gio1saints

This will be another test for RM because to date we do not play with a conventional #9. Points to note: 1. Charlie has been tasked as a false 9 by RM himself. 2. AA started season as our punta but this rapidly changed to his current position- which I’m hard pressed to describe except it suits his skill set better than any other position he’s played to date for us. But it’s not standard #9. 3. RM made a great play of how we were NOT going to pass the ball blind into the channels for a CF to run onto in the direction of the corner flag. Neither are we going to go long to win second balls off a big guy up top. 4. The biggest clue is how he plays Che when he’s on. Which all suggests to me that RS will have to adapt more himself to the system rather than the system being overly adapted for him. Of course there will be tweaks but I suspect RS has got to show high technical skills in addition to his physicality. Essentially he needs to be a more lethal Che Adams - because that’s the role im expecting him to take up. typical line up : Gav KWP Jan THB Bree (or Ryan) Will Flynn (or Shea) AA Charlie (or Stu) RS KS (or Sam) The fact that we do have good strength in depth for each position on the pitch is something vastly underrated vis the other championship teams. It “ should” be worth points for us latter part of season.

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Agree that Charles has got a lot of potential to be a great in that position - replacing either. I feel we are strong having three players of that ilk there. Charlie should be allowed to be Charlie though- he would benefit from more discipline I guess but I’m uncertain what we would lose in his innate ability. Sam and KS are also examples - I prefer them to play naturally, freely. She’s IS being transitioned into the team though and getting his minutes in here and there. Needs to take his chances when he’s on and latterly dont think he’s overly impressed from the bench despite early promise. I think he will be a star though and indeed may replace Will. ( who picks up cards quite freely)

Alex, You are not wrong and it’s fair comparison to use in questioning whether he can really do it for Saints. It’s been often repeated as well in various ways here. For context though, The Spice Girls ( yes I know they are one of your favourites 😁) sang a song about this. One of the lyrics I think is pertinent : “ If you want my future- forget my past” Russell was NOT recruited because he got MK Dons and Swansea promoted or won a cup or anything like that. It’s obvious that not why. Because they didn’t. He was recruited for the same reason Saints bought young players with what was felt were good technical skills, good athleticism, good mindset, high intelligence and high potential both as on pitch player and as resale value. Bottom line IF he had got Swansea promoted to EPL we would not have been able to steal him. And, I found this interesting, but others maybe less so 😇, take a look at managers like Maresca managerial medals BEFORE He manages LCFC, Southgate at boro an obvious one, Arteta another. They’re relatively few Ancelotti's, Guardiolas and mourinhos around. In the Championship you buy potential managers not finished article managers. You buy does this interviewee think about football the way we, the owners, think about football? You buy can this managers style-which syncs-with-our -own-ideal footie culture sustainably win in this league & above and can it attract and retain strong fan base support? Winning the Vauxhall vans trophy or what some previous supporters of the guys teams thought are part of due diligence - but they are a part of the consideration not the whole of why he’s actually here. Especially if the first two criteria the owners feel are satisfactory. I personally feel he will not be at Saints longer than 2/3 years. It would not surprise me to see him recruited to an EPL team - even and especially a team like Brighton if Zerbi gets nicked by Barca or RM ( or Liverpool?) And, looking ahead, he’s got Scotland National team manager to come imo. The fact that the RussellMartin foundation is based in Brighton as is his family shows the close regional affinity and that transfer would not surprise me in the slightest. Just hope he gets us up sustainably first!

Jeez you are slippery - in essence you are saying Russell’s alright as long as he stops playing this football, stops having an opinion on how football should be played and smiles through the often way ott abuse people like you give him? Oh , and according to your view we should abandon @ tippy tappy crab ball @ football thats got us 6 unbeaten, abandon the positive mindset his ego helped instil that has transformed KWP and AA and Stu ( off top of my head there’s more) into what we knew they could be, rejuvenated a supposedly finished Jan and allowed for the return of one of our own in Will specifically, along with two new stars in THB and FD because they want to play the russball you hate. Your characterisation of previous managers is straight out of the Donald Trump belittling by name calling handbook. It’s childish and it’s not clever. Your characterisation of Russell Martin ditto. He’s got lots of things he can do better so let’s discuss those - but if your critiques are frankly all the same : name calling, quoting your opinions as facts and general glass half empty negativity it’s not worth debating with you.

Thank you for kind words. On one level I agree with your assessment on Will - Flynn is certainly the more obviously accomplished player. However? I think , and this is despite agreeing somewhat that I’d like to see more obvious attacking kind of play in that mf role, but Will actually plays a VERY important role in the team. I think we agree Will mainly recycles ball ( apart from popping g up late to score from cutbacks of course ) but in that respect he may be regarded as our @ water carrier@, every team needs a selfless player. Willing to be patient do the yards make themselves available for the pas that may not come. Stick their foot in to make afoul if necessary etc. It was Oriels job description basically- but there have been many more lauded ( though oriel does that for Barca now) . One the springs to mind is Deschamps. Most teams have one or two guys that act as metronomes for the tempo. Saints have got two, Flynn and Will and they are practically both have the same job except Flyn. Seems a better overall player even if Will currently out scoring him. In short: Having Will AND Flynn in the team means KS or Sam or Charlie or Stu or KWP even AA and manning/ Bree have much more latitude to show their flair than otherwise. 😇

Yes I do apologise. KWP I meant 😂

THB played the best best ive seen him. Bree was a solid confidence inspiring LB who looked tighter to his player than manning who tends to stand off them a bit more. Jan and JWP = classy performances. AA deserved his goal. Worked his socks off as usual. KS looked good in parts. Bit unlucky with the run of the ball. Decision making still got a high ceiling. Stu & Charlie : decent perf.s and delighted my bet tip came good 😎- but Charlie especially got ragged later on . Both v popular players, deservedly so. Will and Flynn did what they do very well again. Baz- gutted he didn’t score but maybe next week..Aribo- he’s a mountain! overall I felt it was a good performance though we again showed our mental stamina is not quite there yet. Brum not a good team but we did what we needed to do. RM subs did the trick so fair do’s to him. RM: three fist pumps yes I liked them! Marian Pahars : excellent performance covered every blade of grass. A bona fide Saints hero.

Just managed to high 5 Marian on his way out.m past block 41. Asked club photographer Matt to take the pic. I get 10/10 for being a Marian fanboy! 😂😇

Marian Pahars feels the love and gets chocked up. ❤️

Pint of necessary evil in hand 4.5 abv( not bad not brilliant £6 (from the dancing man brewery concession inside entrance H Northam concourse) Atmos same. Team looks alright. COYS my saints supporter of blind faith bet the day ; Charlie is 17/2 first goalscorer. No Che to come in and so extra goalscoring responsibility on him plus about time he scores…Take score anytime for insurance ( comes at c 2.75/1) but iim On.😎

Just read his exact responses to the exact questions. More saints forum Death Squad work at its worst. Some- and yes it is a minority - Literally are so desperate to find fault with him that misattributing his words in interview is par. He even addresses that people might consider him arrogant but explains his take on it - in a fair enough way. Not fair enough for you hyenas though. Please don’t be standing next to me in a few hours in the Northam with all your negativity oozing out of you, making me desperate to shower soon as I get home to remove that stench of cynicism. I’m there to support the team not spend all week undermining them and the fan base. COYS

NO DEFEATS IN FIVE : “stop trying to defend the indefensible” You couldn’t make it up. You’ve got serious negativity issues I’m afraid if you call that indefensible. Just about sums you up though.

Did Russell Martin shag your wife( or your husband)? Did he murder your gran in cold blood. What has he done to deserve this ire? Yet more Death squad misery talk at its finest along with your acolytes who ❤️it when you tell RM he can fuck off. oh- yeah - its 5 games & top six unbeaten so obvs he’s a cu nt or a co cl or whatever. We should have had Harry in or some other football dinosaur Manager. But not a foreigner obvs. in case you notice the list of European Champions league or EPL winners applying to manage saints was not all that long. We’ve got who we’ve got unless you and Death squad goons want to put us all through the misery of getting rid of yet another manager. Bring back Nigel? Beg Ralph to return? Ask Potter to come back? Just who TF would want to come to saints with a toxic bunch of cynical negative fans like you? Oh the misery! You need to cheer up fella.

What was it about how bad we were in attack, how poor we were in defence, how rubbish we were at holding onto a lead, and even worse at holding onto a manager last season that makes anyone so confident we will smash this league? Let alone binning a third of the squad including our four “ best “ players ( JWP, MS, BK and OR) and attempting to integrate a new system plus bring along youngsters with promise? For many of us actually being in contention at top end of the table playing a consistent style makes a helluva change! The fantastic and admirable belief ( despite the facts) in Saints innate superiority as a club v rest of the league is something Nietsche would be proud of. - and which is riddled throughout so many of the discussions here. We lost a lot of what I felt Saints are truly about when we lost our humility as a club. Arguably we are now the kind of aBilly big boots club Saints fans used to despise with this u fathomable and unjustified sense of innate superiority. Saints the plucky underdogs, the relegation survivors against the odds and the team many had as their “ second” team replaced by swaggering this league is shit and we should win every game attitudes. Im hoping we beat Brum. I think we will. Best team on the day will though.

I think that’s a fair argument. Probably not quite favourite with the bookies but still a reasonable and fact based pov. Thank you and respect. Dman.

I think the nub of it is that we are doing most of the right things most of the time. BUT we are not scoring enough plus we are still not as resilient in defending when we lose possession as we’d like. I think the plethora of yellow cards is testament to our defensive strategies not quite fully working yet. As is goals conceded obvs. I think our rubbish goal scoring from chances is another obvious factor. There IS a lot of good though and very obvious significant improvement from last season - considering the turnover *- albeit lower opposition. * we lost our four best players - JWP joined WH, Oriol plays for Barca now (!) and Salisu and BK our two allegedly best CB’s both gone. Add in we had no idea what forwards we’d have for the Sheff weds match and 12 games later we are in a play off place unbeaten in five. Lots to criticise but, let’s try to be fair, lots to commend Saints for as well.

So, if I understand right, Southampton, already filled up with plenty ex Man City players, with a Man City DOF and unashamedly trying to emulate the success of Man City- but on a budget- is lacking only one thing. Which is an ex Man City assistant manager? 😃 In other words we are not Man City enough? That’s an interesting variation. Our players are good but Maybe we are still too committed to the Saints past epitomised by losing and should go all in on Man City model ( but without the money or soon to be massive points deduction for FFP cheating). Russell is not Man City enough for Saints. Are there any other ex Man City back room staff available that you can think of? Arteta springs to mind. Arsenal fans wanted him out early doors as I recall but he has obviously turned it around. No comparison of course to RM. Though the vigour which Arse fans showed in wanting him out- and it was vicious- looks a bit ott in retrospect now to most Gooners. Let’s hope Saints follow a similar path to Arsenal I guess is the moral of the story!

I’m going to check ( ok sample!) the atmosphere at the Unity taproom pre match. That should give me a heads up on the match vibe or in any case not be so worried about the result 😃

TWO matches in. It’s crazy. I don’t rate him as a Manager but that treatment is just vile. I hope we do not get the rebound on us! Just goes to show there’s vile abusive idiots all over the world. At the rate we are heading managers will get one match - and must win that - before so called supporters or “ fans “ turn on them. Then it will go down to whether so called supporters like the New Managers first press conference and finally it will be down to his haircut or choice of attire when he’s announced. Football support is just the convenient alibi for bad behaviour. Birmingham (who to the best of my knowledge have as small a trophy cabinet as Saints) fans should be delighted they have a high profile English legend as manager who might be able to attract half decent players. I just hope they are still in the learning phase with him and we can take three points to make it six games unbeaten which as others have said would be a disgrace because with this squad we should win every game.

I was pretty tired of us having to set up to scrape an away draw at any top ten side . Ditto playing at home to a top six. Ditton being hopelessly outplayed at home most games. Tired of Putting everyone behind the ball scrap for your lives hope to get a lucky goal ( like Rotherham). It’s no way to live frankly and definitely not enjoyable to watch. We were just treading water in the EPL before the inevitable. Given we played not good yesterday but took a point and had the ball 71% away from home I’d rather we played like us than played like PNE, I’d rather we played like us than like Rotherham. It’s become a recognisable style but it has also got tweaks. Much better than before. For me anyway. Bad performance but a good point. Used to be a sign of a good team doing that away with 5 changes - we ARE a good team. Move on.

Pre season Bet365 had us at 1/1 to make top six. I took £20 on that. Few points: 1. According to FACTS ie points and results we are currently a top six team. 2. According to OPINION we should be up there with LCFC top of this league 3. OPINIONS are often translated here into beliefs. And many of those forum beliefs have become entrenched. 4. The biggest now semi/permanent belief-that’s-not-a-fact-just-an-opinion is this God given right to automatic promotion. 5. Along with this is our players are too good for this league/ too good for this manager belief. We were not too good for the EPL . We will find our position in the Championship. But starting from the premise of humility not the incredible arrogance displayed. Last time in this league we our players and manager were NOT saddled with the insufferable entitlement of expecting to win the league. Carrying that around every match is like sandbags on everyone. For goodness sake unload them and let us support freely and enjoy a last minute equaliser. Let the players enjoy it too. Stop burdening them with these misguided expectations. It kills performance at any level.

Dont like personal stuff but I think that’s about the most positive thing I’ve ever heard you write TDmickey. You cannot help but belittle fellow saints fans I guess. We are not clapping seals for you to pour your scorn over neither are we satisfied with not winning and gullible easily pleased. You too often equate fair minded saints people who do not share your opinions with scum and it oozes out of virtually every emoji or abusive comment you make. Just try to think back last time we went five unbeaten. And enjoy it. Life is short and I do t know for sure I will ever see that again. So try to resist putting us down. Please.

Nice bit of Saints history there I was unaware of in the year of my birth! Thanks John B.😇COYS!

STU GOOD POINTS : Great character. Great experience. Stu is one of the few players confident enough to exhort/ encourage the Northam support when it comes to corners at that end. He is not afraid to have a shot. He scored a great direct kick I did not know was in him. He’s not afraid to take the ball in mf and drive forwards centrally. International player and proud of it. Strong on the ball - running in that danger area is his calling card. Shots from distance also. Deceptive pace and strength on the ball. Takes corners and free kicks now instead of JWP. STU LESS GOOD POINTS : Does not score enough. Final pass / lucidity of mind after his extended mf runs into central position to give it to the goal shooter (😁). Shooting probably too many over the bar not testing keeper, running back and being effective defensively he finds less fun - he’s not the worst cough cough Charlie - and given he’s a AMF his job is to be ahead of flynnn and Will so it’s harder for him to get back- all the same needs to kick them oppo players a bit more show more fighting. Corners are a little inconsistent - maybe having a 6ft 2” cf to aim at will help! Overall : a very firm fan favourite always gives his best. But he’s no Jude Bellingham obvs.