Saint Fan CaM

Ever hopeful Saints fan: "...so if I put £10 on at 22-1, that means I could win £220?!" Realist: "...no, it means you'll win nothing." 🤣

I'm suspect you're trying to be clever here - I'm no qualified coach that can provide a detailed technical explanation, however purely by watching how other teams play you can see a distinct lack of cohesive, organised style and tactical nouse - for example... passing (triangulation), movement off the ball into space, running channels to invite passes that are actually made, executing more forward passes than sideways/backwards, pressing as a unit (for some reason this feature has diminished dramatically lately and even in defence players stand-off attackers). We've progressively become the most boring team in the league and even our most exciting players have regressed. Have you seen how many times even a simple pass is made BEHIND the receiving player so slowing down any momentum - surely that's just a basic facet of play that should be drilled in training? I assume you watch the games - what do you think?

We’ll, I agree that Adams and Armstrong are poor options, however I more strongly believe that the manner in which we play (i.e, style) does not match the strengths of any of our forward line. And if there were improvements in the playing style and tactics, I also believe we would see an improved goal tally from a number of players in the team. Ability is there - lacking direction.

Absolutely agree with the above two posts. I don’t think our best 15 players are worse than Villa, Wolves or Everton’s. I do think that those teams have tactics and playing styles that are significantly more suited to EPL survival than ‘Ralphball’. It’s the coaching and man-management of the team that needs an urgent overhaul. The performances as well as the last 28 results bear witness to this, not to mention the bizarre team changes such as the latest splitting up of our best performing CB pairing since VD left us.

I was thinking more November 5th…do they burn well? 😜🤣

I thought he was and no, we probably haven’t got the budget, but then again can the owners afford a costly and damaging relegation? Right now that decision must be on a knife edge!

Frank is the only available and logical man at the moment.

Well let’s start with how many goals we’ll likely score? None. Then what the possession stats will likely be? 72% City. How many goals have City got in them? Judging by the Utd game and examples of our inept rudderless defending, at least 7. Think is the easiest game of the season to predict a sound loss…they are just too damn good and we’ve got clowns for a management/coaching team.

I think the point with Romeu is that he and JWP had formed a good understanding in terms of who covered who and when. The high press clearly had started to take its toll on Romeu’s older more punished body. Lavia looked to be the ideal replacement, but a young body is always going to be susceptible to injury when faced with EPL pace.

Think it could be a very, very bad result for us. But Ralph will still survive. Thank fuck I’ll be on an aeroplane and oblivious!

Dropped more points from a winning position than any other team…still got that record hanging over us. Thanks Ralph.

Wrong side for him to score from there. How the hell did we get a corner there?!

Utter utter shite. If they don’t sack Ralph we’re down. 100%.

Err, it’s not good but you’ve got a couple things wrong there. Armstrong has been one of our better players showing some creativity. The team selection makes no difference - we always play the same boring, ponderous tactics and JWP is complicit.

Getting overrun and outnumbered at the back, passing inaccurate, slow build up play - will be our undoing…probably just before half-time.

Trouble is he tells them how to play - no risks etc. We look like the f ing away team FFS. I really despair of this boring shite.

AMN has been utter shit. Passed to more Everton players than Saints!

JWP is a damned liability to any potential attacking move! Everton looking dead certs to win this. We’re just giving them the ball back time and time again.

6 changes to the team sheet with AMN starting. Looks like an attacking team, but very young average age. Salisu on the bench!

I assume that’s a prediction rather than a wish?! 🤣

Saw a report this morning that said Lavia was back in training with the first team, however I doubt they’ll risk him for the weekend.

As usual the hope is that somehow our weak attack is magically transformed into one that can penetrate a well drilled and organised defence. However, the reality is that Ralph will have us playing safe keep ball, lots of backwards/sideways passing, putting Bazunu under more pressure than necessary leading to hoofball with midfield bypassed and few chances being made. And the most frustrating thing is that Everton are nothing special, just like Wolves and Villa, but they will probably come away with a relatively straightforward win as tactically we are so easy to predict. Result: 1-0 Everton. If any of the above is correct I hope the Board have the gumption to do something about it asap because it will surely provide the evidence that persisting with Ralph could put us in real trouble before the end of the year.

I was under the impression you had faith in our full of potential squad, but you want to bin off Adam Armstrong? I don’t think he’s going to score too many this season, but then Che Adams is hardly looking prolific so should he go too? Is Delap actually likely to do any any better under Ralph and his tactics?

But that’s the point I’m making. The squad maybe good and yes it’s got potential - it’s that I’m highly sceptical that Ralph is able to utilise the players he has at his disposal to best effect. There’s a perfect example of the poor tactical decision making in utilising JWP, bearing in mind that he has the ability to score goals. What we see at the start to games is him sitting deep distributing the ball sideways backwards mostly, however after we’ve gone behind and chasing the game, he changes to being more forward thinking and attack minded, moving the ball quicker and making himself available further up the pitch. In my opinion that’s due to instructions from the Manager who sees less risk in us playing keep ball.

Absolutely hypothetically! Trouble is I believe our win rate is currently circa 11% over the last 27 games (28.5% from just this seasons games), with little sign of improvement if Wolves and Villa are suitable examples. It could be argued that the trajectory is declining performances in relation to investment. To counter that, we could see Lavia and Tino return to the 1st team which might improve our win rate, but 11% is most definitely relegation form (and so is 28.5% as I doubt less than 35 points will mean survival).