Monk

Any streams actually working for anyone?

I’ve been quite the critic of RM and his playing philosophy in the past. Hands up, I’ve been massively impressed and enjoyed the last two performances. We seem to have a more explosive intent to play forwards and both in between and behind the opponents of late. Our ball retention appears quicker, with purpose and tonight saw a specific game plan with the number of deep runners beyond their defensive line allowing us to okay both in behind and in between their lines. Fair play, signs of that RM is evolving his playing philosophy and it does appear to coincide with CC appointment.

All fart, no poo. Appreciate we’re 12 games unbeaten but the reality is Mark Wotte would have this group as a top 6 team. I hate Martin’s ignorance with his philosophy on two parts; 1)The ball retention is wasted with the lack of intent to hurt. We’re always seeking the ‘perfect’ goal which can’t be scored unless 60 passes have been made. We attack with one predictable phase and absolutely no chaos. 2) if you watch our combination play, especially from the CB’s, it’s the same triggers and pattern every time. We rely so heavily on one central opponent eventually stepping out/being unbalanced, once that happens only then will we play between the lines. If that doesn’t happen we just repeat and repeat. Taylor BH is itching to hit our 9 or 10 more often when he has the ball. It’ll be nice to see Aribo carry the ball and have a pop a bit more often, he’s got the beating of their CM’s. This team could be SO much more.

Nothing less than I would expect from an Arne wearing hipster. I bet you drank Madri until you realised it’s Carling too. Wonderful stream though

Anyone got a link to a stream please?

Currently at FP working, who are currently comfortable 2-1 up and top of the league. We’re getting fucking ridiculed by this lot in the stands. Have we been poor again?

Do you know what my friend, I'm not surprised one bit you fashionable devil you.

Similar to NJ, he has this arrogance about him that suggests his playing philosophy is already 'mastered' in his eyes and the players are the ones who need to learn it. There is no evidence of any progress or evolving of his philosophy, given he has 'better players' than he did at Swansea and MK Dons. His philosophy is already 'flawed' with the passing patterns, player starting positions for said patterns (and set pieces) and his pressing set up all incredibly naive. Two key patterns you can see teams are using to exploit us is; playing through our unstructured set up in DF/Midfield through our press (teams that play with a '10' will be licking their lips). The second pattern is almost an extension of those teams playing with a 10 or have numerical advantage of CM's, playing reverse passes when attacking the width of our penalty area. We don't operate with a typical DM/4 who sweeps and protects the back four, so when the winger has the ball we defend the 6 yard line a priority for any balls across the goal but completely ignore the checked or delayed runs on the edge of our box. I'm not a fan and I'm already on the notion that I don't want him here at all. Plus I can't stand that he's constantly dressed like a mannequin from Zara or ARNE.

And that little cunt Chaplin goes straight to the Chapel End.

I know we've dropped out the Prem but fuck me you would've thought we've dropped into the Wessex Prem with how shit the stream availability and quality is in the Championship.

Playing out from the back/through the thirds: Observation from Brighton's ball possession and progression against our own. Brighton move the ball at all times, there's no delay on the 5 yard passes, running with the ball, it's constantly moving and shifting the point of attack. These five yard passes/dribbles constantly allow for Brighton to seek progressive passes, regardless of their location in the pitch. So the out of possession team are always adjusting, whether it's by pressing or shift their block across the columns to follow the ball. All of their final third attacks are 'explosive' almost an attitude of commitment to creating a goalscoring opportunity. Runs to support and those of decoy are done at top speed and with numbers, the ball is zipped in and patterns happen quickly, not passively... unlike our own. It's almost as if their playing philosophy is 'see it, do it'. When RM's Saints have the ball in our third, we look to draw the press directly to the ball carrier by delaying the pass, whose intention is to shift and then play through the press. The problem this causes is if the press reads our intended pass (usually intended for a showing CM), the press usually dictates the location of our next phase which is now a player being occupied by his pressing counterpart. This is a result of the initial pass being constantly delayed and the pressing team having the time to suffocate our passing options with numbers (wouldn't happen as much if we moved the ball quicker). Our playing philosophy sometimes feels like 'see it but don't do it as they've seen it too'. As for our general out of possession model, we are so easy to play against 'between the lines' and if you add in the fact we can't deal with overloads/runners we're a recipe for disaster against teams that attack with numbers and speed. Some defensive stats of interest (be careful with stats, not always contextual): Gav has faced 32 shots and conceded 15 goals, that's a goal every other shot he faces. KWP's current defensive stats have him averaging just one interception every 90 minutes, and Saints conceding a goal every 38 minutes he's played, surprisingly his ground duals won are high (not what I was originally forecasting). Ryan Manning... stats are inconsistently captured but one website has him only winning 1 out of 3 defensive duals so far.

Chaplin will give us plenty and I mean plenty of shit if he scores. Even more of a skate than Mason Mount.

Well fuck me, I wasn't expecting us to be this shit. I'm not a fan of this playing style, it's so easy to play against and we are awful in transition. Approach the final third at speed, then completely stop.

Any streams? Stuck in the office!

Not a lot happening so I've been binging a couple of the football documentaries recently and stumbled across Fever Pitch which now has a second series. Saints feature in episode 2 fairly heavily as they feature the pressures between a title win compared to a relegation scrap. Be warned, large feature with Rupert and Harry but interesting either way.

I'm not for the lip service of players training away from the group because 'they don't buy into the project'. Sully is a sizeable asset to the club, but more importantly an essential player that offers us a quality we don't have. The whispers of the last 5 days have been really concerning if they're true, the club need to put their foot down and take control of the situation more predominately.

but now we're offering favourable terms for Paintsil 🤔 Where is this?

Miovski, lad at work is an Aberdeen fan and raves about him (perspective important here). I've watched nothing other than highlight reels and liked both but Miovski is on the score sheet all the time.

It'll be him or his partner Duk that we sign as Che's replacement. They've just had a bid accepted for a striker base din Belgium.

AA deserves Man of Match just for the defensive play in added time alone.

Random but has the stadium been 'cleaned' especially the white rafters? Drove past in the off season and they looked hideous.

Couple of snippets I've come across (nothing new); WHU final offer was structured so we received the majority of the fee upfront and favourable terms on the Downes deal. (they were considering a move for Lukaku at one point) Saints asked about Ronnie Edwards, P'Boro wanted £8-10million. Holgate Saints want a loan with an option to buy for £6million. Palace back in for Macca, waiting to move on Guaita. Simeu and another due to go out this week. Piore number one target, if Adams is sold but RM want's to keep Che. Similar situation to Sulemana, RM really wants to keep him but needs convincing.

https://cricfree.live/live/stream-179 Click stream 2, no sound though.

Any luck with streams? Just gone to purchase the online stream through the website, error message saying it's unavailable in my region, the UK?

If Josh Sargent scores against you, you've only got yourselves to blame. He is one of the worst footballers I've ever seen.