SaintBobby

Jesus Christ guys...70% of the season has gone and we're fourth...FOURTH....in the third division and arguing about whether our style of football should be prose or poetry. If we were fifteen points clear and experimenting with different formations, fair enough. We ain't. So, at the moment, I favour any system of play that gets us promoted. IMHO, that isn't "hoof it up to Rickie", but neither is it attempting back heels in your own penalty area (ask Cesc Fabregas). Basic strategy should be to release the ball down the flanks (to Chamberlain and Lallana, our two most dangerous players), try to beat one man (or draw a free kick) and then cross it in for Barnard or Lambert. Anything else is a bit of a luxury at this point.... Plan A will still probably get us promoted.

For me, promotion was the minimum expectation this season. Winning the division was a realistic expectation. Simply qualifying for the play-offs (and then losing) would be a huge under-achievement. I don't believe Saints have a "right to be promoted" but we were the shortest odds of any team in any division to win our league/be promoted. I expected us to be promoted (and still do...just expected it to be easier). Failing to go up for Saints would be the equivalent of Chelsea failing to qualify for the Champions League or Liverpool finishing in the bottom half of the Premier Division or Aston Villa being relegated from the top flight...i.e. a pretty woeful under-performance.

I think it would be a pretty reasonable achievement - not a very good one. To my mind, we underperformed appallingly this season pre-Adkins but have also probably underperformed just a tad since his arrival as well. For me, the low points have been losing at home to Plymouth, Brentford and Rochdale. That should have been 9 points (or maybe 7), rather than zero. I hate losing any game, but accept that you can't have anything like a 100% record away from home. Over the course of a season, losing to the odd Tranmere or Walsall - or getting pegged back by an excellent Peterborough side - will happen. Actually, our away form is about the best in the division. But our home form only is only 6th (on a points per game basis). If we don't go up, it will probably be because we didn't win a home league game until October (we also got whacked 0-3 by Swindon at SMS in the JPT early on, of course) So, Nigel Adkins definitely started with a handicap - but it's one I hoped and expected him to overcome more easily. I'm still confident of 2nd. And I'd probably make us favourites if we have to settle for the play-offs - although one bad bounce can stuff you in the play-off lottery, of course. Promotion will be mission accomplished. But it all could and should have been so much easier... One Faustian pact that keeps running through my mind is whether I'd prefer to seal 2nd or have a guarantee of winning the play-offs. Obviously the latter. But what about 2nd or a 90% chance of winning the play-offs? Or 80% or so on? Having said all that, we'll now probably win 12 games in a row and win the title with 97 points....(I don't wholly rule this out, btw)

Hmmm....you may want to edit this post....

Everyone seems to be chugging along at 6 or 7 out of 10, it seems to me. Exception has been Hammond in recent weeks, he's really impressed me.

pretty clear pen, I'd say. But Kelvin would have saved it, so makes no difference...

I think the problem on this forum is that attitudes seem to polarise into those who seem to think things are really grim and those who think they are really great. The truth is somewhere in the middle. I'd say our performance this season is mildly disappointing, but I can understand the argument that it's been just about satisfactory. Things have picked up after (another) dismal start, but we've never really hit a totally blistering run of form (apart from a short run over Xmas/New Year). I'd also say in recent matches, we've been a tad lucky - i.e. our results have been better than our performances. Walsall is the exception that proves this rule. I'm not a wrist slitter, just remain a bit underwhelmed by our season so far. I'm very confident we will be promoted, but was hoping we'd achieve it with comfort.

About 100 points should have been our target at the start of the season. We have the best - and certainly most expensive - squad by far. Finding one chunk of the season where we're averaging a bit over 2 points is good, but not amazing. Over the last three games, we've won 9 points. That "equates" to 138 points in a season... But over the whole season so far, we've been whipped by Brighton FFS. I'll settle for 2nd and think we'll get it, but that won't be an amazing achievement, it'll be a little bit below expectations to be honest.

33 points from 15 games is pretty good. But not jaw-droppingly amazing.

When the ball was last played by the oppo, NOT when it last made contact with any player

Ridiculous coverage. Talk to some saddo with a pair of boll@cks on their faces but don't spend 5 seconds showing one of the most controversial moments of the game....

You may be right that this is what Schneiderlin would go for - but in that case he's the most undervalued player in the squad IMHO. I like Chaplow but am not sure his market value would have gone from 50K to 800K in the last few weeks. Incidentally, FourFourTwo this month rates Lallana as the 2nd best player in L1 and AOC as the 4th (Elliot Bennett of Brighton is 1st, having been responsible for half of all Brighton's assists this season). The article places Lallana's value at £3m and says Bournemouth have a 25% sell-on clause.

No datatbase errors, but painfully slow reloading.

I havent been a fan of us until the last few games, he's been in awesome form recently.

Excellent result...nine points out of nine....sweet.

Great Saints performance Utterly abysmal forum performance...again

That's a big loss for them. I get horribly conflicted. Don't wish injury on any player - or oblivion on Plymouth, but I genuinely find it hard not to see all League One football through the prism of Saints promotion chances. Wrong, I know...

Sorry, the other thread got locked. Thanks for the personal abuse, alpine. Very immature, really. But I understand. You can't stop lashing out behind a keyboard. I think you'll overcome that, in time. I assume you now put our promotion odds at much greater than 50%? Nearer 70%, I'd think?

Quality. Free money available....take whatever that loon predicts and bet the other way. Presumably, he would have offered about 100/1 on a 3+ goal Saints win. Priceless. Tragic and sad, but truly priceless.

So your Barca predictions are bang on. But your certainty about Southampton's performances are just dire. (it will never be 3-0 etc etc) In fairness, I guess you actually watch Barca play football matches....

Not sure when Morgan's contract is up. Def want to keep him ratehr than see the last year run down or cash him in. But i wouldn't blame him for leavign if we're not in the Championship.

I'd say we should win by 2 or 3 clear goals. But I still give Yeovil a better chance against us than I give Arsenal v Barcelona... I think I'd settle for a semi-incompetent 1-0 Saints win right now.

In order to highlight the crucial importance of the next two games, Saints are around 1/3 to beat Yeovil tomorrow night - all of the other promotion contenders are odds against pickign up three points. For the Bournemouth v Saints, Southampton are very narrow favourites, although both sides are available at around 6/4.

It depends whether your comments are based on statistical likelihood or on relentless, baseless psychological negativity. As pointed out above, we are one of only two teams in the division never to have taken the lead and then lost a league game. It's fine, to a degree, for people to bark out their own irrational prejudices, or type out whatever unreasoned thought is running through their mind at any given time. But such posts are not grounded in reality and are therefore likely to be ignored or ridiculed by others. And quite right too. Actually, Saints have a very good record at NOT surrendering a lead in comparison to other teams. But why let a fact get in the way of a wholly baseless rant?

I think the problem is you don't show the same statistical certainty when Saints go ahead. I'm trying to remember the last league game where we went ahead but then lost. Can't think of one this season, but haven't checked. If your response to, say, Lambert putting us 2-1 up v Swindon was "well, that shld almost certainly be game won now. Fantastic!"....then fair enough....