Saint Fan CaM

Oh I don’t think so - a catastrophe would indicate there’s no hope and that’s not what I’m saying. There is a big question mark over the lack of winning mentality in the squad and there are a considerable number of players who are just not suited to play Martins style. The worst of this is some of the ones that are OK are likely to depart before the window closes and there’s no guarantee that we’ll replace with as good or better. The outlook is not as rosy as some like to think but it’s not a disaster yet. A couple of losses and the window closing without squad repairs (e.g. a decent dedicated CB and striker) might give further cause for concern.

Not only that, but we zonal mark meaning that the oppo team can move their tallest men into areas occupied by our shortest players. Double bubble in loading risk into set pieces. He’s got a massive challenge on his hands.

You may be right, but surely it’s contradictory to his statement that he wants us to re-create and maintain a winning mentality. Does any Manager genuinely deliberately risk defeat in that scenario? He and his coaches should know from a full pre-season who he can trust in to deliver and who the strugglers are. Not only that, but I would wager that there are some decent players in last nights team selected, but it’ll be more difficult weeding the wheat from the chaff in playing an almost completely changed team.

To be honest I’ve got no problem with him going…never felt like he would provide long term service and in particular, his injury is an on-going risk Saints can live without. Mostly though my feeling is that KWP is a better all round player, more suited to the style of football Martin wants. My biggest concern is what’s left if KWP leaves - Bree is OK, but not good enough to contribute to a strong promotion team IMO and we would need better - not sure if that would be Aaron?

Absolutely. Thing is, with a squad the size we have you would expect 2-3 changes in a cup game would not overly affect the team performance, but Martin chose to change 11 players last night which clearly didn’t work. He’s introduced a problem for himself as there are a good number of players who he’ll naturally have lost a lot of trust in and heads will be hung low, even if he blames himself. Needs to be nipped in the bud this Saturday which I’m sure he’ll attempt to do, although what players will still be available for selection could present an issue. There are not too many outside of the first 11 that can cope with the style of football Martin and Wilcox want, so he’s got a man-management headache of significant proportions.

The concern is tonight’s opposition have demonstrated to every other competitive team how to take apart and nullify Martins system. Wednesday were not great and didn’t press enough, but still managed to score - Norwich will be more competent still and know exactly how to hurt us. The hope is that (a) our first team is getting better in the system and (b) that our remaining best players stay with us. The importance of Saturdays game to repair tonight’s selection shambles and re-store some belief cannot be under-estimated. Martin is right about one thing…this club needs to get that winning feeling back.

Well done Gillingham…you did your homework and executed the game plan perfectly to get a deserved win. I’m taking my young Grandson to the Norwich game for his first Saints match. I hope Martin and the players come up with the goods to produce a win or at the very least a draw, otherwise I fear his interest will be short-lived.

Excuse me? Who chose this dogshit team? The Manager. So you fuck off.

On this evidence a good proportion of the team AND the Manager are dogshit too. And now Martin gets a yellow card! Oh dear the wheels are starting to come off. Changing room is going to be frosty at full-time! 🤣 Alcarez pulls one back…our best player now.

Nearly 4-0. Players losing their heads…a red card beckons with Lyanco a prime candidate.

3-0. This is evidence of the concern I had during the summer break…nothing has changed with Martin same tip tap, time wasting, toothless display. 11 changes to the team that only just won away from home Saturday. This squad of players are just not good enough to play like Man City and anyone who thinks we’ve got a good chance of promotion when our best players are leaving needs to think again.

Absolutely - normally you’d play 2nd string players against a team two divisions below, but here is a massive need to gel the first team and get the winning feeling back. This is going to be a terrible, terrible result for everyone…players and supporters.

Two changes at half-time…Aribo and Doyle. Oh goody.

Forgotten how rubbish listening on the radio actually is with commentators biased to the underdog club and not actually helping the listener to visualise the game. As for the football, this is how our season could pan out with lesser skilled but more ‘robust’ pressing teams finding us short. Let’s hope Martin rips ‘em a new one at half-time because they’re not doing a good job convincing the Manager they should be starting in the Championship. Well, apart from having really fucking great passing/possession stats. This is a definite banana skin for these also rans.

Anyone know if there will be streaming via Saintsplayer / Smarters app? Can’t see it there at the moment.

We were very dominant in possession, with a bit of a blunt tooth and a lack of height in defence. Our team in general lacks height and strength at the back…in particular Smallbone could do with bulking out a bit as he can get outmuscled quite easily. Overall a very satisfying first visit to Hillsborough even if it was sat in amongst the home supporters. The problem of course with new players is who do leave out when a system is clearly working??? Incidentally I was sat very near to the dugouts and it was interesting to see the difference in how the Managers interacted with their team - Martin has much more command of his players than SW’s man, who had players shrugging at him in the first 15 minutes not knowing what to do to counter our play…didn’t seem to know what their roles were. I said to my friend that their team was setup wrong and not able to press us at the back which might have given them a chance.

My Sheffield Wednesday supporting friends Son said we were the best team he’s seen at Hillsborough baring none and including Newcastle in the cup. They were very impressed with the the team, the Manager and style of football.

Is that the one we put four past?

Did we really or did they lose their nerve on a player that has risk associated with him? Seems the deal is actually not going to deliver the £40m we believe Saints wanted, but it still represents a good deal. Hopefully it will show the bin dippers and West Ham that we actually do mean to stick to our valuations…shit or get off the pan!

He should get through the medical - there was nothing from the last match…just a knock to an ankle and he was clearly due to be rested for tomorrow probably at the insistence of Newcastle. Good deal for Saints, but let’s hope we keep KWP with Bree a backup and use the money on a very good striker or CB.

Yeah…if that’s the level of quality Wilcox intends to bring in, third place or not, we’re in for a torrid season by the time the best players leave. Promotion push my arse! 😉

Yes we did and as I said, we do have players that can score. However, 4 goals against a very poor Reading and two goals against a Bournemouth side that looked pretty poor for a Prem side is not really an arbiter I would argue, plus we ended up losing (but that’s another story!). AZ provided a much more realistic test commensurate with the Championship we’ll be competing in and we struggled to test their keeper at all.

I agree with and applaud your positive outlook. Unfortunately mine is tempered by the fact that we’ve yet to see any improvement in our ability to score goals. Until that changes we’ll find it difficult to win games despite high possession stats and pretty passages of football. We’ve got players that can score - have we got the system and nouse to get them firing? I predict that 3 games into the season without a win or draw will see fans support start to turn quickly away from Martin and his system - tolerance levels following a terrible last season and relegation will be at a very tangible low. Let’s hope we see a marked improvement tomorrow evening because a win and three points would be a significant morale boost and a sign that actually Martin has improved the squad since last seasons defeat to SW. COYS!

The latest marketing vid has Tella talking about the first game of the season (no JWP or Lavia). Got a feeling Tella will still be with us for a little while longer.

Quite interesting to see ABK in training photos…can’t believe he’ll start on Friday, but almost certainly on the bench you’d think. Any interest in Bednarek and Lyanco seems to have dissipated for the time being, but I reckon if the right offer came in for anyone of our CB’s they’d be off. I hope we’re not relying on Charles to start as a CB, even if that’s for a short period of time.