Midfield_General

Cole Palmer has scored four for Chelsea already and it's only half time. Incredible player.

Interesting story in the Guardian about Jamal Musiala, including his very early years in Southampton: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/sep/28/jamal-musiala-bayern-munich-english-german-leverkusen

Look at the beard on that. Can you imagine the meltdown if we appointed a hipster c*nt like him

The thing is though, we're not cut adrift at the bottom, nowhere near it. One win and we can go 14th. I don't think anyone will be cut adrift anytime soon either, because I can't see that any of the current bottom six are good enough to suddenly put a run together. We've only played five league games, and in my opinion there are some signs of improvement. The shape is looking better, the playing out is a bit less suicidal and we're now starting some of the more exciting players. Obviously the acid test is whether that improvement can continue and turn into results, and time will tell on that. I'd wait until we've played Bournemouth, Arsenal, Leicester, City, Everton and Wolves. I'd feel Russ has had a fair crack of the whip by then, and if we're still not competitive by then, then it's probably time for a change while there's still enough games left.

Not sure I agree with that. Ralph got pretty good support through some very poor periods and not one but two 9-0 hammerings. I actually thought our fanbase generally stuck with him remarkably well and didn’t turn toxic when it would have been very easy to. Jones was the wrong appointment from the start and no-one wanted him so he didn’t stand a chance. Selles inherited a pretty much sunk ship. For Martin, apart from online and threads like this, I think he’s still got most of the match-going crowd behind him. I still haven’t heard much booing at all, which after 1 point from 5 games and some pretty disappointing performances, doesn’t really suggest our fans are a total bunch of spoilt bitches. Online keyboard warriors are a different story, but I’d argue that that’s the same for almost all clubs.

Plus, in that example, it’s West Ham, whose fans aren’t exactly known for their patience and getting behind a struggling manager.

Re Potter: I'd say that West Ham will be looking at him if Lopetegui doesn't improve sharpish. Everton as well, if they get new owners in who want to put their stamp on the place and replace Dyche. Will be interesting to see what happens at Newcastle too. Rumours that Howe might walk as he can't work with Mitchell and his stock is high. If Carsley doesn't get the England job then I think Howe would take that, if offered, which it probably would be. So I can see Potter waiting with interest to see if the Newcastle job comes up, not that he'd necessarily get it. I bet we're sounding him out though, and I'd be surprised if he didn't at least engage with us on some level if we did. I personally want to stick with Martin and give him more time, but if he does go, I wouldn't rule Potter out completely. We’d probably need a bit of luck with timings and what else is available at the time, but if things aligned, then stranger things have happened.

From the horse's mouth, today: Former Chelsea manager Graham Potter says club football is more "rewarding" than international management as he considers his next job, 17 months on from the "frustration, anger and maybe bitterness" which followed his Stamford Bridge sacking. Speaking to the Telegraph, Potter said he has "felt ready to return for a little while" after he was dismissed following less than seven months in charge of Chelsea amid a "perfect storm" in April 2023. He was the Blues' first managerial appointment following Todd Boehly's takeover and oversaw a record £323m outlay in the 2023 January transfer window. "It still has to be the right thing, but I’m excited for it. I’m excited to hear what the opportunities are and I’ll take each one and judge it on its merits," Potter said. "International management is a different rhythm and there are pluses for that. It’s more intense when it’s on, but you’ve got a bit more breathing space in between. "It’s nothing that I’ve ruled out, but at the same time I do like the day-to-day bit of working with the players and being in at the club and trying to build and make a difference. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c749n4ej9nko

Ah, I see. I was at that game and I'm not sure I agree, but now I understand the point!

Hard to disagree with any of that, but if we had hung on and won 1-0 on Saturday, wouldn't we be on a total of 3pts and -6 GD, which would still only put us in 17th, one place above where we are now? (It would have put us above Ipswich on GD but below Palace, also on GD)

Saints play Stoke at home. Tottenham vs. Man City Newcastle (probably) vs. Chelsea Man Utd vs. Leicester Brighton vs. Liverpool Preston vs. Arsenal Aston Villa vs. Crystal Palace Brentford vs. Sheffield Weds Good chance to get through to the quarter finals and some of the bigger clubs will be going out.

Way ahead of you

Good point. Also needs to factor in their respective VD (Vape Differential)

Of all the managers yet to register a win, the hipster c*nt beardwatch breaks down as follows: 15th: Steve Cooper: clean shaven 16th: Oliver Glasner: clean shaven 17th: Kieran McKenna: clean shaven ----RELEGATION ZONE---- 18th: Russ: thick, manly beard; possibly dyed, almost certainly softened and fragranced 19th: Sean Dyche: abrasive ginger disc beard; flecked with gravy 20th: Gary O'Neil: scraggly heavy stubble; on the cusp of being a greybeard You have to admit, the data doesn't lie.

@Wade Garrett and @Lord Duckhunter - who would your ideal managerial appointments be if Martin left?

Seem to remember the Sporting fans saying he was pretty flexible and could play pretty much anywhere box-to-box. But as you say, we're about to find out... Good to see Lallana starting. I was against him coming back, but he's here now and to be fair to him he's been absolutely excellent every time he's played. He's looked head and shoulders above anyone else we've got in terms of vision, passing ability and sheer quality on the ball. Could be very important for us if he can stay fit, even if he can only manage 60 mins (bearing in mind he rarely managed the full 90 even when he was in his prime). Is Smallbone still carrying an injury? If not, he's gone from being a starter to not even making the squad.

I think Fernandes will be expected to play deeper and put himself about a bit alongside Downes. Someone needs to keep an eye on that prick Morsy. He should have been sent off about three times over against us last season. Wouldn't put it past him to try to put one on Dibling early on.

Ramsdale, Sugawara, Bednarek, THB, Taylor, Downes (c), Fernandes, Lallana, Dibling, Archer, Fraser Subs: McCarthy, KWP, Wood, Lesley, Aribo, Cornet, Armstrong, Stewart, BBD

Same formation and line-up as Man Utd with THB for Stephens. Play as directly and at the same pace and tempo as the first 35 mins vs Man Utd, for 90 mins. Take our chances when we get them. Don’t switch off at the back. Don't let heads go down if we do concede first. Get the ball to Dibling as much as possible. Don’t let Archer take any penalties. Do that and we’ll be fine. 3-1 Saints and the season starts here. COYR.

Ah, good old Football Insider. The stalwart of tier 5 bullshit literally made up for clicks.

I admire your general optimism here but literally every manager, player, pundit and fan who's paying attention knows exactly how we play and, seemingly, exactly how to counter it. When a random fan on a messageboard can specify two days before a match what's going to happen in it and get every aspect spot on, almost to the minute, the element of surprise is one thing that we absolutely don't have, with anyone, whether we've played them recently or not. I've got a feeling we'll beat Ipswich though. I'm feeling 3-1, driven by a virtuoso Dibling performance that the media instantly jump on to all agree how perfect he'd be for Liverpool.

Let’s also not rewrite history to make out that ABK coming in would instantly transform us defensively. Last time round he started 24 games in the league. We lost 15 of them, conceding 46 goals in the process - an average of 1.91 goals conceded per game he started. The 14 league games he didn’t play in, we lost 10 of them, conceding 26 goals - an average of 1.85 goals per game. So last time round we conceded fewer goals in the games when he wasn’t playing. Of course goals conceded aren’t just down to one person and there are loads of other factors, but quite aside from whatever non-footballing reasons there might be for RM not to pick him, any idea that him coming into the side automatically makes us better defensively just isn’t supported by the facts.

He’s contracted to us until 2026 and we had a fee agreed with Hoffenheim in August to sell him for a reported €15m / £12.8m. It only didn’t happen because he failed their medical, which the club seemed surprised by and they subsequently made a point of playing him in the Cardiff cup game the following week just to prove he was fit to play. So he’s a circa €15m asset and his ability is enough for other clubs to still want him, so I suspect the plan is just to keep him fit in the background and then have another go at selling him in January, and I would have thought someone would take him then at that price.

I don't disagree with you on principle, but it's pretty difficult to say whether it's justified or not without knowing exactly what he's done. There are loads of examples of players in all sports who had the ability, but where that on it's own wasn't enough to trump the negative effect they had on the team in other ways. In rugby the All Blacks talk about the No Dickheads rule - it doesn't matter how good you are, no-one's bigger than the team, and if you're not felt to be working together towards the same goal as everyone else, you're not getting picked. The other players actually have a big say in that, and help to enforce it. Alex Ferguson used to dump otherwise excellent players all the time if they stepped outside the rules he had set for what he expected from his players in terms of behaviour and attitude towards the team. The point is that in a team sport there's a lot more to whether you deserve to get picked for that team or not than simply how good you are at the sport in question, especially at the elite level. But as I say, as we don't know what he's done (or is meant to have done), it's very hard to make a judgment as to whether the response is justified or not, and those saying 'just pick him whatever' are misunderstanding how the dynamics work in team sport.

I think you're barking up the wrong tree there. It's pretty obviously nothing to do with his footballing ability or whether he fits Martin's system. He's a full German international who got picked for a World Cup squad, he's obviously good enough and Martin will obviously be able to see that as well as any of us can. He's just pissed a bunch of people off to the extent that they're done with him and they don't want him around. You can agree or disagree with whether that's them cutting their nose off to spite their face, but that's what's happened. It's entirely personal, and nothing to do with RM's 'way', systems or anything else to do with his actual playing ability.