HarvSFC

Hasn't hit a decent free kick since August either.

Going to draw another Sunderland comparison, but last January they made the ambitious signing of Enzo Le Fe on loan from Roma with a £20m fee based on promotion. He turned out to be a technically gifted player and helped get them promotion. They also signed him for £20m in the summer and didn't go, oh we've already committed £20m on a loan player, so we can't spend much more this summer. So, they're ran very differently, especially considering their success this season. But, it would be nice for us to not coast through January for a change. Go in assertively and get what we want. A David Brooks style loan would also be very welcomed. A good player from the Premier League who needs minutes. Think if we want to have a serious go then Long being recalled by Norwich would be great. No more signing players because they tell good jokes, please. Then getting a new goalkeeper in on loan is a must. Bazunu doesn't make the match winning/promotion winning saves. Every shot against him we seem to say the attacker does place well. But, so do most attackers in the top two leagues in England and every now and again a goalkeeper gets to them, see Scienza against Birmingham. Bazunu doesn't. Plus a good striker who can give us an alternative to the small ones we have. Armstrong and Archer are the same player, Armstrong just puts in more effort. Stewart's permanently injured and Downs should be loaned out from January to try and rediscover some form as he isn't going to play his way into form here, if he is any good. They're the two positions we need to focus on. Another attacking player to take the load off Scienza, Azaz and Fellows would be beneficial, but that feels like asking a lot for January. As for the above, we need to continue making lots of changes to the players who played in the Premier League last season. We've had a good run and some of our best players in the run have been the new guys - Scienza, Fellows, Azaz and Jander. Will Still's tactics were just shite, passive and slow that didn't get the best out of them and when they didn't play well he dropped them and limited their minutes. While our lesser players in this run have been the old guard, the usual names. Stephens, Bazunu, Wood, Manning, Aribo and Fraser have been the weak links in the side. We need to continue phasing those out. Edwards' time is probably up here too. Worth getting a bit of money back on him now.

The Romeu return is going the same way as Walcott and Lallana isn't it.

The shape is the same. Wellington's become the left centre-back and Robinson the right wing-back.

When chasing a goal you have to bring off one of the centre-backs, surely.

Any danger of stopping a cross from either side?

What a goal. What a defender. Lets go and win this please.

Player out on the right has all the time in the world to put the ball in and lay it on a plate for the striker. We've seen that before.

Not the worst first half ever, but not a great one either. Think we've been fairly comfortable, but a bit too comfortable and playing within ourselves, not looking for the killer move, or ball. Fellows is a big miss as his close control and drive opens up the pitch and gets us up it and we haven't had that today. On the penalty, it was a clear one. Player releases the ball anywhere else on the pitch and gets scythed down after its a foul for a late challenge. 4 of our last 5 missed is really poor. Wonder how many of our previous 30 we've missed. Tadic and Ings missed a few. Feels like we haven't had a good, confident taker since Lambert. We were spoiled by him and Le Tissier. A good team talk needed with some changes to our play necessary. Issue is, you look at the bench and it doesn't give you much hope in terms of changing the game in our favour.

Without Sheffield Wednesday's points deductions, Norwich would only be 5 points better off than bottom, a team that couldn't sign anyone for a fee in the summer, cancelling contracts of senior players and largely playing a young team this season. They've won 1 of their last 16, losing 10. Usually you'd say this is a Saintsy fixture to drop points in, but we should be putting these away with ease this weekend.

The Armstrong revival has been a pleasure to watch, and from a central striker position too which none of us thought was possible. Could never fault his effort, but not even Mowbray could get a tune out of him again last season at West Brom. Now, when he's in this form he feels like a bit of a cheat code in this league. He isn't perfect, but the stats don't lie and there isn't a more reliable goal scorer currently in the division.

On a separate note I must say that I miss the days of three subs. I think players were fitter back then because they had to be. 8 of the starting 11 were expecting to play 90 minutes, and 7 of those outfielders. How many times did we sub Lambert/Hammond off? Not often from my memory. Lallana was the 60 minute man. Nowadays, half the outfielders are only expecting to play 60/70 minutes and it's disrupting the team too much. West Brom in contrast made 3 subs and one of those was on the 89th minute and another on the 39th.

I think when the biggest complaint we can all have is that a bit of complacency is kicking in after taking a commanding lead then it's acceptable after the last year. The first half tonight and first halves against Leicester and Birmingham has probably been some of the best attacking football I've seen us play in years, consistently. Probably since lockdown football when we had Ings running riot. Said before that you don't need to pass it between your centre-backs 50 times, sometimes heaping pressure on yourselves by playing hospital balls to play good football. Martin didn't invent it, we played good football under Adkins and it was exciting and attacking. This football is good football, it's exciting, attacking and we're unpredictable in the sense that our goalkeeper and centre-backs don't always play it short. Sometimes they go long to beat the press. The second goal as well must be applauded. Something I've been calling for, for years. We've all seen our centre-backs get closed down and pressed and make mistakes. However, over the years (Onuachu being the worst for it) our strikers have stood off the opposition goalkeeper/centre-backs and not made any attempt to try and force an error out of them. But, Armstrong did close down tonight, forced an error and got a goal from it. So, happy to see that back in our weaponry. 6 wins out of 7 and Pompey 5 points below 20th in 22nd. Happy days. Up the Saints.

The only player who actively engages with the fans at the end of matches too. The security guy who has to follow him has probably had enough of it, but what a personality Scienza is. The best player on the pitch and he makes time for the supporters, while others of lesser ability have an ego where the support means nothing. Lambert, Pelle and Tadic always interacted with the fans when we sang their name. The fan and player divide has been growing for a while since, but Scienza seems to genuinely appreciate the support.

At least the nonsense of "scar tissue" can be put to bed for ever more now. Just a poor excuse used by both Martin and Still to deflect from their own managerial shortcomings. It feels like it left these players overnight between Still and Tonda. We all wanted to see the team give a reaction after last week and we got one. It was another comfortable victory for us and we pretty much had it sealed and took our foot off the gas for the rest of the game after the second goal on the 24th minute. We're just very good to watch again. We're attacking in numbers, at pace and putting the opposition into awkward positions. The positions we wouldn't work the opposition into under Still because we were so slow, killed our attacks dead by stopping and passing the ball sideways, or hoofing it aimlessly and just surrendering possession and allowing the opposition onto us. We're playing much like Coventry now (even if they did lose today), beating teams comfortably and scoring near three goals a game when we were struggling to get one with Still's tactics. Scienza was my MotM. Think he's the best player in the league. Birmingham couldn't cope with him and had to hack him down. The first and third goals came from his trademark running up the pitch and cutting inside just outside of the box, one he decided to pass and one he decided to shoot, but both resulted in goals. Fellows should have scored when he hit the bar too from a Scienza play. Jander as well. What a player. He's the one that allows us to beat the press because he can take the ball on the turn and instantly gets us up the pitch. This is what separates him and Smallbone. Smallbone could never take the ball on the turn and recycled the ball to where it came, more often than not taking the safe option. Jander gets us moving up the pitch instantly and pick out passes that others aren't capable of. This is what we need more of from the scouting department. Two players we had never heard of before their joining, only had a few videos to get excited about and they're instant stars. We pretty much need the Scienza/Jander version of a striker and we will be flying, even though, and again I must applaud Tonda for being able to get a tune out of Armstrong upfront when so many of our previous managers failed. 5 wins from 6. 3 straight home wins. Football is good again. Up the Saints.

He was very important to the side two years ago in that if he didn't play we lost as we couldn't defend with Smallbone in his role. He missed 13 out of the 46 league games that season through illness, suspension and injury. That hasn't proven to be a one off either with chunks of last season missed due to illness and suspension as well as his time with Juric. While, he's only started 8 matches for us this season due to illness and suspension. Downes' biggest problem is that he's just too unreliable for us to build a side with due to his unavailability.

Happy to admit that I was completely wrong about Eckert. Transformed the team over the international break. We did to Leicester and Charlton what Bristol City, Hull etc. did to us earlier in the season. It has been years since we played with such intent and dominance going forward. I would say it predates SR. It's not because we've just found our scoring boots all of a sudden either. Our movement up the pitch and passing is now a lot quicker and unpredictable and we were dragging the Leicester defence all over the place. Whereas, under Still we were very static, players would kill the ball dead and others off the ball would stand still and get marked out of the game. Our forwards were shooting in congested boxes, whereas now they're getting time in the opposition box. He's also getting the best out of Fellows and Azaz who didn't become bad players overnight after joining us, while he also seems to be getting some joy out of Armstrong as a centre forward, when he's seemed like a blunt force when played upfront for a few years now. Can't not give him the job now. 3 points off fourth. Today's performance was so complete. Up the Saints.

Happy to admit that I was completely wrong about Eckert. Transformed the team over the international break. We did to Leicester and Charlton what Bristol City, Hull etc. did to us earlier in the season. It has been years since we played with such intent and dominance going forward. I would say it predates SR. It's not because we've just found our scoring boots all of a sudden either. Our movement up the pitch and passing is now a lot quicker and unpredictable and we were dragging the Leicester defence all over the place. Whereas, under Still we were very static, players would kill the ball dead and others off the ball would stand still and get marked out of the game. Our forwards were shooting in congested boxes, whereas now they're getting time in the opposition box. He's also getting the best out of Fellows and Azaz who didn't become bad players overnight after joining us, while he also seems to be getting some joy out of Armstrong as a centre forward, when he's seemed like a blunt force when played upfront for a few years now. Can't not give him the job now. 3 points off fourth. Today's performance was so complete. Up the Saints.

Okay, he's quickly made me eat my words from the last two weeks. Charlton are a well drilled outfit under Jones and had only lost one of their last six before today. Was expecting a tough match, but it wasn't. I maintained belief that this squad of players were capable of providing these types of results in this league. Although they got dumped out of the Premier League, they're still up there with the best in the Championship. We just never saw a good performance under Still, even in pre-season when we were playing against Eastleigh. We never A good manager unlocks the team to perform like they did today. No arguments regarding today. Fellows and Azaz, two of the more exciting signings of the summer for us have finally been unshackled.

Very naïve move from SR. Two poor results against Charlton and Leicester, which is very possible given this season and they will lose a lot more of the fan base than they have done already. The Preston game was a taster for the anti-SR chants, but if they've wasted three weeks, two of those being an international break and three games then St. Mary's will be toxic. This was a chance for SR to bring the fans back on their side. Make an ambitious appointment, one that gets us believing again, one who we thought was impossible to get. But, no, we're going with the U21s boss for the foreseeable, and he's only been with the U21s for a couple of months, achieved nothing with them, hasn't earned the promotion. As I've said before, we are a reputable club, a historical top flight club, a big club in a good location with a big budget. I don't believe for a second there wasn't a good manager out there interested in improving things here. But, here we are. For a long time we've been a club that's been sleepwalking to where we currently are. Off the pitch we've appeared to lack plans and drive. That's on Dragan as he should be setting the expectations, but each decision made seems to come with more disappointment these days.

There's also a fair amount of difference between appointing a manager in a two week international break than there is appointing one in December. "Lets wait until Eckhart starts losing matches to appoint the new manager" then you've got matches every three days and all of a sudden it's the transfer window.

Relegation under Gao would have definitely been more dangerous than it currently feels. Remember that we always had to sell players in order to buy new ones, usually for half the price. Sounds similar to what we do now, but we wouldn't get Azaz or Fellows under Gao. It is why Hasenhuttl should be applauded for keeping the team up when he was given little to work with. In 2020 we only signed KWP (Funded by Hojbjerg), Salisu, Diallo and Walcott in the summer. Season after we sold Ings, Vestergaard and Lemina for some cash and got Armstrong, Livramento, Perraud, Small and Lyanco in return. We were working with scraps. A relegation would have left us really scraping the barrel, we would have been an unattractive proposition with no budget and would have fast tracked ourselves to where Swansea, Blackburn and Stoke, possibly even where Bolton, Wigan and Reading currently reside. At least these days you have hope that SR will one day learn, or hire a proper consultant to advise on how to spend their money correctly. We still made profits on Lambert, Lovren, Clyne, Fonte, Wanyama, Van Dijk, etc. West Ham made a profit on Kudus. Forest will make a profit on Gibbs-White despite the initial fee spent looking large at the time. Signing players in their prime with proper scouting is just as profitable as signing a young player who could develop, or may not.

We have a young squad, so why don't we appoint a manager with an experienced track record of bringing through, guiding and developing young talent, rather than getting someone new to the profession.

So disappointing, yet entirely predictable. As I said earlier in the week, we have the exact same record as Reading did from their first 15 games back in 2011-12. Everything is still to play for, even if it does seem near impossible now and we should be aiming for the top. Yet, SR are gambling it all on a rookie coming good, when all of their gambles so far have been disastrous. Back in the day us fans used to get things wrong. There would be decisions that the club made that would seem on the face of it a bad one, but would go surprisingly well. These days, the fans have always been correct, e.g. the Martin, McCarthy, Stephens extensions, most of the signings. They're taking punts and they aren't working out. We need guarantees. On top of this, we used to be such a forward thinking club at our most successful. There was a good quote from Les Reed who said he had an ongoing list of target for any eventuality. But, we always seem to be so reactive these days. We had half a year to prepare for this season, and other than the managerial appointment we did most of our business in terms of selling and buying in the last three days of the transfer window. Still had an awful record, not just once the season started, but the football was also tedious and dull during pre-season. Certainly in the last three weeks, after a winless October, which included being thrashed by Bristol City and beaten by a relegation contender in Blackburn, any other club would have started working on drafting a list of names just in case the poor form continues and we need a replacement. But, it's as if they only started working on a list of names last week. In football there are managers who can manage teams to win every week, dominate matches and win titles and there are managers who are able to manage their teams to grind out results. At the top level, David Moyes, Roy Hodgson, Sam Allardyce and Tony Pulis are good examples of this. Both Moyes and Hodgson failed in their big moves to United and Liverpool because they couldn't coach a team to dominate, as they are expected to do. Allardyce was dumped at a bigger club in Newcastle and I can't remember Pulis ever being given the chance. I think Still fell under this bracket. He had only managed clubs who were always underdogs, where it's acceptable to play a back five, just as it was against Liverpool at Anfield. But, he couldn't coach a team to dominate matches and overwhelm the opposition with their attacks. A back five doesn't allow this, as once the momentum shifts, we have so far been unable to regain control. So far in his managerial career at senior level and the U21s Eckhart has been playing similar tactics, and we were very fortunate to once again beat a weak QPR when we did, as I said that wasn't a sustainable performance and more often than not we'd lose giving that amount of chances away while creating nothing. Eckhart needs to do something with the U21s first before he gets promoted to the seniors, it's another case of the club overpromoting from within when they aren't qualified enough for the title they're being given. Finally, this two week window was the perfect time for a new manager to come in and bed in their tactics properly before we face Charlton. Any good manager would be able to do that over two weeks. Instead, if and when Eckhart doesn't work out, we'll be seeking a new guy for December, a fairly busy period where we have six fixtures and pretty much a match every three days, so good luck with that. The anti-SR songs were loud and clear against Preston. This really would be the final straw if they get another gamble wrong. All we as fans want is for the club to show some ambition and we haven't done so for a long time.

I always disliked O'Neil as a player because of his connections to Portsmouth, but if he was an outstanding manager who could guarantee us promotion and take us up a level I would probably look past that. Unfortunately, Gary O'Neil is not that. Now, we're unlikely to find a manager who is "outstanding" at this level, but I like to have hope and we already know enough about O'Neil to know he's a bit average, so wouldn't provide much hope. That Wolves squad were very undisciplined by the time he left, he captained Lemina, the last person you would want. As a whole, we want a manager who buys into the club. A manager who sees the importance of the south coast derby and celebrates each goal and victory against them alongside us. O'Neil wouldn't do that after his long playing career there out of the respect image footballers put on for ex-clubs. We've got one over them because one of their cult heroes was interested in working at Southampton, lets leave it there.