Saint86

Leicester missing 7 players for this btw. Aribo Choudhury, De Cordova-Reid James Ramsay Souttar Vestergaard.

How stupid is Eckert to have no hooked jander and archer? I would bet good money that 99% of the fanbase would sub at least 1 of them ffs.

Tuesday night vs Leicester, what can go wrong...

Omg, Archer on that jander pass there ffs

Asking a lot i fear, it took him weeks to clock the 5 man defence wasn't working and he had to stop hooking all his best players on 60min. Expecting changes mid first half (on 20min infact) is a hell of a leap for him 😄

He's following the Rasmus approach - if something works, change it.

How long before he realises his cock up and makes the urgently needed tactical change?

Eckert's naivety strikes again i'm afraid. This was a game to keep with the winning formula against a recently wounded Leicester. He starts Archer and gives us no outlet, and basically no rotation in the midfield, defence, and wingers with players that are clearly looking tired and lacking intensity.

Fucking pathetic.

Absolutely shocking start. No intensity and the players look well off it. Was just thinking we'll let a goal in after the Archer and Jander missed passes... and then it happens basically straight away. Very poor. Saying that, that goal gets ruled out for offisde in the prem - attacker is interfering on Peretz, stood right in front of him and yards offside.

No pressure match presser for this one?

Not everyone is driven by money, and ultimately footballers at that level will earn fortunes regardless - assuming they have any love for the game, they surely want to be playing regularly, enjoying it, and developing into the best player they possibly can be to have an excellent career. At 18years of age, the only reason for him to move to Everton was a quick pay day. I would say its by inspection detrimental for all other aspects of his career, and as Saintant has just said, i think its quite likely he may end up earning less than he could otherwise have earnt had he taken a different career path.

Agree, there is no point stressing about his future - other than to probably look at it as an example of how the footballing industry chews up youngsters and spits them out. End of the day he's a young lad (clearly sensitive/sheltered/other etc.) that had an Agent adivisng him not to extend (and to go for a big move) and a selling club that were probably pretty damn keen for the money (if we're all being honest). He's been badly advised (i think thats obvious), and clearly he now isn't happy with the move - which may ultimately kill his career with respect to the potential he has. I hope personally that he gets through this period and at least has a decent career in the prem, because otherwise that would just be a tremendous waste of his potential and a real shame - and on a human level, no one wants to see that happen. For purely footballing reasons, he blatantly should have stayed at saints and had a year dominating the championship, with a team being built around him where he can grow into himself. Grealish shin pad comparison incoming, but i think had he done this he could have had that kind of growth and progression. Perhaps Lallana is another example, stay and learn with less pressure, become a main man in the team, develop your abilities and confidence without the spotlight, and then take your well earned big move later in your career. Dibling had a higher potential than Lallana for their respective ages, difference is one of them worked their way up the football league in their younger years... But money talks - and so saints, his agent, and indeed his own wage packet, have all done well in the short term.

What do you mean plausible, we should be the favourites to go up out of all the teams below Ipswich... Who I sincerely hope get automatics and dump Coventry into the playoffs - otherwise our route will be a lot harder. It's Qué Sera, Sera time. Again.

Apparently there is 2 incoming for £1m. My first thoughts exactly that they'd be off to Valenciennes... Saints are basically signing them for the group, they'll move through the system and then settle at whichever club is a match for their abilities. Still, at 17/18 years old, playing at Valenciennes wouldn't be the worst experience for them - one of them looks to be an absolute unit as well.

I've always been on Spors' side, but beginning to think he might really know what he's doing...

Told yah ☺️😌

Cycle larin debut winner anyone? Scienza sadly very much off form lately, and limited squad depth their to offer competition.

Thanks for this reminder GS... I was in the process of enjoying my morning until then 🤣

5-2-2-1 (etc) is a dreadful formation. 4-2-3-1 allows us to play further up the pitch and carry more threat to the opposition, as a result we aren't pushed as deep and the opposition gets less chances and less dangerous ones at that. We also have one of the best squads in the league and should be worrying the opposition, not the other way around.

As shocking as this revelation may be, this narrative is not the way to win votes - this is the way to alienate a decent portion of the electorate and ensure. Parties like Labour, the greens, lib dems etc, will never win these votes if they run around constantly painting them all as thick racists 🤦‍♂️. The tories may get some of them back purely because they aren't doing this and may instead manage to persuade some of them that they're a good choice again.... Maybe... but I can't see it being that significant a number tbh - this lot are basically the forgotten left behind demographic, and they are Reform's as it stands. What people seem to utterly gloss over, is that an awful lot of Reform voters are traditional Labour voters - they look at what happened between 2019 and 2024, on that specific 5 year timeframe, but the larger picture is more interesting - alot of reform voters that "went from the conservatives to reform" are the so called "red wall" voters that in 2019 leant their vote to Johnson rather than Corbym... at the last GE they didn't vote tory, but they certainly didn't go back to Labour either... they've gone to Reform. And unlike the last GE, they're no longer seen as a protest vote - they are the most popular party in large parts of the country. Alongside that, the tories have bled votes to general apathy and often to the lib dems in the south and south west. But honestly, the reality is that unless something changes drastically, i struggled to see next the general election as anything other than reform as the largest party. Labour are going to get punished - people everywhere and in all walks of life are just utterly sick of them. The greens are broadly viewed by everyone to the right of them as far left, and the lib dems have elected not to really capitalise at all on the implosion of the two main parties and have a leader who runs around doing comedy stunts for kids and giving out ice creams as his version of 'serious politics'. The only question in my mind, will be whether tactical voting leads to a whitewash or a hung parliament - and that goes across all 5-6main parties (greens/labour/libs/tories/reform - and then SNP/PC). Are things going to get better under this Labour government, or worse?

Brilliant, so he's also a drink driver 🙄😡

Well, technically he doesn't... But he and Stewart need to be effective enough for us to get promoted. Thats the only yardstick SR should be judged on ultimatley.

Ignores the fact that, well managed, ten of our on field 11 should be good enough to be get promoted. Stewart (if he stays fit) being the 11th. Its a calculated risk by SR. The squad is still competitive, financially they've balanced the books, but they've thrown the dice on Stewart's fitness and risked us being left without a reliable goalscorer. Personally - my expectations for this squad are that we should still make playoffs, and within the playoffs, (assuming Ipwich get top 2) we should still be the favourites of the 4 to go up... I'd have been more confident if we had kept AA, and i'd be more confident if we had more depth in the ST, CAM, Wing positions. That all hinges on us sticking to a 4-2-3-1 and being well managed tactically for the remaining games. Anyone's guess as to whether that materialises. Has Eckert switched to a back 4 to save his job and get a few wins, and then it will be back to a 5-2-2-1? Or is this going to stick? And is his game management going to keep improving at the required rate to out think more experienced managers in a playoff race? Spors clearly backs him, and its on those 2 (and their big top man CF choices - stewart/larin) that any success this season now rests. One thing is for sure, they need to get Edozie up to speed PDQ, becuase we cannot go the next 19 games with just Jayrob as cover for the wings.

This.