coalman

Liverpool's kids will be up for this one.

So we're in Russ's "I told you before, Lucy, call me bronco" phase right now?

Worst prize evah. I'm a big fan of playing Stephens in the hole. Admittedly it's a hole he's been pushed into so Martin can't find him to put him on the pitch.

Maybe Russell Martin is just a massive Pirates of the Caribbean fan? If it can happen to Michael Bolton it can happen to anyone. "This is the tale of captain Jack Stephens, defender so brave on the pitch so green, no matter the game he passes it sideways, he doesn't track back with attackers unseen..."

And so we come to the 10th league game of the season. Historically Everton have been something of a bogey team for Saints but they may be starting to feel the pressure of not wanting to be the team that breaks Southampton's non-winning run. A thumping win, and Saints might reach the heady heights of 18th in the table. The stakes couldn't be higher. Russell Martin will have a selection quandary after his team's dominant display against Stoke. Will he be able to fit Stephens back into a side that has actually won a game of football? Will Smallbone be fit? Whatever happens we can expect the usual pot pourri of a team selection enlivened by some truly creative second half substitutions. The good news is (for) Martin that he hasn't won the sack race this year so expect his confidence to skyrocket before the match particularly when coupled with Pep's gushing praise after Man City strolled past us 1-0 last weekend. Expect to hear more about both of these things in the press conference later this week. That is if he's still here. Man United may grow tired in their pursuit of hipster foreigner, Amorim, and go for the brave option of a Russball future. At the very least this is another chance for Martin to stake his claim to one of the top jobs in the game. As for the game itself, Everton have to wonder how they're going to break us down. Defensively we're difficult to come to terms with. On any given day we can gift chances either by suicidal possession, failing to track runners, inability to defend crosses, set-pieces or simply making the mistake of being caught upfield without 11 players behind the ball. A real conundrum for them coming into the game. At the other end their defenders are going to need to stay switched on. Nothing is going to happen in their half for large swathes of the game so they'll have to be alert for a Southampton player forgetting their coaching and attempting to hit a through ball. Admittedly, an attacking player that's been rotated in and out of the team so much that they've puked in the locker room. All in all it's got all the ingredients of a classic. A team we almost never beat. A manager who is more certain his ideology is the way forward with every passing breath against side that is starting to find its own feet this season. A nearly perfect losing start to the season against a team with the beginnings of league form. All that's for certain is Martin will still be there on Monday, win or lose.

Last night was a nearly complete Russell Martin performance. Dominated possession without creating much. Surrendered a lead and were lucky not to lose. Looked fragile when our opponents upped their intensity. Didn't mark the edge of the box for corners. Scraped by a mid table championship side. Just.

We're already up there with the worst starts to a Premier League season in history. https://theanalyst.com/2024/08/worst-starts-premier-league-season Crystal Palace lost seven on the bounce before winning one. Pompey lost seven on the bounce before drawing their next two. Both finished bottom.

“I’m happy we won," said Martin, who watched from the stands as he served a one-match touchline ban. "I walked into the dressing room and the players were a little bit flat, a bit frustrated with themselves that it ended up being so close and us winning the game so late, but I did remind them that they’ve won a game, we’re through in the cup and that was the aim at the start of the night. You think, Russ? You just nearly lost to Stoke at home, conceded a 2 goal lead limply again, couldn't turn possession into clear cut chances and scraped through and the players are are a bit "frustrated with themselves". Maybe they're frustrated with something else?

If anything this is a confidence eroding win.

Mark the edge of the box

He has to rest a Stephens for the weekend.

It's like the old song "Rasmus is a wanker, he wears a wanker's hat, he's got a lot of different ones, the stupid hipster twat"

I thought he was world renowned Ted Talker Director of Self Promotion?

Nobody listed on the meet the leadership team page on southamptonfc.com. So I asked ChatGPT via Bing which told me Jason Wilcox then I asked Gemini via Google which said that Jason Wilcox was until he joined Manchester United. At this point I'm going to work on the assumption that the DoF exists purely as a trinary quantum wave state which cannot be observed.

Ramsdale Stephens Stephens Stephens Manning Stephens Stephens Stephens Stephens Stephens Bereton-Diaz I'm pretty excited at seeing Stephen's playing in the hole behind BBD.

This is it. The big job interview. Beat Stoke and the Man Utd job is so close Martin will be able to taste it.

It is one of the more reliable ways for us to regain possession, yes.

I'm willing to bet he's going to make a point of saying that in his next press conference.

Football players?

At the risk of being the cunt who gets dragged into the argument I will point out that everyone here who posts regularly wants Saints to do well, we probably shouldn't call each other cunts and the number of times in human history that an argument has been defused by someone telling someone else to stop being angry can be counted on the fingers of no hands.

This is a great chance to build some cohesion and confidence.

Why bother thinking about meaning it if you don't mean to think of it?

That's based on the flawed premise that possession equates to goals. Where you have the possession matters. In our case our possession tends to lead to our opponents having the ball in our half with our midfield or defence out of position. This is compounded by our inability to move the ball quickly to the other end which means our opponents feel comfortable flooding our half to press us into making mistakes. Instead of that - coaching our team how to defend might be a worthwhile first step, whether Martin stays in post or not. This starts with things like knowing when to get rid of the ball, how to defend set pieces / crosses, tracking runners, closing down attackers etc.

I'd be more excited about yesterday's performance if I thought it was something we were going to build on rather than a heroic defeat against a top team that we're going to follow with another spineless effort.