Saint Pete

It's just another indicator of the complacency that runs this club now, it's OK to have a keeper with these weaknesses as he may get better, it's OK to have a 32 year old guy in charge with zero experience as he may be a gem in the future and the players love him!!

With all the (justifiable) doom and gloom today, that was great to see Harry Reed smash it in top corner v Liverpool, great goal he will remember that one! 👍

Wow, we are truly fucked aren't we? Maybe a manager with some sort of experience would have been sensible, who knew?!!!

Well, it's there in Tonda's own words in terms of recruitment. He's saying he is not the man to ask about incoming players as he has no input to that. But he's OK with it. Not a huge leap to assume it's similar with the formation of the players on pitch as well?

And here is why Tonda was appointed. So inexperienced he is OK with having zero input to recruitment decisions with no complaints. The perfect man for SR! 👍

Formation being imposed by the club is inherently wrong, the manager/head coach should always have the power to decide what tactical plan is best in any given game. So if SR are imposing this as seems the case if its being employed in all Saints teams, then that is harming us. When Martin was in charge, it seemed like his philosophy was driving everything but maybe not? 3 at the back has its place, it certainly seemed to be suiting our attacking players in Tonda's first few games but there has to be flexibility and a willingness to adapt to availability of players and the opposition you are facing if you are gonna be successful?

Wow, genius. Maybe appointing a manager with more than 5 games experience in the first place may have been more sensible?

Agree, Azaz may be unpopular on here but he is a quality player for this level, 3 games ago folks on here were saying Still was barmy to leave him on the bench and they were right.

So why were people on here creaming over him a few games ago and saying he should get the job over someone more experienced? Which was my point.

There's no ambition in the club. He is just following the lead from SR. Failure and/or mediocrity is accepted in terms of results on the pitch. Bring back Cortese!

He's 32 years old and zero managerial experience. What did people expect to happen? He might end up being a good manager in 2, 3 years. Is that what we needed?

2 mid-table teams. We have players who think they are good but don't walk the talk. A lot will be said about the manager as usual. It's no good complaining about that, fans shouldn't have been so quick to accept a 32 year old guy on basis of 3 or 4 results. We have to accept that now and that we have a manager who is learning on the job and not ready to achieve anything this season.

Jelert doing well. Come on Saints!

This is an important 40 minutes or so. There's enough time to turn this around but the players themselves need to take responsibility and show some pride and desire here. Another loss against an average team and this season looks like its slipped away.

Sadly, I think this quite likely. They have already made public he is back in training. Would expect the "like a new signing" rhetoric to ramp up from here on. What I would hope to happen is that we loan out Downs and preferably Stewart as well and get in a loans for a striker who can do a job at this level and not made of glass, and if poss another wide attacking option. But let's be honest, what should happen often doesn't with our club.

Lacklustre from Villa so far. Shame as I can't stand Chelsea (always multiple dickhead fans in pub when they play) and would like to see Villa keep up the pressure on Arsenal and City. Hopefully Emery will give them a rocket at half time.

Rome looks way off the pace in terms of running and defensive work, which is what he is there for in that position.

Well, we're still pretty shit aren't we?

I agree it would be ridiculous for such a young manager to feel pressure from fans after 1 match from when they are appointed permanently! I don't agree with this appointment but do agree with your sentiment of giving him a fair chance now he's in the job, any pressure should be directed at SR not him.

Err, but they were learning in the club for years under great managers like Shankley. Ours are learning under the likes of Russell Martin and Will Still!

Problem is we've been here before a few times over the years with promoted coaches with little or no management experience and it's never resulted in anything good. The ones that spring to mind are Stuart Gray, Steve Wigley, Reuben Selles. All sold as being up and coming managerial superstars, popular with the players etc, all hopelessly inexperienced and unproven and spectacularly unsuccessful and shortlived in the job. That said, I have nothing against him and as a Saints fan, I really hope he proves to be the real deal and much better than the above 3. One more thing I would say is if you appoint a 32 year old manager, it is very unlikely they will get everything right straight away so I think we will all need to show some patience and give him a chance to learn on the job if this is going to work.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2008/may/31/manchesterunited.stmirren 😉

Well, if we are appointing him it feels like a lazy, indecisive move from the club to just go with the man already to hand, ignoring evidence of experience and capability for the job. Common sense says that we should be going for a more experienced man with a track record as a manager. I get nervous when people talk of "rapport with the squad" as a justification to appoint him, players will say what they think people want to hear when asked questions about prospective managers and wouldn't want to get in the bad books of the guy who will be picking the team of course! That said, there has been some improvement in the period he has been in charge so we can only hope that the club have stumbled on a gem in the making this time and have got it right. He will have my support, but I think patience will be needed as when you appoint such an inexperienced guy you will have to accept he will make some mistakes while he is learning.

Agreed. As impressive as we have been in the last 2 games, he has only been in charge 4 games and doesn't have any prior managerial experience to be confident enough to give him the job long term at this point in my opinion. But the upturn in performance is striking enough to justify giving him a deal to end of season. If we are still flying by say end of January//Feb, we could always upgrade length of contract at that stage.

My first game attending this season last night and must say I really enjoyed it, dare we think things are turning for us at last? Main thing that stuck out for me is that the key summer signings are really finding their feet now. Jander, Fellows, Azaz and Scienza were all excellent, particularly in the first half when the damage was done. Scienza is obviously the fans favourite and you can see why as he is so positive on the ball, such a livewire. But for me it was Azaz that caught my eye most in that first half, amazing what a bit of confidence from a few goals can do for a player, he looked stylish and composed on the ball, pulling the strings and linked up especially well down the right with Fellows who had the beating of their defence on that side all night until he went off. Azaz also is that kind of attacking midfielder who is always looking to get on the end of things and get in the goals which is so valuable to have. A word too for Armstrong, I know he gets criticism and I have reservations about him like others do as the Central striker. But he does blend well with the other 2 in the front line and you definitely can't fault his work rate and pressing of the opposition and defence which I think helped to set the tone for the performance last night. I think those 3 will do damage over the rest of the season if they all stay fit and happy.