HarvSFC

Since August 2021 we’ve won 9 out of 43 home league matches. 3 wins out of 23 this season and last. How miserable.

Two light shows in a matter of days? What a treat. If we’re going to stay wedded to this formation: Bazunu KWP - Bednarek - THB - Manning Charles Smallbone - Alcaraz Edozie - Adams - Sulemana For me. If Edozie isn’t fit, A. Armstrong out wide. Although, I reckon with A. Armstrong being named captain he’s an undroppable in the midfield position for Martin. Despite, Alcaraz being a better footballer, attacker and he does work off the ball too, he certainly isn’t a luxury player. Could swap Smallbone out for A. Armstrong, but fear that would be too attacking. Alcaraz didn’t have the best of starts to the season, but he’s still done more in a Saints shirt than a lot of this squad and he has only been here since January.

100%. Valenciennes in the summer was another ego move when they haven’t got their houses in order here, or at Goztepe. Not that I care about what happens in Turkey. The £20m+ used to purchase Valenciennes would have been better served going towards our summer transfer budget and giving us a better chance of getting promotion at the first attempt. What’s going to bring in more money in the long run, the Premier League, or French football? But, it was purely an ego move, as you say, to add another club to the portfolio.

I don’t get these new breed of manager’s who marry a system and stick to it no matter what. Is it because they have the security of a massive payout when they get the inevitable sack these days and therefore don’t really try to develop/adapt? Even title winning managers like Mourinho and Conte got stale because they were inflexible and got found out. Martin got schooled by Mowbray. He hasn’t been found out by his handful of games as a Saints manager, he has been found out by his 100+ games in charge of MK Dons and Swansea. He’ll get taught a lesson by Warnock when we play Huddersfield too. Two old school managers who know how to set up a team when the tactics are as easy to play against as ours are despite the huge amount of resources we have compared to every other team in the league. The thing I keep thinking about is that our most successful period of recent years came when Koeman was on a disastrous run during the Christmas period. He didn’t stick to his tactics, he changed them, moved to a three at the back and we became the top form team for the second half of the season, barely missing out on the Champions League. Then we sold everyone, including Koeman and reset. I also see that we’re trying to imitate City. For one, Guardiola has a set philosophy, but he has many ways of playing up his sleeve. He’s certainly had to adapt his tactics to fit in a striker like Haaland in his team and get the best out of him. Whereas Martin would be asking Haaland to come deep and make sideways passes to his teammates, instead of playing to his strengths. As well as this, there’s a reason “Pep Roulette” has become a thing for FPL players. A large part of his starting lineups aren’t that predictable. Finally, this inverted full-back stuff. City don’t play with two, like we do. Walker’s never been asked to play as an inverted full-back. They use Walker to create overloads down the right hand side of the pitch. They play with a left-back as the inverted to add an extra man in the middle. Cancelo couldn’t play it, so they’ve switched to Ake, who’s traditionally a centre-back. So, unlike Manning, he adds a bit more solidity in the middle. Arteta, a Guardiola disciple also only plays with one inverted wing-back. Ben White gets up and down the pitch out wide. So does Zinchenko on the other side, but he comes inside a lot more. Tierney, who’s a good traditional left-back couldn’t play that role, so they replaced him. We need to play to KWP’s strengths as he’s one of the few genuine Premier League quality players we have remaining, but we’re making him look rubbish in the Championship.

Oh, and Vestergaard probably had his best match in a Leicester shirt tonight, because he didn't have to do fuck all. We know he's shite and like a tortoise in wet cement when he runs, but we didn't even test him.

I'm just angry now and I think that's the feeling shared among many now. Ever since we beat Norwich at home near two years ago it has been been awful supporting this club with a slither of hope mixed in between some terrible runs. Tonight was a shambles, like Sunderland two weeks ago. I know Leicester are the favourites this season, but we should at least be competing with them, which we weren't tonight. We were fortunate it was only 4-1. Not too sure how much influence the new set-piece guy has. But, for the second match in a row we've conceded from kick off, our own tonight, which is pretty special. Can't remember who took the kick off at Sunderland. And, again we've conceded from our own corner. Amazing how other teams leave players up the pitch for a defensive corner and get success from it, while we get everyone in the box when we're defending our own corners and get camped in. Something we've been saying for years. All this tippy tappy shite around our own box is not beneficial at all. Most teams play pressing football these days and it puts unnecessary, self-inflicted pressure on our backline. As we've seen every week now, our defender is going to get caught out and even at Championship level they punish those mistakes if you hand them the ball on a plate. Get the ball up the pitch and then play like peak Arsenal if that's what you want to do. A lot of the balls being passed around our defence are hospital balls. Funnily enough, our goal came from a punt up the pitch, which we didn't try again in the match and thus the goal and the open goal miss were the only two clear cut chances we had tonight. We only spent money on two players in the summer and one of them can't play until mid-October, pathetic after all the sales money. I don't care if SR made a lot of mistakes by spending loads last season. Write it off, instead of letting it fuck up multiple transfer windows. Last time we got promoted we conceded 46 goals in 46 games. We're almost on half that after 6 games. Just shite all round really and Ipswich on Tuesday are no mugs as they sit third place. A lot of optimism in the summer hence why numbers have been quite good at home this season, but that 28,000 figure will soon start dropping quickly like it did last time we played down here if this crap continues.

Leicester are too good to not play Harwood-Bellis, really. Sunderland and Norwich ripped the defence/midfield apart and Leicester are better than both. No doubt Harwood-Bellis would have been informed on how Martin wants to play over the international break, he just wouldn't have been able to practise it with the team, but it's not like he's going into tomorrow clueless. Bazunu KWP - THB - Bednarek (If fit) - Manning (I'd be tempted to put in Larios, but won't happen) Charles Alcaraz - Downes Sulemana - Adams - Fraser Best team for me. Expect to see Smallbone, A. Armstrong and doubt Sulemana's going to start, though.

While Livramento's played just four minutes for Newcastle. Sure, both are long-term options for Chelsea and Newcastle, but both were also seeking instant first team football when they came here. They've gone back to squad roles for a few extra pennies. Lavia was dropped from the recent Belgium squad after failing to make any of Chelsea's squads this season.

Cambridge beat Reading 1-0 in an awful match. Some good posts on the Reading forum, makes you reminisce: "Probably doesn’t help that we started without a natural number 9 tonight. Not sure why Kelvin E didn’t start unless there was a fitness issue of sorts. Let’s not worry about running players into the ground if that’s the excuse either, we’ve played less than 10 games and now have a 2 week gap between fixtures. For a team struggling to score, doesn’t seem very sensible to put our only reliable goal scorer on the bench." "90 minutes spent hoofing the ball up to midget forwards playing against towering CBs." "Clueless tactics. Just play aimless long balls. Constantly give away possession. Dreadful stuff." "Dreadful stuff really. Was really hoping to watch this tonight and feel some hope for the future. Nope. How low have we come to make a load of scuffers like Cambridge look like Barcelona."

Scored some cracking goals against Sheffield United, Brighton and more recently Man City last season. Will probably score for fun in Belgium if he can stay fit. However, he needed a bit more in England, an entertaining player, but never seemed truly in control.

Oh dear.

Think Martin has to take a fair amount of the blame today, him and Angus... Sorry Bazunu in goal. When the line-up came out it looked iffy. First things to notice was that Charles had dropped out of the team despite looking good in his recent appearances and giving us some form of solidity in the midfield. As with Norwich, him being dropped for Smallbone saw us surrender the midfield. Then you look up the pitch and think Sky have got it wrong. Surely it's S. Armstrong out wide, A. Armstrong in the midfield and Mara upfront as that's where the two latter ones have looked most effective this season. Nope, we carried on trying to see if A. Armstrong can come good as a number nine when he's looked pretty hopeless every single minute he's played up there this season, while he is actually an asset in the midfield. Keep him in midfield. Then you go to Mara, who I don't rate as a striker and out wide he's even worse. He just doesn't do anything, like Aribo, who replaced him. It should've been Adams up top for me. Yes, he's had a lot going on in the last few days, but he's been professional in the other early games this season and he ended up playing 45 minutes anyway because the selection was wrong. Then you go to a lack of a plan b. At 2-0, 3-0, 4-0 we were still playing the same way. Passing it around our midfield, defence, not really creating anything and getting caught out by one ball over the top from Sunderland. We have the attacking quality to maintain pressure and overload in this league. At 2-0 down I wanted to see a bit more forward running and risks being taken, but we just continued with the ponderous stuff which Sunderland were soaking up easily. A top manager needs some flexibility and a need for adapting to the opposition, the game is what's required in football. Stubbornness sees you get thrashed and outplayed when the opposition have worked you out.

Quality. Strength in depth at centre-back, centre-midfield and striker is a level above. Only area you'd say we look slightly weak in is goalkeeper due to not having a proper number two, or competition for Bazunu and the right wing slot because SAA is still untested. Although, you'd hope Edozie/Fraser could move over to the right if needed. We've signed some real Championship quality this summer, improving from last year and the untested kids route and you can tell from the outside that Martin has had a say in all of the transfers. Keeping KWP, the best right-back in the division by some distance, Adams a free scoring striker at this level, Alcaraz, a potential top talent and Sulemena, again if he knuckles down now then he could be a Championship star is the key.

Weren’t Sulemana and Onuachu both deal sheets in January?

Is Tella's replacement going to be this year's Gakpo? 🙁 Still wouldn't be against another striker either even if Adams does stay. One injury away from taking Adam Armstrong away from his new good position, or relying on Mara. Adams is going to be playing a lot as well this season with Scotland and the league fixtures, should he stay. Lets pull one out of the bag.

Can't say the club haven't learned from last summer's mistakes either. I pointed our the other day they're all the manager's signing's as opposed to this time last year. As well as this, we haven't gambled on a load of kids. Manning, Downes, Fraser, Holgate, potential Stewart, Roberts and Harwood-Bellis all have good Championship experience and some have Premier League also. Only first team signing that fits the young, hungry.... spiel is Charles and he has fitted right into the team.

I said we should get Stewart and Cannon if Adams was to leave yesterday. Cannon would be a good stop gap while Stewart gets fit and then be a good backup. But, there has to be a heavy O'Rourke tax. Bloke knows nothing.

Harwood-Bellis would be a phenomenal signing. Maybe he doesn't want to commit to us on a permanent in the Championship, but I'd be disappointed if we didn't include an option to buy dependant on promotion in the deal. He'd be one of the signing's of the summer in the Championship either way.

Option three would be the best one. Keep Adams and add Stewart. Given Armstrong's new role in the team, he can be the third choice striker and first choice hybrid role he's playing at the moment. Mara and Onuachu don't fit the way we play, so neither should be here after deadline day and Ballard isn't considered to be ready yet, but can be fourth choice in an emergency. So, we have Adams leading the line for the next month or so, while Stewart gets up to speed from his long layoff, which is still going to take a while after he returns to training. Then you have the two battling it out for the top spot for the rest of the season. Competition is never a bad thing. I think if Adams does go then we will need Stewart + one more. I said last night the + one should probably be a loan, so that we aren't so dependant on A. Armstrong/Mara while Stewart gets fit. If Everton are so keen on Sulemana, then Tom Cannon from them wouldn't be the worst shout. On that point, I wish there was more morality on the side of the buying clubs when they seek players who go on strike/refuse to train. What I mean by that is that they see a player who's not complying to their contract and they pull their offer with the reason that they don't want a player of that attitude within their dressing room. But, that's never going to happen now, unfortunately. The horse has bolted.

The key positive from this summer is that the player's being brought in are being brought in for the manager, the man in charge and the man who selects the team, as opposed to last summer. Joe Shields was like a kid in a sweet shop, and still is at Chelsea given their high spend, high turnover and relatively poor results. None of Mara, Aribo, Maitland-Niles, or Edozie fit in with Hasenhuttl's high pressing, winning the ball up the pitch tactics. Mara, Aribo and Maitland-Niles barely break into a jog, while Edozie's work off the ball is pretty lacklustre. It was as though the manager had no say last summer while in previous seasons he had a big input. Pretty sure it's a big reason as to why his whole persona changed in the final months at the club, that and his coaching staff getting the boot and having Selles forced upon him. Now, this summer we've got Manning, Martin's POTS last season, Shea Charles, a Wilcox signing, Downes, Martin previously managed at Swansea, Fraser, former teammate of Martin and Holgate, a ball playing centre-back. At least we look to have a plan this summer, just need a few more to come in before the weekend. It would be nice if we signed a permanent striker and got one in on loan like we did when Ings left and we bought Armstrong and loaned Broja.

Just got to hope this deadline day is better than last summer's.

Spence can go one way or the other. He's known to have a bit of an attitude, receiving criticism from both Warnock and Conte. But, he also starred for Nottingham Forest in this league, so if you can get his head right he's a very good player, but not without risk, hence why he's moving back down here. Forest themselves signed a different right-back on loan recently in Montiel.

Momentum's huge in football and we've gone from a losing every week, picking up 25 points from a 38 game season mentality to an unbeaten league start, winning three of our first four. That alone deserves credit. Then you have to consider everything that's going on behind the scenes. Started the season with JWP, got an assist against Sheffield Wednesday, his last appearance in a Saints shirt, replaced by a currently half fit Downes. We also lost Lavia from the squad, but his replacement in Charles was already here. Eased in a bit due to his age, but has looked very good since his first start last weekend. This has left us with a fairly unbalanced midfield in the recent three matches, which Smallbone's injury also hasn't helped with and we're still grinding out results. Then today, we didn't have Adams, nor did we have his replacement should he leave, which is looking increasingly likely given all the sounds coming out of the club. So, again, we were a lot weaker in that department. Then to add, we also didn't have Tella, and again we don't have his replacement in either. An important player from the opening fixtures. Fraser's not his replacement, as stated by Martin and again, Fraser's not fully match fit right now as he didn't feature at all for Newcastle in pre-season and has been away from their first team squad for a near half a year. Essentially, we're playing with a patched up squad at the moment, slightly hamstrung by not having replacements in through the doors, or those replacements needing to get up to match fitness and not being ready to start from day one and Martin is navigating through this amazingly. He had his doubters when he was first linked, which I think was fair given the mess of Nathan Jones and Ruben Selles last season, but long shall the Martin reign continue now and the board needs to back this man in the market before the next game.

Pretty funny how Everton are one minute skint and struggling to meet FFP rules, haggling over our price for Adams and then the next they're going out and putting £35m down on Beto, a player who was brought up a few times on here last season. They act the same way with FFP as they do with relegation. Always reported to be failing it, but always go out and spend big money anyway.

Hopefully our weakest 11 of the season. Of course the two match winners against both Plymouth and Sheffield Wednesday are gone. Need the others to step up.