Tommy Mulgrew

Sorry, no. I think it was a viaplay one but I think you cannot now watch the Saturday matches.

I think you’ll find they will be in the squad in the Championship next year: hardly a massive waste; more like a wastelet. It strikes me that Macca is much better than Rambo in coming for crosses and generally commanding the goal area. Perhaps not so for near-post shots, though. Looking forward to see how he does against Stoke on Tuesday. Ditto BBD.

Indeed, he said it again yesterday after the match and seemed proud and brave to have done so. In his speech, no sign of the pragmatism that he displayed in the play-offs last season. But I have to say that I believe that I can detect a more direct evolution of our usual slow and ponderous way of playing out from our goal area in the last couple of games. We now seem to play a lot more on the break than we have done hitherto. And that is not just because MC dominated possession against us. What we need to do in the forthcoming games is to dominate possession much further up the pitch, well away from our goal. It was notable that yesterday we seemed happy to fanny about with the ball in our penalty area, let alone merely in our half, whereas MC were determined to dominate possession only in our half. Hence the game being played almost entirely in our half of the pitch. We defended heroically for the most part but we’re fortunate to escape with only a 1:0 defeat. I have watched a Dutch stream of the match and at half-time the commentators spent most of the break analysing the mistakes in our attempts to pass our way up the pitch. It lasted a lot longer than Walcott’s analysis of our successful attempts. I hope we go into the Stoke and Everton games with confidence and a willingness to play with pace and more directly forward to the three furthest-forward players.

That is a seriously good result for a team playing over an hour with 10 men against a big-name team unbeaten in the first eight games.👏 30% possession, 19 shots and 7 on target v. 70%, 14 and 3. Stoilov obviously does not believe in Russball. The two promoted teams are 5th and 6th after 9 games. I wish it were like that in this country. BTW, until now I did not realise that Lis is captain. Juan played 70 minutes and Victor Hugo was subbed-on at 94 minutes.

Really? I have to say that from what I have seen so far the reverse is true. And we are much, much better at this style than when we started. The problem is that the style is shite. And you mention courage. I rather think that doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for a different result is insanity. And the longer he is here, the less likely we are to win a game. IMO, of course. (I’m now half expecting us to beat Citeh.) Good try, though, Gio. 👏

Just like us, England women shoehorn their Captain,Williamson, into the no6 shirt, and with much the same result as with us, in the first half v. Germany. But, look who Germany have at no6! (Sorry, I had to laugh.) 😀

Mbappe or Lewandowski on a player-coach basis for the rest of the season. Just what the doctor ordered. 😜

He was an unused sub away to Dagenham on Tuesday. Vokins was subbed on in the 92nd minute and provided the assist for the equalising goal. Good to see the club doing so well under Kelvin.

Lyanco lasted the whole 95 minutes without getting a yellow or red card. I think he might have been more of a right-sided CB in a 3:4:2:1 formation, with Scarpa (nice name) as RWB. Athletico won 3:0. Football gains from characters such as him, whether he plays for your team or not. I enjoyed his time here even though he was frustrating at times. Good luck to him in the second leg, hopefully final and beyond.

Ah! So, we’re majority owned by the Serbian Baldrick. Now it all makes sense. And our Rasmus is Rowan Atkinson in disguise. So, the suggestion of Frank Spencer is not so silly after all. I now know why SR find it all so difficult. 😇

Sulemana had just walked slowly forward towards the edge of the area, while other defenders had rushed forwards, and therefore played (I think two) Leicester players onside. Just saying - I don’t blame Sully for the defeat. That was down to RM’s failure to set us up defensively and to bring on the right subs. And, secondly, inept and apparently biased referring. As already mentioned dozens of times on here already.

Serious injury for Fleetwood player. 4 goals scored in injury time. Saints win 4:1.

VAFC lost 2:0. Took off 2 defenders and brought on 2 midfielders in 88th minute when 1:0 down to a 29th minute goal and, very Saintsily conceded a goal at 90+4 to lose 2:0. No doubt Christophe will explain how the game went.

Right, Alex Clapham it is then. “RA, on the phone straight away and get him in pdq.”

Blimey: SRL certainly has a sizeable beer belly.

IMO, the squad we have now is no worse than the one that Ralph had and he managed to keep us up, mostly by some margin. Unless Martin changes his apparently preferred style of ponderous passing the opposition (and crowd) to death - almost entirely in our half of the pitch - I have no doubt that we shall get relegated. So far, he has given no indication that he will. Given Ralph’s example, another manager could very well keep us up. It is definitely worth a try. Even though your record of appointing managers so far is dismal, come on SR, roll the dice. 🙏

He watches them play only when he ought to bring on a substitute or two or to tell them to play differently. He is the one who before every match tells them how to play; and look how that turned out so far this season.

Ralphball at its best. 😉

https://www.footballinsider247.com/exclusive-southamptons-board-holding-russell-martin-talks/ Some movement reported at last but not especially definitive. Too many ifs and buts for my liking. But here’s hoping. 🤞

I don’t usually disagree with you, trews, but this time I do (if I may be so bold). Charlton has a manager who is offering to resign; hence, “I wish we were Charlton!”. (Agree about Jones, though.)

We’re pretty much where you would expect: equal bottom of the table. ”I wish we were Everton!”

At present and with the way that we play, we are by far the weakest team in the league. Wolves, although below us on goal difference, have scored three away from home at Brentford. Everton, Ipswich, Leicester and Palace are picking up draws and Everton and Leicester have even won a game. We have not even looked like winning; we could not score against 10-man Newcastle and although we came close to beating Ipswich we were second-best in most aspects of that game; they more than deserved to draw. Other relegation-threatened teams have shown commendable levels of grit and determination to grind out results whereas Russball completely drains our side of fighting spirit and magnifies mistakes that even our better players make in our half (Sugawarra and Downes most recently). We just have to adjust the style of our play away from faffing around in and near our penalty area and get the ball up the pitch a lot more quickly, avoiding having to face 10 men defending in front of us and us recycling the ball back to Rambo from promising attacking positions/free kicks in their half. Russ has had long enough to learn those and other lessons - lots of other posts have talked about the ways in which we can get more competitive - and, if he cannot get a grip and get us firing in a high-tempo, high pressing way, he has to be sacked. He could do far worse than to watch and learn from some of the Ralph, Koeman and Poch games against Arsenal and Man City to see how to get points from the most unlikely sources. IMO, we need at least nine more points before the end of November to have any chance of avoiding relegation. I wish I were confident that RM could deliver them. From what I have seen so far, I think he cannot. We need to get someone who can. Sadly, I don’t trust SR to do it. 😩😡😥🥺

The BBC lineup, but with Taylor instead of Manning, is not a bad one, tbf. But Manning fgs!

It won’t be “one nil to the AAARSenal” tomorrow, though, will it? Time for RM to get Ralph’s playbook out. It got us a few good results against Arsenal and Man City when we used to press high and break fast.

Calling gio; calling gio. Are you out there? I hope you are not ill and are well enough to post on here. I know several dozen people who are hoping to hear from you. I, for one, am interested in what you have to say. 🫣 🤞