gio1saints

Way I see it we are actually trying to do something which the rest of the leagues don’t want us to do. They want us to remain in our place.And no it’s not meekly subscribing to that underdog narrative that’s been our traditional meat and drink for so long either.. what’s happening is different. We got a taste with Poch. Another glimpse with Ralph. Now with Russell we are going full Monty. It’s so different. Upstarts trying to play like we are and trying to change the status quo must be encouraged - but only up to a point. The leagues must appear competitive. Then we must be ransacked for our best players and forced to start again. That Cycle has repeated endlessly for Saints. We are all fed up of that happening but some of us have got Stockholm syndrome and we have actually fallen in love with the whole shit show. And are scared if even trying anymore. We are disrupting that system and lots of people- including our own fans clearly, are unhappy with that. RM and JW are showing that a bunch of relegated players in a defeated club can be trained to play differently. And that it can be effective. That’s not good for the moneybags clubs to see. And, like RM, I’d rather lose playing in that disruptive style - a style that expresses our football integrity and frightens the powers that be - than furtively fumble around the Championship or EPL begging for points here and there playing dross, mediocre, characterless pragma-football with no identity apart from ultimately being “ plucky losers” . RM, and Saints, are going for it. All-in. And I’m happy with that. Do it right & play properly or don’t bother is my attitude. IF we go up I’m happier for him and team to go toe to toe with anyone and lose than go cap in hand and get repeatedly fucked over as we have been for decades by the bigger clubs and stay as the bottom feeding sad cases at the wrong end of league.

Wished I could have been at the dinner Whitey. Could not agree more with you about the great work that the Saints Foundation does. Many Saints fans don’t realise that the Foundation IS the official SFC charity and it currently has around 23 ( give or take) different programmes to help those most in need - in Hampshire. Not enough credit given imo to this end of our club work. It’s one if not the thing I’m most proud about re SFC. We can win lose or draw a football match this weekend but the Saints Foundation is always out there irrespective doing good deeds.

Saints under RM play unincisive uninspiring football? Some of you have got the memory of a goldfish. And refuse to look at the facts telling you exactly how many goals & how many forward passes we make compared to rest of the league. None so blind as cannot and will not see. You mistake not letting the opposition have the ball with being not incisive when the whole point is to rip through teams - which we have done time and time again with incisive passes created by that possession based football which frustrates YOU and the opposition so much. How would you describe last season then? Incisive? Goals a plenty? Thrills and spills? Entertainment? Proud of the way your team played? Excited going to SMS each week to see another shocking performance. No, it was Rubbish with a capital R. You don’t know how lucky you are our team is competitive and respected - and the name of Southampton FC does not provoke sniggers but rather respect from the football world. But not from some of our football club supporters used to what exactly? The glory years 1982/3/4 when we were last a real force to be reckoned with???

Was going to reply but @Dusichas done it so much better!

Dang! And I would have gotten away with it if if wasn’t for those pesky kids! Another success for Scooby-Doo and the gang. 🤣

Russell Martin is virtually the antithesis of an Old-school Manager. But he is just one of a tidal wave of similar coaches appearing across the world taking the best from the past and melding it with contemporary sport science. What we have with RM- is pretty unique though and I’d rather concentrate on that rather than what we do not have. Support Enjoy and spotlight what is good rather than constantly attempting to undermine him is my view. Every criticism of him could be levelled at any manager at various times in any league. He’s as stubborn, arrogant, medal-free, egotistic, nepotistic, inflexible, classy or classless, over flexible, tactically all over the shop, one dimensional and over fixated with stats and hipster thinking as most every other manager. Go to any fan forum and you will find a supporter criticising the manager for the above. I stead why not try being grateful for what’s been done that’s good instead of ( as some here do) exclusively trying to turn every misstep into a court martial offence. Anybody would get peeved off at such a fickle fan pov. I know I would.

Just suppose you chanced upon a dusty old bottle of scrumpy outside the exits of SMS on a bleak Saturday early evening . A disappointing display and defeat has blighted another evening and week ahead. You open it and instead of cider a red white and black suited genie emerges - and not only that but its got a passing resemblance to Kevin Keegan - but I digress, the saintly genie offers you a choice of one, but only one, of the above titles. He adds that whichever you choose will be marked upon your gravestone for eternity next to a Saints crest. Not only that but if you should ever try switch then a lightening bolt will strike you dead there and then. The moral of this made up modern fable should be clear : we are all fainthearts, fools, cynics and lovers of Saints at different times. But if only one was to be on your tombstone forever which, genuinely, would you wish for? 😇

@Lord Duckhunterwhere do you get the inspiration for your ( oh so classy ) name calling of Saints Manager? You will not be surprised to know that your obvious expertise and new found interest on the topic of our Manager’s “ class” is a matter of some hilarity on forum. The banal and sadly unimaginative attempts to belittle RM that you engage in are, frankly, not all that good. We get that you hate him, hate his football, always have. But please save yourself the bother of banging on about his “class” as a proxy for your issue with him as if you are the paradigm of classy behaviour on this forum. The jokes worn thin.

Are you giving inspirational lectures here about class in the same sentence as the classy name calling for RM that is your hallmark? Can’t handle a little bit of pressure? It’s actually more supporters like you with your overreaction that cannot handle it. Start of season you’d have hung drawn and quartered him, then you had to stfu during the record run but now you are back giving lectures about class and handling pressure. Too funny.

That’s certainly true here on this forum. There’s going to be more coming out with the nasty stuff for sure. The response of people around me yesterday was out of control mad. The mood just changed 180 degrees very rapidly. There was absolutely no middle ground whatsoever and it felt, to me anyways, that with each crazy shouted outburst the others around me in Northam were becoming more emboldened to emit even more nut job stuff. The insults towards Will Smallbone in particular were not just ridiculous but shameful. The trigger hair groans and abusive outbursts for every mistake or each additional pass he made instead of route one just left me with earache and hair spittle from the frothers behind me. People have paid and are entitled to opinions. Entitled to shout out displeasure. But if this carries on it will make matches harder to win not easier. Saints Fans say they are loyal but actually many are as fickle as fuck- minute it goes wrong pitchforks come out. Otherwise how do you justify the disgusting comments thrown at the players yesterday? Being “ loyal” is not synonym for being allowed to have an abusive relationship with a loved one- which is essentially what support for saints currently is for some at SMS . Minute loved one cooks a nice meal it’s all play nice. Burns the steak - abuse. Watching and having to endure the outbursts made me wonder what kind of households these people go home to- and what those households have to endure domestically. Quite frightening really.

i think team including RM are believing our own hype. It started about five matches ago. We seem to have lost our humility and willingness to chase every ball and instead rely upon our way so superior skill way so superior talented players and our state of the art pB based football. The only thing relentless about these last matches has been how lacking we have been in working for each other. Too often players isolated too often only backwards passes available. We are going into matches as the big favourites and crumbling mentally. The only match that looked like it could be our “ level” funny enough they showed up for 25 mins v WBA. Just cannot cope with being overdogs. As well as the squad tinkering this is an obvious psychological hang up. Playing as overdogs is a special skill - and there’s research out there for those interested in sports Pyschology - and we do not have it, yet. There’s still tIme to resolve the issues is the only good news. A lot of what they did today was ok but the critical bit in last third they just chickened out. Oh for a greedy goal scorer who shoots on sight!

KWP is playing left LM!!!

It’s an attacking line up for sure. Can see KWP being encouraged to push push and us to revert to a three at the back. IF KWP does what he does - driving with the ball- both RF & DB might get some passes in dangerous areas - Che please just score when it rebounds out to you from 3 yards. 😁

Dont want to disappoint you but Baz kicked the ball long around 7/8 times in the first half alone v Hull. It was the most he’s done any match this season and we lost possession almost immediately each time. And it was a terrible first half. He was kicking it wide especially to RW and hull just were regaining possession. Because very often AA was not there ( but I suspect he was meant to be). AA was deeper ready to pick up balls from the mf or cb’s. SO if the game plan was to attack that flank in particular Baz got the message and out the ball there but AA was out of position. On the left flank Sam was unable to challenge and win any long ball either. The long ball to Sam on left and Adam on the right was a failure. It might work with Kameldeen and Ryan because they have genuine turn of pace. But if we are going to play that tactic the players must : (1) be in the right position to receive and (2) have the pace to get to ball first if it’s flat or a distance to run to get it or (3) be able to compete for an aerial ball if it’s high - and come out still in possession Nothing wrong with playing long when circumstances dictate or even as default at times - but not stupidly as per first half last week. Poor show that was from Russell.

I stayed away from Watching Saints live in person or even live on tv because I often could not cope with the emotions when we played. It came to a head in the fa cup at the Ricoh one year and I think we won and it was JWP first goal but I just did not enjoy it - at all- actually the opposite. It took me such a long time after that to be able to watch live again after, Neurodivergent idiosyncratic person that I am. Having a ST in Northam is like masochism - I force myself to watch but I’m trying to brave it out even though a lot of the time I don’t like being there even when we win. Masking is effing bad for everyone but I just feel there’s no point running away from it though - and I’ve never run, ever. Not starting now. Emotional regulation can be a struggle to get right for autistics. But I support Saints always will do cannot just unsupport them.

He’s being compared positively from what he does in training with other perhaps overrated attacking midfielders at Juve ( paraphrasing from a bunch of Italian media sources) who are not performing. They especially like that he is always wanting to take the ball on the half turn and be aggressive/positive - unlike other current Juve players who are often playing safe just rebounding passes from the cb’s. Sounds familiar! My problem with Charlie - who I love- is that yes he was told to be aggressive and go positively forwards with the ball - but it so often caused a turnaround that he was as much a liability as a joy ( occasionally) to watch. IF the rest of the team were told to especially carry the water for him ( as deschamps was once described as) and he had free reign no prob - but that not been the case and he’s expected to wash his own dishes at saints- and defending after a chick up that’s not his best skill. He is not Messi or MLT, yet. If ever. BUT - If he even gets close good news for Saints. He is obviously looking decent in Juve training though from what I’ve read so these stories are positive not negative in any case. The’ manager ( Allegri?) is basically just settling for a top four place now as Inter have the Scudetto in hand so Charlie may get more chances anyway., PS. sry for mixed metaphors but you know what I mean. I hope. 😇

Here’s my take, all with the benefit of hindsight of course; 1. RM messed around a winning team needlessly. There was a strong case to play the excellent and winning starting eleven from the WBA game - but that was overlooked in favour of essentially giving minutes to players and tinkering around with tactics. Nobody would have criticised putting out the same team. And I dare say it would have performed better. 2. Both the selections and the tactics were very quickly shown to be ill advised. NOT changing the tactics or the team fast enough when that was abundantly evident showed lack of flexibility - and perhaps over-attachment to dogma. 3. There was no lack of effort imo but the players were hamstrung by the poor match tactics and by the ill advised changes. To single out individuals playing badly or uncomfortably or inefficiently in that set up is to miss the main culprit- Russell. 4. Hull were very effective and excellently set up with some strong joined up play abilities. Certainly play off contenders. 5. Sometimes. Many times. RM has got it right and we look smooth classy and take teams apart. When we misfire as in recent matches, it looks simply awful. There has to be a step somewhere inbetween - because if we are not turning teams over like we were before the alternative cannot be conceding 2 goals before half time like this two home matches running. 6. The WBA match first twenty five was what we CAN do. But the matches v Huddersfield and now Hull and certainly for long spells in other matches we have shown both mental and tactical flakiness. 7. My personal opinion of course but from where I was standing it looked like many of the players lacked absolute belief in what they were doing. And again that down to the Manager. I praise him when he’s good, I defend him when he’s criticised unfairly ( as he’s was earlier in season) and even more when him and team get personal abuse - but in this instance I’d say fault squarely on RM. He and the coaches have got some serious soul searching to do with the squad before next match. As do some of the players.

My bloody unlucky saints sweatshirt! 😡This is worse than Huddersfield. Worse than Gillingham. Worst first half seen at SMS all season.Fans v angry. Ugly atmosphere .

Exactly right. When at the moment of crisis, when you need your “ touch” to be perfect and to be full frosty mode he showed his class. I could imagine our other forwards fumbling that touch or attempting to hit it into the defender first time. He’s a very good player- though defensively he is still not quite with the programme. Keeps scoring and assisting I’m not complaining though!

I’m wearing my lucky Saints sweatshirt for this one. Because of my poor memory I cannot remember if I’ve ever seen a defeat in it this season- but I’m not going to let a detail like that get in the way so am going to take a gamble and suggest it strongly to the world that it is indeed a lucky charm. In doing so I encourage the Universe to manifest Saints victory tonight and respectfully ask it it to take into consideration the vibes of winning luck that emanate from the #sweatshirt-that-has-never-failed. 😇😁 That should do it. Might be cold so an extra sweater in order tonight too.

Hi, Saints foundation published their impact report today. Hit the link if you are interested in the details. Has to be said- Well Done! We should all be very proud of what is being done in the name of SFC. https://res.cloudinary.com/southampton/image/upload//fl_attachment:6194_SFC_Foundation_Impact_Report_2022_23_ryswso//v1708336336/Saints Foundation/Supporting Southampton/6194_SFC_Foundation_Impact_Report_2022_23_ryswso.pdf?_s=public-apps

My only ( mild) concern In the game of possible consequences though is that it’s not impossible Newcastle consider JW if they lose Ashworth? Can’t really say no to that spending power? Only job I see RM being offered soon is the Scotland one post euros- but think he’d probably reject it if we were in EPL. Not sure replacing De Zerbi at Brighton is actually such a good gig for him as I previously thought and he’s not going to a top six team anytime soon. Has won nothing to date and that needs to change -starting with promotion to EPL.

Would not be surprised if a few of our most hard running players get a bench rest for this one- Will, Stu and AA. That might mean return of Downes, Brooks and Che. Or Rothwell, Aribo, Shea or Sam take your pick… What to do about LB though?

Tend to agree. Our last home match was a dire first half against a team this lot just beat away. Any repeat - or the Bristol not turn up and That may let hull score a few and 5 goal second half miracles are not a weekly thing we can rely on. Prefer straightforward win put to bed by massive first half but more likely, If anything, getting to HT NOT losing and then see what our better 5 subs can do against them in second half is what I think is most likely path to victory.

Nobody’s pinning their hopes on it. It’s just a what-if chat. The reaction of the piss on your dreams brigade here is what I cannot fathom. You know better than anyone you cannot express positivity about Saints without someone. somewhere giving you evils. What’s more avoidable ( and so sad ) is the sycophantic saints supporting stooges posting laughing emojis at obvious personal insults and abuse of other saints - just for having the temerity to imagine a “ what if” scenario even when full of caveats like “ but of course it won’t happen” that they disapprove of.