Saint86

I'm not surprised we're losing to Burnley, but I am surprised they've not had to get out of 2nd gear and we're 2-0 down inside 30min. Utterly pathetic.

Going down if we keep playing like this. Pathetic and no urgency.

What happened to Bednarek in their penalty area then, and why was there no replay? All the time focused on Peiters being fouled by his own man and we don't even to see the replay of the challenge on bednarek.

Men against boys in this game.

No point arguing with the modern left wing apologists. Also, merely as an observation, another point to come out of all of this is that the term BAME is now considered to exclusionary and problematic term

Would be good if we could have added this comment to the JWP specific thread. Sadly it was derailed and has now been locked 😕 I am confident he'll appear and make his usual 90min.

I said it at the outset when he took over from Anka (who is sports journalist i rate a lot), Dan just isn't of the same calibre. He posts the odd piece with interviews of former players etc (which are nice to reads), but his analytics of our play style/tactics, or player performances etc are basically non existent. Maybe thats being harsh, but they're certainly not very insightful as a general rule of thumb. I think the only one he did of note was discussing the evolution of McCarthy's positioning to that of a true sweeper keeper - and that is it... As with all things saints, we had someone of quality, they were poached by a top club, and we got was hoped could be the next Mane and turned out to be the Nathan Redmond of sports journalism. Flatters to deceive but rarely delivers quality end product.

Because they are bedwetters?

3-4 members of the Polish squad have tested positive for covid. Including klitch (who is pictured next to and talking to Jan). You know what's going to happen now right? Covid outbreak in the saints team 👍

Honestly think about it. They'll just draw the same lines to determine if there is clear daylight, rather that if there is an armpit hair in front of the other players body 🙈. It will make no difference. Common sense should be applied in that if it is too tight to clearly determine offside, the goal stands etc. And this is what I struggle to understand, penalties, red cards, goals etc. It has to be clear and obvious errors for VAR to correct the decision. But for offside, they'll draw the most arbitrary lines (often with an on screen line weight inaccuracy of a couple of inches) to deem players offside by millimetres - Its nonsense as it stands! The rules shouldn't change to suit VAR, VAR (and its implementation) should be changed to suit the rules.

Just been randomly looking at the leagues defensive stats. https://fbref.com/en/comps/9/defense/Premier-League-Stats Bertrand is 2nd in the league for successful pressures per 90min (43%) and 3rd in the league for tackle success rate (61.9%). He is 13th in the league for total number of tackles 68 vs 97 (PEH). Romeu is joint 13th with Bertrand as an FYI.

You would think that they'd rather risk a spread between the relatively small urban areas of Southampton and Leicester... as opposed to London and Manchester... Anything else would demonstrate an element of bias?

Lovren's been trying to learn some new tricks... https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/56485742

We didn't lose to Leicester 9-0 this season (yet).

We should offer Chelsea a swap of Ings for Werner 🤪.... Don't ask, don't get 😆

Usually there is one team that drops down into the mire.... If saints go into the liverpool game without having won, then its us 🤣 I think we all fear that Fulham are going to get out of it and catch Newcastle as a minimum - I've suspected it ever since they battered Liverpool and were robbed of the 3 points by yet another Liverpool dive, settling for a 1-1 draw. West Brom and Sheffield are down imo

As a theoretical point, what happens re takeovers if we did somehow conspire to get relegated? I'm not at all clear of the financial impacts on teams dropping down from the premier league anymore. Does the championship have a wage cap / spend structure in place and how does that impact saints? And what is the deal with parachute payments these days? I assume it would make the valuation significantly cheaper and also relax (🤣) the premier league's fit and proper person test standards? I.e. if Newcastle go down, would the Saudi's be straight in there? But is it the case that for the first few seasons we could get taken over by a billionaire and be allowed to spend a load of wonga to go straight back up / offset losses etc?

You think? We've ultimately been destined to go the way we have since he left, but the guy was ruthless and would have sacked Ralph after the poor start and the Leicester 9-0 for sure. I'd be very surprised if Ralph was still in charge of the club had he been managing under Cortese 😆

I doubt Ralph (or indeed many of the strategic decision makers now at the club) are particularly aware of Fonte sadly, even more so that they are in contact with him. But I agree, as a defensive coach, i can see him being a good addition. I thought Lallana had a good game against us. History aside, he reminded me that he is (and very much was) a joy to watch with the ball at his feet. Effortless skill and has a very english way of beating players without relying on pace. I look at the team now and we have no one with that ability. Probably the closest player we have who is able to carry the ball, beat players, and create chances is Armstrong - but he's a different kind of player. Also just thinking back to that Poch season and it does make you realise how much worse of a team we are now. Fonte, Lovren, Lallana, morgan, Wanyama, jayrod, lambert, clyne, shaw, even cork. What a great team that was - and one that certainly knew how to hurt teams with a combination of skill, pace, and power. No slight against Koeman's Mane/Tadic/Pelle combination either - also a tasty team. If you did a combined 11 from the 3 managers, I wonder how many of the current team would get in...

Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl speaking to BBC Sport: "In the second half the opponent wanted it more and we have to be self-critical about it because it was by far one of the worst games we have played this season. "It is time to work on a few basic fundamentals in the next weeks. The second goal gave them a lift. Afterwards, we did not have a solution, only one chance at the end. "We see that our game is far away from what is has been this season. I can remember we were one of the best home teams at the beginning of the season. What has happened in the second half, we have to ask the question ourselves. "We are not hungry enough and the basics are missing at the moment which makes it very difficult to win games." Yeah i tend to agree. Not much time to really reverse this though. Could be a very worrying end to the season!

First and foremost. The performance today vs Brighton was appalling. We were far too soft, gave them easy goals, and lacked any real threat going forward. It was also very concerning just how tired we looked. But, a point of reflection perhaps: I think the reality is that the overall squad is probably relegation scrap level and the system WAS working to produce results above the standard of the "whole". We've had a terrible run of poor results, bad decisions, injuries etc. and all of that has clearly knocked the players' form and confidence. As others have said, we are no long making the runs or the passes that we were making at the start of the year, the players aren't fluid because of the unsettled team and lack of confidence, and we are still missing Ings and Romeu - How many have looked at Newcastle and thought that ASM and Wilson are going to be big misses for them? - because I would say Romeu and Ings are far worse, and that is excluding all the other players we've missed. All in all, things are very much spiralling in an alarmingly negative direction. Ultimately, none of the above can excuse the meek performance today - which will have an even worse knock on our confidence as well. And if anyone is thinking that Burnley, Palace, and West Brom are a chance to get points - all i can say is that they will play exactly the same way Brighton played today. Sit deep, don't give us anything, and take chances when we over commit (i.e. inevitably gift them). You can't explain away the current form. We are a team in trouble. But you also can't ignore the frankly superb year Hassenhuttle has had either. The guy has taken the squad he inherited from Puel/Pellegrino/Hughes, and ultimately had it lose players and be weakened. Even this year all we've really done is like for like replacements for PEH and Cedric, signed a squad rotation/prospect CB, and picked up two loans (one of which is injured and being covered for by the other). To those that think Ralph should be doing better with this team. I would query what that is based upon? Is it based on the performances of his predecessors who all had better squads but left us in relegation fights? Doubtful. Is it instead based upon our form since project restart and prior to this winter? More likely. I personally think Ralph is a good manager who has overachieved with us, and that he isn't an idiot. He must realise we're in trouble, and frankly he's saved us from certain relegation twice now imo. All we can realistically do is hope he can turn this around and get us out of danger - and then hope that something significantly changes at the club over the summer. Another summer like last year (this time losing ings, bertrand, vestergar(?), Theo and Minamino) will leave us with a squad i would expect to come mid table in the championship!! The international break cannot come soon enough. I see no reason to expect a win in the league until after the leicester and liverpool games on current form. But i still wouldn't call for his head yet. I'd say I am concerned, but i am interested to see how he addresses things as players start to come back and get fitness. Only having Che and N'lundulu (or, wait for it.... Redmond filling in) as fit forwards is dire for any team imo. Edit for an additional musing - I wish we had Gabbi still 😕

What the hell was this?!? Its absolutely atrocious. We've barely had a touch in their box in the past 20 odd minutes. In a must not lose game. Utter garbage.

Wrong thread!

This is an absolutely shocking performance. We had one job above all others today. Don't give Brighton 3 points. But we've made it easy for them. It's been effortless for them to just play through the middle and into areas where they can expose the back line and get chances. Totally pathetic from the team and tactics. We also look absolutely shattered (despite resting half the team) and have absolutely no threat whatsoever going forward. We could play for the rest of the day like this and not score! Play many more games like this and we might actually get relegated!

Its a real shame how badly run our club became in the latter years of Reed's tenureship. So much money wasted on bad signings and managers, then when things finally come good we either don't have the funds to capitalise, or the players are already on the move. Just a shame no one will offer us decent money for Redmond... At least recruitment seems to have be getting better in recent years - and in Ralph we trust (well most of us anyway).