Patches O Houlihan

RM knew that it was important to try to keep SAA onside. But he also made considerable noise in the media about the immense physical pace, power and size of PL players compared to the Championship. We all knew that Will Smallbone would struggle with the step up - partly because he is not combative, but also due to his relatively slight build. Now compare SAA to Will in terms of physical stature. Sam is quick and has good skills with the ball at his feet undoubtedly, and I have loved watching him play, and would hope that he would sign a new contract and stake a claim for a solid first team place in the Championship next year. BUT He and Megahoma arrived with a wiff of ABK style FIGJAM* about them, and likely would only sign for one contract. He got pushed off the ball plenty in the Championship. Right now he's just not built to stop Mo Salah or a similarly powerful PL winger/LWB in full flight, and may never be. Maybe we don't want to gamble on him having the required growth spurt AND be willing to sign a new contract AND deliver on that early promise. Maybe that is just too many risks. Plus if that ~£7m of profit allows us to keep Fernandes next season (or Ramsdale) then for me it will be worth it. F**k I'm Good Just Ask Me

Ramsdale is contracted until 2028, and understandably doesn't have amazing stats this year. If we could somehow keep him, he would almost be a cheat code in the Championship if we played the right style. Would love to be able to hold on to one of Dibling or Fernandes

This got me thinking! Should be easy for an AI to work out right?! Nope - well not the ones I normally use anyway. I'm not frustrated enough yet to crunch all the numbers myself but here are few nuggets to be getting on with. Note I haven't looked at cup games. From 20/21 through to today Saints fans have witnessed 54 League Wins. But 26 of them were last year. We got 12, 9 and 6 wins in our previous 3 PL seasons, and 1 this season for a total of 28 League Wins. If you had been a 'super loser' plastic fan who changed allegiances every season, and supported the least winning team in each of the top 4 leagues over the same period then you would have seen these figures: League 2: 37 League 1: 34 Championship: 36 PL: 20 Looking at this I suspect your lowest win rate would be a super survivor in the PL. Everton have 54 wins in that period. Wolves have 55. If you discount teams relegated from League 2 and thus not having all the seasons in the top 4 English leagues there is a strong argument that we would be joint bottom, or if not in the worst 5. It feels even worse of course because our record winning streak in the Champ was topped and tailed by a losing spell with some embarrassing humpings.

We'll score 5 easily - how many VAR allow to stand is a different matter entirely

So to confirm you want the executive team that recruited Cornet, BBD and Archer as our strikeforce to build a brand new 23 man squad from scratch that will win the Championship. You, know I have this bridge you might be interested in buying... 🤔

He set up our goal... ... agree he should be a last 5 mins 5th sub at best

Who are you playing instead? Surely we have a choice of Downes/Les, Aribo/Les, Aribo/Downes. I would rather Downes be playing, but I would suggest Downes/Les is stronger than Downes/Aribo. (Have assumed that one of Dibling/Fernandes or our new Dane would be playing the attacking midfield role)

That is a fucking outrageous decision - really poor from the VAR team. "We are Southampton, we can't have nice things"

Watch it back on BBC iPlayer. Shite questions delivered to a teenage player who really couldn't be arsed to answer them, and delivered the bare minimum his media coach has taught him to give. On the plus side he didn't describe even the most mundane obvious thing as "unbelievable"... Even to the most jaded Saints fan us beating Swansea 3-0 at home, when they are playing makeshift defenders and a pretend goalie isn't 'unbelievable'.

Our talisman is Wee Man I'll get my coat...

F**k that

You never see Jennifer Lawrence's muff and Ben Bereton Diaz in the same room do you... 🤔

I'm glad you guys seem to share the same opinion of Vardy that I have. Absolute cock socket It's a toss up between him and Bruno Fernandes for who is the most hateful player in the PL.

IF we could somehow hold on to Fernandes he could be a very handy Stu Armstrong replacement in the Championship, and more than likely cut it in the PL the following year.

😁 Thanks for that! Great start to the morning Merry Christmas!

No Napoleon is our new set piece coach

Wellington commended by Leopold the 2nd. Is this a Premier League relegation battle or a colonial expedition?!

Message from the board: Please play ABK as a sub in the cup this week, as we'll get better advertising figures than if we put him on Facebook Marketplace.

The problem with playing KWP on the left is that he either runs into trouble on the edge of the area and loses it, or turns and plays a diagonal backwards/infield pass that 9/10 times comes to nothing. He doesn't provide crosses with his favoured right foot when played on the right, so no chance of seeing it when he plays on the left. Manning is left footed, more defensive minded than Suga/KWP thus allowing those more attacking minded fullbacks off the leash to attack properly. When Manning does get through he is capable of putting in a half decent cross. We have seen balls on the floor to Archer cut out endlessly by opposition defenders, which is why I think we need Tall Paul to play. He can hold it up and then play it on to Archer who runs into space, or he can provide knock downs from crosses for Archer who seems to be quite quick with his feet at short range in the box.

Might explain KWP's game being 'off it' a little recently

He is a physical specimen, but his mentality would seem to be questionable. Don't forget in our relegation season there were many on here calling out his injuries as him not fancying playing for us in tough PL games. We're going to need a backs against the wall effort if we are going to pull the ridiculously unlikely rabbit out of the hat. When Juric takes training he would need to be turning over not just a new leaf, but a massive palm frond in order to displace Wood who has demonstrated more willingness, team spirit and skill on the pitch in the last month than he has in 18. Feels a bit like the Lemina situation. Are we going to find that in 5 years time ABK finally pulls his head out of his arse and becomes Captain material?!

For me there is a bit of the Maurizio Sarri about him. Quietly tough talking, doesn't give a shit attitude. Will have to see, have only seen 3 mins of interviews so far.

He seems like a LB in a back 4 or a LCB in a 3 to me - not really a wing back which Ivan seems to favour. So for him to be in both Wood and Shoehorn would need to be stepped down for him, and Wood has certainly shown enough reasons to keep his place. For me it is a choice of KWP & Manning, or KWP & Sugawara - and do Bree & Manning fit in anywhere? Does Manning step up alongside Downes to play in a double pivot? Can Lallana get fit enough to play there and offer some searching through balls? Or are we playing Aribo or Big Les there? Front 3 kind of depends whether he wants to play two up top, or more likely one. I think our squad strength is on the wing/attacking midfield rather than striker so I think I would play Tall Paul alternating with Archer as dictated by our opponents style/squad. Fernandes/Dibling/Aribo/Lallana all offer something in the supporting roles. Here's what I would go for playing an Ivan Juric formation. KWP told to practice airborne crosses and if he hasn't played any by halftime expect to be substituted for Sugawara. Downes plays the Wanyama enforcer role, while Adam plays the Morgan playmaker role. Ramsdale THB Bednarek Wood KWP Downes (C) Lallana Manning Dibling Fernandes Tall Paul Likely subs: Sugawara (KWP/Manning), Archer (Paul), Aribo (Lallana) , Armstrong (Dibling)

This is true; but I can count the number of airborne crosses KWP has delivered in his entire Saints career on the fingers of one hand. Unless someone has a word with him we'll need to play Suagwara and Manning to get a tune out of Paul

In fairness there was all most F all to discuss about that match!