The Realist

this is the team I would play against Norwich :- Alex M Mads....Edwards....Quarshie....Taylor Downes....Charles....Sesay AA....Stewart....Archer

Never heard of Louis Patris or the club he plays for! Sounds like a shit move given he was on loan from Anderlect before signing to his latest club. Suggests he would not be such a great choice for us. It seems clear we are after a right back.

my thoughts on the game:- we were too slow in the first half. Wrexham have bought well - good experience but will finish mid table. Edwards was taught a lesson by Moore but why was he not helped out by the other 2 CB's? The front line didn't work. Player scores:- Baz: 9. Excellent save. did nothing wrong and made a game saving save. Suga: 3. Offered nothing going forward and was poor in defence Edwards : 2. Had real problems with Moore and gave the penalty away. Hopefully he learns from this Cap Jack : 8. Great sliding tackle, great last minute goal but was also part of a pretty poor defence. Quarshie: 5. 1st touch is poor and looks a fish out of sea when he brings the ball forward. Raw talent atm Wellington : 3. Just don't rate the guy. Manning a better option Downes : 6. Good game for little pre-season. Good partnership with Charles Charles : 7. Looked really classy in the first half but drifted out of the game a bit in the 2nd. Robinson : 6. Looked good in the first half but drifted out of the game a bit in the 2nd. Armstrong : 5. Tried hard but just not his game. Should playon the right Fraser : 5. Tried his best, not enough good crosses into the box but versatility useful later on SUBS: Manning : 10. MOTM. Went forward, got so many crosses in and was the catalyst for the win with that great free-kick Fernandes : 5. Didn't really change the game much Stewart/Archer/Downs: 4. barely touched the ball.

why are people still talking about Edozie? I thought he had already left to Strasbourg. Dibing is leaving and so is Fernandes I'm afraid to say. THB also likely to go. Its more than a shame but that's life.

my thoughts:- Players that I want but clearly not staying as too good: Ramsdale, KWP, Dibling and Fernandes. GK: Need to sign (x1) (as Ramsdale and Lumley leave), McCarthy, Baz + promote Academy GK to be 4th choice. RB : Bree and Suga are ok. LB : Taylor and Wellington ok (Larios, Manning to leave) CB's: Edwards, THB, Wood, Stephens ok. Kayi-Sanda back-up + Academy ok. (Bednarek, ABK leave) DM: Downes, Charles ok. Need (x1) signing to replace Aribo, Smallbone and Big Les (back to CFC) AM: Need to sign to replace Fernades + loan signing to replace Dibling CF: Stewart main striker but injury prone so maybe keep Archer but not that fussed. Could do with new signing here to replace Tall Paul and challenge Stewart RM/RW: Arma, Robinson + Need new signing here. Let Fraser leave. LW : Sulemana (suit Will Still's style I suspect), Edozie. Need new signing here to replace BBD, SAA. So in total : GK, AM (x2), Wingers (x2), Striker = 6 as minimum to sign - clearly need better attacking players.

I would be disappointed if Downes left. Was excellent in the Championship. We really missed him every time he was missing from the team as we had a record of something like 2 wins from 9 games he missed. He has had a poor season in the Prem but picked up recently. I think with the right manager, he would dominate this league again.

I find it strange that people say SR have continually made bad appointments and then list RM amongst those. They guy did have success! He got us promoted at the first time of asking having inherited a dispirted team and united them. I agree he didn't adapt his philosophy to keep us up but he wasn't a complete failure either. Anyway, Rohl will be the new manager. Don't know if that is the best choice. I would not have a problem if Rosenior was appointed. Either of these two for me.

I liked him but his single minded strategy was as others have said, not going to work with this team of players. Which brings it back to recruitment. We didn't buy the right players. PL teams have players who are not only more physical but they also think faster than EFL players. I thought Ipswich would have thes best chance of staying up out of the 3 promoted teams because of the manager and style of football they play. The only issue with them was that they bought too many Championship players (allbeit the best ones from other teams) but there were not enough players with the physicality and mental sharpness needed. Unfortunately, this was the same issue for Saints. We bought too many squad players and not enough proven Premier league players. Even now, I think there needs to be a mix of youth (who might make it in the Prem) and experienced Prem players from top half teams that don't get regular games and are willing to drop down a league. Its tough as wages are always restrictive. If we had a DoF to replace Wilcox, Martin may have had better players at his disposal. I think this was a shame as I liked his football but he just didn't adapt to the league we were in.

Adam Blackmore like Juric and wants him to stay on as our manager next season. Weird. Yes he puts himself in front of the press and answers difficult questions. Thats it, otherwise, clueless. Has made the team worse.

Shame he hasn't stepped up this season but we should not re-write history here. He was one of the major reasons for our promotion last year. We were completely lost without him when he was missing last season and that was the reason Ipswich tried to sign him from West Ham in the summer. Unfortunately, he, like many others, has just not been up to it this season. THB and Arma were excellent last season but not close to that form this season. The change in manager has not helped Downes and so I expect he will leave in the summer. I would still rather he stayed and was part of a midfield duo of him and Charles, playing for Rohl.

As I have said before, I don't understand how we score goals in this Juric team. What is our plan? I understood more under RM but we just didn't have the ability to carry it out the plan of drawing teams onto us. Under Juric, what is the plan????

Here he is once again.........Danny Ings?

I think if Wellington was closer to the guy running in the leftback position, then Bednarek would have been closer to Delap and maybe that goal would not have happened. Poor challenges in the middle allowed the chance which is the biggest danger to this man to man marking. If one player gets beaten in the middle of the park, we are in trouble.

its the most beautiful city in the world though so if I was him, I'd stay in Vancouver.

I am not fussed whether he stays - granted as the owner, the right thing to do is to say that he stays beyond this season, otherwise players will completely give up. That said, zero points from 18 is bad. I never really felt that Martin's team was ever thrashed (aside from Spurs). Most of the time, we were in games but didn't look dangerous in attack. This was Martin's biggest mistake in that he focussed too much on the risk playing at the back and not enough on the risk of the players in the final third. That has changed under Juric but we still look terrible. I would be much happier if we got Rohl in the summer. I see more of an identity of the team and a style that would be enjoyable to watch. Not convinced Juric's style is good to watch or successful.

I do get the feeling that Dragan installed Juric, who he trusts, to review the set up at Saints. Juric has been around in football for some time and probabaly knows a thing or two about what a bad football club looks like and maybe he had something to do with why Dragan removed Kraft. I also think Juric will leave in the summer and Rohl will take over. At least that is my hope.

I fear another 9-0 here. We easilt beat Swansea but didn't exactly rip them apart like Brentford did against us. Just have bad vibes without Downes in midfield, even if he has been poor this season. Aribo and Big Les is such a poor central midfield.

As others have said about Charles, leave him at Sheff. Wed and then have him back in the summer to play for us in the Championship with Danny Rohl as our new manager. We have made exactly the same mistake as we did last time in the Prem. We sacked Ralph and plan B was to have Juric but he wasn't available so we got Nathan Jones (cheap version of Juric) - that was a disaster as we all know and then Selles just tried to stay in games but ultimately never looked like winning many. I think Martin did a fantastic jobof getting that team playing decent football and having a winning mentality - we were a basket case back then and he deserved a lot of credit to improve morale/confidence. It is a shame he didn't adapt his style as now we have sacked him and brought in Juric, the parallels with sacking Ralph and what followed is shocking. This is all on SR management. So we have to re-boot again, pick up a squad on their knees and the man to do that is Rohl. So leave Charles where he is.

I think Rohl might have been their first choice but perhaps he is not willing to leave SW mid-season. Don't like the idea of Corberon so would prefer Moyes to the end of the season and then back in for Rohl

I would like to thank Russell for giving me one of my favourite seasons following Saints (now > 40 seasons). The style of football was great last season and he was the major reason we won promotion. However, 5 points from nearly half the season is not good enough. He has been unlucky with ref/VAR decisions but we also gifted so many goals and also the same type of goal. Perhaps not all his fault as the players are simply not good enough. I felt we ere getting better, RM was adapting (slowly) but it wasn't enough and last night, confidence drained after only 40 seconds. There are many reasons why we are in this position : Man Utd taking Jason Wilcox, poor transfers in the summer, RM's style of football / tactics and poor quality players. Something had to change and I feel sad that it was RM who had to go. The correct decision in the end but still sad after last season's rebuild and success. The players should take a long look at themselves though. KWP was shocking last night, Downes has been way off the pace this season. Aribo/Arma not good enough. At least Manning tried but we know isn't good enough. In general, no fight, not enough skill and not enough athleticism in this team. Good luck to the new manager whoever it may be....

Last night was a tough watch. I wanted to leave at HT. I predicted a 4-0 defeat but when JS got sent off, I feared 7 or 8 going in at least, so I'm grateful it didn't get to that. I didn't disagree with the subs like others on here have done. BBD was the right call as we needed more height and Fraser/Arma had run their races. BBD still is no footballer and poor recruitment getting him in. Strange game as we did have quite a few chances. So did they of course. This is the issue with RM's football. It offers up chances at both ends but in the PL, better teams will always win out in the end and that is what we are finding. For the players that stayed on the pitch last night, well done, you worked hard but just are not good enough for this league. Manning played well (given limitations), Fernades excellent again, even Archer looked bright. So what to do with the manager? Do the board resign themselves to relegation and then stick with RM as he is probably the most qualified to getting us promotion again or do they still believe there is a chance of survival? If the latter, they should probably try something and that can only be a change in manager. I don't think anyone is better as we should remember last time when we sacked Ralph only to get one of the top European managers followed by Selles who didn't have a clue. Tough decision...

Have been a big supporter of RM. I loved his football last season. It wasa great season and when we won, we won matches playing with style. That said, we lost to teams who pressed us high up the pitch and/or were more energetic and up for a fight. This was always my biggest worry coming up to the PL where teams press high and are more physically stronger than in the Championship. B'mth result was no surprise as they press high and very energetic. We are just too slow getting the ball forward even if we did beat the press. People saying "get a new manager in and sort the defence out, we'll be fine" are wrong. The defence isn't necessarily the problem. The style of play is such that they aren't allowed to boot it so have to play a pass but we are under so much pressure, there is nobody to pass to. We play too safely, don't take opportunities to get the ball in the box or down the wings and are so slow and predictable. We needed a decent CF, we don't have one. Why not play balls over the top of opposition defence for fast players like CA, AA to run onto to at least give the opposition something to think about and push them back. I think RM has to go but who to replace him....

I don't understand the link between Cornet coming in as a replacement for KWP. Cornet played as a winger or straight up top for Burnley (as he did when scoring thohse goals against Saints). So why are people saying that he is left wing back? He is not a defender of any kind in my books.

Tom Fellows would be a great signing. Quick and ... end product!

On the topic of the youngsters, perhaps the best option (in hindsight) was to have a couple on the bench, especially for home games and bring them on when we were 3 up (which we were a few times last season). You can bring on the more experienced players from the bench in close games. Too late now as I don't expect us to be 3 up in many, if any games this coming season. That said, they probabaly aren't good enough. Too many have not set the world alight when on loan in Leagues 1 or 2, so are hardly going to do much for us. At that point, we should just sell and move on. I still am more baffled by our strategy on the GK front. Why did we sign Lis? Lumley? Surely we should sign players who can compete for the no.1 position or are young and have potential.