Saint Fan CaM

Manning was not crap? Tell us what he did well. He lost the ball with terrible passing on two occasions, went missing in defence on a number of occasions and not closing down well enough, delivered ineffective corners and free kicks and as I’ve said above, did not provide the same team balance that Bree does. My feeling is that RM picks him because he drifts inside acting out the ‘inverted fullback’ role that RM loves, but rarely works. When we dropped that stupid idea our results suddenly got better. Bree (surprisingly I should add) has moved into the LB role with ease. RM is making a mistake by sticking loyally to his mate.

A win should be the order of the day, but like RM’s usual halftime talks we’ll be jaded from Wednesdays game and start this slow and lethargic leading to going behind. We’ll huff and puff and might get a consolidation goal near the end for a 1-1 draw. Or Cardiff are pretty rubbish, setup to stop us playing through them and we’ll win with a solitary goal from an individual instance of brilliance. Who the hell knows…this is a Saints team on a record unbeaten run born out of some jammy results. I want to see Bree back a starter. I don’t want Adams anywhere other than on the bench. Stu Armstrong pushing forward to bring in Smallbone into CM and giving Alcarez the chance to create. I suspect what we’ll see is fanboy Manning retain his place. Smallbone replace Sully who could be injured. And Adams keep his place so he can be in the shop window for January.

Late to the party here, but thought I’d add my five penneth. City passed the ball well, did create some very good chances and with better finishing would have won that game despite the possession stats favouring us. Nevertheless, we do look very comfortable in possession and if we could create more chances, leading to more goals we’d be a formidable team. I’m disappointed in RM picking his fanboy Manning when Bree has excelled at LB. Apart from Manning having a stinker of a game, in general we looked more unbalanced in my opinion and Bednarek had to stretch wide to cover for him on more than one occasion. Perhaps that’s why Russ was so downbeat…he can see the gulf in class but hasn’t the guts to keep his mate on the bench? Baz had his best game so far. KWP was easily our best player. But I would also highlight Downes who as always just gets on with his job really well as an unsung hero. Adams is just turning up for a pay check - awful player - a striker who has no positional sense or anticipation and in most cases way off the pace. He’ll be very lucky to get a Prem contract, but if he does I’d take the first offer. As it stands, we’re gaining points which will see us in the top 6 easily baring an absolute disaster. Top two might be a bit too much of an ask, but then there will be teams that drop off in the second half of the season…who knows? In summary, I’m enjoying the wins, but would prefer to see a little more pace in attack and more than one goal per game.

Going to this one, so hoping for a convincing win. 2-0 or more. In the real world we’ll struggle to break them down and not score enough goals, lose the plot shortly after coming out at half-time and gift them a draw or a win by faffing about too much across the backline or in midfield. Rinse/repeat.

Edozie as usual is a bit of a nothing player…always trying to do too much, not getting his head up and finding a killer pass. Ends up going nowhere and offering little. We had 77% possession and far too few shots on target. Massive lost opportunity to close the gap on the leaders. These matches will be the difference between us and the top two.

Fuck me Baz…did you get a labotomy at half time?!

Manning = utter, utter shit.

Idiotic complacency of the highest order coupled with n old school Baz flap.

It’s not but you keep pissing about with ball in you own half you’ll start giving the Ref decisions

Bednarek getting manhandled to the ground for our corner - nothing given.

Pity we’ve not got a tall striker on the bench. Oh.

Too much pissing around with the ball in our half almost gives them an equaliser. Only a matter of time before we gift them a way back.

Working the ball far too slowly at the back at the moment. Baz starting to have some brain fart moments too.

Great goal - very much needed.

Nice strike from Smallbone too - suddenly woken up?

This is getting really fucking boring - I get the possession thing, but there’s no explosive attacking moves forward or passing through lines to compliment.

Hurrah! A corner.

Trying to walk the ball in!!!

Just looking at bit too complacent. Huddersfield are packing midfield and waiting for the break opportunity.

Can see this being one of those where we have 85% possession and they score a goal from their first shot on goal.

Why? Don’t skates like Darren Moore? 🤣😉 On another note, looks like there might be a selection headache for RS with players coming back. I just hope he doesn’t go into tinkerman mode to shoehorn in his favs.

Should be a comfortable win, but we’re talking Saints. Russ will have another short spell from the bench. 1-2.

Yeeeessss!!!!

Bows the time to bring in the big man Russ…we need an outlet.

Once again Che doesn’t get in front of his man.