Saint_lambden

Just received an invite. Question was on what the club are doing regarding the alarming B Team & Under 18 results.

Martin Tyler off to have a little cry that Leicester didn't find a winner.

Well at least the stoppages in play for Fofana give our lot a rest between constant defending. It's all I'm clinging on to, as we're not getting anything from this.

It was reviewed.

McCarthy - ?. Back-up but wouldn't be bothered if he left to be honest FF - Keep Lewis - Release. How on earth is he still here at 23? KWP - Keep. Our best player Bertrand - Release. Been far too casual for about 3 years now with no competition Vestergaard - Keep. Important with the diagonal balls out wide to the way we play and when he's aggressive he's a good defender. Bednarek - Keep. In a poor run of form and needs to be dropped but has shown he is capable at this level Salisu - Keep. Erratic at times but will get better Stephens - ?. Pretty tragic that he's on the money he is and has so long left on his deal. Would sell, but there won't be any takers realistically JWP - Keep, but needs more competition so he's not a shoe-in every week Romeu - Keep, so important for us Diallo - Keep. Started off well but has been very poor for a while now. Gives the ball away far too easily but too soon to write-off yet. Smallbone - Sell. Still going to be out for a while in to next season but even when fit, I don't think he's good enough Armstrong - Keep. Instrumental when on form but does have a trait to fade badly in games Djenepo - Sell (however unlikely). Another signing that just hasn't worked. He's like a headless chicken and hasn't found a clear role. Dives in way too much and injury prone as well Walcott - Don't buy. Works hard and I'm sure he's a good influence around the place given his experience but technique wise he's League One level Minamino - Don't buy. Unless it's a minimal fee, I can't see it being worth it. Don't think he really suits the league Ings - ?. Clearly our only decent finisher but if we're getting offered £15-20m for someone who doesn't look 100% committed to staying at his age then it'd be best to part ways Adams - Keep. I do think we're a better team when he's in it, especially alongside Ings. Incredibly streaky with his goalscoring though and needs a proper attacking coach to work on his finishing. Drives me insane when he tries to hammer it as hard as he can every time he has sight of goal rather than placing when it's better to do so (chance v Spurs a classic example) Tella - Keep. Used correctly, he could have a really good season in 21/22 Redmond - Sell. Had about 20 good games in 150+ appearances for us Obafemi - Sell. More injuries than goals On loan: Gunn - Sell Vokins - Sell. How the hell he got a 4 year deal last summer is beyond me. Even Sunderland don't rate him Valery - Sell. Not good enough Hoedt - Sell. To literally anyone Lemina - Sell. Billy big bollocks Slattery - Sell Sims - Release. Never going to make it Hesketh - Release. See above Elyounoussi - Sell. Sounds like Ralph wants to give him another chance but he's far too lightweight for English football. Like Tadic without the talent So we need at least - 2 full-backs, CM, winger, striker (maybe 2 depending on Ings)

Our inability to play well for 90 minutes anywhere near consistently enough long pre-dates the current manager but he's done little to nothing to change the tide. The main problem is the squad being weak as piss, exacerbated even further when Romeu is out. They're way too nice, as demonstrated tonight when one of the Spurs players went down with a non-head injury whilst we were attacking in their half and we put the ball out of play. Soft as sh*t and no leadership but the manager has more than enough time to address that even despite the lack of investment from the owner. There's little point in persisting with the style of play we've adopted if we're not fit enough to make it work over a full 90/don't have the depth to cope with it over the course of a season when injuries/fatigue hits and so we need a more adaptable coach to change it up when it clearly isn't working - like right now. A fresh start is needed and if they're going to make the change ahead of next season, we may as well do it now to try and turn results around and carry some form of positive momentum into the new campaign. Sadly, Semmens won't be pulling the plug on Ralph unless he absolutely has to though and a manager being that protected is a huge worry as it leads to what we're seeing right now - the boss and the players becoming far too comfortable. Fundamentally, unless there are big changes at the club in the summer from the top down (ownership, vision, playing staff, manager and youth team set-up), we look almost certain to drop out of the division next season or very soon after.

Am I the only one with all the Super League stuff, nothing else to play for this season, VAR, no fans etc. who couldn't really give a sh*t about this?

Quite astonishing that those 12 first clubs have now, by leaving the ECA, played their last ever games in the Champions League (Spurs and Arsenal did a while back in fairness). Football is dead.

This is the great 'playing for their future' performance is it? 🥱

Redmond ahead of Adams again.

Chris Kavanagh the ref. Mike Dean on the other semi so we dodged a bullet there at least.

75 minutes to make a sub when it should have been 3 at half-time. Utter dross that is destined for the drop next season.

Yeah, can't wait to tell the grandkids in 50 years about those glory years when we were stumbling to 16th in the Premier League....🙄

It's 100% confidence related. He said as much after the game. Don't have the exact quote but it was along the lines of that he's not had that confidence much this season and he's trying to put his finger on why that is. The majority of his decent performances in a Saints shirt have come playing as the second striker rather than out wide because he can pick up the ball in those pockets of space in between the lines - like he did on Saturday. You'd assume though that Ings will come straight back in against Burnley and he'll drop back out wide because he's not going to drop Adams at the moment.

Well if we win the two games before the Semi, which there are no excuses not to (Burnley @ Home and WBA away), then we're safe. Can then give the semi 100%.

I'd sign Conor Gallagher (on loan at WBA from Chelsea). Can play in front of the back four and in number 10 role if needed too. Decent at breaking up the play, is a really good presser of the ball, likes a pop from range and has a nice delivery on him which would give us an alternative to JWP in that area. Sounds like Chelsea want about £9m for him which for a 21 year-old with his versatility would be a great long-term deal and give us real competition in the middle of the park. If Ralph really does want 2 players in every position, that would mean JWP/Gallagher in one CM slot and Diallo/Romeu in the other as I don't think Smallbone is ever really going to make the cut at this level, especially as he's now got to come back from a very serious injury.

But I guarantee if you asked all Wigan fans to take away that moment - Ben Watson scoring a last minute winner in an FA Cup final right in front of their fans - to swap it to still be in the Premier League now just fighting to stay in it every year, at least 95% of them would say no.

I suspect it's because we'll have to beat two of (likely) City/United/Chelsea to do it which considering we've conceded 5 and 9 to 2/3 of those in the last 6 weeks, isn't going to happen is it?

Not a single shot in the last 30 minutes. Absolutely pathetic. No urgency, far too many of them drifting and got what we deserved. Haven't got a hope of beating Burnley playing like that with the form they're in.

Let's face it - we probably would have conceded 5 with the same team if we'd have parked the bus too. We didn't learn anything we didn't already know. Performance level was actually good but individual errors cost again. Only decision I really disagreed with was putting McCarthy back in. On the plus side - the confidence won't have been ruined; another goal for Adams; JWP and Tella impressing again. Win against Brighton and it's 6 from 9 for the week which we all would have taken at the start.

Ralph was right to call him ketchup bottle.

If we just played Tella up front on his own the ball's going to keep coming back at us again as he's not going to hold it up against a combination of Stones/Dias/Laporte.

----------------------Forster-------------- --KWP-------Bednarek----Vest------RB-- --Minamino-----Diallo-----JWP---Djenepo-- ----------------Adams----Tella------------ Protect Armstrong for Sunday. Hit them early, hopefully knick something and just try and keep it respectable so that we don't lose too much confidence heading into the next two. 4-0 though, sadly.