Graffito

Advised to take “alternative transport”. What fucking alternative transport? I walked. And got soaked. Walked 12 miles today. But the football was worth it wasn’t it.

I’m moving to Eastbourne next month after 40+ years in London. I researched the trains. 2 hrs 40 mins to nearly 3 hrs when you add the train journey from Eastbourne to Brighton. I believe Southern to be quite useless. Going via Clapham Junction is more expensive and no quicker but maybe more reliable? Evening matches at St Mary’s look to be impossible. I’m a season a season ticket holder and go to most away matches so sadly I’m going to have to scale back. Not keen on driving. Hope Eastbourne is worth it.

Non standard English. Perfectly understandable and acceptable on a football message board.

He appeared to be bending Vince’s ear about it during the presentations too. He should take a leaf out of Vince’s book and stay calm under pressure rather than sitting with his head in his hands or biting his nails like he did before he went in to bat.

They’ve got three world class divers now.

“He arrived confident in his conviction that you could control a game and set the rhythm for your team with a central midfielder who was neither particularly strong nor overly physical. This is what he had done in the past with Xavi at Barcelona and Joshua Kimmich at Bayern. But he quickly found out that approach did not work in the Premier League. In England, you need a central midfielder who is powerful in aerial battles and wins 50-50s. Rodri is a good example of what he thinks he needs. Also, he expects his central midfielders to act as a defender when a centre-back moves forward, so they must have the physicality to cope with being in that position.” “His view on refereeing is also well known – he is firmly of the belief English referees are far more lenient than their continental counterparts. This has also affected his decision making, as he feels you need players who are physically bigger and stronger to cope with it. If you get knocked down, you’d better get up and be ready to go again as clashes do not get rewarded with fouls as often as they do anywhere else“ “Guardiola accepts that sometimes control and possession is not enough. Tactical acumen takes a temporary back seat to raw courage as emotions take over and it becomes a case of ‘all hands to the pump’ as an opponent piles forward. This is one area where he knows things can be improved. Ruben Dias displays a calmness and clarity in his decision making in moments of stress and panic. He is an example to follow.“ https://bbcfootball.info/how-english-football-changed-guardiola/

Wolves

Ah great. Thank you.

I travel to football by train all the time. In my experience trains are generally worse on Sundays. Re Burnley, no idea how I’m going to do that without staying over. And I imagine refunds are out of the question.

It was less obvious last night than against Villa. It’s real. It’s a factor in the outcome of matches. I was at both matches and it was as clear as day from the first minute at Villa. They wanted it more, as RH acknowledged https://www.hampshirelive.news/sport/football/football-news/hasenhuttl-southampton-aston-villa-newcastle-6778668

Thanks for the info about the rail service for the West Ham match. 22.30 is better although I see this is the 22.00 service departing at 22.30 not an additional train. And they’re 10 carriage trains often seem magically to turn into 5 carriage trains by the time they get to Central. I wonder if this reduced timetable is more about cost cutting than covid.

I emailed south western rail this week. No reply so I rang this afternoon. The short answer is they won’t be putting on an a later train to get us home after the match. I pointed out that they put on a later train in the opposite direction for the Tottenham match recently but I was told they won’t be changing the timetable this late in the week. It will be interesting to see what they do for next week’s match against West Ham. If it goes to extra time they could have a few hundred angry hammers to deal with down at Central. So it’s either leave early or drive or get the coach back.

Are you sure trains don’t go from Northumberland Park to Liverpool St? Could be wrong but I thought they did, via Tottenham Hale. If so, comes down to which of Northumberland Park and White Hart Lane has the longest queues or most frequent services. That I can’t say, it’s quicker for me to walk home that use either.

Dunno about new manager, this lot needs a shrink.

Point of note; three central midfielders on the pitch as well as three centre backs coincided with our best spell in the game.

3 weeks to go. No need to shit the bed.

Big match coming up. Safe from relegation. No injuries. Job done. Was that it? Was that why Bertrand agreed prematch that it was difficult not to have one eye on the semi final? As fans we want the players to die for the shirt. Unrealistic. But at least put in a bit of fucking effort...against apparent no hopers, who thoroughly deserved to win by a greater margin than three goals. Contrast the character of this bunch with the nucleus of the teams that came up from League 1. This is a group of players that’s very difficult to like. Without Romeu it’s powder puff. Finally Ralph. What’s with the late substitutions? Unfair on the players who want to stake a claim for the semi and puts no pressure on the “first team” which knows it’s the “first team”. Put a bit of backbone into them for Sunday. Your job.

Agree. During the close season I took a look at a compilation of Saints’ best goals of last season and was struck by how instrumental Redmond was in those goals.

Read this. I see parallels with Saints. He thinks they’ve got problems? Try doing it with our squad. https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/brexit-news/europe-news/have-jurgen-klopps-gegenpresse-tactics-broken-liverpool-7828452

That was a very very worrying performance. Not one single positive. Same old failings. Utter tripe.

To those saying Saints can’t defend deep, we did it against Man City last season and against Liverpool this season. Saints have also shown they can keep possession of the ball successfully, something else that wasn’t evident last night. The common denominator in the two 9 nil defeats seems to be an early sending off. Ralph talks all the time about synchronisation, high press and above all, automatism. Ralph might argue that the team can play different formations but they look like tweaks to a highly structured and synchronised system. Take a player out and the whole approach seems to fail. No team can keep up a high energy press for 90 minutes. With 10 players, you can barely do it at all and Saints didn’t attempt it last night. The triggers are there but the players can’t respond. The highly organised system ends in disarray. It’s almost like the players have become automatons and can’t think of themselves when circumstances change and they need to be pragmatic.

Me too.

No. In 2009 a young Saints player called Paterson was thrown in against Man Utd and got sent off in the first half for a dangerous tackle on Vidic. Man Utd went on to win 3 nil. Two of the goals were contentious, a penalty for handball that replays showed wasn’t handball and an offside that wasn’t given. The referee was another Mike, Mike Riley. Paterson’s sending off was a rush of blood to the head of a young player out of his depth. Same with Jankewitz. More so with Jankewitz. The transfer request, which probably went down badly with the club, put him under pressure even before he stepped out at OT. He had to step up and prove he was worth a place. He couldn’t because he isn’t ready. I think RH knew that which is why he put others in ahead of him. Paterson slipped down the leagues and now plays non league football. I just hope Jankewitz has the talent and temperament to turn this around.

Very good read and thanks for posting. Highlights factors that have been clear in recent matches. Playing out from the back with accurate distribution, especially vestergaard, with short straight passes through the middle. It’s risky. Stephens tried a couple and lost possession but the two centre backs are doing it well. Also variation in tempo. I’d add how much Walcott has helped with varying the tempo higher up the pitch. Playing on the half turn and accelerating between the lines and into the so called red zone.

Best performance in a very long time. I note how much better Saints play when RH has time to prepare the team. JWP and Romeu ran the game. Everyone was good, with perhaps Redmond and Armstrong a bit below par. Maybe the media will stfu about Everton for 5 minutes now.....probably not.