Saint86

Problem is, i am certain Rasmus Ankerson is incapable of finding someone of the required ability next season. Every single decision he has made has been horrific.

Get ready for us to not play in the air to him...

With availability as it is. I would like to see Sulemana and Dyjenpo/Edozie on the wings. Should cause problems. Then have Alcaraz playing through the middle and running in and around Tall Paul, who should be fucking used as an actual aerial target man ffs. Have JWP supporting and dopping off the right winger/CAM to whip crosses in etc and get men in and around the box. You would also like to think that a combination of Djenpo/Edozie and sulemana is going to win a lot of free kicks - or if defenders are scared to tackle, win us a lot of territory. Sadly i fear it will be more of this pass pass pass bollocks between bazuni, the back 4, and JWP. The concept of actually running with the ball and taking territory has been utterly coached out of the players lately. But that is exactly the kind of attacking bravery that we need right now. Passing in front of teams is like letting them lounge around on the beach with a cocktail in their hands for this level. No threat at all.

I don't think it will be - likely Mara again. What we'll probably do is play it in the air to Mara, then bring Tall Paul on and play it to his feet...

Well i think we all hope you see a saints win!!!

We still had a good mananger then, and crucially he had a viable focal point to convert the created chances (ings). Two boards have since failed Ralph on the striker situation (although mainly Rasmus as Semmens did at least get broja in), and then half our fanbase was apparently oblivious to the deeper performance metrics and decided to turn on him (after 4 solid years) because he didn't have us fighting for top 10 this season... despite injuries, no attack, and a young inexperienced squad to gel. As anticipated by many, it's been markedly all down hill from there on out 🤣. And we're just reaping what's been sown over a few years now sadly.

Is Che back fit yet? Nothing up top otherwise tbh.

How the fuck are you lot still going on about Brexit... 😨🤣

I cannot see a win this weekend sadly - no matter how badly we need it. And i do think that failure to win this game is probably one of the very last nails in the coffin this year. They're a fairly solid team with a lot of attacking threat. We carry no attacking threat and aren't particularly solid at the back.

TBF i might be being harsh, just rechecked the goal stats and Philips (10) and Crouch (12) did pretty well considering we finished 20th! I guess the overall negativity of that season has impacted my view somewhat.

First of all, i don't want to go all MLG on you, but we were relegated in 2005 not 2004. In 2004 we finished 12th 😋. Secondly, I would actually argue that bazunu now is better than Niemi was by the end of the 04/05 season. Niemi was a total wreck confidence wise by the end of 04/05... That Krap Nottarf game in particular was horrendous. 2003/04 niemi i'd agree, far better. There also isn't much difference in overall striking ability - both are poor for the league imo. Che is a decent hold up man but can't finish. A past it Philips or Camara alongside him would have made a difference though. If anything, the whole thing totally highlights how we've been chronically mismanaged by Rasmus this season. He had a manager that would have had a very good crack at a top 10 finish with even a semblance of the right additions, didn't sign said additions, then sacked the manager, then hired the world's fittest ever manager (far far worse than Ralph), then failed again to sign a striker or cdm cover, then sacked world's fittest manager (albeit that was the right call 😄), then hired a total newbie as manager (also worse than Ralph) And so here we sit having spent £150M on transfers, lord knows what on agents fees, signing on fees, and paying off managers... and we're worse than we started the season with still no striker in sight. That and we've helped our soon to be parent club (Luton) in the Sports Republic group up to 3rd... I'll say one thing, that's a pretty impressive overall feet by SR 🤣

Exactly this.

Been told that part of the reason is when season ticket holders don't turn up and haven't released their seats for resale. The club ultimatley don't care as the seats are paid for, but equally the atmosphere then suffers, particulary for TV games. Not ideal if it continues for the relegation run in. Would imagine that given our form, position, the fact it was on TV, it's Easter, and it's a red hot man City side... Has all played a part in fans not bothering this particular weekend.

He's obviously responsible. But he also basically owns the club so is unlikely to sack himself 🤔

Any team that lines up with DCC and Bednarek at this level is getting thumped sadly.

I reckon it's going to be us and Leicester.... And then whoever is the shittest out of forest and West ham.

What exactly has Semmens done? The decision making this year has all been from Rasmus. Its clear he governed managerial sackings and appointments as he was the sole voice standing up to the fans to explain why HE was keeping Jones. Ditto he has been all over recruitment. He's also overseen significant turnover in academy and scouting staff, and largely eliminated the club scouting department. The guy has come in and performed like a Ted Boehly figure playing football manager - except it isn't even his own money. Blame starts and stops with Rasmus. The only saving grace you can take from any of it, is that SR seem to be prepared to continue to back the club... because if they walked away now we'd be left servicing all the debt and the legacy of the transfers and contracts. Semmens and ralph had the club surviving year on year with no owner investment and debts to cover. Rasmus comes in, spends over a hundred million, dismantles almost every aspect of the existing structure, and is almost certainly taking us down. All from the guy who didn't want to get too involved or change too much. And you're trying to share the blame out with Semmens? why? I'm sitting all of this squarely on Rasmus and SR - they are not nearly as clever as they thought they were!! We can only hope that they sort their stuff out by the summer...

I think failing to Palace could well be the point of effective no return - subject to other results. Will require some seriously impressive performances vs better sides to get us out of it if we don't get 3 points there. 34/35 points remains roughly the magic number. Which means 3 points vs: Palace (h) = 26pts Bournemouth (h) = 29pts Nottingham (a) = 32pts Fulham (h) = 35points Any draws we get out of City (h), arsenal (a), Newcastle (a), BHA (a), or Liverpool (h) are free hits given how we are playing - free hits that we might need to get points from 😆. But fail to win one of the above games and we're at best getting 33points assuming we somehow win the others - and we would then need results from sides in the top 8 positions. A grim outlook. Especially as if we fail to beat palace and we should be absolutely adrift by the time we play Bournemouth. Our goal difference is certainly something of an issue as well.

I don't agree with your analysis, but 33 points would have us right in the mix at the end of the season regardless. Interpolating the way you have ignores actual performances in games, as well as the key injuries we suffered to lavia, ABK, KWP over the first portion of the season, the fact those 14 games included basically all the top sides, that we were having to gel an extremely young and inexperienced side on the fly. Plus ofc selles/jones benefited from an extra £60M of strengthening in January - as well as Lavia and KWP back fit. So you've essentially taken the toughest period for this side this season and suggested that we would only just have missed survival. Conversely, if we were 13th for xG vs 18th goals scored (with all of the above performance mitigations) - then it doesn't take much to imagine how many more goals / wins we'd have picked up if we'd carried that extra threat this season (i.e. via a striker that could finish and actual CDM cover). Bearing in mind that even 6 more points would lift us to 13th. So it certainly isn't clear that "he was finished" personally. Also, the point being made was that whoever was manager, they should have been backed with a striker and CDM in the summer, and that by failing to do that the board essentially failed any prospective manager. As for Selles, i haven't looked into his in game metrics. But we got very lucky vs Chelsea and Leicester. We certainly are not outplaying sides, we dominate no one (even against 10man united we barely managed to have the lionshare of possession/chances and could have lost), and we seem to lack any real identify of threat. I'm not calling for Selles' head and i acknowledge he's got a tough start and its his first managerial role. I certainly don't blame him for the situation we're in - but then nor is he doing much to impress in all honesty? I suspect that many more lineups like west ham and we'll find support for him diminishing quite quickly.

Yeah that's fair, but like you say i think it was influenced quite heavily by available personnel. I think the pressure also got to him by the end. Also this weird preference for 5 at the back that seemed to come in over the summer and with Jones. God knows what that was about given Selles has come in and tried to revert back to the playbook.

Disagree. We were 13th for xG and 15th for goals conceded when he was sacked. The only reason we were struggling was our attackers had us 18th for goals scored. Ralph struggled since Ings was injured and sold, and then for a brief period he had an inform youngster in Broja... who has since left - and neither of those was ever adequately replaced. With a good focal point to the attack, Ralph showed plenty of times that he could overdeliver with the rest of the squad. Sadly this season we had che adams (I like but he can't finish), mara, walcott, and Armstrong (edit, i forgot Aribo 😄)... Say what you want to that, but the issue wasn't ralph... 🙄🤣, it was the total lack of any kind of meaningful quality attacking talent / threat in the side. The reality is that the board (#Rasmus) failed Ralph (or indeed any prospective manager) by not signing any decent attacking options in the summer, and by letting Romeu go with no cover at CDM. Ralph also had ABK, KWP, and Lavia out injured, and had to gel a very young and inexperienced squad. What did fans expect when the key injuries started adding up? Despite that, and having played all the best sides bar Liverpool (debateable calling them that this year) in his games, Ralph still had us within 1 game of mid table when he was sacked... his last 2 games at full strength were the Chelsea win and the unlucky loss to united (who we outplayed)... Its hard to imagine those kind of performances now - but how badly we could have used some of those full strength (+£60M Jan top up) ralph ball performances over the past couple of months!! Its done now, but i will personally always consider it a mistake to sack him when we did, it wasn't justified this season, and I can only assume the fans who turned on him must have been expecting a top 10 or European charge to consider a few points off mid table as sackable.... The promise of a better manager never materialised, and its seems clear that it was the big turning point towards relegation this season. To me, the whole thing has shades of Hoddle, Sturrock, et al all over again personally - A fanbase massive that didn't know what it was on about (shock horror), and a weak board that caved in to fans and went on to make a series of terrible decisions. Probably topped off by us again having to sell our promising youngsters on the cheap in the lower leagues. But hey - the fans got what they wanted 🤣 Selles just seems to be someone who is only half committed to the high attacking press, so whilst he's unlikely to ever get tonked in the same way Ralph did, he's also unlikely to ever get us effectively generating enough threat to get the points we need this year. Ralph ball was always about everything on the table commitment to the press. For example, under Selles how often do we see KWP or Perraud pressing the oppo full backs or pushed up past the halfway line out of possession? IMO we totally lack for any identity or real threat playing this new ralphball lite approach (i don't even think its reasonable to call it that tbh). We aren't taking enough attacking risks or committing enough bodies forward to score the goals we simply have to score now (chasing the game vs west ham we frequently had 1 player in the box...). And we also seem to have no real identity/hunger/intensity as a club/team anymore - things i would have once said described saints well. Looks like a grim end of the season incoming, but who knows, maybe Selles will just go for it now.

I mean, sod it, why not... We've changed the scouting setup (twice), the academy coaching, the first team coaching setup (twice), and the manager (twice) this season. Let alone the utter farce of in terms of player recruitment/churn/bloated squad that we now have... May as well get the assistant manager out for good eh!! I don't know if any department at the club has actually escaped harm so far, but at that point it would basically be impossible to argue we haven't had a "complete reset" over the last 12months summer-summer dictatorial ownership by Rasmus 🤣😂. But i agree with what i think is your point. Rasmus has destroyed the entire club's identity. We do now need a strong managerial figure to come in and stamp a new identify on us - an up and coming manager with a good attacking style of football, and someone who quite blatantly does it whilst utilising kids. But there is no point just making more changes for the sake of it - the identity of the next manager is key. And someone seriously needs to wrestle the controls out of Rasmus' hands - whatever he's touched has turned to utter ruin. Also, an aside - if SR decided to walk away now, essentially they'd lose whatever they purchased the club for minus whatever they can sell it for.... but the club is left with the debt from our horrific player recruitment this past year... plus the MS Dell loan? We best hope they are in it for the long run, and that they miraculously start making some good decisions.

If Che is back, he starts. Otherwise its that team but with Bazunu.

No need to start talking to people like that mate!

Hopefully we are straight on the phone to him.