Forester

Encouraging that we showed more creativity first half than of late, and equally concerning at how our performance dropped second half. Credit to our back four who look a good unit. It seems bizarre to criticise the keeper after conceding one goal in three league games, but he really doesn’t inspire confidence. Fully appreciate he is young and it is his first season, but his selection is stretching loyalty and patience to the limit. Six points separate the bottom nine teams!

Massive game today. Win, and we could be one point from safety, off the bottom and Selles having won two of three Premier League games in charge. And a positive feeling ahead of many more home games to come. Lose and we could be cut adrift, six points from safety, with three consecutive defeats in all competitions.

Would like to see 433 or 41221 out of possession as follows Bazanu AMN, Bednarek, ABK, KWP Lavia JWP, Stuart Walcott, Kamaldeen Tall Paul

I estimate we had some players out there tonight on over £60K per week being beaten by others on £3K per week. What an absolute disgrace

A long journey to see such a dispiriting performance, particularly after the hope of last week. A few thoughts which are different to the pile on of Bazanu and Bednarek that occupied much of this thread: - Completely agree it was a lame goal to concede with multiple players at fault. But of far bigger concern to me was the total absence of creativity or any discernible pattern of attacking play yesterday (having been encouraging against Chelsea in the first half last week in particular) - while everyone will scrutinise the goal, and rightly, Bednarek made one error first half with a careless back pass, but that apart actually defended very well yesterday, as he did last week. To be clear, I would not have selected him at Chelsea, or recalled him from Villa, but I am not pig headed enough to then ignore what we see. And Bazanu has started to command his area a little more these last couple of games. - if you stand back from the frustration, we have conceded a total of one goal in two away games. That is good by any definition. And should yield four or six points. So while those reliant on two mins Twitter clips will focus on the goal, and I get that, we are not looking defensively shambolic right now. - so the problem is creativity, which is not the same as earlier in the season under Ralph where the problems were defending and finishing chances. Don’t forget last week took a JWP free kick, as did Everton away, to win. So this has been going on for some weeks, - yesterday I thought there were shockingly poor performances from Moi, Armstrong and Kamaldeen. Additionally we saw almost no overlapping from full backs, with some fleeting moments from Perraud. AMN has defended well but isn’t either confident, capable or allowed to bomb on - if we are going to start with Tall Paul we have to give him service, which means crosses in the box. Next to nothing is coming in from wide positions. And if we are going to play long ball (which Selles said in interview he doesn’t like) then we have to get runners close to and beyond him or there is no point. Bizarrely I still haven’t given up hope because there are other poor teams near us, but we aren’t going to win games creating nothing. I would like to see Grimsby game used to develop attacking patterns rather than just resting everyone to see more of the same against Leicester

In the situation we face, a sensible appointment. We have poor track record of promoting assistants (Wigley, Gray) but this is a particular short term challenge

Bazanu KWP, Bednarek, ABK, Perraud AMN, Lavia JWP, Stuart Tall Paul, Kamaldeen

An obvious comment, but wins against rivals are much more valuable than us beating top half teams. Still have Palace, Leicester, Forest, Wet Spam, Leeds and Bournemouth to play. Win four of those and we have a great chance

I am not sure everyone is grasping what an absolute clusterfuck this is from the club, whether you wanted Marsch or not. Think of it like this….. - If you wanted him, offering him just six months reeks of lack of confidence, disrespectful, why would you accept that if you were Marsch? Why not offer 18 months and pay him off in summer (only one year) after sacking him? So now everyone else knows that they are not really wanted by the club and will only be interviewed or, in the case of Selles, given interim role because we have been turned down by our first choice. - if you don’t want him, then why have club allowed it publicly to be known he was preferred choice? You may be pleased he isn’t coming, but whoever we get will be appointed with everyone knowing, including the players, that they were not wanted. What a mess, and that is after Jones was offered a multi year deal as recently as November! It is great that they spend money on players but I am rapidly losing confidence in judgement of Sports Republic who seem themselves woefully out of their depth

What makes you think that they haven’t already, via their agents?

Don’t understand some of the negativity about Marsch. Leeds were looking likely to go down when he went there a year ago, he kept them up and then they sold their two best players in Raphinha and Phillips. He had 32 games in charge and picked up 33 points with what is in my opinion a bottom four or five squad. And that was his first Premier League job where you would expect him to have learned a lot about the league. So am not claiming he is a genius but it would be a solid appointment. Could see him staying and mounting a promotion charge if the worst happened too.

Don’t understand some of the negativity. Leeds were looking likely to go down when he went there a year ago, he kept them up and then they sold their two best players in Raphinha and Phillips. He had 32 games in charge and picked up 33 points with what is in my opinion a bottom four or five squad. And that was his first Premier League job where you would expect him to have learned a lot about the league. So am not claiming he is a genius but it would be a solid appointment. Could see him staying and mounting a promotion charge if the worst happened too.

Cannot believe some on here are writing off rest of season and just looking at Championship already. No matter how crap it has been we are still ONLY FOUR POINTS OFF SAFETY FFS!!!!! Added to that we still have games against Bournemouth, Leeds and Wet Spam. If you went to those teams’ fans and asked them how confident they are you would not hear much positivity. We may needs as few as six wins, seven almost certainly would do it, and those other teams will also struggle to see where five or six wins come from too. So yes it’s very tough, but absolutely not at the stage to write off yet.

I could not see the Sports Republic crew today, and I sit close to the directors area. Did anyone else? Semmens to be fair was there in front row to face the music.

I enjoyed the first half, a bit primitive but who cares given the need for points. New signings added something different. Awful second half, made worse with changes, cannot see how he survives that.

I agree on the general point, the club is a big business and needs a CEO focussed on all aspects not just the day to day playing stuff. But any Board member won’t enjoy turning up to meetings and being a lone voice defending the indefensible, and I think Ankersen will increasingly feel the heat if he was the loudest proponent for the appointment. At some point the Board will say enough is enough even if he is a lone voice backing Jones. And Ankersen will lose credibility and political capital the longer a crisis continues. Let’s all hope we go 2-0 up ten minutes into Saturday and somehow get a breath of fresh air all round. But very much hope over expectation

Yes agree with this. Having listened to the whole hour I think Jones is skating on thin ice with the Board, and would imagine that a poor result and performance saturday will be time up. Many fans may think that is too late, and that is fine, but I definitely did not get “full backing” vibes….

If Jones is still here, which I would be surprised by, I hope everyone ignores this circus and gets behind the team. The points are more important. I learned my lesson back in the day wanting us to lose to remove Wigley. Games are running out

Genuinely don’t think Marsch would be a bad appointment for us. He came in and kept Leeds up last season when they looked doomed. Then they sold their two star players in the summer, Phillips and Raphinha. They tend to have lost tight games, have had Bamford injured most of the season and have a pretty weak squad. I wanted Benitez, Cooper or Dyche back in the summer all of whom were achievable then. Rafa still is, I would add Marsch, Gerrard and Nuno as other Premier League experienced managers all out of work. Don’t think Lampard would be credible.

Genuinely don’t think Marsch would be a bad appointment for us. He came in and kept Leeds up last season when they looked doomed. Then they sold their two star players in the summer, Phillips and Raphinha. They tend to have lost tight games, have had Bamford injured most of the season and have a pretty weak squad. I wanted Benitez, Cooper or Dyche back in the summer all of whom were achievable then. Rafa still is, I would add Marsch, Gerrard and Nuno as other Premier League experienced managers all out of work. Don’t think Lampard would be credible.

Don’t think you have read the post, which I accept was long! Hint, it is in the second bullet!

Trying to be dispassionate about things isn’t easy. So here goes and am expecting some criticism! - what Jones diagnoses as the problem, and has been talking about since he came here, is absolute right. We HAVE been leaking goals like a sieve when the ball is crossed into our box for a long time, and we have lacked a cutting edge (“potency”) probably for two seasons now, exacerbated by entering this season with one fewer striker than we had even last year - Prior to this week against Newcastle and Brentford, I have seen no improvement in attacking play since Ralph. But I has witnessed an increase in work rate and better defensive organisation so that we had been averaging one goal conceded since Xmas, which should (and has) given us opportunities to win games in all competitions. I was giving Jones credit for seemingly beginning to fix two of the three problems. So while it wasn’t great watching, we were improving, we did beat three Premier League sides in a week, and it sounded and looked as if the players were behind him - I have absolutely no time for some of our so called “Premier League Stars” who have under performed for a long time under different managers, and in some cases show a demonstrable lack of work rate on the pitch and/or concentration level. And so pleasing players or “pandering” is not something he ever should have or should now feel the need to do. - However, I fear this week may have seen Jones literally pull out the pin of the grenade on his own top flight career. Given the defensive progress we were making, which was real, why change from back four up at Newcastle, including two players making their first appearance under him? - I think Jones deserves huge credit for a great job at Luton on a tiny budget, and people generally under rate how hard it is to succeed at that level. Championship manager of the year is rightly something he is proud of. And it was fair to point this out when appointed, and in particular when he faced questions about his modest background. But after having been at Saints for nearly three months you cannot keep on banging on about old war stories. It just pisses people off after a while, and in particular when you seek to hold yourself up above everyone else who you want and need to be loyal to you. - Whatever, and whoever, he was targeting his comments about yesterday was just a disaster. It was clearly deliberate, as with slightly different words he did the same in interviews with Solent, Match of the day, Sky and the written media. All this does is basically highlight splits and division in the club. Where has that ever been a wise strategy non any company, let alone football. So I will be surprised if he is still hear next weekend, but if he is we need fans to tune out of the soap opera and just support the team as stakes are too high

Well that was every bit as depressing as last trip to Brentford, which was the moment I felt Ralph was finished. We look so vulnerable to crosses in the box that you don’t have to play great football to beat us, just do the basics. The whole back four looks to have been destabilised these last two games by bringing in Bednarek and Bree, whereas we were starting to look competent at the back prior to this last week. I feel sorry for Edozie, at 20 he is so young to be played week in week out when he clearly isn’t up to being a consistent starter and the danger is his confidence will be shredded. I thought we lacked creativity and pace first half, and of all of the subs the one I actually think had more material impact was Theo. I would start to use him more, particularly in this situation where I think experience and mental strength is needed. The games are running out now and it is hard to see where these six or seven wins are going to come from

I don’t share the hate for Jones that many in here have. But I think it is a huge mistake for him not to be there. A genuine chance to engage and persuade. You will never win everyone over, at least not until you have success, but the quiet majority will often be persuadable. Poor decision

Voted for narrow survival. Leeds, Bournemouth and Everton are three I think we can finish above