Hodgey

It’s an interesting one with this clear policy. Advantages are you often get kids who are totally fearless, unknown, and can make amazing starts. The danger is they’ll get found out later in the season and are often too early in their career to iterate. That on top of our cliff edge mental and fitness issues back end of season mean we’ll need to be basically safe by Mar. The fixture list makes me nervous as we’ve got a lot of winnable games in Apr and May. Then again we do have the World Cup break and by my reckoning we’ll only have a couple of players there so advantage with training, fitness and tactics which Ralph seems to need. Hopefully we’ll get the right sort of youngsters in - especially a cf (like the idea of Elanga) and a no 10.

Yep - it’s bonkers, as there are only 8 teams in div 2 you only play 14 games, so you only play 4 teams once and for us Surrey are one of them - they win the rest of their games they win it (unless something odd goes on with bonus points). Clearly that gives some teams advantages but that’s just the luck of it. Just as bonkers as suddenly playing t20 again for a week, then back to 4 dayers…players must not know if they are coming or going !!

Fantastic win that, this team have some mental strength as they seem to constantly bounce back. Just need Surrey to slip up somehow…

Vince is doing a real captains job in pacing innings according to pitch. Last two scores not big but they didnt chase a total not there and gave the bowlers something achievable. Wheal and Crane suddenly look like dangerous bowlers again, Prest could be a useful all rounder, Whetherly has found last years form and Albert is doing a great job. Just need Whitely to somehow get some form. Ellis also to come back (but may not regain his place..) Keep proving me wrong Hampshire - make my post writing you off look ridiculous !!

I too will go Bennet Vs Palace, he somehow made Shefti Kuchi look like Ronaldo in his prime that day. Honourable mentions go to Lundekvam against Portsmouth, Olly Lancashire away at QPR (I saw that red coming a mile off) and Boric against Arsenal when he tried to dribble pass Giroud twice (to be fair he was normally decent). I’d also put the ‘erratic’ performance of Grobellar away at City down but think that falls into a different bracket.

I was sensing Deja vu when our run rate slowed and middle order started caving, but good batting from Albert and Weatherly gave us some impetus and Essex showed it was a tough batting pitch if the bowlers were line and length. Unbelievably we are back in the mix as Somerset and Surrey running away with it leaving the rest beating each other. Fair play to Crane as well, off form but battled hard for his wicket under huge pressure.

Problem is when McD and Vince go cheaply - they can’t keep carrying the side, that middle order still looks really weak. Thankfully yesterday we didn’t have to rely on Albert, Prest and Weatherly to keep the score up ! Was great to watch though, still a long way to go !!

Thanks MLG - I’m more than aware Tino is not on loan - you missed my point entirely which was that they made a point of creating a quick pathway for young players to the 1st team over established pros (KWP/ Armstrong). So someone like Delap if they had a choice of Saints or West Ham - we should have the upper hand.

Important thing to get right this year is loan system. After making such a point with Tino and Broja we should be in a leading place where we can get a couple of future stars for a season who would never be sold. Gives us a chance to invest more in 1st team ready transfers…

A win !. Vince fires and we win, still a load of issues with that team, despite Vince and McDermott playing really well - yet again that middle order looked tame, and it’s telling they are now resorting to youth in Prest and Albert. Whitely should really be rested next game, but not sure for who. The bowlers finally benefited from a tough run rate and did ok - and Ellis continues to look neat and quick and rightly moved to open. Crane getting spanked again is surely another who needs a rest unless you get a spin pitch. Overall though we are pretty dependant on those two openers, if both get out cheaply there really isn’t anything else - which puts huge pressure on those two.

Limited player who maximised his skills - in the Benali bracket. He did very well out of the club being one of the top earners, and gave us some good moments in return. In many ways he epitomises Southampton FC, some good moments but generally limited !.

That does make some sense - Brown was clearly a 4 day signing. That said they signed a limited overs specialist in Whitely and got two big bash specialists in, Crane by and large is supposed to be a limited over specialist too. The problem is that all those players have added nothing to our squad of last year. I still think they massively overachieved last year though and this year is showing them for the poor 20 over players they are. Like you say - if they don’t win a single limited overs game and win the championship I’ll be happy (sadly think Surrey will win it though as they are stronger). It is strange though in an era where there are seemingly an increasing number of players capable of total destruction in short periods, we don’t have many.I just want them to at least be competitive and make it exciting - it can’t be good for revenue if we’re this poor in the biggest money spinner.

The batting just hasn’t been aggressive enough so they are always starting slowly. Aside from Vince, who is out of T20 Nick - I don’t see any truly explosive batters there. Whitely is horribly out of form and our tail is too long - 8-11 are all fodder. Then the bowlers, Crane is rapidly going backwards, Ellis looks pacey and neat but not a wicket taker, the rest - hmm, maybe OK if the opposition are chasing a high score. I’m with Dusic on this, might as well play the kids and give them experience. As I mentioned before, when Fuller is by far your best player you are in trouble

Good to see the Surrey thrashing at the oval continues…

Think I’ve seen enough to call this one. The team are getting worse and it’s a strong division. Last year some momentum got them to the final but the team was poor. Where are our power hitters ? They all seem to be content with a run a ball, Vince is horribly out of Nick yet Fuller who is a very limited cricketer looks our best batter and bowler - frightening stuff. Bowling extremely average as well, any power hitters can tuck in.

That was a really poor batting effort bar Fuller. We seem to have a load of batters who get a run a ball and hit 20. I reckon Somerset will knock this off in 15 overs…

Is our scouting set up good enough for that kind of turnaround at the Mo ?. I’d suggest not and whilst we have a couple out of contract, selling players on big wages is phenomenally difficult - which of course restricts incoming. We just need to get right 4 key positions - ready to play, better than we have. GK, CB, No 10, Striker. That’s a tall ask but we have enough players who can fill in / squad players already and our youngsters look promising so the need for buying potential is lessened.

Thanks for the YT tip - wish I had looked here yesterday !. Close game yesterday, hard to work out how good Hampshire are in short games as last year I wrote them off and they got to the finals - team on paper looks better this year so let’s see..

I’ve said it a lot but I’ve never understood the amount of abuse he got on here, he’s a fantastic player for our level - we’re simply not going to get better. I even remember quite a few on here advocating that Diallo replaced him early on the season as he’s a better player !! I genuinely think if he goes this year we drop. Losing a captain, top goal scorer and someone that dependable, experienced and committed in our state would be too much. That said he deserves a shot at a big club - hopefully he gives us another year, we sort ourselves out, get a good price for him, he goes to a top 6 club and everyone is happy. also a shame that our no 10s are so poor and rarely win free kicks - it’s really another thing to beat them up over. You can be sure that opposition teams are told not to give away free kicks, that should be a massive bonus to our 10s and put defenders on the back foot.

Interesting that 2 of the coaches in Watson and Davis were clearly not Ralph’s choosing. Whilst I hate to see people made redundant, it never makes sense to me when a club stipulates a new manager has to work with incumbent coaches, which is what we kept doing. hopefully all 3 will find further success elsewhere - but now we have a new question - do we let Ralph employ more yes men or find someone Ralph can work with but isn’t afraid to disagree or can compliment his weaknesses. Like that bloke who went to Bayern, never felt like we really replaced him. Well done SR for making a change, even if it doesn’t work out we needed to try something different.

Great win, Bowling unit very strong and having Barker and Fuller as 8 and 9 saves us frequently from batting collapses. Openers are a problem but Organ has done OK there and with Donald back that means genuine pressure on Weatherly and Holland (who is also a useful bowler)

Another win despite a very odd collapse in the second innings. Decent looking side with a couple of weak links but good start overall, and good to see Donald back and scoring.

Just watched motd - in Brightons game Grob went through and despite being heavily right footed hit it with his left as there was no way he’d score with his right. As I watched that I thought - if that was Redmond or Adams they would have tried to run around the ball or hopelessly hit it wide with their right. It’s this that the coaching staff should be doing. Equally some of the tippy tippy clearances I saw on MOTD with players off balance to use their stronger foot (Redmond for one of the goals). No idea what they do in training

I don’t see the new owners spending much more than previous, but a few years of ML apart that’s always been the case. I don’t think changing manager will do much, it’s the player quality that is the issue. If we can keep getting frustrated young players from bigger clubs, and get the youth production line running again we’ll progress. In truth we are still recovering from a disasterous transfer period and having national league quality players coming through our youth. so reasons for optimism - a better transfer strategy, new owners with hopefully a more investment mind, and by the looks of it a few players who could make it in the Prem in our u18s. all that said - can’t help but feel that next year is a crunch one. As things stand we have championship level strikers and no10s, a player who gave us a real spark last year out for most of the season, a gk who is clearly not good enough for this level, no depth to def mid, a manager who looks depressed and wants to retire, and a load of cbs who are all prone to gaffs!. We are going to have to be very clever in transfers.

Tinges of Poch here - high press, high energy without the ability to rotate as our squad is poor - tired players limping to the end of the season. And Ralph has to shoulder the blame for that if he genuinely has Say on transfers. I honestly think we need a Palace style clear out of both manager and squad but you need to invest wisely to do that and I’m unconvinced we are capable of doing this. So we will stick i just hope they stick to a strategy. The courting young big club players frustrated with opportunities is a good one. Offering contracts to good lads around the club like Long and Walcott isnt. Ralph has done well overall, but he won’t be around forever and we need a plan B. Do we do it on our terms or his is the question.