OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint

Totally agree. Some of my happiest memories this century have been Hasenhuttl's early high press years, and even when we were not so good, I can still remember the Hasenhuttl White Christmas song at Villa Park. This drawing players on by passing around at the back and looking for a break is a fad and a busted flush. It also slows the game down to a crawl and the problem our team has is that they can't get out of this low tempo mentality. That's why dropping KWP has contributed to our failings in the last two games. He might not be the best defender and he's not in the form of his life either but at least he injects pace in to the team. But does RM see the problem and if he does, does he know what to do about it?

Suppose one piece of good news is Stephens can't play against Arsenal and Leicester. Still couldn't quite believe having five strikers on the bench yesterday...and none on the pitch to start. What was RM thinking?

I truly did enjoy last season but I went to Huddersfield and Blackburn and saw how crap our tactics were against honestly average teams. My son wouldn't have any of my criticism of RM citing how he'd pulled the team spirit together and how we got promoted, but for me that was the bare minimum requirement and we got lucky. SR have given RM new players (albeit not a respected striker) and I thought we were starting to improve but boy have we taken two steps back. I genuinely thought Cornet was going to be tried up front in the middle, but those tactics yesterday were again piss poor. Five strikers on the bench. I really don't understand why senior pros can't stop him and say, this won't work. We need some avenue to score goals. And this slowing it down with nothing passes at the back slows down players' mentality. Bournemouth just looked faster and I don't believe that physically they are. They just reacted quicker to everything; their first goal being a prime example.

They're quite good now at covering up pitch invasions by individuals. Hardly noticed it happened. Christ, if some idiot did it at St Mary's, he'd get Man of the Match!

Although we never were in this game, it was disappointing how, after getting a goal back, we then hardly created another chance. It's noticeable that when we get a throw-in, it takes 20+ seconds of fannying around and then it's some crap pass backwards; when we get a free kick 10 yards inside their half, it's a 2 foot tap sideways. Get the ball in the middle. All sorts of things can come of it.

Final train back to Southampton cancelled getting the biggest cheer of the game. Hopefully, we can leave Russell in Bournemouth.

His touch is awful, isn't it? Probably only worsened by BBD.

I thought Cornet was meant to be in the middle but he's been playing right wing like BBD. That was never going to work. With Ralph's 9-0s, I always felt we could win the next game. But I really can't see who's going to score our goals. This really is quite desperate and I still maintain our players aren't this shit. They're just being made to look slow, uninspired and shit. By whom?

It'll be interesting if Tall Paul comes on...though there seems to be a queue of strikers on the bench and I can't see him jumping that queue. Would like to have seen KWP in the line up but otherwise that seems a fair starting team. Let's see if Cornet does anything in the middle.

Think he (Potter) is too, and anyway, we're winning tonight. I've just secured my 23/1 2-1 win though strangely enough, my betting pool is looking thin on the ground nowadays!

Don't think so but I see Graham Potter is the Sky Pundit tonight.....makes you think....perhaps he has held off the England job for the bigger fish 😉

Yes, I was specifically watching this. What they did do was chase out quickly, though still think it's best to also have someone on the edge of the area. Villa took their foot off the gas and paid the price of two points. And if Jack Stephens did that clearance that let to Villa's first goal, this site would have imploded!

Statistics have changed football. All I know is that goal went in and that was down to poor defending. Whether that's the coaching staff or RM's fault, they need to sort out their defence of set pieces and position players to be able to release the pressure. But I really don't get that we have an inherently worse squad than other teams in the bottom half of the league. it's how you use the players and I'm seeing us getting better each game, especially now RM has ditched his obsession with passing around the back.

This set up could be a little narrow. Despite his sub par performances in recent games, I would still like to see KWP in the team with his ability to run down the wing.

Must admit, so far he has shown you don't get much for £7m these days. Would rather have Ross Stewart as the target man in the middle, though haven't loss faith in Archer so he would be my first choice as man in the middle. Cornet seems ok and with Dibling/Fernandes running in from deep, I can see us scoring a goal or two. As someone has posted, win this and in one game our season looks a whole lot better

Two goals in five league games so far. While that's better than our strikers, I think he ran his course at our club. It was time to move on and the ship has sailed. Good luck to him but we can and will do better.

So do I. Ramsdale, Fernandes, Dibling, Suguwara, Downes. We've got the nucleus of a good team and we're improving all the time. I feeling quietly confident and there's also so many other teams struggling. While I've not exactly put my house on it, I've also taken up Bet365's 7/4 offer of us staying up!

That was very noticeable against Man Utd where he left gaps that Ryan Manning would have been proud of. That said, I still like to see him in the team because he's one of the few that creates openings in our team.

But don't you think RM is changing his style? Aaron Ramsdale tried a couple of short passes against Ipswich which put us on the back foot but also mixed it up with punts to the forwards. I'm definitely seeing a change in style with the way we played against Utd and Ipswich and frankly, that gives me a little more hope.

Haven't worked out why but comparatively we play ok against the better teams. Maybe their more open style suits us but we did the double against Chelsea two years ago and didn't we draw at Maine Road?

I agree. You're inviting trouble putting everyone in the box. A couple of players waiting for the quick release and the opposition sits back more. The penalty area becomes less crowded and the goalkeeper has more control. And we've got a goalie who controls the 6 yard area.

It's quite interesting. There's similarities between the last time we got relegated from the premier league and now. Ralph wasn't given a striker and we haven't got one now. Ralph had to rely on a dynamic kid midfielder (Lavia) who then got injured and now we've got a young defensive midfielder (Les). But there the similarities end. I hated that team. You could tell it was a bunch of journeymen with no team spirit. Ely, Diallo, Salisu, Djenepo et al. All crap. This time, I detect a team spirit. I think Ramsdale, Fernandes, Suguwara, Downes, THB, Les are good additions. And when you consider the first three games and the last two, there's been a distinct improvement. RM no longer directs us to play suicide ball . Not defending a corner properly is not RM's fault. That's the players and the set piece coaches. Personally, I want to see a release from corners standing between the penalty area and the half way line and of course you mark the guy standing on the edge of the area. That's basic defending but not RM's fault. We're getting better and with so much flotsam at the bottom of the league, we've the players to stay in this league.

This time, it looked the other way around. Our midfield was overrun to start with but then bringing on Les was sensible and we were the better team in the second half. Forgot about the other Armstrong substitution. Wasn't a surprise he did absolutely nothing.

Last year, we should have raided League 1/2 for a couple of strikers. Evidently £7m buys you very little! Ross Stewart is getting better each time he plays. Yes, he is slow but he held the ball up well a couple of times and provides a target whereas the rest of forwards are midgets. Thought RM's initial subs were ok, though BBD really is clueless. But replacing Fernandes with Aribo was a mistake. Annoyed with the defending at the end. They can't score if the ball is in their half. Aaron Ramsdale had the right idea booting it up to Ross Stewart in injury time and when the ball worked its way to their corner flag that was a good couple of minutes spent without danger. But when defending a corner, you've got to have a release and having no-one on the edge of the penalty area was just asking for trouble.

Can't argue with those subs