Saint86

Agree with this. I think Martin (rightly or wrongly) is guilty of deliberately opting for a more defensive approach whilst the side (and he) find their feet. I think the natural progression will be one of us opting to 4-3-3 and taking the game to sides. Newcastle away the 5 at the back was understandable. Forest at home less so. I would anticipate us changing it up sooner rather than later and taking the game to sides more... It does have to happen and the sooner we realise it the better. He (martin) talks about being brave all the time, but so far we've been as cowardly as it's possible to be tactics wise. But he is a young manager and it's his first time at this level. He deserves his chance, and he showed last year that he can learn and adapt, I think he'll demonstrate that again this year. Some of the bed wetting and the negativity from the fans has been laughable. This club nearly went to the wall 15 years ago, yet loads in the fanbase act like we're entitled to being an established mid table prem side, despite hounding out the last manager capable of that (in ralph - who genuinely loved the club as well), and now calling for the head of the man who got us back to the prem 😒

Goal should have been ruled out. Joke. But another game where we don't look like scoring.

Streams gone?

Makes complete sense when you phrase it like that?

Agreed. Not someone i thought would be available or within our budget range - Was back to being their #1 at the end of last season. I haven't been this optimistic about a goalkeeper signing in a long long time, could be the best keeper we've had since Niemi if he can get past the injuries. I don't think Baz will find it very easy to get back into the side over him.

Ah i see what you're saying Upwey. Fair point - it will be interesting to see how they get on.

Broja?!? 🤣😂 Ipswich are wasting money on wages there. Let alone the fact that Archer is our player for half the price.

Chelsea are basically a temp agency at this point. You can bet that every single player they've signed is part of a business plan to turn profit first and foremost. The few that are good enough for the first team all benefit from uplfits in their contracts - the rest generate loan fees and are sold for profit to rival clubs.

I mean, isn't this a bit of a state the obvious comment? Did those teams have a net spend of circa £160M at the start of the 3 year cycle ending this season? Did they get relegated suffering a huge drop in income and allowable spend/loss under PSR? Let's not even start on Brighton and their very impressive player trading in recent seasons. Ditto wolves and Bournemouth have both had high sales this window -so all in, I think it's hardly that surprising that all 3 of them can go out and spend - it doesn't necessarily mean it's the right strategy though. PSR in particular works to screw over prem clubs that get relegated and try/managed to bounce back - we'll have done very very well if we manage to bounce back, stay up, and avoid any PSR sanctions...

They would have said he failed the medical if this was the case, not announced that they basically tried to change the terms of the deal (which is effectively what they've done 😅🤦‍♂️🤷‍♀️) and couldn't reach an agreement. Fully on Saints' side with this one. They announced a routine heart condition publicly to the press (zero need for this) to try and force our hand and reduce the value of the player and further pressure us, and then they've tried to renegotiate the terms. We've seemingly told them to Foxtrot Oscar. 3rd time they've done it this summer as well. Extremely bizarre to then try and turn what is a collapsed player sale (to a club taking the piss) as yet another opportunity to beat saints around the head. Some crazy toxic narratives out already this season - we've just been promoted, and yet anywhere you look you'll find people having a go at the club, the manager, macca etc. Sad state of affairs.

Not at all sold on O'Riley, so will be very happy if we don't spunk £26M (of our very tight budget) up the wall on him.

Yeah, they're a horrible team. Niggly, every decision they are onto the refs about. Always giving back chat to our players. Basically scrapping and giving out from the word go - and its been this way for years. Their fans are no different. Absolute Mongrols the lot of them. Still we did absolutely outplay them - there is no denying that we only lost because of 1 mistake. Given we will improve significantly from this point i feel a lot more positive about the season. Pretty funny how pissed off newcastle got only having 32% of the possession before the red card.

Unreal bed wetting. Talk about a laughable agenda to be trotting this shit out in the first game of the season when we've outplayed a champions league contender for 44min.

Hah, i'm not the only one getting defoe vibes then!

Archer reminds me a little bit of defoe in his highlights clips.

Not sure if this link will work, but interesting if that much is going on in the background - the article gives previous few details. https://www.thetimes.com/sport/football/article/why-this-could-be-the-most-absurd-premier-league-season-yet-xrff5q50p https://archive.ph/KDBJS

This is the best 11 for me. We have to play to our strengths... The keeper is the weak spot so protect him - 3cbs. Nothing else we can do with this as it stands. Our first choice wingbacks are good frankly, especially on the attacking front. Having 3 cb's and cdm frees them up nicely to cause problems. CM - I actually think flynn is a quality CM engine room for most prem teams (outside the big boys). He's a great midfield anchor for us. Only issue is there is only one of him in the squad. But charles has looked good. Other CMs - smallbone, aribo, and alcaraz... This is okay for a bottom half team. Not great. Not bad. I think they work well together within the tactics and alongside Downes and arma etc. We'll be effective against sides. Arma and bbd. Good movement (which suits our style), pace and a bit of a live wire threat from AA. BBD has a bit more guile and control about him. They compliment each other / the side quite well. Will be okay again for a bottom half side. --- 5-1-2-2 is the right starting formation for us. Edozie and SAA allow us to switch to a 4 with wingers. And dibling gives us some attacking CM cover. We have a weakness at GK, and zero cover there. Lose flynn and we're in serious trouble. We've got no real cover for AA or BBD frankly. The likes of Flynn, AA, BBD cannot play every game all season. We need depth badly.

We aren't poor at development. SR just don't know how to use the academy / don't care. We've lost nearly all our top talent (for peanuts) because we didn't want to pay them a bit more per week or give them minutes... and then we've also gone and spunked tens of millions on other players (that don't care about the club and who haven't kicked on), not to mention their far higher wages than academy kids. Fortunately dibling came back (although I am still none the wiser as to what happened there).

People will be shocked when Ryan fraser scores 25goals this season...

Yeah fully agree. A very tidy bit of business that one. Less sure about Wood's ultimately ceiling, but together they're a solid pair of squad centrebacks to have as backups with potential.

Our #1 target was Flynn... and rightly so. Followed up by Sugawara. Both positions were higher priorities than another attacking midfielder. I'd argue BBD was a more important signing as well. We've made 4 good signings (when you include THB) all of which were more important than an attacking midfielder. And whilst were on the subject, i'd rather we sign a GK and probably a striker first as well.

I am curious as to how you think Brighton got their money...

You lot are so very negative at times! FWIW I think we'll do alright this year unless injuries screw us over. The core team are solid enough for this level (bottom end of the prem) and well practiced at keeping the ball. We're going for 5 at the back, hard to beat, knock it around a lot to recycle possession, and lots of low scoring games. We have a style of play that works, that is somewhat unusual for the league, and which works for us. When the full strength teams came on vs lazio and getafe we dominated possession, looked far more assured, and held the sway over chances in both matches. Yes, we will get bad beats in some games - but we've got a very good morale in the team and we will be able to grind out results. We're not competing with the top team at the end of the day... we're competing with the dross to be 17th. There are clubs in this league that have been circling the drain - forest and Everton to name a few, wolves and Bournemouth have both just lost key attacking men. Leicester look set for whopping points deduction, and ipswich shouldn't be expecting to do any better than us - and for both us and them, a good start with early momentum will be important. Do we need to strengthen attack and GK, yes. But there is still time left. I also think 2 things will go on our favour over the season - 1.) we'll likely be seen as "easy points" or a rest game for the bigger sides in their busy periods. 2.) the team have been forged in the fire of the promotion chase and the playoffs. We won't bottle big game matches vs rivals. And that is where points will really matter. But we aren't going to be rock bottom and adrift with this side, we'll be in games more often than not, BBD and arma will get goals, and as others have said - if the worst happens, the squad will be very solid for the championship. Hopefully the fanbase can stay positive and support the team throughout, our new "kop" can make SMS a bit of a fortress (I have my doubts there mind 😅), and with a bit of fight we find ourselves the right side of 18th place come may!