sydney_saint

This is a captain's performance from Lallana today

Just exploded. Sensible decision Mr Cortese to announce this on a Sunday night. I could have being in trouble if this was announced at work.

Lovren loves a slide tackle it seems

Just the 4 academy lads playing then, disappointing really. Needs to pull it's finger out.

This is a really interesting discussion and something that I've being thinking about for a while. I think those that get most out of a football club is based on how much belonging or identity they feel with their club. As a Southampton fan, and some may call this sad, but that label, that emotional ride has established a key part of my own identity. I simply can not imagine supporting any other club and feel that if I did, I would actually have a different personality to today. As supporters of the same club, we can unite and discuss over a drink, have some banter and genuinely feel like we've always known each other. It is difficult to truly describe, but for better use of a term, the stronger the 'sense of place' you feel with your club, the more I feel you are getting out of football. It is something that also transcends geography. So the those getting the most out of their club probably relies on their strong sense of belonging and identity with that club, which is the pertinent to the individual, but I would suggest that as a general rule of thumb, those that support smaller clubs probably have a stronger identity with that club. I shamelessly wrote something on the weekend here which take a similar angle for anyone wishing to look at belong at football in any more detail. http://lastminutewinner.net/your-place-or-mine/

RIP Cabbage

I think the 'South American' influence in football has become a bit of a myth in football. That because a team/manager/player is from South America that they must play entertaining attacking football, when the region hasn't for at least a decade now, probably longer. I think (and I think we all realise whether some are prepared to admit it or not) that we played much better football and scored more goals (at both ends) under NA. MP has not provided a hugely entertaining or hugely attractive style. And nobody can blame it on the players he has at his disposable as it is the same players that NA had. Not to say MP won't take us forwards, but let's not pretend or delude ourselves that we are now playing better football.

Well after a victory against a team around us, the legitimacy of my argument just fell a little bit!

There is still very little to suggest that Adkins could not have matched MP points total. The general argument seems to be that MP gets results against the big clubs, but that IMO is not strictly true. Under Adkins, we led Man City away and were just minutes away from defeating the other Manchester, as well as taking points off Arsenal and Chelsea. The first two of these were with a team still very much adjusting to the premier league, who, no matter what people say here about preparation in pre-season, always would have needed an adaption period-that is the nature of football or most fields when you step up to a new level. So I don't find it quite a shock that MP managed to take it to the next level with a team that had adjusted, there is nothing ground-breaking about it and nothing to suggest that Adkins could not have got a few points against those 3. Alternatively Adkins had a great record against teams around us, which MP is yet to show he can do. So I don't think there is a huge amount in it results wise-but of course this is all crystal-ball stuff Secondly, there is this argument that Adkins is is tactically inferior to MP. Again I have a couple of points to dispute this. There is no doubt that MP has added another dimension to the team by the pressing element, although there are still some doubts about its validity in the PL. But for now I'm going to assume that it will work, especially when he has more time to work with the players. So that is undoubtedly a new level of tactical dimension that has been added to our play. However there are 2 elements which I dispute on overall tactics 1) Setpieces- Both offensively and defensively we seem to lack imagination/solidity. Especially defending, we seem to be caught alot more flatfooted and defending a little more deeper (without any stats to prove it), perhaps this has got more to do with Jos playing more often. Offensively off freekicks, we seem to be taking more direct shots at goal which, whilst I enjoyed Lamberts winner as much as the next person, is an inefficient set piece, at least according to this article I found which is something I agree with. http://lastminutewinner.net/free-kick-creativity-a-problem-hiding-in-plain-sight-of-goal/ Under Adkins, we often used the direct shot at goal as a surprise move, developing instead a more diverse range of set pieces including the Fonte slip to the back post. It is in this part of the game that I feel NA is superior to MP, although MP has time. Secondly, whilst I agree there is a strength to this, we seem to be less tactically flexible. The strength been that teams have to adjust to us. I always felt that Adkins has a Plan B, which, whilst it may not have always worked, would often be adjusted to in terms of our shape and our flicking from 4-2-3-1 4-4-2 and 4-4-3. Perhaps I have not been paying as much attention in the last few weeks so I'm happy to say i am wrong on this point, but when thing go wrong like Newcastle and QPR MP seems less idea of what plan to move to. So whilst his Plan A may be more effective, I feel Adkins had the ability to think something new, or to have prepared a Plan B. Of course people will throw in the line that Adkins unnecessarily changed plan A (like home to United) but that happened very few times in his tenure. Anyway just my musings on this topic, I'm hating the fact that people are bashing Adkins or looking for arguments to justify his sacking, that people just want a change to **** over Cortese. Yes life moves on but it doesn't mean you should forget what happened and how he was treated in the end.

P.S. Don't flatter yourselves guys about the impartiality of referees. They may be poor, but it's not because they are biased. Half the time they haven't even heard of your club and really couldn't be assed to be biased, what is in it for them? They may just have a poor game. It is pretty insulting to think otherwise.

You must remember that they are not a'linesman' or someone running the line. They are the assistant referee. In general the middle of the pitch and quarters of the field where there is no assistant is governed by the referee (which is why they run diagonally) whilst the quarters where there is an assistant will also be governed by them. So whilst the ultimate call belongs to the referee in the middle, the assistant has the full right to assist in decision making of any nature, whether it be a handball, verbal insults between players or fouls. Also I wouldn't listen too seriously to your teammates. There have been decisions I've made where there have been clear handballs but players have denied and are adamant to their team mates after the match that they didn't.

I thought this might happen....

I have nothing useful to add, only having read every page I want to get myself on that list and share the reflected glory. Only 3359 till the top.

I'm worried I'm going to sound silly here and that it has been mentioned, but would appearances for other clubs whilst still contracted here (ie loan) trigger a payment or do the appearances have to be for Southampton?

Where does Fox go, he's never either up the pitch providing a threat or back defending. I understand squeezing, but FFS! He just disappears

Excellent work there criticising the referees....if only you happened to know the rules. Reckless is only a bookable offence, excessive force is a send off HTH

I can only name a handful of times in my life where I have gone off at a ref. I am one, and understand the pressures they are under. BUT WHAT A ****ING ****! He bottled it, no question, along with the line decision in the first half. Go back to club football, you may have cost us promotion.

Lamberttt!!!

Excellent, live in Newcastle and don't know a single other saints fan.

Nice read that! On the flipside however.. http://hullcityafcnews.blogspot.co.uk/ One of the best around IMO, particularly like this gem "..Olly would have been ideal to run the midfield and win the midfield battles against Saint's big centre midfielders Guly and Do Prado." Must have played a blinder

Oh no, we have an impressionist of David Thorne...

Age 21- Born in Sydney, now living in Newcastle Australia. Never lived in Southampton, although spent 6 months studying in Norwich last year where I was able to go to my first away game in the 4-4 draw (never a pen till this day). None of my family are Saints fans, nor really footy fans, was somehow able to watch my first match in the 2-0 win against Liverpool in 2002. Can't really remember why I was there, but as an impressionable 12 year old I was hooked. Sadly, I reckon I have only been to about 7 or 8 matches in my life, although am up at 2-4am every weekend/match listening to Dave. All my mates not only don't support league clubs but don't know any that support any club outside the previously known 'top 4' clubs, which made me a subject of ridicule during school years (and still now...) Have always found it strange that the club as made such a large impression on myself, despite having few connections to either the city or club. I would not have it any other way.

No, it is you who is misinformed here. I don't look at what was necessarily considered normal, or what may have happened if an Islamic State had arrived. I look at what the British actually DID which was to wipe tens/hundreds of Nations and condemn an entire community to near extinction. Give one example of how the genocide of the Aboriginal people created the country today? That killing people for sport is the reason for our reasonable success in sport? Why couldn't Australia have developed whilst giving self-determination to the original owners? If this is something that the British are proud of, a legacy of violence, crime, rape and murder than how are you any better than an Islamic extremist who also seek the removal of certain population for progress? Whilst I agree that there is certain element of British Colonial Rule to be proud of, to make sweeping remarks that it should be shown in Schools to raise patriotism is denial and insulting. Anyway won't bite anymore.

I know this is not the focus of this debate, but am surprised and disappointed by this attitude. I can not speak on behalf of other countries, only my own, but the British colonial legacy in Australia, in summary, is not something to be proud of and something that has not received the international attention it deserves. Under the Genocide Convention definition, the Colony committed genocide against the oldest living culture in the world, on the bases of inferiority, something that exists in our system still. If you listen and read old documents and tape recordings, there was a definite, premeditated and deliberate attempt to wipe out the Aboriginals here, including the deliberate release of diseases and discussions on rounding up Aboriginal people so that they would die out 'naturally'. Many Australians even are unaware of the extreme attempts and loss of life that shattered a mostly unprovoked, diverse Nations that I'm confident was not adequately covered in this documentary, otherwise you would not be so proud. Since British colonial rule we have lost hundreds of languages, cultures and stories, compounded by the relative isolation and differences in Aboriginal Communities. They were wiped out in Tasmania, and the impacts are still here to see, with the average life expectancy of Indigenous peoples around 30 years less than us 'british' Australians. I will not go ranting any further, as this is not the direction of this thread but if this is something to be proud of, the wiping out of hundreds of different cultures and lifestyles, than I do not see how you are any better then any other extremist.

I know it means nothing to anyone, but i'm going to join about the dozen or so others in the last week or so and say **** it, I'm off this site. What a horrible, vulgar, negative this site has become. After 6 years lurking on the various forms of this forum, it is time to say goodbye. Be amusing when the site goes down to around 20 posters, although not too far off anyway.