saints-til-i-die

I could see Cardiff getting another 7 pts. They nearly beat Chelsea too so you definitely can’t rule out a surprise result. Saints wise... Wolves - 1-1 Newcastle - 1-1 Watford - 1–0 loss Bournemouth- 2-1 win West Ham - 2-1 loss Huddersfield - 2-1 win I give us 8 pts and 41 in total. I could actually see us slip up against a Bournemouth (1-1) . That would give us 6 pts more and 39 in total. Just hoping Cardiff don’t get 3 wins. That could make things tense!

They can be great and awful. Surely they won’t be as tough as Liverpool though.

Preparing for relegation by getting rid of overpaid players who aren’t up to it?

Where do Bournemouth get their money from? Small ground and no sales revenue to speak of.

We just need to match Cardiff’s results to stay up (assuming Fulham don’t suddenly have a great run). If we can’t match Cardiff’s results, we don’t deserve to stay up.

I’d give Watkins a go! Mate supports Exeter and was always raving about him.

The total saints podcast didn’t say he WAS sent back. Adam Leitch was just saying what he thinks not what he knows.

https://experimental361.com/2018/12/30/2018-league-table Dreadful reading.

We are 90/92 if you can’t find us!

https://experimental361.com/2018/12/30/2018-league-table/ Check that out. Embarrassing.

What do people think of the manager criticising some players publicly? Cedric and Alex M have recently received some criticism. I like him and think he’s a great manager; however, I can see this is an arguable tactic. Thoughts?

Ralph Hasenhüttl or Brendan Rodgers for me.

I hope we get stuffed. Awful club management from the very top. Saints are getting what they deserve. If this was another club I’d not feel sympathy for them. I have a season ticket and have for years but the only positive I can find is that it’s showing up Reed, Krueger etc (and Hughes). We have not plan, no direction from the top and a useless manager. I’m past getting annoyed which sums it up. I’ve never felt like this even with the previous relegation disaster.

Hoof* (not good)

The ball was being kicked randomly in the air for clearances and attacks. It was so far from Adkins/Poch that it’s really sad. Good balls and crosses AND we don’t even have the tall men to win it.

due* chops* haha

I’m trying to work out where it all started. Was it even with Koeman? Adkins- passing style. Youth given a chance. Poch - passing/high pressing/energy. Youth given a chance. Koeman - style began to become a little more direct. Had no faith in the youth players. Limited use. Puel- introduced a slow, plodding game (argued he needed to die to lots of matches to save energy) Young players generally not utilised much. Pellegrino- defensive, defensive, defensive. Still no energy. Low tempo. Young players used sparingly. Hughes- no real identity. More direct. Chips and changes. He seems desperate to prove he’s not past it. Smacks of panicking in a desperate attempt to find a system that works. Young players? What are they? Mostly done from memory so the Puel record may be better with the youth players than I imply.

Just because the last 3 managers didn’t make much difference, it doesn’t mean another change wouldn’t. It’s been down to the fact that the last 3 managers have been poor choices. They’ve not fit our supposed (now forgotten) ‘style’ and we’ve moved further and further away from using the academy. Hughes was an awful appointment for a club that aims to bring through youth players. The club has lost the plot and moved so far away from what brought us success. However, a new manager could revive our fortunes. Average players can be made to play above their level. Dyche, Howe, Benetiz last year, Wagner last year... The issue is that I’ve lost faith in Les to pick a decent manager. The club need to be brave, go back to their old philosophy and aim, bring in a younger, up and coming manager and trust in the youth team more, attack teams. If we go down we’ll be in a better place than we would be currently. We are dying a slow and painful, directionless death. I’d roll the dice.

Pathetic comment about Wagner being bottom of the league. How ridiculous. Look at the team and resources he has. It’s not comparable. Have a bit more sense.

Wagner

I wouldn’t mind about how poor we are (and paying to see it) if we have a plan. We don’t. We are directionless and have no clear aims or philosophy. Are we trying to develop young players or not? We don’t have a plan. We’ve completely gone off the rails. I’m jealous of Bournemouth. Yes, Bournemouth. How has this happened?

Hughes has NO INTEREST in developing young players (or the ability to). He has no track record for this. Our long term strategy is developing players and selling them at a high price. Hughes doesn’t fit this model. Fans know it’s an uncomfortable fit which is why he’ll get less patience from them than other managers. We need to go back to having a clear style/formation and desire to give young players a chance. I’d rather this be an up and coming manager from the lower leagues. I don’t care if people think it’s a cheap option. Quite a few managers that have come up from the championship have stayed up and competed well: Wagner, Howe, Dyce, Hughton (arguable). Potential Wolves and Fulham this year. Yet people think it’s a cheap option. Who cares! We are happy to gamble on foreign managers why not a lower league manager?

Howe gets a lot out of average players. It is possible.

It’s not time to go yet but I feel it’s inevitable. They just can’t wait too long. They need to go with someone fresh. Not a manager that moves around clubs like Pardew, Allardyce etc. Give a decent Championship manager a go or someone like Wagner.

For me the issue is that he doesn’t seem to have settled on a formation that suits us. He had pre season and then commented that some of the players weren’t quite clear on how to play after the Burnley game. This was largely the same starting players as last year and he had 8 games at the end of the year. Why are they struggling with the formation still. If he ONLY had pre season I may have accepted the excuse. He’s no record bringing through young players either which is also the board’s fault for picking him. He just doesn’t fit us well and I don’t believe he’ll be here long if we want to run the club the way we say we do. If he stays, we’ve clearly decided we are okay being a team with no real plan such as Villa and Stoke. What is Hughes’s style of play? Does he have one? Is seems more about being physical rather than any real philosophy. Genuine question.