Saint Fan CaM

We were very dominant in possession, with a bit of a blunt tooth and a lack of height in defence. Our team in general lacks height and strength at the back…in particular Smallbone could do with bulking out a bit as he can get outmuscled quite easily. Overall a very satisfying first visit to Hillsborough even if it was sat in amongst the home supporters. The problem of course with new players is who do leave out when a system is clearly working??? Incidentally I was sat very near to the dugouts and it was interesting to see the difference in how the Managers interacted with their team - Martin has much more command of his players than SW’s man, who had players shrugging at him in the first 15 minutes not knowing what to do to counter our play…didn’t seem to know what their roles were. I said to my friend that their team was setup wrong and not able to press us at the back which might have given them a chance.

My Sheffield Wednesday supporting friends Son said we were the best team he’s seen at Hillsborough baring none and including Newcastle in the cup. They were very impressed with the the team, the Manager and style of football.

Is that the one we put four past?

Did we really or did they lose their nerve on a player that has risk associated with him? Seems the deal is actually not going to deliver the £40m we believe Saints wanted, but it still represents a good deal. Hopefully it will show the bin dippers and West Ham that we actually do mean to stick to our valuations…shit or get off the pan!

He should get through the medical - there was nothing from the last match…just a knock to an ankle and he was clearly due to be rested for tomorrow probably at the insistence of Newcastle. Good deal for Saints, but let’s hope we keep KWP with Bree a backup and use the money on a very good striker or CB.

Yeah…if that’s the level of quality Wilcox intends to bring in, third place or not, we’re in for a torrid season by the time the best players leave. Promotion push my arse! 😉

Yes we did and as I said, we do have players that can score. However, 4 goals against a very poor Reading and two goals against a Bournemouth side that looked pretty poor for a Prem side is not really an arbiter I would argue, plus we ended up losing (but that’s another story!). AZ provided a much more realistic test commensurate with the Championship we’ll be competing in and we struggled to test their keeper at all.

I agree with and applaud your positive outlook. Unfortunately mine is tempered by the fact that we’ve yet to see any improvement in our ability to score goals. Until that changes we’ll find it difficult to win games despite high possession stats and pretty passages of football. We’ve got players that can score - have we got the system and nouse to get them firing? I predict that 3 games into the season without a win or draw will see fans support start to turn quickly away from Martin and his system - tolerance levels following a terrible last season and relegation will be at a very tangible low. Let’s hope we see a marked improvement tomorrow evening because a win and three points would be a significant morale boost and a sign that actually Martin has improved the squad since last seasons defeat to SW. COYS!

The latest marketing vid has Tella talking about the first game of the season (no JWP or Lavia). Got a feeling Tella will still be with us for a little while longer.

Quite interesting to see ABK in training photos…can’t believe he’ll start on Friday, but almost certainly on the bench you’d think. Any interest in Bednarek and Lyanco seems to have dissipated for the time being, but I reckon if the right offer came in for anyone of our CB’s they’d be off. I hope we’re not relying on Charles to start as a CB, even if that’s for a short period of time.

Think €20m, but certainly more than we paid.

He did show some quality in games he wanted to play in, otherwise not that great. Glad we managed to off-load and make a profit. Just hope his replacement will be better.

I’d be surprised to find Sulemana here come close of window. There’s been so little news around him it looks like he’s on his way out. Perhaps he’s lost his tools like Salisu? 🤔🙄

In the Prem even when I had an ST I rarely got the chance to go to away games due to other commitments, but this is a Friday and so it works for me. I've always wanted to visit Hillsborough and my friend had said when I got the chance to visit he'd arrange for a seat, but of course we didn't expect that to be a Saints vs SW league match and the arrangements were made well before the 2nd release of away tickets. I'll enjoy the trip and the social part of the visit as the missus will be with me, but hopefully more so with a win!

Wow - that's some statement. I hope SFC and Lavia's agent ensure Lavia is aware of the mess he would have placed himself in by joining them. 🤣 NB: It'll still probably happen now - in fact it's probably even more likely!

Funny thing is, I can see Lavia fitting into a Chelsea team more than a Liverpool team - I really hope the Board resist the disrespectfully low offers for this World-class lad comparatively easily worth £50m given he's destined to be worth £90m+ in three short years time. I hope the dippers pull out and he goes to Chelsea - the dippers will then need to pay twice as much to pull him away which for all their underhanded tapping-up will be well deserved.

Possibly, if there was suitable evidence to demonstrate he was the right fit in the squad and could play the system employed. Value is about potential until proven. In the case of Tella, he's proven he can score goals (which, in case you've forgotten 😉, wins games) within the squad and system Burnley employ, so his value should be commensurately higher.

Absolutely - £20m for a proven Championship goal scorer of notoriety is a joke…should be closer to £30m in todays market unless he has a release clause.

Errr, actually…🤣

Because I have a SW supporting friend who has offered me one of his seats. Why do you ask?

Anyone else keeping their head down in a home stand like me? 😀

I do wonder if Martin will buckle to the temptation of starting a 'safe pair of hands' with Stu Armstrong? We've seen this before with three previous managers.

If I were a Burnley supporter I'd be hiding behind the sofa hands over my ears, singing "lalalalala", hoping it all goes away! Beyond embarrassing!

If true that's surely an admission that there are a certain number of current players that have been assessed as incapable of playing his system? I'm not sure that I am encouraged or dismayed at this realisation. There is really no difference between the systems employed by Jones, Selles, now Martin and to an extent even Ralph, except faster movement of the ball when passing - more one touch movements. There is still an insistence on keep ball in defence and midfield to pull oppo players forward and create openings, all of which is pointless if you don't exploit those opportunities by playing forwards and creating real chances in the final third. And by real chances I don't mean nimble footed step-overs by wide attackers trying to beat 3-4 men and running into a blind alley. If I were Martin I would get all the team in front of a big screen to analyse how AZ were able to pull our team all over the place so much so that a simple pass to an unmarked player led to their one excellently worked goal - it was put on a plate for him. How were they able to execute this when our attack minded players can't? The answer in the final third in my opinion is... (a) too often our attack has 11 opposition players to work through as we've taken so long to move the ball forward, (b) we work in tight pockets on the wings and wonder why we get turned over there and, (c) there is a lack of forward line movement to draw players away from central positions thereby creating holes for on-coming players to shoot. There are some good examples of how this should be done in this pre-season - one of Adam Armstrongs few goals came from just such movement and also Stu Armstrong's recent goal too. The evidence suggests that they can do it - they just don't do it enough. Could chopping and changing line-ups have something to do with it? Will a more settled 1st team by more productive? I guess we'll start to see after a week of more training and a more definitive line-up on Friday at Sheffield Weds.

Well the result was no better than what we’ve seen in the 2-3 past seasons. Yes, we passed the ball better showing improvement in transition, but ultimately it was useless as we didn’t look likely to score. Why? Not because our strikers can’t shoot. It’s because (a) 95% of our attacking moves have to find their way through all 11 opposition players, (b) there is little or no invention in attacking play…it’s a case of one player - usually the wide player like Tella, Edozie or AAA - trying to dribble through 3-4 defenders. Smallbone is an ok utility DM but he is useless around the penalty area and couldn’t hit the proverbial barn door. Baz was not at fault for their goal…he was lucky it went near enough to him to get a touch…the goal was wide open and the striker unchallenged. It was in fact a very good move…one that we could only dream of scoring it seems. Prediction. If the attacking phase of this teams game is not sorted out we’ll end up losing as many games as winning this season…the Championship is not as bad as some seem to think. On that showing, promotion is a pipe dream right now in my opinion.