The Kraken

Dirk saying “I never said them fings” 🤣🤣🤣

There in a nutshell sums up the complete lack of intelligence and understanding of an issue.

I guess there were plenty of verbals during the game. Their manager got booked for waving an imaginary yellow to try and get our player booked, got booked himself for that. Maybe things just kicked on from then. Looked like Still wasn’t having a kiss and make up and handbags ensued.

Unless I’m mistaken, Edozie and Aribo haven’t made a single matchday squad. BBD has, but one of those was only because of the late dropout of the LND. Hard to see them getting integrated other than as a complete bit part: wee man, Robinson, Armstrong, even Ross a bloody Stewart being used as wide players ahead of them so far. If we’re so desperate for “wingers” I’m keen to see what that does for Robinson. He’s only 18 so needs to be taken care of, but if we sign a genuine first teamer on the left like we seem to have done with Fellows, what’s the lineup? It’s a nice problem to have of course.

I’ve noticed that he seems to make an awful lot of runs on the shoulder of defenders looking to break in behind but rarely gets played in. And doesn’t look to drop back all that much to play the target man and bring others in. Similar to how he scored his goal in pre-season IIRC, break the lines for a through ball. I noticed it again today, he was caught offside as he’d made a run behind earlier and not been played in first time. Maybe with more width up the pitch there’s more opportunity for him, but for a big man he seems different to a Lambert/Pelle who were happy dropping deep to get the ball. As such he just ends up looking isolated as nobody wants to play that ball.

The Moyesiah is doing ok isn’t he?

true. Tbf I do still remember watching us against Sheff Wed in the first game of the season and keeping the ball for the last ten minutes and thinking “I’ve never really seen a saints side do that before!”

Thats the point, I don’t know what to expect from a Still side, and after 4 games I don’t really know either. Maybe I am being unreasonable, I don’t think I am, it’s not a demand as such, I’m just curious to see what this guy will do that makes us successful. Look at any half successful Saints manager of the past 20-30 years and most fans can pick out some attributes of why they were decent. Alan Ball, WGS, Adkins, Poch, Koeman, Ralph. All had styles that you could distinguish between. Maybe in time we’ll see what the Will Still equivalent is. Just not sure where we’re headed yet. Aim not sure that’s a controversial thing to say, but whatever.

Tbf I think today we were massively hamstrung by Downes. He was even named in the 2pm team sheet, so that’s a real blow. Charles, Jander and (if he’s here) Downes available at CM in any given week is very good for this level IMO. Add Azaz to that mix and it’s strong.

And that’s we are is it?

Yeah maybe you’re right. But right now I don’t know if we’ll be a side like the first half where we play good one touch. He talks about wingers, what does that mean for the striker(s)? He talks about pressing high, haven’t seen much of that (or at least not doing it well). Maybe not a style as such, but I just don’t see much yet of what he’s doing. It’s very early days so probably being hyper critical, just something I’ve noticed.

This. Not expecting a complete revolution at this point by any stretch, but I’m yet to see what this guy brings to the party. I said it last week. For better or worse, you knew what a Russell Martin side was from a very early point. No idea yet what a Will Still side is, all just a bit throw it together and hope for the best at the moment. The Downes situation really did a number on us today tbf, but it’s not an isolated example. Lots to do.

I would genuinely love to hear what specialist advice or instruction our managers past and present receive from our GK coaching team regarding Baz. Because we’ve been saying exactly this since he signed for us. Tgat we still say it week after week after week is so concerning.

With the Baz free kick, I think two things are true. It was crap positioning from Baz, he got nowhere near it. But it was also a stunningly good free kick. I don’t think Bazunu gets to that even if he starts properly in the centre of the goal.

Still waiting to see what a Will Still side “is”. There were glimpses of it in the first half, some nice forward interplay. But this formation does these players no favours at all and we are so vulnerable to a counter attack. Extremely sloppy in possession, some good midfield pressing sometimes but at other times Watford just broke through our ranks with ease. And let’s face it, Watford are an average championship side. 2 weeks until the next game but Still has got a huge amount to do. Just fuck off with the 5 at the back now, it’s awful. He goes on about not being able to play a certain way because we don’t the right personnel, but every game we’ve ended up chasing he puts square pegs in round holes anyway. Lots to do, I’m not impressed at all so far.