The Kraken

Don’t disagree with that, his inability to shut up shop is his biggest failing IMO.

Sums it up for me. Ralph has his flaws but I’ll take the ups and downs under him plus our one-a-season bumming if it means we actually get a few games a season to be proud of. Which we do.

Over the past 5 years Saints have been close to cash neutral for transfers in and out. We’ve basically spent only what we’ve brought in, we’ve been bottom or close to it every season in the net spend league. Given that, how much are we expecting the team to improve?

Kind of agree. Ralph frustrates the fuck out of us, perhaps because his sides are either brilliant or abject, there’s often little in between. But he’s very much working with the shackles on. Todays performance is as much down to the players as it is Ralph. Not too much wrong with the starting lineup, just an embarrassment from the players, and Ralph hasn’t done anything decent to shore it up.

The ceiling is high with this one.

The club will listen to offers for any of our players tbf. Redmond is a strange one, I know he’s a bit hit and miss but it’s a surprise to see him so frozen out. Binning off the other two would be no loss but I can’t see who would interested.

Well, it made me lol,anyway.

Tbf the muni is a really good layout. If it were a private club it could be tip top with some decent investment.

There’s already an extra team in the southern division compared to the northern (14 to 13) so for now it may not be worth worrying about. If they do decide to even it up, one would think that it’s would work in the same way relegation in the regional men’s leagues works. In previous years, if there has been a disparity of clubs relegated compared to promoted that leaves a regional imbalance, a team from say the south division has moved to the northern division to even it up. It’s typically done based on geography, so a team from the midlands (or as close to) has been the ones to go (though Oxford City and Gloucester have done it previously so it does go further).

Perfect tandem. Bale takes them from the right hand side, JWP from the left, toss a coin for the ones in the middle. I couldn’t care less who scores as long as it goes in.

Worth pointing out also that in 10 of those games he was a substitute. Really quite impressive. In all competitions, 16 goals from 19 starts and 15 sub appearances. Bale is still quality, we would never get him but idea that he wouldn’t improve our team/squad is preposterous.

Forster Clyne - Alderweireld - Van Dijk - Bertrand JWP - Schneiderlin Lallana - Mane - Tadic Ings Manager: Mauricio Pochettino Subs: Boruc, KWP, Shaw, Fonte, Wanyama, Cork, S Davis, S Armstrong, Pelle Squad: McCarthy, Lovren, Romeu, JRod, Lambert

Yeah, I don’t doubt Germany will be a threat. It’s just that normally you’d say they’re in the top 3 as favourites, and you’d be desperately hoping to avoid them. This year it seems it’s very flat at the top with no significant front runners. As I see it I reckon any of the seeds plus Germany could win the tournament. It’s wide open.

Not necessarily, in fact often just the opposite. Down many years in football, many managers have noted that young players need to be nurtured, taken care of, for fear of burn out. It’s a well worn methodology. The same was said on this forum of Livramento. He started the season like a train, then his performances tailed off. Plenty on here said it looked like he needed a rest. As it turned out he got a minor injury and sat out a few games, I don’t think it’s a coincidence he came back from that looking a lot sharper. Broja has a lot to give but it would be insane to think that he’s anywhere near the finished article. Had we have had Broja, Ings and Adams this season, we could have properly rotated the strike force and managed Broja better. As it is we’re relying on him far too much as there is not enough quality behind him. Anyway, the game against Chelsea will give him a bit of time out and see us going with something else. What that will be, who knows. Ideally Armstrong would come in but I don’t think Ralph will see it like that and it seems more likely to me we’ll get an Adams Long combo.

Great result! Whats the run in look like? Oxford must be a threat.

Some Keynsham Cops defending going on in that game.

1-2! Theyve turned it around!

Good to see the Saints media team have recognised the importance of this game and are giving it their full attention. An hour since kick off and apparently the game has “not started”.

I think they outlined this on Sky recently. Gary Neville said that David Beckham used to score them from the other side as well. Said JWP has the ability to do it, just needs to add it to his locker. Beckham was an absolute phenomenon though, I read that he scored 65 set piece goals throughout his career.

Seems like there’s no stand out favourite at the moment. Brazil and France maybe leading it, a few others including England just behind those two. There’s no Italy at all, Germany don’t even make it as a top seed, Spain aren’t the side they were ten years ago. Argentina have a reliance on Messi but he’ll be 35 and has scored 2 in 18 for PSG. Similar for Portugal with Ronaldo, and they only finished second in their group behind Serbia. Belgium have got some quality tbf.

We’re blessed. When we look back at MLT’s free kicks, he was genuinely brilliant. But in some ways we look back through rose tinted spectacles. I remember many times when MLT whacked it into the wall or over the bar. I don’t know the stats on it, but JWP just seems to be more consistently accurate. A true talent.

Kalvin Phillips. Now, I know I’m old and deeply unfashionable, but wtf?

Yeah, slightly strange from Ralph. A perfectly good full back option in the bench in Perraud but Livra played and played the full 90.

Ok, I think you’re saying we’d be no worse off with our other strikers in place of Broja. Can’t argue that we’re in a very poor run. I’m content to abide with Ralph’s decisions on it. We’re extremely limited with options so we are where we are. I’d like to give Armstrong a proper chance, would be good to see him prove himself. Don’t think it’ll happen this season though, if anything Armstrong is going the other way in the pecking order, and Long / Tella are just not the answer either.