StrangelyBrown

I'm still not sure why anyone thought Spors was going to be the 'man'? His record hadnt been decent for quite a while.

Sounds like the Japan national coach has done us a huge favour!

He finished 4th in a 3 horse race with us so he has form

Seems silly to prejudge this one. On paper he looks like a safe option for this year and the jury is out of we get promoted. Fundamentally we need a new right back and we've now got one.

Are you thinking Eze to Arsenal is a smokescreen for us to sell Dibling to Everton so that we can buy Romeo???? 😄

I'm not sure why everyone seems to have them as the best team on paper. I may be blinkered, but how many of their players get into our side?

Good point away against one of our rivals. Shit defending and a lack of cutting edge from us, but some real positives too. Flynn and Shea look really good. Robinson again looked exciting. I'd like to see Manning start ahead of wellington and Arma looks lost so we need someone else up top.

Agreed. Feels like we've still got a lot of business to do on the selling side - we could do with shifting BBD, ABK, Aribo, Smallbone and Edozie sooner rather than later and then we've still got the big 2 who will inevitably go.

I'm genuinely interested in your perspective btw (not trying to be a dick).... I'm assuming you are thinking we should have played a back 4? In which case who is the extra body you would have picked in midfield and who are the players who you would have played wide in midfield or would you have gone narrow? From my perspective we're really lacking in wingers. Arguably Frazer can play wide and Dibling and Edozie can but the latter 2 aren't really featuring. Armstrong, Robinson and Archer are more like inside forwards, which is what I think Still is referring to when he says he hasn't got the right squad yet.

Are you implying he won't be flexible? The way I see it is that he's inherited a squad that is built for a certain style of play and to adapt he needs some new players capable of doing different things. This isn't on Still - it's on Spors and the recruitment team. Hopefully Rasmus is nowhere to be seen ...

Brooks has been properly decent. Much better than the other number 7 on the pitch!

I can't see how we could do better with available players at the moment.

And a GK

Switch to 4 at the back, take BBD off and bring on Frazer or Robinson, take off Edwards or sugawara and bring on either Downes or Matsuki. Give Downs 10 mins and replace with Arma. Simples

BBD really is crap. Looks terrible against a league 2 side. McCarthy equally dreadful. Sooner we dump the pair of them the better.

Lol. Great fishing... I'll bite. If you watch every chance that Wrexham had in the first half Stephens was in the wrong place. He had a poor game other than the goal and the 2 tackles - 8 out of 10 my arse.

Pleasantly surprised. We did things today that we didn't see last year: we attacked a lot, we showed real character to deal with adversity, substitutions were all positive and most importantly we didn't just sit back and accept it wasn't our day or even accept a draw. Focusing on the positives - Charles and Downes are going to boss most games this year, Robinson is looking already like he will develop into a serious player and Baz pulled off one of the best saves I've seen in a while. Well done Saints!

I wonder how much it costs Disney to sponsor the ref?

Perhaps it's because of the excessive bellendery of Martin and his media lovies? Just like Liverpool - they get more than their share of hate because of the same thing.

To me it seems like a good deal for everyone. It's clear he has tonnes of potential, but I'm not convinced our playing style suits him at the moment (his work rate isn't high enough) so I don't think he'll develop as well here. We get some money to invest in players who are better suited to what Will Still is trying to achieve. Plus we've still got Robinson who as you say seems better suited to us at the moment.

Ha ha. Looks like Martin has lost it already and the Rangers fans have already worked him out... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c6276r0v470o You'd think he might have learned something from him time here, but apparently not.

I remember reading analysis about 5 at the back when Conte was at Chelsea and the really key thing is having intelligent players at CB who know when to step up into midfield and how to mark effectively when there is one or more men spare. This for me is our downfall - we've relied on players like THB, Stephens and bednarek to be those intelligent players.... Hopefully Edwards and Quarshie have a bit more about them.

Even with the "dross" we still have a very good championship squad - the only major concerns for me this season are a decent keeper and some creativity when Fernandes and dibling inevitably go. Defensively we look ok, the central midfield engine is pretty strong at this level and we have plenty of players who can score in the championship. Next season however we need to start thinking about and we really aren't anywhere near other than Ramsdale maybe coming back.

Great stuff!!! Well done to the saints boys.

Why do we have to gamble? We've spent a lot of money, but we've spread it across a lot of "investments". The only sensible thing we've done recently is sign Ramsdale for £25m - showing we are capable of buying PL quality. The gamble paid off with Fernandes, but that's it. Just imagine if rather than wasting money on Onuachu and sulemana we'd put that same money and wages into one better forward. Or instead of spending on BBD and Archer we'd have pooled that money and wages into another better player. I'm pretty sure we'd be in a stronger position. I can't see what we're trying to achieve by gambling on vast numbers of players unless somehow we think we're cleverer than everyone else and that somehow we're going to unearth gems that somehow no one else has spotted.