S-Clarke

I think you'll see a relaxed/positive performance in this one. That's what I expect anyway. Pressure isn't on this game, so the players will come out of their little shells they like to hide in. When we're back in the league against Palace they'll have those shells in full force again I'm sure.

His impact as a sub at the weekend was probably the worst I've ever seen from a professional. What is the point of having him on the bench if that's all he can muster?

It's not even so much as lumping it forward, it's showing more purpose and urgency with the forward passing. It was very backwards/sideways for way too long. The crazy thing for me is that it was only in the 91st min that we actually put some purposeful balls into the box/in and around the box. 91st min FFS? What was stopping us doing that before? Are these players half asleep and it took the forth official to hold up the numbers to make them realise that time is nearly up? Our players act like incredibly dumb people sometimes.

What did Luke Shaw say? I must have missed that. The difference here is that Shaw doesn't play for us anymore, he's fully invested in Man Utd doing well. N'lundulu does play for us, that means he shouldn't go reacting/liking/commenting on the posts of opposition players who have just beaten the club who pay his wages. That is unprofessional and dumb. Opens himself up for a whole world of abuse.

To be fair everyone is a fail at Schalke these days, now that's a poisoned chalice. They'll finally drop this year.

'Skint' springs to mind. All about giving them a chance from within and all that waffle, but when that line is usually played out it means we haven't got any money to do better. He did manage to bring in Richard Kitzlbitlzer. I'm sure he'd like to do more with the backroom staff tbf, it feels like he needs some extra support sometimes. I'm sure I read it a couple of years back that he was trying to bring in some coaches/assistants. But we promoted Fleming instead.

I'm still struggling to work out Davis coaching attributes. Did he just land that as default because we're skint? I don't think he even started as an academy coach, he went straight in as a first team coach.

Most wants in this thread are hugely unrealistic. The best we can get would be someone like Pearson, Pardew, Wilder, Wanger, Hughes - those are the sorts we'd be able to attract. Or let's put this out there - Kelvin Davis promoted as manager with Fleming as assistant. I jest, but it's the sort of thing we'd do. Wouldn't cost us any money so it makes sense. Does anyone really want to roll the dice?

Wow, that is certainly a bit of a dumb arsed move. I imagine our leaders in the changing room will be having some harsh words with him about that. Oh, wait.

It's probably a combination of fitness and confidence to be honest. They look out on their feet to me, exhausted both physically and mentally. Some of their passing was panicked and we dallied on the ball too often.

Bit of a South Coast clown show at the moment, it has to be said. I wonder what will happen in the next instalment of the Solent circus?

Minamino is a frustrating one, clearly technically gifted and seems intelligent, but he looks so out of his comfort zone. It all happens too quickly around him and by the time he's realised what's going on, he's either been dispossessed or had his pass cut out. This was a common theme of his Liverpool spell as well and why he barley played there. Shame really, but not much good news there for Liverpool either. I think they should just cash in on him and let him have a career in a league much more suited to appreciate his technical ability.

I'd use the term controlled rather than dominated tbh. They controlled the tempo and kept us playing at a distance. We didn't force it at all, but they had full control over this game and fully deserved the win.

I thought I'd have a look on the Fulham forums on their views of this weekend, unsurprisngly they were rooting for us to win. They seem to feel that this weekend may have been the one that's done it for them. They don't even seem to have us in the equation. We've still got something in us to scrape at least another 4 points from our remaining games. That'll be enough, and that would still be truly abject form wise. Those points on the board early doors are like a blessing now.

I'm sure the deluded few believe they deserve someone of his standing though! They'll wake up one day.

Bednarek is an oddity, isn't he. When he's on form I think he's a decent, solid, no nonsense centre back. He's nothing spectacular and he's never going to be playing in the CL, but he's decent. However, when he's off form then christ on a bike he's beyond bad. Not just a little bit bad, but it's like he forgets how to play football, forgets how to defend, loses his head. He is a proper liability for us right now, bad enough that I'd drop him.

People were proclaiming Gao was a good owner back in November, his hands off approach is why we are now successful. He was pivotal in bringing Ralph etc. He's not as bad as is made out, we would be worse off with x or y etc. There were some posts about it but I can't be arsed to find them. But he's a shit owner, the worst in our history and he's destroying us. Absolutely invisible, a non-entity. Worthless. Whilst he is around, and taking the proud name of Southampton through his stink, then we are always going to be close to entering oblivion. We cannot continue to operate this self defeating sell-before-you-can-do-anything approach, that will only end one way and he can kiss goodbye to his fucking money then. I haven't absolved the manager of blame, I haven't said he's perfect. I'm just saying there is more to our form than just the manager. He got us over achieving massively and that's why I think it's unfair that he's automatically 'shown the door' when the going gets tough and the true form of some of these 'players' comes to the fore. The bigger picture is that this group of players is absolutely fucking terrible, he hasn't had the scope to add to the squad and improve the depth, thus the owner is killing us. Ralph did wonders to make us as competitive as he did during 2020, the form horse with this lot is losing and relegation battles.

Maybe if we get lucky with ownership. If we're stuck with Gao then sadly we will be in the Championship sooner rather than later, it feels inevitable.

He's responsible for player recruitment within a very, very limited scope. He's hardly had any scope to mould his side here, so I don't think that can be labelled at him. Player selection is pretty much what he can put out on a pitch any given Saturday, there's nothing beyond the 11. But he's not perfect. He's too slow to react to opposition changes and he is a bit to fixated on the way we play, however that alone isn't the reason we are struggling as bad as we are. It's a perfect storm of injures, no squad, shit mix up of players who dump and run when the going gets tough, no investment and congested fixtures. It's all coincided to create the worst second half of the season I can ever remember us having. Ralph made a very interesting point after the last 9-0 defeat, he was questioned what our response will be to that. ''We were a shit team back then, a shit team. We're much better now'. I think he himself has also been a bit blindsided by some of these players, we are still a shit team and he's been polishing a turd. Maybe he's giving them as much faith as we have been. History tell us that the manager will often take the hit for these sort of runs, but I truly believe there is much more at play than just the manager in my opinion. I'll stand by my view and I appreciate other's don't feel the same. I just wish some fans would take a pause for a second and look at the bigger picture rather than attributing our poor form just to the managers 'tactics'.

We're very lightweight through the middle without him, aren't we. I can't remember Diallo or JWP making any tackles. Both good on the ball they may be, but they're not very aggressive. A couple of nice guys.

No, it's not a sign. But we've managed to make an art out of doing it wrong. It's impossible to not agree that we are terribly run. We are as in a big of a mess off the field than I can remember since our championship youth team days.

What I'd say is a lot of that is down to confidence, players not being brave enough in possession and not being brave enough to make the movement out of possession, it's all very risk adverse. They play safe because they are petrified of making mistakes, I'm sure of it. The manager will tell them to be patient and probe, for sure, but he will be telling to be brave when they spot an opening. Our problem is that we're not brave enough and the players aren't making the right movement out of possession, and if they do, we're not confident enough to play it. This squad hugely overachieved, like ridiculously overachieved, it's not fair to bash Ralph because we're not pushing for Top 8 - because no one would have this team pushing for top 8. The fact he even had us thinking about it with this group shows you what a job he's done, in my opinion. He seems to a victim of his own success.

I think a lot is put on tactics generally, tactics provide a foundation but alone they are not the only reason you win or lose football matches. The players should be professional enough to adept to different tactics during a game, of which I'm sure they're told about. We changed formation twice today for example. The problem is we have a poor mix, some good individual quality but not a good mix of people. There are no leaders, no one with any real character. So once the going gets tough, there's no one in the group to give them a shake and tell them to sort it out. They are all mentally shot. The manager must be pulling his hair out as I'm sure he's not purposely telling them to go out and not have shots on goal, or to miss headers and not defend in front of the box. They are just on the floor confidence wise and have no one to call them out. Would be nice to have someone like Fonte out there, he wouldn't take this shit.

I can't be arsed to argue anymore, tired of it all. I just know there are much deeper problems at this club than the manager.

Anyone who is known is out of our reach. So, no one.