Saint86

What am i fucking watching. this is horrendous.

Given whats at stake, this is possibly the worst saints performance i have ever seen.

What the actual.... have we been purchased by Pompey fans and being managed into decline?

Lack of pace at CB is whats really hurting us here. Its the shitter equivalent of Arsenal having to play Holding against us. Bournemouth are very poor at the back, we've hit the woodwork twice - they actually are there for the taking... if we could defend.

You lot are so negative, saints win incoming!!! 😎

How do people read that formation? 4-2-2-2 With Lavia and JWP as the 6s, and Alcaraz and Ely as the 10s? Then AA and Theo up front? Or 4-3-3 with Lavia, JWP and Carlos, then Ely and theo/AA as wingers and Theo/AA up front?

If Bournemouth keep a clean sheet they've basically won. I actually think we'll win - we tend to do alright vs the attacking sides, and then absolute dogshite when teams set up to defend against us.

I'd say this is pretty fair. Decision making this year has been poor though. We've spent £160M, which was our opportunity to rebuild at this level, and have instead destabilised the entire club. The blame for that sits with the main decision maker which is Rasmus / SR - but then equally Sports Republic have clearly invested into the club. All we can do is hope they get it right this summer - i don't actually care whether that means Rasmus takes a step back or whether he starts making the right decisions... We can't afford another summer like this year - and in reality that isn't even the half of it, we have to be so much better on the recruitment front.

Tella will want to go and be part of the Burnley side he helped get promoted. But that doesn't mean he'll be unhappy at saints, down tools, and refuse to play / jeopardise his career. Those are very different things. Ultimately this isn't one of the big 6 or 7 squads, its Burnley... they might have a decent season next year, but they'll be back battling relegation after that at best.

"Understands the Southampton Mantra" .... Yes Rasmus? Harder Rasmus? 👀

Surely as a minimum one of Semmens or Rasmus is gone? Depends where the power ultimately lies - Rasmus or Dragan... Rasmus won't sack himself sadly, and Semmens is just about the last remaining fall guy he can fall on. We have no head of recruitment currently (shields), Hale (academy manager is off), Wilcox yet to start as Crockers replacement in the DoF role, and no one in to Tony Steele? I fear we will once again be at the whims of Rasmus come the summer - at a time when we'll be replacing the manager, trying to work out which players are committed to the promotion fight, getting good deals done for those that are off, and sorting out replacement / new signings... Have to say i do admire the optimism of some - everything about us looks like a basket case at present 😰😂.

No way he comes back surely. He never struck me as the kind of man to go back to someone that binned him off. As others have said, he'll either take a holiday job for a bit, or he'll make good on his intention to retire and enjoy life with his wife.

Funny how "run out of steam" corresponds perfect to us not having a fit or available Danny ings/broja and having bad injuries throughout the side. But yes, despite still achieving good performance metrics with what he had available this year, he did look a beaten man at the end. I suspect turning around and looking at Adam Armstrong, Moi, Aribo, Walcott, and Che Adams in the fruitless and desperate hope of finding someone to covert the plethora of chances we were creating would do that to most managers. Would certainly turn me into a very desperate and stressed out man if my job and saints depended on it.... The first mistake, as has always been the case, was clearly not buying him (or whoever was manager) the requisite attackers in the summer, and then the lavia injury (and lack of cdm cover) really did for him - when paired with the Tino, KWP, and ABK injuries. No attack, a weak midfield, and a badly weakened defence. The second mistake was (having kept ralph over the summer), we bottled seeing it through and sacked him for Jones and a half wasted transfer window. Reality is that Ralph would most likely have had us mid table given the additional backing, the mid season break, and the overall quality of the league. Given the grand plan was to always hire Jones, its a bloody good thing they didn't sack Ralph in the summer... Hopefully he's enjoying a nice break away from football with his family and is recovering his mental well being, because he deserves it. Was a great servant for the club and hopefully comes back and gets a warm reception one day.

Good for him. Hopefully we can keep him but doesn't sound likely.

Well if you read Fabrice's post on the other thread then Semmens, crocker, Hale etc. are to blame for this season, and in actual fact Rasmus is the fall guy... So stop being mean to Rasmus, Ivan!!

We were basically the lowest net spenders in the league under those 3, and yet never in a relegation scrap. SR have come in and spent £160M to achieve a far worse outlook. Its an weird narrative starting to emerge where the blame is constantly being put on people at the club before the current owners...

This is wrong. Discussed clearly in the athletic this past week that lavia, abk, bazunu deals were initiated by the previous recruitment team at the start of last year (2022).

As already demonstrated, Semmens, crocker, and Ralph etc. did a good job with the rescoures available 🤷‍♂️. Crocker was very good at his role and him choosing not to be part of the SR project is certainly a loss for saints.

He does. Always. Clearly a strong favourite side for him, alongside Newcastle obviously.

Agreed he was invisible. Very poor game from him. But he clearly offers pace, and holding (over saliba) forced arsenal to play deeper defensively.

Or...it was a good tactical sub that nullified arsenal's main attacking threats, led to us going 3-1 up, and stopped a top of the table desperate arsenal having a shot on target that half until circa 70min 🤔🙄

The defensive changes were correct, it nullified arsenal's main attacking threat and led to us going 3-1 up. They were reduced to having to play through us which suited us and resulted in arsenal not having a shot on target (second half) until the 70th minute. It's a shame a lot of people can't see / understand that tbh. Ultimatley, Selles has taken a lot of flack for team selections / tactics, but he did alright vs arsenal. The simple reality is that we were away at top of league, who were playing in front of 60k fans to save their season, and ultimatley our lack of overall squad quality showed. Sadly the team just didn't have enough, or got complacent. I distinctly remember having a sinking feeling it was coming when the clip of our fans turning their backs and doing a poznan style dance was showing, talk about tempting fate... Arsenal scored shortly after 😂... I would also say that the ref being incredibly biased/soft towards arsenal and playing circa 18min of inury time didn't help... Martinelli should never have been on the pitch by the end either.

Yes, it won't require anywhere near 39points.... Its going to be 33-34, maybe 35 at most. If we had beaten arsenal i actually think we'd have done it. Feels like we're at best destined to have hope but fall short this season. Wins vs Bournemouth (H), Forest(a), and Fulham (H) will see us to 33. We'd then need to get a couple of points out of Newcastle (A), Brighton (A), or Liverpool (H).... But if we don't beat Bournemouth we're gone regardless imo.

He rallied the team numerous times on the pitch yesterday, he was everywhere in midfield, and he made numerous goal saving tackles or blocks... 2 of which were certain goals prevented... Queue fans wishing for him to leave... Hard to make it up.

Jacob Tanswell on power hierarchy, staff churn, responsibilities etc: Semmens’ role has changed since the takeover. In hindsight, this may have been something of a surprise, given Semmens said Sport Republic will not have a hands-on role in the day-to-day running of Southampton shortly after its purchase was publicly announced. Ankersen was the leading, almost single, voice in Jones’ appointment, which is different to what Semmens had in the past, where he was steering the ship. The distinct ways in which Sport Republic wants to operate is, understandably, not to everyone’s liking and can create a power struggle. It changed the responsibilities of Crocker and Semmens and some parts of their roles were essentially overlapped and covered by the ownership. Even taking into account the most recent departure of managing director Toby Steele, there have been more exits than what’s been documented, too. It is worth saying that Jason Wilcox should be given the autonomy to wield his influence on what will be a crucial summer. Lastly, in response to Max’s question, Ankersen is an erudite thinker who should be applauded for wanting to be bold and get Southampton ahead of the curve. However, it is important there is a correct balance between risk and pragmatism and someone who challenges his ideas — shown when he worked excellently alongside Phil Giles at Brentford. There hasn’t been enough of that this year. He also states within the same article that Bazunu, ABK, and Lavia's transfers were started by the old recruitment team in early 2022 (translation of "early last year").