david in sweden

a general overview of the U21's performances this season makes sad reading. Having gained promotion they are now coming up against the age groups from top Prem. sides and finding it pretty tough going. Much of last season's success under Dave Horseman's guidance featured some of our better U18 player's who had progressed so well, but things have gone a bit pear-shaped since. With JJ Morgan having moved onto Chelsea, the likes of Kamari Doyle and Diamond Edwards who started well, but are now spending extended periods in rehab after serious injuries. The twin strikers Dibling and Ballard had a field day last season, and Ballard's loan out to Reading was progressing well until his tragic injury last week, and he looks to be out for a longer period, whilst Ryan Finnegan's loan has also ended with a recent injury problem. Ironically, Dibling still qualifies for U18's, but his striker partners in the U21 side are nearly all from the U18 squad where some of them are first year recruits and undergoing a fiery baptism to senior football, but showing up well despite the obvious age differences. We will need to be patient with the new crop who maybe having a tough time, but will hopefully come out as good prospects for the future.

Promoted Championship teams are still miles away in performance level - from clubs in the Prem. drop zone, and often struggle to stay up a second season. Both Leeds and Leicester were below the required standard to survive last season, but with mostly the same squads are now firmly back on track for a quick return whereas last season's promoted sides are already " feeling the draught " . The skill gap between the two leagues is far greater than merely those 3 places. Despite a 10 point deduction.. Everton look on course to survive in a league they could have been relegated from 3 years ago. Such is the real difference. This season . Ipswich look to emulate Saints' double promotions from L1 to Prem. in two seasons - IF they can retain their good start , but we must admit that Saints' situation is somewhat different in that having survived for the last 3 seasons, it became inevitable when we were relegated and forced to sell off our " crown jewels" and " the also-rans ", along with those who didn't make the grade from many fruitless transfer deals in the Reed /Wilson years. Instead, following a season with 3 managers ..and now a fourth (in Russell Martin) we have has cobbled together a squad - some of whom signed as a teenagers - and others who had never played any senior football in their short careers, but with the exception of " the September nightmare " and a few hiccups along the way, have turned in some good results in a few " lacklustre performances" .. but still managed to earn some well-deserved points. Goalkeeping errors (?) are not the sole cause of lost points, as we still lack some really good strikers.. (thanks goodness for Adam Armstrong's efforts) who can regularly contribute more goals, and who are failing to convert the decisive chances that win games outright. It is wrong to continue praising and criticising from game to game, but by the end of the year we may have a clearer picture of our needs and expectations.

Hopefully we will see a new striker in January, we certainly need a few alternatives to our present strike force and increase our GD. Delgado ..who ironically often wasn't " fit enough " to play for Saints, but still went to the World Cup .. and scored a goal. as for Ross Stewart... sometimes long injury breaks are more frustrating for managers and fans, but can often give new life to a player's career. Danny Ings played some great football after he came from Liverpool (and more than a year's lay-off with injuries)...and then went on to play for England.

Exactly ...a statistic I've published before .. along with the fact that just one extra goal in even half of those games would have seen us comfortably mid-table. We lacked fire power, relied on Ché Adams as main striker, with no other player getting even a reasonable goal tally from anyone ...except perhaps midfielder JWP. We never properly replaced Danny Ings, (and like Jay Rodriguez after he arrived 2012 ) continued to play Arma on the left wing, whilst relying on Adams to get goals.

Goalies have to learn their game , and you can't expect a 24/25 year old to suddenly appear and DAJFU.. unless " imported " from another country. In the last 10-12 years we've had a series of " older / experienced " keepers.... ( Boruc, Forster, McCarthy) and although they had occasional runs of good games , the same criticisms pop up, (with some saying that they were too old ! ). Whilst we are on a good unbeaten run at present , we still need to score more, as the clubs around us are doing . My point has always been that goalies will almost always concede goals, but there's not enough being scored by our current strike force.

not a good comparison to make ... Niemi was already 30 years old and an experienced international keeper when he came to Saints. I liked his game a lot, and he is one of my favourite keepers during the 60-odd years I've been a Saints fan. Much has already been written on this thread already, but keepers always get the criticism for lost points whilst strikers miss chances - and even sitters sometimes, and yet people still come away saying they had " bad luck ". Goals win games, but Saints are still a one-man band with our dependence on Adam Armstrong. His efforts alone has helped us win 20 points this season. Blaming the keeper is always the easy option. Up until the 95th minute.. I would have made Bazunu man of the match for his efforts.

Back to yesterdays match, fellas - as per thread. An entertaining game between two well-matched sides, neither of whom showed the ultimate ability to win the game. Yet another draw (like Rotherham and Huddersfield) who scored against the run of play from a chance shot outside of the box. Easy for many to blame Bazunu I suppose ..not sure I would, and would have given him M.o.M ..and a 9 from me aside from that, but it's another two points lost because the rest of the side continued to show their inability to score a second goal and make the game safe. Once again I join others on here who point to the club's failure to get an experienced striker who can put away chances. Thank goodness Adam Armstrong has been given the opportunity to show his mettle and practically scores out of nothing. Ché Adams has shown distain by not extending his contract , and his one point winning goal was his first in almost 3 months. Buying Ross Stewart may pay off...( in the long term, if / when fit) .. but I feel that his last minute " panic buy" came only after we failed to sell Adams, and then couldn't get him to extend his contract beyond next summer. Even an overweight, slow-moving L1 striker ,who knows how to score regularly might have picked up a few more goals , but our persistence in trying " to blood " Mara, (and occasionally Edozie) is a Plan B that's just isn't working and we've run out of alternatives. We've all heard the stories of.. " how good they look in training " , but we need to see the proof on match days ...and it just isn't happening. I don't blame RM who has given us a squad capable of producing "promotion form", and I'm not unhappy with the rest of the squad, but either get Onuachu back PDQ (?) ..or at least get in a couple of reasonably-experienced veterans who can still put the ball in the net, and help get us over the line in May..... and not fall short on goal difference.

or could be suspended ?. Already had 4 yellows last time I looked.

...... primarily because we had no genuine goalscorers and lost too many games by a single goal margin.

Never impressed by Leno - he had a nightmare visit to SMS some time ago. Henderson (?)...surprised no-one went for him earlier if he's that good. Pope, I was very impressed by.. but given the choice between us and Newcastle ..maybe he didn't fancy dropping a league and moving south.

The "coaching team " has a lot of experience between them, and I don't think RM picks the team on his own, but he will carry the can if things " go pear-shaped".

Only problem at Premier League level is that most experienced keepers are already spoken for, and a lot of the others aren't good enough anyway.

....and yet another reason for people to understand that it can take young keepers a considerable time to mature, and although some fans found it easy to blame Bazunu for some errors last season .. IMHO .. he has improved " out of sight" this season. Thinking back many decades, very few teenage keepers came through at that age and a few eventually went onto play at international level. Gary Sprake (Leeds) in the late 1960's, Peter Shilton, (of course), Joe Hart and now Pickford are examples who made it at a young age, but the majority of keepers may be in their late 20's / early 30's before they become permanently established. Shilton was unique in many ways and already the established England keeper when he joined Saints (age 33) in 1982., (he left Saints at age 38) then played in a World Cup at 40, and was still playing league football in his mid/ late 40's. Along with (my favourite) Antti Niemi, (who signed for us in 2002 when he was 30) there have been very few who have succeeded at a young age, The likes of Gazzaniga and Bartkowski all started poorly with Saints but eventually progressed to some reasonable level, and Angus Gunn.........oops(!) (a nightmare signing for Saints at the time).... has finally nailed down the no. 1 spot at Norwich.

...the closer they got to the Severn Bridge they might have been glad that it was only a 2-0 defeat.

This must have been the right response to those critics who (despite 10 now 11 undefeated games) were unhappy with our style of play. To a neutral, it may have looked like a standard home win, but a result with 5 or 6 goals might have shown our true dominance throughout the game. The first 20 minutes was the most intense attacking / possession period I've watched in a very long time, where we deserved more than just 2 goals. Everyone put in a good shift with a number of outstanding performances and this was one game where the subs. really made a strong contribution. I recently criticised Joe Aribo for a lack of impact in sub. appearances but he was a revelation and very unlucky not to get on the score sheet, and for a relatively short period (30 minutes) Ryan Fraser was almost unplayable and might have got a hat-trick on another day, but leaving the best to last... the real injustice was Adam Armstrong's failure to get a most-deserved hat trick in a game where he was both goal-poacher and outstanding defender. We are hitting the right buttons a.t.m. but we must now concentrate of two potentially difficult away games against teams in the mid table morass of this league. None of the teams above us look likely to drop points, so it will be imperative to hold this fine form in the period upto the New Year.

Bree is a better defender - on either flank - and had 5 good games. Selection is not about favourites. After serving his suspension Manning has had just 50 mins. of playing time spread over that entire period. Every player needs game time, but it often depends on the state of the game and the oppositions tactics. Even so Manning came off injured near the end of the Bristol game and so we may see Bree back already on Saturday. Without either of them, we don't have any viable alternatives in defence (except Holgate) and so being out of the mix for too long isn't good for anyone. We are two games into a 10 match sequence this month and we have to use squad rotation . Despite the fact that we can pick a 9 man bench, very few are candidates as a regular starting player, and we can no longer dip down to U21 side, who have their own problems with injury / poor form already this year. Fortunately KWP, Bednarek and both Armstrongs are staying fit and in good form, beyond which no-one else (aside from Bazunu) has had a full season and Ché Adams has only made half-a-dozen starts and already has one foot out of the door. We have no Divine Right to win every game with 90+ minutes of sparkling football, but are still on an undefeated run of 10 games with a fairly new and partly-inexperienced squad (at any adult level). Look around the leagues and see that few teams achieve that, but the 3 points are most important.

In all fairness this is another injury and not connected with the Achilles problem and is hardly " his fault ". Despite all else .." Scottish caps and a handful of goals every season " ..I'm sorry .. but Ché Adams just hasn't cut it for me as our top striker. We've put off buying another striker for 2 years, and now we see what Adam. A .... can do / might have done ...when given the chance. The value of the fee for Adams....16 mill.?.. has gone now, and as he's refused to sign a new contract, it means we might get a small fee for him in January ...otherwise he can walk away for NOTHING in the summer - but will still pick up " his loyalty bonus "...whatever that means?. For all his sweat and effort, I'm sorry but it's been a poor deal in my reckoning, and we have few other real alternatives. Aribo can't score - and will likely be away for AFCON in the winter anyway - and Mara shows few signs of ever becoming a regular goalscorer. Selling Ché for what we can get and importing someone else ..PDQ ... seems to be the only short term solution.

well in fact he does. I watched Europa League game v. top Swedish club Häcken ( pronounced Hecken b.t.w.) on TV here last evening. Impressed by Leverkrusen's tactics, lots of possession 60% (ala. Saints) although Häcken attacked a lot Leverkrusen's defence were equal to the task. Nathan started the game and energetically turned up all over the place, showing incredible pace and was unlucky not to score. He was in the first batch of subs. after the hour, and got a good reception coming off. The Germans scored in each half and won 2-0.

I know what you mean, but the mere fact that we place teenagers on loan with L1/ L2 / League / National League clubs means that they are getting far more strenuous activity and tougher physical contact which stresses young bodies that are still developing physically. In this case I think it was an accidental fall, but seemed reminiscent of Livramento's injury way back then, and also Broja who suffered a major injury after he returned to Stamford Bridge, and now it seems that Lavia has also suffered an injury problem in the short time since leaving us. Another example of the difficulty of U21 level players stepping up and failing to meet the demands of " the man's game" .

Another game where we controlled much of the possession, but had no-one clinical enough to finish off those missed chances . We looked commanding but must find ways to get more shots on goal. Thank goodness for Arma's finishing qualities in getting a goal out of almost nothing. IF.. we fail to get promotion we can look back on... this game... .and the home game v Rotherham ... as 4 points lost... to two struggling bottom-end sides. Having won points off most of the clubs around us, we are now back to dropping them against "no-hopers" .

Looking back at Burnley's runaway promotion efforts, no Burnley fan could deny that it was - in no small part - due to Nathan's Tella's goal tally but the Burnley board must be kicking themselves for being so tight-fisted when they refused to stump up the extra few million we were asking. Looking at the present Prem. league table it makes a sorrowful picture for a club that was performing so well back in the Spring. Now their fans must wait nervously for the club to invest " big time " in January in a desperate effort to stave off the inevitable relegation. It's even more of a problem as they obviously have big problems - at both ends of the pitch. Nathan will have to wait the chance to break into his new side, but any team that can stand above Bayern Munich must be a really good team.

Agreed ..I'd prefer to see Ballard on the bench and then Mara can be.. (a) loaned out (b) sold . IF we hold onto him for another season but he needs to improve. Difficult.... because he is young and looks no better than when he arrived. His individual skills may impress some people but we need someone who is " a team player " - THAT - he is not.

....that of course is only providing that they survive....(with or without a points deduction).

someone said ....that almost every deal that 'arry was involved in had strings attached.

Somewhat different circumstances in each case, perhaps..? It was tough on Adkins being replaced by Poch, after getting us back into the Prem. with a team that cost less than 7 million and the subsequent signing of Jay Rodriguez was a good buy in the long term, but Pochettino took credit for developing Luke Shaw (who had already played a dozen games before he arrived) and his main contribution to improving the squad ...was getting the club to buy Dani Osvaldo (!). He won't be quick to include that in his autobiography. NIcola Cortese should have kept out of the football side of things as his signings of Osvaldo and Ramirez (and others) nearly bankrupted the club a second time. Koeman almost bought a new team and had the pick from the Dutch league (Pelle, Tadic and Co.) but the signing of Mane was the icing on the cake at the time. Bringing in new managers always includes the Board's promise to sign ...one of their favourite players / targets no matter who they are. For Puel it was Boufal ....and in turn Pelligrino was allowed to buy Carrillo.(!) Nuff said. The main problem is always that the incoming manager always brings in his own staff (expensive deal when it goes wrong)... and a new formation to force on the existing players in an already-misfunctioning squad. They all did it... Hasenhuttl, Jones and Selles..and even RM. Some good players fell by the wayside by being excluded, and/ or being played out of position. This season brought yet another dimension ..as many good / overpaid players left the club because they (1) deserved to stay in the Prem. and (2) our previous " spending sprees" had cost us over 130 million with little noticeable effect of performances and brought about the inevitable outcome. This summers " fire sale" merely balanced the books on transfers, although thankfully many of the newest acquisitions look to be very good deals.