Smirking_Saint

I wasn’t expecting him to buy a bedsit in Northam estate tbh

This is my thoughts, generally news would have broken by now

I don’t think Dortmund are still chasing Leicester will likely have Barnes ahead of him when fully fit Newcastle is a shit hole Thats the best I can do 😂

You mean the thread we’ve been using all summer and discussed deals that were actually happening as opposed to forum conjecture and a few public qoutes of interest?

Unfortunately though, even if a solid link does come out its just egg on PL faces… I can’t really see any retrospective action after the sale has been approved

Id rather Che than Broja tbh

Im going to go ahead and put you down as a poor troll kiddo Nobody is this dim surely

Ralphs ears have just pricked up

We’ve got 11 points from our last 20 games and have lost by 9 goals twice Id comfortably say he now needs to be held accountable To preface this Ive been pretty consistently pro Ralph, but I jist don’t have the faith in him any more.. this squad isn’t that bad.. but when I watch us set up with a 532 and see how much of a mess it is in the transition then I lose faith, I don’t think he can take us further but I hope he makes me eat my words

What do you want me to say ? Do you want me to blow smoke up his ass and call for him on the team sheet every week ? Im not the sort that would ever boo him or not support him on the pitch but I do wince when I see his name on the team sheet and our reliance on players of his ability is a large part of why we find ourselves where we are This is a forum, where we discuss Saints, and Im sorry but he isn’t good enough, and Im sure he doesn’t care what I think either as he collects his salary

Stephens is crap and should have been moved on ages ago, if he didn’t show half of his passion then he’d of recieved even more abuse from the fanbase unfortunately

It’s still a fair point, 4th choice CM and even Aribo/Stu/Ely can play there at a push Pushing for Garner seems odd considering; - He’ll likely be swapping one bench for another - We need other positions at a priority abd 14m represents roughly 25% of our spend to date

Why would you weaken a strong midfield pairing to play another 2 players out of position ?

Apart from being a constant nuisance, and having involvement in both goals you are spot on.........

Was terrible against Spurs, was better yesterday, a decided average defensive player at best... but he is definitely better going forward this year. I don't rate him, I think overall we need better cover, but credit where credit is due he has been ok and if we have to deploy him against Leicester then I'm not going to lose too much sleep

Don't manage any football clubs mate, you can probably delete the FM download too

That I can agree on tbf

Without going over it again, players take more responsibility in what they need to do defensively in a 2 rather than in a 3 3 atb is simply harder to play than a 2 at high level, the experiment is shot, it doesn't give us any extra security and clearly numbs our attacking intent, hopefully Ralphs little tinkering in this area died after 70 minutes yesterday

I don't think he is good enough, but he isn't anywhere near as bad as is being made out, he is a third best CB now behind ABK and Salisu (If ABK continues to show what he showed yesterday) His issues are highlighted by our tactical ineptitude at times, for instance he looked good in that first stage of the season last year and in long stretches of previous seasons, only being shown up when we started to be stretched and there was a lack of defensive cover (late season last year) and now again in whatever system Ralph has been trying to play He is much more of a proactive defender than the likes of Stephens, Valery and Lyanco... which is why he is one of our more saleable assets.. can we improve on him ? Certainly... Does he deserve the grief he gets ? Absolutely not

It could also be that he is moaning about playing 532 when it clearly isn't working, we just don't know But no, he really isn't as bad as we make out, play with any form of structure and he looks fine... worth noting that absolutely none of our defensive players, bar maybe Lavia, came out of the 532/352 experiment with any merit whatsoever

Ex He has left, available on a free now

It also means you can get away with not taking responsibility in key positions and basically causes a ton of confusion as you pretty much 'assume' that someone is covering for you Ive rarely seen 3 atb work effectively outside of teams that play it with the same line up (and vocal players) consistently... its just shite

Do you know who else is going to want game time before the world cup ? JOHN BROOKS ON A FREE

I'm not sure whether "genuinely exciting" is a huge stretch or indicative of how awful our transfer dealings have been over the last couple of years

In fairness to him I think 3 atb makes all our CBs look terrible He isn’t as bad as the hate he gets