Nemi

He’s definitely wasn’t even terrible v Sheff Utd as some people made out - 95% of the time he was actually extremely solid. Problem though, as with so many Saints players is that a poor 5% lead to conceding a goal. He’s is certainly a good player but in my eyes he’ll definitely continue to be 95% great and 5% poor, and at times that 5% will cost us. But he’s definitely nowhere near as bad as some made out after Sheffield.

Totally agree tbh - I do think Hasenhuttl could be better - but acting like if he did something different everytime would somehow change a result is wishful thinking. Every team’s fans from Man City down complain about team selections and substitutes - definitely not uniquely a Hasenhuttl problem.

He shit, but still looks far more likely to do something compared to any other of our 10s at the moment, which is the bigger problem than Redmond himself.

Shock, horror - a lower PL team on a shoestring budget, has a manager who regularly makes bizarre decisions. Hardly surprising. There isn’t an answer to the problem because we have owners who don’t want to invest in good players or good coaches. Get another manager, it will be another budget choice who just makes the same old errors over again.

JWP needs to moved higher up the pitch, let’s start playing to his strengths - pressing from the front, setting the tempo. Personally I’ve been fed up for at least a year with how much he slows down our play from a 6, and this sluggishness on the ball has definitely been one of the main reasons for being so poor the past year. So refreshing actually seeing Saints move the ball quickly again, it made such a difference to our play.

Can’t see why this is very controversial and tbh there’s no shame on being on the level of Mark Noble, he’s a solid player Premier League player - very few will make it to that level. But if you wanna be a comfortable PL you can’t have someone like JWP (or Mark Noble) being classed as one of the best players cause that highlights that the quality is lacking in other areas. You can see how much West Ham have improved with players like Noble playing more of a peripheral role. And clearly that showed in our more successful years between 2014-16; JWP was a squad player rather than first name on the team-sheet.

As capable as I’m sure Livramento would be further forward I still really don’t see it fixing our issues at the moment. We already spend so much time going side-to-side in front of the oppositions defence with no penetration, playing two right-backs would probably just make that worse. And when’s the last time Adams or Armstrong have scored a header? Maybe Broja could solve that problem? Also I think Livramento is stronger defensively than KWP.

It’s not just him though is it. Same with Vestergaard v Leicester last year, this team has a habit of playing themselves into trouble and unnecessarily allowing referees to make big decisions. I think whoever is captain though has more of a responsibility to try and avoid these situations. And yeah it is our style to press and force mistakes, which is why simply conceding a risky foul there was a stupid decision, when we could of had a throw-in in an advanced position. When do you see the best players throw themselves into tackles like that? They don’t, they force the other team make the mistake. Instead, diving in and giving away a free-kick takes-off all the pressure and a red card is just the cherry on top of the cake. Sorry, but in my view there’s no reason whatsoever to commit yourself there when you have the other team on the back foot and under pressure.

I think it’s a clear red, if others don’t fair enough. What incomprehensibly stupid but hardly surprising is that our players keep unnecessarily putting themselves in these positions where the officials have an excuse to send them off. JWP is meant to be a captain leading by example and he goes making a ridiculously stupid decision by even attempting that tackle.

The thing I’ve noticed is that we barely play a 4222 anymore, it’s more a standard 442. Under our more successful periods under Hassenhuttl we managed to create overloads by having the 10s tuck in far more central and the strikers drifted further out wide to try and get into the pockets of space vacated by the FBs. We played far more direct and quicker football as a result: scoring goals and creating chances was far less of a problem. Since the start of the year, that shape has fallen apart, the 10s now stay far out wide and the football has really suffered as a result of it: instead of getting into pockets of space we now just always play sideways in front of the opposition’s defence, and as a result we’re as toothless as we are. I can barely remember the last time we scored a goal (disregarding goals scored after tackling on a high-press) which haven’t come from the wing. I personally think it’s also why we look so exposed in midfield - Romeu and JWP aren’t physical enough to do it alone, and I think this is also why Diallo has struggled. For me, our only hope is if we actually return to a 4222, with more central playing 10s - our full-backs are good enough to cover the wings themselves. I guess a big issue is that a lot of our wingers want to drift wide, so personally I’d line up something like this (when players are fit): GK Back 4 Romeu, Diallo JWP, S Armstrong Adams, A Armstrong I think we need to push Ward-Prowse further forward (his biggest strength is winning the ball back high up the pitch and this would enable him to have more freedom in that, while giving more cover in CM). I don’t think we’ll solve the issue by playing Livramento further up as that will only continue with us focusing too much out wide. On top of that A Armstrong don’t look to have much aerial threat so what’s the point? We’re better off trying to release him quickly from the centre. Everyone criticised Hasenhuttl for being too stubborn and playing the same way, but in my opinion his biggest problem as a manager has been failing to play in his preferred way. Hopefully, he can rediscover those tactics, because the football and the results were far better.

As terrible as Redmond has been he’s probably the most likely to produce something, which is an absolutely shocking indictment of our quality in this area (excluding Armstrong, but he’s a slightly different sort of player, and personally I’d keep him a bit deeper as we need a bit of drive in that position). The fact that this area wasn’t strengthened is wildly neglectful. The other problem is how are we meant to expect any impact from our subs, when this is the sort of quality that we can bring on?

Because Livramento is a RB. Our best players should be playing in their best positions. Someone (Hasenhuttl, anyone) should of seen that all our wingers are shit are prioritised buying a winger/CAM, instead of trying to fix all our various issues by playing an 18 year old out of position.

Also doesn’t take a genius striker to realise that Bednarek loves to dive in and over commit himself, so it doesn’t take very much to stitch him like a kipper

I’m just as miffed as why Tella didn’t start or even get on the pitch, but come on, a 21 year old with not many games under his belt isn’t going to bail us out or necessarily even find us a goal - it’s a team game and our team is underwhelming, that’s the main issue.

But we now have even worse goalscorers, with the same lack of quality and creativity in midfield, that screwed us last season. And it’s not like any of the wingers or midfielders look like they’ll suddenly find some undiscovered goalscoring form anytime soon either.

Don’t even think cashing in on Ings had to be a problem. We also created nothing for him last season and struggled as a result. We can’t just rely on one player to bail us out every time. If we invested in some quality midfielder and wingers to actually create some changes, instead of a worse version of Ings, it wouldn’t be ideal, but I reckon we’d be in far less of a mess. Should of really cashed in on JWP for the same reason of improving creativity too IMO, but clearly they didn’t trust themselves to invest it properly (which probably would have turned out to be true).

Think it’s true myself. Fact is Ralph has totally fucked the transfer market, solved none of the issues from last season, and has just brought in like for like replacements who are generally worse. His questionable selections don’t help, but if someone else comes in he’s already fucked it for them with the squad that he’ll pass over. Unfortunately, with the quality we have compared to other teams, I have no idea how we stay up.

Hasenhuttl and the club management have totally fucked us in the summer with our transfer strategy. Real opportunity to actually rebuild the squad, with some big sales and it’s been wasted on (maybe fullbacks aside) slightly worse players to fill in for the ones we sold, instead of actually improving on the squad as a whole. So we have the same problems of being totally blunt in midfield, with a worse strike force. (Oh but at least there more depth to our ineffectiveness now). The fact that the CAM position wasn’t improved up is criminal, same for the CDM position too. The ineptitude there has relegated us before the season has begun. Couldn’t careless who is manager now because a championship quality team belongs in the championship and that is exactly what we are.

Honestly it wasn’t just his fault though. The attack was largely static and the midfield was somehow overloaded most of the first half, despite a 4141 formation. I think he has his merits Redmond, but it suited Ings poacher style which is now gone, and it’s clear that he will never speed up his decision making, which showed again today, and that will never change unfortunately. I think the lack of quality attacking mids will be Saints’ downfall this season.

Tbh neither CB particularly played overly well today, so harsh to pick out Lyanco in particular. Really didn’t help that they were left exposed on various occasions. There were a few times where Lyanco handled the situation nicely and at other moments he struggled. To be fair to Valery I thought he did rather decent, and Perraud looked dangerous in attack. Poor game for Broja, but at least he showed he can be dangerous; nearly scored and nearly set up Adams at the end - but he needs to get more involved, more than today anyway, as otherwise he was anonymous. And I don’t like picking on Redmond but he was really, really bad today but in his defence he was playing basically as a CM which really didn’t suit him. Poor match from Saints overall, but it looked like an experimental game for Hasenhuttl as the shape changed about three times, but at least we still progressed.

Not convinced by this one at all.

Yeah it’s definitely a problem. I just think the best way to solve it was to try and bring in a player or two who can play in the CAM role, who are comfortable playing a bit more centrally, and suit the formation. The best way IMO is to bring in players who suit what is ultimately Hasenhuttl’s strongest way of playing. But it’s probably not going to happen as there’s no rumours at all about signing a CAM, so the same problems will probably persist. Then whether or not the he can adjust to the squad he has is another question. I’m not holding out much hope tbh.

I don’t have a problem with his tactics or formation. The problem I have is that he seems happy with Djenepo, Redmond and Walcott in the attacking mid role. None of them suit that position, they play too wide to be effective there, it totally ruins our shape in the 4222 and critically none of them are creative enough.

The second half collapses are something that happened well before Ralph. Problem is he’s unable to change that. The biggest problem is the club - it’s been stale and shite for years. The second biggest problem is the manager is unable to fix it.

Have we ever had any impact subs? Can’t remember the last time a sub has ever made an impact. Substitution timings don’t help, mind. But our bench is just the same tedious crap players who don’t do v much.