The Kraken

Started at Bashley too. Although technically Bournemouth start with AFC……

I get the feeling the, if we did that, we’d get stripes more often than not. It seems to me to be a vocal minority on here that prefer a variance from stripes, when there’s actual polls been done on here stripes do seem to be quite popular. Personally, I’d like to see a variation of all we’ve had before (and more) on a sort of informal rota. Stripes one year, halves the next, rank xerox, sash, add quarters in the mix and maybe even a solid red shirt that is not as shit as the Cortese kits and the dreadful centenary shirt.

That kit was very nice but we barely saw it all season, the club insisted it would only be worn when none of the shirt, shorts and socks clashed with the other side, and Saints wouldn’t change shorts/socks colour to suit. As it was, due to it almost neve being used, we made it our FA Cup home shirt. Then went out at the firs time of trying.

A young forward with 2 goals in 54 appearances his club, sounds right up our street.

Which failed as the obsessed Pompey contingent all spotted it and voted for the worst one, some Monaco inspired abomination iirc.

Yeah, I think the Hummel designers released a video shortly after taking on our contract where they talked about their options with Saints, and made reference to the previous kit(s) they had under us including that one.

That would absolutely be my favourite ever I reckon, and a nod to very early kit history.

Do we?! 😉 Im not a massive fan of our current home kit but I very much like a variation from stripes quite often. People go on about ‘tradition’ but I just point to Barcelona. You can’t get much bigger a club side than them yet they’re not remembered for only wearing stripes, they’ve had a massive amount of variation on blue and red/maroon in the past 20-30 years. My favourite 3 Saints kits have been the original Rank Xerox kit, the Denmark Hummel, and the Hummel stripes. Quite enjoy a deviation from stripes more than often. Our away kits this year are bloody terrible though imo. Happy for yellow and blue there.

‘Traditional’ 4, 5 and 6 has many variations and does my OCD no good at all! For me in traditional numbers it’s 5 and 6 as centre backs, 4 the holding midfielder. But there’s been plenty of exceptions to that especially non UK where 4 was often used as a CB, I seem to recall Roy Keane was a 6 in proper shirt numbers at Forest. I also seem to remember Ray Wilkins playing as a 5 at some points, and Kevin Ratcliffe always had 4 as CB at Everton. Ronald Koeman was a 4 for years. And of course Ralph always referred to Romeu as the 6.

Got ya. Yeah, we went for it at that point, but quite frankly we bloody had to, 0-1 down and nothing lose by conceding another.

How were we playing 2 at the back when we had 3 centre backs on the pitch until minute 85? I was watching the game and I don’t recall one of our CBs going up front, what am I missing here? Lyanco went off on 85 but that wasn’t the plan, Elmo was in line to get subbed (it got announced on the tannoy) then Lyanco limped off instead.

There’s a few Spanish speakers at the club, I’m sure I read Nathan Jones speaks Spanish, he certainly played there in his career. Ruben Selles and Juan Larios obviously, and Lyanco will be able to converse. And big Willy as mentioned, perhaps others too.

Lavia, JWP and this lad in a central 3 seems like it could be a thing. Grateful for any and all players we can get. But at 19 and coming from South America, plus Not having played a competitive game since early November, he’s likely going to need time. So I hope we don’t rush him.

1. Preston North End 2. Brighton & Hove Albion 3. Chesterfield or West Bromwich Albion 4. Manchester City or Chelsea 5. Stockport County or Walsall 6. Boreham Wood or Accrington Stanley 7. Tottenham Hotspur 8. Derby County 9. Cardiff City or Leeds United 10. West Ham United 11. Burnley 12. Wrexham 13. Norwich City or Blackburn Rovers 14. Aston Villa or Stevenage 15. Luton Town or Wigan Athletic 16. Oxford United or Arsenal 17. Fleetwood Town 18. Liverpool or Wolverhampton Wanderers 19. Grimsby Town 20. Blackpool 21. Leicester City 22. Forest Green Rovers or Birmingham City 23. Bristol City or Swansea City 24. Hartlepool United or Stoke City 25. Fulham 26. Southampton 27. Sheffield United 28. Sunderland 29. Sheffield Wednesday 30. Manchester United 31. Reading 32. Ipswich Town

It’s the most ludicrous and baffling law, I can’t believe it hasn’t been changed over time. I genuinely think it was created by people who have never played football before; but how it hasn’t been reversed, I have no idea. The inference of the law is that a defender in that situation should be able to tell 100% that the striker is in an offside position before he decides whether to make an attempt to play the ball or not. It’s an utter nonsense, of course the defender is going to assume that there is a possibility the striker could be onside and he will therefore react to the striker’s position. Absolutely stupid law and needs changing immediately.

He was in control of the ball, insofar as he was able to make an unsuccessful attempt at an interception or clearance. As defined in the law. The mistake is not in the application of the law, it’s the law itself. It has been a terrible law for far too long.

You’ve demonstrated that the law was applied correctly. The defender deliberately tried to clear the ball. He was unsuccessful. The law is a joke and was likely dreamed up by someone who hasn’t played football before.

If Saints can play most of the time like we did for a good 20-30 minutes spell in the second half we might have a chance. It was something we had under Ralph initially before he lost it a while back, and Jones hasn’t got it back: our players playing quick passes, moving play rapidly, pass and move, and support the forward line in numbers. Basically compress the play up in the opposition half by working extra hard for each other in and out of possession. First half was notably dreadful to watch and looked like we’d even got backwards since Ralph. The second half gives a bit of hope that there’s an intent to play that well again. My stream ended early after the game but it looked like Che Adams was giving Jones a really good gee up, so that’s good to see. We rode our luck big time today but the bravery in the second half won it. More if that, less of the passive rubbish that has been prevalent for months and months. Jones’ comments are fair, we do need to be more aggressive, not just being niggly but working hard and making it really hard work for the other side. We were nowhere near that first half, it was all too easy for Palace. Second half a completely different story. Lack of clear chances is still a worry, but play like we did second half and more chances will come, we were close to a couple of really good openings down the left that just lacked a precise ball at the right time. Hopefully that will come. I’m not particularly confident it will, but I have a glimmer of hope.

Slightly unfair. The first half was definitely horrendous from a saints point of view. Too slow, too ponderous, no zip in defence or in possession, just looked a bit clueless when trying to go forward. Definitely much fewer long hopeless balls but just an ugly brand of football again where the team just don’t seem to know what each other are doing, all too familiar under Jones thus far. Second half better, a bit more cohesion in possession. Palace have been shit this half, whether that’s through saints getting tighter, maybe. Overall a good result, an untidy game, a little bit of optimism but a lot more improvement needed.

First 30-40 minutes was abject. Not tight enough without the ball, no coherent plan in possession just slow and ponderous. The past half an hour has shown signs of encouragement, a lot more quicker pass and move when in possession. It’s a mile away from where it needs to be, but night and day from the Forest game in this half. Palace had a chance to make it 2-0 which would have buried us. Both our goals have come from massive goalkeeper errors. So we’ve been under rut but weathered that well. For now….

And we go defensive with 5 at the back to try to hold on.

Ha ha ha ha ha another great goal!!

Much better 5-10 minutes from Saints. I mean, I know it’s a low bar to clear, but it looks a bit better from an attacking point of view, more crisp fast passing in attacking areas.

Here he comes. Boom boom boom boom, I want you in my room, there ain’t no striker better than Jean Philippe Mateta.

For adams apparently.