Alanh

Was at the match and am disappointed not to have won the game. We won't have many more games with that much control this season. The reason we didn't win was poor finishing. The style of play and tactics lead to us creating more than enough chances and with a more clinical final attempt we would have been 3 up at half time. IMO RM made the subs for two reasons, firstly he knew that doing something very similar against Stoke helped us preserve our lead. Secondly he could see that we needed some fresh legs to try for the second goal. We have had plenty of games which we have won or drawn after being under the cosh and grabbing a goal - Chelsea home and away and Leicester home last season spring to mind. The only positive (other than one more point) is the hope is that the squad learn that you can't take anything for granted in this league and you have to put games to bed when the opportunities arise. Fingers crossed Ross Stewart can help with that.

Yep, it's definitely my interpretation. I'm not aware of any journalist asking the same question you asked, so the only response you are likely to get from here is an interpretation. Completely agree about creating the right environment. IMO that's his main job at the moment.

I would have thought it's pretty obvious. He needs the players to get out of the habit of playing safe sideways and backwards passes because they are scared of making a mistake. To do that they need to have the mindset to find space and demand the ball. They need to take players on and make runs into space rather than stand still. They need to move the ball quickly rather than slowly. At the moment they are regularly taking the easy option rather than trusting themselves and their team mates to make attacking plays happen. It's all about the players having a determined and positive mindset on the pitch. At the moment it's obviously lacking especially when we cancede. I guess 'being braver' is shorthand for the long paragraph above and works better in an interview / press conference situation.

You mean to add character and resiliance? Not sure, but if so then I haven't seen much evidence of it in the last three defeats (when those players have been on the pitch). Last post of the day.

Absolutely right and one of the things RM said in the interview after the game was that his biggest fear was not being able to help the players improve. He knows that he has to instill a different mindset in this group so that they lose the scars from a couple of years of losing most weeks. He knows he has to instill a bravery in them to create a side which is more attacking and prepared to take a chance. His problem is the lack of character in the squad. In our most successful seasons since the first relegation from the Prem we have had players with the determination and character to compete, coupled with a fairly reliable goalscorer. The seaons that we have struggled we have lacked one or both of those things and IMO no tactics / formations can compensate for those losses in the long term. We may have addressed the goal scorer element by bringing in Stewart, but the biggest mistake in the last three transfer windows was not bringing in players with the sort of character and determination that we saw from the likes of Jaidi, Fonte, Hammond, Lambert, Davis, Romeu, Ward-Prowse. RM said in an early interview that the group were quiet and the lack of these types of charaacters is resulting in the team having no resiliance to a setback, and it's killing us every game.

IMO Sulemana is only of any use against teams that push forward leaving some space behind their defenders. We have yet to play any team that has done that in this league and I don't think we will any time soon. Managers know tht they can just sit deep, give us the ball and wait for a mistake. Sulemana isn't going to offer much to create danger in that situation as he is always going to be faced with two or three defenders whenever he gets the ball.

This!! City are reported to have 3 clauses in the deal - the right to match any bid, a £40M buy back and a 20% sell on. It's been suggested that the 20% applies to the buy back but that just doesn't make any sense. The first clause means that if a bidding war breaks out before City's buy back comes into play they just have to match the highest offer, not outbid it. We would be crazy to accept a net amount less than the £40M, so bidding has to start at £50M this summer.

I would love JWP to be much more progressive on the ball. Lavia regularly seems to receive the ball on the half turn and move or pass forward, but JWP doesn't seem to do that as much. Lavia also gives that ball away more often and was at fault for the first two goals yesterday. It might be down to the manager or it might be he has become increasingly cautious over the season as we have become less confident as a team. The one thing that amazes me in many comments about him is what appears to be an expectation that he will be the player to get the team playing positively, scoring goals and winning games. There are no other teams in the league where you can definitively say one of their defensive midfielders is also their creative force. Given he has been asked to play as DM for the last 18 months it's amazing that he has contributed what he has in terms of minutes played and chances created.

Just as an example, Burnley sold 4 players at the end of last season - Cornet, Collins, McNeill and Pope for a reported total of €73M. In addition they released a load of first team regulars from the last couple of seasons on frees or on loan including Mee, Tarkowski, Weghorst, Westwood, Lowton, Vydra, Pieters, Hennessy. I remember they had a horrible situation with loads of contracts expiring hence the high number of players released on a free, but it's not a million miles different at Watfrod or Norwich (although the transfer fees received are tiny compared to Burnley). It wouldn't be completely out of the ordinary for Saints to lose 10 of the current first team squad either sold or on loan after relegation.

I think we need to get another 15 points to give ourselves a chance. So we've got to beat the likes of Bournemouth, Palace, Forest, Brentford and Fulham. Those are not likely to all happen so we will probably need to pick up either a series of draws against better teams or a surprising win like the two against Chelsea. Even 36 points might not be enough but it has been witout goal difference being a factor since 2015/16 when Newcastle went down with 37 points.

@eggExactly this. Money wasn't the issue. Getting the right deal for a striker over the line in August was the problem and I'm not convinced an extra £6M would have made any difference.

We paid £5M for Tino so not really much different. It hasn't worked out for Larios yet, but he's young and was really bought for the future rather than as a starter so it might work out OK in the long run.

I'd go 4-3-3 as I think it would give us the right balance across the team. The back 4 should be KWP, Perraud and the best two CBs in training - probably Salisu and ABK if everyone is fit, but with a strong argument for DCC. A midfield three of JWP, Lavia and Alcaraz, should be dynamic and relatively solid with the capacity to attack when necessary primarily through late runs into the box. Subs of Mo, Stu or Diallo gives options later in the game to either go more defensive or more attacking. The front three has either Tall Paul or Che as the No9, supported either by out and out wingers such as Edozie or Sulemanna, or 'creativity' from the likes of Orsic or Aribo, or pace from Adam Armstrong or Theo.

Completely disagree. OR had served us really well but was losing consistency. When he was good he was great, but that was happening less often. He wanted to go 'home' and we let him, in the knowledge that Lavia had been brought in to replace him. That's the sign of good squad management and respect between player and club. It hasn't always happened as we have seen with the striker situation, but letting OR leave isn't a reason to criticise the club IMO.

https://twitter.com/SouthamptonFC/status/1585606399249334278?s=20&t=xuE_FMnQrT7oZvymEGBWaQ

I have heard it stated that the increase in the daily standing charge is to (at least in part) cover the costs that the remaining energy companies have had to take on when accepting customers from the failed energy companies. https://www.goodenergy.co.uk/what-are-standing-charges-and-why-are-they-increasing/ There are other reasons as well, but assuming this is correct then I guess the standing charges will reduce at some point once those costs have been recovered, but I won't be holding my breath waiting for that to happen.

A frustrating watch for a couple of reasons. Firstly, we created chances and could have had the game won in the first half if we had better finishers. Che and AA put in huge effort but just don't have the quality to score often enough. It was almost a shame that our good chances fell to them as we might have scored more if they had gone to others. Secondly, we gave the ball away so often in the seond half that we were our own worst enemies. WHam fans must really feel like that was three points missed. There isn't going to be an easy answer to the problems that we face at least until January. We are just going to have to grind out performances and hope that we can scrape some 1-0 or 2-1 wins and as many draws as possble against teams around us. if we can keep out points tally around 1 per game until January and then find a stiker who can score, we should be OK.

Based on current availability I'd go 4-3-3 as the biggest issue we have at the moment is the midfield being overrun. My preference is Perraud at LB but the rest of the defence picks itself. Midfield 3 of JWP, Diallo and AMN (get him fit quickly). Attack of AA, Aribo and Adams. Once Lavia is back he replaces AMN or Diallo, whichever isn't performing. Go back to the high press with the front three plus one midfielder actively looking to keep that going until they get replaced with subs. A bench of McC, DCC, Lyanco, Larios, Moi, Stu, Mara, Walcott and whichever midfielder is dropped for Lavia should give us enough options depending on what is needed at that part of the game. Obviously we need a striker who can actually put away chances and when we get him he will slot into the front three in place of either AA or Aribo, who will replace Walcott on the bench. but given what we have now I think that's the best option.

So using a really basic measure of a score out of 10, you would have given the team a 5 for their whole performance against Chelsea to signify how average you considered it?

A couple of things - Richarlison was suspended so couldn't play. If you think ther performance against Chelsea was average then you have incredibly high, arguably unrealistic expectations. We worked our socks off that night, took two of our limited chances, and kept them at arms length for the whole of the second half. Way better than average in my book.

Good post and I agree with a lot of what you have said. Just taking the bit in bold, to finish 14th in the PL (since we got promoted) you need to get between 41 and 45 points (there was an outlier year when 38 points got that place. That's an average of just over 1 point per game, which is pretty much where we are now. You also have to expect to lose about 17 - 20 of your games in a season. Essentially based on currently form we are on course to be around 14th place extrapolated over a season. Some entertainment to get there like the Chelsea and Leicester games this year, the Everton and Brentford (home) and Spurs (away) games last season will come along but so will some crap performances like Villa and Spurs this year. That's pretty much the life of a lower mid table team between 11th and 15th.

There are a bunch of things we don't know. As you rightly point out, when the clause can be activated, but also if it is time limited. It might be that City can buy him for the agreed clause during a specified number of transfer windows. If they don't do that then the clause could lapse and we are just in an open market situation with everyone, including City from then on.

Agreed, but Forest lost 15 players at the end of last season so there weren't many plucky heroes left to start this season with. They had to buy in big volume just to have a squad of 25 to register. If Steve Cooper can gel them into a team that stays up he will probably deserve Manager of the season.

Quick question. Do you see this new bruiser of a CB playing as first choice in a three with ABK and Salisu or instead of one of them? For me ABK is the player you have described. Whether he will be a big success isn't known yet but the same thing would be unknown about your proposed bruiser.

🤣So you are saying that Saints are so in awe of Chelsea that we would accept their first bid for any of our players, but at the same time we have the backbone to resist first bids from other teams i.e. Villa. This opinion doesn't feel thought through TBH.