BARCELONASAINT

At the moment i would rather be watching one of my wifes shit programmes housewifes of Beverley Hills!! Fuck me how to send your fans to sleep with 45 minutes of absolute dross

Our defending is abysmal

It baffles me so much why manager after manager keeps playing the same defensive unit that concedes every bloody game.....but silly me it is actually quite simple. Sports Republic don't want to pay out on "clean sheet" bonuses. They must have saved a fortune the last 3 seasons!

no matter how shit he performs Stephens the statue keeps his place and more depressingly the captains armband when he is bloody useless as a defender and a captain

I would say every home game between now and the end of the season is a "must win game" IF the club honestly have ambitions in making the playoffs. I just want to be entertained rather than the utter crap we have gone back to recently.

How the fuck Jack "I'm a complete statue" Stephens starts and is rewarded by being the captain despite his complete inept defending is beyond me. Just wtf is going on!

The honeymoon period for Tonda is well and truly over. Tonight will be another evening of frustration and pain for all Saints fans as the viewing public on Sky will see a very poor Birmingham destroy our utter shit back line. They will watch a manager who is clearly not his own man and is playing a rigid formation the board are telling him to play (that can be the only reason that successive managers have refused to change) They will watch Tonda take off our most creative attacking players because he is carefully managing their minutes whilst failing to manage a bloody win. They will watch him bring on players that immediately make the team weaker and make the opposition look world class in a matter of minutes. 4-1 Birmingham

I love the guy, he has been excellent for Southampton in the past but that's exactly it....the past! I warned everyone that having watched him regularly playing in Spain that his legs had gone and i've seen nothing so far to suggest he can do anything on the pitch to help at the moment. It's actually embarrassing watching him get the nod ahead of Bragg.

You would expect him to be good at crosses!

We were absolutely abysmal at the back yesterday, the entire backline is appalling and nothing will change. We need a new keeper and a new defence but there is no way that is happening in the transfer window. At the very best we can hope a new keeper comes in and an experienced commanding centre back. Our bench is weak and virtually every change we make makes us weaker. Tonda's changes yesterday were indefensible, i have no idea what the hell he was thinking. Oxford were there to be taken and he took off our best creative players and replaced them with absolute dross, the only player that came on that came out with any credit was Robinson. Tonda showed he is totally out of his league against Coventry and again yesterday. I just cannot see how we make the playoffs with such an awful defence and a manager who seems as stubborn as previous managers when it comes to playing the same system and playing defensive liabilities!

Have a great Christmas all Saints fans. We may have differing opinions sometimes but at the end of the day we all bleed red and white.

There is a player in Quarshie, i really like him. Yes he is raw and has a lot to learn but i think he could go on to be a very decent defender.

We have to move the ball much quicker out of defence and to Fellows and Scienza If we are going to be better than Saturday. Watching THB on Saturday was akin to watching paint dry. Almost everything he did was sideways or backwards, only in the last 10/15 minutes did he appear to try and be forward thinking!

I have stated that Baz needs replacing and a goal keeper is a must in the transfer window if we are to have any chance of the playoffs BUT i am equal in stating our defence is utter crap and week in week out prove how utterly incompetent they are. We badly need an experienced wise head in that back line that will dominate and lead our weak minded defenders. The only defender that we currently have that i think could go on to have a top career is Quarsie. He is raw but already has more of a football brain than any of our other defenders

so you actually avoided answering the question.

Really you find it impossible to believe a keeper can have no confidence in the defence playing in front of him but you can easily accept a defence can have no confidence in the keeper. I'm sorry but i find that sort of warped logic baffling. Are you telling me if you were a goalkeeper that had just spent the last 2 seasons playing with the defence we have had that you would be confident of them actually being able to do the basics of defending every time you walked onto the pitch?? If we all groaned the minute Manning played that stupid attempt up the line yesterday that put us straight back under pressure don't you think any goalkeeper would be thinking ffs here we go again!

Have no idea how true this is but i've been told this evening Coventry could have a few players out with illness that has struck their camp. Sorry if this has been posted already i haven't had time to scroll back through everything.

I'm struggling to understand your point? We already know he is poor and we need better. Do i need to start reeling off every defensive cock up by our defenders, every time one of them has failed to track back, failed to even jump for the ball, fail to attempt to block a shot, completely fail to stop crosses coming into the bos when they know their fellow defenders will get out jumped because they have lead in their boots!!! NO ONE (Hardly) IS DENYING WE NEED A NEW KEEPER but for the love of god recognise we have an absolute shit defence!

where did i say that??!!! I said our entire defence is crap including the goal keepers!! Why just single out the keepers when our defenders are abysmal and have been for 2 seasons. I've seen the argument that the defenders have no confidence with the keeper behind them. Do you not think that goes both ways and the keepers have no confidence with the inept defenders in front of them!

No offense but you have just proved my point that our defence continues to be utter crap at defending and despite the huge drop off in the quality in opposition attack now our defence continues to be largely absent when it comes to defending!

It makes absolutely no difference who is in goal, even Ramsdale at times was made to look ordinary by our woeful defenders. Neither Baz or McCarthy are great but if we are going to share the blame for the amount of goals we concede then give our defenders as much shit as we give our goalkeepers because our back line are bloody awful. There is not a single defender that has crowned themselves in glory the last 2 seasons.

One of the most worrying things for me is our substitutes! Most teams seem to make them and instantly look better but the opposite is true with us. At present when our midfield are flagging we have Romeu and Aribo who i am sorry but both offer nothing. Bragg i like but he's very young and is not an equal replacement for Jander or Flynn Downes. We badly need Shea Charles back! Wingers we have Robinson who is no replacement for Scienza, Azaz or Fellows, he's still very raw and Ryan pass the ball backwards Fraser, i need say no more. Upfront we are really struggling once Armstrong has run his legs off, Damion Downs awful, Ross Stewart needs a miracle of biblical proportions to ever have a meaningful contribution and Archer who has yet to find any form. Goalkeepers....well i'm not even going there its so divisive Defenders, well on paper we should have good defenders for this division but most of them look crap to be honest and it does not seem to matter who starts the game and who comes on, they all appear much of a muchness....there is not a single leader amongst the defence. When was the last time anyone remembers our bench making a positive impact??

The one i don't understand is Matsuki not featuring. TE was glowing in his praise of how Matsuki is the model professional and raises the bar in training with his commitment. Now give me that every day of the week over a half arsed Aribo!!

If we realistically hope to achieve promotion this season then these are games where only 3 points will suffice!

I'm in the minority here but i firmly believe we need a commanding no nonsense CB that will command the defence and help our weak minded defenders from conceding so many chances!