redkeith

Looking at Aribo sat on the bench, not a trace of sweat on him. Lazy lazy sod.

This year we have seen Saints not go for a win in a number of must win games. This time, even though it was only a slim mathematical chance that we could stat up, they didn't didn't turn up at all. Maybe 3 or 4 players put a shift in but the rest were rank. Don't think I have ever felt so detached from what I was watching. Felt much more involved watching Real Sociadad V Gerona beforehand. HTH -15 points - 16 goal difference. Match day -16 points and -16 goal difference. Next up is Brighton away, where we drew 2 all last year and Tino picked up that terrible injury. We have no chance, the way we are playing this year, let alone when having nothing to play for. I might watch this if he ditches AMN,Ely AA etc and puts Doyle, Payne and Ballard on the bench. If not ... The equivalent Match Day was a tame 2.1 defeat at home to Liverpool reserves.

I think they are complaining that he hasn't gone 2 up front, not picking on tall Paul.

Well, although that was entertaining, it turns out that you need more than a number 3 on your shirt to play at left back. The AMN tombola choice was even more insane when you know that Forest's danger man plays on the right wing ! HTH -14 points - 10 goal difference. Match day -16 points and -16 goal difference. Next up is Fulham at Home. This equates to the 2 all draw at home to Burnley last year. The corresponding matchday the appalling 3 nil defeat at Brentford ( no to be confused with this years appalling 3 nil defeat at Brentford). I hope that, now that we need snookers to stay up, he chucks out some those that we know won't be here next year, AMN, Walcott, Adams, Orsic and Elyonousi, as well as some that are just shit, and are blocking the path of the youngsters, like Aribo, and AA. JWP, Lavia and Alcarez have to play, because we have no-one else, but I would like to see Payne, Morgan and Ballard get a place on the bench.

Mara ignored for Adam Armstrong ffs. He hasn't had a look in since he scored against City. Would rather have Barnard at Left Back than AMN.

I hate him too, but in a league like the Championship, I could see a role for a nasty sod like Barnes to streetwise the likes of Morgan, Mara and Ballard.

I think that managers can choose to be paid the contract monthly, like Mark Hughes did with us. He didn't even do any media work I this period, just bled us dry. Otherwise, I think like any divorce, a settlement can be made.

Any Reading players worth looking at ? Can't believe we didn't go after Olise when he was there. Joa always looked useful up front. Better than AA at least .

True to my word, I watched Man City instead, although this a game that you could understand us being more defensive than AT HOME TO BOURNEMOUTH AND CRYSTAL PALACE ! Apparently we were ok in the first half, but chose in the 2nd half to show any potential new manager that we can't defend in a block of 8/9 . We also showed the match losing substitution of brining on the worst 2 players in our previous 2 matches. HTH -14 points - 10 goal difference. ( I was wrong in the previous post it was a 2 2 draw. Where is MLG when you need him? ) Match day -16 points and -16 goal difference. Next up is should be the dictionary definition of a must win game, away at Forest. Shame that we have already thrown in the towel. The corresponding matchday was a drab 2 1 home defeat to Palace, while the head to head equivalent is Norwich Away, also a 2 1 loss. Big chance to make up sound ground on last years results. Fat chance more like.

One all and he brings on our 2 worst players?

God that was awful. I know a lot of people don't rate Perraud, but we got even worse after he went of injured. Hope they give the new left back in the B team a run until the end of the season. Start looking towards next year. HTH -13 points - 7 goal difference. Match day -15 points and -14 goal difference. Next up is free scoring Saudi Arabia/Newcastle. Their away kit last night is a real Fuck You to the Premier League for trying to block the sportswash. I fear a new record defeat, with Elyonousi as a midfield general. Last year was a 3 nil defeat I think. The corresponding matchday was Brighton away, a 2 all draw . Fat chance of matching that result. I will not watch another game where we play with false 9's.

Useless, gutless frightened rabbit c€£s. I will not even bother to watch a dodgy stream until we start with a forward and not a false 9. The last 2 home games have been nothing short of pathetic. Selles is better than Jones, but only in the same way that I am a better footballer than Douglas Badder. Clear the lot out and sign some old pros to develop Doyle, Payne and Ballard. Must win game and we hardly laid a glove on them .

Perfect time for Forest to play Brighton, recovering from 120 minutes and loosing on penalties plus a load of injuries. Also helps that Forest are good at home, whereas Saints are shit.

Morgan Schniederlin

I couldn't bring myself to watch it, as I feared a hammering, and then I didn't want to jinx it a 2 nil up. Great performance until we ran out off legs. I would have bitten your hand of for a point on Friday morning. HTH -13 points - 7 goal difference. Match day -15 points and -15 goal difference. Bournemouth at home is very much a must win game, and we know how that normally turns out. Last year the equivalent HTH was Watford at home, a dreadful 2.1 defeat. The matchday was an equally dreadful 2 0 defeat at Burnley. Let's hope Selles takes a leaf out of the Alan Ball playbook. " Give the ball to Aclarez, he is your best player" .

Great read as always, would love to meet up for a pint next time I am back in the UK, whatever shit league we are in

That was shite, I didn't even see the chances we created in the first half due to constant buffering, so I had to wait until the next day to find out how Aribo fucked up that chance from the corner. HTH -14 points - 10 goal difference. Match day -13 points and -14 goal difference. Next up is Arsenal away was a 3 nil loss. . Last season it was a The corresponding ,match day last year was a Arsenal at home, a game that proved to be our last win of the season, although that was all down to FF. I am just about past caring.

How about a Month of the Goal competition ?

I would happily take schniederlin or Cork back, know the club, know the league and are good leaders. Norwood from t 'e blades would be a good fit. We are desperate for leadership in the middle, whether we say up or not.

Can't be arsed to watch this one. Will probably check out the team to see who has won the weekly shit player tombola to mysteriously get a starting berth. Hate Friday night football, which is a nuisance as there is more of it in the Championship.

Yes it was a bit of a lazy comparison between Luggy and Jones, long post. I liked Sturrock when he first arrived, we got some good results and played some good football. However, whatever he did in preseason completely baffled the squad. We were utterly hopeless up at Villa, and mates all said that day that we were getting relegated. He did win his last game thanks to a late penalty, but we were battered by Blackburn. It is a long time ago but felt like a game where we had 3 shots that all went in. He needed to go. With Jones, I was hopeful after the 2nd half at Anfield, but it turns out that it was because Liverpool are a bit shit lately. We showed nothing like that endeavour in any of his matches after the World Cup. He was hopeless, out of his depth in every way aside from having the right coaching badges. Worst Saints manager ever IMO.

You are being a bit MlG, I went for the year the season started, 2004 to 2005 and 2022 to 2023, just couldn't be arsed to type it every time. I also missed Kenton and Neilson from my list, no loss there! Can't remember Niemi being that bad, wasn't at Fratton, but I think the mismanagement from the top down has been just as bad in both seasons.

Last time Saints were relegated, they had accumulated a large squad of mediocre players as a result of trying to emulate the success of the £2 Million or less purchases of both Svensons and Anti Niemi. This season we seem to have tried unsuccessfully to repeat the success of Livramento. So how do the 2 squads compare ? Goalkeeper, 2004 -Niemi, Smith ,Blainey, Keller 2022 - Bazuna, McCarthy, Cabillero Niemi is, for me, the best ever Saint's keeper, so 2004 wins on this count, although this time we have far better cover. Right Back 2004, Dodd, Telfer, Cranie 2022 - KWP, Bree, AMN Dodd and Telfer had no legs by this stage, while Cranie showed great promise at that age, but proved to be a defender who matured early but didn't develop much further, so KWP wins this one. Left Back 2004 Le Saux, Bernard, Van Damme 2022, Perraud, Larios While Le Saux was a classy player, by this time his legs had completely gone, Bernard invented the term "Phoning in a performance" and Van Damme was better in the beer commercial. While Perraud is not the greatest, and when I saw Larios warming up at Bournemouth I thought he was the mascot 2022 wins this one. Centre Back 2004 Lundekvam, Higginbottom, Jackobsen, Davenport 2022 ABK, Salisu, DCC, Bednarek, Lyanco, The defensive strategy in 2004 must have been just hoping that Killer would recover from his injury. Claus is the only decent option here, but as we now know, he needed a strong partner. A fit pair of ABK and Salisu looked very promising, but hasn't happened often enough. The rest, all of whom have a ricket in them, are at least better than Jackobsen or Davenport. 2022 wins Midfield 2004 Oakley, Delap, Prutton, Folly, Redknapp, Quashie 2022 Lavia, JWP, Diallo, AMN, Oakley was a very good player, but injuries took their toll this season, Prutt's is a nice guy, but very average at PL level, Redknapp was good for 50 minutes and Quashie was a relegation specialist, he only failed in this at the Skates. Folly looked like a decent holding midfielder until Sturrock asked him to play box to box at Villa. Delap was a fantasy football dream player at Derby. With us he looked like the definition of a utility player, average in a number of different positions. JWP, although below par this year is still better than all those above and Lavia is the best young midfield talent we have had since Steve Williams. No real depth here and we really should have told Romeu that he would have to wait until January for his move due to the Lavia injury. 2022 wins again. Wide/Creative midfield 2004 - Mc Cann, A Svenson, Fernades, Griffiths 2022 - S Armstrong, Aribo, Orsic, Edozie, Djenepo, Sulemana, Walcott, Elyonousi, Alcarez Till I looked at the squad for 2004 I couldn't believe how week we were in this department. Anders was managed out by 'arry, maybe because he was nit with Willy McKay, or maybe because, as he went on to show for Sweden, he was a much better CM than the 2005 version of Jammie. Fabrice was never the same after being dropped for the Cup Final and Mc Cann was just awful. This year Stu has completely lost it, Edozie has still not made or scored a goal, Djenepo is still very random, likewise Sulemana. Aribo looked promising, but is soooo lazy that MLT looks like Nick Holmes by comparison. Theo has been ok for a month, Orisc is a mystery, how can someone bee so good for his country and in Europe, but not trouble Grimsby. Ely is ok at following instructions, but not at scoring or creating. Added to this criticism, most of these players prefer to cut in from the left. It is madness to have that number of squad players for the same spot. Alcarez looks like a player we should build the team around, great attacking instincts and for this reason 2022 wins, but in reality they are the worst 2 sets of creative players in Saints top flight history. Forwards 2004 - Phillips, Crouch, Ormeroyd, Camara, Best, Blackstock 2023 - A Armstrong, Adams, Mara, Onachu Hands down win for 2004 in this category, the only comparison I would make is that Che gets more goals than Brett, playing the same role. Managers 2004 - Sturrock, like NJ, out of his depth, Wigley, cheap, beat the Skates, Redknapp utter uninterested money grabing c@@@. 2022 - Ralph - lost the players in March 2022, NJ see Sturrock, Selles too defensive and often brings a knife to a gunfight. No winner in this category. The link seems to be an "innovative" recruitment strategy with glaring weaknesses being ignored. All very avoidable.

Put up a good fight for 44 minutes and a nice finish from Mara, but that's it really. HTH -14 points - 9 goal difference. Match day -13 points and -18 goal difference. If we don't beat Palace in the next home game, we will need snookers to stay up. I still worry that Selles will shoehorn Elyonousi somewhere. Last season was a tame 2.1 defeat to Palace, while the equivalent match day was the 6 0 loss to Chelsea, where Ralph decided to play a high line against Werner, and leave Mount unmarked because he is a smelly skate.

I know Selles likes to start with defensive wide men to delay conceding the first goal, but as Stu and Ely were both terrible last week so.... Baz KWP ABK/DCC Bednarek perraud Lavia AMN J WP Alcarez Sulemama Tall Paul Leaves us a bit open on the left , so Djenepo in for Sulemana if you want more cover. Sule and alcaraz to link up with Paul ,JWP to cross the ball high every time he gets the ball.