Saint86

Don't be using stats to justify a player's performance in football on here mate, you'll get lynched 😄😄🫣.

Yeah... you're right. lets sell him and free up funds to make room for the next Brereton Diaz, Cam Archer, Ross Stewart, or Damion Downs. Or maybe we can spend a summer flirting with the next Gakpo only to sign the next Mara...

Most of football is tactics, setup, and having a well coached team. We clearly have very good players for this level. Our tactical setup is absolutely appalling, and the players look lost half the time and completely uncoached for what they're being asked to do at certain points in games... Its massively down to the managerial appointments currently - which are directly influenced by SR, and the type of mangers they want and the style of football they want. As for the squad... I know we've been managed appallingly, but still.. how on earth can people look at our an attacking midfield 3 of fellows/azaz/scienza and not see its one of the best in the leauge? Azaz and fellows are two of the best attacking mids in the champ in recent years. Scienza is better still... Then our striking options - AA and Stewart (when fit) is a very high level of attacking player for the league? AA was the top chance goal/assist player in the entire league 2 seasons ago and is on the for the golden boot. Money boots wrexham are looking at him to fire them to promotion... Or take the likes of Charles (hands down one of the best young players in the champ over the past 18months), Jander (very impressive young player), and even Downes (top player in our previous promotion season) - all fighting for 2 CM spots - that is again quality for the 2nd tier! RB we have bree, roerslev, jelert who are all good options for a promotion chasing side, Roeverslev is a promotion winner, Bree would have been at Luton. LB is actually our weakest position now imo, and even that has Wellington and Manning, one of which has already won promotion. CBs are THB (who is a multi promotion winner - once as champion), Stephens (promotion winner), Quarhsie, and Wood... its still a quartet offering experience, ability, and depth - more than enough for a promotion challenge at this level... Bazunu was a weakness but has moved on, peretz looks better by a good distance as well. This is a squad filled with previous promotion winners or new talent that arguably exceeds them (scienza, charles, fellows, azaz, jander). Sadly we have also had managers who's tactical approach and/or coaching or drilling of the side has left a lot to be desired.

I think the very first thing the club need to do is get in an ambitious manager for the summer - use that to generate some fresh momentum and build from there. This summer is the absolute last throw of the dice for SR - no more parachute payments, no more chances. After that Solak's investment is in almost terminal jeopardy with respect to recovery. And sadly, the 3 prem teams coming down are nowhere near as bad this year. Burnley will be a solid champ side without the carnage of our miss management or leciester's financial implosion. Wolves are showing far more fight that we ever did under Edwards, and whoever finally takes the 18th place spot (West Ham, palace, leeds, forest, bournemouth.... even spurs 😄- sorry had to fit that one in whilst they're in freefall) will be far stronger than the recent yoyo teams. Plus we will have the likes of Brum (with another spending bender), and Wrexham (if they don't go up this year), and then one of Ipswich/coventry/boro, plus a revitalised Sheffield United. This is the weakest championship in years, over half way through the season and no relegated side in the top 2, and the other 2 out of the running for autos. Shocking mismanagement to be where we are, and they simply cannot afford to do anything but nail it next season - which is going to be a very hard ask because the championship will be exponentially tougher next season.

This squad is more than good enough to be achieving a playoff finish and should be challenging for the autos. The answer isn't to get more players - its to hire a competent manager.

Probably? It's a blatant hand ball goal.

Bottling it.

Really is no excuse for any party involved to come out with something less than this. Its time for red, white, and navy to return - we are not just another stoke/brentford/sunderland ffs.

Yes please

Wrexham look to be going big on the January window. If we aren't going up, I think it would do us a favour for next season if they weren't here competing with us (i.e., got promoted - although not at our expense obviously)... They're showing no signs of slowing down on spending, with £40M already, and a reported £20M striker bid going in...

Seeing as Fraser has left, i had a quick look at current player contracts using Capology... very evident we still need to shift some pretty obvious names off this list: Aribo - £4.2M per year - exp summer 26 Macca - £2.6M per year - exp summer 26 Fraser - £2.6M per year - exp summer 26 (now gone) Archer - £2.6M per year - exp summer 28 To name but a few. I'm also shocked by THB's wage - the green tick means its "verified" apparently. Charles also seems to be criminally undervalued. Need to offer him a nice pay rise and get him signed up long term. Romeu sadly also seems to be a bit of a luxury on the wages front. Stephens on £2.6m per year till 2028 just doesn't make sense to me at all, Edozie is another £1M per year that we aren't seeing anything for...

Good luck to him, seems a nice move for his retirement in fairness.

Fair point, well made 😂🤣

I love him, but i'm not entirely convinced his physicality and final product are good enough to go much higher than a lower half or relegation scrapping prem side personally. Maybe if he was a couple of years younger with more room for growth, but he'll be 30 in 2 seasons time, and i think there would be a valid concern over how his (in reality, declining) physicality would stack up in an ever more physical premier league. If we were where we should be (i.e., a promotion contender) i'd have no concerns about losing him, but i can see that whilst we're languishing in the mid table or bottom half of the champ its possible he may move to a more competitive side - particularly if someone sends a halfway decent bid to our player trading board. Don't get me wrong, i think he's a fantastic player for us and the championship, and he really is superb as a winger at this level. Arguments to be made that he'd become even more effective with better quality attacking players around him to be sure, but still wonder if his physicality would ultimately hold him back - i dearly hope he sticks around at saints and gets the chance to prove any such doubts wrong mind you!

Mbappe?

If our approach really is stats based, that article makes damning reading. Direct play shots/xg/goals are all up year on year over multiple seasons, overwhelmingly the most popular formation is 4-2-3-1 (or variants), whilst 3-5-2 (the classic 5 at the back) has disappeared / contributed to a marginal growth in 3-4-2-1. So what does Rasmus have us doing... 5 at the back passing football - largely between the cbs 🫣

Its laughable to suggest we should outright drop AA, he's hands down one of our best players at this level. I can only assume its because fans (and only fans) keep accusing him of being a bad egg in the dressing room. .. but people need to stop lumping AA in with the grouping of players assumed to be the troublesome core - we all know who the primary candidate are there (Downes being the oft rumoured main one). As for AA, he is on record multiple times this season for criticising the team and saying its not been good enough, he puts good effort in every game, is still on for for a chance as being the top goal scorer, and wasn't even here for half of last season's car crash.

By which point, the season will be gone and we'll be staring down the barrel of an actual relegation scrap.

Its pretty evident how we've arrived at our current situation. Sadly though, i think the truth/reality is being kept very well hidden from Solak. Perhaps not so hard to believe if he invested in a man who came out with "what would a football club look like if it had no human eye or ear". So alas, behold, the smartest man in football... and someone we must apparently suffer through until bankruptcy strikes.

I don't know, but i'm now wondering whether any of them are on the shortlist to be the next manager

This in spades. As for Ralph, imo he had a worse squad (fitness/availability wise) than we have now - when you consider that Lavia, Tino, KWP were all out injured. This was his last ever starting 11 (the 1-4 loss to newcastle). A younger Baz worse - i.e., than this season. Larios - nowhere near prem (or even championship) standard ABK (fitness and attitude issues, not committed). Salisu (okay, better than current cb's, but equally not committed) Perraud - better than current LWBs, shame we lost him tbh. Midfield: AMN - Awful JWP - At this time, he was better than any CM we currently have without question. Probably still is. Plus Set Pieces. Stu - Very tidy player for us obviously. Although not sure he was better then than say Fellows or Scienza, and possibly not better than Azaz (on the few times where we actually use Azaz properly... 🤦‍♂️) Enlyounossu - Really shows how thing the squad was under ralph, worse player than Fellows, Scienza, and azaz. Attack: Walcott - At that point in his career, no chance he's better than Fellows or Scienza are currently as a winger, and AA is a better striker... Adams - Not a better striker than AA imo, but different obviously - and he fills a niche we need filling today (although stewart is a better player for this role when actually fit). The fact that Ralph had that squad in contention to stay up in the premier league is a testament to how good he was. The fact that a succession of managers under SR have failed to keep better squads either in the premier league, or even fighting for the playoffs this season, is a testament to just how badly managed we've been since, and how much harm SR are doing with awful managerial appointments.

Hi Tonda....

I was one of the first ones to voice real concerns over him... I think its obvious to everyone at this point that he is sadly totally out of his depth - he's tactically flawed, he seemingly can't adapt, he has basically no game management, and his team looks poorly coached. I don't hold anything against him personally, i just don't think he is anywhere near the level of manager we should have appointed this season, and the fact we gave him a contract beyond the end of the season is just more incompetence from SR. It looks like we won't sack him, and even if we did sack him - who actually has any confidence that SR would appoint a serious manager? They all seem to be "yes" men, playing the preferred stats based tactics, without the presence to stand up to the decision makers above (see Tonda's post match comments when asked about the strength of the squad and reinforcements - and where he basically backed the board and put the pressure entirely onto himself and still promised play off football). The whole situation is ludicrous - they are collectively running this club into the ground and undoing all of Liebherr's legacy... how long before we are league 1 again under these clowns? And yet, it should be clear as day to anyone - we were outplayed by Hull yesterday, despite being better than them player for player on paper. Its just ridiculous. Its not even "just" a tactical limitation by Eckert, Hull were just simply coached to a far higher standard; their play was faster and crisper, their defence was significantly better organised. We looked like strangers at times - players out of position or on top of each other, getting in each other's ways, near stationary pace passing, and passes going astray. Its deeply worrying, because on the one hand, the penny may drop with Eckert that he does need to change tactics.... but even if he does, its evident that the side is just terribly coached and won't be able to execute whatever tactics we try to play. Dark times.

They're coached?

The ghost of Russel Martin. Manning for the first playing pure russball. A Martin player. Downes and wood for the 2nd.. 2 more Martin players.