doddisalegend

Or Armstrong. Armstrong is clearly an attacking midfielder behind the striker kind of player swapping to 4-4-2 has left him without a role in the team. edit. just seen your next post.

Redmond has apparently created the most goal scoring chances in the squad this season and has zero assists... maybe he figured it was a waste of time trying to tee it up for our useless strikers to smash into the corner flag or row z....

That's part of the problem though you look through the whole squad and you realise their aren't really any major upgrades throughout the squad just a lot of players who are all pretty average. We all have our own ideas of best squad and formation but since Puel we've tried a lot of formations and almost ever member of the squad has had chances to make an impact and all have pretty much failed to do so. For example everyone is calling for Gabbi over Austin (no complaints from me) but you just know if Gabbi does get a run he'll still end up doing sweet FA. The only position in our squad that feels good enough for the PL is goalkeeper where we have two very good options now.

He'd turn to **** after three games for us we seem to have a knack of ruining players these days.

I think you'll all be disappointed again even if we do change manger. Three seasons and three new managers in a row and people are still going with the "A different manager could get these players winning" line. The players are poor, the squad is poor. We argue endlessly about what the team the manager should put out and yet no matter which combination of players we play in which formation we continue to be awful.

1st half was worst in a long time which is a real achievement given how poor we've been for some time. Second half was an improvement but not by much. I guess the only plus was a second clean sheet in a row. Not sure if that is down to Hoedt and Stephens improving or Newcastle's complete lacking of attacking intent though. Probably the easiest day McCarthy has had in a long time.

Well Hughes said when he took over we needed to be more direct I didn't realise he meant aimless hoofing up field...

Mo is no where near the worst player on the pitch Romeu, Austin and Bertrand are total crap today.

Ok I've endured some turgid ****e at SMS this last few seasons but that was one of the worst halves I can remember in a while. Two teams who will playing each other in the championship next season **** all quality from either team.

Confidence is massive if we could just put a few results together I think we would be alright this season. You can just feel the fans and players are just waiting for it to go wrong at home games these days. You can just see the players visibly deflate when it starts to go wrong on the pitch in games at the moment.

Nope I'm aware we are a tier 1 academy but I said at the time the new system was introduced it was a bad idea its just another way of giving advantage to a few select elite clubs (and you can count us as one of those if you like). And yes before you say it I'm aware we used to fiddle the old system by having a satellite academy in Bath but really I'd like to see catchment areas based on counties which would encourage local lads to play for local teams, if they turn out to be a talent they can always move to a big club latter. If you added more stringent homegrown rules it would be convincible you would see lots more squads with young local talent playing for them and increase the pool of English players available for the national team. Rather than all the English talent stock pilling at a few select clubs with a path way to the first team blocked by foreign import players.

god that what game was a real kick in the teeth...in a season full of games that left you feeling like you had taken a good kicking.

TBF that's a pretty tall order for any new signing especially in the current climate .

Bringing back catchment areas for academies would help to. The system they introduced a few years back allowed the big boys to start hoovering up all the young talent across the country closing out another way for clubs to compete with them. Its much harder for clubs to now have a strategy built on bringing through youth talent into the first team and selling them on later to help club finances when all the best talent in a clubs area is being snapped up by the likes of Chelsea before they turn 10.

Premier League is a million miles away from the Plymouth corner of England but Pilgrimage there is good for the soul https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/7585214/plymouth-argyle-premier-league-neil-ashton/

Whose the nicest young man, that your granny would like to have tea with, in PL football?

Less in it than you'd think though most people would have Jrod down as a much better finisher but over his career Brett average a goal every 3.81 games j-rod currently averages a goal every 3.68 a game (obviously j still has a few years of his career to go).

As pointed out, in the article I linked to, it would probably make **** all difference our players have failed to convert any of Redmond's chances (hence why your no assists stick is a lame one to beat him with hardly his fault our forwards are junk) why do you think they would be any better converting JWPs chances? this sums it up nicely from football 365 winners and losers article this week Southampton’s shooting But don’t think you are getting away with, sinning Saints. Southampton have had 124 shots this season; that’s the fifth most in the Premier League. Southampton have scored six goals this season; that’s the 18th most in the Premier League. Any team that converts 4.8% of its shots either needs to be bloody brilliant at the back or outrageously effective at creating clear-cut chances. Sadly, Southampton are neither. They better hope that the finishing gets better rather than the number of shots tails off, or they really could go marching in to the Football League. ttps://www.football365.com/news/premier-league-winners-and-losers-jose-mourinho-liverpool We are creating enough chances/shots we need players who can actually put them in the back of the net (and yes Redmond is a guilty as the rest of them on that score)

quite here is a stat The 24-year-old leads the way for Southampton when it comes to creating chances; Redmond has created 13 for his teammates this season, according to Squawka - good enough for 14th best in the Premier League and three more than Saints' next best, Danny Ings. Despite setting up 13 chances this season, Redmond is yet to register his first assist of the year - a pretty damning statistic for Southampton's forwards. https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2018/10/23/ac-southamptons-nathan-redmond-feels-refreshed-after-change-in-o/

Nice article for people who complain about how we used to beat the big sides all the time but don't anymore..... For the Premier League ‘big six’, beating the ‘other 14’ is easier than ever as resource gap grows https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/premier-league-manchester-united-city-liverpool-arsenal-chelsea-tottenham-big-six-a8601076.html

All three sides relegated last season changed their manager ( West Brom twice) didn't help any of them. Its not that I'm against changing a bad manager but people seem to think changing manager is some sort of magic sticking plaster that will changing things it doesn't always work out like that.

Watching match of the day highlights against Cardiff and ****ing hell Fulham's defence made saints defence look like a well drilled Italian defence. Hoedt and Stephens looked like world beaters compared to Fulham's calamity defence in that game.

If saints need a win to avoid relegation on the last day of the season from 30 yards out there is only one ex player I want in that position and his name starts with M...

And only four teams in the league have had more shots than us this season. More amazing is it's now three seasons in a row where we have been near the top of the league for shots and near the bottom of the league for actual goals scores. Three seasons in a row where we have had one of the worst shots to goals conversion rates in the league....no wonder we've struggled.

Southampton's Nathan Redmond feels refreshed after change in outlook https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2018/10/23/ac-southamptons-nathan-redmond-feels-refreshed-after-change-in-o/ The 24-year-old leads the way for Southampton when it comes to creating chances; Redmond has created 13 for his teammates this season, according to Squawka - good enough for 14th best in the Premier League and three more than Saints' next best, Danny Ings. Despite setting up 13 chances this season, Redmond is yet to register his first assist of the year - a pretty damning statistic for Southampton's forwards.