gio1saints

Bizarre comments.😳 @Tommy MulgrewIf you go to home matches you would know Martin always salutes Northam at end when we win, so yes, obviously I’m his big brother AND his mum for pointing that out. Well spotted. @tdmickey3 your attempt at name calling humour is weak to put it mildly. Stick to your day job at Disneyland. 😇

RM always goes to the Northam and gives a shout out to support every time we win. It wasn’t anything g about blackburn - Though they would not know that so it could be seen as over celebrating. Im 100% confident he was not intending to be disrespectful to Blackburn and 100% confident he was just celebrating and acknowledging the support of our most vociferous home fans in yhe Northam. To be otherwise would be cheap and pathetic and he’s just not that person.

Apart from the one he chipped straight to their player on edge of the box first half - which looked like a pre planned move to find Smallbone - or the short corners he also tried. I saw KWP take over one corner LW side and shouted at Sam to come over for a short one at one point first half, also saw AA sprinting over for a short corner again LW side another time when Bree was taking. There seems to be a lot of variation and flexibility in our corner taking, including who takes them, short or long, lofted or driven. It used to be fairly predictable with JWP but not so now. Perhaps explains why we scored for first time in 27 years from a corner😂

Asking Saints to cut out the “ needless” passing and get it forward is like asking Nigella to cook up an omelette without eggs but keep licking her lips and flirting with the camera. It’s not the same omelette.

It just saves time everybody knows what you mean. Otherwise we are debating “possession based football” which is a mouthful and can represent a broad range of styles/teams. Also, saying “ we are trying to play a bit like like Man City but Saints style” does not exactly roll off the tongue.

Best solution I reckon!😄. If Saints were a current snooker player we’d be someone like Mark Selby I reckon. We are not a Ronnie or a Luca Brecel.

Forum has debated the Russball style all season but it’s never been claimed that it was always going to be a vivacious watch. And our players are still learning it. They don’t go out to deliberately look bad or look great. But both can happen in the same match, still. It can look like they’ve been given different instructions but the theme is invariably the same. Sometimes ( ofttimes actually ) it’s boring. Yes I know, boring. We keep the ball but don’t “seem” to be doing much apart from building up the ball possession stat. But I see it as in literally boring a hole in opponents mental, physical and tactical energy. We are attempting to grind teams into mental and physical despair with this style. It’s working. But also on our supporters! Goals reassure supporters so thankfully we banked four goals worth of that to prop up player and supporter trust and belief - but don’t expect the style to change anytime soon. Home or away.

Thanks for posting the research @Barsiem. Very helpful to give that context. MY POV is that I think that what LCFC and Ipswich have done for half a season is amazing. However I think it’s statistically likely that one or both will not perform to that exceptional level in the second half of season. If Saints end up with 92/93 points and don't get automatic I’d be shocked. I can see us collecting 30 points remaining unbeaten at home rest of season (having already played LCFC, Ipswich and Leeds ) and can also see us taking points from those in our away fixtures too. On the road apart from those three we probably start favourites to win also. It’s not over til it’s over.

It was boringly predictable football especially first 40 minutes - BUT we seem to DOMINATE with it. If you don’t like the style don't watch basically. I am getting quite used to Saints being able to do whatever they like wherever on the pitch after years of the opposite. The Northam think so to “ we’re taking the piss” rang out a few times as we watched Blackburn players doing endless doggies chasing our play all over the match. Relevant for me was the results Coventry and Watford had. Put our away draws in which we dominated both in- form teams all over the pitch but failed to win into a little better context. Stu had a superior match, Sam and Bree justified return ms to starting, Mara finally got his goal and Charlie earned a pardon for that penalty fuck up with his goal also. Jack was like a strong new CB who did not miss a beat. Could not have worked out better frankly for getting the squad players interested and involved again! And credit to RM for making those calls. He’ even got a nice song today ( wham last Christmas….🎹 This year, to save us from tears we got our Russell Martin” which showed some good Northam initiative!

Frankly any win will suffice but something like 2-1 most probable result. I’d like to think we would start scoring more of our chances at some point and that this could be the day for a goal fest - but form suggests otherwise. We live in hope however! Having said that I don’t believe AA is shooting over the bar again like the other day twice in one match so AA anytime goalscorer will be my nap match bet! COYS NB he’s 6/5 anytime and 4/1 first,4/1 last goalscorer.. I think 6/5 is about right as he scores in c 50 % of our games but 4/1 first goal scorer does feel more of a flutter for Christmas and might be worth my tenner., 😇

Very very risky letting KWP go in this window. Easily Our best player. A proven goal scorer. Has dominated every left sided player he’s played against this season. Obviously an EPL player and arguably England class. There’s no equivalency in losing KWP and bringing in anyone else because right backs like him are absolutely diamonds. Bringing in Ings as some kind of sweetener is a sick joke. Ings can come - but KWP is untouchable this season. Saints Tifosi will be organising riots if that happens. I’m there if so. Need a massive banner : KWP E INTOCCABILE! nb . The tifosi don’t take this kind of shit well in Italy. Selling the Crown Jewels player is regarded as treachery and there’s delegations at the training ground, stadium wide instruction to silence and back turning and all sorts of banners and graffiti around stadium decrying the matter. SR should be under no illusions that they can do this with impunity. Don’t even think about it SR! By all means make a decision when he is in final year - but not here not now.

On topic of Mannings performance: Left back does seem our least strong area. I think if we start with a left winger versus Blackburn it will be Bree at LB not Manning.If Sam starts for instance I expect Bree to start also. IMO manning is considered (reputationally) to be the better attacking left back of the two, particularly when we have no left winger. Defensively Bree has looked a safer pair of hands. I think we are lucky that we have two decent options at LB ( caveat: for this level ) both would likely start in most bottom 14 championship teams in this league, I think. Interesting that one of last years championship top left backs ( Burnley’s Maatsen ) seems likely to be unloaded by Chelsea it seems. Doubt we could afford him or his wages unfortunately though as he is certainly a talent and a high end left back could make a massive difference - that and/or more goal productive forwards/ wingers.

Excellent summary @gecko. I applaud your bravery. I agree that failure to score from our possession and chances created is what’s missing. I disagree with those that say that our boring predictable possession dominance is why we do not score chances and hence not winning and in top two. They are non sequitur. So many arguments on here arise because posters confuse “ “possession-football” with “failure to score from chances created”. If you’re going to be upset with Saints RM whatever at least do it for the more legitimate reason - because the current style of play is creating more than enough chances for us to be in the top two yet we consistently fail to hit the back of the net. Moan about that - not the seemingly working very efficiently possession inspired conveyor belt that is delivering xyz chances to our misfiring forwards every match. It’s NOT the so called boring predictable crab football that is the problem. We simply are not finishing enough of the chances it creates. And yet 13 unbeaten. Go figure how bad must we be…

So so many upset saying Saints are boring predictable and worst of all - being unbeaten! Damn Martin and his boring predictable unbeaten football! My view is I will take boring predictable unbeaten 13 matches in a row 100/100 times thank you very much. I’m not used to seeing saints do this - only in my dreams do we go unbeaten every week. We Draw when we play bad, we win when we play ok and we’ve not even hit top gear and our attackers apart from AA cannot score. God knows if we could actually score and these missed shots went in where we’d be!! Yet it’s not good enough apparently. There’s even an argument if only we could lose and get “galvanised” - didn’t we have enough of being “galvanised” every week last season??? I would rather be Saints this season than the other teams (bar a couple) who have spent most of their matches against us with a deep back line playing anti-football hoping for breakaways and set pieces. A 13 match run in which we have often not played our best yet remain unbeaten is a bloody good sign of things to come. Used to be a sign of a good team. Here, and this bemuses me, it’s a badge of shame - for some.

Eight shots so far in 35 mins. Be fair.

In the net for saints…disallowed. We are being aggressive and attacking . AA just cut in and had shot saved.

Keep scrolling right to the bottom. It’s there alright on NOW.

We can only dream that our passing style is reminiscent of Man City’s - the best team in England last five years and current best in Europe. It took Pep Guardiola, billions of Arabian pounds and six years to get to their current footballing dominance. If Saints are even close to replicating elements of that style without the billions and without Pep and measuring progress after 5 months not 5 years we can count ourselves as doing very well. The unbeaten run IS relevant. It shows that there is some kind of core resilience and aversion to defeat going on that’s starting to become innate. Let’s face it- last season we often played like a team of plucky losers. Not this year. I don’t care for comparison to amazing out -performers Ipswich and Leicester City - good luck to them - but they are not my team. If it seems Saints are becoming incredibly hard to beat week in week out - regardless of opponent - instead of pushovers once first goal goes in- well that’s what I call good progress. If it’s enough to get out of this league we shall see, but being incredibly hard to defeat is definitely a good first step after years of NOT being hard to beat.

I think we can do it. Sure it looks tough and improbable from where we are now but I’m not giving up hope that automatic promotion is possible and hope neither do our supporters and players. Our away support is magnificent and really helping the team on tough trips. If our home support can keep to that level ( and not give up depressed because it’s impossible we’re doomed to fail etc) then SMS can be our fortress ( for , like, the first time ever.) Despite the gloominess I think there are MANY positives about SFC. Years of being EPL whipping boys gradually starting to fade and a tiny little bit of self confidence in ourselves club players and support starting to re-emerge. Long may that continue! COYS😇

Chelsea have spent half a billion and are still rubbish. By that measure how much would Saints have to spend if we went up?🥺 How much do you want your match ticket or ST renewal to be a better question imo. The teams that essentially “spend” the most dominate the league. Occasionally outliers can disrupt that monopoly- but not consistently. I’d prefer Saints not bankrupt itself trying to keep up with Arabian financed clubs. It’s not a level Playing field and never will be - not even with wage caps and draft picks US style. Unlike me to be pessimistic but probably the Best chance Saints will have of being English champions is in ten years time when the European super league has begun and all the best players already play in Saudi…

Fucking nonentity cunt austsaint. Try saying that to my face in person you spineless piece of cyber warrior shit.

I’m not travelling to Watford but am just about to collect my wife from LHR after trip to Serbia using M3 so will report if it’s a travel mess. Good luck and safe driving all Saints fans! Score prediction: 1-3 Saints COYS!😇

At age 60 I think I just got called got called a nerd! 😂😂😂😅 I’m still surprised when posters start attacking the man rather than the argument. In logic talk it’s called an ad hominem attack. Stats have a place in the game, I’m not a massive fan of them and the way tech has overwhelmed footie - you only have to read what I wrote to see that ( but I forgot most cant be bothered with that) but it is what it is. Ergo: I must be a spreadsheet loving nerd. 😳 Ion : Trying to have a somewhat intelligent conversation on here sometimes is like stabbing oneself in the eye. It’s really not a good idea. But I know there are some - a quiet minority or majority who knows- that appreciate a more informed and nuanced discussion than just the usual “ Manning is shit” or “ legohead is a prick” kind of conversation taken as not out of the norm only a few weeks back. Ah well.

Im not sure what you mean by “unreliable” -most of the data is readily accessible on the internet and comprises simple (as much as possible) objective measurements. Such as : How many forward passes did Saints attempt, how many were successful. That kind of thing. It’s not really a question of reliability unless the tracker and the analyst is bias or asleep during the match. How people - especially coaches, managers and players and now TV USE this mine of new hitherto unknown information is a different subject altogether. I think thats probably where most people’s antipathy probably lies ( dare I say VAR?) rather than in the tech itself. Incidentally if you ( like me) fondly recall days of yore before Expected goals and so on became the norm, measurements have always been involved- Even MLT had to step on a weighing scale you know. 😂

I think I know where you are coming from as this does sound rather like some modern football trends are not to your liking. A lot of people would agree with that including myself. Much of modern football makes me sick. I really really hate it. I am surprised though that you found the facts that contextualise what the OP said on our goalscoring ability bothersome. It was just ( I had hoped) helpful info to the original point Football analytics have always been around. And I do not and would not ever claim they are the be all and end all of a game either. Players are not computer programmes basically, thank goodness! However the kind of stats that you find bothersome CAN be helpful - and are just one way, of many, to assess a match or performance. You certainly must be aware Saints measure the heart rates of their players or km covered, top speed, position taken up on the pitch etc as a guide to their fitness/recovery/ability? They wear sophisticated GPS type trackers constantly And what’s more the date generated significantly informs the starting 11 every week as much - if not more than sometimes - RM saying “ I fancy James Bree this week at LB”. If we want football to stop measuring stuff I think it’s too late.