Holmes_and_Watson

Now their confidence has a boost, and with their fans behind them look more likely for a second.

Sod. Our free header - straight to the keeper. Theirs? In the back of the net.

Throne

Suspended

I hope so too. If he is injured again, I can only hope SR reach out and get a proper DM in (I'd go along with Romeu coming back as his identical twin if SR wanted to save face), as it makes such a difference to our system and play. But that clock is ticking away to get such a thing done, if Lavia's out. Even if he's got getting in some proper cover would be wise too. Which isn't AMN.

It was interesting to hear our manager not shy away from getting a number of digs back, in between standard interview answers, and keeping after level head, early in his tenure, after such an impressive performance. I think his first thought was actually going to be that he was proud of himself. Caught himself in a millisecond, and got in how proud he was of his players first. Proud of himself was a close second along with his coaching staff. 🙂 There's no shortage of ego and self belief there. Fine by me. I want a successful leader, not a pal. His early mention of himself and his staff was also linked to the flak he feels he and they have been getting. He also mentioned flak to the owners and mentioned not getting abuse on the way home. There's been different levels of criticism. But hopefully, it's a small reminder of the impact of some of the worst. But I think also he was probably thinking he'd get more time, as in his view it was more of a rebuild, while we were looking for a bounce. He's very aware of the criticism, and more than willing to get his reaction to it across. Which I like a lot more than a few clichéd post match answers. NJ's approach at least offers some interaction, and answers. He must have been glued to the underlying data to have got positives from the forest game. But his narrative is that it's been building, following behind the scenes work. Interesting that he doesn't count the Liverpool game, as he was only with us for a day. I doubt he'd be discounting it had we won. He's definitely got his own narrative going, using that with his self belief, and his religious belief that he mentioned in the interview to give the team a strong leader to get behind. He also said it takes time to build. Under Ralph this season, we had also been losing to fine margins. So to take us from that to games where that margin was bigger, was tough to watch. But he's right about changing the momentum. Under Ralph of late, it was losing by fine margins after an end of season run in of much poorer performances and larger defeats. The players do care, and clearly still work for each other, even after such a year. Hopefully, a good platform for NJ to build on, and bring out different personalities to the drone ones required by Ralph's systems (great when it worked, but fragile in that regard) NJ is keen to point out that the wins are against Premier League opposition, so equivalent. JWP is more accurate in pointing out the distraction, indicating a different level of pressures involved. But there's no harm in NJ reinforcing to our players, that they should have no fear against League opposition, if they're willing to buy into it. He also mentioned building that momentum. He was including the support in that. Considering how brittle Everton can be, he knows how important that could be. Fortunately, he's given us 2 wins going into those games. He's also had an early taste of criticism so knows what's coming if this is a false dawn. Hopefully, that will be used for motivation too.

I only managed to catch the second half. Saints aggressive, organised, clever and very hard working. So I was thrilled with that, never mind the 2 goal lead. We looked to catch them on the odd break too, but only when we had a fair bit of space, rather than getting carried away. Quite a few bits of clever play, from Adams, Lyanco, KWP, and JWP too. Terrier Armstrong gets a special mention for harrying them, stopping them regrouping at the back on more than a few occasions. Also good to see NJ not slump in tears, over egg it as per Luton vid. 🙂More importantly, lots of genuine smiles between players and boss at the end. Could be a fair bit of buy in there, hopefully. JWP put in a real captain's performance. I know others would take the drop with a trophy. I'm more about staying up, so it would be great to take this attitude into the next league games. Lots of good post match comments from JWP and Gav too. Chuffed for the players. And for NJ. It's been a tough start for him. No doubt he believed in himself. Now he's shown what his team can do. Now the same standard can be applied to Everton. We can't show any fragility

And to add to the challenge, we get Jones in first to lose all the games right up until we need to win the rest to stay up, to make it interesting for Pep. It all makes more sense now. 🙂

And the performances under Jones, as he presumably is bedding in his new tactics, were worse than a number in that 11 months. Although there were any number of stinkers across both managers. I hope we go win every game from now under him. Since we can't win them all, that we get more than enough to stay up, that we're exciting, hard working and entertaining even in defeat. I hope Jones does really well for us. The club are clearly looking to strengthen too. But it's zero points from four games, and that's what he'll be judged by. Whether the club finally manage to bring in a bloomin' striker or not.

Song

I thought this year's home was okay. Then someone put a mock up of it with side panels. That improved it so much, the original became even more meh. The Aquaman away kit seemed okay in principle, but not in the flesh. The third kit makes it easy to ignore third kits on principle.

Wise words. Every path is indeed different. Along some paths you develop an inflated ego, derived from overstating your influence on the success of others. Then, like Gareth, you will be on the outside looking in. Wanting to be part of things, but excluded as those inside think you're a bit of a tool. 🙂

I didn't disagree with any thing in there. While he's right in saying it's not all down to him, he did seem to accept it was on him to help the players turn it around.

We could... https://www.saintsplayers.co.uk/player/pele/

He's raw, but he'll never be a proper left back, with defending like that. 🙂

I'll just save you the edits... 🙂

Vision

Most might, but I'm more a fan of the non stripey ones. Since Hummel did a few of those before, it would seem like a good time for a few more non stripes. This one was nice from recent mock ups, for example.

Bad

I don't mind having a direct style of play. Even better, with a squad capable of other options too. Stretching the game, getting into more attacking positions quickly, forcing their defence to make the decisions and costly errors, helped by having players positioned to back up the targets and win it back higher up the park. So yes, we'll lose the ball a bit more, but the key is where and how we win it back, when that happens. Being able to mix it up with other styles when needed is even better. Our midfield has been really weak with Romeu gone, so having options that don't rely on it, isn't terrible. RalphBall was lovely when it worked, and a catastrophe when it didn't and we offered no other options. Glad to have any kind of win on the board. I've no issues with Jones' quotes but we need to see those results now in the league. And the club have to get those players in the door. If they don't, then it will be the second manager they've pushed into traffic. If Che was really geeing up the boss, then it's an excellent sign of player buy in.

I'm hoping for a thumping win, where our direct style surprises a team seemingly a lot more set up for it than we are. Sadly, my magic unicorn is about to whisk me away to see a local game, so I'll miss it.

Fossil

"It is unclear how the child obtained the gun..." In the country where you'd get them from a Pez dispenser or with a Happy Meal, if some folks had their way. Nope, no idea how the kid got their hands on one. That they already had security measures in place for this sort of thing is scary. Yeah, our feral kids air lifted straight in from lord of the flies, at least aren't armed. 🙂

All jammies are covered by my elegant smoking jacket, awaiting the call in my role as Holmes & Watson, consulting forum poster! 🙂