Saint Fan CaM

What a complete joke...definite shades of the Lowe years with this and another indicator of looming relegation. Why? Because the Board has taken their collective eye off the things that really matter to supporters...namely the results on the pitch.

I want us to win this, however I find myself strangely ambivalent and not really excited by it. I guess it will be shown on tv or at least streamed...might watch it, but if I miss it I’ll not lose sleep. The worry is more over whether a loss will further erode any little confidence held in the squad - a real concern.

The problem is our form....it has been so poor....and the manner in which we play. There is little in our playing style, in the attacking guile, that gives me any cause to be optimistic. Based purely on these issues I think we’re dead certs for the drop. Addd to this the teams also in the mix are looking better value now and our fate is sealed. Hope I’m wrong...if we win the next two games on the bounce I might start to think differently, but unlike previous seasons I’ve no confidence in the team or the manager.

Expected a loss but the manner in which we play is a huge concern. You don’t win games without scoring and we don’t look like scoring. Very slow, pedestrian and predictable in all our build up play - that’s what you get from a forward line of Tadic and JWP with a target man type striker. The passing is poor, the shape is poor, the movement is poor. This has relegation written all over it and the only solution is in replacing the Manager...if we don’t we’re down. Blame lies squarely with Reed.

I’m sure The Board will welcome their mates from Liverpool with open arms and wonder whether there will be a menu of players for sale on the Directors dinner table? Can’t see anything other than a loss, but largely depends whether Salah can be restrained. Would put either PEH or Lemina on direct marking him out the game as best possible....limit his opportunities and we may scrape a draw. If we attempt to play defensively we’ll be beaten soundly. I’m predicting 0-3 and a return to the Manager out cries.

Anyone else think Long deliberately fluffed his header because he has an affinity with WBA still? With all the time in the world, he deliberately ignored every training book by not heading into the ground and across goal. Or perhaps he’s just a very ordinary L1 striker?

SFC Board : MoPe, please ensure you play your best players, or it's the door. MoPe: Who are my best players? SFC Board : WTF? Ask Kelvin. Lemina was fantastic - for a DM he has some great skills and moves forward with the ball with confidence. And the goal was sublime - if only we had some attacking players that could do that! Make no mistake - we may be 14th, but we are still heavily embroiled in a relegation struggle and with the next game anything but easy, we could very well find ourselves back in the drop zone again. Is now a good time to change the Manager? Probably not in the eyes of Reed.

OK so he's put our most expensive players in the side - the problem I foresee is that these players do not know each other's game well enough...that's why they look so clueless.

I had a feeling this will be a draw...1-1. However Pardew has reinforced the team and they are starting to look handy therefore this could very well be a significant loss. 3-0

We are going down with the clown. That performance was the clearest indicator of that.

4/10. Guido will be a good buy, but we needed more. Poor performance once again Reed.

OK. That’s it. I am now officially in the MP out group. He left our four most expensive players on the bench for the first half, went with the same formation and players at home from the start, knowing full well that this plan has not worked against teams like Brighton. He doesn’t know his best 11 and there is a clear deficiency in coaching attacking moves - we look thoroughly disorganised despite the fact we have some good players. We are going down with the clown....hate saying it, but last night we looked just like a relegation scrapping team. He’s got to go and the big dilemma is who would replace him?

My biggest fear is that we will sign someone like Carrillo and Promes, but ultimately either our system or EPL footie doesn’t suit them. Of course this is always a gamble for any team, but we need fire power to score goals to win games to get points. The next biggest issue is our form...it’s rock bottom and for quite some months I’ve seen nothing to suggest anything has or will change. Not felt this concerned since pre-Markus days about the future of the club.

Nice memories. Did your Mum catch you with those beers?!

Well this is a significant gamble on a mediocre goal scorer and one that cannot hit a hefty strike. A box poacher type player that seems ok in the air which we are short of. We also need a Promes type guy so hoping that will happen too. Long has shown he can be a very good provider so we may see him as a wide player perhaps? Can see Redmond fading away and eventually returning to his level in L1.

Les seems to like a thrilling game of chicken...waiting to see who blinks first before ensuring he gets his 5th choice player. Seriously, this is starting to look either negligent or incompetent or both.

Wonder what odds you’d get for Saints not signing a new player in this window? Pretty poor I would imagine.

Got to say, it’s hard to disagree with that logic. What many will tell you is said potential incomings will not give a fig about a minority of protesting fans because the money will be the deciding factor and anyway, if they’re good enough (and most Prem players think they are) to change the fortunes of their new team, then it’s an opportunity to be a hero and earn them a lucrative deal to a top 6 club (read Liverpool) in a season or two.

Seems those who think the games remaining will be enough to get us out of trouble. The problem with that is two fold - teams above us are actually on better form and so will likely win or draw...so they stay above us, and, then when you consider how we’ve been over the last 10-20 games it doesn’t take a genius to predict we haven’t got a win in us. Pretty bleak picture really. Now add to that the fact we don’t have a squad of sufficient quality to put up a convincing fight and a Board not able to bring in new heads that are an improvement and even if they do, it’s probably too late. Add into the mix a poorly appointed manager...a panic appointment of a man who had previously not proven himself in any substantive way. A man who surprise, surprise has had connections with Liverpool - yep, funny how that clubs name is woven into aspects of the demise of what was an excellent club setup with so much potential. The prognosis is not good...more chance of going down than staying up unless significant action is taken. That means change of football strategy AND 2-3 decent new attacking heads. Personally I don’t think either of those things are going to happen.

Move on. They want £30m - we’re not in that league!

Sorry, but until I hear the majority of SMS get behind the Team and the Manager in a deafening roar of support for at least the first 80 minutes of a game, I don’t think protests are effective or indeed even warranted. It is ultimately Les Reeds responsibility to either sack him or back him with a decent strike force. Protesting during a game is self-defeating and just contributing to our downfall. As others have reflected, this is so much like the Lowe days...militant supporters trying to oust the Board, the Manager etc, and doing nothing really effective to arrest the slip downwards.

Remember the notorious Leeds game when they cam back from 3-0 down to win the game? I know...it hurt a lot. But what I remember most of all was their supporters incessant chant...”we’re going to win...we’re going to win...” on and on. It got to our players and the Saints faithful in a way I’m not sure I’d ever seen/heard before. It won them the game and crushed us to the point where the memory lives on. So my point here is this. If the supporters give EVERYTHING we’ve got during the game in a positive way, maybe, just maybe, it might make a difference. And if it doesn’t well surely that gives the Board even MORE reason to sit up and take notice. Maybe even enough of a reason to sack the ‘clown’? Just saying.

Even though Pellegrino appears out of his depth, I’m not so certain the answer definitely lies in his sack. I’m not confident a new manager has enough time to turn this pretty dire situation around unless 3-4 experienced Prem players are appointed...preferably not loans. But that will not happen...financially the club are against the ropes despite the supposed £75m from the VVD sale (never was going to be near that). Based on the fact that we’ve played essentially the same style for more than 2 seasons, but pre-Puel with much higher quality, my feeling is that an enhancement in quality in our strike force may well be enough to get us out of trouble. Let face it, a couple of wins would completely change the face of our place in the table, the atmosphere in SMS and most importantly might restore much of the self-belief that seems vacant from the squad right now. Now, having said all that, if Pellegrino has lost the changing room then all bets are off. Les won’t sack him IMO, so even with new signings whatever managerial nouse he may have will likely be completely lost on the players. Not only that, but my honest opinion is that Dear old Les has too much of an influence in football matters, also meaning that a new manager will have little or no effect...he will revert to “the Southampton (Les) Way” and ultimately fail with this unbalanced, Championship level squad. PS: gives no pleasure doing the “told you so” thing, but I’ve been saying for months that our forward line is Championship quality and not good enough. How many goals? How many wins? Sad times...

What happened was one of their players cheated and was allowed to get away with it...pure and simple. The fans are at least partly if not significantly responsible for the teams good form.