Patches O Houlihan

26yo Dutchman. Plays for Feyenoord Transfermkt suggests €13m. Liverpool linked with him back in March.

When I'm describing Burnley I'm not describing how they play when they have the ball (play long). I'm describing how they defend; two rows of 4 big lumps and the two tallest big lumps stood only just in front of them. Those two players pressing get beaten all day long by 4 or 5 skilled defenders - every one knows that. Which is why coaches use 'pressing triggers' so that 4 or 5 players know to press in sequence as a team. Beating this requires the defender on the ball to only release the ball when their opposite number is close; otherwise their pass is cut out by an opponent. Look at live PL games. It is now common to see a defender stationary with his foot placed vertically on top of the ball. This position is literally inviting the press. The vast majority of teams cannot be patient for longer than 20 seconds before attempting to press, and thus creating space to play through. It is risk vs reward. We might have differing opinions but we both know Saints are shit at breaking down 2 regimented banks of four, so why not try something different.

You remember all those PL years when we used to complain about how our team couldn't break through a team that sat back and defended? We'd be good against Chelsea or Arsenal, and shit against Sean Dyche's Burnley? Which meant that at the end of the year we were lower in the table than we should have been because we lost many of the six pointers against our rivals. THAT By playing out from the back you draw the opposing team forward to try to press you. This creates space for skilled, practised players to pass through. A good pressing team will try to close off those gaps: So the possession focused team recycles the ball ,and tries again until they do find a gap to pass an incisive through ball through. I know you hate stats but we were right up at the top of the Championship teams for incisive through balls last season. When those balls get through they are received by one of our attackers in the final third. Instead of facing six to eight outfield players between them and the goal they now have two to five. It means we get to avoid the clusterfuck that was the second half yesterday. Normally Newcastle wouldn't be playing that way, but it proves that we still struggle breaking down teams that sit back. At this point you will now argue that it was the playing out from the back that caused the loss of the goal. But I will argue that our outfield players barely put a foot wrong playing that way all game. Yes maybe in that moment Jack shouldn't have played back to McCathy. BUT if in that moment he had been playing back to someone with reasonable feet, or the sense to boot it long then we would have been fine.

Ivan Toney with AA and BBD playing off him. Would be amazing, but seems too much to hope for

The reports are that there is no option to buy. Seems less able to play on the turn than Lavia; so presumably that will still be Flynn's job. But he does seem to have the destroyer element to his game like big Vic had.

It's the second coming of Victor Wanyama! 😁 Welcome Big Les!

Am concerned that when Chelsea sack Enzo Maresca, that RM is next on their manager shopping list. He plays the same style, so they won’t need to replace the 75 players currently in their first team squad. 😕

Cameron Archer: “That was one of the main reasons why I'm here, his playing style, his coaching and trying to improve me as a player. It's not a bad place to do that in the Premier League with Southampton. “I just want to keep scoring goals and improve myself as a player, and I don't think there's a better place to do that than with Southampton.” This may be an element we’re underrating as Saints fans. Players ultimately want to win titles playing expansive possession football for top teams. What’s the best way to demonstrate your ability to play that way? Play well for Saints in the PL.

He was listed as the fastest recorded player at the 2022 World Cup. So probably quite fast then 🤔

eg. Edwards, Sugawara [But also Mara, Edozie] eg. Sulemana, Tall Paul, Duje Ćaleta-Car, Ross Stewart, Boufal, Osvaldo [But also VVD, Danny Ings] And this is why there is always a stick to beat the club with. Unless every signing, at every price point turns out to be solid gold someone will find something to moan about. I wish we were Brighton... [hint - it's the data collection paid for outside the club, made possible by owning a gambling company that is the secret of their success]

YET Let's revisit that statement the week after the transfer window shuts. We all know that the majority of the big loan moves happen in the last few days of the window - happens every year. I would be amazed if we didn't get at least one quality loan signing in, based on our success with loans last year.

https://www.themag.co.uk/2024/08/how-are-chelsea-allowed-to-get-away-with-this-quite-incredible-what-is-going-on-newcastle-united-premier-league/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cy4yg422zjpo

We did get the question about a striker at the end. But realistically would we rather a) Get a lovely fan friendly answer to the question that compromises our ability in the last weeks of the transfer window OR b) Receive a standard PR perfect response that maximises management's ability to complete the deals we all want to see.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_solent

17:59 and no sign of the live feed on the app. Does anyone have it?

According to Bild, Eintracht Frankfurt are the latest side to express their interest in Southampton defender Armel Bella-Kotchap. Hopefully a bit of competition for ABK will see his sale price rise

Try thinking about it this way: We may have bought a Virgil Van Dyke at the price that Celtic would have paid, rather than the price we would have had to buy them from Celtic for. [or we may not have done - nothing is certain in life besides the unfairness of the PL]

Maybe after a season with Baz in the sticks for RM, and now with 2 seasons of data to analyse, the club have quietly recognised that they were wrong to put him in the firing line so early. Maybe they sign a keeper on a 5 year contract, we keep him for 3. McCarthy is back up this season, and Baz back up for the 2 after. Then that keeper is sold and Baz becomes our no1 again? I've nothing to back that up, but it's what I'd consider, assuming we were confident we could get Baz onboard with it

I agree with you. But sadly we don't get to play 10x BBDs. We still only get 11 players on the pitch, and the skill and ability of every player counts. Marginal gains against diminishing return on investment. (I seem to remember a classroom Economics lesson about why Nurses earn less than Footballers 🙂)

Maybe the DJ will play Freed From Desire in the pre-game too 😁 Feels like it is played at every sporting event this summer - not sure how I feel about that

See Sulemana - currently injured for a month or so after playing in pre-season; and as a consequence very unlikely to be sold.

But I think you can agree that those 3 windows have definitely been an improvement on the clusterf**K that was their earlier ones - and that was my argument.

Watching BBD's YouTube videos I saw a couple of goals in that style, so wondered whether he could emulate Ings for us using that technique. Blackburn fans describe him as being quite streaky, and a confidence player. We could really do with him retaining the hot form he had with the Blades and starting well for us.

Charlie Taylor was at Burnley and played alongside THB BBD played with Arma at Blackburn - there's another link somewhere too. Can't think of it right now. [RM last night > "Flynn played for England with him as a kid"] Sugawara was quite likely recommended by Yoshida when he was training with us. There is a credible argument that the quality recent signings have come from personal contacts rather than a 'black box'. Fine by me as long as it doesn't all fall apart if Russ gets headhunted as so many of our good managerial team seem to.