Saint Fan CaM

I decided to part with mine after the last relegation purely based on not enjoying the football. I couldn’t have imagined that it could get even worse after supposedly repairing everything ready for promotion to the Prem again. Just shows how incredibly complacent the club have been in the transfer market (for some years).

OK, a little summary… 1. We can’t afford to offload Russ. 2. Russball has been adopted across the club…it’s a long term project therefore that the club have invested in. 3. No one of any pedigree will come to us because the season is effectively over, bar a massive up turn in squad quality and performances, which would be a big ask of even the best managers. Consequently Russ is de facto the best option to keep things stable during the transition to the Championship. 4. When we go down, Russ will be seen as the best value option to get us back up, even though we’ll likely lose our better players…(Dibling, Ramsdale, KWP and ???). As much as I hate admitting it, everything points to Russ being here for the long haul. The club don’t give a fig that we’ll be winning all the wrong records by sticking with him - their strategy is that it’ll all come good in the end.

No confidence that we’ll win this. Russ will put out a significantly changed side of strangers who will not know their roles. Stoke on the other hand will be the polar opposite and will score goals. Hopefully with Russ in the stands the players will just do their own thing and actually win a game of football.

I don’t know about you, but ever since I was a nipper kicking a ball around, football was all about winning the game. You did that by scoring more goals than the opposition. It’s really that fucking simple and may go some way to help you understand why an increasing number of Saints supporters are extremely unhappy with the tactics, performances AND the results this season. Playing in the EPL is not some kind of rehearsal - some kind of breeding ground for yuppie managers. It would be lovely if Russ was able to unlock the talent in the squad, but all the evidence (including his time at Swansea) suggests he can’t and won’t.

Make no mistake, this is not brave football - it’s damage limitation football and that’s why it’s it’s so boring / predictable. And if the players are being brave, then the result is a bunch of injuries that will also hurt us - like Downes getting clattered today without any help from the Ref. Thats what Russ demands - draw the opposition onto you and release the ball last minute (but you might get clattered). The fact we’re now bottom, with one point from ??? just shows the system is simply not working. And he’s had enough time to see if his experiment will work, so how much longer??? Bore off elsewhere Russ - I just don’t like what we do 80% of the time. How’s that stat for you?

Fuck me this is painful.

Once again Saints don’t press the ball and we concede. This is just going to be nightmare.

Oh heck - it’s the banana kit. Why not red n white strip???

Disclosure: I’m on an Etihad flight back to the UK from Abu Dhabi. Didn’t think I’d be watching the game, but for some reason they’re playing the match live on Sports24. Must be an omen for a win. Or something. 😬😜😳

Yeah but yeah but, that’s plan B right? You all wanted it…Russ has obliged. Or something.

The stat fairy spoke to Russ last night and said nope, don’t play Taylor in his strongest position. In the real World, wouldn’t be surprised if Taylor questioned Russ over his decision to play Manning ahead of him in the Leicester game.

RM deserves the sack for the mis-management of the team. I mean there’s shooting yourself in the foot and then there’s taking a howitzer to cut your toenails. What a fraud.

Sad thing is, that’s probably a fair summary of RM’s thought process.

RM’s going nowhere. SR have and the club bigwigs have backed us into a corner so that financially it’s nigh on impossible to sack him. Not only that, I’m actually starting to believe that relegation is something they don’t fear with RM at the helm. I’m almost at a point of not caring now…the optimism has been drained from me since the Wembley day out…I watch games with little to no expectation of a win or even a draw. I really do think we’ll go down with the lowest points and worst GD in EPL history - we’re Saints, we love the infamy!

Yep, we’re gonna get mullered. 5-0 City.

Great to be two up but honestly there’s lots of risk building for the second half. Primarily the Ref who seems intent on giving Leicester an advantage by ignoring their shithousery. Dibling is getting frustrated and I think the Ref has his card marked for a second yellow - would put Lallana on for him to inject some experience. It’s going to be RM’s decisions this half that decided whether we get the three points or not. Watch out for a triple substitution on 60 minutes. I do hope he’s paid Taylor a visit during halftime and asked if he might try to protect our players a bit more.

Honestly think this is going to be another shit show. COYR!

Hoping for internet connection and a stream from the Maldives. If RM can conjure up a win or even a draw - bonus.

Fixed it for you…😉

I think Potter would be a good choice if he could be enticed here, which is highly unlikely, especially as SFC will leave it too late to replace RM and our season will be be irretrievable by then. The future looks pretty miserable whichever way you cut it - I’m not particularly relishing the Championship again as it’ll likely be more of the same boring football with our best players gone.

That’s the team I’d be starting and sticking with as a first choice. Really put some concentrated coaching into those guys, in particular how to transition quickly from the back four into the final third…i.e. it’s ok passing out from the back sometimes, but it needs mixing up with other tactics so keeping the oppo guessing and getting some fast paced attacks will be essential to winning games of football. If this team can’t make it work then the rest of the squad don’t stand a chance. Having said that, I don’t think we’ll win…just can’t see RM and his team having the nouse to beat any other team in the Prem. Can see this being 1-3…maybe worse. I just hope Vardy gets badly injured - can’t stand the nasty rat.

Russ learning? Give me a break! Him swapping players around is like changing from a tooth brush to a broom to dust the mantelpiece. He doesn’t know how to utilise the players at his disposal because he’s NOT learnt how to adapt his system to a higher level of performance against tougher opposition. The reason we came fourth and scrapped a promotion last year was because of the players he had at his disposal. They did that, possibly for him, but not because he’s learning. The Prem has exposed him for what he is - a mediocre mid-Championship level manager who relies on keeping players on-side to achieve HIS goals, rather than properly coaching them to achieve the goals of the club and of course the supporters. If anyone like @gio1saints is in any doubt what that looks like (it’s been a long time coming), it’s scoring goals and winning some games of football!

FFS…who are the people involved in this rubbish? I’d love to know what £300 buys you…a drink or two, a packet of crisps, a sausage roll? Does it include a plush seat to actually watch a game of football or do you have to sit on a cold hard lump of plastic? The only upside to this that I can see is that it’s likely there’ll be plenty of space in there. How much does a box for 10 cost these days - £1500? If so, that looks like much better value.

Where to start - difficult to analyse that, but there are some key points. 1. Pairing KWP and Manning was a good move to contain Saka, however inevitably the method broke down at least once and most obviously when they scored when the two of them tried covering the same ground. For me that’s poor preparation and planning. 2. Suga and Downes were our weak links, however in both cases they were often left on their own to cope in situations. Again that’s poor planning. 3. Arsenals press and general defensive setup was the best I’ve seen in ages. Ours is a universe away and another example of poor planning. 4. When TP and Archer came on we looked so much more potent. There seemed to be more belief displayed by the team. Did someone say poor planning? Yep, why don’t we play our best players and best team consistently? 5. Dibling looked like his old self back out on the right wing, but why the inconsistency? So, poor planning and inconsistent team selections. We all know where the responsibility lies. Times up Russ…you’ve had a fair crack and the one thing that is consistent is the manner in which we lose games. You’re not giving our players what they need to score and win games of football. We waste so much time when in possession, it’s little wonder there so few chances created in the final third. Final thought. Such a shame to see Stewart get injured again, but he’s clearly not the answer…not enough dynamic movement on or off the ball. What a waste of money and squad place he has been.

Yep - as I said at the start - anything better than 3-1 and he’s done great. But…9 minutes of extra time??!?!!