trousers

No

I don't think we have the mental toughness. Things go against us in games we just shrug our shoulders and accept it. So, where did we get our 'mental toughness' from last year...? And what's stopping us from rediscovering it...?

What's stopping us having a similar first half of next season to the first half of this season...?

It's more of a tantric experience to be honest, but same end game I would venture

Later. Your interrogation is making me feel a tad moist so I'm going to have to go and finish myself off in the gents. Back shortly.

No, I'm not saying that.

Ralph said before the game that he needs careful game-time management as he is prone to injury if he plays too many games in a short timeframe

There's a difference between pointing out that winning the league was highly unlikely (congratulations on that earth shattering wisdom) but I don't see any posts in November from the hindsight brigade forecasting this "inevitable" plummeting off a cliff drop in form that we're currently experiencing. Yes, a dip in form was always likely, but this bad...?

Our 2-0 victory Vs Chelsea on Boxing Day in 2019 set us up for our superb run in 2020, so have faith!

Good point. I was going to mention Theo on a thread earlier actually. I do think we miss his movement a lot. He creates space for others. Probably no coincidence our form has stayed low whilst he's been out

Egg

Maybe it'll all start to go right again if we exercise a little patience and pragmatism ?(I know, I know... The hope of patience + pragmatism on a football forum is chortle central)

And none of them had Saints performing as a top 6 side for a whole calendar year. Swings and roundabouts... #onlyfocusonthebadstuff

Fair point

Indeed. If you look back at posts around November time, you won't find anyone telling us how it was all about to come crashing down around our ears and our form was about to plummet like a stone, and yet if you read certain posts this afternoon it was always likely to happen... The words 'wise', 'event' and 'after' spring to mind...

Fair point @SKD. I think Bednarek would make a decent captain. He seems pretty vocal? I've always said we're too nice though, and that starts with the captain. I would bet we are one of the teams with the lowest number yellow cards for dissent....

No thanks

Some thoughtful and considered analysis there @Dusic 👍 I guess there's an element of chicken and egg regards performance Vs impact of poor decisions. As I think someone posted on the match thread, players are only human and you can end up in a vicious spiral of poor decisions from the match officials leading to demoralisation which leads to poor reactions and/or performances. The biggest issue to me (that we have control of) is how we often come out playing after the half time break seemingly one or two gears lower than what we finished the first half in, both physically and mentally. Maybe teams are simply getting wise to our hell-to-leather approach to the first 45 minutes in the knowledge that we'll take our foot off the gas in the 2nd half. Dunno. The thing that fustrates me most with Saints is how we can go a whole flippin' calendar year as one of the top teams in the country and then, at the flip of a coin, turn into one of the poorest teams. Never a dull moment being a Saints fan though...

Pragmatism? On the Saintsweb Forum? What on Earth were you think of man?!

You've surely been a member of the Saintsweb Forum long enough now to know the answer to that? (Unless you were being rhetorical of course... )

Indeed. It's not complicated... (Well, for some it might be...)

Sounds like we'll have to agree to disagree. Just different opinions. No worries.