saintstowin

The last few seasons in the PL were so awful that this season has had an interesting mix of real happiness (fresh start, more wins, really good football at times) but in contrast being pretty quick to anger at anything bad (slow football, questionable tactics, under achieving). I know in general football (and forums) will have extremes of emotions. But for me there is something about what we've all had in recent seasons that makes us feel like we deserve more, see this season as the ultimate chance, and therefore get upset at not having that. I'm not saying it's wrong to feel that, I do too, but it has had an impact on my responses. I agree there are many things RM could have done/do better.

Poor form at the wrong time. But we can still win a two leg play off.

The goals against considering how little the opposition have the ball. This is what gets me and screams very loudly that the approach has severe limitations. For the most part we've coped by being better and quality eventually winning. But on off days and when we play good teams we are exposed so easily.

Any defender who doesn't play in a thrashing immediately looks better. But JS would have played his part in the debacle last night and I don't think the result would have been different. Some of of the things JS does that limit him are a lack of focus and being too laid back on the pitch, lacking urgency. Unless a situation presents itself like v Middlesbrough. All the usual JS stuff would not have helped.

I didn't watch the 2nd half. Lucky me. First was foreboding. What an absolute rotten display at such an vital stage. Never should be getting beat like that. We can't play that style against pressing and quality opposition. But it seems to be the only way we can play. Only crumb of comfort is I really doubt we'll be that bad again in the 5 games if we're lucky to get that many. Maybe we got Leicester on a good day, despite our woefulness. I can't hate the manager but his limitations were laid bare tonight.

Sensible I think. Brooks over one or two others but no one has screamed pick me instead in the last few weeks. Rothwell for an hour to see what he can offer from the start. Glad Charles is in.

I've seen that and it looks dodgy (for VAR that is). The other issue is that the pass was a flick/scoop and therefore usually this means the ball rolls up the foot a bit before release so point of release is more complicated. Plus Wright's movement at the time of the pass is across rather than forwards (in order to stay onside) so any millisecond affects it massively. All these things make the lines harder to draw and less accurate in my view, and give weight to the view that VAR for offside may not be good enough. For all VAR offsides I remain unconvinced any camera can tell when the ball leaves the boot to the degree necessary for it to be foolproof. I have enjoyed not putting up with it this season.

It says we were brave! It's not a new thing after all.

Really good points about FD's importance. We all know how vital he is. But we make his absences even harder to cope with through tactical decisions. I can almost agree that today it should have been ok with WS/JA. But when the changes were made after an hour it was totally wrong not to turn to Charles.

Crikey just seen the highlights. Miss after miss after miss. And then letting a far inferior team back into a close game. Again. Two things that = a painful result. Could debate which is worse but the fact is the combination did for us today. The worry might be that the misses are unlikely to happen on that level very often, but the second bad bit likely will.

Well. Perhaps in reality we were hanging by a thread thanks to lots of injury time points gained and it'll turn out that 4th is where we deserve to be. Lots of questions to be answered about whether we should be higher. I saw none of it but all those misses is ridiculous when we needed to get across the line. I can't recall a game recently where subs have directly helped us. I know we've scored late sometimes but not in terms of shape and pressure. I know it's not an attacking change but Charles as a sub would help us keep/regain control of the midfield.

I think as this is on Welsh soil there's no being cup tied or ineligibility issue, but Brooks MUST only speak Welsh from the moment his passport is stamped half way across the Severn Bridge until the final whistle.

I hope it's an exciting match and doesn't drag on.

I meant the non Premier League football authority, so yes FA rather than EFL. I would edit but I've haven't got time to replay posts and need to save energy for messages on a more important forum.😇 I've certainly wondered about the fixture congestion when Saints get a draw in the cup. My view is it is low down on the things that might affect our season negatively. And I'd rather a replay than ET and penalties. But overall it's the bigger picture I care about.

This makes me angry. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/apr/18/fa-cup-replays-and-premier-league-winter-break-scrapped-from-next-season I don't see any motivation for this apart from benefitting the bigger clubs. And the FA being weak and/or seeing no alternative but to give in. Clubs happy to play 15+ games in Europe but not one or two more (maybe) in the cup. I love the FA Cup.

It will be interesting to see our approach with the strength of the GK being very different. I expect we haven't practised much passing with AM. Do we avoid it, can we avoid it seeing how ingrained it is?

When did AM last play a football match?

And that was next level JS shoe horning by RM in the last 15 minutes. He means business.

Being there was some lovely euphoria at the end but we made such hard work of it. I think Watford played well especially in the 2nd half but were beaten at 2 nil and again our play led directly to the opposition coming back. From the 20th minute until HT our approach was ridiculous but actually pretty standard for us. It was clear that for various reasons our passing, especially out from the back, was not at its best. Even at the start. Lots of heavy touches etc. And increasing Watford pressure. Why then did we play any dead ball (GKs, FKs) within 1 second of them being awarded? And then the shortest pass possible. It's like game management is banned. It wasn't that it was quick because someone saw a great out ball. Most times the receiver didn't know who to pass to next. If we take time to take a FK in an attacking position I think it's not the worst plan to take a breath and have at least a cursory glance/thought towards what might happen next when we're 6 yards from our own goal. I've thought many times this season our lack of thought and/or risk taking near our own goal versus the other end of the pitch is weirdly skewed. But what a win!

Phew. Without the benefit of replays all 3 goals weren't exactly slick and theirs certainly looked avoidable. We were much better than them. It's just that cushion that escapes us, tonight from 2 to 3 nil or to 3-1 after they scored. First 20 minutes of the 2nd half we had so much of the ball in their final third. Got to score in those periods of a match. Arma for his anagram is not a good plan.

Just saw that the pen wouldn't have counted anyway, two touches.

Beeb thinks he dived.

B

I'm not seeing Saints at fault here. The offer from Leeds was basically, make a loss and give us really cheap tickets, or we might charge you loads. Even without the agreement they could have charged us the same as we charged them (30), but instead they are making a choice not to. Dirty Leeds.

From what he says RM is hearing the criticism and I assume that means reading it too, so I'm sure he takes everything on here into planning meetings. 😇 He's duty bound to defend his players so I don't get annoyed by that. I hope he is considering what helped us go on that run and seeing the things that have changed which have contributed to poorer form. He may say 'we changed line ups and still won, so we should be able to do it now' but he needs to recognise what a positive change is versus disrupting changes. A big issue now will also be lower confidence levels since the magic of that run ended. Talking up the players is one tried and trusted way to help. I hope we get a reaction, and maybe the luck we may also need, tonight.