Tommy Mulgrew

And Manning!

I think England might benefit from Slovakian players being distracted: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-13579421/Meet-former-Miss-Slovakia-national-team-England-Euro-2024.html Either that or Slovakia might be inspired to raise their, er, game.

Worrying that we have allowed all that to happen. 7 players have already left and one still in contract discussions. Only destination club to be announced yet is Rafferty to Glasgow Rangers. We shall do extremely well to be in contention for promotion next season with 7 or 8 new starters in a team of 11. Who did the manager report to and why was nothing done until the announcement that she would step down? And why so slow in getting a replacement? Lots of questions and so far little in the way of answers.

Another 18 year-old: https://www.caughtoffside.com/2024/06/20/premier-league-malick-junior-yalcouye/ Malick Junior Yalcouye. Looks a promising player.

Morris is the second woman to leave this month because of a failure to agree terms in discussion over a new contract, with the club apparently wanting to keep them both. Anyone know whether that is true, whether we are offering uncompetitive terms or whether it masks some underlying malaise?

Llama has 34 caps and 3 younger-age caps. Bednarek has 57 caps and 45 under-age caps. What twaddle you talk! 😉

Welcome Rachel Rowe https://fawslfulltime.co.uk/2024/06/14/former-rangers-midfielder-rowe-joins-southampton/ One out to Rangers, one in from Rangers https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/news/article/rowe-becomes-womens-first-summer-signing

My son spotted him in Westfield before the Leverkusen game and got a photo with him. Really nice guy who was happy to take the time to speak to us, said his plans for next season were definitely to come back and fight for a place in the squad unless the manager decides otherwise. Looks like he's had a great season for Southampton, I think he would have got plenty of minutes with us the way the season shaped up. Saw that on the WH forum. Unless he has changed his mind since then, it seems FD prefers to stay at WH, where he would be uncertain of starting games, instead of almost certainly starting for us. Unless their new manager does not like what he sees, I think we need to look elsewhere. (The COT might think differently, of course.) 🤐

For lovers of curls, Eric Martin and, for the Brylcream lovers, Ron Reynolds. And Kevin Keegan of course.

Hello Henrik!

That’s one of the few of your posts that I have agreed with. Things are looking up. The future, like the present, is red and white. I thought Martin had read this forum and based his play-off tactics on our advice but maybe he has studied Ancelotti instead. 🙂 Let’s all be optimistic of having a good season in ‘24/25.

Bedders has been excellent this season and has well earned another season with us in the EPL. One thing that impresses me especially is his care and concern for others, whether friend or foe. He is always first or thereabouts to anyone injured, especially if seriously hurt. I noted that he went up to Farke and consoled him after the match. Sheer class when everyone was euphoric over our victory. I hope he will do well for us next season; Martin seems to value him so I expect he will have a big part to play next season.

Some interesting stats in the Sky analysis of the forthcoming game: our passing figures for the season are half sideways (50:50 left:right), quarter (just over) forwards and quarter (just under) backwards. No wonder we have difficulty getting the ball up the pitch to threaten the opposition’s goal. Whitey might find those stats accord with what he sees. 🙏 But, hang on a minute, are they stats? Or are they facts? 😩 Phew, for a moment I thought that I had found some stats that he would accept. Better luck next time, perhaps. 👌

We’d better get promoted quickly, then, before Chelsea get relegated as a result of following its owner’s young-player strategy. 🙂

Last week, I looked at the OPTA ratings of us, Leicester, Leeds, WBA, Norwich and Ipswich and the bottom four EPL teams and, we were above only WBA, Norwich, Ipswich and Sheffield United. ( link on another thread.) The relegated teams will undoubtedly lose some good players but, if we do not go up, so shall we. So it will not necessarily be as easy to get promoted next year as it might seem just by looking at the points this year’s relegated teams achieved and saying that they cannot be as good as us. Just saying the obvious.

Fellows, or whatever his name was, was pretty fast last Sunday. Stephens is even slower than Manning and showing a winger a route away from our goal area and goal line is not his forte ; IMO Bree, or even Meghoma (I know that won’t happen), would be better. Regardless, think positive and enjoy the win.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c4n11qx654qo The stick we give Manning on here reminds me of another player who used to play FB for us: Paul Wootton, who has just been appointed manager of Torquay United. Good luck Paul.

Why do you want three CBs at home? Stephens to get some splinters. With only Flynn and Big Joe in midfield, we’ll be overrun. I’d start Charles or (so long as he is docked £10,000 each time he passes backwards and £1,000 each time he passes sideways) Smallbone alongside those two. LND will come on from the bench, not start. I’d not have Manning or Stephens exposed to their wingers; Bree at LB for me with Fraser or Edozie to start on the left in front of him. Start aggressively and with pace and we’ll be 3:0 up before WBA know what has hit them.

How is JR these days, Charles?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/cprgxj4zlneo Everton troubles continue to mount. What a shame!

A lot of the criticism of Russ’s PB football is about goals conceded and turgid play. The two are connected and the first partly results from the second. We probably pass the ball to each other more quickly than other teams in the Championship and that is admirable and impressive but the almost automatic passing is mainly sideways or backwards because opponents cut off the more obvious routes forward. Really good players with quick-witted vision for a killer forward pass are needed to work the ball quickly up the pitch to the opponent’s penalty area; either that or a long ball over the top down the middle or diagonally. We do the latter sometimes but not often. We do the former rarely. When we do we either, we cut incisively through the opposition with relatively few of our players high up th pitch. If we lose the ball, we generally have good cover for a counterattack on our goal. By going sideways or backwards, we give the opponent time to get all players behind the ball and when we tippy tippy the ball forward we have to commit our entire outfield player forward to break down the opposition defensive formation. If we lose the ball, the opposition counterattack can move quickly on our goal because we have overcommitted forward and attackers quickly bear down on an inadequate defensive shield in front of our goal. The result is a high proportion of opponents’ chances result in a goal and a blame the goalkeeper (and the manager and the defence and the midfield) culture among our fans. The more we mix up our play with a more direct approach, the more likely we are to pose a threat on our opponent’s goal and the more likely we are not to concede to a goal to the counterattack if we lose the ball up the pitch. It also reduces the likelihood of us losing the ball in or near our penalty area. Football is a simple game. At present we are making it difficult.

Now that Goztepe will play in the top Turkish league next season I thought we should have a thread dedicated to that club. One of our loanees already plays in goal and excelled this season just ended and another is being talked about for next season. The VFC thread seems to work well and has proved useful IMO and I hope this one will, too. Goztepe has a large fan base and some of them might like to read stuff or contribute on here.

McCarthy is an experienced Premiership and Championship goalie; RM has ignored him until two weeks ago. I agree Bazunu has been poor. Except for letting in a free kick tamely, Lumley has been good this season in his limited game time. Macca is our obvious first and low-risk choice, even for a PB team. Bednarek is a Polish international with over 50 caps I think and he and THB are absolutely quality at this level. Stephens is acceptable, but no more, as a third CB and fullback cover. KWP is excellent in both attack and defence; his defending understandably suffers the more energy he spends on attack (I lost count of the number of times he bombed forward against Stoke and then had to bomb back again to defend) and he is exhausted towards the end of each match. Bree is good at this level. Manning is fine going forward but poor defensively. Meghoma is preferable to me and has done well each time he has played IMO. Downes is Premiership level. Charles, although young, is an Irish international and is good in this league either alongside Downes or as a sub for him. Smallbone is a powderpuff player who should not be at DM. For a Championship team, even one vying for promotion, I believe we have no right to expect any better than what we have, Manning and Bazunu excepted and we do not have to keep having those two in the starting eleven. Bazunu is now injured and Bree, Stephens or Meghoma could play instead of Manning. Whatever you or I think of our defensive capabilities, the number of goals that we have conceded is criminal. Only this year have I noticed how we hardly ever try to close down wide attacking players and seem to invite crosses into our box. That is not because of the quality of our players; it is surely how they have been told to play. It would not be difficult to improve our defensive performance: you or I could even do it.

If asked before the season began or, indeed, at the end of September, whether I would take having to beat Cardiff away and then Stoke at home to go into the final game away to Leeds on 90 points, equal to Leeds, either level with or one or three behind second-placed Ipswich, seven behind leaders Leicester and eleven ahead of the next team, I think I would almost certainly said yes. And I think most on here would, too. That was our situation after the disappointing defeat at Leicester. Even after that defeat and our disastrous February, we were still in a place that was IMO broadly acceptable to most fans. We should try to overlook the recency effect of Cardiff and Stoke. The trouble is that although the performance as a whole is broadly acceptable, acknowledging the inability to secure promotion yet, the number of goals conceded is not, considering the quality of our defensive players, and so is the number of good chances spurned. Added to that, the alarming number of games that we have dominated only to draw or lose and the tedious way we approach almost every game, even when trying to score an injury time winner or equaliser, and is it any wonder that I and many other fans are hacked off with the way it has gone? RM deserves credit for establishing the groundwork for a successful season after the shambles of last year but he has persistently not learned from what he has seen on the pitch and adjusted his preferred modus operandi to get the results that our promotion objective demand. He and his players make the same mistakes over and over again. Hence the ire on this forum from most posters. With small adjustments here and there, we could have achieved so much more. Either he cannot see it or he is wantonly ignoring the obvious. Whichever it is, that is unacceptable. Even if we do by some miracle win the playoffs. To do that, though, we need him and the players to step up and show some guts and gumption, show passion and desire and go and win each game (pace Whitey G). So far this year I have not seen much of that; now is the time that really counts. Thank goodness promotion is still within our reach. Give him and the team our full support until the last second of our season. Then, and only then, decide whether we want to have him as our manager next season.

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