost EVERY single contested header against 5' 10" Ivan Toney the other week.) By the same token, from what we've seen so far Onuachu's aerial prowess is really nothing too special. Doesn't get his feet off the ground.

Well that was fucking agony. Wouldn't have flattered Leicester to have scored four or five. Their finishing was woeful. Still can't see another five - at a minimum - wins from this bunch to give themselves a chance of staying up, but at least they had a positive reaction from the midweek debacle. Charlie seems a good lad. Bit stupid - as we were warned by those that watched him in Argentina - but absolutely giving his all. Hopefully his knock responds well in the week. Midfield alternatives are thin on the ground if Elyounoussi's all we've got in reserve. Two PL wins for Selles. Already a better record than Jones. Football's just as ugly, mind. But it's wins we need, so fair play.

Not sure about these three subs. Elyounoussi's never improved the midfield, and if Walcott can't go the distance, Djenepo is at at least a proper winger - Aarmstrong is barely a footballer. Spent a lot of money on Onuachu to just leave him on the bench for a kid. Good luck, lads.

Relatively bright opening 5 minutes, but since we've completely lost our way. Men against boys now. And not boys who are good at football. At least we can't delude ourselves that we're in a false position in the league. We definitely look like the worst team around. AND THAT'S A PEN! And he's missed it. Back to your usual programming.

Orsic would have to be up there. I know he's only been here two months, but he was supposed to be the great white hope, the bargain signing that we nicked from under the noses of all the big clubs. And he's absolute mince. Slow, timid, feeble. Doesn't fancy it at all.

Can't make it make sense. He seems to have reverted to Hasenhuttl's busted flush 4-2-2-2, but without the pressing, which was the key to the tactic sporadically working. We're a confused mess. I'm not convinced there's an answer for this squad of ringers, but whatever the master plan is (if there is one), this approach has no chance. Still can't create anything from open play. Still can't defend. That's not a combination of inadequacies that lead anywhere good.

What makes you think that XI can win games, though? That back line and keeper have shipped goals for fun in the past, that midfield has created fuck all in the past, and we've so far got nothing whatsoever out of Sulemana and Onuachu - I can't even recall the big lump getting a shot away yet in his Saints career. Looks extremely limited. We've spent a lot of money assembling not much.

Well, the new manager bounce lasted longer than Jones'. And now we're back to being shocking. There's no fixing this rabble. It's fundamentally flawed: a keeper who can't make saves, defenders who can't defend, creative players who can't create, and strikers who can't score. Throw in a number of pea hearts when the going gets tough and there's not a lot there to feel positive about. If Selles keeps us even close to staying up he'll have performed a miracle.

He'll never get to personally hand me the Tyro League u15 division two champions trophy circa '93 at a swanky ceremony at the Guildhall. There are some achievements that Prowse will never top.

Realistically, I think we still need a minimum of 6 more wins. A lot to do.

Wasn't expecting anything, in a game where we aren't expecting anything - and yet still there's a sense of disappointment. Half of these guys must be amazing in training - because they sure as shit aren't showing anything in matches. If Selles gets a result with that casserole of nonsense, he really will be a magician.

Got an assist in the last game too, which I think was his first start.