Patches O Houlihan

Azaz is playing Jander's position. Same formation as last few games. Welly a bit crook so not starting. Mads in for Jelert because of his muscular injury. Quashie back in now he's fit, ahead of THB.

We provided a ball in behind - he took it unnecessarily wide and then kicked it directly into the keeper's chest. Twice a season he strikes a ball well with a short backlift from 10 yards out and we think "Oh maybe he isn't shit after all" But not being shit is about consistency. Arma is consistent - Can't do it at PL level. Can't play on his own in the middle. Needs a hatful of chances to score. BUT if he gets those chances in the Championship he does score, and he's doing it again this season.

Whilst it has been a complete shit show I do think our players started the season fitter than they did after either of Russ's two pre-seasons. So there is the potential for the team to be able to play Ralf's style. I don't think we'll go that way though; it's not fashionable enough. Klopp was made to look stupid by 'pool winning at a canter after he left. Now Pep is playing with balls into a big man up front. The crucial rules for Sports Republic seem to be: Do they interview well? Will they do what we tell them to do? Does the style sound like flavour of the month? Are we likely to quadruple our investment with a sale in 24 months? What they don't look for is: Competent and experienced at the role required Proven track record at doing it Leadership, winning mentality and the kind of personality that puts noses out of joint, but ultimately creates a dressing room where you don't want to let standards drop and let the side down. Big fucking scary bastards

AI: Yes, there is a professional connection between Southampton’s current Director of Football Johannes Spors and former Saints manager Ralf Hasenhüttl — primarily through their shared history at RB Leipzig. Background at RB Leipzig Johannes Spors worked at RB Leipzig as a head of scouting and recruitment during the mid-2010s, a time when Ralf Hasenhüttl was appointed Leipzig manager (in 2016) and led them to a second-place Bundesliga finish in their debut top-flight season. Their roles overlapped directly, with Spors involved in player identification and squad planning, while Hasenhüttl managed on-field performance. This collaboration established a shared foundation in high-pressing, data-driven football operations that both men became associated with later in their careers. Ongoing professional synergy Spors’s later appointments at Genoa, Vitesse, and now Southampton reflect the same Red Bull-inspired football model — emphasizing youthful recruitment, tactical energy, and a clear vertical structure between sporting director and coach. Hasenhüttl, during his subsequent Southampton tenure, applied a near-identical philosophy, which the club’s media and fan networks later described as aligned with Spors’s outlook. Significance of the connection When Spors joined Southampton in early 2025, local coverage described him as Hasenhüttl’s former colleague and “a trusted name from that era,” suggesting the board valued his alignment with Hasenhüttl’s football vision — pressing intensity, development focus, and structured recruitment. Supporters and journalists noted that Spors’s arrival represented a return to the kind of strategic direction that underpinned Hasenhüttl’s most successful period at St Mary’s. In short, Johannes Spors and Ralf Hasenhüttl share a meaningful professional history from RB Leipzig, bound by a similar footballing philosophy. Their time together there shaped both men’s subsequent approaches — and Spors’s 2025 appointment at Southampton was widely interpreted as an attempt to revive the organizational and tactical principles first established during Hasenhüttl’s tenure.

Maybe he's up all night breast feeding his nipper

This is bollocks. What's the point of supporting a football team without a striker worth the name. But maybe we have a jinx too; We keep getting balls coming back off the woodwork in recent games and their third clips in off the post. Loads of 50/50 incidents seem to have fallen for our opponents and gone against us - not just this week.

According to the BBC article about Rohl's appointment to Rangers he has managed less than 100 professional games. Still might be relatively inexperienced, but he has overseen 35% more as manager ~135. Granted Rohl had more and higher quality experience as an assistant

In the business of crisis management Danny Rohl served his apprenticeship at Sheffield Wednesday. As wacky a place as Wednesday was - and is - under the ownership of Thai tuna tycoon Dejphon Chansiri, the German's time there can be seen as an 89-game warm-up routine. From frying pan to furnace, Rohl is the new Rangers head coach. He becomes the eighth permanent manager/head coach of the Ibrox club in little over a decade and the 16th when you factor in all those interim guys who have drifted across their landscape. BBC Link

Russell Martin signed for us in June 2023 and was sacked December 2024. As we know both Russ and our DoF insisted on scrapping all that had gone before and starting with a new way of playing. Just because you are not in the first eleven doesn't mean you are not getting it rammed down your throat in training, and being shouted at and ridiculed when you play with normal thinking. Our squad; months exposed to training with Russ 18 - McCarthy, Bazunu, THB, Stephens, Manning, Downes, Aribo, Armstrong, Edozie 17 - Archer 16 - Stewart, Fraser 14 - Charles 6 - Wood, Edwards That's 15 players in a first team squad of 30. But eight of those players were on the pitch at some point on Saturday, and the players are surrounded by staff and fans who have seen shit results and whippings for 4 out of the last 5 seasons. Things have improved to my eye as far as not playing quite so many hospital passes, and we even made a couple of quick breaks out of our own half! But the passing it around the defence for the 7 mins of injury time was surely tied up with this training memory, and the experience of having shipped end of game goals endlessly in recent years.

You think Stewart might get lonely in the physio's waiting room and could do with a rehab buddy?

Matsuki would be playing ahead of Azaz / Fellows / Armstrong (maybe Charles / Jander ) He's another small player to add to Scienza, Arma, Archer, Fraser, Jelert. He'd need to be bossing it in training to get that breakthrough I suspect.

If you were Will Still would you have brought Damion Downs on instead of one of the other subs? I wouldn't have. Bearing in mind he is one of only 2 proper strikers we have fit at the club Will Still would have made Spors look even more of a tit if he had left him at home. Probably not wise to embarrass your line manager so early in your tenure 😉

Yes - shit. BUT Still has only managed 10 league games, and won the cup games + a creditable performance at Anfield. League = W2, D6, L2 How easy do you think it is to immediately turn around a team with those stats with a fan base that has seen the worst results in Europe over the last 4 years?

Yes

Swansea's Alan Sheehan: "That is our first good point of the season. The draws we have had have felt like losses. We've played better with the ball and come away short of points. "They created a lot of chances in that spell in the first half. That is the first time a team has created that amount of chances against us, credit to them."

I worry that if we replace Edwards with Downes we'll just go back to dull endless passing back with none of the optimistic incisive through balls, and the couple of quick breaks we made today. I'd rather have Jander play the holding role and bring Azaz or Fellows in if we go to a back four.

Because of Man City and their ilk ripping the piss out of the rest of the football league for the last decade, and because of what happened to Palace with European football

Yes you're right. But I still think you'd need Stewart for the 4-2-3-1. If you want to play a back four you'd play 4-3-3 with a single sitting midfielder.

Jelert is out, and they might not risk Welington coming back from injury. So I think we see the same team, but Fellows in for Jelert, and Manning in for Wely. I think we'll win

4-2-3-1 when played against a league that will mostly be defensive playing against you needs Ross Stewart and we don't have him. That was Plan B. Plan C requires us to get the ball to our midget forwards to score. Which means probing through balls, clever short crosses, and attacking players popping up all over the show so their defence can't crowd out our little chaps. Plus Scienza doing his thing. There could be an argument for a 4-3-3 with the front six very fluid, but that's a wholesale change and at the moment we are doing OK defensively. So rather than throw the baby out with the bathwater I think we're trying to build from a relatively solid defensive base (something we've heard pundits blather on about for years)

If Stewart had survived the last 60 minutes of our last game we would be playing Plan B which was working. With the players that were recruited for him I just see him doing the best that he can. We didn't play with a 10 today McCarthy Edwards Wood THB Jelert Jander Charles Wely Armstrong Scienza Archer Edwards and THB were the ball players, Jander & Charles got forward to support. All three centre backs + Charles were up for set pieces to provide an aerial threat. Wood dominated in defence. The front three played a good press, and generally the front seven were quite fluid in their positions. At one point in the middle of the first half I think Jelert played a short ball to Welington around the right corner of their area. Scienza's touch map appeared on the screen at the end of the game. I can't find it right now but it looked like a child's finger painting! The only place he didn't get the ball was in the RB position. He clearly had licence to roam. Jander and Charles both had close range shots.

He doesn't have a true 'accepted style' he's a pragmatic coach and tries to build a team around its strengths. In his previous roles he got a group of players used to playing together who were familiar with the division, and whilst on a loosing streak weren't a complete basket case. Saints had two groups of players going into September: Those who have struggled to change from Martinball and were demoralised by the PL season Those new at the club or are returning from loan. Still initial plan didn't work because it relied too heavily on that first group. His second plan worked but required Ross Stewart to play. And it worked. Today looked to me like it was his third plan: The defence was the same but we played far more direct forward balls through their defence to players around the D. There was less reliance on getting to the byline and delivering crosses, although clearly there was some of this. I also felt like the three CBs played higher allowing the two midfielders to play in a more forward/attacking way. It was also helpful that Scienza was given licence to roam.