The Kraken

Maybe have a calm down. So you liked the video. Well done. Others said they liked it less. Well done them. It’s a perception thing. Your whole line of “people are looking for the negative in anything” that you’ve stated is, well, strange. It just seems like a bit of a paranoid feeling. With a new manager, Saints fans will put naturally forwards all sorts of opinions. On here we have seen all manner of opinions about Nathan Jones. Some on here have seen plenty of good in the vids released, plenty have said they are indifferent, quite a few are completely negative, but overall the consensus seems to be that most want him to do alright. There is no point having a hissy fit against those who don’t match your opinion and call them a “joke”, and then say the whole fan base follows their line into negativity. It’s just a weird made-up analysis.

Ah good old Joe Meclutchbroke, a Pompey fan almost as unpopular amongst the blue few as us scummers are.

Yeah I made a point of watching bits of their game yesterday against Norwich. Saw literally nothing of Brereton Diaz that would leave to think he’d be any better than Adam Armstrong, and that’s a low bar to clear. He also was not playing as a central striker, he’s doing the Armstrong thing out on the left

Yes, in January. Their local paper reported on it a while back, under Ralph it was very unlikely we’d have recalled him. Who knows now. https://www.lancs.live/sport/football/football-news/burnley-nathan-tella-southampton-transfer-25371646

Just watched the training video for the first time, it’s noticeable how little the players actually seem to be listening to him, and there’s certainly not any sort of repartee going on. I noticed in the Liverpool game, in a break of play after just a few minutes Jones was on the touchline giving detailed instructions to Elmo, so he’s clearly a coach who talks a lot and gets his ideas across quickly. We’ll just have to see how good those ideas are. Our players have got no right whatsoever to think they’re above anything, so they need to buy into it either way.

The actual games have been great. In that respect, Infantino has a point when says best ever, best on field action I can remember. Refs have mostly been ok and for the most part VAR has eliminated large errors. The crowds have been shit though, not enough genuine fans in the stadium and too many empty seats. Outside of the games the Qataris have highlighted exactly what they’re all about, not sure if it’s been the positive sportswash they’d have hoped 200 billion would bring them.

Yeah it’s probably the least shit option. Just makes qualifying a bit too easy; this World Cup had some great round 3 games, my picks being Uruguay out, Korea in, and the whole group E Germany/Costa Rica/Spain/Japan roller coaster.

Fairly sure FIFA will go for something similar to the euros. 12 groups of 4, top 2 go through plus the 8 best 3rd place sides. Which IMO takes away the drama of qualifying that was one of the bright spots of this WC.

What a brilliant film that is, by the way.

“I probably can’t say this now…..” is perhaps the point where you think, yeah, maybe I won’t actually say it. Otherwise it comes across as a bit like “I’m not racist but……”. Although the use of the term “they” in that context is particularly disappointing.

Fixed that for you.

I don’t remember getting absolutely rogered 9-0 in the lower leagues. Those two displays were utterly fucking awful, and I shouldn’t need to remind you that it happened in the treasured top league. Give me strength indeed.

Good for you, as I said I didn’t mind it and the Sheff U game was a redemption for the roller coaster of emotions that all came before it.

League one got a bit old after two seasons, mind. I enjoyed going to the matches much more than before though. Championship promotion season was amazing, and apart from the Portvliet spell I liked those Championship times too. Stern John keeping us up was one of those amazing “I was there” moments that live long in the memory. I don’t fear relegation one bit like I used to twenty years ago.

Could be, and with Ashley being such a c*nt, probably likely. However, Coventry have showed tremendous resilience to not having their own stadium throughout the past ten years, and hopefully they can sort a reasonable way out of this one. And, from what I hear, they have a local businessman in advanced talks to purchase the club. Dunno where Ashley fits in to it all, it seems very grubby, but that’s Ashley, the fat twat.

That was Calum Chambers, no?

Geezer must have to shave 3 times a day.

£90 a ticket 🤣

Just saw a plug on bbc for a series called The Football Academy which focuses on Saints. Seems like it’s a 16 episode season. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m001dhcl/the-football-academy I saw a similar one recently for Palace which was really good, so this is likely we’ll worth a try.

That article is doing some pretty good straw-manning: “Those who look at Gareth Southgate’s slightly cautious approach and demand he shoehorn in half a dozen of England’s array of gifted young forwards are living in a dreamworld.” Who has ever said that we should play six forwards? Anyone who has suggested it doesn’t know what they’re talking about, but I’ve certainly never heard it. England played the ‘right’ formation last night. A central striker, two wide players who can get behind the striker but also create a good press and keep play high up the pitch. Then, behind them, a three who can offer defensive rigidity while also finding space in the attacking third when we are on the front foot. There was no difference in formation to last night and the Iran game, just a massive difference in how it was executed. USA showed exactly how to press high up the pitch. The only times we got through were through combinations of good, slick, quick passing play with players supporting each other closely. We’ve got the players to do that too, and we’ve got the players on the bench to replace them when they get tired (we’re allowed 5 subs which should more than cover it).

I dunno, in some ways I felt for Kane a bit. His touch has been brilliant and he receives the ball up front so well and can turn defence into attack. The game against Iran totally played into his hands as he had willing runners off of him each time, Sterling and Saka supported him well, Mount wasn’t good but made lots of space, and Bellingham got up the field in support. Last night there were times when Kane had nobody running beyond him or in support. Kane did look a bit laboured at times but I thought that was exaggerated by the lack of options around him. I thought Sterling was awful,both in possession and out of it, he should’ve gone for foden at half time. Saka did alright first half but was far too quiet second half. Add in that Trippier had a nightmare and did nothing going forward while looking shaky at the back, Shaw had a couple of good runs but couldn’t find his players a lot of the time. Also, USA did a good job of pressing us high and breaking in numbers quickly which then scared the life out of our defenders and coach, and we shut up shop. Its a return to Garethball - keep it tight and hope to nick a goal.

We didn’t have a shot in the second half. We had one shot on target all game. If that doesn’t count as an absolutely shit spectacle then I’d hate to watch us playing worse. It was abject all over the pitch. Edit, stats say we had 3 on target all game so I was wrong, I can barely remember any apart from Mount’s shot in the first half. Though I nearly dozed off second half so I might have missed bits.

Being as we are in the same side of the draw as France then, no, I don’t think it’s worth a bet. Not impossible but I reckon unlikely.

Doubtful. It’s created a media storm in some European countries who already agree with the armband but, in reality (and as pundits like Roy Keane and Ian Wright agree) all it has shown is that footballers have morals right up to the point where they might have to risk something, then it’s all about self preservation. I imagine Qatar and FIFA are patting themselves on the back about how well they suppressed it all. Infantino cares about the issue so much that he spent an hour long press conference shilling for the Qatari point of view.