StrangelyBrown

We should have used the downs money for a striker...

Wow. Some staggering over-reaction on here. We absolutely battered Swansea, but are without any confidence and consequently nothing went in for us today. 20 odd shots - a lot on target and hitting the post twice (arguably 3 times). Some real positives: Scienza was fantastic, fellows was very lively when he came on, jelert and welington looked really good at wing back and the charles/Jander pairing is getting better. I also thought Archer looked lively enough, THB played some brilliant passes despite being a little off the pace and we kept a clean sheet. On the downside 3 CBs simply doesn't work because our players aren't good enough to recognise when we are being overrun in midfield and step up to help - whether that's one of the CBs or one of the wingbacks. Still needs to recognise this and do something about it. The other problem is confidence in front of goal - just a goal or two would fix this, but also St Mary's getting so edgy so easily can't help. The second half support really wasnt helping today.

On that basis you'd think that they'd recognise that putting the "assets" into the best environment to thrive would help maximise value... The vision (growth through selling talent) is ok but the strategy and execution is massively flawed.

Maybe it comes from the staff rather than the players? For example, I'm not sure Lallana and Carl Martin should still here after last year.

Agreed with this and also we don't have a leader - we need someone that looks after all the young players and lifts them when things don't go our way. Still alluded to the problem in the presser yesterday.

Agreed. You could see he had something, just didn't click right away. There us literally nothing about Downs. Is he related to George Weah by any chance?

That starting 11 really wasn't much better than what we have now. KWP, Stuey and maybe Bednarek would make us better, but otherwise we're stronger in other positions. I.e. Jander better than Aribo, Fellows better than Edozie, McCarthy better than crisp packet hands. Obviously we could do with someone like Che but he was on the bench. Says a lot about how well we've been managed so far.

I must remember to post a "they look shite but could have potential" for every new signing to give myself Gio's permission to slag them off or praise them later on.

I'll remember to save my opinions on SR until we next win. Another poster with bizarre "forum rules" that everyone has to follow. Are you related to Gio by any chance?

So let me get this right so I understand your position? If we sign a player who isn't good enough no one is allowed to call that out unless they called it before he was signed? And if anyone does it is "expert hindsight" and not just someone making judgement based on a player being utterly dreadful? Another very bizarre post.

Because Spors is a talent spotting genius and not at all a massive fraud?

16 points after 10 games was the minimum standard as far as I'm concerned. He now can't get there and it doesn't look like a major turnaround is coming. Not sure who we could attract though that will do any better with some major gaps in the squad. Very disappointing, but frankly Spors needs to front up and explain what is going wrong as this is wider than just the manager.

We spent £8m on potential. For that I'd expect to see just a little bit of potential. Just one little glimmer. However he can't press, has no touch, no composure, is lazy, misses absolute sitters, is easily pushed off the ball ... What is it you think hindsight has got to do with anything?? Very bizarre post.

VAR isn't the answer. Holding referees to account for poor officiating and actually doing something about it is.

Maybe we could loan Ramsdale back

JWP looked like he was shoulders and head above everyone else in the few games he played for us in the championship. However, we ought to just move on from players past...

I've watched Stephens play off the ball all season and he's consistently been out of position, ball watching and has avoided taking responsibility. Admittedly THB has been even worse, but that is a pretty low bar. On the ball Stephens consistently slows us down. What he's good at is making recovery tackles which pleases the fans but you have to ask the question why is he making last ditch tackles in the first place. In my opinion it's because he's shite

Spot on. He frustrates the hell out of me; given time to think he invariably makes a poor choice, but when he's playing on instinct he demonstrates time and again what excellent technique he has. He could be a really excellent player but either he doesn't think quickly enough or massively over thinks what he's doing.

Stephens for Quarshie - seriously??? The guy may have made a few mistakes, but he was nothing like the liability that Stephens is nor did he dramatically slow our play down every time he was involved with the ball. It is no coincidence that we've improved since Stephens got dropped (same as when he got dropped in the last championship season). I'd happily never see him in a saints shirt again.

Fantastic to win at last!!! The commentators are absolute helmets - desperate for the inferior team to win...

Don't get me wrong, he was better than Baz would have been in the same scenarios, but that bar is pretty low. But yes he did make us more solid. And in general from a defensive point of view having players at CB who actually defend proactively made a huge difference - yes the may make occasional mistakes but at least they don't watch the ball and just simply point at each other when things go wrong.

He "bazzed" a shot into the nearest striker and some how got away with it, flapped woefully at a corner and conceded the goal (which admittedly I haven't seen properly so I may be being harsh). Other than that he was tidy enough but didn't really have to do much (or do anything good either). We could do with a keeper that in occasional difficult moments pulls something out of the bag and we have that in Ramsdale who is busy warming Newcastle's bench...

I thought there were a lot of positives today. Fellows looks class. Azaz looked good apart from a couple of dodgy moments and a glaring miss. Wood and Quarshie are clearly our best CBs and Edwards looked much more comfortable than he had done previously. Charles is an absolute gem. Unbelievable that the snake oil salesman thought he wasn't good enough! Jander looked much better with Charles than Downes. Other attacking players were a bit hit and miss. Armstrong is still pretty brainless - holds the ball far too long and can't help but shoot straight at the keeper most of the time, but his work rate was fantastic. Stewart led the line better than anyone else has done this season albeit in a bit of a shambolic way at times. Scienza wins free kicks but does little else. Robinson didn't do much but didn't get many minutes. On the negative side: We look short of confidence in front of goal. It was a shame that Still didn't realise that Manning had run out of steam in the second half - he looked absolutely knackered. McCarthy just isn't good enough - if only we could bring Ramsdale back... Overall things moving in the right direction, but not fast enough for my liking.

I probably need a lie down, but thinking about who I really don't want to see playing and who has looked the most effective recently, I'd switch formations to a 4-3-3 and go with: McCarthy Jelert, Wood, Quarshie, Manning Shea, Jander, Downes Fellows, Archer, Robinson It's probably a bit harsh on Frazer, Scienza and Armstrong.

It's a classic case of the "standards you walk past are the standards you accept". We have rewarded a player who doesn't lead, who gets sent off for petulance, who ball watches and doesn't take responsibility with the captaincy. It is all downhill from there. We've accepted a goalkeeper who doesn't save very much. We've accepted strikers who don't win the ball. Still needs the balls to stop this, but frankly his continued picking of Bazunu and Stephens suggests he's just another SR yes man.