Saint86

So you're saying that we're going to be in the championship unless we play a 16year old Jay Morgan... Because that's what our premier league survival hangs on? 🤣😨...

Imagine agreeing personal terms with Gakpo and then not signing him... Woops

The interview basically says that we signed players and tried to change the way we play, but equally implies that it was too much / too complex to achieve it so quickly. Reading it, the implication they give is that Ralph was fully onboard with this, but you do have to wonder. (ultimately we will never know now unless Ralph comes out and says it - but tbf it does tie in with him starting with the 5-3-2 and then ditching it early on). Another interesting quote - its positioning in the article relates to Nathan Jones - but given they sacked Ralph and hired Jones, i would say it applies to both. “You cannot change the manager’s personality,” says Ankersen. “If he wants to play this way but you want to play another way, it’s not going to work. You have to have 80 per cent alignment, then you teach him 10 per cent and he teaches you 10 per cent. I think there is a lot that can be read in between the lines of that interview. But all in all its an interesting read. Also, it states that we had agreed personally terms with two strikers playing in champions league qualifiers. Presumably Gakpo and one other.

“We have great respect and love for our ex-owner (Gao), but he would be the first to say that he wasn’t as involved as other owners. Some of the decisions we made were of necessity — some things we had to do, like being quite simplistic in the way we played, recruited and developed. It was effective within certain constraints. A lion in a zoo can only do so much. But with Rasmus and Henrik coming in, the walls of the zoo have come down.” 😵 A lion in a zoo. 😨 And by, "walls", does he mean, "floor"? 🤣

We'll meet them in the quarters (unless Southgate is worse than i think). We've got very little chance if we demonstrate the defensive nous displayed vs Iran.

Agree with this. Really is quite simple tbh, we're not as bad as has been made out and our stand out deficiency is obvious. Ralph had us 13th for xGs, and joint 15th for goals conceded. And that was despite injuries to a swathe of our best players (Lavia, KWP, ABK, Livramento), as well as trying to gel a new and young/inexperienced squad. The reason we are in the bottom 3 is that we have basically played all the big/form teams already, and more importantly, that our then 13th for xG translated to 18th for goals scored... Grim. Or phrased another way, two boards have consistently failed to replace ings with attackers that know how to convert their guilt edged chances. Now... with the cold hard facts laid before us, two questions remain. Will we sign said attacker(s)? And will nathan Jones be as effective as hassenhuttle (debatable given its his first taste of prem football and he's inheriting a young low confidence squad). Assuming Jones is decent and we sign an attacker, i think we'll be fine.

Tammy wouldn't be a bad acquisition subject to price. However the price (and wages) will probably be above what we can afford - particularly because if he is available there will be bigger fish than saints in the market. He is not on a par with Ings however. Ings' expected goals conversion rate with saints was above basically any other attacker in the league. When we had him fit we averaged a top 6 points return in a 38game period. With Che Adams, AA, and Ely we're a relegation level team. More than anything else, we need a striker who can stay fit and clinically converts his chances - it doesn't need to be a bigger name - especially if chasing a flagship signing costs us quality in AM and cover at CDM.

I agree on the positions, but lavia and abk are our two best players in their positions, and possibly our 2 best players full stop.

Eh? Would take an absolute wonder save to get that header, have to remember he has to set himself to come out and claim the ball, then firminho of all people gets a free header and sends the ball flying into the far bottom corner. And he did make some cracking saves 👍

Most of which will comfortably stroll past saints. Plus Jones doesn't take the cups seriously historically.

Gareth Southgate

Agreed on the Euros, that was Prowsey's chance and he was mugged off properly by Southgate in favour of the unfit Henderson. But re your second point, it shouldn't matter as Southgate won't take charge of another england game beyond the world cup - not unless he suddenly develops even basic level of tactical awareness and bravery.

Frankly incredible that he's picked connor gallagher and philips ahead of JWP. Philips has been injured and has hardly kicked a ball all season, how is he going to get match fit in a week.... I mean, he's played 1minute according to transfer market... on the 8th fucking july. Feel for him. But ultimately England under Southgate are shit and have zero chance of winning. First half decent team we face we'll resort to parking the bus, giving them the ball, and playing 8-2 and hoofing it to kane and one headless chicken runner. Then at 70min when we're losing he'll throw on some attacking mids and play possession football. Southgate should never have had his contract extended after Croatia, and the euro's final should have resulted in the sack. Should certainly have gone after the nations league fiasco. FA's stated ambition was to win WC2022 - Everyone knows that couldn't be further from reality under the most tactically clueless england manager there has ever been.

Yes, he's west ham's best player and key to them. We're having a bad season but they're 1 point ahead of us. People say JWPs form is poor compared to previous seasons but then don't judge england's other central mids. Philips has barely played and is now out injured. Rice is having a poor season by his form. Henderson has managed 640minutes all season. The only central midfielder on form is Bellingham. He should be default first pick - but its southgate so he'll probably pick Henderson/philips and rice to start.

Philips and Henderson have? JWP has been playing consistent all season, and his defensive work, interceptions, and general possession play have been solid. Saints have been poor from a possession and attacking/goal scoring/set piece perspective due to our more defensive setup - and that is behind his perceived worse form (i.e. minimal final 3rd contributions).... but that really is due to tactical setup and lack of quality in front of him. Fan's may not appreciate that, but you'd hope a manager can appreciate it enough to select him over Henderson and Philips - neither of which have seen much / any game time. He remains a player who could happily play every minute of that tournament if required, offers a quality set piece threat, and would do a respectable all round role in midfield. He is also a far better player than Philips anyway. Also tbf, rice has been very poor all season as well. Regardless, its bad news for saints, he's a key player for us and he will now have very little to play for and is unlikely to be in a good headspace for the rest of the season. Maybe he can get his head in the right space, but it equally sets a bad precedent - stay at saints and miss out on international football no matter how well you play (be it the euros or the world cups).

Very interesting post, tallies up well with other analyses of his tactical set up and management style. I think he'll prove a good appointment - but not without good attacking additions.

Lavia is the replacement for Romeu, and is a far better player than Romeu was last season!? Although, we have no other adequate CDM cover, and Nathan jones plays either 2 CDM's (ala Southgate's 3-4-2) or one minimum. So we could use another CDM - but not before addressing the attack. Players/positions that are adequate and won't be strengthened in Jan (IMO): GK - Bazunu, Macca LWB - Perraud, and KWP/Larios RWB - KWP, Tino, Larious CB - Salisu, ABK, CC, Lyanco CM - Lavia, JWP Re the attackers - it clearly needs significant strengtehing. I would personally be signing a good striker who will finish, and a quality CAM who will generate chances and keep the ball. From what we have, Che is a good target man and Stu is our best CAM. Moi is a decent enough squad player. Haven't seen enough of Mara to judge. Djenpo and AA have been largely anonymous. Edozi shows promise, but we can't be pinning our hopes on him lets be honest 🤣

Welcome aboard the SS Southampton Nathan Jones. I actually quite like him and think he'll do well. Regardless, SR have certainly been decisive on this one. He's one of the best up and coming managers in England, but equally its going to be a tough step up (with a young team, low confidence, and poor attackers) for his first taste of managing in the top tier. It is one hell of a gamble, but lets hope that those in charge know what they're doing - and that they buy the man some quality reinforcements in January.

Who says he wasn't listening to him tbf? It also implies that maybe Selles was an appointment Ralph wanted after all? Although the Athletic and various negative sources would have us believe otherwise.

I really hope whoever we get in is a better manager than Puel. We'd have no chance of staying up if all we could do is pass the ball along the back line for the rest of the season 🤮

Think you're getting a tad confused here Pilchards. I didn't abuse you or anyone else for being ITK or claiming to be ITK, and to my knowledge i have neither doubted nor backed anyone claiming Jones would be our new manager - he isn't yet? 🤷‍♂️. I actually really appreciate the itk snippets we get on this forum. Although, hopefully you weren't someone hoping we lose each week - that is something i did take objection to... "Scare those ITK" - Aside from you going after the wrong guy here, for your own good, either grow a thicker skin or be prepared to not post stuff to an internet football forum - if you're going to post rumours/opinions then you've got to expect someone to question/doubt you on them. If that causes you ire then its probably not worth doing. Side note - Eddie Howe has never been saints manager, and is unlikely to be now 🙈

If it happens (big if), then it won't be the ones showing patience in Ralph that do it. It will be the ones jumping up and down throwing abuse, jeering, and generally hoping we lose each week so Ralph would get fired...

xG's are the chances, and the poor quality strikers are to blame for them being missed

I don't think anyone can argue that Jones is one of the better up and coming managers in the English game - has similarities to Howe in terms of his experience pre prem. The question is, how good is Jones right now? Howe obviously took Bournemouth all the way to the premier league, but still ultimately fell short with their eventual relegation - and that was despite very wealthy backers and it being his squad and players. Jones will come in - and he's inheriting a very average (at best) set of attacking mids and strikers (for the prem), and a very young squad - all low on confidence. Against that, we are a relatively experienced premier league side (compared to Howe's Bournemouth - or Say Dyche's early burnley sides) and do have a smattering of very good players in ABK, Lavia, JWP, Salisu, KWP etc. I voted unsure for Jones - on the basis that there is no way to know how he'll do at this level for the first time. And ultimately, it won't matter how good Jones is without serious additions in January. That was the same for Ralph as well imo. Truthfully Ralph was failed by two boards that never came close to replacing ings - and he still had us 13th for xG this season - against that we're 18th for goals scored - which says it all. We're also joint 15th for goals conceded this season - not great by any means - but we've played all the top sides, had bad injuries, and suffered from a very weak attack / carry limited threat. Ralph had had to repeatedly compromise and juggle a limited squad, and its probably true that the players got tired of it. In a lot of ways, Ralph was probably here at a bad time, as with backing and his origninal attacking press, we'd have been decent. As it was, he's battled to keep us up and competitive whilst being failed by two boards and the whole thing has become jaded, and if the players were no longer listening, then regrettably his time had run out. Either way that's all done now, and if you view Jones as an up and coming manager - he can only be seen as a gamble at this point in time - Can he come in and pick up this young squad and adapt to the level? Will he be any better than Hassenhuttle? Not sure at all. But the saving grace is that players will be back from injuries, he'll have time to work with them, and we surely are going to buy a quality attacker. Phrased another way - Jones needs to be very good to come in and succeed here. Its a bit of a shitstorm lets be honest. Bottom line - the fault now can only lie with the board and the players - everyone else is gone.

The players like Selles by all accounts. Would expect us to win this game and play with some freedom knowing its a low pressure fresh start. Would not be surprised if Mara gets some time.