Alanh

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.

https://twitter.com/SouthamptonFC/status/1544743009413218306?s=20

Got to agree with this. I think a 4-3-3 is one of the formations we have used least often this season and it seems to be one which we have good suitability for given the current squad. I think the idea of OR, JWP and ID as a 3 is fairly strong when we need to be defensive, and we can swap ID for Stu when we need to be a bit more attacking. IMO the front three should always contain Che to hold the ball up but can then feature a variety of other attackers depending on the opponent. We can still get width from the full backs with one of the midfield three covering them if they get caught upfield.

I can't see how the order of that table has been compiled. None of the value columns seem to be ranked in numerical order. Essentially it tells us what we know already. that transfer fees have to fund new purchases whicle commercial revenues fund wages and other outgoings. Either we find a benevolent owner prepared to pump cash in with next to no hope of getting it back, or our commercial revenue needs to increase dramatically if the status quo is ever going to change.

Of course it is, but is there any evidence that he has been pressured / encouraged into coming out? I've missed it if that has happened.

Let's say he is with the rest of his team and they are talking about who they are bringing to the end of season awards. Most are bringing wives or girlfriends, but he wants to bring his boyfriend. He's either got to lie about bringing a female friend or he's going to be and honest and truthful individual and say it will be his boyfriend. To do that he needs to come out. Another scenario - he's not come out but is seen in public at a gay club or holding hands with his boyfriend. If he's not come out then rumours start and that puts unnecessary pressure on him and the club to clarify things. By coming out publicly he's able to be honest in both of the situations above (and any others that are similar) and has to hope that the wider public don't see it as a big deal.

The media obviously give it airtime because it's a rare event and a good news story. I don't think any other player is in the same situation in the Prem this season, but if Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka, JWP, etc do the same thing and retire at Noble's age still part of their club's first team squad and club captain, expect the same sort of media interest.

Agreed, it's not a good omen for AA if Long is preferred, but RH's comment about a training session suggests to me that he had to make the decision without having the opportunity to assess it in training, rather than it being something that was worked on and then changed on a 'feeling'.

You must have understood what he meant. Why not reply with something along the lines of "There's no reason to think that our owners will do the same thing as the City Group" rather than being pedantic about what was essentially just a poorly worded sentence.

Agreed it was a perfectly weighted ball but he had to wrap his foot around it and he got the timing / connection wrong. He might have scored it last season for Blackburn but he's low on confidence at the moment so he missed - a reflection of his current ability. I still think it's pointless piling into TWar. He's got an opion which he attempts to back up in a variety of ways - stats / comparable images etc. That's got to be better than someone who resorts to whataboutery or insults. Not specifically referring to you.

In the exact same situation another 10 times I reckon he would have scored 3 or 4 at the most. That's reflection of both the difficulty of the chance and AA's ability. Harry Kane in the same situation gets more than 3 or 4. The photo doesn't tell us enough as you can't tell the relative direction of movement of the player or ball. My recollection is AA was a bit off balance and the ball got stuck under his feet. He had to adjust to get anything on the shot. He could / should have done better but it's never a sitter. IMO piling into TWar for having a different opinion and being prepared to defend it in a variety of ways is pretty pointless on an interent forum.

Massively disappointing and frustrating results in both the Newcastle and Watford games. I thought in both cases we tried to play our normal home style, but with the opposition in both games sitting deep and counter attacking it was always going to be up to us to make the running and find the openings. The Everton and Norwich games were very similar, except neither of them had the quality or level of performance to pull off the deep defence / counter attack plan. Too many Saints players had off days in both matches which resulted in errors leading to goals and in presentable chances not being put away. There's little point in singling players out for bad performances as we know that they are capable of better and we have to remember that most of our squad is young and so is going to be inconsistent. Unfortunately for us we need pretty much our whole team to be operating at 7 out of 10 to be effective. At least City won't sit back and defend deep which should suit us better. Hopefully that's a balanced assessment. It's probably not what I would have written in immediately after each match.

I'm glad someone else raised that as it was the most striking thing about the OP for me.

Just their relative ages and career aspirations. It's all assumption but I'm guessing that Theo accepts that he is on his last top level contract and will either retire or move down the football pyramid after his contract with us expires. Moi and Djenepo are 27 amd 23 respectively so must have the ambition to extend their careers beyong the end of their current Saints contracts. I reckon we can use that to sell them for small fees this summer.

I'm sure with at least two keepers leaving - Forster & Caballero and probably 3 if Lewis goes, then we will need to get in two replacements, one to start and one as a number 3. I would think the number 3 will be a youngster based on the clubs philosophy, unless there is another Caballero out there who is a very cost effective signing. I don't think we will see much if any movement in or out in terms of first team squad defenders. Some fringe yongsters might leave or go on loan. Same for central midfielders, hopefully a contract renewal for Romeu. I'd be amazed if Walcott left this summer. He's doing his job as a squad player, putting pressure on other attacking midfielders to stake a claim in the matchday squad and providing experienced cover when needed. I think it will be the same next season. Wouldn't be surprised to see Moi or Djnepo leave for small fees, and perhaps a youngster come in to replace them Striker is the big unknown. Best case is signing Broja either permanently or for another year's loan. If that's not possible we will need a replacement. I'm sure we are already working on a number of scenarios. I don't think we need to replace Long in the squad.

Sorry to hear about your illness Minsk. I hope that you find some positivity during the rest of your days and that Saints can give you a few bright spots in that time. Thanks for doing this thread, I hope it lives on in your memory.