coalman

And now he's baking that mentality into our fucking club.

"But we're doing things that are working if you watch the game back - actually watch it, not just as a fan, but football-wise and tactically in terms of what we should be doing - the results shouldn't have looked how they did, bar a few." There you have it - we've been doing it wrong. Tomorrow I suggest we all watch the match, not as football fans, but tactically. Then we'll understand that tomorrow's result shouldn't look like it almost certainly will. Congratulations to Martin for instilling his excuse mentality on an international defender.

The claw chooses who will play and who won't go

We should probably wait until Martin leaves us before making that comparison. Though in Mark Hughes' defence (which are words I never thought I'd utter) he did avoid relegation which seems like more than our current manager is going to be capable of. I would be very happy to be proven wrong there.

The process is to trust the process. That way the process will be followed and in following the process we can stick to it and then the process will be trusted. I hope this is now clear to everyone.

Fixed that for you.

In other news Stephens has deleted his social media presence. https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/24775996.southamptons-stephens-deletes-social-media-chelsea-red-card/

It's symptomatic of the manager's attitude - when things don't go well it's just bad luck and we deserved more. It's not an opportunity to learn and adapt. The trouble is now that mentality has infected the club culture it's going to be bloody difficult to shift. Instead of embracing failure as a chance to learn we simply embrace failure as a means to maintain the status quo.

Is anyone truly suited to our system? Other than Capn Jack who we build around and Smallbone who walks at the right pace between 5 yard passes.

But is he telling them to not do that? He clearly has form for shouting at players who hit it long. Are they doing it in training? If not then why is match day different? Though one reason we struggle to defend may be we practice defending against Russball.

Don't go dissing the housewives' favourite.

Christ, imagine losing 1-0 to Bournemouth. And by "imagine" I mean "dream fondly of being able to".

Which would be fine if he wasn't taking a coach load of impressionable young adults with him.

This could well be a fixture where we don't get any points. With Jack Stephens' calm leadership to organise the defence and Will Smallbone pulling the strings in midfield, Russell Martin knows he can give any team a game. Even a champions league team like Villa. But, both of them are out - one injured, one persecuted by the PMGOL - so Russell Martin will need to shuffle the pack. This could well be the game where he decides to surprise our opponents with people playing in their natural position, choosing players in form or overlooking his mates. It also might not. He'll just have to load up the selection tombola and see what happens. Fortunately, after a summer during which Martin and Ankersen didn't just dive into the transfer market but positively plumbed its depths, we have the weakness in depth to make sure we keep playing the system to its full potential. For Smallbone we have an equally dominant box to centre circle midfielder in Adam Lallana. For Stephens - ok Stephens is irreplaceable so we'll have to make do with not fucking with the formation to accommodate him. This could well be the week it all clicks and Unai Emery adds his approval to the growing chorus of awe from Premier League managers. As they queue up to praise Martin's footballing philosophy in what is definitely not some kind of sick bet as to who can get away with the most ludicrous statement. On the pitch Villa face their toughest game of the season against a team in record breaking form. They won't know whether we're going to simply fold from the start or play well for twenty minutes then simply gift them a goal. They'll be hoping we score early so we can sit back and invite the inevitable equaliser and injury time winner that has become a Martin trademark as the team fades in the second half. However, Saints have scored fewer goals than every other team so Villa may just have to do it the hard way. Bearded excuse monkey, Russell Martin, will be hoping the referee is involved at some point so he can soulfully bemoan the injustice of it all in his post match interview in-between heartfelt sighs. Before repeating his mantra that it's all part of the long term plan and he's proud of everyone. Villa go into the game knowing a win could take them as high as fifth. Saints could climb as high as 20th and ensure they don't have the lowest ever Premier League total at Christmas. There really is everything to play for for both teams here.

If Chelsea had scored 10 last night it wouldn't have flattered them. We could easily have shipped five before we were down to ten men. As a positive we made some good chances but we give away more clear cut chances than we create. Every. Single. Game.

Making Jack Stephens captain was a warning sign at the start of Martin's reign. Luckily he was out for a big chunk of last season. He's not the example we want to set for our team. Both his sendings off this season have been stupid. The latest particularly brain dead. And picking a line up to get him on the pitch is just bonkers. He's clearly not one of the two best centre backs. Playing five at the back to accommodate him just unbalances us. If you have Messi in your squad then pick a team to get the best out of him. Stephens has gone from surplus and loaned to Bournemouth's bench to having a team arranged around him. Even if he was a competent premier league centre back that would be nuts. As it is he's an ok squad player. When you champion mediocrity you get mediocrity. That's the culture Martin is instilling in Saints.

I agree. The worse your side is relative to every other team the more important it is to protect your defence. Our best times in the Premier League were based on solidity in front of the back four.

I've been in a few positions where a team was really happy with their manager who I then had to fire. The manager just tells them they're great and it's all going to work out. Not having lost the dressing room is not a sign that Martin is doing a good job. Conversely, my most successful teams all had a manager who was willing to be direct and give (and receive) feedback that was uncomfortable. Another thing they had in common was the ability to adapt and learn.

Martin doesn't seem to see the point of defensive central midfielders. All he appears to focus on is ball retention so he'll happily pick Lallana in central midfield and then wonder why we get steamrollered.

I'm just assuming they're likening the football team to a bulldog.

I'm actually curious as to what happens behind the scenes. We are the FYRE festival of football clubs.

History shows us that when Saints are shit this forum goes Lord of the Flies

At left back we have.... Manning, Stephens (somehow), Taylor, KWP - at what point was there a pathway into the team for Meghoma? Recruiting Taylor (and not even playing him) in the summer sent a pretty strong message he wasn't in the manager's plans.

It feels like a Jonesian outburst is on the horizon. He does a little forced smile at the end of answers to questions he doesn't like too.