Nemi

Started with Armstrong just running into no where again because we’re incapable of passing the ball quickly. Brentford then pass it quickly and get an easy goal helped by embarrassing defending.

Might as well tbh, games over now, we’re not getting back into this no matter what

There are sometimes when KWP just needs to pick out an early pass rather than just going himself. Run into another dead end when Armstrong was on

We need a sub I reckon but at the save time is there anyone in the bench who’s realistically going to do anything different than those out there already? Have felt like this has long been an issue for us

Just watched it back and once again he goes chasing a ball he’s never going to win and leave us wide open. If he just stays in position Brentford won’t have 2 players clear through in the middle and he wouldn’t have to get knocked over chasing back again.

Crazy how on Brentford’s free-kick Toney just peeled off in full-view of everyone and no-one did anything at all. Better product could have seen another goal conceded.

Back working again for me

Don’t even think we’ve been that bad on the ball tbf we just look like conceding everytime we’re off it. Our defensive shape is embarrassing, I actually struggle how you can make it that bad. It’s actually impressive that our coaching can get it so wrong.

For me, it’s the how we create chances and the type of chances we create. It’s so one-dimensional and predictable. While we manage to get some results from it when we’re in good form, when we’re not it ends up in the crap we see far too often like we have in the last few months, the start of the season and the majority of last season. To be fair, there are some other teams that have similar problems - Wolves and United come to mind but Wolves at least have the defensive quality to get away with it while United have underscored massively. And I’d rather not watch those two teams plays either because the spectacle is terrible.

Fair enough, but apart from a few instances I disagree. We can pop it around nicely on a good day but I still think it doesn’t translate to enough clear chances.

I think we probably create less chances than most teams anyway. Even on our good spell we mainly just applied periods of pressure without ever troubling the goal too much. We’ve scored 4 goals in a match once this season and most of our wins have been by one goal. Rewatch our goals and most are headers from crosses / set-pieces or shots taken in-front of the opposition defence. There not many examples of us getting in behind the defence, and when we did we were often gifted it by oppositions mistakes (Armstrong v Everton, Broja v Burnley etc). Again, compared to other teams I feel like we score our goals disproportionality in a similar manner, whilst rarely creating many clear chances in a game.

My complaint is that our football is shit, we create no chances whatsoever and a few moments of individual quality paper of the cracks. I think it’s quite clear the point I was making and it’s quite obvious from our performances to that’s what I’m referring to.

Let’s just pray for a set-piece cause we ain’t scoring otherwise.

Good goal to be fair. But it still relied on a good finish more than anything to score the goal. I think my frustration stems from the fact that 99% of the football we play is slow, sideways passes in front of the opposition defence. We barely ever get in behind the other team and I just find it frustrating that we seem to be the worst team at actually unlocking a defence. And even counting KWP’s goal, that was three months ago. Broja scored from a through-ball v Brentford but again that was probably more down to Brentford’s defending. Apart from that I really do struggle to recall anything, though I guess there will be one or two examples, but nowhere near enough.

Another goal from a set-piece again. I actually get depressed by how we play at the moment, it just makes it seem like scoring a goal from open-play is an impossible endeavour. Watching our goal of the season contenders today, they’re literally just long-range shots or free-kicks. When is the last time we’ve actually scored a decent team goal?

It’s not even the results I care about. I can handle a loss. I just so bored of our turgid, slow, lacklustre football. Even when we win, or just get a point like last week, it’s because we’ve relied on an individual piece of quality (usually a set-piece) digging us out of trouble because we’ve failed to play coherently as a team. I know we’re not exactly blessed with quality, but when’s the last time we actually unlocked a defence, rather than some speculative long-range shot happening to go in? I can barely remember. Saying that I won’t accept us sacking Ralph for simply anyone. We need a clear vision from someone who can actually get us playing entertaining football again. I can take a loss, I can take a bottom half finish, I just can’t take how lacklustre we are at actually playing decent attacking football.

This is true, we are so one dimensional win or lose. I can hardly remember any goals we scored because we actually got in behind the defence, even from the season before, I can think of maybe Broja’s goal against Brentford and that’s basically all I can remember. I guess there was also Armstrong on the opening day but that only came from a defensive cock-up.

I just can’t believe we waste our time with two strikers all the time when we don’t create anything at all. Our midfield has been getting torn apart for so long yet we tinker with either 2 up top or 5 at the back but never try and get a grip in midfield.

I’d say overall our squad is filled with relatively decent players, I just really think we’re lacking that standout player who elevates the whole squad. Before January we definitely had better squads than both Newcastle and Brentford. I would still say even now in a combined 11 against those two there would be more Saints players in it. But because they’ve added such top-quality in Guimarães and Eriksen they’ve raised the level of the whole squad to the point they’re now better than Saints. I think if we managed to add one real top quality number 10 to our squad I think that could be the difference between finishing top-10 rather than bottom-10.

I don’t think he uninterested. I think people are judging him quite harshly because he has a pretty neutral facial expression which people read as disinterested. I mean when you think about what he is good at, we’ve haven’t played to his strengths for quite a while. Get him running 1v1 against a defender and he is easily our most dangerous player. Problem is we haven’t moved the ball quick enough for months, so by the time it gets up to him, the opposition defence has had about 5 mins to set-up and get a decent shape. He’s a young and inexperienced player inevitably having a drop of form, in a team which has also not performed for months which is hardly that unexpected. And for all he’s good at he’s hasn’t developed his skills well enough yet to playing in a team off-form against defenders who probably have a bit more of a clue how to stop him. We start getting the ball quickly to him again, I’m sure he’ll start to look dangerous again. He’s clearly trying but if we keep playing like we are at the moment, he’ll continue to frustrate because he hasn’t developed enough yet to keep scoring when we not playing to his style. He’s no where near a complete package yet and I think because of a purple patch people are expecting too much of him. He’s still a very good player IMO and he’ll get there I think but, we need to remember he has a lot of development ahead of him yet.

I’m sorry cause I know he’s frustrating, and I know he misses sitters and he can be terrible sometimes but he is literally the only Saints player at the moment who looks capable of creating something. And the mental thing is that he can’t get a look in, when we can barely buy even a chance let alone a goal at the moment. I’ve long said that the fact that a Premier League team’s most creative player is Redmond is a huge issue, because overall you can’t rely on someone his quality to push you that high up the table but when he’s all we’ve got at the moment, he has to start. I’ve been bored to tears recently watching Saints create absolutely nothing apart from Redmond in the short cameos he’s allowed anymore.

In my eyes though the winning formula isn’t about Tino v Perraud, it’s about the balance of the whole team. And not having a natural left-footer at LB ruins our balance, especially as we often rely on them for our width. (As admirable as KWP’s efforts are in that position, without much support out there for him, it’s just too easy for defenders to shepherd him down the line onto his weak foot). It’s same way that S Armstrong probably isn’t our best player but he’s definitely one of our most important given the balance he provides to the team. On paper, I’d happily give all three of the fullbacks a go in the team with Tino or KWP a bit more advanced but, again, how that would actually affect our balance out in the pitch, I’m really not sure.

Because Southampton even with there strongest team will lose quite a few games over a season so not really sure that proves anything

Can’t see us winning still but at least he’s finally identified some of the issues from the last month so and has tried to fix it, but I can still see us getting overrun in the centre of the park. Personally, I see that as quite a big issue as to why the defence has been that bad

We didn’t even really get sussed out tbh, he changed it himself when we were on a high, taking out Perraud, for no apparent reason.