benali-shorts

jesus. we watched elyanoussi 30 times before signing him. was stevie wonder scouting for us?

"fit" superfluous

Great. Big Tits is on.

targett's decision-making is utterly abysmal.

i hate yoshida

I think we were focused on Emery post Koeman, and Tuchel post Puel, to no avail (and slightly unrealistically too).

Agreed, what was considered 'well-organised' ten years ago has been superceded massively now and not sure coaches like Hughes have enough in their locker to compete these days. Pochettino was clearly superb at organising training, but also had a major impact in uniting staff (playing and otherwise) on and off the pitch. Koeman seemed more abrasive; Puel less influential off the pitch; Pellegrino seemed lost. Hasenhuttl clearly from Pochettino's style camp, which bodes well. Looking forward to his impact throughout the club.

The main crux of the article: A lot of preparation and careful attention to detail has gone into the training.He breaks down the main aims of his training while at RB Leipzig; the four aspects to their game that they always wanted to get better at – pressing, ball possession, positioning, and what to do when you lose the ball. “Every opposition needs to be played in a different way and the formation depends on the opposition’s strengths. But we trained [mostly] with 4-2-2-2, 4-4-3 and 3-4-3 because we could adapt that for most games.” “Leipzig playing against the ball is famous because of the perfect symmetry in their rows. It is a very intensive way to defend because we have a very high number of players to attack the ball, and [when they win the ball from the opposition] the whole team has to be prepared in where they have to be and how to attack. The team has to be perfectly aligned. The distance between the single players should create triangles and all across the pitch they have the option to pick and choose from these three angles to maybe force the opponent to lose the ball, “ he says. “To learn this takes a lot of automatism and [this] requires the most amount of time in training.” The trademark of his Leipzig, apart from their pace, was their dynamism and the resultant unpredictability. His players were well-drilled in playing between the lines and in the half-spaces between opposition players. “We created different levels when we had the ball, showing the players how and where to position themselves and how the lines need to be. We had a few principles: maximum height, minimum width; over-playing opponents; deep runs to get the ball behind the last line; as little contact, few touches as possible, try for no more than two. “The aim was to capture the ball, switch and quickly advance, in not more than 10 seconds. Of course, it depends on where on the pitch we win the ball. Lots of possibilities. We scored a lot of goals in this manner in their first season. Lots of early and intense pressing.” Then came the second season where more was expected from them because opponents knew how to play against them. “[in the second season] we often got the ball in the middle third or the last third. We needed new strategies. One of the biggest developments was us keeping possession for longer.” In time, they added a fifth aspect to their training programme. Dead balls. He points at the World Cup over the summer and talks about how it showed the relevance of having players adept in dead-ball situations, especially when both teams are evenly matched. “We have small players and sometimes we struggled.” All of this information went into a guidebook prepared by him and his team of trainers. It was updated with new information after every game. Careful, meticulous, intensive; just like Ralph Hasenhuettl.

Hasenhuttl on his training ands tactics: https://www.footballparadise.com/talking-ralph-hasenhuettl-leipzig-superhero-alps/

Profile in the Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/12/03/ralph-hasenhuttl-favourite-southampton-job-profiled/

Matt Hughes again. January should be fun.....wonder whose name has been circulated. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/investigation-into-craig-klines-corruption-allegations-against-fa-and-fulham-sl0zxvp2k Southampton’s January sales Southampton are planning to sell players during next month’s transfer window to raise money to fund signings. The new owner, Gao Jisheng, is unwilling to put additional money into the club, having paid £210 million for an 80 per cent stake last year, and has told Southampton’s management team that there will have to be sales if reinforcements are required, leading them to begin circulating the names of unwanted players to European clubs. Southampton are also reluctant to pay a release clause to secure a replacement for Mark Hughes if the manager is sacked. As a result they have focused their search on individuals who are out of work, leading them to speak to Paulo Sousa, the former Queens Park Rangers, Swansea City and Leicester City manager, as revealed by The Times last week.

4-2-3-1 Cedric Stephens Hoedt Bertrand Hojbjerg Romeu Redmond Lemina Targett Ings At the very least there's width, and Lemina gets to play further upfield where he could cause damage. A sorry reflection on our signings that Targett seems the best option to provide width.

Our next away win will be a Portman Road in February 2020. 1-0, courtesy of on own goal by Frans Thijssen.

According to Ross's new algorithm, Darren Powell will be worth £37m in two seasons' time, so he is our man.

Must be vestergaard. None of our midfielders who didn't make the team can tackle.

“Overloaded with impressive centre backs”. Spellcheck cruelly putting ‘impressive’ instead of mediocre.

As alternative, slightly less depressing, ideas - Rui Faria or Zeljko Buvac. Both want to step up to head coach role. Both aren't Steve Bruce.

Excellent.

Nope

Benali Biryani My q: which saints player has a first class degree in Chemistry?

Liv unluckiest, then Brighton, then Saints/Newcastle (4 point swing). It brought back painful memories of Doucoure's handball..... Odd that there's no VAR given the poor standard of refereeing last season. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45087444 Premier League table 17-18 'Luck Index' simulated table 17-18 Manchester City 100 Manchester City 97 Manchester United 81 Liverpool 87 Tottenham 77 Tottenham 77 Liverpool 75 Manchester United 75 Chelsea 70 Arsenal 71 Arsenal 63 Chelsea 70 Burnley 54 Burnley 50 Everton 49 Newcastle 48 Leicester 47 Brighton 46 Newcastle 44 Everton 44 Crystal Palace 44 Crystal Palace 42 Bournemouth 44 West Ham 41 West Ham 42 Watford 41 Watford 41 Leicester 40 Brighton 40 Southampton 40 Huddersfield 37 Bournemouth 38 Southampton 36 Stoke 37 Swansea 33 Huddersfield 37 Stoke 33 Swansea 34 West Brom 31 West Brom 33

....and there we are.

Is it time to start speculating that Hughes has delayed signing to screw a better transfer budget? Hmmm....

Hughes done and confirmed Friday. He’s earned it, let’s hope it goes well.

Yes, I wondered the same. There's probably a shelf life for the Director of Football role (for both parties) and a move for Les might suit both parties if Gao wants to re-structure here too, which would be understandable. I suspect a summer of re-structuring lies ahead regardless of what league we end up in.