Monk

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.

Saints shirt to a Pompey game vs Tranmere aged 6/7. Parents were splitting up at the time, a couple of weeks earlier I went to my first Saints game vs Everton under the lights. I was then taken to Fratton Park in April, Dad told my Mum I was going to the football so she naturally assumed Saints, so put me in the Saints shirt under my jacket. Took my jacket off and got battered (verbally), had a steward approach my Dad and told me to turn it inside out, even had two old dears stick up for me and say leave me alone. I remember my Dad taking me to the toilet and he was getting hammered, I didn't understand at the time. Pretty sure he had a few words with my Mum when we got back.

Choosing not to cup tie JWP & Lavia but Che plays.

Anyone got a screen shot of the tweet of the lad that met RM at HaBar and was full of praise of him? Highlighted that he expects JWP to be gone?

Na, I can vouch he was very decent in the majority. Occasional slip or error but you'd grant that for the style of play and especially his age at the time. His distribution was so much better at Pompey and they would usually play from him much quicker than we do.

Enjoyed that. My god I wanted Delgado to be decent back in the day. He looked horrendous in that cameo with the exception of a flick.

I’ve been hoping we had this template brought back for a long time and now it’s here… I’m not sure. Sponsor looks wank and would’ve looked better in black/white. Black trim on the arm perhaps? Looks better on Mara than JWP. GK kits looks shite, just reminds me of how skit the keepers were last season. Annoyed I never brought the relaunched retro kit back in 2021.

Gents, appreciate it’s in the wrong place but I’ve been let down. Has anyone got a large men’s old Saint home shirt they’d be willing to part with? (Don’t care what year) I’m off on a stag this weekend and desperately need one for the skate groomsman. Ideally someone local to Pompey?

Horrendous from Diallo

Cat amongst the pigeons.... Would you take Sarina Wiegman?