saintwbu

For some context, Coventry would be 5th in the table right now in the season we went up with Ipswich and Leicester. This league is not at the level of what it was two seasons ago. 5 teams between us and the playoffs have dropped points this weekend. If we keep winning games, we make the play offs.

5 of the teams between us and 6th place dropped points this weekend alone, and only Bristol City in that list have more than one win more than us. We also play 5 of those teams still. Absolutely no reason why we can’t make the play offs if, it’ll only be our own failings that stop us.

Personally think Fellows is the most likely of our current squad to have a good Prem career - Only 22, 6 foot and rapid with the ability to carry the ball forward. He needs some work, but i’d be surprised if he’s not a steady PL player at a mid table club. I love Scienza, but I get Anthony Knockaert vibes with him, outstanding in the Championship but maybe physically wouldn’t cope with the top flight.

Watching Archer has been thoroughly unenjoyable for the past 2 seasons, so i’m not sure why you’d like to see that.

People talking about the price of Armstrong have to appreciate that the whole world knows that this league is his ceiling. I am trying to see this new guy as a signing by the people who brought us Scienza, Azaz, Fellows, Jander, Peretz - as opposed to the ones who brought us Downs and Roerslev…

1 goal conceded in 3 games (keeper error for the 1 as well) with a back 4 - more crap defenders on at one time does not make you more defensively solid. Play the good players and the defence will have less to do.

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?

Your point is that if we had a better striker we’d have won more games, my point is if we’d had a better manager we’d have won more games. Scoring goals has been a problem, but terrible setup and even worse substitutions has been a bigger one.

We’ve kept 2 clean sheets in the league all season despite playing 5 defenders in almost every game so far, there’s no such thing as a 3 at the back revolution because it is an utterly shite way to play football.

I like Corberan, and in a way I think he’d be a decent option if we were promoted to the PL but not so much one to get us there. Very, very defensive minded, maybe an argument to say with a better squad (like ours) he’d loosen the shackles a bit but i’m not convinced personally. I think he’d be ideal to try and make a newly promoted team hard to beat and grind out points.

That’s good mate but as I was in the ground, in the Itchen/Chapel corner, and heard at least three renditions of the song clearly, i’d say it was heard in the ground.