Midfield_General

Crook and Murphy putting the boot into Juric on TalkShite just now. Saying he's unquestionably made us worse, his team selections are mental, that it looks like the players aren't playing for him, and that when you hear him talk, it's not hard to understand why that is because he's so uninspiring. 'He gives you absolutely nothing to get behind' was Murphy's view as a former player. Whatever you think of them or that station, it's difficult to argue with that, although it does give the players way too much of an easy ride. The board, the team management and the players are all equally culpable for how crap we are IMO. Both also gave massive props to our away support last night and said our fans were magnificent, especially when you consider the absolute dogshit they were watching and what they have had to endure all season.

Exactly. All those positions we desperately needed to improve, and instead we sign cover for one of the few where we’ve actually got someone half decent. Meanwhile the central defence, defensive midfield and striking positions are left as a shitshow. Brilliant.

I thought he looked alright on his debut as well, but if the manager again puts him on the bench tomorrow, then considering he’s now had a chance to have a good look at him and the player appears to be fit, you’d have to assume that that indicates that the manager doesn’t think he’d improve the team by starting him. Considering that we need to improve in pretty much every position on the pitch, to have spent our time, effort and money recruiting someone who isn’t actually better than anyone in the current starting XI is quite an achievement. It would seem to suggest yet another pointless, non-descript, quantity over quality, squad-filler signing, which is even more absurd when we’ve already got such a bloated squad and we’ve been clear that we need to make it smaller and clear out the dross we’ve previously accumulated.

Not seeing Gronbaek in many people’s starting line-ups. Only Saints could bring someone in because of a stated need to ‘strengthen’, and then recruit someone who’s apparently not good enough to get into one of the worst premier league sides of all time.

Yep. Bailed before the fifth one went in.

Was he informed at half time?

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The fucking irony. And there's one of the many reasons I feel sorry for you.

I’m not answering you because I genuinely feel sorry for you. On about five different levels. Enjoy the game.

Just stop, you’re embarrassing yourself. Again.

Imagine actually believing that 🤣

That side has maybe 3 premier league quality players in it.

Personally I'd play a formation with two up top, then play an out-of-position winger and an out-of-position midfielder in the two striking positions, with five actual centre-forwards on the bench, and then when that doesn't work I'd put them all on at once and then say after the game that I did that because we needed goals. Just like we did last time.

Argyle defender and man of the match Katic drops the fuck bomb live, not once but twice, straight to camera during his post-match interview on mid-Sunday-afternoon ITV. Marvellous stuff.

If anyone's still looking for a stream, this one's working ok for me. http://www.fawanews.com/Southampton vs Burnley.html

They’re second in the championship, not expecting them to be pushovers. Plus they’ve started Jonjo Shelvey who for some reason it feels always plays well against us

Looking forward to seeing more of The Duke rampaging down the left

In the last week I’ve watched Man City, Arsenal and Spurs all gift stupid goals to the opposition and go on to lose the game, playing suicidal passes from the keeper to a defender under pressure who then immediately loses it and they concede. If they can’t do it, what chance did we ever have? I really hope this mental trend is coming to an end.

Kevin Danso starting at centre back for Spurs tonight. Intrigued.

Apparently in between leaving Everton and signing for Tranmere he also played for Qianwei Huando, Kansas City Wizards, Chongging Longxin and Shenzan Pingan, putting him ahead of the later trend of players heading to China by about 20 years. Seems he was something of a pioneer (not just of dugouts).

Yep, he was 19, came on for Danny Wallace at half-time and scored the last one. Rideout scored two on his debut.

Rod Wallace on one wing, Danny Wallace on the other, Paul Rideout and Colin Clarke as twin centre forwards. Saints 4, West Ham 0, opening day of the season, 1988. Happy days.

Picture the scene: Leeds have choked the automatics yet again and, dispirited and under extreme pressure, find themselves having to grind their way through the play-offs, where, in the final, they face a rejuvenated, free-scoring West Brom. Goalless at Wembley with ten minutes to play, the ball is threaded through to Adam Armstrong who finds himself running clear in the inside right channel... Actually, if he was being made available, I'm surprised Leeds didn't snap him up purely to avoid that scenario - if they were sniffing around Archer then they must have been in the market for a striker. I wonder whether they're thinking they should have gone for the other one now?

No - I mean more don’t stand in their way if they want to leave, set a reasonable valuation and let them know we’ll sell them if that valuation is met but that if it isn’t then they’re expected to act professionally and buckle down as part of the squad. (Admittedly that is phrased slightly differently to how I put it first time 😛)

Sharp’s Law