Saint Fan CaM

Yes and remember the last time we ended up with a big bloated squad of ‘also ran fillers’? Didn’t work out so well for us as I recall. What is interesting is that I seem to recall Ralph saying when he came in that he didn’t like large squads, so what’s changed? Trouble is you can only sell players to clubs that want them or release them from contract and I don’t think we’ve ever done that to a senior player have we?

Agree. At the last home game vs Liverpool there was a Pool supporter with his missus two rows in front of us giving it large most of the game. A few of us complained to a Steward who just had a “quiet word” and let them stay in their seats.

I don’t disagree there are specific instances where certain players can be seen to give less than 100%. My problem is tarring the entire team with the comment “the players didn’t give 100%”…it’s a gross over-simplification of multi-faceted problem and importantly doesn’t recognise that there are some players who do give 100%, but it’s not enough at EPL level which is not their fault. Giving a player abuse in that situation is hardly going to inspire him (or her) to try harder!

I was asking how anyone could tell, but of course your response just indicates you can’t articulate that other than try to insult me. If only you could eat your own carrot - they’re good for the eyesight apparently.

Exactly, they don’t know. There are some right dinosaurs on here thinking they’ve got the inside story on whether every player is “giving 100%” - like reality on a professional football pitch in the best league in the World is the same as their time playing FIFA95 on their Nintendo’s. 😂

I’m not being funny here, but what tells you a given player is not giving 100%, as opposed to his 100% not being good enough? If there’s nothing left in the tank or simply the other team are just too good, how is a player supposed to give more? Serious question.

To be fair Branfoot had better players at his disposal in relation to the quality of the opposition.

Don’t be daft, I clearly set out the rationale how and why I believe that 25,000 fans getting on the back of players that have already lost belief in themselves is hardly going to help. The reverse can also have an impact too. If you need proof of that concept I’d refer you to our game against Leeds many moons ago when we played extremely well and were dominating 3-0 up at half-time, thinking “this could be double figures”. By the time the players came back out the Leeds away supporters were worked up to a frenzy repeatedly chanting “we’re going to win 3-4” and they didn’t stop that chant until they’d scored 4 goals and of course won the game. Our vocal support didn’t get a look in, they were so imposing and loud. The Leeds players obviously believed a win was possible and at 3-2 I suspect every Saints player probably did too. It stands as my worst match-day as a Saints supporter bar the 9 against games and one I’ll never forget.

That rumour lasted well then!😂 Which rumour mill is correct then? 🤔

Agree with Tella - he needs consistent game time which I hope Burnley will give him (don’t hold your breath). Not so sure I get the Diallo comment - what part of his role do you think he doesn’t understand? Perhaps it’s that he just doesn’t have the ability to enact that role? Either way, I don’t think he’s as bad as some are making out, but the problem for him is he’s now got Lavia in front of him and even less game time to prove himself. Having said that I suspect the next exit in our DFM ranks will be Romeu as despite his experience, he’s starting to get a bit leggy for the demands of the Prem. That will naturally provide more opportunities for the likes of Diallo/Smallbone/etc.

See I’m not convinced by this stance. If you’re an athlete attaining to be at the top of your chosen sport, why would you not try hard? Especially those who potentially gain from a move to a ‘bigger’ club to really earn big bucks/stardom/etc. For me the key is in the players capacity to maintain high levels of mental and physical stamina to deliver on the Managers plan…if you haven’t got or can’t sustain the required levels, it doesn’t matter how much you try, you’ll mostly fail. And THAT leads to humiliation, lack of self-belief, growing dissatisfaction with your place in the club and importantly a lack of trust from your peers. A cyclic downwards spiral. This is why ‘supporters’ can make that little bit of a difference at games - letting a player know he’s shit just reinforces what he probably already knows, so he gives up. If that happens to too many players in a match, guess what…the team buckles and 9 goals go in. How do teams over-perform their expected capacity? Belief that there’s always another 1% in the tank.

If you’re offered three shit sandwiches and your life depended on eating one of them, which shit sandwich do you chose to eat? Probably the one that looks the most nutritious and beneficial without making you throw up.🤮

Watched the forum this morning and I have to say I thought it was better than I’d anticipated. A smart move having the woman’s team Manager on the panel and despite the moneyman attending, there were no outright boring financial questions. There were some challenging questions, so I didn’t feel there was advance scripting going on but time pressure meant there was little opportunity to dig deeper on a particular subject. I thought Semmens answers were acceptable and made sense - with the ever rising financial clout of the top 8 clubs (just in the uk), our model has to be different by necessity and we’ll not be spending £50m on one player. I don’t have a problem with this. We create experience in the players that choose to stay with us, like JWP, Romeu etc. and bring in youngsters that can perform at close to the same level as the £50m players. I don’t think there is animosity with Ralph, but he’s his boss and there needs to be a level of ‘distance’ between them. I thought Ralph to a degree wore his heart on his sleeve - clearly a passionate man that has the best interests of the club in mind and someone who is still living and breathing his time at SFC. You can’t help but want to get behind the guy and to be honest it’s debatable if there better fits to the clubs strategy and aspirations…always a risk getting into the managerial merry-go-round like Lowe did. The one question to Ralph that was not asked (which amazed me) was, “do you accept that we are too one dimensional in our forward play, hence the lack of goals and if so, what are you doing to address this?”.

Is this on the radio and if so, where? Not on Radio Solent.

Agreed. If it were me I would play ABK and Salisu as a no.1 pair and let them gel…it might take a little time for them to get it right, so get the GK, fullbacks and midfield playing to their strengths. The key thing is show the trust to develop together , rather than continually experiment with player combinations that have previously not worked.

Trouble is, he’s far from the full picture when it comes to recruitment. We’ve got limited funds and no-one can say work has not been done to alter the CB options - we’ve got 7 senior CB’s, but I’m not sure Ralph knows his best pairing even after a full pre-season with the squad…(let’s face it, his selections tend to prove this). So yes, our attacking prowess is a significant part of our ability to defend…for example Ralph has said that he expects Romeu to play further forward and he’s the guy we rely on to break up opposition possession, which typically needs to happen when we’re on the back foot as the ball is given away too easily in the final third after we tip-tap it around looking for a non-existent opening. Our forward players are not really that good against EPL teams and some of that is due to one dimensional Ralphball being found out.

Apologies for stating the obvious, but lets set out some basics - Ralph (and his team) determine the ‘playbook’ (tactics, strategy) that the playing staff work with. He determines which of his fit squad members are to be selected. He motivates and enthuses the squad. He prepares the team for matches in terms of research done on the opposition and the strengths and weaknesses. He makes decisions during a match with regards substitutions and of course re-instructs players in tactical play if things are not working (or at least he has the opportunity to). Let’s be clear, even this squad of players has been capable of some great wins - even after losing Ings. There appears to be a particular point when results just tumbled away. Why is this? Lack of consistency obviously, but in what element(s) of the above and what is stopping Ralph from reversing the decline? I don’t believe it’s solely down to the players - I think it’s a combination of… 1. Ralph’s inability to motivate in the shadow of his premature retirement announcement and a lack of trust in his coaching staff to provide him with advice. Incoming staff can get infected by the same mentality. 2. A lack of mental and physical stamina in the team with exception of 3-4 players such as JWP. 3. A lack of tactical experience and variety of play, which of course leads to bewildering decision making by Ralph. 4. A recruitment philosophy that is out of step with the demands of a group of players trying to enact a playbook that suits a more expensive and capable squad. Yes, we definitely need two new capable strikers, but if Ralph can’t find a system that works for this group of players then it’s regrettable but inevitable that he must be moved on. Yes it’s only one game into the season, but there is scant evidence in the performances we’ve seen that anything has changed since the end of last season. The ultimate concern is that the squad is damaged beyond repair and a new Manager will still fail, so there cannot be too much time spent deciding whether Ralph is the man to arrest this alarming decline.

Interesting to hear from the happy flappy denial brigade - it’s all ok because we’ve only played one game. WARNING! Wake up call incoming - we’re sat bottom of the league after a tonking by Spurs. Not a surprise, especially given that we ended last season looking equally as bad. What IS a surprise is the failure by the coaching team to address the reasons for the lack of goals and inept defensive errors AND the Boards inability to bring in the required quality players to replace the departed etc. and raise result expectations.

No. Doesn’t match our squads profile and I hate the way he talks. But if he can score us 15 goals this season then it’s big thumbs up from me.

It’ll be the same old shit…”how pleased are you with…” or “are you happy with the…”. I’m not going but if I was it would be “Ralph, now the early optimism of new signings has been shown not to have had a positive impact on the manner in which the first team performs, can you help us understand how you will turn a 14 game losing streak around?” or, “Ralph, would agree that the tactics and style of football we play is responsible for our long streak of losing games, rather than the players themselves?” or, “Ralph, how long will you persist in playing players out of position in the hope they will be able to change our terrible run of form?”. You get the idea!

To be honest I don’t think Adams or Armstrong are the answer to our lack of goals, however as it’s stands Adams is our best striker so it seems crazy selling without a replacement. As has been said, the only explanation is that he’s put in a transfer request or we need to sell to buy. Time is running out and frankly I can’t see us getting the required 2-3 strikers into the club before the window closes which means a very miserable season ahead and likely relegation. All of a sudden the early optimism has bled away and the club looks to be in a tailspin.

Can see Ralph doing the Ralph thing and dropping Salisu and putting Bednarek and Stephens in place. Possibly even switching back to McCarthy in goal. Other than that, I just think we’ll lose this game…there’s no fight, no urgency, no spirit in this squad anymore and it’ll take very little time for that malaise to infect the new players. 0-2 Leeds.

Is Hudson-Odoi the answer? Not as a striker but he would immediately upgrade our attacking prowess beyond Redmond and Elly. We really should be all over this.

In some respects it doesn’t matter what formation is played within reason as it’s the style of play that’s letting us down - i.e. our movement in attack is ponderously slow, predictable and easy to break down because we move the ball too slow. Too many times this leaves 2-3 players tip tapping short distance passes right on the sidelines trying to squeeze past too many defenders who’ve had the time to re-group. To combat this we need to move the ball faster out of defence, moving up as a team, instead of having typically 4 players way ahead playing a flat front line, waiting for a through ball that never comes because the defence and/or DMF is sideways/backwards passing due to no-one offering themselves in space. This ends up with a risky ball being played and an inevitable turn-over. To play to the strengths of the current team I think 442 or preferably 433 would help achieve this more.

I’ve said it before when we’ve lost games, it’s not the defeat itself that’s a concern, but the fact that over time nothing changes in our style of play. Attacking build-ups are extremely slow…we don’t push-up fast enough as a team and don’t move the ball fast enough. It’s simple in a sense (it’s never this easy I know) - if you can’t stop the opposing team from scoring then ensure you’re able to score more. We can do neither. When we do score first, we don’t know how to capitalise on that position via attack…we sit back and hope to soak up the pressure…but then the impetus has gone, the opposition sense this and find composure to put pressure on our weak defence. Whatever the model is that Ralph and co are attempting to work to, is just not working (hasn’t done for months now) and so the regrettable consequence is a need to change manager in the hope that new coaching ideas and tactics win the day. If SR are really interested in ensuring Prem survival then spending significantly and wisely on at least one, if not two excellent forwards is of imperative importance now. I have grave doubts that we’ll see any of these changes, but of course would love to be proven wrong.