Paul Onuachu is there a player in there?

[JRM]

9 hours ago, Morse said:

A panic buy. Doesn't suit the way we play. Another £20m odd down the drain. 

Agree, likely he'll never score a goal for Saints,  just can't see it 

[ally_uk]

That first touch when he came on today I was in hysterics when he smashed it at the Brentford player 🤣🤣🤣

 

Pretty much sums up the Circus 🎪  that Is Southampton FC at times 

[westmidlandsaint]

Some of these comments are a tad over the top. He has a good goalscoring record but have his teammates here actually created a chance for him? The crossing last night from every one of our players was abysmal. We may as well not played with strikers as we don't get the ball to them. It's been a problem for so long. We had so much possession last night but pointless when you do bugger all with it. 

[saintrich]

Reminded me of when Man City stuck David James upfront. 

[Badger]

18 hours ago, Redbul said:

He could be a useful target man for a couple of pacey wingers like Sulemana and Edozie, he doesn't strike me as being energetic or mobile enough other than that though.

Can either cross a ball though ?

The pacey winger is fine but seems to me the modern wide player just uses his speed without anything to show for it, either shot or cross.  Getting in a good position and driving the ball at 100mph across the penalty area - at whatever height- in the hope someone gets on the end of it isn’t a “cross” in my book. 

[S-Clarke]

10 hours ago, Chris cooper said:

He’d struggle in the championship no question!

 

He'd be a perfect Championship forward, would cause all sorts of chaos down there. Be interesting if he sticks around.

Look at Daryl Dike at WBU for example, an absolutley awful footballer - but he's a unit, and is a goal machine at that level. Karlem Grant similar.

[bpsaint]

We’d be better off sticking Prowsey on the wing and putting crosses in to tall Paul seeing as no other cunt can cross a ball properly.

[pimpin4rizeal]

I really do not fathom why we are not even giving this guy a shot up front .. we cried all of January for a striker sign one and then he hardly even gets a chance and is now behind all three of of adams walcott and Mara 😕.. 

surely SR didn’t pull a carillo and sign him just for jones ..I wonder how Rasmus feels that the new weapon already finds himself 4th choice behind a bunch of already poor options .. very weird situation 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

Looked at few compilations.

Lots of headers, but not all from using height. Physically just gets in there too.

Predominantly he's a finisher. requires deliveries into the box that he can finish with the fewest number of touches. He can run into the box to get onto some of these, but not from too deep.

Control is not the best. Although his height can make this a little deceptive, he's a poacher, and goals can be scruffy.

Our method of absorbing pressure, hopefully not conceding, and then makig a break down the middle from very deep is something not suited for him.

While he wants to take up poistions to finish off an attack, we're passing it about the middle. So, we're allowing our opponents to set up to defend, we're not giving him space to do anything and since there's no clear plan of attack, so he's not in the place where the ball might randomly ping to anyway.

Would work well with a couple of attackers feeding into him. We have Che, but he's a bit more central. Better than the other options though.

Despite the posts about Marsch not being wanted because weahve good wide players, we don't deliver with any kind of service to someone so good in the air, or who's more than happy to run off defenders for poacher goals. Again, this is partly as we don't shift the ball out to the flanks to use quickly enough, lack a creative link to get the ball into the box and are sitting so defensively, that he couldn;t get up the park anyway. We don't really deliver anything from deeper positions either. Partly as we've allowed everyone to get back anyway, so they don;t get through. But again, because why pass forward when you can shift the ball sideways.

If you've got a team that has clear attacking tactics, midfielders who are set to break forward as a group, moving it to a shooting area quickly, giving him the license to be focused on getting on the end of things, than playing deep, then it would bring out his qualities. Even a team that presses higher up the park, so he could take advantage of breaks would work for him.

But that's not this club under this manager.

[skintsaint]

We bought a fox in the box. But as a team we never wang the ball into the box so not a great match.

[Chez]

1 hour ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

surely SR didn’t pull a carillo and sign him just for jones

they really did. 

[FarehamSaintJames]

13 minutes ago, Chez said:

they really did. 

Knowing full well they’d already fucked up with Nathan Jones. 
It shows the utmost incompetence of the board.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

10 minutes ago, Chez said:

they really did. 

Yup. I'm not sure if the idea was for Bree/ Perraud/KWP to deliver balls directly into Onuachu (which seems like a big ask), or if it's was the likes of Orsic/ Sulemana who were supposed to receive them and then get that final ball into Paul quickly. With JWP/ Alcaraz offering midifled support (and some follow up assists/ goals as per lampard years ago).

If it's the latter scenario, we've brought him in and not given him any player currently capable of giving him the ball. Even if JWP/ Lavia were to get it out wide from the middle, we still don't have anyone. Mind you, unless we play him, we're not going to see if anyone becomes capable of doing it.

[Pamplemousse]

If Adams isn't fit for Palace then he simply has to play. We need someone who can hold the ball up.

[pimpin4rizeal]

2 hours ago, Chez said:

they really did. 

It’s madness as jones got what? one game with him lol .

I know I keep banging on with this point but If I was Rasmus right now I’d be really pissed that selles isn’t even attempting to use the weapons we brought in to help us stay up, it’s a total slap in the face to him that Paul is behind mara and walcott in the pecking order, as neither of them were starters..

there’s a massive disconnect here but if the manager isn’t on the same wavelength as the transfer ideas it renders all the time and money and effort from January pointless and we end up going backwards and digging out walcott .. would not be at all pleased with this if I were ankersson 

from a transfer policy side of things it would almost have made more sense to show conviction and stick with jones rather then to spend all of January making signings that then end up fourth choice under selles .. what a absolute shambles 

Edited 10 April, 2023 by pimpin4rizeal

[MAY-Z]

2 hours ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

It’s madness as jones got what? one game with him lol .

I know I keep banging on with this point but If I was Rasmus right now I’d be really pissed that selles isn’t even attempting to use the weapons we brought in to help us stay up, it’s a total slap in the face to him that Paul is behind mara and walcott in the pecking order, as neither of them were starters..

there’s a massive disconnect here but if the manager isn’t on the same wavelength as the transfer ideas it renders all the time and money and effort from January pointless and we end up going backwards and digging out walcott .. would not be at all pleased with this if I were ankersson 

from a transfer policy side of things it would almost have made more sense to show conviction and stick with jones rather then to spend all of January making signings that then end up fourth choice under selles .. what a absolute shambles 

I think this is a good point and one i was considering myself last night

 

With Jones it was looking like he wanted to base his side around 1 big striker with 2 wide men and a central attacking midfielder just in behind.

So we bought players that suited that, Paul upfront with Sulemana and Orsic/Edozie wide of him and Alcaraz in behind.

We then sacked Jones and Selles wants a 4222 which has frozen out Orsic & Edozie, meant Sulemena and Alcaraz have had to play out of position (or not play at all) so we arent getting the best out of them.

 

so like you say from a making use of the new assets it almost wouldve been better to stick with Jones (Shudder), sack him much earlier and buy to what the new manger wants, or hire a manager who is flexible enough to see what he has and utilise them as much as possible. As it stands we have done none of that and just left us with a miserable mix of failings

[Weston Super Saint]

5 hours ago, MAY-Z said:

I think this is a good point and one i was considering myself last night

 

With Jones it was looking like he wanted to base his side around 1 big striker with 2 wide men and a central attacking midfielder just in behind.

So we bought players that suited that, Paul upfront with Sulemana and Orsic/Edozie wide of him and Alcaraz in behind.

We then sacked Jones and Selles wants a 4222 which has frozen out Orsic & Edozie, meant Sulemena and Alcaraz have had to play out of position (or not play at all) so we arent getting the best out of them.

 

so like you say from a making use of the new assets it almost wouldve been better to stick with Jones (Shudder), sack him much earlier and buy to what the new manger wants, or hire a manager who is flexible enough to see what he has and utilise them as much as possible. As it stands we have done none of that and just left us with a miserable mix of failings

Did we though?

This all assumes that there was a 'master' plan with us achieving our intended targets.  Looking back at the January transfer window thread we were linked with a lot of targets that we didn't get.  Either we are the best in the world at misinformation and misdirection which landed every target we had in our sights, or, you've created a playing style that 'could' be utilised based on the players we eventually ended up with.

I know which one my money is on  

[MAY-Z]

59 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

Did we though?

This all assumes that there was a 'master' plan with us achieving our intended targets.  Looking back at the January transfer window thread we were linked with a lot of targets that we didn't get.  Either we are the best in the world at misinformation and misdirection which landed every target we had in our sights, or, you've created a playing style that 'could' be utilised based on the players we eventually ended up with.

I know which one my money is on  

 

hmmm, maybe i am overestimating the synergy of the club! but i also wouldn't believe every link we had during January  

 

but seriously though most of the games at the end of Jones tenure were seemingly 4-2-3-1 (according to StatsZone) and something like that just looks so right to me based on our current squad, its just a massive shame that it hasn't been played with this squad as as soon as Jones got these together, he was gone and back came 4222

[FarehamSaintJames]

That’s literally why the manager should be involved with transfers, not some numpty who loves a spreadsheet. 🙄

Equally it could be Selles doing his hit by saying “these players aren’t good enough to adapt and play the way we want to play and have been drilled to play for years”.

[Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan]

1 hour ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

That’s literally why the manager should be involved with transfers, not some numpty who loves a spreadsheet. 🙄

Equally it could be Selles doing his hit by saying “these players aren’t good enough to adapt and play the way we want to play and have been drilled to play for years”.

So you'd rather Nathan Jones got to pick the players who try and keep us up, than a full team of analysts and scouts?

[Dman]

1 hour ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

That’s literally why the manager should be involved with transfers, not some numpty who loves a spreadsheet. 🙄

Equally it could be Selles doing his hit by saying “these players aren’t good enough to adapt and play the way we want to play and have been drilled to play for years”.

I’d say this is a prime example of why a manager shouldn’t be involved in transfers. 

We clearly signed Paul as he’s big so theoretically would suit Jones hoofball. A new manager generally brings new ideas of playing style. 

We clearly didn’t learn from Carrillo as this is a carbon copy. 

The bigger issue here though is we have no strategy at board level of how we want to play. We went from Ralph, to Jones back to selles. We’re throwing mud hoping something will stick. 

We need an identity again and hire managers and sign players to suit that style (dare I say playbook). 

If that playbook is aggressive backs against the walls goofball, then so be it, but we need to agree a strategy and style and recruit accordingly. 

If anything, this season just firms up the fact that football isn’t played on a spreadsheet. Anyone who suggested it was has been proven (if it was needed to be proven), to be a complete idiot. 

[obelisk]

I don't have enough evidence to decide whether or not Onuachu is the right sort of player for Saints basically because he's hardly been played. Yes, he's a big chap but that doesn't necessarily mean endless hoofball any more than City playing that way when that other big lump Haaland is lurking in the penalty area.

Many fans are just desperate to see some goals and they see an expensive CF with a history of goals sitting on the bench while Saints continue to fire blanks.

One thing for sure is that Saints are currently surrendering their EPL status without a fight. That's what really hurts.

Edited 11 April, 2023 by obelisk

[Osvaldorama]

37 minutes ago, obelisk said:

I don't have enough evidence to decide whether or not Onuachu is the right sort of player for Saints basically because he's hardly been played. Yes, he's a big chap but that doesn't necessarily mean endless hoofball any more than City playing that way when that other big lump Haaland is lurking in the penalty area.

Many fans are just desperate to see some goals and they see an expensive CF with a history of goals sitting on the bench while Saints continue to fire blanks.

One thing for sure is that Saints are currently surrendering their EPL status without a fight. That's what really hurts.

Exactly, our big problem is scoring goals. We finally have a finisher. Why not actually give him a go and change the team to see if it works.
 

Instead we are persisting with proven failed players, in a proven failed system. I accept we wanted willing runners against City, but if we don’t play a more attacking line up against Palace I will be annoyed at Selles personally.  
 

 

Edited 11 April, 2023 by Osvaldorama

[pimpin4rizeal]

14 hours ago, MAY-Z said:

 

hmmm, maybe i am overestimating the synergy of the club! but i also wouldn't believe every link we had during January  

 

but seriously though most of the games at the end of Jones tenure were seemingly 4-2-3-1 (according to StatsZone) and something like that just looks so right to me based on our current squad, its just a massive shame that it hasn't been played with this squad as as soon as Jones got these together, he was gone and back came 4222

Agree with all of this massively .. the 4231  looks tailor made for us.. jones was the only one starting to implement it ..

the thing I want to see though regarding our transfer activity is that when we sign a player like Paul for example he should be pushing the likes of adams back in the pecking order. This is how we progress and strengthen.. giving selles the reigns is working out the total opposite. I hope we just cut him loose now tbh .. although trying to get a manager in now would be extremely difficult . But it seems really no hoper tactics and team selection he is using.

 

Edited 11 April, 2023 by pimpin4rizeal

[aintforever]

12 hours ago, Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan said:

So you'd rather Nathan Jones got to pick the players who try and keep us up, than a full team of analysts and scouts?

The manager should have the final say otherwise he’s not a manager, just a head coach. Having a head coach is fine but then you need a DOF who knows his shit. God knows what the set up is at Saints at the moment, Ralph didn’t seem to have much of a clue who was being brought in so doubt he was making the recruitment decisions so I guess the other managers didn’t either.

Edited 11 April, 2023 by aintforever

[pimpin4rizeal]

7 minutes ago, aintforever said:

The manager should have the final say otherwise he’s not a manager, just a head coach. Having a head coach is fine but then you need a DOF who knows his shit. God knows what the set up is at Saints at the moment, Ralph didn’t seem to have much of a clue who was being brought in so doubt he was making the recruitment decisions so I guess the other managers didn’t either.

At least in the days of the Harry redknapps you knew they were totally on board with the signings and would fully utilise them..

tbh I don’t have a problem with our January signings, they looked a good bunch on paper, even Bree is fine for a backup.

But ffs at least if your gonna sack jones it might be a idea to give the job to someone on the same page as what you were trying to do in January … that window was us throwing money around to try survive and is now being wasted by the disconnection between Rasmus and selles 

[Tommy]

I really don’t get the delusional hype over this guy being some sort of proven epic goal scorer. The Belgium league standard is at best Championship level, but out side the top 3/4 clubs it’s more league 1.

 He’s absolutely no history of being a proven goal scorer at anything like Premier League level. 
 

Put Che or Armstrong Into Belgium and they would look like outstanding goal scorers

[david in sweden]

No direct comparison, but  I recall when  " arry"   bought Peter Crouch into the side, and everyone

laughed at his " clumsy style" , yet  PC covered a lot of ground in one stride , and got some goals, too.

Can't believe that Onuacho isn't worth a few starts instead of 25 minutes when all is already lost.

Our current front line still has players who struggle to score once. It was nice to see Mara (finally) score

but his goal v. City was so easy I could have scored it from my armchair.

Onuacho has a good goal-scoring record in Belgium.... so how did he do that ?  What do we have to lose.?

 

 

 

Edited 12 April, 2023 by david in sweden

[obelisk]

9 hours ago, Tommy said:

 He’s absolutely no history of being a proven goal scorer at anything like Premier League level.

Neither did Rickie Lambert - until he got there.

Proven goal scorers at EPL level do not come cheap. Most are well out of Saints' reach.

[pimpin4rizeal]

10 hours ago, Tommy said:

I really don’t get the delusional hype over this guy being some sort of proven epic goal scorer. The Belgium league standard is at best Championship level, but out side the top 3/4 clubs it’s more league 1.

 He’s absolutely no history of being a proven goal scorer at anything like Premier League level. 
 

Put Che or Armstrong Into Belgium and they would look like outstanding goal scorers

Weird comment. The likes of mane pelle,van dijk and  wanyama all came  from shit leagues too.. 🤨

[Saint Garrett]

He's crap, get rid in the summer for a cut fee. Absolute waste of money. The fact we managed to buy a bunch of players in January, none of which are key starters. To give us a chance of staying up, we needed a striker in on Jan 1st who was going to score 10 goals. Onuachu hasn't even scored once. 

I'm looking forward to the clear out in the summer. 

[The Kraken]

15 minutes ago, Saint Garrett said:

He's crap, get rid in the summer for a cut fee. Absolute waste of money. The fact we managed to buy a bunch of players in January, none of which are key starters. To give us a chance of staying up, we needed a striker in on Jan 1st who was going to score 10 goals. Onuachu hasn't even scored once. 

I'm looking forward to the clear out in the summer. 

He’ll be 29 in the summer, and it already looks like he can barely get through 45 minutes of a game without looking completely exhausted.  Hes been a disaster of a signing, one of many this season that haven’t in any way addressed our deficiencies and made the first team better.

I keep hearing talk of a summer clear out but, aside from the main obvious standouts like JWP, Lavia and a handful of others, I can’t see many teams wanting to come in for the ones we want rid of as they are just too shit and too expensive.

[Saint Garrett]

12 minutes ago, The Kraken said:

He’ll be 29 in the summer, and it already looks like he can barely get through 45 minutes of a game without looking completely exhausted.  Hes been a disaster of a signing, one of many this season that haven’t in any way addressed our deficiencies and made the first team better.

I keep hearing talk of a summer clear out but, aside from the main obvious standouts like JWP, Lavia and a handful of others, I can’t see many teams wanting to come in for the ones we want rid of as they are just too shit and too expensive.

Well - I think it sounds like the following will go:

Walcott - Contract
Elyounoussi - Contract
AMN - Contract
Caballero - Contract
Lavia - Sale
JWP - Sale
ABK - Sale
Salisu - Sale
Adams - Sale
KWP - Sale
DCC - Sale
Orsic - Sale

 

That would leave 18 players, plus academy players.  A couple of additions and we should be able to win a lot of game in that league, but its still going to be a case of not being able to create / score.

Mccarthy
Bazunu

Lyanco
Bree
Perraud
Livramento
Larios
Bednarek

Aribo
Stuart Armstrong
Djenepo
Sulemena
Edozie
Alcaraz
Diallo

Adam Armstrong
Onuachu
Mara
 

Could easily see Alcaraz, Sulemena, Onuachu, Bednarek, all go as well.

The squad is so bloated, we have to have a clear out regardless. I'd love for us to keep Che Adams tbh, but think he'll go to a promoted side, or another bottom half prem side.

 

[Chez]

On 10/04/2023 at 21:35, Holmes_and_Watson said:

Yup. I'm not sure if the idea was for Bree/ Perraud/KWP to deliver balls directly into Onuachu (which seems like a big ask), or if it's was the likes of Orsic/ Sulemana who were supposed to receive them and then get that final ball into Paul quickly. With JWP/ Alcaraz offering midifled support (and some follow up assists/ goals as per lampard years ago).

If it's the latter scenario, we've brought him in and not given him any player currently capable of giving him the ball. Even if JWP/ Lavia were to get it out wide from the middle, we still don't have anyone. Mind you, unless we play him, we're not going to see if anyone becomes capable of doing it.

From what I have seen of him, he is only going to score if we deliver decent crosses in the air from good areas (not deep) and we just don't do that.

Perraud's crossing is awful and KWP isn't any better. These guys have got themselves into good positions a fair amount this season, but simply have not delivered. Perraud can't create that yard he needs and a lot of his crosses are cut out. KWP tends to dribble into dangerous areas, but doesn't get dangerous crosses in. Quite a few cut backs, but that doesn't help Onuachu.  We've not had many opportunities to assess Bree, but from what I saw, he looks like he is happy to get the ball out from his feet and swing a good cross in. He could be the guy next season to feed Onuachu. Sulemana doesn't cross the ball and who knows what Orisic does.

[Chez]

On 11/04/2023 at 11:49, Osvaldorama said:

Exactly, our big problem is scoring goals. We finally have a finisher. 

Finisher? We're not exactly leaving Robbie Fowler out here. 

[Dman]

36 minutes ago, Saint Garrett said:

Well - I think it sounds like the following will go:

Walcott - Contract
Elyounoussi - Contract
AMN - Contract
Caballero - Contract
Lavia - Sale
JWP - Sale
ABK - Sale
Salisu - Sale
Adams - Sale
KWP - Sale
DCC - Sale
Orsic - Sale

 

That would leave 18 players, plus academy players.  A couple of additions and we should be able to win a lot of game in that league, but its still going to be a case of not being able to create / score.

Mccarthy
Bazunu

Lyanco
Bree
Perraud
Livramento
Larios
Bednarek

Aribo
Stuart Armstrong
Djenepo
Sulemena
Edozie
Alcaraz
Diallo

Adam Armstrong
Onuachu
Mara
 

Could easily see Alcaraz, Sulemena, Onuachu, Bednarek, all go as well.

The squad is so bloated, we have to have a clear out regardless. I'd love for us to keep Che Adams tbh, but think he'll go to a promoted side, or another bottom half prem side.

 

You’ve missed a few to come back from loans, notably Tella & Stephens who’ll be fantastic additions to any championship side.

That squad should be more than good enough (on paper) to bounce straight back or at least give it a good bloody go. However, the issue is we’ve became a side who is used to losing and doesn’t know how to win.  

Our saving grace is that we should have over 100m in transfer fee’s incoming, so we can afford to buy quality for that league. 

[the saint in winchester]

On 10/04/2023 at 21:16, skintsaint said:

We bought a fox in the box. But as a team we never wang the ball into the box so not a great match.

That's pretty much it. Jones wanted a big lump up front and play hoofball, so they bought in Tall Paul.

Then Jones went, and Selles wants to play 'patient build up football' and that isn't Tall Paul's jam. So we are back to using Che, Mara and Walcott.

[Badger]

On 10/04/2023 at 21:16, skintsaint said:

We bought a fox in the box. But as a team we never wang the ball into the box so not a great match.

Seems more of an elephant in the room from what we’ve seen to date. 

[Badger]

21 minutes ago, the saint in winchester said:

That's pretty much it. Jones wanted a big lump up front and play hoofball, so they bought in Tall Paul.

Then Jones went, and Selles wants to play 'patient build up football' and that isn't Tall Paul's jam. So we are back to using Che, Mara and Walcott.

I’m not sure I’d give those involved with credit for such ‘joined up’ thinking to be honest.

Fact was we needed a striker, had done for over season. I imagine the order from on high was simply to sign a striker, and that soon became any striker.

We were meant to be in for Vitinha from Braga who from what I’ve seen and read is a pretty mobile and skilful striker about 6’ tall. Only when that failed to materialise did the 6’7” Tall Paul link emerge.

Seems all too similar to wanting a midfielder with physical presence (Sangarre) then opting for Diallo. 

[East Kent Saint]

After Saints missed out on Ramos then Gakpo etc , then it was what was left but it requires the coach to assess his players and put out a suitable team in a suitable formation . 
 

 

[Chez]

On 12/04/2023 at 12:46, Dman said:

Our saving grace is that we should have over 100m in transfer fee’s incoming, so we can afford to buy quality for that league. 

Unless that money is needed to balance the books. £165m of debt according to my fag packet calculations, with a significant drop in income that may not get remotely close to covering expenditure next season. I wouldn't bank on there being great funds to buy players, even if we do sell at decent prices. 

[skintsaint]

On 11/04/2023 at 23:00, Tommy said:

The Belgium league standard is at best Championship level

Be useful next season then? And anyway, the two Belgium teams playing in the Euro league tonight got draws to Leverkusen and West Ham. Not bad for championship level teams.

[david in sweden]

On 12/04/2023 at 13:46, Dman said:

You’ve missed a few to come back from loans, notably Tella & Stephens who’ll be fantastic additions to any championship side.

That squad should be more than good enough (on paper) to bounce straight back or at least give it a good bloody go. However, the issue is we’ve became a side who is used to losing and doesn’t know how to win.  

Our saving grace is that we should have over 100m in transfer fee’s incoming, so we can afford to buy quality for that league. 

.....don't forget to mention Will Smallbone. 

[Tommy]

9 hours ago, skintsaint said:

Be useful next season then? And anyway, the two Belgium teams playing in the Euro league tonight got draws to Leverkusen and West Ham. Not bad for championship level teams.

This season Sheff United beat Spurs, Grimsby beat us, Blackburn beat Leicester, Sunderland drew with Fulham. Doesn’t make any of them premier league standard though. 
 

I mean we’ve even beaten Man City, so we must be good enough to win the division.