SNSUN

When Hasenhuttl joined there was a feel good factor although we then lost to Cardiff and slipped to bottom of the table, however his first home game we then beat Arsenal 3-2. I'd love for Juric to get us started with a win at home, it would lift the club so much and make the players feel like they CAN be part of this league, irrespective if it is only for the rest of this season. West Ham's squad is clearly better than ours though but their form has been patchy. It's not inconceivable we can win this but we need to do something radical about our attack as we simply need to start creating and scoring more chances. It's early days but I think it can be done. Too early though? We will see but it would make for a lovely Christmas for Saints fans to get 3 points on Thursday. Merry Christmas to you all. Keep the faith no matter how far fetched that may be.

Hopefully more Welly than Wally.

That's my issue with 3 CBs, you shouldn't need the midfield dropping deep all the time as you already have 3 CBs to do that job. Personally I prefer two CBs with a DM dropping deep if necessary (when the full backs go forward for instance) then you have an extra midfielder or attacker at the other end of the pitch. If we're stopping fannying about with the ball at the back, and I hope we do, then there isn't really any need for 3 CBs any more, no matter how well they did today. I'd rather have two CBs and play a bit more gung ho in an attacking sense because draws won't get us the points we need (if you even consider survival as an option still). That should be even more doable now we're not playing Russball and passing it around at the back in dangerous fashion. If Juric persists with a back 3 then that's his prerogative but we either need the wing backs to get forward more or stop the midfield from sitting deeper otherwise we are never going to score many goals.

Clean sheet!

Last corner?

Penalty? No

Another Fulham player down =more injury time. 🙄

Onuachu on for AA too late to make an impact. Come on Saints, hold firm.

Ramsdale fills me with more confidence than any other keeper we've had in years. Shame he'll he gone in the summer.

Baby steps. Clean sheet then build on it.

Maybe hoping we get a penalty. Although of course we have to reach their box to get one.

Scrappy suits us.

Too many defenders spoil the broth. Or something. I will never like 3 at the back... but we have been more solid today. *awaits Fulham goal

The obvious move. AA done very little.

Great block lesley

Lallana on for some control here. Maybe TP for AA. Defensively not been terrible today. Maybe because they're not shitting themselves over having to play it out from the back ad infinitum

Wood been good. Need to see more from KWP and Suga.

Reputational almost. Oh it's Downes = booking.

Downes with his usual booking.

Their youngster King has looked decent. Still half hour gone, am taking this scoreline so far. We haven't showed much in attack.

I'll never be able to work out the enigma that is Aribo. Sometimes he looks brilliant and sometimes he looks like he's never played football before. Been decent so far though tbf, I like it when he uses his gangliness to shield the ball.

First time in ages I'm actually going into a game with only a 50 per cent sense of dread compared to the full 100%.

He speaks very well. I do think he's being a little naive about our predicament when he says 'get the points over the next few games' but he's hardly going to say "we're fucked, I'm here for the dosh" so, as you say, he seems like a breath of fresh air right now. Whether he can do anything remotely better than Martin with this squad remains to be seen but that's not exactly a high bar.

And even then we need our leaky defence to suddenly start performing as a unit and stop the individual mistakes. All I'm hoping for is to just see improvement. It won't be enough but improvement would be not hitting Derbyesque levels of shiteness. I'd like to see us drag ourselves off the floor and at least get close... especially if we suddenly find out teams get points deductions and suddenly we're right back into the mixer for safety. False hope would suck but id take it. As it stands at least we know we're down but hypothetically it'd be worse to see others get points deductions and suddenly realise a bit of an improvement could have seen us safe. Clinging to straws a bit there with the points deductions but still, we can dream.