Greedyfly

Dare I say Mara's last few sub appearances have been that much better too! Great stuff!

We didn't just compare our style of football with that of classic Barca teams, did we? It's not the same. There's passing for passing sake, and there's what that team did. When we play forward thinking progressive football like vs Leeds (one half) and Cardiff, we play an ultimately boiled down version of that Barca team (to be expected we don't have the same level of personnel) but when we don't it's plodding, pass pass pass for no other reason than to win % stats. And it is boring and not winning us as many games as we'd like/need.

Lol yep, spot on summary that. My bad for not reading

That'll be Edozie on the bench for the next 5 weeks then. Silly boy, pressing forward and getting goals. Can't have possession if the balls in the net.

Not watching but have we reverted to pre-Cardiff completely again. Was it a one off.

I actually prefer them as the CM pairing. With maybe Smallbone pushed up a little further. Then he's interchangeable with Alcaraz but either way they were both good again yesterday. Note, this is not an attack on Smallbone. I like him too.

Zzzzzz. Look back at where this conversation came from and you'll find plenty of balance. It's just I didn't want to write a summary of the Wednesday game having just applauded the performance (note I was applauding the performance) of today's game. I'm neither wrong or right until the season ends, and until that point I think, prior to yesterday, we were keeping the ball without doing anything with it. That was the same on Wednesday where we needed a moment of brilliance from the one very clearly prem player we have. Thus, instead of writing all of that out, it was simply easier to write 'we were shit' because in my opinion, we were. And I'm not alone in that.

Perspective is a funny thing. I thought we were shit Wednesday, resorting to passing for possession stats.

Yeah will second that. Do it on Brave as well for added piece of mind.

Yeah the CF situation and Glass Stewart is a concern I think because it could come back to cost us later on in the season. I do hope we have contingency in place for Jan but it's so bloody hard to find at that time of the year. If only we had a CF out on loan we could recall...

I'm not a huge fan but I'm here. It's such an odd dick swinging competition on here with one side Vs the other when things go their way. It's weird. On Wednesday we were crap, conversely today we were good. It can be that simple.

Yeah there's no way that AA wasn't MOTM even if Downes was good again. Much better today, more progressive passing instead of keeping the ball for the sake of possession. Literally, I don't think there was a bad player today, but some questionable finishing. Aribo looked very controlling when he came on and Mara had a bit of a swagger about him even if the decision making was missing. Happy with that, shame the the 3 above are also chugging along nicely. We do need another striker though.

Yeah where the fuck has this version been since we signed him

Ever since I said we've looked good today, we've got sloppy.

This is much much better today. Trying to press the advantage and it's paid off. Better passing too, more urgency, more forward thinking.

Behave yourself. He hasn't been "very good" at all and you're conveniently forgetting how shit he was last season too. Like I said, easily pleased.

Fuck me, you're easily pleased. He's been better of late but as one shit performance doesn't make him bad (several do), one good save doesn't make him great. He's still very average is our football

https://r.soccerstreams100.io/event/eng-2/southampton-vs-huddersfield-live-soccer-stats/673651 Try some of these, and try with Brave browser Can't vouch myself as not currently watching but usually alright.

Great start that against this type of team. Let's capitalise on what will hopefully be a bit more space.

He did indeed

It is indeed. 12pm KO

Much improved. Moved the ball around quicker, with a bit more purpose. A little propensity to revert to type but we snapped out of it quicker today. Unclear how Bednarek won MOTM, because his partner was much better and scored. And both of them weren't a patch on KWP. Good performance from Sulamana and just better all round from all concerned. Armstrong made the midfield tick and Smallbone was industrious. Good subs as well. Still a little meh at times when pushing up the pitch would have been preferred. Brum - not sure what they're doing employing Rooney when they had started the season well.

I'm gonna ignore that 'parrot' comment because I haven't and this is largely a pleasant discussion. But it's one thing for RM to say it, it's a different game entirely for him to prove it and I've not seen an improvement in either area since game one, in fact I'd argue there's some regression, that's my issue. It's not like we're suddenly going to turn into world beaters within 4 games, and we were fucking shit last Wednesday and not much better against Hull. Fortunately, our form has been ok but not good enough to overhaul Ipswich and certainly not Leicester. I've not seen him address the change in tactics when we go up, I've seen/heard him be dismissive of defensive duties at the cost of possession and I personally have seen no improvement in performance which is what's making people turn against him. If your tactics don't work with your players, you're the problem. I actually liked him when he came in, he's well spoken and seems relatively pleasant. I can't say I have the same feeling today.

Fair enough. Personally, I wouldn't mind the possession so much if it wasn't so ponderous. I find it even more frustrating that when we do go 1 up, we revert back to this pass it about, for passing sake strategy which, given the ability of most of players, statistically will lead to a mistake sooner or later. And often does (see Bednarek as recently as Wednesday). I do agree with you and think that clientele has a lot to do with it and this why I cannot understand anyone who continues to champion the likes of those who've ruled over our downfall such as the likes of the CB noted above. Wanting Stephens back ASAP smacks of ingrained failure. However, I think RM is also part of the issue. His Swansea side, when on that 11 game run, actually played some nice progressive stuff. I haven't seen any of that barring a half against Leeds which is where he gets some leeway in his 'changing style' mantra that he leans on. However, I think, apart from being an upgrade on Jones, he's not the right fit either. He's stubbornly neglecting defensive duties which, had this been a prem season, would see us murdered weekly. Possession teams are also very good in defence and we clearly are not and there's been no improvement in that area. Worryingly we seem to be slipping in the attaching areas as well which would be alarming but again that's down to poor personnel - see AA and Che who are historically bang average. He's also reverting to negative tactics when going up in a game. Said this already but it's so fucking annoying. Possession football I am fine with. I actually think it's probably too early to pull the trigger on him as well, but the excuses have to stop soon and I've seen nothing that convinces me we'll go up automatically, or convincingly win a play off.

Where from? 7th in XG according to this site here which is the only one I could find updated. https://footballxg.com/xg-league-tables/ 3rd in dribbles according to whoscored and that's almost certainly down to Sulamana and KWP. It's not great if either of those are true? Appreciate it's 0106 in the morning and I should stop being a loser and go to sleep but I'm genuinely surprised anyone finds the football we're serving up entertaining.