coalman

We're back to our passive worst.

It's like thousands of Netflix subscribers cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

I wish Blackmore wasn't so certain we were going to win.

Even in the 5-0 win we looked pretty ordinary for most of the first half after we scored. Those are the kind of performances that have resulted in Saints becoming passive and waiting for the inevitable. What I'd really love to see is Tonda coach the team to play with higher intensity in these situations. We're not always going to be playing against QPR's Baz tribute act. The same thing played out against Charlton - our play slowed to a crawl and we didn't go for it whilst looking increasingly vulnerable and could easily have turned that performance into a loss. When we become passive we also go back to the whole dicking around at the back nonsense where we invite pressure and take unnecessary risks around our own penalty area. I think that Tonda is very much the beneficiary of fine margins being in his favour during his reign as opposed to Still where we were very much on the wrong side of them. As Napoleon noted about one of his generals "you say he's good, but is he lucky?". Teams adapted after our quick start and we got picked apart pretty easily. Our 5-1 win at Charlton showed what happens if you give our players space while trying to press. The 1-1 draw with Charlton showed there's a way to play Saints where you sit back in the low block and we lose all our intensity. A better side than Charlton would have exploited that. I imagine we'll start seeing other teams trying this approach. It also doesn't bode well for if we return to the Premier League. Our inability to turn up the intensity in pursuit of a result or to match the other side was our undoing in many matches last season. We need to (re)discover this part of our game if we're to harbour serious ambitions of staying up should we manage to get promoted. You can just about get away with being passive in the Championship if you have the players who can make a difference. You can't in the Premier League.

He used to work on the docks and now he's down on his luck? That's tough. So tough.

Yet nobody is complaining about Bodo/Glimt and their hipster /

Rothwell only just joined Sheffield United (for an undisclosed fee so we'll never know how much Rangers paid them to take him) so even Russ would struggle to persuade him. Not sure when he's back from the ban from his debut red card either. I doubt Martin fancies a relegation battle and probably won't allow himself to be tempted back into management until the summer. If he waits there's always the chance Wilcox remembers him and brings him to Man Utd of Real Madrid come knocking.

Why on earth are we risking Archer?

We're too passive. Asking for trouble

Stupid yellow there

When teams sit back like that we need the option of playing two up top. Azaz isn't going to find the magic through ball but we can pepper their box with crosses. Trouble is neither player we have for that can last 90 minutes. But there is a case for Stewart and Larin in the same team when another team parks the bus. Our lack of intensity when they were so passive was disappointing.

Lots of possession. Charlton have parked the bus. We've slowed our pace to a crawl.

If ever there was a case for playing two up top... Shame that neither Larin nor Stewart has 90 mins in them at the moment.

Given how much better we've played this season without him and how poorly he did on loan to WBA last time out - I'm not sure the argument that Armstrong is "good for the Championship" holds any more. His game seems to have been being largely anonymous then lashing the ball at goal if it drops to him anywhere near the goal. Whether they'll be able to play him off a number 9 or from the sides and he'll be able to recapture his previous form is open to question.

Or their data is incredibly noisy. Or, the more terrifyingly likely option, they're doing the kind of data analyses where they don't have a clear hypothesis but want to check the correlations of as many variables as possible so they can pretend causal relationships and make terrible decisions.

If you think about it, working for a charity that re-homes unwanted pets bought in error has a lot of crossover. Our football club has a lot of players bought in error that we need to find new homes for.

If you watch the slowmo of the penalty he won against Leicester the way he drifts past the defender and twists to get his body past is a thing of beauty. The defender thinks he's gotten between him and ball and then finds he's wriggled past by cleverly shifting his body past the block. https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxODlg3ZTcRkfXBbFjVElCvf3ODtoOqqYS?si=AWfqYLnu_qs_r1A9

£6m a year on these three 😮 McCarthy - 40k Roerslev - 40k Archer - 40k Then wtaf Aribo - £70k who is at least off our books at the end of the season At least Stephens and Azaz are key parts of the team. Stephens - 40k Azaz - 50k We were paying the fat end of ten million a year for 4 players who couldn't get a game. That's terrifying.

I'm pretty sure Portsmouth is still a rat infested hell hole where 6 fingered freaks do unspeakable things to fish.

Agree we've totally mismanaged him. When he came back from injury we'd already signed Brooks on loan and he barely got a look in after. We didn't give him a chance to come back because Russ had his favourites. Then Russ preferred BBD to him and loaned him out straight away the next season.

Tonda had a good start then got found out. I said at the time the true test would be in whether he was able to adapt and learn. Which he has. The negative was how long he persisted with something that clearly wasn't working. That doesn't make me a convert (yet) but he's heading in the right direction. If he keeps learning then we've got a chance at the playoffs which nobody would've believed a month and a half ago.

He's just keeping the seat warm so Martin can join in the summer after his honeymoon.

That was the 2025 edition Saints. This is the new 2026 edition where we have multiple players in almost every position and a settled formation and tactics. Not that formation or tactics make any difference mind you.

It has to be Wolves so Armstrong can show us what we're missing.

I'm surprised his girlfriend lets him post on social media.