mrfahaji

I do! It'd be much more enjoyable to watch if now and again a Force India or Renault won, or nearly won a race. Sure, you want to have the big names there, but not to the extent every other team is irrelevant.

Remember it well! Didn’t go very often, but just on the occasions we got the ground early. Best moment was when Liverpool arrived, and everyone scrambled for the likes of Owen and Fowler. A few of the less popular players walked in untroubled before I shouted “Rigobert!”, prompting Song to look and turn back to sign my programme.

Agreed. I rarely sit (or stand) in the Northam, but signed anyway because I think it's the right thing, but surely there are at least 600 people who actually DO want to stand in the Northam?!

Don't worry, Richard Scudamore is working his magic to make sure the big clubs get a bigger share of the PL profits. Things can only get better.

It does seem a bit silly suggesting players we had in lower divisions. Hardly surprising when we were in League One, or cash-strapped in the Championship and heading for relegation that we had at least a few terrible players. I remember McCann coming on for Anders Svensson and the crowd booing when his name was announced. Strachan turned and sarcastically applauded the fans for that.

A friend of mine argues that while he doesn't agree with diving, it's no different to a defender cynically pulling someone back on the half way line to stop a break. If anything, the foul is worse because you are denying the game a chance of a goal, one of life's (especially if you're a Saints fan) precious commodities. "But you still get booked for the foul", I'd say, but in truth you also get booked for diving if the ref deems it to be simulation. What's the difference? That's why, although I'll never accept diving "as part of the game", I do at least understand why players do it - a spur of the moment decision to try and win, or not lose, a game of football. What I really have a problem with is the feigning injury and play acting that goes on in order to try and get other players booked or sent off. You might also argue that a player on a booking is going to play more hesitantly, and therefore make the game easier for you, or a team with 10 men is easier to beat, but there's something unpalatable in the lack of respect between professional players - when you see an athlete rolling around on the floor pretending he's been the victim of GBH in order to trick the referee into sending off a (relatively) innocent person, it's just a bit pathetic.

This. Sometimes it's like players would prefer to 'win' a penalty than score.

That would be worth the admission fee alone - you'd come away thinking you could make it as a professional after all!

Hmmm, Poch was quite like that. I remember lots of games playing nice football yet lacking any incisiveness in the final third. The best thing about Pochettino was our pressing defensively. Football could even be exciting when we didn't have the ball!

Beasant was pretty good for us. Obvioulsy one swallow doesn't make a summer, but I remember the Coventry (H) game well, when he won MOTM and prompted Ron Atkinson to say on Sky "who was man of the match? Oh, so we must've played not bad then!"

The main reason we "miss" Pelle, is because he allowed us to play long balls and put crosses in. He could hold it up and get his head on the ball. The stupid bit in all this is we should be saying "Pelle was good but we wouldn't need him now because he doesn't suit our style of play", yet he WOULD still help us because we continue to pump balls into the box in the air. It's not JUST that we continue to pick players not performing, but also because the team and particularly those attacking players don't seem to play to a style that would suit us. I find Redmond exasperating, but it also looks to me like he is carrying out general instructions and not being very good at showing initiative. A concern for me is that Redmond is picked ahead of Boufal exactly because he follows instructions, and that Pellegrino thinks that these instructions/tactics are eventually going to lead to our form improving. It's not.

This is true. And unlike most jobs where a good CV and interview can be enough to convince a prospective employer to take you on, a fair chunk of a football manager's work is in the public domain. There were people on here (and some articles online) who said Alaves weren't a high pressing or attacking team. I genuinely think Pellegrino's off the field similarities, and his friendship with Pochettino were what made Reed give him the job. That being said, I'm still hopeful he can turn it round. But if he plays the same team next time out, that is a bad sign.

You're in luck, Redknapp is available.

The strangest thing for me is the fact that we DO have alternatives in attacking positions but we never give them a chance. You'd think that when we have one aspect of our play so obviously wrong we might be prepared to experiment to solve it. I can't believe that Redmond is such a massive asset defensively that the team couldn't possibly function without him.

Was that his far post header? I remember running round the house celebrating and when I finally returned my Dad told me it had been disallowed. That happened to me on CM97/98 all the time, but the only time it has ever happened in real life.

Ha, got it in one!

Signed. Hopefully the reason for few signatures is simply that people don't know about it - maybe posting here will help it gain traction.

Given the title of the thread, I (perhaps mistakenly) assumed it was for fairly serious suggestions on what the club or the fans could do to improve the atmosphere (rather than listing possible reasons for why it's not so good any more). I therefore thought the idea of banning half the world's population from the stadium was not only a little extreme, but also highly unlikely to happen.

I always thought it was an oak.

Isn't that what we try to do most of the time though? Suggests it's either the wrong strategy or we're just not very good at it. I'd say a bit of both - we don't have a particularly big side, and we also take a lot of poor corners. I expect the latter is true for a lot of teams though.

I think he could show more initiative at getting in the box. No excuse (in most circumstances) not to be in the penalty area when your opposite winger is looking to put a cross in. Same goes for Tadic. Add that Davis is not a natural at breaking into the box is one reason we don't look like scoring many.

Part of his problem is that he takes shots when there is a chance to put someone else in in a much better position, and invariably the shots he does have tend to be easy for the keeper to save. He might have a decent shot every couple of games, but to assume that "they will eventually start going in" assumes he's JUST been unlucky and the outcome of the shot is completely unrelated to his shooting ability.

The tone of the overall post makes me think this isn't a joke, which is somewhat worrying...! What next, ban the Japanese?

Exactly my thoughts. Crazy that so many people want/see this as the best option and yet I doubt very much we will get it. Fans don't always know best but when there is such an overwhelming consensus surely there must be something in it...

A moment vs United - we win (or get) the ball back about 35 yards from their goal. The ball goes out to Tadic who twists & turns for a bit, before eventually delivering a cross towards Long at the far post. It's a decent ball but de Gea comes out to collect it. On the replay, Long is the only player in the box. This is despite Tadic holding it up for a bit. I don't think our attacking midfielders have the instincts to get into the box when they have opportunity, as surely they're not being coached NOT to get in the box. Redmond had already shown his lack of urgency and/or instinct earlier in the game by failing to get up and support Long when doing so may have led to a chance.