chiknsmack

He can't do much for us on the pitch when he doesn't suit the manager's gameplan. He'd be brilliant under Hasenhüttl or similar in an up-tempo attacking/counter-pressing team where he gets to run around and attack and make things happen. Not so much under Martin in a controlling, possession-based team where he's supposed to protect the ball and pass it around a lot. He's one of our best players and will only get better, but he's a square peg in RM's round hole system. Given the choice of selling a young player for big bucks and boosting our reputation to help us recruit more elite young talents, or sacking Martin and changing the gameplan to suit Alcaraz while betting on him sticking around like Le Tiss to warrant such a change, we know what the correct choice is. And like you say, there's always a chance we go up and keep him. Maybe he'll even fit in better in the PL, where we won't be finding it as easy to dominate games and someone to run around and attack and make things happen is exactly what we need.

After reading this article about the restructure of the club's academy setup linked in another thread, I came across this recent interview (with an edited transcript) of Selles. It starts out talking about his current gig at Reading but goes into his time at Saints and his past before that.

The obvious thing to make of it is that he should be starting every game, preferably up front and central so he can shoot a lot.

There's only one Kyle Walker One Kyle Walker Not that shitty arsehole from City Kyle Walker-Peters is the man.

Crazy. He's, like, really old and could never be better than Mason Holgate as a 4th choice CB in the Championship/part-time U23 CB. Happy for him though.

My "problem" (I'm fine with Stephens as club captain and third choice CB since he's fine in those roles at this level) is that he was taking more risks in possession than the other players in the defence/defensive midfield. Not just the obvious (square balls to no-one across the area), but when he was pressed he waited that half-beat longer than everyone else to move the ball on. If anyone else was pressed and had the chance to pass before the opponent got within two yards of them, they would. JS was waiting until the opponent was within touching distance to do so. Whether he's braver or slower (physically and mentally) than everyone else, I don't know. But that looked to me to be the main cause of his problems.

Southampton: 19, 18, 20, 17, 17, 15, 17, 18, 19, 17, 18. Subs: 18, ? (U18), 17, 20, 17, 19, 18.

*Unintentional deflection off the back of his head. Next you'll be saying you think the defender didn't touch the ball for Che's goal. (He obviously did; the flight of the ball from Arma's cross would've seen it bounce knee-high to Adams; the contact by the defender saw it bounce chest-high instead.)

Note that the article doesn't mention Jones as one of the managers he worked under.

We should not. We have Perraud to return if we go up this year so, as much as Manning's defending leaves a lot to be desired, bringing in another LB in the winter window isn't necessary. At Swansea, Sorinola was behind Manning in the pecking order so wouldn't be adding much in terms of quality. Bree should be back by the end of the month. Holgate is still here in the worst case scenario of three better FBs being unavailable. Swansea under Martin often played a 3-4-3, so even with KWP+Bree+Manning+Meghoma+the U21 FBs all unavailable we wouldn't need to resort to Holgate+Stephens at FB; we could instead play a back three and repurpose some midfielders or wingers to play defensively in the wide midfield positions.

It only has three words. It naturally speeds up for the fans that want to speed up every song. To the tune of the Itchy and Scratchy Show theme song: "The Saints, The Saints, The Saints The Saints The Saints, Southampton, Southampton, Southampton SOUTHAMPTONNNNN" (Repeat with furious clapping) Bonus points if someone sneaks a xylophone into the stands to play the intro.

Sounds a bit like the Gambler's Fallacy. "If, like me, you like a flutter and you see that black has come up on the roulette wheel a sack full of times in a row (as an example say it's landed on black 10 times in a row but not red) then it’s the kind of situation where I might be tempted to bet on red." There's also the fact that your stats come from past results, and past results aren't necessary a predictor of future performance. Saints might have scored 3 goals for every ten shots on target this season, but against an above-average keeper the conversion rate may be lower (and against a shit keeper it may be higher). Ditto if we (somehow) have worse finishers than usual taking these shots. Regression/reversion to the mean is a thing, but over a single game the numbers can stay well away from the long-term average without it being a statistically-crazy outcome. So while you can just say "We've had five shots on target in the first half for no goals - below our average conversion rate - so I expect us to outperform our conversion rate in the second half and therefore score at least one goal", that doesn't mean it'll happen.

I can't see us signing Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Victor Moses, AND Danny Drinkwater in one January window. Well, maybe January 2019.

Sam Amo-Ameyaw. I think Meghoma is more likely if Bree is out, so we have some cover at fullback.

He didn't prevent the keeper from releasing the ball, he helped the keeper release the ball.

@Saint86?

He played one game for the U21s last season in PL2, and scored four goals. He's clearly too good for that level (moreso than Dom Ballard, who in turn is theoretically better than the kids who would be getting Mara's minutes were he to leave). Maybe in January he should head to Valenciennes to save them from relegation; you think he'd score for fun at that level too. Their three main strikers have 0 goals from a combined ~15 full games' worth of minutes in the league this season. Though it's more likely that Adams leaves and Mara becomes the main backup to Stewart.

They didn't want him to leave. Ditto Bobb, Borges, and Palmer (though the latter two have since ended up at Ajax and Chelsea respectively, with Palmer in particular having pushed to move for (more) first team football).

I remember being so upset by Koeman's team selections for the Europa qualifiers vs Midtjylland, especially the away tie where we went out with a whimper. In hindsight the first one wasn't too bad (JWP and JRod starting over Tadic and Davis). But the second game with a back three/five with Targett and Martina as wingbacks, while leaving Tadic on the bench until the hour mark when we switched to a back four, and not playing Mane or Wanyama at all, was shite. It hurt a bit more at a time because it had been so long since we had European football and it might be a long while until we got so close again. As it turns out we made the group stages the next year and all was (mostly) forgiven.

If Bazunu had faced the same number of shots as he has, but they were all from 50yds+, we'd have conceded 0 goals so far this season, so would have conceded 25 goals fewer. If my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle. If we ignore the quality of the shots faced (deflected shots and 1v1s after defensive failures), and ignore Bazunu's ability in possession (which is vitally important for the tactics of the team and far better than the average championship keeper), mouthbreathers can incessantly repeat "Bazunu bad" until the cows come home.

Great signing; became a German international after playing for us. Just a shame his arms keep wanting to fall off.

Six stripes in the grass, six yards each. Add a couple of yards for the angle, and one for each year that's passed since. So he pretty much volleyed it from the halfway line. Thanks for digging that up @Saint_clark.

Come on now, what do birds know about football?

If ever you can, it's when the ball has been saved by the keeper and is moving away from goal before hitting the defender in the hand from behind and going out for a corner.