Midfield_General

"According to a report from Football Insider" Clickbait

Melchett Martin's top secret pre-match briefing at Staplewood: "Here's the list of personnel cleared to know how we're going to play against Liverpool: You and me Gilly, obviously. Arne Slot, Arne Slot's wife, all Arne Slot's wife’s friends, their families, their families' servants, their families' servants' tennis partners, and some chap I bumped into outside Anfield the other day called Bernard."

From today’s Guardian: “Trying to find hope for Russell Martin’s side going into this fixture is tricky. At Wolves they failed to have a shot on target despite having 72% possession and they will not dominate the ball in the same manner on Sunday. Southampton’s style is about passing and patient buildup and it is unlikely Martin will ever change, even if the club’s Premier League status and his employment are at risk. All teams need an element of surprise, whether they are first or last, in order to keep opponents guessing, but Southampton’s predictability is their downfall and explains why they are bottom. Reacting when something is not working is a sign of a good coach.”

Is it fair to say that Steve Wigley is generally regarded as the worst top flight manager we've had? Because Russ needs to get five points from his next three games (Liverpool (H), Brighton (A), Chelsea (H)) just to equal Wigley's managerial record of 9 points from 14 Premier League matches.

----------- Pahars --------------- Mane ----- Le Tiss ---- Rod Wallace ------- Case ---- Ekelund ----- Bale --- VVD --- Alderweireld -- Clyne ----------- Niemi ----------- That side would have a shot at top 4, I reckon. Can't bring myself to pick the bad XI, there are just too many options. But Chris Woods would be in goal.

Desperate to catch Amazon's eye so he can be the star of the next All Or Nothing / Mission to Burnley

I know someone who would disagree... So much for “the table never lies“ – data unravels football’s biggest lie of all. Ankersen, a 33-year-old Dane with a trim beard and hair pulled into a small ponytail, seems relaxed. “There’s a concept in football that the table never lies,” says Ankersen, whose own playing career was ended by a knee injury in his teens. “Well, that’s the biggest lie in football. Your league position is not the best metric to evaluate success.” https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/sport/2017/02/so-much-table-never-lies-data-unravels-footballs-biggest-lie-all

Rasmus conducting Rusty's appraisal:

Add Farmer Saint to Glasgow/ Heisenberg/ Nairobi/ Gio's ever-growing list of alternate log-ins

Bloom = 100% data-driven. Result - has made himself into a billionaire and has taken a club from the brink of extinction and established them as a consistent top 8 and European contender. Rasmus = 100% bullshit-driven. Result - has made himself and the club he claims to lead into a laughing stock.

Except in their case it’s actually a real suite of software and tools that Bloom has successfully created and used for almost 20 years to make himself personally worth over £1.3bn, whereas what Les Reed used to smugly boast about always just felt like a slightly above average scouting network, dressed up in bullshit, and which coincidentally stopped working once we stopped being able to recruit elite managers like Poch and Koeman who had exceptional personal networks of talent they could plug the club into for the duration of their stay.

It's hardly luck at Brighton. Tony Bloom, Brighton's owner, created and owns his own data analytics company with proprietary software and algorithms which he has been using to create competitive advantage since 2006. He has gained access to a depth of data and analysis that no-one else has access to, to consistently make informed decisions around player and manager recruitment. "Bloom owns Starlizard, a company he started in 2006 to beat the bookies by using the latest data and analytics tools to understand the sport. Starlizard has grown in the subsequent years and currently has around 200 employees. According to a betting industry insider, Bloom was using the expected goal modeling system well before anyone knew what it was, and is probably a decade ahead in terms of technology used to understand and break down the sport. Tony Bloom brought his exceptional modeling skills and acumen to Brighton to unearth and identify undervalued players all around the world, and grow them at the club into superstars." https://medium.com/@vishbs/from-extinction-to-excellence-brightons-data-driven-triumph-977abe738c1c

Here's all 47 goals he scored in 145 games for Blackburn, in the only real spell of consistent goalscoring form he's had in his career. He's never been the most cultured, but here he does at least look like a decent, hardworking forward with an eye for goal. Most of his goals were scored playing down the middle and attacking the six yard area, with a fair few coming from runs down the left channel. From this evidence, albeit against weaker opposition, create a chance for him in a decent goalscoring position and he's capable of taking it. He doesn't exactly scream Premier League quality though, and what he absolutely doesn't look like is a player suited in any way to tiki taka, or playing as a winger hugging the touchline. He's been poor whenever I've seen him play, but you have to wonder what the hell we were thinking signing a player so blindlingly obviously unsuited to how this manager wants to play. Poor as he's been, I think he has the right to feel a bit stitched up by how he's been so mis-used and not played to his basic strengths.

Derby started that season with a squad that included Robert Earnshaw, Jon Macken, Tyrone Mears, Kenny Miller and Giles Barnes, plus one-time Saints Matty Oakley and Lee Holmes. In January they brought in players including Danny Mills, Robbie Savage, Roy Carroll, Alan Stubbs and Lauren Robert. How does that stack up to our squad? They were managed by that horrible little twat Billy Davies, until they sacked him on 26th November having won only one game, and replaced him with Paul Jewell. They recorded a top-flight record 32 games without a win, and were relegated on 29th March, 19 points from safety with six games left. At the end of the season they were P38, W1, D8, L29, F20, A89, GD -69, PTS11. Even Davies had six points after 11 games though.

Cool new thread! Thank goodness there's now somewhere where thoughts on the manager can finally be shared, couldn't see any discussion of him anywhere else, especially not the 251 pages of the Russell Martin thread.

Disappointed that Dibling doesn’t start but a bit of consistency week to week isn’t a bad idea. Good to see Lallana in there. First goal will be massive today.

We spent £110m in the summer and yet it's becoming apparent that for us to be even slightly competitive at this level we're still basically dependent on an 18 year-old, who was already at the club and who's only ever played 10 Premier League games, and a 36 year-old who could only ever manage about 65 minutes even when at the peak of his career and fitness. Meanwhile four of the players we recruited can't even get in the matchday squad (Cornet, Taylor, Edwards, Wood) and two are barely good enough for the bench (Les, BBD). If that had been my money being spunked on transfer fees, loan fees and wages, someone's getting fired.

Bit misleading that headline. The article is just some podcaster saying ‘I think Archie Gray would be good for a team like Southampton because he’d be likely to play more.’ It’s just one bloke’s opinion, there’s no suggestion at all that there’s been any contact.

Mark Robins now available: - Former Man Utd player - Just been sacked as manager by Coventry It worked for us before…

Someone who registered 18 years ago dares to say they don’t mind the possession-based approach and it makes them a highly suspicious, pro-Martin new poster 🤣 If that’s you Russell, you’ve played the long game there, signing up to SaintsWeb when you were 20 and getting 500 posts in as groundwork over the course of your entire playing and managerial career. And to think people say his prep isn’t thorough enough.

Even a nice little bit of skill from Skacel to force the OG for the second one. Although with the way it bounced between his legs before he turned his man - I'm not convinced that was entirely deliberate. He was generally so anonymous for us after all that hype.

Was Bearsy an alter-ego / reincarnation of Deppo? Deppo's pre-match opposition previews were great

And those red shorts 👌

I would have got away with it too from my alpine lair somewhere between Nairobi and Glasgow if it hadn’t been for you meddling kids Love and light

The exact moment the penny finally dropped for me that he was never going to get any better. Watching it back, I think that's comfortably the worst miss I've ever seen at any level of football. So mind-meltingly bad that it almost defies the laws of physics. Let's enjoy it in full shall we. 0.48: