HarvSFC

I still can't believe Solent conducted and Blackmore promoted the most negative interview about Scienza when he first signed, particularly scathing of his character. They didn't do it for any of our other signings, but the one player who's actually any good and has the character that we need 10 more of in our starting eleven.

Just to make Real Madrid aware that Gavin Bazunu is the future of goalkeeping, a real U21 talent who we're desperate to keep, but could be available for the right price. Or, we could try him outfield. Stuart Pearce gave David James a run out up top once. Bazunu finds it difficult to save shots, but he can play.

Unfortunately, we do have to play McCarthy, two centre-backs, Manning and one of the strikers, because we don't have any other options. But, to make up for those weaknesses, we really must start playing a three-man midfield again to give us some control in games, rather than a three centre-backs which puts us backs to the wall when momentum shifts in the opposition's direction, because we haven't been able to regain control, or shift momentum back so far this season. Downes now needs to be just as important as he was two years ago. For weeks we could have played a Downes - Charles - Jander midfield with Downes sitting behind the two, but that now isn't possible. We saw Azaz wasn't great there at the weekend, so I'd recall Sesay again to the first team, as what was the point in giving him a pre-season otherwise? But, yeah, get Downes playing again like he was last time in the Championship to screen that weak defence. I'd go with: McCarthy Roerslev - Wood - Quarshie - Manning Downes Jander - Sesay Fellows - Downs* - Scienza *Said at the weekend, watching Archer makes you wish for Downs and then Downs comes in and he makes you wish for Archer. But, surely just due to his height he can do something the other two cannot.

Can't stand him, purely based on his playing days. May actually be an alright guy, but just have a dislike of him because of his time in blue. Him and Matt Taylor stick out to me from that era, eurgh . But, he is probably a manager who can get us out of this division in the right direction. If we were to get to the Premier League with him, we'd then need to twist, rather than stick like Bournemouth did and upgrade, as the top league is above him.

Tom Cleverley has Plymouth in 22nd in League One and we had talks with him over the summer. That's the scary thing.

This is all well and good, but we were told by a "German football expert" that he had a bad attitude.

Lambert, Hammond, Fonte, Schneiderlin, etc. Had no problem doing three 90s a week. Back in the day when you only got three subs a match then and could only take five on a match day, so the squad were actually physically fit.

Do you know what guys, it's almost like the three at the back formation isn't working...

We were shit for a lot of the match, but we were somehow winning. Yet his subs made us even worse and we all thought what may happen after the Stephens sub, but would still take a lot for Blackburn to score twice. Yet, they have. A common theme of this season has been manager's outthinking Still. Where's that points lost from leading positions stat.

At least Jack Stephens does a lot of quality things off the pitch. What that is, who knows?

We want Still out + All associated with Sports Republic.

The crowd has turned.

Low quality half. Given up possession a lot through aimless passing, or just running into the Blackburn defence. Just get Scienza on the ball as much as possible, seems to be the only way. When you watch Archer, you're left thinking, okay maybe Downs isn't that bad. And then you watch Downs and you're left thinking, okay maybe Archer isn't that bad. So, hopefully Oyekunle can do an Obafemi before his career tanked and actually make an impact at senior level.

Remember when Solent conducted that bizarrely negative interview after we signed Scienza.

Our only player with any talent. Good finish.

And we still have Aribo, Edozie and Matsuki sitting around doing nothing. Not the best names ever, but Aribo was important in the last promotion season, Edozie was alright two years ago before he got clattered and is good enough for today, while Matsuki hasn't been seen since scoring a lovely goal at Norwich. All three good enough to play against the 23rd placed team in the Championship to give us another option and a bit more going forward, rather than persisting with the tactic that has given us two flukey wins in 11 games.

5 at the back against 23rd placed Blackburn. Still hasn't brought off a centre-back for an attacker in any of the previous games we've struggled to score in, so doubtful we'll change it up if it doesn't work again. Must win, or we've appointed another dud.

A lot of these players could barely motivate themselves to try and get to 12 points last season. A lot of them seemed content to be part of the worst Premier League side of all time points wise. They don't have any pride. But, at least we have a fantastic captain and leader of these men.

I think it's fair to say this has been another summer of fuck ups, which were all fairly clearly to see. The mistakes off the top of my head: 1. When the season started we had only signed Joshua Quarshie and Damion Downs. Almost as though how shit we were last season was missed by all those at the club. We needed more than two inexperienced players joining in pre-season and before the season started. A lot of people peddle the line that little old Southampton can't sign players early in the summer, but it's as much of a myth as newly promoted clubs can't stay in the Premier League. Yes, the last two weeks are busier in the window, but every other club at least adds two or three first team players before the season starts. 2. The goalkeeper spot has been a blind spot for years. We finally had a good goalkeeper in Aaron Ramsdale, who we charitably allowed to leave on loan despite Solak claiming Ramsdale loved it here (Solak also said we'd sign an attaker before selling anyone, so who knows). Okay, we may have put ourselves in a tricky situation in a years time if we signed a new permanent goalkeeper with Ramsdale coming back. However, there was absolutely nothing stopping us from signing a new number one on loan to cover the position. Instead, we went for George Long, because he's a good character to have in the dressing room, but has 0 impact on the pitch. What's McCarthy, if he's not good to have around the dressing room, surely that quota was already met? We blindly went into the season with Bazunu as our number one AGAIN. 3. The striker position has also been a blind spot for years. We keep trying to go down the youth route, first Mara, and now Downes and both have been so poorly scouted, they barely resemble footballers. We already had the young striker quota met in the squad here with Ballard, and he's now proving to be better than Downs. What we needed was a senior physical man to lead the line. But, they don't provide any resale value, so we can't retain our net spend trophy. 4. Will Still had a perfectly capable coaching team in France. His record in France, the top flight was good, and that was with his team. It would make sense to not only bring Still here, but his coaching team also. What's Rooney without Rosenior? Shit. What's Paul Ince without Ray Mathias? Shit. Managers have their own team they trust, and not only this, but Still's team were his brothers. Instead, we try to reinvent the wheel and give him an underqualified Lallana, Martin, who has been the constant of the last few years and Paul Trollope, who isn't a big enough name to make up for Still's lack of experience. 5. The Jack Stephens contract. Three years. It took Will Still 6 games to realise Stephens isn't a good enough player. But, apparently he's amazing off the pitch. To that, I say we've been as shit as a football club can be for well over a year now, so what ever his off the pitch incredibleness is, it is having fuck all impact on the pitch, where it matters. Sure there's more. As I said on Saturday, attendances are now dropping. SR have been lucky it's taken this long, but how shit do we need to become until we start putting pressure on the board? 4 wins in how many games? This wouldn't be accepted at most clubs in the country. I don't know why it is here, we're a reputable club who were comfortable in the Premier League when they came in and now closer to League One than the Premier League.

I just can't believe we've still got three centre-backs on the pitch.

Who's going to be our next manager then? Mr. Blobby? Alongside needing a goalkeeper and a striker in the summer, we also needed to bring Still's coaching team with him, the one he had a fine record with in France. Instead we've forced Lallana and Carl Martin on him and tried to mould a new team with Trollope.

We look better when we move the ball quickly, and don't ponderously pass it between our centre-backs. The goal came from quick play, one ball forward from Charles after THB won it back. The Archer chance and the Armstrong offside earlier in the game. Don't think we've created a chance from our centre-backs playing it between themselves. A regular theme of this season has been teams showing us a lot of respect at the start of matches. Then they start to sus out we aren't actually that good, so they press us a bit more and move a few more players forward and then we struggle to cope and get dominated. Still don't think we need three centre-backs against these low blocks, but then Still hasn't changed this in any of the games this season, so expect another dull 45.

Well that isn't fair, when they get through on goal, they score.

Can we have any joy?

What a ball from Charles. That's what could happen when you don't look for the safe pass and go back to the centre-backs.