saintwbu

Michael Keane has only ever been good in one period for Burnley. Numerous former Burnley players have struggled to make the grade outside of that team. Nothing suggests he is a leader, and he can’t get into an absolutely terrible Everton team. Having England caps is not a justification of a players quality, if it was then we’d have Redmond, Bertrand, Maitland-Niles all starting for us every week.

Worried we’re approaching a Pellegrino/Carrillo style junction of signing players to suit a manager that nobody wants here and probably won’t last the season, and will be stuck with a load of big lumps that no other manager is going to want to use.

Last night showed that it is not just a case of getting a goal scorer that can save us

He doesn’t pick himself, he tries his hardest, I wouldn’t boo an individual player who I think is trying. He knew how bad that error was, and it didn’t help him that most of the fans knew DCC should’ve been picked ahead of him anyway. Someone like Salisu or KWP might’ve been able to shake it off, he was the worst player that could’ve done it (apart from maybe Moi). Three at the back doesn’t work, it never has for us, and at this rate it never will.

Wasn’t he first (or one of the first) to break the original story?

I know people say it slightly tongue in cheek, but Gyokeres, Adams, Adam Armstrong and Tella really would be a hell of a strike force in the Championship. Albeit i’d imagine we’d struggle to hold onto Adams.

I think we need Stu Armstrong in CM if he’s fit - Diallo and AMN just are not good enough, Armstrong has done alright in there in the past.

Edozie won a free kick in Prowsey territory, and won a penalty at the weekend - having pace and quick feet does still draw mistakes. At the moment we have players with no pace, quick feet, or end product - so if given the choice i’d take the two players with at least some positive attributes.

I wouldn’t expect a wing pair of Edozie and Tella to score many goals but at least it would make defenders think a bit. At the moment we can’t even offer that.

Agree with everything above - I actually think his all round game seems to have gone up a level this season, but the glaring misses will stand out more than ever because no one else is picking up the slack. Another player being able to score a few would take the pressure off Che massively and make the most of some of his great build up play.

Absolutely brilliant goal and a hell of a celebration in the away end

That’s the one, not sure i’ve felt anger like it at a game

Martina at home to Arsenal probably the best for me, had the perfect view from the other end of the Itchen so could see the bend. Was there for Osvaldo’s against City but probably didn’t appreciate just how good it was at the time. As goals against us go, Coutinho’s one that rattled in off the bar was good. Completely compounded the anger of being refused two stonewall penalties and at least one red card within about the first 10 minutes.

Aribo is one of the few players we have who is quite good at retaining possession in difficult areas, and can spot a pass. If Che could finish he’d have had a great assist to go with his goal in the space of 10 minutes against Everton that would’ve probably won us the game. His languid style is always going to frustrate some fans when we’re losing, because it looks to some like he isn’t trying as hard as everyone else. But often decent, intelligent players don’t need to go haring around the pitch, they find good areas instead.

Only Mara, Larios and Edozie seem to be ‘for the future’, and even then they’ve had decent minutes for the first team. Bazunu, ABK and Lavia have all become immediate starters and the latter two also seem to be significant upgrades in their position, with the jury still out on Bazunu. Add Tino to that from last season. This debate was had all summer, around age vs experience - we just need quality, I couldn’t care if they’re 16 or 36, they just need to be good.

I don’t think 10 minute spells off the bench for a team that are not scoring goals is a significant endorsement from the manager. Broja is the only striker Chelsea have besides Aubameyang, so he’s getting game time because of that. If it’s true that Nkunku is coming in January, then his chances will reduce even more, albeit he has just been put out of the World Cup with a knee injury so maybe he won’t be fit. The difference between last years Saints team and this years team is basically just Broja? We’ve added quality/depth in every other area that we’d lost people, other than his position. We saw how poor we were when his form dropped off, I think people are dismissing how much of a difference he made to our team up until January.

Caleta-Car and Aribo are both 26 so clearly the SR policy doesn’t completely rule out players who have a little bit of experience behind them, so hopefully they’ve got their eyes on a prolific striker of any age.

Lincoln at home!

Taking JWP’s performances in isolation i can see why people would not be surprised he hasn’t made an England squad. But there’s no way anyone can say with a straight face that Phillips/Gallagher/Henderson have done more.

Most of their team will hopefully be in protection mode for the World Cup, whereas most of ours won’t be. Equally they’re still playing pretty poorly. I reckon we’ll go with a 5 at the back, pack the midfield and try to score on the break, and try and make it as difficult as possible for them.

£4mil compensation suggests he’s not the cheap(est) option, and we never go for a manager currently in work, so SR must see something in him.

Weird, given that the majority of this forum wanted Ralph gone, and the majority seem to be unhappy with the potential replacement, perhaps it’s not the same people who were still supporting the manager…

Just need a Jan Bednarek exclusive to the Daily Star now to complete the trio of ‘fucking useless players for us whose opinions should be completely ignored’. Charlie Austin and Nathan Redmond were wanted by not a single Premier League club upon their departure, so I think they can maybe look at themselves instead.

I think James Justin came through under him, who’s now at Leicester, so don’t know what his track record is like in previous seasons. He also gave Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall his breakthrough during a loan spell from Leicester.

Think this underpinned the concern of those who weren’t desperate for Ralph to go. A lot of our fan base still seem to be somewhat in denial of the way we are run, and thought we might get a ‘top’ manager. This appointment is very reflective of our recent level of ambition. Ralph, at the time of his appointment, was a coup and completely against the way we’ve been run in the last 5 or 6 seasons. This is obviously a gamble, but also a complete missed opportunity to give the whole club and fanbase a shot in the arm. If, in a dream world, Poch had returned (obviously was never going to happen), he could afford a few defeats whilst retaining faith. If we go a couple of goals down to Brighton on boxing day with Nathan Jones in charge, I dread to think what that atmosphere will be like. But good luck to him, I hope the gamble pays off and he’ll have my full support.