HarvSFC

I suppose the subs did make a good impression on Monday, so rewarded with starts.

It's an interesting one. The lack of game time obviously a red flag. But, if Hamburg have a secure number one then it's hard for a goalkeeper to work their way in, as Ramsdale is discovering at Newcastle. His previous performances also attracted Bayern Munich to him, obviously as the backup to Neuer, but he has shown he has something about him to make an elite club sign him. Our signings of the elite clubs squad players has served us well previously, before we went hunting in their youth teams. Just have to hope the club's knowledge of German football is bringing in another Scienza/Jander, rather than a Downs. And if the club have identified someone worse than Bazunu and McCarthy, like Long, then that will be impressive in itself.

Well, you called it. Take off a centre-back. Three of them on the pitch when chasing a goal, every week and it doesn't change anything, funnily enough.

Beadle made a good save from THB right after half time, they score. Every week we're asking how our players miss chances. Because the opposition goalkeeper's are actually able to pull off good saves and our lot are training against a mannequin all week...

Standards have dropped right off in the last few games and so far Eckert's shown he's been unable to get them back. The team earlier in the month showed what they're capable of playing, but they need strong leadership to ensure those levels are maintained, but they seem to have reverted back to their comfort zones. A much stronger second half needed. Fellows is our dangerman at the minute, get Scienza on the other side.

Birmingham have only won 1 of their last 7, losing 3. Including our form team seeing them off fairly easily. They haven't got Gray tonight and their manager must also be getting pressure on him now given the money spent. They may be coming into this match in a worse state than us, so hopefully we actually turn up.

Giving Scienza 30 minutes so that he can play on New Years Day..... 🤔

And in 2022 they were 17th after 11 games and sacked Steven Gerrard. We were 14th after 11 games and sacked Hasenhuttl 4 games later. They went for Unai Emery, we went for Nathan Jones.

There's just no forward thinking here. We went into the summer with months to prepare having been relegated at this point last year and our only signings before 29th August, three games into the season, were Downs, Quarshie, Roerslev and Long. Still had us in 21st position after 13 games and some shocking performances, yet there wasn't a plan. It's like his dismissal came as a shock to those above and we promoted from within. Eckert still doesn't have a senior coaching team around him. Look at the bottom of this page for our staff (https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/teams/mens-team) and they're all still "interim". Still got sacked nearly two months ago and there keeps being hints by the media of new coaches coming in, but nothing yet. They probably don't realise it's January on Thursday. We'll get active towards the end of the month after a few more defeats and our new striker signing will be a fit Ross Stewart for two weeks.

Gray gone off injured for Birmingham after 15 minutes. Boost for us next week.

The goalkeeper position was a problem in the summer and still is now, heading into January. Therefore, the one goalkeeper we did sign was pointless. Also pointless giving a loan slot up to a player who will never step foot on the pitch. At least Richard Wright, Scott Carson, Marcus Bettinelli are signed to boost City's homegrown quota, so they provide something. We don't have an issue there.

Hopeful departures for me would be - George Long, send back, just completely pointless as we all predicted. Ronnie Edwards, just isn't going to make it here, still rated somewhat in this division so could recoup some fee and we did pick him up on the cheap. Joe Aribo, as shouldn't get anywhere near the current side with Downes, Charles, Jander, Romeu and Bragg. Damion Downs, either on loan or sell, but don't think anyone's offering money for him next month. It's a failed experiment, cut our ties early, there's too much pressure here now for him to play his way into form if he is any good. Similarly with Cameron Archer. He'll probably bang in a few goals at his next club, but it isn't clicking for him here and again he isn't going to regain his confidence here. Edozie's a tricky one. I don't know if my memory is playing up, and it probably is. He's probably crap, hence why he's still here. However, playing wise I think he's got very similar traits to Scienza and Fellows in that he'll look to take his opponent on and beat them. Whereas, Fraser's just a clogger nowadays and Robinson's very uncontrolled at this level. We need backup for Scienza and we could definitely find better than Edozie, but it's a big ask in January when we've already got higher priorities on either side of the pitch, so we could manage with him until the end of the season and then let him go in the summer. Hopefully we make an early signing for a change and we should have some funds to play with left from the summer, or use the loan market.

One record we didn't manage last season. We had 6 points at Christmas.

Yeah, was mentioned many times on the Sky commentary, David Prutton and Frank Lampard in his post match interviews that the "two strikers in the studio saw it as a penalty". Two strikers in Charlie Austin and Kevin Phillips who don't look at their time at Southampton fondly.

Charlie Austin and Kevin Phillips hate us, of course they're going to say penalty.

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.