Osvaldorama

Nope, just extending your own logic to show you the absurdity of your posts. Of course goalkeepers make a huge difference to a team. Of course stats are useful. You can’t just bury your head in the sand and ignore things because you don’t like the results. Bazunu is lucky we got relegated as he doesn’t look quite so out of his depth. But he is still making us worse and his inexperience has cost us points this season - points we wouldn’t have lost if we had a proper keeper. Maybe in a couple of seasons he will be ready to be a top half championship keeper. I only hope he remembers how the club stuck by him if he does develop into the player the club thinks he could be.

Why even have a keeper then? If they make no difference and you choose to ignore stats. May as well just blindly trust him. I know… why don’t we stick a cone in goal with a photo of bazunu’s face? After all, changing the keeper makes no difference. You’d still be here defending him anyway as he’s clearly your grandson

Jesus Christ, I actually wish we could win the league, pocket the money then stay in the championship. So much more fun being in this league and actually standing a chance in games

It’s boring to talk about now really. He’s nowhere near good enough at the goalkeepers main job - preventing goals. But for whatever reason the club want to back him, even at the club’s expense. So all we can do is pretend he is good enough and hope he develops

Spot on, couldn’t agree more. Loads of us saw massive potential in mane. The idea he was slated by all the fans is a fantasy. He was leagues ahead of Sulemana from day one. Sulemana has been very very poor so far, but still worth persisting with. If he can find his shooting boots he can be an amazing player. All up to him & his mindset.

Yeah. Got to say, I think we can say goodbye to autos. Need to rotate the squad and keep people fresh for the play offs now. Our run in is fucking mental

Think you are gaslighting tbh. There are valid talking points: - THB at RB - Shoehorning Stephens in, upsetting the balance of the defence - Playing unbalanced midfields with no DMs - Suicidal passing at all costs philosophy Of course; there are loads of positives as well. But to pretend the above aren’t concerning just because you like Martin is just as an extreme opinion to the one you’re accusing others of. The reality is, he’s doing well. The question is; could we be doing better? Personally he has won me around and I really like him. I would back him for another season even if we don’t go up.

Absolutely nailed it. I like him, I like his attitude. But it’s very simple. He’s our 3rd best CB. He shouldn’t be playing when the other 2 are fit & rested if we are serious about going up. Martin has lost the plot here. Stephens isn’t some player like VVD that you build the team around

I like Martin, I really do. I am happy we have an ambitious, positive young manager. I think he is still learning and yet the way he’s stamped his mark on the team is impressive. But games like today I still find myself having a niggling feeling that a more experienced / less philosophically stubborn manager would have this squad challenging for the title. As someone said, today we were worse than the sum of our parts. The style of our football made us weaker. That makeshift Sunderland were SO bad that we should have battered them. If we had started with THB at CB, Bree at full back and stephens on the bench, would we have won more comfortably? With that being said, it’s the players fault they missed so many chances in the first half - not Martin. I keep flip-flopping on how I feel about his management. It’s hard to form a coherent view when we are such a batshit crazy team. Flashes of brilliance, with self destructive tendencies.

Just home from the game. - We made really hard work of one of the worst teams to visit St Mary’s in ages. Our finishing was awful first half. Then we seemed to be treating it like a training game for the start of the second - Our passing was suicidal for the whole second half. Bazunu was especially guilty.… we put ourselves under SO much pressure. - Wish Martin would leave THB at CB. Like every other saints fan, this decision above all others makes me question his management. I feel he is over complicating things. Bree looked great when he came on… why wasn’t he there from the start? - Downes is fucking class. Smallbone played really well too. For all of the above negatives, there were so many positives. … and after all that what an amazing game of football. Class to come back like that. Never dull supporting saints.

Fair play to Leeds and all the top teams this season tbf. Insanely high points totals. We just haven’t had the match winners or the defensive solidity to get over the line. Fucking playoffs man. Terrifying prospect

Pretty good point. Even if the game is on, is it actually worth the risk? How easy is it to detect these harmful substances? I assume they will monitor the air before they say the game could go ahead. But then again I can’t even trust the government to collect the bins on time these days so who knows anymore

One man’s ‘low’ is another man’s ‘Christmas wank bank’

Came here to get excited for the game. Instead all I get is images of roofs taken from google maps. A new low for saintsweb imo

This picture perfectly sums up Sport Republic’s tenure at the club.

Shoving THB to full back is absolutely criminal. It’s just Martin trying to be too clever tbh. Anyone with eyes can see that our best centre back by a country mile is TBH. Anyone with a brain knows you should put your best players in their best positions Same with not playing Charles as a DM when Downes was out. Cost us points because he’s trying to reinvent the wheel.

I personally think it’s mad to break up the THB/Bednarek pairing that was playing so well before 25 unbeaten when stephens was injured. Not saying he’s the reason we are losing, but we looked very solid and now Martin has messed with it all. if stephens has to play, I’d put him at LB again so we don’t have to watch manning stink the place out. Especially against a physical Preston side.

It bothers us because it’s constant. He has cost us a lot of points this season. Same as bazunu last season. He simply can’t tackle or position himself well. He gets beaten so, so easily.

Because he’s not correct. Manning playing like a headless chicken positionally isn’t some master stroke or genius hipster tactic. It’s because he genuinely has no idea how to defend or where he should be. The even worse part is, his attacking play isn’t even good enough to warrant the risk. At least with Danny Fox back in the day he actually was deadly with crosses. Manning can’t defend or cross, sadly. I honestly don’t want to scapegoat him but seriously he is costing us so many goals and points. It’s baffling that the coaching team can’t see it.

One of the worst defenders I’ve ever seen play for us. And that says a lot. Genuinely a horrendous, horrendous player. How does Martin keep playing him

Yeah right. Guy couldn’t score in a brothel

I’ve had a groundbreaking idea. Why don’t we try signing a striker who can run AND finish.

Take it you only watched the second half then

Drawn against United next round. May as well play the reserves tbf. We’re not going through both Liverpool & United.

Who fucking cares We have a manager that hates losing. Good.