Saint Fan CaM

A chain is as strong as its weakest link. There are a number of weak links in our club (ignoring the obvious - SR). Let’s start at the back and work forward. GK: how we started with Bazunu and McCarthy in goal is a major miss from Spors and co. Neither are good enough, however thankfully McCarthy has some basic competency as shown by the saves that have kept us games. Baz is a busted flush as shown by the worst stats of any Saints keeper I believe. Defence: Manning is the biggest weak link - doesn’t know how to close down and wipe out a winger. Plus watch him - often seen just stood in no-man’s land doing fuck all and watching the game pass him by. This in turn unbalances the entire defence and it may be the reason Still can’t move to a back four. Midfield: since Jander and Charles have been together things have been much better - BUT - once Downes is called on because one of the others is knackered or on a yellow, everything goes tits up. Why? Because he is a completely different player who can’t play forward or turn - he HAS to pass backwards. Aribo would do a better job. Attack: the lack of a really great no.9 is still a massive weak link and the insistence on putting AA in the middle to compensate is insanity. Now Stewart is likely out for weeks we’ve got a huge problem because Downs is not fit for league 1 let alone lead the line for a Championship promotion hopeful. Again Spors has to take responsibility for this position. So if we’re looking to place blame it’s a combo of Spors and Still / Trollope / Lallana. Other than the key weak link players mentioned above, there is a team there which should be doing better than we are, however most of the weak links are importantly in the spine of the team, Manning aside.

You alright hun? PS: climb down from your pedestal and don’t be such a twat blaming posters on here for voicing opinions - it’s a fans forum FFS. There are some of us who recognised early signs that this season was not going to be barnstorming top of the table affair….no hindsight.

Downs continues to prove he’s far from a competent footballer at this level…disaster of a signing. We missed Stewart’s presence when he got injured - let’s hope it’s not too serious, but it probably will be weeks out. We desperately need another big presence up front because Archer is just another AA. Manning is a defensive liability (just in case my deep dislike of the player wasn’t already clear!) and a couple of decent free kicks is not enough to justify his awful positioning or defending - he basically gifted them their equaliser today. Downs just cannot rid himself of his tendency to play backwards or foul. He slows everything down and not in a good way. McCarthy, Charles, Jander, Scienza, AA and Stewart had great games today. Other than Manning, Still needs to keep the CB’s and put Mads and Jewett in as wing backs. The rest of the team picks itself, but Downs is not the answer to anything in a footballing sense.

It worked - had to move to get an optimum Wi-Fi signal in the hotel but managed to watch the game. I’ve had vpn issues when abroad - tuned out it was the hotels Wi-Fi system blocking the stream.

If we run at them second half I can see them picking up a couple of reds.

On a positive note, McCarthy has been massive for us, although he shouldn’t have left Edward’s to defend the cross that led to their goal.

We’re looking good and Derby are on a lot of yellows, so it’s there for taking. Manning is an absolute nightmare liability at RB…has no idea how to defend…at least three times just caught in no man’s land, not closing down and watching the game pass him by. Then he argues with the Lino and gifts Derby a good cross leading to the goal. Get the idiot off.

Decided to pay the £10 for the clubs stream rather than faff about - the hotel Wi-Fi is bad enough anyway. Only problem is it’s too early for the bar to open. ☹️ Think we could get something today. 1-2 Saints.

I’m abroad 5 hours behind with my Saintsplayer service ending, so I’ll be hoping for a good stream link from someone pleeeez!

Thing is CB’s should NEVER be judged on their own. It is imperative that a pairing is established and it’s unfortunate perhaps for THB that he has been forced to find a way to work with Stephens and they clearly are not good together.

If they’ve got a strong right winger or wing back then I’d leave Manning on the bench - he’s useless at closing down his man. Otherwise leave the side alone…they’re starting to gain some traction. Do this and we could get a win. What will likely happen though is Still will cave and allow Cap’n Jack, THB and Downes back in on the pretence of resting players, which we all know translates to keeping the squad placated and happy. It also would mean the odds improve on a Utd win.

If we were the better side we wouldn’t have dropped deep and allowed Boro the opportunity to play and score. Still is close to identifying the best team at his disposal, but it’s far from being better than Boro who are, let’s not forget, top of the table unbeaten. We’re 19th for a reason.

Mate, if we don’t start winning games soon we’ll be dropping into the relegation zone let alone finishing mid-table and that’s going to be a potential disaster as it will mean the hierarchy need to make a decision on Still. Don’t think it’s not feasible - it’s happened to similar sized clubs to us. I don’t for one minute think we’ll be relegated and I did predict we’d be more mid-table than play-off hopefuls, but this league is brutal…we’re not producing the wins (how many games now?)…and we’re sinking. Still has seemingly found a line-up that works, but we saw on Saturday what happens when subs are introduced - it goes tits-up. Complacency is something we cannot afford at this point.

What did he do to warrant an endorsement? He certainly didn’t score and can’t remember a decisive through ball other than to one of his old teammates. For an ACM he was poor in my eyes, but that’s not to say he can’t improve and as I said, he should start on Tuesday. Still needs to build on today’s overall better result.

Interesting that the commentators were saying we need the strikers to be better - actually we need our midfielders to have more composure in the box and score - Azaz was poor today and as I predicted Scienza did come in and looked better immediately. We effectively lost the win by not pressing as high later in the 2nd half…as usual we thought 1-0 would do the business. Overall you could argue 1-1 against the league leaders was a good result, but that still leaves us 19th I believe…that league position is nothing really to celebrate - check out the teams above us. A win on Tuesday now is looking almost essential. I think Still needs to leave this team in place - so much more attacking intent, grit and fight. Importantly, more chance of this line-up improving.

Azaz obviously is going to divide opinion. Personally he’s not looking right to me - not at ease with his role, particularly in this match. I would get him off but who replaces him? Fraser could be a good shout….could Scienza play central?

Cannot complain in the slightest at that line-up in terms of losing the scar tissue. Whether these players are enough to win a game of football we will see in a short while, however it would be fantastic if it’s very obviously the right choices. The disappointment for me is Jelert not getting a start, but otherwise I think Still can be applauded for giving it a go. COYS!

Let’s hope so, however the dynamic was quite different from Downes with Jander which leads me to believe he and Charles are not as compatible - kind of cancel each out…perhaps too similar. Bit like Lampard and Gerrard never really worked that well together for England despite their great individual careers.

It’s a totally stupid and pointless idea. Far better to have just a 3rd and 4th play-off two-legged match and be done with it. Much more equitable and fair for those two also-ran teams. Bloody woke liberal madness. Other than that…yeah.

Thanks WG - you’ve saved me some typing - that’s exactly how I see things for this game. I’m sure however that Still will find a way to pick the undroppable Cap’t Jack over one of Quarshie, Wood or Edward’s despite that defence looking the best it could be since the summer. And of course Baz will be back to gift a goal or two. Pity that Jander will likely not play due to injury - think the Downes/Charles experiment has run its course now and it’s not working. Definitely think AA should be on the right…much more attacking intent.

I’ll set ‘em up - you knock ‘em down! 😉😂

Surprised there’s not more plaudits for Jander - he was bossing midfield and we looked weaker when he went off. Think that’s a team make-up thing rather than one individual being lots better than another.

We did ok. What I want most is a complete re-think from Still for the starting 11 on Saturday. If not I think I’ll just fucking give up.

Officials doing their bit for a Pool win.

Gotta laff at the Pool red! 😂