St Marco

Sorry but i couldn't disagree with you more. This time last year we were 10th. Then the manager lost the plot. Last year in the last 20 games we dropped like a stone BUT we didn't lose many games. In fact as poor as it was we lost 18 games for the whole of last season. Won 13 and drew 15. Those stats are not flattering at all but the fact of the matter is when Pearson was in charge we actually had i believe the 13th best form, not relegation form. Now we have played 22 games and lost 10 of them. Won only 5 of 22. That is a lot worse then last year and if we maintain that rate into the 2nd half of the year would mean 10 wins from 46 games, think we can safely say we will be relegated from that. It is a complete myth that were playing great football. How do you define great football? Passing the ball to the half way line then losing it? That is how we play and our goals for shows that. We have scored only 8 at home and 11 away giving us already -13 Goal difference. That is equal worst in this league. Great football is played in the final 3rd where you create and score chances. The hardest part of football is to put the ball in the net and we don't have a clue how to do that. Playing in front of the opponents 11 with tip tap football does not make it great football. We at time have seriously poor defending moments mixed with no clue going forward, that in comparison to last year makes it a lot worse. For as poor as Burley was as least he understood to create chances you must have bodies up the pitch, they were not always the right bodies but we created chances and scored goals. We shipped a lot of goals to but the results were better and that is what counts. If we get relegated which with each game looks more and more likely we will be amongst it; what will this team be remembered for? The passion, the spectacular team goals, the determination, the skill etc..? I think it will be remembered as the worst Saints team in our after war history.

nowhere near. For all it's good looks it is the least effective football i have seen. It is easy to pass around the half way line, nobody will be trying to get the ball from you there. It is what you do with the ball after that and quite frankly in that area i would say this is the worst team we have ever had. It looks like crabs trying to play football to me, it is that predictable.

I still maintain what i said pre-season that we are in deep ****. However things as they are cannot continue. If they do we will be in the bottom 3 come saturday, possibly even bottom. We have dropped points where those below us are now gaining them. But my main concern is we play a system that isn't working and with pretty much half the season gone doesn't looklike it will. We don't play to our strengths and as much as people try to say we play nice football the reality is we don't. Were allowed to play at the half way line, it is amateur stuff. The next 4 games to me are vital because if things are to change then that is when, if that is changing tactics or manager so be it. But if we get to like 10 games left we can't change that late and must ride it out. The other worrying thing is the transfer window. It looks pretty obvious we will be losing a few players, if we lose Surman and Davis were done for in my book.

In terms of technicality it is not a must win game, if we lose we are not relegated, there are 23 games after it to go. But the football term 6 pointer is what this game will be. I really wish i could adopt your attitude and see it as you do in the "always next week" type of thinking but sadly i don't. I see it as a massive game and know the match going fans will agree. After half the season gone and half of the games being losses with but one win at home will not/is not defendable as much as you try to argue it can. To assume we will get out of it or simply get better must have evidence to support it. Other then the Reading game we have played ****. Relegation level ****. If we lose to Forest i just can't imagine many will be sharing your view Micky, it will probably seem a bit arrogant view based on a lot of "what if's". The only sure fire way for us to avoid it is to win our games, were not doing that. Even the most loyal of supporter will start to question what is going on if that happens. Massive game and a must win game for us. If we win things will be positive going into a hard run of games.

I was at two of those games and would say we were very lucky to get something from them. Today showed me when you don't have luck you must create your own destiny. Meaning you have to be able to win games deservedly and we haven't been deserving. As i said if that scenario happens we will be up against it. Historicaly we are the great escapists so if any team can break the trend of going down while in the bottom 3 at xmas we can. But i think this will be our 1st proper must win game. The game will have a bigger crowd then normal due to the entry deal and will most likely be a win or go into the relegation zone game. If we win will give players confidence to keep going where as if we lose could mean 1 win in i think 10 games. Which obviously won't be good for confidence. At that point i can imagine the crowd will turn nasty. I could sense it today that people at the games are becoming more and more angry. If this happens would mean we won only 5 of our games (20% win ratio) but more importantly to me would show we have to change something. If that is the tactics or the manager we will see but we must play to our strengths and 3-5-1 is not it. To have those stats would not be defendable especially to the actual people at the games.

Forest have lost once in 8 games now and are actually doing well now. Doncaster have also now only lost twice in 8. However Forest have 2 home games now then they play us. I would think they will get at least a point from their 2 home games before playing us. So we go to Burnley on saturday against a team in form and have lost only once at home for ages. Lost only 3 times in 26 games etc.. it will be a tough game make no mistake of it. If we play like the past 4 games we will get crushed. So im assuming we won't get anything there unless they do a Reading and not turn up. So then after possibly 2 defeats means playing Forest at home could mean if we win we put more points on the board and get further away from them. Or if we lose will most likely mean we go into the drop zone for xmas. Now people will say who cares if your in the bottom 3 at xmas? The problem is after looking at the table for the past 3 years at xmas only 1 team has then gone on to survive while the other 8 have all been relegated. To me i see this game as potentially huge and will shape the 2nd part to our season. If we lose the next 2 games will mean we have lost 12 of our 24 games (50%) and won only once in 12 at home. I just don't see how anyone could defend those type of figures at all. We all talk about how bad some previous managers have been i.e Branfoot years, but that would mean the Jan era would be catastrophic. Even our **** team from last year had over 10 points more by the same period...

If anyone had the amount of money and players Burley had they would do better then he did, i don't think that can be argued really.

Well not really sure what to say that hasen't already been said. 4th game in a row now that i think we have been relegation poor. The win at Reading seems a longtime ago now and looks like it was a fluke. 1 win in our last 7 games and that simply is not good enough. People can come out saying we play great stuff when really we don't. We play crab football. We get the ball then all run to the half way line then pass it back to the centre back who then just passes it to the guy in front of him who runs either left or right. That is it. There is no forward play at all. The annoying thing is that i can imagine the opponents are ****ing themselves with laughter seeing how clueless we are with the ball. After we went 2 down they just switched off and couldn't be arsed anymore Palace. They knew it was in the bag, they just all got behind the ball and asked us to break them down. We couldn't do it. I don't recall one shot on target or even any real effort except maybe Surmans 30 yard shot which even if was on target would have been saved. In the first 2mins palace had like 2 one on ones. If Palace didn't take their foot off we would of been hammered more. The players just seemed stupid, didn't know who to pass to and didn't know where to run with the ball. We punted the ball up the pitch to Robertson more times then i can remember and he just is not that kind of player. DMG and BWP were not at the races at all. Im not sure if that is their fault ot the tactics fault. Which brings me onto the tactics. Sorry but Jan is a ****ing muppet. His tactics and decisions make some of Burley's from last year seem genius. We are 2 down and Palace have gone to sleep. Do we switch to a more positive formation and try and get back into it? Nope he brings on a defensive midfielder....We should of gone to a straight 4-4-2 and had two strikers (BWP and DMG) being in positions to receive the ball and actually run at the back 4. They had nothing to do the whole game. They could of along with their keeper knocked off early. So the tactics are not working, the system is not working and it isn't going to. We can't rely on 1 striker on his own beating 4 defenders and then a keeper. We need bodies up the pitch who can be passed to from our keeper and our defenders. Their 3rd goal is a prime example of it. Sure we made a mistake but they kicked it up the pitch quick and had a attacker pressuring him into a mistake, we don't do that. Today's game was a disgrace and as much as i want to believe things will get better it is hard to see it with our current set-up both on the pitch and in the dug out. We have to many dutch people trying to get us to play a system that doesn't work, especially in a physical league like ours. I realise some people who are defending us by saying we are not in the relegation zone have a good point. However right now we are losing ground to the teams who were below us because of our home form. For example Doncaster and Forest were at one point 8 points and 10 points behind us. They looked doomed. But now thy have gone on runs. Forest have lost only once in their past 8 games where as Doncaster have lost only twice in their past 8 games. In fact on current form they are above us. We relied to long on other teams messing up and now that is coming back to haunt us. So much so that by the end of saturday there is a chance we could be bottom of the league. We are now hoping again results go our way. Charlton will eventually sort it out,i can see them doing what Palace did last year. Watford are another team who will sort it out as they have the right type of players for the league, strong and physical. So as i said before today if we fail to win today and fail to win in a tough game on saturday we cannot expect to not be in the relegation zone. Someone will gain points tommorow and with Forest having 2 home games now you would expect them to close the gap further. That then sets up the game against us. If we lose that game we will most likely be bottom and falling further behind. The Forest game will be critical to our season.

Again you try and deflect your lack of actual understanding of the topic we were talking about by just going for the insults. The only thing that makes sense in your post is the part about Brian Clough. But the problem even with that is that it just strengthens what i am saying and weakens what your saying. He never mentions anything about coaching. A great keeper is more important then a great striker but to be a great keeper doesn't mean you need to be coached. Alas i refer back to my other post about Kirkland, he isn't coached and doesn't train much but he can get into the England squad. If what you try and say is true would he just be considered a slacker/a know it all? Obviously not. And yes studying football does mean you have a clue...That is like saying someone who studies anything has no clue. If you are interested in a subject and you put time into reading it/practicing it means you understand the subject. How else do you go about having a clue? Because by your logic which is flawed would mean the coach would be better then the keeper so thus why is he not in goal?!. So a post aimed at praising one of our players falls into another typical thread with people throwing insults at each other. The difference being i know what i am talking about in this instance because all my life i have been interested in football and not just the football you see on tv. Im interested in the history of the game but more importantly the evolution of the game. That doesn't mean i claim to know everything about it as i don't, that is why i read auto-biography's and things like that because it interests me. So you can attempt to insult me all you like but we both know what i am saying and have shown makes far more sense and is more plausible then what you have. So i re-iterate what i said in my orgional post before the over analysers such as yourself woke up. Without Kelvin Davis in his current form we would be in far deeper **** then we are now. Well done Kelvin, well done!

Will be there and sort of looking forward to it. Selhurst Park isn't one of my favourite stadiums but it could be worse! Palace are a strong physical typical championship side who will kick us about at every oportunity. If we play tip tap football around the half way line they will not give a crap as they will have all 11 behind the ball waiting for us to move forward. They have the least goals scored against them at home so it will be hard for us to break them down. We are not exactly finding the net as often as we should so the chances we do get we will have to take. Palace are a good side and it will be a hard game but i think we can definatly get something if we make our chances count. So i'm going to say a draw, maybe 1-1. Which would be ok. COYR

My point Alan was that Reina was never told to do that, he felt he should do that as it would prepare himself. I think all top keepers do that in one way or another. How many times have we heard that old chesnut after someone saves a penalty (well i looked at the tapes before hand and noticed he shot this way a few times so gambled on it" etc.. So what i was saying with the Reina thing was that the new Liverpool keeper was sat down watching the tapes of his team mate, he was watching his technique. Those things can be taught or more so refined. Someone can look at say the way one is kicking and note down things such as the angle of the swing and so on, then pass those notes onto the person and say hit it this way instead etc.. Those things are the things all outfield players are coached on. And that was my point.

Think i agree 100% with what you say. I had that momment of knowing we would not be going back to the promised land anytime soon when we were playing our pre-season games this year. We played some great passing balls but just couldn't do anything, and the results against part timers highlighted to me we were in trouble. So my expectations changed from trying to go up to just wanting to survive in this league this season. We really miss one player with that little bit of magic, someone who now and then produces something out of nothing like so many previous players. We haven't had anyone like that since MLT retired. If we had someone like that who the crowd held in that legend bracket i think people would be a bit more happier. We won't be seeing a billionaire but i do think we will be bought out eventually. To own us would cost about as much as buying one of those boats anyway!

Hmm not quite sure what your talking about here really, seems to be of bog standard intelligence. Again the same as my above post though the fact that you don't know one of the best/most famous keepers to ever come out of this part of the world as well as one who's methods are used today is quite funny and just highlights the fact you really actually don't have a clue what your talking about. As i also mentioned "that 100 years ago footballer" was chosen in Fifas worlds 11 team recently. Also to just rub it in a little bit more to show the fact you really don't have a clue you mention Man Utd and Schmeichel. Do you remember when he retired? How did united do when he left? Did the keepers they got in after him go on to have a stable career? Let me see, there was Bosnich,Taibi,Van de Gouw,Barthez,Carroll,Howard,Goram,Ricardo,Rachubka,Culkin and now Van der Sar. I make that 11 keepers in 8 years since he retired. If they could be "coached" would they really need to spend that amount on new keepers every season? Would they not just be able to "coach" at least one of them? Because your theory must mean that would be possible? And as for Strachan he had Niemi who did us proud. But what happened when he left us? He didn't do to well did he? I think Strachan would be more thankful to Artur Boruc (do you know who he is as he wasent around 100 years ago?) who has actually helped him win things. Most notibly saving a 89th minute penalty in the champions league against Man Utd... But as i thought you don't have a clue, so i may bore you but that is because what i say/said is actually valid. What you said just might as well amount to "well i don't like you, i don't know anything about keepers, don't know anything about football past last week but i'll give it a shot!).

Then obviously you didn't know that his methods/teachings are still used today. He is very famous in the keeping world and someone most keepers look up to wether it is because of his attitude or his philosophy. To make it even more funny Fifa released a worlds best 11 team recently and can you guess who was chosen to be in goal? That is right the guy who played 100 years ago.... Indeed coaching methods have changed a lot, no more are the days of having a pint before a game. At least not for pro's But it doesn't matter what the era is. I have chosen numerous modern day keepers to quote and show that your wrong but yet their remarks fall on deaf ears. So there is not point arguing if you would rather believe someone other then people like Reina,Scmichael,Czech etc..

Don't be a lamo Skidamore. How is that facts exactly because he says so? So it is fair to take one persons word even though he shows next to zero evidence to back up his claims and disregard mine which does? Sorry but i believe what i have read and seen and even that is common sense. Keepers rely more on instinct then on what they are coached. The things they are coached are aimed more at making them comfortable with the same things outfield players are. Would you like me to photo copy some of the books i have and put up online to show your wrong? Also have a read of this Scudamore http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Fbookfootball.htm It is a piece of work by Leigh Roose (bet you have no idea who he is). The part where he says "A good goalkeeper, like a poet, is born, not made. Nature has all to do with the art in its perfection, yet very much call be done by early training, tuition and practice. A "natural" goalkeeper seems to keep his form without much effort. All the training possible will not make a man a goalkeeper. To prove a successful goalkeeper, a man must be one of those destined by nature to be 'on his own', as the resources for reliably filling the post are entirely in himself, and, unless he wishes to be purely imitative, the goalkeeper, like the silkworm, must produce his materials from himself" Sounds a lot like what i was saying right? But what do i know, im just a poster on a forum, a football forum, what could i possibly know about football?

Well i know a few ex keepers and have had the fortune to meet some of the best through my work at various events. What Sydney said is true but can also go the other way. For example the research. I know for 100% fact that majority of keepers do that themselves and see it as part of their job. A tea boy might gather the footage of certain players and then it is down to the keeper to try and find out things about the players. Especially penalty takers. Remember Reina talking in the champs league awhile ago about how he watches at least an hour a day prior to a match tapes on the teams opponents strikers? In fact i recall this bit of info about Xavi Valero (Liverpool coach) about the new keeper Liverpool got Dean Bouzanis. He says "I sit down with goalkeeping coach Xavi Valero sometimes and watch tapes of Pepe Reina, looking at how he catches the ball, his distribution and how he does things," says Bouzanis". If he was being coached the way described then Bouzanis would be taught the same so would not need to spend time watching tapes of another keeper would he? And the same apply's to reflex's. You cannot tell someone to reach for a ball or put your hand out to stop a ball going at 300 miles an hour, your brain does not think about those things that you have learnt it just does it. And the only way they will become pure instinct is to do it in games/match situations. It is the same when i do boxing. After years of fighting you instinctivley put your hands up and try to deflect the punches. It becomes natural to you. So yes reflex's can be made better but as i said before ultimatly kicking a ball at a person for hours on end they will naturally become more aware of how to stop it, such is how resilience works. That is not something taught or coached, kicking a ball at someone is not coaching anyone with no history of football can do that to someone. The big comment goes against what Schmichael says and he was voted the greatest ever keeper so i think when he talks he probably knows what he is talking about. The drill he talked about that i think most of us have adopted in our sunday teams is the one where the keeper stands with his back towards the penalty spot (facing the net) and the guy outside the box with the ball shouts "now" and runs with the ball and shoots. When the keeper hears the now he turns and decides what to do. Our keeper is taught to dive to the feet of the player if he is close, however what he is taught never seems to make any difference to his decisions. Again it is the same in boxing when you sit on your stool at the end of the round and the coach is telling you what to do, you don't listen because your in your own world most of the time. That drill works on your awareness and more importantly your reflex's. Again that is not coached as that split second judgment is your own not someone elses. The other obvious drills which Sydney must know is the 7 ball system. 7 balls all set up around the box and are shot at the goal one after another at different areas of the goal. The keeper has to dive, get back up and then save the next one and so on. You see a very light version of this in the pre-match build up. Again all designed at working on reflex's. But as i said it is up to you to jump, that decision is in your head. It is the same for the other drills such as distribution. Schmichael contributes himself with being the pioneer of the fast break. He would practice corners so he could run and jump, catch the ball and in a split second after landing do a long throw out to the wingers to set up an attack, all in one motion. Again that is pure awareness by the keeper. He is firstly aware of the players in the box, aware of the balls flight path coming into the box, judges where abouts the best place to catch it will be then jumps into a bunch of players with no fear to catch the ball. Then knows through practice where one of the fast wingers will be and then throws to him. Throwing cannot be coached, the technique of how to throw can. If it could be coached then we would all have a team of Delap throwers would we not? So all that is judgement,awareness and then reflex. So im sure i don't know everything about being a goalie, hell i don't even play in that position (though i did for my college back in the day). But going through training myself for as long as i have you do tend to pick up what the goalie is doing mainly because it isn't what your doing. So what Sydney says is true to his opinion and his experience. One that is not the same for everyone else. So i agree with SW and hope those who read this post and don't know half as much as they think they do realise they don't.

Indeed it is however the colours are different. e.g red for Wii, Blue for PS3 and green for the 360. Personally i haven't a clue what it will be but i think the fact they chose that colour is a bit clever; they knew there had been rumours of MGS4 going to 360 for a long time and by having a teaser with MS green would obviously generate publicity. If it was just a simple piece of news about another Acid release for the PSP then people would not really care seeing as Acid 2 only sold 100k worldwide in 3 years. So either way the devs knew by doing it like that would generate publicity even if it wasen't anything at all for 360. So i doubt it will be the MGS4 announcement for 360 as it is too soon from the release of it on PS3. An interesting thing though that people have noted is if you turn your 360 on it's side you can see the memory card slots and the two sensors make the symbol of one exclamation mark upside down next to one the right way up. So again very clever marketing. So if i had to take a guess at it i think the key word there would be "Next" so must mean something new. Possibly something for xbox live arcade.

Cédric Baseya Didn't he play 1min or something? (we signed him from some french team if i recall)

On Kojima' website (Konami) http://www.konami.jp/kojima_pro/mgst/?ref=kjp_jp they have this teaser as its front page, wonder what it could be? :smt102

bit harsh isn't it? Granted he made some mistakes but his defence and manager were a lot to blame to.

The thing is though when we do see these flashes of brilliance is it really any different from last season? I mean for every one good game we play we play 3 bad ones. Last year we had some truely awful displays but they are no different to what i saw last year. If Davis had been in normal form we would of been beaten a lot more i think. So while i appreciate the approach we are trying to undertake at the club i think it will ultimatly get us nowhere. Other then the Reading game no other games stand out in my mind as good deserved wins. Preston we played crap and then they played crapper. If we had more wins and were more lethal in front of goal i have no doubt most of us would be believers. We all want us to be like Arsenal and play great football but were really not. As that old saying goes i would rather win ugly then lose playing beautiful football. The sad thing is if we had a different guy in charge who is a bit more positive we might get better results.

See again i disagree. As i've already stated they spend about 90% of the time actually away from the other players and tend to do their own thing. What works for one won't always work for another. If you look at my previous post your see i said the things they can be coached on are the same things outfield players are coached on. As you say they learn to play sweeper, that is part and parcel of being a keeper today. But you can't teach someone to change their own perceptive of judgements. If you could do you really think James would make the amount of mistakes he does especially when they are normally the same mistakes? He has been around for a longtime. It is like i remember David Seaman ages ago talking about the save Banks made in the world cup. He said it was the greatest save he ever saw and was why he wanted to be a keeper. That is all about reactions and chain of thought. If people could be taught that as i said we would not see many goals. In the mult-ball they are actually stretching. The most visual training for keepers is obviously the shot stopping/kicking. If Davis was being coached then he would be a better kicker and be more confident with it, which he clearly isn't, which just dis-proves your theory as he would make better decisions in that department. That is the only bad aspect of his game in my book.

A - Palace A - Burnley H - Forest A - Plymouth H - Reading Looking at it i think i would be happy with 7 points from the 15 for sure. Palace are a very physical side and could punt us around a bit so don't think we will win that. Burnley i think have lost 3 games in 26 or something and only 1 at home for ages but think a draw is possible. Forest is obviously a must win game and in my book so is Plymouth. Then maybe a draw to Reading if were lucky but i think we could get a mauling in that one as they probably want revenge. So i would be happy with 7 points. If we fail to win any then that will not put most us in the greatest of confidence goin into the Utd game.

I mean committed as in he is away from his line. If it is a 1 on 1 and the guy is in the penalty box you have to rush out no other option really as need to make the target as small as possible in such a short time. However if your really tall like say Czek or however he spells it then your always have better odds staying near the line. It is a hard one to call and as i said boils down to judgement of the person themselves. If it was coachable we would not see many goals would we! The one thing that sticks in my head about Schmichael is he was talking about his kid when he was playing well for City when Sven was there. He was saying he tried to teach him to do xyz but he couldn't do it because the way he interpreted situations was different to his own. The one thing he said he taught him was the star fish jump where you jump like a star fish arms spread to the sides rather then in front of you. So that shows things can be taught/coached. But ultimatly each scenario is different. It is down to the goalie. When he does an amazing save they say "it is pure instinct". When he does a David Jamaes they call him a clown!

I have to be honest and say i thought a few of them looked quite knackered today, that worries me a bit for the Palace game. But i guess it will be the same for them as they also played today so there is no excuse. To be fair to Patterson though he has not really played much, these run outs will help him gain match fitness.