Midfield_General

Or we could try not making an already hard league much fucking harder by not passing it to the opposition in own penalty area multiple times every game under the guise of 'philosophy'. It doesn't need an outstanding manager to identify that, and doesn't need an outstanding team to execute it. It's basic common sense which is the key ingredient missing from our management.

Tadic in as player-manager, running the midfield with Lallana at a combined age of 157. There’s experience for you.

Nah. There are plenty of criticisms that can justifiably be levelled at RM but not using Alcaraz or Sulemana aren’t among them. Alcaraz showed some flashes of promise but couldn’t keep hold of the ball, wasn’t a great passer, regularly played the team into trouble and had an extremely suspect temperament. He looked bang average even at Championship level when he did play and did nothing at Juventus. There’s a reason he’s gone back to South America - not one club in Europe wanted him, even at £18m let alone £40m. Sulemana is just shite. He’s had so many chances at both Premier League and Championship level and just has no end product or football brain. He was also given lots of game time pre-season and did absolutely nothing. I’m not a Martin defender by any means but neither of those players should be anywhere near a Premier League first team.

Also won his first match 2-0 at home to Wigan in the FA Cup quarter final, went toe-to-toe away at Arsenal, eventually going down 3-2 (after going 1-0 up and then equalising for 2-2), and again at home to Chelsea, losing 3-2 after going 2-0 up. Ultimately Hughes was a limited manager, but he was also a common sense manager and a pragmatist, had an immediate positive impact, and got the most out of the resources he was given to grind out the results he needed to keep us up.

Onuachu Archer Dibling Lallana Downes Fernandes KWP THB Bednarek Sugawara Ramsdale Cut out the suicidal passing in and around our own box. Move the ball from front to back directly and quickly. Get the ball into Fernandes and Lallana as quickly as possible, with them playing on the half-turn looking for the forward pass or through ball. Use Onuachu as the hold-up man, with Archer and Dibling playing off him looking to run into space in behind, or getting wide to put crosses on his head. When Lallana gets tired, put Aribo or Les alongside Downes and push Fernandes further up. Cornet and Fraser as fresh legs later on. Smash that little rat Vardy at the first opportunity. Don't do anything silly. 2-0 Saints and the start of our relentless march to 18th.

Orhan Erdemir: giving hope to 61-year-old men the world over

The most thin-skinned man on the planet, pathologically unable to take criticism or just ignore it, decides to become a football manager - a job where you basically very publicly take shit for a living. So strange. Now he's not our problem I find him utterly fascinating. I kind of want to draw them in the Cup at St Mary's just to see how he deals with it.

Yeah, Archer's goal was the absolute opposite of what they usually appear to be coached to do. It was basically an example of how much more effective the players we have at our disposal could be if they were set up and encouraged to play more directly, more often. Spotting space in behind a high line that hasn't had time to set, and playing a quick, long pass in behind for a rapid forward to run onto and slot. We hardly ever see that, even though Archer, Dibling, Cornet, Armstrong, Fraser (and maybe even Sulemana when he's fit) could thrive on that sort of approach, and Fernandes and Lallana are more than capable of supplying those sorts of passes. Btw, how good was Fernandes in that moment? Working hard to track back, a great tackle to win the ball from behind his man without a foul, and then an absolutely perfectly spotted and weighted pass to exactly where Archer wanted it. Beautiful. Great control, run and finish from Archer too. A really lovely goal all round. Feels like a glimpse of how much more dangerous we could be if we played on the counter-attack more.

Yep, the way he was talking on Sky before the Bournemouth game he has definitely got his eye on it. Whether he would get it or not is another matter, but he was definitely putting himself in the frame, and he'd probably get an interview at least. Also if Carsley shits the bed against either Greece or Finland in the next few days then the conversation might open back up about the England job, which he specifically said he would love to do. Either way, if he stays in club football then I think he wants an underachieving team with decent resources who are looking up, rather than a relegation fight. I think that would rule us and Wolves out, although it sounds like they're backing O'Neil for now anyway. If the Everton takeover goes through I could absolutely see him there, being given all that lovely new investment money to spend and the attraction of a brand spanking new stadium. Or West Ham, if they end up canning Lopetegui.

I don’t have any problem at all with corporate hospitality or the club finding new revenue streams however they can. High-end experiences for big-spending clients can be very lucrative, and if people or companies want to pay for them then absolutely fair play to them. I’ve been to plenty myself as part of my work. Spurs, Man City, Arsenal, West Ham all do excellent high-end packages, and I’m sure Everton will be great too. It’s not the way I like to watch football personally, but I can see why people like it if they’re more casual fans or they’re looking to entertain clients and they’ve got the money. What I find very amusing though is the disparity in this specific example between how they’ve described it in the sales copy, and then what it looks like in the visuals. If you’re going to go in hard with the superlatives in sales speak like that, promising unparalleled luxury and lavish opulence for £300 a ticket then great, but then you have to deliver, otherwise you just look ridiculous. It’s like those Winter Wonderland or Willy Wonka experiences where people get sold this magical vision and then when they get there they find out that their £300 family ticket has bought them a border collie with antlers stuck on it and a pissed-off-looking elf smoking a roll-up in a car park. When you over-sell and under-deliver you’re asking for trouble. And as far as the Knightwood Lounge goes, they either need to rein it in with the copy, or they need to hire better interior designers because £300 a ticket is a lot of money and just putting a neon sign that says CHAMPAGNE behind the bar in what looks like the phone charging bit of Stansted is going to lead to a lot of very pissed off clients.

All that drumroll in the description about rare exclusivity and a one-of-a-kind lavish environment and then you look at the photos they've mocked up and it's basically a fucking Costa 🤣 🤣 🤣 Nothing says 'opulence' like high chairs, fluorescent strip lighting and a lovely bit of laminate flooring. I've seen a Spoons more lavish than that

There's also a proven psychological aspect where people are much more likely to buy in and take responsibility for something they feel they have been able to have input into. Basically, if someone says 'Here's the way we're doing it, get on with it', it's very easy to feel distanced from it, so when it goes wrong you can feel that it's not your fault because it was never your idea in the first place. You don't take responsibility for it. Whereas if someone invites you in, says 'I'm thinking we approach this like this, but I'd love to know what you think', and you feel like they're listening to you, you're much more invested in that because you feel like it's something you've contributed to. You want it to work more, and you're less likely to psychologically disown it. The principle is called 'teamship' - it was a big part of the ethos of the England rugby team in the early 2000s, including when they won the World Cup under Woodward. (Maybe we should get him back in...) I'd be amazed if our players feel properly bought into a system that is clearly forced on them whether they want it or not, which means they are made out to be losers every week, and which regularly makes them individually look like idiots. Especially when, like after the Bournemouth game, they get thrown under the bus afterwards by the person enforcing it on them. I'd imagine if you asked most of our players whether they'd want to try a different way of playing, they'd bite your hand off. They all want to win as much as we do, and they're the ones with the cameras on them when the current system fails (again).

I heard an interesting thing about Hurzeler at Brighton too. He has a way he wants to play and has introduced that to the players this season, but he also regularly invites feedback from the players, asking them how they feel about it, whether there’s anything that they would change about it etc. Basically using the system as the basic idea but then continually evolving it in line with what the actual players on the pitch are comfortable doing, and feel works for them.

Yeah, something like that. Not many teams are going to sit deep against a side like us that they perceive to be crap, so that should mean that there's usually going to be space in behind that we should be able to exploit if we're set up right to do it. This is what I'd like to see given a proper run of games: Onuachu Archer Dibling Lallana Fernandes Downes (Then when Lallana runs out of steam, push Fernandes into that more advanced role and put Aribo or Les alongside Downes) Archer and Dibling both want to be running into space with the ball at their feet, so have Onuachu provide a focal point, holding the ball up to let them both run off him, and get Lallana and Fernandes focusing on getting their heads up and providing more penetrative through balls like the peach from Fernandes for our goal yesterday.

I think you’re right re Potter who has turned down Ajax and has got his eye on bigger clubs than us (based on his chat on Sky on Monday night I think he thinks he’d have a shot at the Man Utd job). Why do you think Moyes would be out of reach though, out of interest?

One of our other best chances in the second half came from Sugawara absolutely pegging it up the right on the overlap. There was a 1-2 in the box, and then a low cross across the 6 yard area that we couldn’t quite get on the end of. That sort of run though is exactly what Suga wants to be doing and is very effective at. It could be a real weapon for us. It’s frustrating when the handbrake of the system is put on that sort of thing when presumably that’s what we saw in him when we bought him.

Positives: - Archer took his goal really well. Playing off the shoulder like that is clearly his game, so if we're going to play him then we should play to his strengths and give him something to run onto - Onuachu looked good when he came on. Not just for his height, which we actually didn't really play to (surprise), but some really nice touches on the ball and generally looking like a good, confident footballer. Would definitely at least give us a focal point, hopefully this is the beginning of us giving him some game time - Bednarek is never going to be the most cultured player but made a lot of important blocks and challenges, especially in the first half - Dibling is class and when played in his proper position on the right will cause anyone problems, which made the decision to move him from there into the centre-forward role against Bournemouth, ahead of five other centre-forwards, even more barking mad - Fernandes has definitely got something about him and looks like a good signing. I just hope we don't break him.

The commentary on the stream I had said it was a calf strain, and that it was apparently a new injury rather than a recurrence of one of the previous ones.

I missed the first ten minutes but from what I saw after that - First half - we did exactly what you'd hope an underdog recently-promoted away team would do and put 10 men behind the ball, defended like bastards, rode our luck a little and frustrated them. They had a lot of pressure but for all that they only had one shot on target and you could see they were getting rattled. Exactly what you want. Second half - as soon as we got a goal we started playing 'our way', and then we almost looked too confident if that makes sense, basically trying to play Arsenal at their own game, which is exactly what they wanted. Rather than just trying to keep on with a massed defensive shape and hitting on the break, we immediately became much more open, started trying too many passes, started the suicidal playing out from the back against one of the best pressing teams there is, pushed too many people up and just played straight into their hands. Overall, we deserved to be level at half-time for sheer effort, and although our goal was obviously completely against the run of play, you could argue that once we scored it was set up to be a perfect backs-to-the-wall away performance smash-and-grab. We just needed to keep defending like we did in the first half. But conceding immediately, down to a poor individual mistake, put paid to that. Ultimately two of their goals were down to individual errors by us, and you just can't give a team of their quality chances like that. In summary - individual errors killed us, and we tried to play too much football and predictably got picked off when we should have just shithoused it for 90 mins.

Stewart was a calf injury. New injury apparently, nothing to do with previous ones. Not sure if that’s good or bad.

Re: The conversation on TalkSport: It was interesting - it seems that someone at the club is now leaking to the press because they were giving a direct quote attributed to "a senior source behind the scenes". I don't have the quote word-for-word, but to paraphrase it was along the lines of "There is concern over the way that results have gone at the start of the season. We are looking to Russell Martin to rise to the occasion and prove that he can make the changes necessary to improve. The club wants him to succeed and he's got the support of the board for now." The two bits that really leapt out were: - The bit about looking to Russ to make changes - suggesting to me that they are not happy with the style of play and the gifting of goals and aren't prepared to sit back and let that continue. Which is slightly awkward timing, given that Ramsdale has also done an interview today talking about how Russ won't change the way he plays for anyone. - The little 'for now' kicker at the end. On the radio that was something that they jumped on and mentioned several times over, as it feels like it has been very deliberately mentioned in that quote to show that the microscope is very much on him Overall, it felt like a 'real' quote that was being read out, rather than Crook or some other knobhead giving it their 'I've been led to believe' nonsense. What we don't know of course is who at the club might have said it. Could have been the tea lady. But it seems that the club are very much watching how we do in the next few games and are looking for change and improvement, and want that to be known enough that they're now briefing the press on the quiet.

I sincerely hope you're not 21

No we didn't, we played the first half in a 4-4-2 / 4-2-2-2 with Dibling and Fernandes as the two up top. Dibling looked poor in that game because he was taken out of the position he's been consistently far and away our best player this season (down our right, running with the ball at his feet at isolated full backs) and put into a position he can't play (in the centre, trying to win headers and first balls, being battered by centre halves). Because of course he was. Fernandes was sort of playing off him as a strike partner, also looking completely lost and ineffective because he was being played out of position as well. In terms of team selection and tactics, it was genuinely the worst I've ever seen from a Saints manager. And I saw Branfoot try and replace Matthew Le Tissier with Paul Moody.

Sulemana can play down the middle I'm sure his injury's not too bad, and we need an attacking bench, so if we don't name a reserve keeper we can squeeze him on 👍

Anyone could pick a Russell Martin XI. Just put five centre forwards on the bench with no recognised striker on the pitch, drop a top quality full-back, freeze out a German international, make Stephens captain, force them to play out regardless of how much they're being pressed, substitute four of them at once on 60 minutes and then throw them all under the bus afterwards. There you go. I'll do it. Now we can sack him without worrying about who will manage this all-important fixture.