The Kraken

Fixed that for you 😉

You are wrong. At least according to a Swansea fan who was on here very recently. Said that Swansea went 7 wins in 9 at the back end of last season and he put it down to Martin being flexible by changing formation and going more direct.

Their whole website is utter cack. Rampantly slow and not very intuitive, I’ve been trying to change my passport details for weeks but I keep just getting an error message, BA’s eventual response is that I can do it at the airport at baggage check in. Great.

My feet got hot so next time I’ll be wearing socks and sandals 👍

DEF; the early years 👍

Many years ago I used to live round the corner from “The Rocky”. The burgers were immense, to be fair, and most of their food was really good. The problem was that the landlord set himself up on trip advisor and he was the most thin skinned fella ever, he used to kick off very angrily online about the most minor of criticism 😆 I grew up in Romsey and it was a small town mentality, when I was around 18 it seemed like there was a scrap every weekend. The only time the town came together was when there were invaders from the likes of Eastleigh or Hedge End and the town turned into a battle zone.

Nah, she kicked off massively last time when i told her that I didn’t find Mein Kampf to be very well written and that I preferred Mao’s little red book.

Egg’s new shoes were a delight, but Weston’s extended moustache freaked me out a bit. Im putting the agenda together for the next meeting’s forum discussion points. Suggestions for AOB to the usual email address pls.

#mobmeetup, looking forward to the next one already!

I’d forgotten we signed him direct from T&T. He was a dick by going on strike to get his move away, but overall I still have fairly good memories of him in a Saints shirt. His leap was absolutely prodigious, I remember a goal he scored from a corner where he just leapt well above the keeper’s outstretched arms to nod it in. Tremendous athlete, not the best scoring record by any means but an absolute handful.

Gramps, how about letting go of your straw man argument? Literally nobody is saying that all of the defensive mess is down to Bazunu. Not even the guy you quoted then accused him of it. Making arguments up to suit your own narrative is pretty poor form.

Yep. At least once in the first half, I think maybe a couple of times, where the co-commentator specifically mentioned poor goalkeeping from Bazunu and how he failed to push the ball away as adequately he could have done. It’s unfortunately a bit of a recurring theme. The sad thing is that, when he did actually parry one away very well, it got returned in for Holgate to have an absolute swing and miss at it which led to a goal, so you’ve got to feel for him a bit with that one.

I don’t think the forum is a single entity.

I don’t think doing one precludes doing the other.

Yeah I don’t think you’re telling us much more that we’ve already heard before and already seen this season with our own eyes! 😆 There’s been a few times when I’ve watched Martinball this season and been genuinely impressed, it’s at times been really nice on the eye. On to many occasions it’s looked very weak though, as epitomised against Sunderland when we were second best all over the park and our tactics just allowed them to play right through us. It’s interesting you say ‘to play his way you need the top players’. I still think we’ve got a really good squad for this level, and against some of the lower sides I reckon we’ll look great, Sheff We’d away for instance showed a bit of a gulf in class of players. That said, I’ve rarely seen a Saints side so susceptible to the counter attack and when out of possession, and I don’t really see that changing all that much given Martin’s history. Meh. I’d had enough of the Premier League for a bit, and I never expected Saints to run away with anything this season. I’d definitely like to see us tighten up much more, who knows, maybe RM has learnt from past mistakes and will put them right (hopeful thinking but it’s very early days). Sunderland aside I’ve found the games quite refreshing to watch although the possession -based domination certainly does irk some who want a bit more of a balanced approach that can go direct when required. We’ll see!

I noticed him! A bastion of the old days on here but different to the chapel end username which got b-anned.

I look forward to them sorting out his crisp packet wrists.

Shea Charles didn’t take Holgate’s position though, he played on the right side of defence, right-back/wing-back. Manning came more central and played a sort of hybrid centre-back/left-back position. Holgate coming off changed the shape of the team (not that it did any good), bringing on THB as a centre-back replacement simply wouldn’t have done that. THB may have been pissed off that he didn’t get on the pitch, but suggesting Shea Charles was chosen in THB’s position instead of him is just fundamentally incorrect.

I’ve noticed this too, it drives me mad when I see us in possession, lose the ball and then we’re massively vulnerable to a very simple long ball over the top. Yet in reverse we offer zero threat from this type of play as we have 11 players back in the box defending. It was a Ralphism that just seems to be adopted by every manager since (apart from those we play against).

Yep. Criticising possession-based football becomes irrelevant if, when out of possession, the team just shit themselves and make terrible decisions. Have a look at the image below, it’s from the first goal and we’re attacking with a corner. One desperate punt out from the back from them and their attacker is goal side of our last defender. How on earth is that allowed to happen? And it was far from the only time our whole shape left us exposed and vulnerable when we lost the ball. We can point out individual errors from the defenders and the keepers, but this comes down to shocking organisation in the first place. Russell Martin was a defender Ffs, so I’m a bit worried that he allows his teams to set up like this.

Bazunu seems very good at getting his hands to shots and not keeping them out of the goal.

A save!!

At half time I watched the replay for their first goal, at the point of the ball being thumped up the pitch following our corner, their attacker was level with our last defender, and anyone else was around 10-20 years upfield. Just hideously naive defending. We press high but once we turn it over just retreat back to our box and it’s so easy for them to cut through us. No defensive solidity in midfield, full backs trapped up the outch, everyone else panicking to try and get back.

So Holgate has got a 50p head too. Great signing.