gio1saints

I know what you mean about the older ones being the worst. Refereed a City of Soton vets league match a few weeks back and it was a horrible experience. Nasty niggly trying to cheat all over the park like it was their livelihood instead of amateur football. Did a Soton U18’s match on the next day (Sunday) and the players and staff couldn’t have been nicer.

And we get Bella Kotchap back in the summer ( or more likely we get a big fee for him) which could well end up funding the THB permanent move and possibly part of getting Mason here on a perm also. IF BK stays fit he is a £30m player. I think the THB fee is set at c£20m ( I think!) and best guess is Mason might be c £10m from Everton so it could be a net neutral centre back thing in the summer for Saints if we are up with Jack, Mason, Jan and THB as our EPL centre backs ( with Shea as back up). Seems sound enough to me.

We go up,Flynn joins, Flynn starts every week. We go up, Flynn leaves, Flynn warms the bench at West Ham or somewhere else. As long as the wage money offered is decent I’d like to think we could convince Flynn to join Saints if we got promoted. And he is as integral to this team now as JWP ever was imo.

Oh I did not realise that. Could that contract be activated day before he becomes free agent then as a workaround? If he’s sent out on loan it means we basically save his wages but lose out on any kind of fee apart from a one off loan fee I guess? Balancing the books says whatever we save in his wages and get as a fee we will probably spend on his replacement. I doubt Danny Ings is on same money as a Che Adams though - probably double or treble I’d guess.

This season Jan does seem ( to me anyway) to be the leader of the defence. He is the one who takes the first ball from Gav more often than not and determines the play from there. He’s often got ball possession on half way line and deciding what’s going to happen and his interplay with Flynn in particular is v good. THB seems to be a brilliant foil. They have developed a very good telepathic understanding of how to back each other up - which earlier in season was absent and it shows in more clean sheets. That understanding is worth milliseconds of thought and movement and has undoubtedly saved us goals already this season from where we were earlier. That all says to me JS can only start in the FA cup or if there is injury or suspensions or poor form in training - for now. And if he does I suspect it would be THB to give way. As for Mason - if Everton want him back I’m ok with that as I actually trust in Shea as a back up option also. Incidentally how is Salisu getting on?

Bernardo. First time I’ve heard him called that. Love it! ❤️

Apologies to England fans ( that’s me too though I’ve split loyalties of Italian parents!) but this is what Charlie was trying to do : https://youtu.be/gXFWmpB-cPQ?si=BSQ_Rw5OxMBEFNGm Im withDman on this. You got to be allowed to dream, to dare. Charlie’s dared and it did not work but the mark of the man is how he responds to that setback. This season I’ve seen Kamaldeen shrink on the pitch after a few mistakes. Charlie has lost his head a few times also.Even Sam got wooden legs at times. All three thrive on confidence. Of the three I think Charlie is the strongest mentally, KS the most talented and Sam the most prepared to work harder to get better. Any of those three fit and confident are / will be a handful in championship- and EPL so I’m all for letting them dare to try stuff. The rest of the team, especially older heads, must be intelligent enough to recognise raw talent and adapt accordingly.

Common sense says SR try to get at least a Million for Che in this window on a six month loan deal with right to buy for, say £5m-7m. Whether he would go to any the bottom three I doubt but there may be takers in bottom half. If that happens then a Danny Ings loan incoming might be cost neutral but might just get the temperature up in training and uptick in forwards taking chances! I have got a sneaky suspicion that won’t happen though and our new Scottish striker is already here and starts playing again in January maybe alongside Mara in the FA cup v Walsall. ( £10 tickets btw! Well done saints!)

Even though we seem to have have a striker sized hole in our squad right now I can see SR holding out to fill it until and if Che leaves. Besides, the argument goes, we have a top striker supposedly nearing fitness again which is essentially a new signing for us. Oh, and Mara looks like he can score as well. The fixture list looks fairly kind until mid Jan anyways so it may be manageable without. Dont forget the downside of new loan striker- current striker disaffected ruin ( especially those injured) and also having to learn the system. Both not fixed overnight. Interesting dilemma though!

Larios had another setback just as he was reintegrating into training. Not okayed for over a year now and won’t be back until late Jan earliest I understand. Source club website and online snippets.

Exactly. Effective teams can be boring to watch. Italy won two World Cups with super pragmatic teams beating “ better” teams en route. If a style is effective here in the Championship - which it clearly is - carry on. After years of being neither exciting and rather easy to beat I’ll take a season of boringly predictable pragmatic grind em down and stay unbeaten football. We are the Mark Selby of this League. Next season, if we go up, we assess what style will give us most chance of staying up - and play that way. Long ball possession hybrid who cares as long as it’s effective. Players have learned ( almost) this current difficult style, it’s taken a great deal of intelligence, courage and technical proficiency - they can learn another variation, if required.

Wow I’m splitting my sides with laughter. That’s a cracker. You have a terrific sense of humour.

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…