coalman

Dibling showed he was ready at the start of last season to play a part. Martin instead chose to destabilise his team by bringing in attacking midfielders we didn't need and the team lost momentum before scraping through the playoffs. I don't buy that Martin is good for our youth players. Meghoma probably wouldn't be at Brentford now if that was the case.

https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/video/press-conference-part-one-martin-looks-to-brighton That's a really uncomfortable watch. He's gone back to spending half his time looking off to the side. Incredible quantities of beard stroking and really prickly to stress how early he is in the long term plan.

Russell Martin isn't winning games. Saints aren't making money. The system isn't trying to shut Russell Martin down. Other than that spot on.

People have asked me for ten year plans before. I usually make up something in the least amount of time possible and try and refocus them on where we'll be in six months time while cursing their existence via my inner monologue. Or sometimes it spills out and I just start laughing at them 😉

Ten year plans are usually a work of fiction. But, if you are going with a 10 year plan then you would have a clear idea of whether you're on track after 1, 2, 3 years or even after 6 months. In fairness to Martin year 1 was probably "get promoted back to the Premier League" so a tick for that. At the end of year 2 I doubt the plan said "be back in the Championship with a demoralised squad". Just because you've hit the first milestone doesn't mean the whole plan is good. Within that you'd also have intra year checkpoints to see how you were doing. And again, I would suggest the checkpoint wouldn't be get to the end of November with 4 points on the board (yes, I know we might get points at Brighton before the month is up). At the very least you'd want to feel like you should have won more games (based on Rasmus's pet metric of xG that really isn't the case). In any sane environment you'd look to take remedial action if you were significantly behind your next objective towards the ten year plan. Doing nothing and hoping that it will just get itself back on track is the province of lunatics. At the very least you should have some hypotheses about your plan that you've either proven or disproven in that kind of timescale so that you can adapt and do better. All plans are subject to change because no plan over any non trivial timescale is worth a damn past writing it. As Eisenhower said "plans are useless, planning is indispensable". Success in any field is about how you adapt when it becomes clear that reality doesn't match your plan. Anyone who says "this is just part of a ten year plan" is effectively saying "fuck off and stop questioning me".

Lampard has gone to Coventry. RVN about to go to Leicester. Leaving the way clear for Saints to get Potter... LOL

From the minutes he was getting early last season he looked ready for the first team. Maybe not to start but to be getting minutes almost every game. So what did we do? Brought in Brooks and Rothwell on loan and then he didn't get another look in. I'd say under a different regime he would have had much more experience already coming into this season and be further along in his development.

You mean priceless Premier League experience. It's only scar tissue if it came from the previous manager.

Lowest points total at Christmas is Sunderland with 5. Next lowest is 7. Easy 3 points in Brighton because surely someone has to get complacent eventually and we're sitting pretty.

Liverpool had 27 shots.

"I'm proud of the boys. They were brave. We deserved more from the game. We just have to keep doing what we're doing."

Time to sit back and play out the 3-2 defeat so Martin can bask in the plaudits from Slot.

That's only true unless it results in a penalty to Liverpool

You've got to wonder how Liverpool recover from today. Slot's honeymoon is over.

Don't worry, Liverpool will fade. We've got this

Penalty, surely?

Let's get Manning on and see out the win

Barely any hug for Onuachu there

We've had our 35 minutes of control from Lallana.

Stephens needs the freedom a libero role provides. Anything else is a waste. Playing him as a traditional centre back is like taking a blowtorch to a unique snowflake.

That's four players out of position right there.

At what point does it stop being avoiding complacency and start being taking the piss?

Glad he stuck to his guns with Fraser matched up against Salah at left back and Lallana playing box to box in midfield.

Looking at this City team it's clear they don't have the players to play Russball