Sheaf Saint

You could apply this comment to so many of our matches so far this season, and in every case the opposition has gone on to massively improve after the break and take points from us.

I don't doubt that others within the organisation will be planning long-term. I'm just questioning the wisdom of sticking with a manager who wont commit to the future and trusting him to sign players ahead of what will undoubtedly be his last season in charge. Doesn't make any sense to me. Better to make a positive change now than wait until its too late IMO. The simple fact is that we have regressed badly since he took over last summer, and are now looking very much like we did at the point that Adkins was replaced, in that we often play some pretty, neat football but are shooting ourselves in the foot virtually every game with glaring defensive errors which are costing us dearly and dragging us into a relegation battle. I don't see how Koeman can turn this round now. He doesn't appear to have the tactical awareness, the confidence of the players, or the enthusiasm for it.

I can't actually remember the last time I found myself wanting a Saints manager to be relieved of his duties (it was probably the last Dutch guy we had, strangely enough), but I am beginning to seriously doubt whether we should stick with him right now. Given that he has stated from the off that he will see out his contract and then walk, and assuming he keeps us up this season, what happens in the summer? He won't be the slightest bit interested in any long term planning when it comes to transfer activity, and given his poor record so far in the transfer market, I think it would be very unwise to let him loose with the kitty again only for a replacement manager to inherit a squad of average-poor players the following summer. I'm never one for knee-jerk reactions normally. But whichever way you look at it, the Koeman brothers do not represent the future of this club. With the alarming form we have been in lately, and Ron's seemingly total inability to identify the problems and resolve them, I genuinely think we would be better off replacing him now with somebody with a fresh perspective and enthusiasm so we can start laying down some long-term plans again.

I've always been concerned about his attitude really. This isn't the first time this has happened. Everyone was screaming to get him on sooner today, but I'm really struggling to think when was the last time he made a big contribution. Lately he's been reminding me of Fabrice Fernandez - dribbling the ball around as many players as possible then failing to produce anything useful at the end of it.

Even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day.

It's not. He was benched for doing it when we played Liverpool at home last season, which was outside of the transfer window. It's just a journalist with not a lot to write about trying to fill some column inches based on no evidence whatsoever.

Good goal. Why is it that nobody in the Saints team is capable of doing that?

Same old same old from Saints. Better possession, better passing in the attacking third and the clearer chances so far, but no goals to show for it. We can only hope that the boys can muster up a better second half performance than we have been used to this season or it will be more dropped points today.

My biggest concern is fitness. It's absolutely shocking the way our players fade in the second half of games this season. Too many times have we seen a one-sided game from us in the first half only for the complete opposite to be true in the second. Something is seriously wrong with our fitness training regime IMO.

We absolutely had them on the ropes in the first half and should have been at least 3-0 up at HT. Not for the first time this season, the opposition manager makes a tactical change at half time and we failed to adapt ourselves. We ran out of steam in midfield but Ron decides to change the wide players instead of making the CM change that everybody could see we needed to make. Bad management again from Koeman. How many more goals are we going to concede down our right hand side this season? We desperately need a good quality RB to shore up the defence. That way we at least stand a half chance of getting some points when the attackers fluff their lines, like they have done all too often this season.

Of course it does. We capitulated in the second half and gave away two really sloppy goals having failed to score more than one when on top. In whatever version of reality you live, that deserves to lose.

Oh dear lord. Ramirez has been simply hopeless since he came on.

Who the f*ck was that last man who just stood by and watched Antonio go past him there?

Technically, no. What he should have said was every time he plays RB we concede from attacks down that side. It's not coincidence.

Jesus f*cking Christ Saints. How many times are you going to just surrender games from commanding positions this season? We were sooooo good in the 1st half, but we just fall off the cliff in the second these days. Clearly the Arsenal game was just a blip.

Gaston coming on

FFS. What a comedy goal. All that 1st half dominance counts for nothing if you can't stick the ball in the net. And to make matters worse, now we've got calaMayaty Yoshida at RB.

Silly yellow from Bertrand. Should never have let Antonio get in front of him as easily as that.

Collins is clearly injured and can't get the bench to acknowledge he needs subbing. We need to put pressure on him now.

Yep. I always get nervous when he gets too close to the oppo's penalty area, because you just know he will give it away and leave a big gap in the middle of the park for them to run into on the counter.

We really should be out of sight by now. It's poor finishing again that is costing us.

Yeah, me too. There's no way that ball was going in if it didn't hit Jenkinson. Whatever. A goal is a goal and it puts us in a good position so I don't really care.

Oooh, that was a decent effort from Davis.

Replay shows clearly it was an OG from Jenkinson.

Davis lucky not to get booked there. West Ham look pretty ragged. If we can score another one now while they are on the ropes I can't see them getting back into it.