qwertyell

Talk about a victim complex: Tella dived and Prowse took the free kick before the whistle. Sucks for us, but the rules were applied properly. Decent first 20 minutes from us, but our lack of quality in the forward positions is painful. We got sloppy after that and Leeds were the more dangerous team overall. The amazing Romeu tackle glosses over how truly inept our defensive set up was from our own bloody free kick. Assume we've run our race now and Leeds will eventually cash in on one of our myriad mistakes. If we get through this match on a fucking ice rink without any injuries that'll be a result.

The team just five points behind us - and who beat us with nine men the other day - are in a relegation battle, but we're "safe as houses*?

Bizarre game, really. We've been second best everywhere - Chelsea are quicker, stronger, more aggressive - and have barely completed a pass. And then Minamino, who has been our worst player and lost possession every time the ball came near him, pops up with a beautiful goal from out of nowhere. Suddenly we've got something to cling to. Whether we can is another issue. Not sure what the manager is thinking playing long balls up to a short striker and a winger, but I guess the scoreline so far justifies it. Credit to Djenepo for putting his brittle body on the line for the team. Can't defend to save his life, but he's giving it a go. Those two fouls on him weren't pretty but I have to say I'd have been livid if the boot was on the other foot and VAR had intervened to send a Saints player off for such challenges. Late, yes. A booking if a proper referee was on the whistle. But I don't think there was any serious intent there. Big half coming up. Even a point would be a boost. Good luck lads.

Is no-one allowed to point out that we're in relegation form, and that it's not ideal? Last 11 games: 1 win, 3 draws, 7 defeats. Goals for: 6. Goals against: 22.

Forster hasn't become better in absentia. He's still incredibly limited and technically flawed. But he has strung together a whole 4 competent games - which at this moment in time is in stark contrast to McCarthy, who has conceded 20 goals from the last 37 shots he's faced. It may make no difference whatsoever to change keepers, but as our current number one has the saves-to-shots ratio you might expect of a wheelie bin, how much can it hurt to try something else?

Go bold - give Nathan Tella a whirl. He's quick and enthusiastic. Has the strength of a kitten and looks like he might get lost running in a straight line, but hey. Not going to make it as a top level winger/forward, so why not try and convert him into something useful? At worst, he'll be terrible - like everyone else. All our options at RB without Walker-Peters are varying shades of shit, and the club should hang its head for allowing the manager to have no back up whatsoever - and not a single promising colt hiding in the ranks of our massively overhyped Academy. It'll obviously be Stephens for the foreseeable future. And it'll be horrible.

(h) Chelsea (a) Leeds (a) Everton (a) Sheffied United (h) Brighton (h) Burnely (a) WBA (h) Palace (h) Leicester (a) Liverpool (h) Fulham (h) Leeds (a) West Ham Two fixtures not arranged yet. Man City away (no points) and Spurs away (no points). Bolded games are the ones in which I think we've got a decent shot a winning. The Burnely to Palace run comes in a quiet April where we presently only have three fixtures, so plenty of time to rest and prepare between games. That might be our key period. Wouldn't want Fulham in May to come down to a must-win status. A couple of wins and a couple of draws should keep the pack at bay. At present, it'd just be nice to get another point on the board.

Let's see how this excuse holds up when Leeds run all over us for 90 minutes next week. Somehow, their intensity is holding up... If the players aren't fit enough to maintain the manager's tactics over the course of a season, surely a competent manager would adapt his approach. Lockdown in March bailed Hasenhuttl out last season, because we were physically cooked and headed on another dire run of form.

Fucking hell, six defeats in a row - and Chelsea next, so that'll be seven. Looks like KWP is injured again, so that's terrific. Snap your hand off for six more points and probable survival. Can't see where they're coming from any time soon. Still keeping an eye on Fulham and West Brom's results...

Salisu was excellent. People are jumping on a few errors as if he didn't make some fantastic blocks and interceptions to bail out his teammates' errors. You defend as a unit, and the unit was very tidy, for the first time in what seems like an age. Keep him fit and he'll become one of the first names on the teamsheet.

Traore rinsed us the other season (might've only been last season - it seems so bloody long ago) when Wolves came back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 at our place. His form this season has been way off, though.

No ideas or quality in the final third against an organised defence. Hasenhuttl-ball epitomised. Not expecting to see a plan B after half time. Salisu's looked all right, though. Albeit against a team who've barely attacked. Bit rusty at times, but that's to be expected. Just hope we can get through the rest of the game with no new injuries.

I wouldn't waste your energy. He's not going to change now. It's his character that's the problem - it isn't that he's not trying, it's that he loses belief at any minor setback and spends the rest of the game trying to minimise his mistakes thereafter. Liverpool away a handful of years back - it might even have been THAT semi final - encapsulated everything Redmond is about. He absolutely terrorised their backline in the first half; he was direct, running straight at the box as soon as he picked up possession, twisting their centre backs inside and out. But ultimately there was no end product and he quickly lost heart. In the second half he barely touched the ball, and when he did just passed it safely backwards while he went into hiding. It's who he is.

They could sell one to Ralph as proof that you can defend quite competently and comfortably for long periods at Old Trafford in spite of injuries and being a man light (West Ham had to drag off some poor kid who'd come on an hour earlier and didn't touch the ball).

We'd have to pay a development fee to Arsenal as compensation - probably decided by tribunal. Won't be 15-20m, but for club without a pot to piss in, he might end up being too much for us.

McCarthy has conceded 18 of the last 33 shots he's faced. Wouldn't be a surprise if the manager took him out of the firing line.

https://www.southamptonfc.com/news/2021-02-08/southampton-football-club-b-team-coach-lee-skyrme This sounds promising. Say what you want about the England national team - their youth development in the last 8-10 years has become one of the best in the business. I assume Crocker has had a hand in this appointment, and probably worked with him at the FA in some capacity. Skyrme? How are we pronouncing that? Skur-me? Sky-urm? Skrime? These are the important issues.

Appalling. Worst result of the season. Indefensible. When we go down to ten men, there's a shrug of the shoulders by the manager and the players and a cowardly acceptance that it's game over, nothing we can do. 9-0 incoming. And our fans cringingly laud the manager and beg for him to stay - it can't possibly be his fault. No, it's Mike Dean. It's people being mean about us on Talksport. It's the chairman. It's the previous chairman. It's the return of that voodoo curse that we thought we'd gotten rid of when we first moved into St Mary's. And yet when we get to play AGAINST ten men (or even nine), mysteriously, teams are somehow able to not concede nine goals per game. Or even one. We've played a combined 80 minutes against Arsenal and Newcastle this season with at least a man extra and created absolutely fuck all. In fact, we've played even worse with a numeric advantage - slower, more aimless, more timid, uninspired. One sub, the manager threw on. One. He made about as little effort as possible to change the course of the game, tactically. Because that's what he always does, no matter the match situation. Hasenhuttl is curiously both a decent fit as manager for us, and simultaneously the most overrated manager we've ever had. He's plan A or bust. The puddles in centre circle today had more depth than Ralph's superficial approach to football. "They're tired - it's hard work, this high pressing lark." Sure. A proper manager would then adapt to the challenges of a cramped schedule. Pep Guardiola has transformed Man City's form by making them run less, making the ball do the work. It's the only way when you're playing every three days. You can't keep bashing away at the same failing plan as it yields ever diminishing returns and simply wash your hands of the consequences: "That's just how we play." It's patently obvious that the Ralph Way is not sustainable over the course of a whole season. We were in free-fall last year when Lockdown came and bailed us out, allowing our squad a long rest and reset. I wonder what Djenepo thinks, stuck on the bench as a creative wildcard, but can't even get on the park against nine men, while we keep two holding midfielders in place. What a fucking farce. Five defeats in a row. Chelsea next, so that'll be six. I've said it before - where are the next points coming from? I'm already keeping an eye on Fulham and West Brom's results to make sure they're not clawing back ground. I think we'll probably be okay on 36 points, but who are we getting 7 points from and when? How many players would they have to be down to? Eight? Indefensible. One of the shittest performances, individually and collectively, you'll ever see. And we've got no-one to blame. The ref was okay. The luck was on our side. I suppose there was a female co-commentator, so she'll absorb some of the deflected opprobrium. We might scrape to a survival total this season, but the future looks horrific. We'll potentially lose Ings, Vestergaard, Bertrand, Prowse and still not cover our huge debts enough to afford to replace any of them. Time to start ringing the alarm bells, folks. This is a sick club.

Fuck me, the irony of us desperately trying to get Bednarek's ban overturned only for him to almost single handedly lose us the next game with an absolute donkey display. How many of the last, say, 30 shots on target do you think McCarthy has actually saved? Since Forster came in for the one off game (clean sheet) against Arsenal, McCarthy's been rubbish. It was only a matter of time before his appalling decision making with the ball at his feet would kill us. Again. What a clown show. At least when we go out of the cup on Thursday we'll free up a bit of time between games to recover and prepare - might be the difference between us dropping like a stone or eking out the 6-8 points we need to survive.

The number of times Bednarek completely sells himself and is late trying to nick the ball in front of the attacker is a joke. Has no-one ever pointed out to him that he's slow as shit?

You're right - the pandemic has disrupted so much and for so long, you start to blank out all the ways. My bad.

You'll never see or hear from him again after this season. He only got five games out on loan at bloody Shrewsbury. Too slow to be a full back, not big enough to be a centre back. Put it this way, Hasenhuttl would rather play Walker-Peters, Valery, Ward-Prowse or Djenepo at right back before he'd pick Ramsey. Fifth choice! Doesn't suggest a player with a huge future. Good luck to the kid - I hope he storms it in the next few games. But our academy doesn't produce players of any consequence anymore, and Ramsey's not even among the most promising of a barely mediocre batch.

Can't say I listen to that shite, but are they not reasonable questions to ask? (Aside from the weird fixation with white knighting Big Sam and Steve Bruce.) I mean, isn't it standard practice for teams to train for various scenarios where they're a man down? How the fuck have we managed to lose TWICE 9-0? What kind of clown show are they putting on at Staplewood? Has anyone else in the entire football league managed to lose 9-0 even once in the time we've absolutely, humiliatingly, pathetically, unprofessionally capitulated twice? It's insane to me that people are just trying to shrug it off as one of those things instead of asking serious questions of the manager, squad and hierarchy that has presided over this nonsense TWICE. Any other club would be getting hammered and ridiculed - and rightly so.

Losing 9-0 to Leicester was a freak result. Losing 9-0 again within 18 months is symptomatic of a club with some serious, deep set issues. Lots of teams end up playing for prolonged periods with 10 men. None of them completely implode and lose 9-0. TWICE. Everyone needs to take a hard look at themselves. The manager being unable or unwilling to adapt his tactical approach to the unexpected challenges a game throws up has been a consistent theme of Hasenhuttl's tenure. Normally, it's merely a frustrating trend as the team robotically sleepwalks to a draw or narrow defeat without ever threatening to change course. But twice now it's led to a humiliating disaster. Yes, it's not easy to play with one man less. But every side other than us seems able to find a way to hunker down, keep the wheels on as best they can, and try and get away from the game with some dignity intact. Some even sneak a result. We couldn't even muster a shot against Arsenal's 10 men. Do you think the same would've happened if the roles had been reversed. I forget who it was against - maybe Fulham (0-0) - where the manager said afterwards that he was happy with the point because if we'd conceded first we would have no chance to come back. No chance! Game over! That set the alarm bells ringing for me. Are our tactics so rigid and dependant on everything playing out predictably that we've basically got "no chance" if the match situation requires a rethink? It's a mad result. Twice. Under the same manager. Same regime. Same squad. Same coaches. Players coming through the same system. Something is seriously wrong beneath the surface of this club.

Jesus Christ - what is marking? Unless United go easy on us in the second half, this is another 9-0. And there's their predictable penalty.