Saint86

We badly need to sign a good striker, and we cannot be playing that back 5 with those passes across the back and long ball bollocks... it offers no serious penetration at premier league level. Teams will just set up and wait for us to give the ball away... and one loose pass across the back/middle with those 3 CB's and we'll have a far better attack that ours through onto Bazunu. Stuff of nightmares - and we can all see it happening I reckon. Work to do!

So genuine question - anyone out there seen enough tonight to think we can beat a premier league side anytime soon?

Lets be honest - we all knew he was going to miss that...

WTF was that... embarrassing

Too much time spent training with armstrong and che....

Did anyone else see Lyanco doing his arms clenched/pumping celebration for that foul (by jackson in our box) being given... he clearly is not right in the head.

JWP isn't a winger, and for the first 60min we played an utterly retarded formation with minimal attacking outlets.

Just the kind of strike Adams is good at - one where he has no time to think where the keeper is... Incredible the improvement in our play since Theo, Armstrong, and Edozie came on... and we abandoned this nonsense 5 at the back vs a league 1 side.

Find myself wondering if the 5 at the back is a sports republic decision - start of the season it was a noticeable change that Ralph was wrestling with and didn't like. Now Jones is introduced and straight away is 5 at the back. Notable that we've abandoned the formation and immediately improved.

No chance, its headed onto his hand from directly behind him - Well refereed actually.

Have to say that first half was extremely concerning. Playing 5 at the back vs a league 1 side at home. Minimal penetration and making them look comfortably compact... and when the 3rd tier side attack they look more threatening. He's actually got us playing a worse 5-3-2 than Southgate used to play... and Southgate used to get away with it because we had one of the best squads in international football with Kane and co up front... I cannot even tell you the last time i watched a top flight side use that many long balls. WTF. The only mitigation i'll allow for that first half is that he's possibly using it to familiarise the team with a defensive shape for some of the more dangerous attacking teams in the prem... maybe... He talked in his press conference about needing to keep things tight, and then finding ways to get a goal. Looks quite worrying on both fronts in that first half.

Its just a friendly! No need to get defensive about it... not unless its really bad. The Robins' result is understandable imo. Important one is beating Bournemouth - hopefully a good marker against a good strength side.

I believe were were rumoured to have lost to Bristol City and beat a barca youth side.

On this we agree, but it does highlight how bad we are 🤣

I think very few people have actually written him off... so as @The Kraken said above, calm down somewhat. You're going to cause yourself a lot of aggravation if you deem right from the start that no one can raise a word of caution... How are you going to handle a potential cup upset vs Lincoln - they do happen... Jones is an unknown manager at this level, but he and the club knew that when he was given the job of trying to gel a young relegation threatened team... the pressure is going to be on him to prove himself and to ultimately succeed. That is natural and it is to be expected that people will take an interest in how he manages the team, his methods, what he says etc. Frankly it would be downright weird if that wasn't the case - Not least because all our fans are rightly concerned about where the club is right now. And within all of that, fans will see traits/signs in Jones to be positive about, and some things to be wary or concerned about. No manager is going to be perfect.

This is wrong though isn't it... Some people have a good eye for when someone should have scored etc. Some people are less fortunate, and are afflicted with similar judging abilities to your Jenas's or dixon's... But xGs vs actual goals is an incredibly simple way to statistically contextualise the finishing ability of our strikers. Unless you disagree and think they're finishing is acceptable for the chances generated? 🤣

It doesn't have to be a relegation scrap though. Or didn't have to be at any rate. We were 13th for xG and joint 15th for goals conceded when Ralph was sacked. That's despite having to gell a young inexperienced team, and with significant injuries to 4 of our best players in KWP, ABK, Lavia, Tino. The reason we are where we are, is because we were 18th for goals scored. I'd say the promotion /adkins prem team carried more attacking threat at the start of our return season that this lot (Lallana, lambert, jayrod). I can't be the only one who's Immediatley bite someone's arm off to have those #3 (previously only championship players) in our side now? We never replaced ings fully, and then we never even replaced broja 😂. It's beyond shocking on a recruitment front. And I think it's fair to say that adding a quality attacker would also have improved our xG stats as well. The issue now is that Jones has got to perform better than Ralph with much the same players (albeit without the same injuries) just to keep us up, which I don't think is a given because I think (or the stats indicate) Ralph was actually doing alright with the players that were actually available. We just badly had to sign an attacker in the summer, and we have been unlucky with injures this year. I want Jones to do well and I'll back anyone that tries as long as they're trying and carry a threat (assume we all will). But I also think he's up against it, and the body language in that video (albeit it's only a snap shot) is slightly concerning. If the players don't listen/respect him for these early games, we're going down.

Any somewhat negative story about saints and Sheldon is all over it like a rash.

Fair enough I guess. He's tended to move around a fair amount in his career. Be interesting to know the reasons behind it, but what really matters is we make a good appointment on the back of it.

Now that would be something i'd love to see 🤣

Initially i liked the look of what he was after in that video. However, after re-watching it, t doesn't look like a single player in the video is actually listening to him, Lyanco and Diallo actually look bored / rather unimpressed when he is speaking, and i don't think there was any meaningful sign of the smiles/enjoyment he was trying to encourage in them? Possibly a concern - But equally its hard to gauge much from a short clip and hopefully that's reading too much into it - probably just the media team selecting only certain kinds of shots. Bound to be a few players who don't suit the new manager, ditto some that will offer exactly what's he's after... I guess we will find out whether we get the required changes/improvements over the next few weeks at any rate!

I think they should give him a shock collar or something, every time he hits it at the keeper in training he gets a shock.... Surely that would lead to a positive improvement in his finishing?

How much do you reckon MLG wants to bash out a list of successful football managers / coaching setups that never played/managed in the premier league prior to their appointments 😋... What's worse, is that without him, potentially no one will do it 🤣 In all seriousness though, Saints (since our return), are probably a case in point that it doesn't matter too much.

I had totally forgotten he did it tbh, and i can only vaguely recall it now. I guess perhaps that's the nature of these injuries - we more readily remember the ones that ruin players. I'd say the combination of pace and power was a large part of Broja's game, but if he does drop a yard of pace I suppose he could do worse than follow a shearer style career 😅.

Are there any players that make a truly full recovery from these sorts of injuries? In my mind, it feels like they never really reach the standard they were before, even if they do get back to a similar level?