HarvSFC

I've been pro-Ralph for the duration too. But, now, we're just too easy to beat... A good defence wins titles. We're not competing for any titles, but when Koeman built a solid base we were really quite good! The defence and goalkeepers are the weakest past of our team, yes, even weaker than the misfiring forwards, and we send them out to slaughter every week, be it the first half, where we look like amateurs today, and against Liverpool, or completely crumble in second halves of 90% of matches. I'm sick of seeing KWP play out of position, while Livramento is struggling at right-back. Last season, it was clear that Hasenhuttl had improved a lot of our squad. But, JWP has reverted, Bednarek has reverted and Adams is still hit and miss. One thing, I don't agree with though is some of the suggestions for replacements still, especially when it's Frank Lampard/John Terry. Norwich and Rangers passed on this duo and we should be looking at better than those two clubs. We need to move away from this ridiculous outdated Les Reed policy of only appointing managers out of work. Yes, we picked up two top class managers for nothing in Pochettino and Koeman, but our recruitment under Mitchell was a lot more secure back then. Now, we're trying to replicate past successes and firing blanks every time. Management is the most important part of football and we're handicapping ourselves by only exploring those who are out of work. The last time we did it was Nigel Adkins and like Pochettino and Koeman, he was also really successful, so get the best candidate. Leicester, Brighton, Villa didn't care that Rodgers, Potter or Gerrard were under contract. They're the clubs we should be competing with and they're all doing better than us and have leapfrogged us. It's like the academy situation, only this summer did the club start focusing on it again after years of neglect. We've been left behind by many at youth level, despite recent good form. We aren't competing against the likes of Brighton, Aston Villa, Leeds, or Man City yet and they've pumped millions into their youth sides. We used to have the best academy in the country, it was part of our identity and now it produces absolutely nothing. Alongside this, we need to stop trying to "breed" coaches, or whatever the hell is going on at the club there. This, again is amateurish and a job for the boys type scenario. Pochettino had Perez, Jimenez and D'Agostino, who are all still with him at PSG. Koeman was able to bring in Lee, E.Koeman, Kluitenberg and Watson, who is now weirdly a first team coach after being appointed as a goalkeeping coach initially. I know Puel, Pellegrino, Hughes and Hasenhuttl have all been able to bring in individuals with them too, but I'm sure Davis, Fleming and Watson, who have outstayed multiple managers now aren't at the top of their wants for part of their coaching staff. Davis and Fleming should still be with the youth team at the most, but it feels like they were in the right place at the right time. They are not Premier League coaches. Taking recent examples, Michael Carrick just stepped down from a much bigger position because the manager he was working with was sacked, Ledley King, who was a much bigger legend at Tottenham, than Davis is here was demoted from their coaching team following the appointment of Espirito Santo. There's no room for sentimentality in football. Late night/early morning rant over.

We're going back into the direction of no fans, aren't we?

McCarthy's better than Davis and Gazzaniga. Those two get you relegated without a fight.

Portsmouth are the Sky match tonight, Prutton doing the presenting, Adkins one of the two pundits. 😁

Our goalkeepers are at their best when they've had minimal time with our goalkeeping coaches. Forster, McCarthy and Gunn all had their best form at the beginning of their Saints careers....

I’m not sure why they’re ignoring Iheanacho again. He changed their form around when he came into their team last season and ended up their top goal scorer in all competitions. Now, he’s back out of the side and even behind Daka in the pecking order. When Rodgers’ Liverpool lost Suarez and Sterling they weren’t the same team and he didn’t have an answer for it. Now, this Leicester side have Schmeichel and Vardy on the decline and have Fofana out with a serious injury. Albrighton was an underrated David type too, but he’s done now. See if Rodger’s has answers this time.

The one time we need Stuart Taylor… And he left three years ago, where’s that time gone? Only emergency goalkeeper signings I can remember us making are Keller and Wright. Keller did a job, while Wright was actually decent, albeit at a lower level, but he did play a big part in keeping us up. Man City signed Martin Fulop on an emergency loan as well once, adding to the examples above. Either way, Lewis can’t play against Arsenal. His last game for us was against Arsenal’s second string, where he conceded 5 - A Walcott hat trick and Welbeck double. He can’t play against the real Arsenal. Looking at the list of free agents, a 40 year old Caballero is probably the best option, unfortunately. And looking at the Premier League squads, the third choices are quite dire. Heaton being the best name, but he hasn’t played a league game for near two years now.

There’s Romeu’s first foul and a yellow.

Needed to hit that early with the keeper off his line.

He was the next Christian Eriksen! Only similarities they have are being from the same country and playing for Tottenham.

I really hope we get taken over before the new goalkeeper signing. There's got to be an international goalkeeper* like Boruc/Niemi out there. Johnstone seems like a signing for signings sake, cheap option and we've made errors with goalkeepers previously. Forster, McCarthy and Gunn hamstrung us and prevented us from making any further goalkeeper signings, despite it being a weakness for three and a half years now. A 28 year old who has spent the majority of their career in England's second tier is not it. *I know that Johnstone gets called up for England, but Pickford and now Ramsdale are the uncontested two goalkeepers in the country.

Eddie Nketiah hasn't shown anything in senior football to date. He will be free in the summer, but he'll also be 23. He should've pushed for a move sooner in his career, as a highest league scoring season of 3 with Leeds in the Championship doesn't shout out talent. At least there's no dangers of another Brewster/Solanke, as he'll only cost a small fee.

Smart from Smith-Rowe there, idiotic from De Gea.

I attributed that to Salisu as his error, as the way I saw it, it was poor control. Maybe I was wrong, but an example of why KWP shouldn't be on his weak foot certainly.

Unfortunately, that's now two games in quick succession that McCarthy has cost us in, four big errors, four goals conceded against Norwich and Leicester tonight. Seems like his confidence is shot again after some good saves in the winning run just a few weeks back. Desperately needs improving, hopefully the answer can be found in January. Livramento is an inconsistent youngster at this stage of his career. Unfortunately, since the Villa game he's been consistently poor. I'd get KWP back on his strong right side and take Livramento out of the firing line for a bit, as there was a period, which included the second goal where he was getting spun by Maddison for fun, which simply would not happen with KWP. Armstrong was also poor. Whoever made the Shane Long comparison the other day was spot on with tonight's showing being very close to what we've become accustomed to from Long, only thing he didn't do is stand offside for 90% of the match. But, hey, at least Long had some good seasons and moments here. 🤷‍♂️ Broja needs to start and he should have taken that chance at the end first time. Elyounoussi is a waste of an attacking sub and Salisu made two huge errors which put Leicester through on goal both times. Can't be doing that. Redmond (great cross for the second goal), Adams and KWP were the positives for me. Romeu had a good first half, but was hamstrung by the early second half booking. At least we got two goals, but we can't be doing with needing three to win a match.

They were 13th, we were 14th, separated by one point before we played Liverpool on Saturday and they played Watford. This narrative regarding Rodgers, Potter and Benitez is getting boring. They're at clubs with much better resources, but also go on long winless runs and once all has been played out, they find themselves in a similar position to ourselves. This was your alternative at the end of October: Howe has since taken over Newcastle with 5 points from 11 games in 19th place, Hasenhuttl took over Southampton with 9 points from 15 games in 18th place. Not too dissimilar, so of course Newcastle will stay up this season in your opinion, because we did and Howe was the answer to all of our problems. This is without mentioning the squads both inherited. Dubravka being better than McCarthy, Lascelles and Schar being better than Vestergaard and Bednarek, Willock provides more goals than any of our CMs did, Fraser and Saint-Maximin both better than Redmond and Wilson is on par with what Ings was in Hasenhuttl's first season. Many on here say that Hasenhuttl is overrated by the fanbase, but my opinion is that a certain minority of posters overrate everyone who isn't at Southampton, which doesn't make sense as fans of Southampton.

We've seen strikers like Carrillo, McBurnie, Brewster, Joelinton, Haller, Solanke, Locadia, Kean, Tosun, Andre Gray (good goal last night) and Cutrone move for big money/similar fees to Adams/Armstrong in recent years. There's probably a lot more as well, but there's a lot of duds there alone, who are all worse than our two. It's just that other clubs can afford to make these mistakes, where there's a lot of pressure that we need to have every signing come in and play to a certain level, which is again due to a lack of resources.

I was surprised by looking up his goal record for this season, as whenever I’ve seen him play for Blackburn/Chile his all round game has looked a bit average. He mainly plays out wide too, so the numbers at least for this season look good.

You can’t argue against why Ings was our star player either and was clearly a level above us while here.

He's more reminiscent of Jay Rodriguez when he first joined, who was also rushed and hectic. He turned into a completely different player after his injury, but we all remember how good he was before it and following a difficult first period at the club, where he scored just the one league goal in his first 15 appearances. Armstrong will never have the touch, composure, or class that Lambert had, but hopefully he develops as Rodriguez did here. The only downside being is that we had other goal scorers in 2012-13.

Stephens has to come straight back into the team when he’s fit. Hopefully it’s the next match.

Time to switch off?

How does one even get a job like his? Do you start off by making some dead cert claims on Twitter and then gain a reputation once they all come off, get a cushty job at a lowly reputable radio station and then just throw a load shit, some sticks, the others, well it was all the source’s fault! I bet he’s on a fair wedge to, to create a few false rumours.

Yeah, from what I remember Illingsworth wasn't too popular, as he became "the voice" of the fans, when some didn't agree with certain comments. Ultimately, it came to an end when it was a clash of egos between himself and Cortese and there was only going to be one winner given the relative power both had at the club. The fans forums are fine as well as Semmens' communication with fans. He's not making himself a public figure/chasing the fame like you see some boardroom members do with outlandish statements every other week. Neither is he completely shut away, like you expect Levy is with Tottenham supporters and Gao is here. I think we've got about as much as you can expect to have from the board level at the moment. Maybe we can bring Ralph Krueger back as the voice of the fans?