The Kraken

We did wallop them 6-0 at Molyneux once. But yeah, seems a bit of a graveyard in more recent times.

That’s literally the club’s business model, they’ve stated it countless times, we offer ourselves as a stepping stone for brilliant young players to get to bigger sides. It’s shit but it’s reality. Chelsea just spent more than our summer budget on a 21 year old centre back who is coming back from a broken leg, it’s not a level playing field. I’d rather have the likes of Bazunu, Lavia, ABK for a short while then lose them than not have them at all. Trying to make top class players stay at our club isn’t going to work. Look at Leicester, won the league and now they’re in disarray despite paying massive wages.

Decent mix of players getting votes.

And better coaches who may be able to chip in with more ideas about how to change things around.

The fact he was on the pitch after the game is at least somewhat encouraging. Isn’t it? Looking for a crumb of comfort.

Yep, they just showed his defending on the BT roundup, just in the right place at the right time. Looks like not much phases him either, he just gets on with things. Quality player.

Who gives a shit, maybe just enjoy the win.

I said after Ralph’s comments against Spurs that I thought he wasn’t the originator of the 3 at the back, Ralph was always predominantly a 4. That said he’s also diverted for the 4-2-2-2 to a 4-2-3-1, which looks more solid.

Great to see Ralph looking to celebrate with his coaching team straight away. Excellent team performance.

He was pretty fair and honest in that interview. Disappointed with his side but said nothing about deserving more.

Saints have broken the forum….502 gateway all over the place

Basically you could give it to any of them, but let’s have a vote anyway. @Lighthouse (or other mods, if there are any…), any chance of pinning this please?

A half of two halves. Up to their goal they were dominant and giving us nothing. Since then we’ve really got at them and caused them problems. Great half saints, but a looooong way to go yet.

Gordon’s a live wire

The pitch looks much greener than the weekend.

On paper, can see why Diallo is being given a go. Personally (against the top sides) I’d prefer Romeo and Romeu at the sitting midfielders with JWP a bit more free. But, as said, it seems that’s likely never going to be an option any more 😪 Interested to see how sharp Perraud is. It’s no secret that Ralph wasn’t his biggest fan last season, he needs to leave no doubt that the LB spot is his ( although it’s not as if we’ve got much choice at the moment). The lineup is one for while we’re winning or drawing, if we’re losing its Mara and Aribo on for Diallo and Elmo.

It’s not any sort of surprise he’s gone, he gave interviews where he threw his players and the owners under the bus. Comments like “we’re under equipped at this level’, ‘we need some help at this moment in time’, ‘we’re not competitive’ and ‘we need new players for sure’ may be his honest opinion but they were clearly barbs at the owners for not letting him spend. It seemed to me like he’d been told he wasn’t getting much more money so he’s stuck it back on the owners and he won’t be too happy to take his pay off.

Thought that was Salisu…

I think this one is an outlier of the fact that ABK is new, we lost and didn’t score, and he was very much the stand out performer for both teams. If there’s interest in it I’ll keep doing MOTM threads through the season and keep a record of them, at the end of the season I can tally them up and we’ll see how that fares with actual player of the season votes.

It’ll be worse on Tuesday as there’s bound to be plenty of Chelsea in the home ends, and they’re about the worse for ‘letting you know’ that they’re in there.

The only place that’s getting safe standing at St Mary’s is the away end.

I don’t think it was bare earth. It looked like it, but at half time they showed close ups of it, the grass is mostly still there but just looked almost dead. The pitch also looked quite hard and bobbly to me, not sure how much they’re watering it while treating the fungus/rot.

I’ve had a look back for in on here but I can’t find it. It was asked by a female report from Be-In Sports, so won’t have been in the mainstream. She said something like “great performance, how did you not get something”, then said “lots of noise from the club and the fans that a striker is needed, what can you tell us, are you confident of getting someone?”, Ralph immmediately responded with a big smile and “yes, I’m confident…….I’m confident”. He then diverted to say all the team played well, made some good chances etc.

Good luck to him. The step down in division will help, as will not playing as a lone striker, as has been said he’s being deployed on the front left of a 4-3-3 with Burnley and looks like it’s paying off. The thing, had he stayed, would have he been pushing Adam Armstrong for that wide role with us? Tella looked bad in pre season but because he was being played up top on his own, and that’s not his game.

I don’t think it was 3, I think Adams handled with the third one when he was claiming for the first two. The first one was absolutely blatant though. The only good reason I could think that VAR didn’t give it was that it was outside the box, therefore not for VAR to look at. It was close but I think it was in the box, but that’s the only reasonable instance I can think of as to why the first handball in particular would not be given.