bugenhagen

Still presser bs in my opinion... "the next game is allways the most important" Sorry, not looking for an argument, guess I just can't take anyhing said in these serious when the real problem is what happens in training and on matchdays...

This is just the normal presser bullshit. "The team we feel is most ready to win" is like saying there will be changes. There are so many other things he does wrong, this is not one of them, in my opinion.

Interesting. I watched the Norweigian one, and they were kinda positive about what we're trying to do, but less impressed with how we did it. On a few occations where we did play through City from the back, they noted that the midfielders played the ball straight back to the defenders, and we had to do it all over again, and also risk it all again. Another thing that is not a direct quote went something like "Surprised that Saints are that stubborn about playing at the back, and not adjusting to the game, even though it's what Martin wants" and "Southampton in a nutshell" when we gave away the ball in dangerous situations. Even if Martin is adapting a little, he would never admit to it, but I agree that in the next games we have to do more of our passing higher up (and hopefully be a bit more direct).

Nah, we are going to dominate the ball, it's their midfield that looks a bit lightweight 😉

Agree, he does seem to end up seeking the freekick a bit much, and not really being fouled. But he will learn, and improve.

wow... didn't see that coming...

Lets get this thread back on track. Anybody heard anything? Two weeks?

When I saw the interview with him, it felt like that was either done, or close, to me.

Guess I just had a bit of empaty with a player getting injured, don't care about his wages and didn't ask anyone to feel sorry for him. Only supporters think like this...

I'm probably coming down on the "cheap-ish" side of this debate, but after his last injury I really feel for the lad. I have made my share of jokes about his injuries in the last year, but right now I just feel really bad for him. And I didn't even have any hopes about him coming back or proving himself on this level, I had pretty much written him off before the last one...

This has nothing to do with our gameplan, Arsenal have just allowed us to play a little - and in turn we will gift them turnovers.

That's what we should have done, tbf. We started to play and gifted them the goal. Who knew?

Yeah - if I had a little glimmer of hope left...

For me, this the telltale sign that things are going wrong. Use fewer players and get better results. I thought we loved stats...

Good post! There is always a new trend in football, and soon after a newer one trying to conquer the former. There are times when passing can be good to keep the ball, control the pace of the game or even draw out the other team. A more direct forward play, high-press or even route one can be beneficial at other times. I understand that every manager will have a philosophy, but for gods sake: You are not betraying your principles by adapting as the game changes. Koeman probably did this best in my opinion. Whatever style we end up with next I will probably allways favor the more fluid approach over the rigid.

The most Saintsy way for this to unfold would be for Rasmus and Kraft to convince (or con for short) another money-man or consortium (we do love those) to buy out Dragan...😄

When Dibling played him through against Ipswich. Probably some speed over distance there.

No, no, no, no

This: Recepie for disaster!

So we can hope for a few more crosses coming in from him this season then?

I wasn't paying close attention tonight, but surprised I missed this: The changes had an instant impact with Saints needing less than five minutes to pull a goal back, Harwood-Bellis adjusting well to stoop down and head in from Fabrice Fernandes' cross for his first Premier League goal. https://www.skysports.com/football/bournemouth-vs-southampton/report/505858 We are so bad at creating anything that we needed a cross from 20 years ago to score?

This is going to be a difficult job to improve on, even if it should be easy. The combination of the manager and the players are evidently not good enough for this division. The only thing we can change short term is the manager, so... hey-ho, let's go! I liked the idea of how we have tried to play under Martin, and I found it entertaining when it worked for large parts of last season, but one important factor was that the qualty of our squad was better, or on par with our opponents most weeks. We shipped a lot of goals, and our CB's are still the same this season... and relative to the quality of the league our forward players are weaker. There was probably something like a snowballs chance in hell that sticking stubbornly to our principles was going to work - but I am a man of hope, and thought maybe something would click, and some (or a lot) of the players would take the PL by the balls, I don't know... either way, the smart money was not on that outcome.

Bring on Tall Paul, and we have a hattrick of poor first touch up front