goodymatt

I don’t think he’s chucked the diamond out first game away at Liverpool with 3 CBs on the pitch. Need actual wingbacks to play that system and we only have one fit to make the entire squad.

It’s very interesting that Jones mentioned his father in law was giving him pointers whilst watching the Newcastle game “for when he goes in”. So perhaps the rumours of us approaching during the summer were correct and it’s not that he wasn’t ready to accept (as rumoured) but that perhaps we weren’t ready to make that call on Ralph at that time? Might just be a slip of the tongue (or maybe they watched the game back on demand together?), but it could suggest he’s been waiting in the wings for a bit. Hopefully that means he’s seen a fair amount of us this season and has a head start on what he thinks we need to change, outside of the obvious no clean sheets and no goals. I’m sure we would all love to see an identity back in this team, when Ralph and Poch instilled our new ways of playing it was a breath of fresh air. I think this video has been shared before on this forum (perhaps even on this thread), but it’s a 2 hour podcast (also on apple etc) interviewing our new manager on his playing career and managing career, whilst he was taking a break post Stoke sacking. I’m half way though so far and it’s proving a good insight into his character and background. Well worth a watch even though it’s a long one.

Players have shown the early signs of buying into his ideas Gutted for Prowsey but will help his prep as he’s an ultimate professional, Prowsey is going to give his all to the new project Scored very highly on Rasmus’ metrics and appreciates he’s not a big name and it’s a more calculated data driven appointment Wants to address the clean sheets issue and then build to be an aggressive attacking team Will review the squad, see if there are underperforming players that he can get more out of but has support to add players. Meeting to be had with board soon. Gives his all to a football club and is confident he will be a success. When asked about being a good choice for if we went down he wouldn’t entertain relegation and it hasn’t been mentioned during his interview process. Sure I’ve missed bits, but generally a composed and well managed press conference. But more encouraging.

Extra 3 players going to this tournament, with fitness issues around Philips and Hendo. He’s the best free kick taker and would score a pen if needed unlike some. Poor form this season is true but this is largely down to missing a decent CDM partner for many games due to Romeu sale and injury to Lavia IMO. He’s not been able to fully play to his strengths and it has made him overly cautious without that protection. Other players are being picked on historical form, such as Maguire but Prowsey’s 15 PL goal contributions, running further, intercepting lots etc are just forgotten. For his position and in a hot and cold team like Saints, statistically he’s been good enough to go to both tournaments. I think Southgate has just further demonstrated that if you’re a Saints player you need to move to a perceived bigger club and be a bit part player, a la Philips in order to guarantee selection. I wouldn’t be surprised if Prowsey wanted to do that in the summer, which would be a crying shame. I’m definitely guilty of some Saints bias, but generally I think he’s unfortunate to have missed both major tournaments.

Stuey

Walcott has 2 cleared off the line and Armstrong hits the bar with DCC not able to guide in the rebound. We’re getting closer but pens are approaching fast.

Pens

Am i right in thinking Wednesday haven’t had a single shot in the second half?

Yesterday was an example of us missing big chances and leaving gaps as we searched for a goal. I think that doesn’t help Bazunu. However, statistically he is conceding a lot of shots on target, very much like Gunn and McCarthy were doing too. Bazunu at least sweeps and plays out better than both of those, albeit with the odd poor clearance (one per game in the last few matches). You can see he has a lot of potential, but it’s hard to disagree that this was probably the riskiest of positions to go with youth and at the moment I’m not sure the risk is paying off. I’d bet a lot of money that he will go on and have a much better career than McCarthy though.

I thought Gallardo was still working for River Plate until December, so if a new manager was in charge by this weekend it couldn’t be him? it’s encouraging if we have Ralph’s replacement already sorted. Changes behind the scenes, has to be Semmens right?

Ralph’s last home game? Will be interesting to see what he does at the full time whistle.

Full Redmond article from the athletic here for those who are subscribers: https://theathletic.com/3757881/2022/11/06/nathan-redmond-southampton-besiktas-future/?source=user_shared_article Does sum up the way the fanbase seem to think about Ralph now. He came in and energised the whole club but his one dimensional tactics were found out and we’ve never been consistent as a result. Redmond talks about no attacking output from all that pressing and I think that’s a good benchmark for the players losing belief in the only tactic that’s worked well for Ralph. Ultimately Ralph has been a likeable character that has performed well with no budget but his ideas have run out and we are desperate for a fresh start with a new manager. In hindsight this should have been the summer, it has to be during this World Cup break to give a new manager time to implement his ideas during a mini pre season. It’s taken me a while to see it but it’s time to change.

That’s a cheap pen that, would be fuming if that was given against us. Also not sure how their keeper didn’t save the pen!

Forest grab a late equaliser. Late winner for Citeh too.

We are pretty low quality wise atm but I did see plenty of fight in the Bournemouth and Arsenal games. Gritty though, not all out attack to go and win games like Leeds have shown this afternoon.

Comes across really well in that interview. This very sad story explains why his career stalled a bit at Bayern and why he ultimately needed to come to Saints to get momentum back in his career. Playing well for Spurs by all accounts, just wish we had got true value for him when it was time for him to move on from our stepping stone.

Ralph mind games perhaps? 😉

I wonder how replacing him is going? My bitter side hopes that Chelsea eat him up, as is their way.

https://instagram.com/stories/southamptonfc/2957478386757031257?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= Can’t see Romeo Lavia at the open training session today, I thought he was now back training with the first team?

It’s so important we stay up this season to let these youngsters develop and help us climb the table. It would be such a waste to go down and have to sell the best ones off. That’s the risk we take I suppose, Bazunu looks like a good one so far to me.

So how much % of the club does she now own? It’s decreased from 20% with this summer’s investment in the team but to what? Is there a minimum stake she will hold or does another window of investment buy her out fully? All a bit vague and leaving me with more questions!

We seem to have an annual habit of getting a result with a depleted team against a top 4 opponent. It’s frustrating that we can’t play like that second half every week, maybe confidence is building in that direction now. Really proud of that second half performance, all we ask for is for the players to give 100% and go for it. Well deserved point indeed. I particularly enjoyed Arteta’s reaction to our goal on Sky, he went full Tony Adams training session antics. DCC and Lyanco have great physical presence is the absence of ABK. They had great games yesterday. However, they do both give me that feeling that they could make a rash decision. Lyanco often put the ball out of play under no pressure, I wouldn’t agree that he can play CDM. Fair play to Moi, that second half performance is why he’s in the team, didn’t think he had that in him at all. Perraud is a terrier and is growing into the LB nicely, great to see.

Today feels like a day where the best we can ask for with our depleted squad and their form is a bit of pride in how we approach the game. Arsenal should be comfortable winners today but stranger things have happened. I miss the gung ho pressing monster tactics that can work so well against bigger opponents. Our identity is missing atm and it makes for low entertainment games. That being said a repeat of April’s 3 point robbery will do nicely under the circumstances.