OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint

I haven't seen a comment about this so far, though it may be in one of the threads. It's 0-0 with Wolves and Coventry at the moment. If Coventry get through, could there be a chance that the play-offs will have to be delayed?

Looking at the Jack Stephens thread and how he is being shoehorned in to the team makes you wonder if Jack could replace Manning. Most of us would prefer Bree to Manning, but given Bree still seems to be recovering, Manning also is one that seems undropable. Can anyone remember one game where he's been even remotely competent? I can't.

In those seven games before Xmas and January, he only played more than 30 minutes in two of them so he didn't contribute a lot to our unbeaten run. However, I do agree that teams have seen how Bristol City attacked us and others are now doing a higher press and that's causing us problems. But surely the main point is that THB is our best centre back with Bednarek so they should play together. Personally, if KWP and Bree are fit, I wouldn't have Jack in the team but he has played right back and left back, so if he has to play, he should be the one to move to the left or right.

That's how I see him too. Bit like Maitland-Niles last year in that their persona gives off this "I'm too good for this, you're lucky to have me" attitude. That may be totally wrong, but you see Sam Edozie, Sam AA, Fraser busting a gut playing for Saints but Sule seems to not care. And I certainly haven't seen anything that says he can kick a ball hard and straight at goal.

And we need a Rothwell or an Alcaraz in the team because that positivity rubs off on others. What RM then needs to do is accept there will be gaps in midfield so who covers for these players when the inevitably will lose the ball occasionally

Not his best game today. His distribution is his strength, but today even his longer passes either seemed to float too long or missed their intended target.

I agree with this post. Sub Sulemana (and Manning) cost us the first goal and we did look at sea for quite a while, though Rothwell does seem to know where the goal is which is a lot more than can be said for Adam Armstrong and Che at the moment

Not so sure. The international break means the table isn't changing for a while. I still think we can catch them rather than Leicester though it'll need Hull and Coventry to take something off Leeds before we play them.

We were cruising at half time. If it ain't broke.... Must admit, also thought Stephens was ok today, but surely THB and Bednarek have to be the centre back pairing. Downes certainly makes a difference. Missing KWP and Wee man and frankly anything but a win today would have been a travesty.

Interesting. I also don't now watch any premier league games but still want us to be promoted. Watching how our players compete against the best and winning occasionally is far more satisfying that smashing a Rotherham (or getting really frustrated when we don't!). And the EPL is looking more like the premier league each year. There's the "haves" and "have nots" in both leagues. Promotion via the play-offs will be one of the most memorable seasons ever, and there's a lot of crap in the premiership, so I have every confidence that once in that league we can stay there.

Problem now is with Leeds playing on Friday, they could be practically out of sight before we even play Sunderland. There again, Wednesday are improving, it's a derby, so there could be even more interest on our next game.

This thread was concerning enough without seeing these two wedges. Looks like they're sitting in the special seats!

There's some weird feeling that I din't want them to break our record, but this could be close.

Got to agree. The Birmingham striker seemed to anticipate was going to happen and was off and rather than being behind him, Manning seemed to try to cut inside and header what turned out to be a non-existent ball. Not many defenders try that...I wonder why!

I think you're right. My work colleague went up to Carlisle today and said the fans were buzzing. They're really grateful with what he's done with all the other crap going on at the club. Still can't quite work out what went wrong with us. At Stamford Bridge roughly this time last year, we were singing his praises. I genuinely think it was the squad that was so shit and not him.

Yes, the space is called No Manning's Land 😀

Thank you, sir. Up there with one of the most exciting games.

Looks like our 'A' team is back. Didn't do much when they came on against Liverpool. Downes back is excellent. KWP evidently injured though I'd prefer HB in the middle and not Jack Stephens

Got the Mara song now but after his last game, you might not get the chance to sing it 🤨

That's an interesting table, but I guess it's when was the start and end date. Our balance in the bank looks really positive but we forked out loads in the previous summer and January windows. Still think when we've got £15m players on our bench other Championship clubs can only look and dream of having the same. It's no coincidence our league is looking like the premiership with a few wealthy clubs at the top. If we weren't in that group, then our fans can rightly question RM's methods/tactics. I think he's one dimensional but can't really complain too much given the season we've had so far.

Feeling this could be a watershed game. Win convincingly and the recent blip is behind us, but lose or draw and Leeds/Ipswich could be getting in to uncatchable territory.

In many ways, with our comparative wealth and what we've spent, we are the Man City of the Championship and anything but automatic promotion represents failure. We've got the players to have a variety of tactics. Just like Ralph had the Plan A pressing style but no real Plan B, so RM seems to only have a Plan A. What is also concerning when watching the Liverpool game, is that his second stream defence is far less comfortable playing from the back and both the back four and midfield's first look was to see which backward pass they could make.

That's precisely it. We need to go up and find our feet in the premiership rather than watch from afar and see our team's quality players being taken away. As posters have said on here for years, we need a striker. Spend more on a striker or strikers from lower leagues with potential. It's the most glaringly obvious thing wrong with our team and like the commentary team said yesterday, against good premiership teams, you don't get many chances so you need to put away the ones you do get.

That's been really noticeable. Also, if you're going to rest a player, rest him. KWP coming on was pointless.

Oh dear, he's not been brave after all. He'll better get automatic promotion after putting out that defence. That said, I don't mind that attack for a counter-attack.