Smirking_Saint

Good win that, certainly not the best performance from us but we ground out the win Starting to out a good sequence of results together

Im a fan of possession based football, and I’m also a fan of teams that have an identity. I used to do a lot of coaching in my youth, so Im always appreciated and ‘geeked out’ over tactics The Russell Martin appointment always intrigued and excited me, but the more this goes on the more this feels like a busted flush… before I get chastised, Im speaking from balance here, Ive always found Im more of an optimist around Saints on here and on twitter, but Im starting to get genuinely concerned. We can argue until the cows come home about ‘time’ and ‘patience’ but at what point do we start to question this ? We look destined for mid table obscurity with arguably the best ‘squad’ in this division, yet, we look like one of the easiest to beat ? Unfortunately if we are waiting on things to click, then things are going to have to click with a real ferocity to salvage this season… or are we assuming we are gearing up for a push next year ? I need to see more then just words, because so far we have one of the most fragile underbelly’s in the league

Was right in line with it, Fraser got there first and got his leg across.. actually looked at first like the linesman gave it, then changed his mind.. odd Ref I thought had a poor game overall, allowed Rotherham to play bully boy tactics and it got worse as the game progressed

One of them, played some good football and if it wasn’t for a great deal of poor luck again we would of won comfortably Despite my restraint though Im really annoyed, we simply play with an arrogance at times that we can pass teams of the park… but we just aren’t positive enough Im not sure the substitutions were that bad, or to blame really. We just never push our ascendency enough, and thats the real difference between the likes of us, Leeds or Leicester. We’re simply, at times, too easy to play against

He should have been the captain from the start

It was genuinely terrible tonight, the only positive was it was slightly better than Leicester and Sunderland… a side note, the referee was horrendous, Ipswich were able to carry out little niggling fouls at will For a possession based team our passing options are terrible.. we look like we don’t want the ball, especially in our own half, its awful No idea how Aribo got the nod tonight, and certainly didn’t convince anybody he is worthy of another Smallbone was largely anonymous again, as was Arma… for a team with such quality centrally we are increasingly powderpuff there It felt like we have now wrecked Shea’s confidence.. no reason why he should have started at CB again tonight, it should have been Bednarek who was excellent when he came on We’re too easy to play against basically, and Ipswich played EXACTLY as I said they would and low and behold we lost, we have one of the best squads in the league and we’re wasting it propping up Martins stubborn ego

Why on earth would you drop Charles ?

I think we need to line up like this, Charles simply HAS to start in defensive midfield for me, we just look far too soft without him in there Smallbone had a poor game against Leicester but Im hoping we have more control Tuesday and can see the best of him If Bednarek isn’t fit then unfortunately I think Id rather see Holgate at CB then weaken our midfield any further I think Im also tired of the Arma at 10 experiment… I think he’s better coming from the left, and can help cover Mannings lack of defensive awareness Simply put.. we HAVE to see a huge improvement on the last 180 mins of football, primarily defensively.. if we are wide open again then serious questions on RMs systems have to be asked… offensively and in possession I do think we are fine, but it mean’s absolutely nothing when we give up so meekly when we concede possession

I mean… lets not put words in my mouth, Im not admitting Im wrong as I don’t think I am It was a pretty decent window with everything considered and we have one of the best squads in the division Our issues imo are largely tactical around team shape and defensive structure, not necessarily personnel

Ive just seen this and your responses Im sorry to hear this Whitey, I hope whatever happens will be as easy as it could possibly be for you and your family

Probably won’t Tuesday either

If they have any sense they’ll sit high on us, and if we manage to progress they’ll just leave a couple high and wide… we’ll overplay in the wrong position and be 2 goals down by halftime

We’ll have to stick Smallbone at 6… or Holgate at CB… so not sure it is really

Im not writing off Smallbone, I think he is a clever player but his attributes really are just passing the ball and offering passing options, unfortunately he wasn’t much good last night at offering enough options, infact he basically ran from SC for the first goal (being hyper critical) He just isn’t good at being combative at all, Ive never seen him be able to effectively play in any defensive way, which is why I don’t see him being an effective 6 at all When we’re in possession and things are going well he’s great, when they aren’t and we need to get stuck in then he isn’t.. and thats the problem My ideal midfield would be Charles and Downes with probably Alcaraz in front of him because those three are IMO more adaptable

Because there’s more too it than that Declan Rice, Odegaard, Mason Mount and Jude Bellingham are all CMs but play in very different ways

I think if you compared all the players of all the squads in the division and built a team with them, form not counted, we’d have a significant number We have good players, we just have a suicidal defensive structure

I mean, we are, we’ve shown that to be true but when it goes wrong it goes very wrong, if we can play the way we want to we’re fine, we’re just trash defensively

In fairness Ive been pretty vocal, certainly during the transfer window against any pessimistic voices, so its only fair I come here now with balance Last night, and Sunderland were as poor a defensive performance as I can ever remember… potentially since the 9-0 but even then I felt like our defensive shape was better than it was in the last 180 mins I think we likely have the best squad in this division, the best 11s are probably between us or Leicester and I do think we’re both better than Leeds overall, so ultimately its down to tactics and ours have too many negatives I know I keep banging the drum but if he doesn’t give us more defensive structure then we’ll be struggling to mount a meaningful promotion drive come christmas, because despite how good we are on the ball we simply are too easy to play against us… if I was our opponent Id push high on us when we play from the back, then retreat as we progress.. keep two wide men wide and you have counter options and we see that counters work At a basic level he needs a No.6 to stick to that position and atleast one of the WBs to support that, if we give up the flanks then we do.. you can’t cover everything, but unfortunately we can ne turned over wide or centrally right now Im genuinely worried that RM is either too stubborn or incapable of changing things

That was my take… the whole scenario around that corner was awful - Poor options around Sully - Terrible pass under pressure from him - Smallbone effectively the only man back and should have backed off or brought him down

I think he’s better but not by much, like I said they’re both just ball movers really

Nothings changed unfortunately Im still pro RM but we have to see a change, we simply have to see more defensive structure… its no good just pointing to the players and saying they need to work harder, for how long do you blame them and sit on your hands ? Against Sunderland this was Downes’ average positions.. thats simply not good enough for a No.6 The wing backs.. the reason you invert them is to allow for a central buffer, allowing the midfield to push up with atleast one of the FBs movibg centrally to assist Its just not good enough, you can have the greatest passing stats in the world but if as soon as you lose it you’re undone then its absolutely worthless Im happy to give RM a little longer but not if he is as stubborn as he seems, you simply have to be better defensively

Winks and Smallbone are one and the same really, very good players technically but like Smallbone I don’t remember seeing Winks win many duel’s yesterday, just nice and neat passing options

Leicester didn’t have to work hard… and walked away with a 4-1 win I said after Sunderland that RM has to be more resilient, he has to get the team in a better shape WHEN we lose the ball… I can swallow the slow possession play, but not if we are this soft The fact we let in 9 in 2 is bad enough but it feels like we had an international break and learned nothing Awful

Hybrid is an option but not as heavily subsidised so for the same contract its going to be closer to 300 a month unfortunately Ive currently got a Rav4 self charge hybrid.. great car for a work vehicle, but the contracts up

Whats the charging infrastructure like in Europe ? I get a tad worried that Ill be driving and there will be no chargers or they’ll be offline