Smirking_Saint

I think if Ralph was backed to effectively in the summer then he would still be here. We went too heavy in youth recruitment, and absolutely failed to sign a striker that literally everybody was aware that we needed, like I said above, I’m not sure whether this was incompetence or an arrogance that we could sign the calibre of striker that we tried for. However, I do believe that Ralph is a better manager than Nathan Jones, but arguably, if we wanted to undertake this Nathan Jones experiment or a complete tactical change with another manager, there is simply had to happen in the summer. I think realistically, what we are seeing now, is the culmination of years of poor footballing decisions and ineffective recruitment at all levels

I was pretty excited when I originally bought us, I think like many of us. Overall their plan seemed sound, And the multi club model seems to be on the surface of things the right way to go about football ownership, currently because it allows for a lot more freedom in both the transfer market and financially. I do hear from the training ground from time to time, and the general feeling around the club, especially over the summer was that we were in very good hands. The rumours that I heard have come true, which was that Ralph had until the World Cup, a new manager had been scouted and financially we were comfortable backing him in January if required. We signed a lot of promising Young players and this seemed like a model that would allow us to progress, I would like to have seen us sign a bit more experience and of course, the first major issue that we all saw was the absolute necessity to sign a striker and their inability to get that done. I’m sure the interest in Ramos and Gakpo was real, but the failure in signing them, was either incompetence or arrogance. Semmens words made little to no sense as well.. ‘We will not sign a striker for the sake of it, we can wait until January’… because now arguably, we are in an even more desperate position and would likely have to panic buy a player of lesser quality I do still think in the long-term sports Republic should be a good fit for Southampton, I do think they have ambitions for us as a club, however, the sporting strategy over the last 6 to 9 months has been awful, we simply had to sign experience to back up our youthfull buys. And the appointment of Nathan Jones, at least so far, seems nothing less than disastrous, especially given our position in the table. I’m not even convinced, even if we spent significantly in this transfer window, that we will have what is required to keep us from relegation, in fact, even though generally I’m an optimist, I have completely resigned myself to seeing us in the championship next year

Lavia is twice the player he is We need to drop thus obsession of players suddenly becoming world class when they aren’t here Romeu was slow and pondering in his final season and many of us agreed we needed an upgrade on him.. we got it, RLs injury couldn’t of been forseen

Said this earlier in the thread… its not even as if this was a cheap appointment… it wasn’t… Ralphs severence and the compensation paid to Luton was also reasonably significant

Absolutely spot on and another nail in SR coffin. Whether SR like it or not we spent years developing a team that plays in a specific way, from all the way back to the Poch appointment we’ve developed a cross between possession or an offshoot of the gagenpress From what Ive seen and did see of NJs tactics (both now and from his Luton days) its at complete odds to what the team knows, from the youth teams up, and even the players are largely geared towards other tactics It beggars belief we’ve gone for a complete sea change halfway through the year

Is this Semmens or Rasmus you’re talking about ?

I havn’t got the energy to converse my thoughts on the game as a whole But on that Lyanco mess at the end, and it was horrendous… not defending him.. but it doesn’t look like anybody gave him a man on.. and if thats true then the communication its equally as horrible as his attempted defending

We always had money to back a replacement manager in the winter, it was all part of the contingency My concern is we left ourselves short in the summer and I’m not convinced by NJ so far… Im not concerned about money for reinforcements because it is apparently there

100% I think without an effective DM (which is our issue now tbh without Lavia) and with two good but relatively inexperienced CBs (Salisu/ABK) its a risk Potentially its why Jones wants to being in Bednarek and Stephens… but the issue their is the former has burnt his bridges and the latter just isn’t/has never been a proactive defender

We need a striker, a No.10/winger and probably another DM depending on the long term fitness of RL Thats the overall requirement right now.. I’d be hugely surprised if we bring in another GK and for me we have enough in defence if organised effectively

Never been a fan of 3/5 back formations, there is quite a misconception that you can employ them and be defensively sound but realistically they are harder to implement then most orthodox 4 back tactics You really need to be disciplined in your roles and who you’re expected to mark, who is taking responsibility or else you run the risk of players just not taking charge of situations (exactly what we saw early season) Its also hugely susceptible to counters, especially wide and generally causes problems in central midfield who are expected to deal with not only the midfield battle but also cover wide areas vacated by the wing men Frankly Ive never been a fan, and Im almost certain its not something we can implement overnight Thid is a really interesting piece on 3 back formations if anybody is interested- https://breakingthelines.com/tactical-analysis/the-strengths-and-weaknesses-of-a-man-oriented-back-three/

You need significantly more tactical awareness to play DM, its a hugely specific position, you need to be aware of where the space is, where your team mates are, where the opposition is. You need to be able to find a pass in the chaos Just being able to tackle and head a ball simply isn’t enough So no… imo Lyanco in midfield will be as disastrous as Stephens was

No marking, just vibes

Thought the same thing… have to be truly desperate to bring back Bednarek or Stephens to sure up defence

They’re also 7th in the league Just admit the fact that your man Nathans spent 8 weeks googling how to be a premier league manager and little else

And yet at no point did he look like he’d managed to take thr team backwards, especially against league 1 opponents

He’s still better than anything else we have there, he just isn’t suited to a two man midfield unless his partner is specifically defensively aware He’s a good player operating in a system that doesn’t suit him

Are you a child ?

We don’t have months Also every manager doesn’t need months at all.. both Lopetegui and De Zerbi hit the ground running… as did Howe and even Gary O’Neil

Morning Nath Can you run us through what you worked on during the WC break ? And how you tried to embed these principles? Because frankly a team the team didn’t seem to have a clue what the plan was vs Brighton and Im not convinced, after 5 formation changes, you did either HNY

Ive always hated Chelsea but I have all the more reason to hate them lately especially with Boehly basically playing FM You’re likely right, lets hope we sting them for north of 50m if possible

I doubt he’ll be here in 6-9 months time, lads certainly good enough Not sure how pretending to be injured for 6 months really helps his cause though

Get your cash on it to be our only signing

It wouldn’t be Lyanco… Id personally go 433, its pretty obvious that the sum of our downfall is because we just cannot get a grip of the midfield battle, and generally unless you play an aggressive counterpress or are an effective long ball side (we’re currently neither) you’ll need to be combatant in midfield SHOULD Lavia be injured I think Id employ a midfield three of Stu Armstrong, JWP and Diallo.. none if them are able to hold down a midfield on their own but against Fulham Id like to think we’d be able to compete McCarthy (take Gav out of the firing line) KWP ABK(DCC) Salisu Perraud JWP Diallo Armstrong Aribo Che Ely/A Armstrong of course if Lavia is fit then Id go back to our standard 4231 with RL and JWP as CMs but with S Armstrong as the 10 and the forward 3 remaining much the same

I don’t think its beyond the realms of possibility that he’d of stayed fit enough to play the majority of games, he hasn’t got a particularly bad injury record He’s twice the player of Romeu already and OR wanted to go, also got us Edozie and Larios It obviously looks awful now, because of Lavias long term injury concerns, but like I said, wasn’t like OR was pulling up any trees last year