saintwbu

His lack of physical presence is a huge hindrance - same size as Arma but offers nothing against a CB. Mind blowing that we turned to him after missing out on Delap last summer, what on earth was the profile we were looking for if we ended up in that position - presumably ‘young and English’ was the only specification, couldn’t get two more different forwards.

Desperately need a RB, at the moment we don’t have anyone to play there so are stuck with this formation no matter what - fine for now but need a plan B. If Jelert’s loan is to be cancelled as has been rumoured, it leaves just Roerslev who is crap. A physical forward also would be great as an option to change things.

He absolutely hammered Manning yesterday in the second half, can’t remember what for, but really went at him. Manning waved him away as clearly wasn’t happy about it. Does seem a bit better the last few games, maybe it’s the beard he’s growing.

Feels weird to be picking holes in what was a very good goal. Not sure many goals are truly ‘unsaveable’, keepers would probably find fault in almost all goals they concede - today was a brilliant goal, no one would look for any fault if it wasn’t Bazunu in goal. We’re in this weird zone now of desperately trying to find issue in literally every goal he concedes - reality is he’s pulled off great save(s) in almost every game under Eckert, which is improvement.

I don’t know whether he’ll be good enough for the Premier League, feels a bit Knockaert-esque, but expect he’ll make it there with or without us. But i’d stay in this league forever if it meant we got to watch him every week.

He must still really love Villa because it was like he was playing for them when we played at Villa Park last year.

I hope that being wedded to 3 CB’s is in part due to not having a right back to use. Having said that, even if Roerslev was fit I wouldn’t want him to play - we really need someone in January to play RB, or use Bree if he returns.

Terrible, terrible signing, was apparent very early too. Essentially down to one striker now, so desperately need a physical forward in January even more.

Personally think the fan base reaction to him just because he fell out with one of the worst managers we’ve ever had (Juric), is really weird. Even Juric brought him back in after a couple of games after realising how poor the alternatives were. He’s been injury and illness prone since we got him, he nearly didn’t sign for us because he was ill - he hasn’t suddenly decided to down tools just because Juric was shit.

I’d expect we will revert to the Charlton lineup, Bragg back in for Downes and Stephens in for Quarshie as expect his pace not such a requirement.

All he needed was just a bit more time…

He would have a field day with an aerial threat in the box, he is such a good crosser of the ball in so many different ways. Absolutely superb from the first whistle tonight, best performance by far.

You can only play it out once the gap occurs - sometimes it’ll happen quickly, sometimes it’ll take time. I don’t remember us struggling to play it forward under Russell when we put 4 and 5 past Blackburn, Swansea, Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield, Birmingham, Sunderland that season.

I agree with a fair bit of what you post but can’t agree with this at all - this is the third game in a row people are detracting from the performance/result by saying the opposition are poor. I’d say almost every team we’ve played this season have been average at best, I don’t think the league is great this season at all, yet we’ve just absolutely torn apart a well drilled workmanlike side with a decent coach (at this level). Until three games ago we’d made a meal of every single team we’ve played against, even the games we won. I struggle to remember a half of football that good from any Saints side, maybe ever to be honest.

Maybe mate, or given the quality of our squad, if our manager had played a logical setup and not made bizarre substitutions we might have held onto leads at Watford, Derby and Blackburn, and xG wouldn’t have been of any importance?