Lallana's Left Peg

He was doing us all a favour, as it meant there was less time for my eyes to bleed in reaction to watching us in possession trying to attack.

The problem with the 'right man' approach: 1. We just tried it 2. Good managers don't leave their clubs mid-season unless they have a release clause So we need to assume that Sports Republic know who the right man is, and that he is remotely available. For both those scenarios to happen seems very very unlikely. The struggle Leeds have is exactly what we will have.

Years of neglect catching up with us combined with an atrocious managerial appointment when we needed to get it absolutely right,

Maybe a part of the reason we can't finish in games is because in training they are scoring goals against the worst keepers in the division and so think the same thing will work in matches 🤔

I'm beginning to think it is clearly too rich for us. The worst club in the division by far and the least amount of investment - hardly a correlation of co-incidence. Remarkable that we can be outbid for players by the likes of Bournemouth. All we've got is the platform of Premier League football to attract emerging young players. And that platform is about to disappear.

He has somehow taken a bad situation and made it worse. And I didn't think that was possible. Ankersen needs to accept his mistake and move on - quickly. Or he has hoodwinked our owner into spending £100m on an asset he has relegated in his first season in charge.

We've hoofed it long so much Che Adams back has given up.

Needed a striker back in the summer and failed. First part of the season highlighted that even more and this run of fixtures has been staring us in the face for 6 weeks. Still nothing. At what point are they going to act?

Based on what JWP and Jones said after the game, the players weren't brave enough and weren't good enough to implement what they had worked on. That's worse than not working on anything at all, because it shows how awful the situation is. They don't have the mental bottle or the technical ability to follow instructions - and that's automatic relegation in most cases.

An absolute joke that players deemed not good enough 6 months ago are now possible solutions because we need 'experience'. Exactly what is the recruitment strategy here that this can be a situation in the space of 6 months? And what does it say about the owners if their new Manager has already told them that their approach to buying players is wrong? I thought the whole point of this was to get a manager that was aligned with the Sport Republic approach? It's yet another sign of a club going in one direction - down. I'm used to Saints being a bit rubbish over the last 40 years, but never incompetent, just poor due to lack of finances. We're officially incompetent right now.

I just don't understand how you can have 5 weeks off to work on everything / anything and then play like a bunch of trialists thrown together. If you squinted you'd say that we were trying to play long balls and feed off scraps but as antiquated as that 'tactic' is it also wasn't obvious. Awful in possession and unorganised out of it. What exactly have they been doing the last 5 weeks?

Exactly this. The decaying of the quality in our team started a long time ago, and one transfer window was never going to fix that. We're now in a position where the potential we have purchased isn't mature enough to steer us out of a relegation scrap and the experienced players don't have enough quality to make moments count. It was the worst case scenario for the club which had to stay clear of trouble this season for the transfer strategy to have any credibility.

Hopefully he learnt today that Championship level tactics will get you nowhere in the Premier League. Mind you, nor do Championship level players.

Disgraceful in possession. Absolutely shocking. Lack of leadership, ideas, quality, and no confidence as well. Jones better hope fixing leadership, ideas and confidence makes a difference because the ability of some on the pitch won't cut it.

I'm not against him, I'm just surprised he's the main target and the one they want. The owners aren't stupid, and there was a report that they wanted him at Brentford before Frank. They obviously see something in him. It must be more than meets the eye but you also can't disrespect what he has done at Luton. I'm torn between being excited with any change, the unknown of Nathan Jones and the track record of the owners meaning they rarely miss versus the risk that this is. At least it will be different, and being different was the only way we were going to stay up. If he can motivate the players and Selles gets stuck into them tactically then we have every chance.

Looks like the Premier League may well be back to being too rich for us.

So we've supposedly been tracking managers for years no matter what, intensified the search when it went even more wobbly with Ralph, and Nathan Jones is the best we can come up with? It just screams to me that we want someone who will stay with us no matter what happens this year and that the club are a worse attraction than they ever have been. From going after Gapko in the summer to heading to Luton for our new manager in the space of 4 months. Wild.

Everyone knows he is done, including Ralph himself. It's all about the timing and the replacement now.

Works hard, probably nails his defensive assignment but it's like playing with 10 men in possession. Slow of mind and physically, he just can't influence a game. Can't even see it in him to turn it around properly.

Completely unsuited as a 6. Could see him being better in a team that values the ball but he's not a destroyer and just not a match for any position in the team.

He's probably got until the winter break. It doesn't look good for him right now. He doesn't look capable of finding answers and there are signs that the players are tired of his ideas. For me, it's the lack of cohesion and idea in the final third regardless of quality. I couldn't tell you what we're trying to do or how when in possession. The players perform like the same. I don't get it.

I wonder if the striker money is being diverted to another part of the pitch or if that is still there and we're actively trying?

Refusing to sign a new deal - think he may be off somewhere.

I'm reasonably defensive of what Ralph has achieved at Saints in challenging circumstances but what concerns me most right now - more than our defence and ability to collapse under pressure - is how little of a clue we have in the final third. I know we have a chaotic style of play but we look seriously short of ideas, patterns and general behaviours in the final third to have a goal threat. Every game there are significant passages of play where the players are all on the wrong page and its been consistently like that since February.

Moi is rubbish I don't know why on earth we're giving him a new deal. We need to move on. He's slow and weak. Ok technically but wholly unsuited to this league or our style.