Ex Lion Tamer

Are coaching staff allowed out of the technical area?

It was a shocking display. The rational part of me wants to believe that it all evens out over the season but it does very much seem like we are getting a raw deal this season, game after game

Managers have to make a judgement on which players can take a public slating and which can't. If Ralph feels that McCarthy can a) take it, and b) needs a kick up the arse, then it's fair enough. I note that he didn't call out JWP. It did feel like a bit of an emotional reaction though.

Rodgers is overrated IMO. Liverpool went stale with him after a couple of seasons too

What if we sign a keeper in January - won't we start doing quite a lot better points-wise and everything is rosy?

👀

This season was always going to be a slow-and-steady-wins-the-race job, frustrating as it is. We lost a striker who was world class when fit, and invested the money in building squad depth rather than someone of equivalent ability. That means we shouldn't collapse when we get a few injuries (helped by a less hectic fixture schedule), but it does mean we're finding it harder to score goals and get the three-pointers on the board

We have a stronger squad this year with actual depth at full back so *hopefully* we won't implode in the same way. In fact we might get some surprise results when mid table teams have nothing to play for

Exactly

Thanks. Decent enough options then

Can anyone think of any examples of emergency loans in this league and who the teams managed to get in?

Grab an extra goal in the first half and we win this game. That's what's so tantalising - it feels like we're so close to being a good side. With a clinical striker and a better keeper we'd be a mid table team. As it is, it is hard to defend but I've certainly seen far worse Saints sides. Today doesn't bear comparison to the way the relegation side kept panicking and dropping points

Duffy and Bissouma both got let off blatant yellow cards

Maybe we wouldn't be good enough to do that. It's easy to assume the alternative would be better

The thing you have to factor in is if we'd pressed less hard in the first half, would we have scored the one goal we did get. It's gutting to drop points like that but you also have to take the rough with the smooth. The fact is we should have scored more in the first half but we lack cutting edge

It must have been a tactical instruction for JWP to do that. I see the logic of getting an extra body in the line but it has cost us big time. Edit: maybe he was covering McCarthy as mentioned

Once again we've made the opposition look terrible with our organisation and work rate, but not been able to sustain it for the full 100 minutes

Maybe it happened seconds before the goal?

We'd definitely be renamed RB Southampton I think? I like the cut off Red Bull's jib in general but if we were lower than Leipzig in the hierarchy and had to sell our best players to them then that would be annoying

Meanwhile Puel's St Etienne are bottom of the table and he had to be escorted home by police because fans are so furious over their performances. Before that he was sacked by Leicester for his terrible dull performances. With us the team scored one goal in their last six games and only 17 goals in 19 home games all season. Attendances were dropping and it was hard to see him turning it around, the team had lost all attacking confidence. Class manager though

I think it comes down to the fact that under Ralph we've not ever been in serious danger of relegation. We could try a new manager to see if they do better, but the downside of them doing worse (relegation) is so much worse than the upside (gaining a few extra places in the league). If things go badly in the next couple of months and it seriously looks like we'll be relegated then it will absolutely be time for a change

I didn't say it was a high level of ability!

So with our offering we could attract a manager as good as Ralph, who isn't very good?

Our entire model is to sign players who will come good eventually but not necessarily straight away. The only player I can think of in our current team who has hit their peak ability straight away is McCarthy. Some been thrown into the team at first but only Tino and KWP have actually made a spot their own and avoided dropping to the bench for a while

I agree that Che is no world beater but he's an established premier League player now. My point really was that it's silly to write off Armstrong when we've seen how a player coming up from the championship can improve in their second/third season