Farmer Saint Posted 9 hours ago Posted 9 hours ago 58 minutes ago, lambtiss said: If the CBs really are that bad that they can't play in a back 4 then we need to sell them and get a CB who can, in my opinion. Absolutely we do, been saying it since Puel. 1
Chez Posted 9 hours ago Posted 9 hours ago 2 hours ago, benjii said: Come off it. Stephens and THB have been promoted from this league before. Wood is experienced and has done alright (yesterday excepted). Edwards was one of QPR's players of the season. Quarshie is a bit raw but is a beast. If we can't make a decent pairing that's on the coaches. Were Stephens and THB a strength of that promotion side? I didn't think they were bad, but it was obvious to me that THB lacked pace and it was only the failure of opponents to take advance of our mistakes that didn't expose his limitations. Not sure THB is great in the air. Stephens is competent at this level, but does he ever dominate a big forward. I've never lambasted him, but when a cross comes in he never seems to be in the right position to win headers. Wood was pretty poor for Swansea in the championship in his two final seasons there and I didn't see a PL player when he got the odd chance, despite a few liking what they saw. Not sure what the consensus is on him right now - I've not watched the last few games live, so am not able to give an opinion. I don't care what Edwards did at QPR. He has looked very lightweight for a CB to me. He has been bullied by big centre backs. First and foremost a CB must wins headers. He doesn't do that. Quarshie has the attributes we need. His ability with the ball leaves a lot to be desired. I can't see him stepping up to the PL, but maybe his limitations are manageable in the championship. He has a mistake in him, but which of a CBs doesn't? 3
Challenger Posted 9 hours ago Posted 9 hours ago 1 hour ago, Baz Fl said: Please give me some leeway, if six chefs all fail to make a good dish with the same ingredients perhaps they aren’t all bad chefs, it might just be the shite ingredients they were given. Yes Will is not my personal favorite but every manager has failed miserably here in recent years. A lot of the goals we concede are coco the clown defending and our attacking focal point has been awful for years. SR and Spors are the ones that need to get their act together and sacking another manager is not making this lot into a 5-star meal Maybe we should look beyond the chefs and the ingredients and give the oven some scrutiny. 3
Forester Posted 9 hours ago Posted 9 hours ago 4 hours ago, Osvaldorama said: We are second in Opta’s expected points table. I guess the club will look at data like this and assume we are fine, just need to keep going and things will improve. I think this does work in Still’s favour. For me it points the finger at the recruitment. If we had competent players at both business ends of the pitch, we’d be up there This is damning indictment of our striker department
Saint86 Posted 9 hours ago Posted 9 hours ago (edited) 1 hour ago, Osvaldorama said: Id argue it’s the formation. as usual the midfield leaves acres of space that exposes the CBs. Because we refuse to play with a fucking anchor. Does my head in. 3man midfield with 1 as a proper CDM - I would play Downes/Jander there (either of them will hoover up lose balls, harry, and can will recycle possession very nicely), leave Charles as box to box as he has a great engine and all around playstyle, and sit Azaz in a floating CM position as playmaker. Then you feed the likes of fellows and Scienza on the wings, and have AA given a roaming striker role and free to make runs as he sees fit - it gets all our best players on the pitch, puts our attacking players in the right positions generally, and means that someone is actually in charge of defending the CBs from these constant free balls into an otherwise yawning chasm of space between our current midfield and our donkey CBs. And last but not least - actually seek to play counter attack whenever its on. Let the other teams out to come on to us, wait for them to make the mistakes at times. The arrogance of our recent championship managers where they seem to think we should always be high up the pitch dominating the ball is just mental to me. We are not a Guardiola side - be prepared to mix it up. Edited 9 hours ago by Saint86 4
Saint86 Posted 9 hours ago Posted 9 hours ago 13 minutes ago, Forester said: This is damning indictment of our striker department AA had one "clear cut chance" last night, and he put it away very nicely. He's actually looked sharp most of the season. He is our best attacker. Archer wasted an almost identical chance. And yet we have people on here calling for Archer to be started over AA - That talk needs to stop from now on, Archer hasn't looked fit to lace AA's boots up for the entirety of his time with saints, that isn't going to magically change now. Those 2 chances are probably a large part of our xG being up to 2 last night. Outside of that, part of the issue is that our XG stats are coming down to players that aren't the strikers - Charles missed a free header last night, jander missed effectively an open goal vs Swansea etc. There were others. And tbf, AA did take one of the worst penalties i've yet seen from a saints player - but we all know he's shite at pens. 3
Saintsfanuk Posted 8 hours ago Posted 8 hours ago I think we should give him plenty of time tbh, it's been shit for a long time I think the squad make up is just broken. Having a proper couple of strikers we'd be doing very well I think. But we don't do he needs to find something that works, I don't think sticking to this formation is helping. It's clear we have got a mistake in us so we may as well play with more attacking players? Although we have created a ridiculous amount of chances without scoring. Even then if you go 4321 you still have to suffer AA as the lone striker which he's shit at or archer. Anyone both shit Jelert Wood Quarshie Wellington Downes Charles azaz Fellows AA leo Might work better, or you can go with experience with Mads, Stephens and THB, Manning at the back, still mistakes waiting to happen either way. Cant see how any other manager isn't going to have just the same problems. Ivan Juric is doing ok so far at Atalanta... Although having lots of shots and not scoring enough from the looks of it! If we had signed a proper goalkeeper, a DM and even just 1 proper striker I don't think we'd be in the current mess. If Stewart didn't predictably get injured we would probably have beaten Swansea. 1
tdmickey3 Posted 8 hours ago Posted 8 hours ago 1 minute ago, Saintsfanuk said: I think we should give him plenty of time tbh, it's been shit for a long time I think the squad make up is just broken. Having a proper couple of strikers we'd be doing very well I think. But we don't do he needs to find something that works, I don't think sticking to this formation is helping. It's clear we have got a mistake in us so we may as well play with more attacking players? Although we have created a ridiculous amount of chances without scoring. Even then if you go 4321 you still have to suffer AA as the lone striker which he's shit at or archer. Anyone both shit Jelert Wood Quarshie Wellington Downes Charles azaz Fellows AA leo Might work better, or you can go with experience with Mads, Stephens and THB, Manning at the back, still mistakes waiting to happen either way. Cant see how any other manager isn't going to have just the same problems. Ivan Juric is doing ok so far at Atalanta... Although having lots of shots and not scoring enough from the looks of it! If we had signed a proper goalkeeper, a DM and even just 1 proper striker I don't think we'd be in the current mess. If Stewart didn't predictably get injured we would probably have beaten Swansea. Still said he was happy with the strikers..
Saintsfanuk Posted 8 hours ago Posted 8 hours ago 1 minute ago, tdmickey3 said: Still said he was happy with the strikers.. I did wonder if he was just told he couldn't have another as they bought downs, and he didn't want to rock the boat publically? Or he was incredibly naive to think he had a balanced strike force or Stewart would ever be fit! It sounded all throughout the window that Spors was deciding what was needed. Clown show from all of them in the striker situation either way as has been for years! 3
Saint_clark Posted 8 hours ago Posted 8 hours ago 4 hours ago, Sunnyside Saint said: Seems we are looking at a succession of managers who have failed to make an effective team from the squad at their disposal. Is it really possible that they've all been duds? Somehow I don't feel that there's a particular lack of talent with the current crop but perhaps I'm misreading it? I even had a hint of an improvement over the previous few games. Not sure now. Is it that we're just missing a couple of cogs that could pull it together? The chain is only as strong as the weakest link. It's demoralising that we have been subjected to this sub-standard "product" for a while now, notwithstanding the achievement of gaining promotion under RM, there were good moments, but for me watching his team was mostly like having teeth pulled. I had optimism at the start of this season for a new dawn, yet to materialise. I really hope it can be turned around without the need for another upheaval. The two consistent things we've been missing is a top goalkeeper and effective centre forwards. The signing of Bazunu is one of the most damaging we've ever made. 4
Suhari Posted 8 hours ago Posted 8 hours ago 2 hours ago, benjii said: For some reason, this really cracks me up: Iz it 'cause 'e iz a ginga?
saintant Posted 7 hours ago Posted 7 hours ago 1 hour ago, Saint86 said: Because we refuse to play with a fucking anchor. Does my head in. 3man midfield with 1 as a proper CDM - I would play Downes/Jander there (either of them will hoover up lose balls, harry, and can will recycle possession very nicely), leave Charles as box to box as he has a great engine and all around playstyle, and sit Azaz in a floating CM position as playmaker. Then you feed the likes of fellows and Scienza on the wings, and have AA given a roaming striker role and free to make runs as he sees fit - it gets all our best players on the pitch, puts our attacking players in the right positions generally, and means that someone is actually in charge of defending the CBs from these constant free balls into an otherwise yawning chasm of space between our current midfield and our donkey CBs. And last but not least - actually seek to play counter attack whenever its on. Let the other teams out to come on to us, wait for them to make the mistakes at times. The arrogance of our recent championship managers where they seem to think we should always be high up the pitch dominating the ball is just mental to me. We are not a Guardiola side - be prepared to mix it up. Seems to me we play with too many 'anchors' 1 3
Whitey Grandad Posted 7 hours ago Posted 7 hours ago 3 hours ago, Baz Fl said: Please give me some leeway, if six chefs all fail to make a good dish with the same ingredients perhaps they aren’t all bad chefs, it might just be the shite ingredients they were given. Yes Will is not my personal favorite but every manager has failed miserably here in recent years. A lot of the goals we concede are coco the clown defending and our attacking focal point has been awful for years. SR and Spors are the ones that need to get their act together and sacking another manager is not making this lot into a 5-star meal But this is football not foodball. Or perhaps all six of them were simply bad chefs.
Whitey Grandad Posted 7 hours ago Posted 7 hours ago 1 minute ago, saintant said: Seems to me we play with too many 'anchors' You forgot the 'w' 2
BarberSaint Posted 6 hours ago Posted 6 hours ago 2 hours ago, Chez said: Were Stephens and THB a strength of that promotion side? I didn't think they were bad, but it was obvious to me that THB lacked pace and it was only the failure of opponents to take advance of our mistakes that didn't expose his limitations. Not sure THB is great in the air. Stephens is competent at this level, but does he ever dominate a big forward. I've never lambasted him, but when a cross comes in he never seems to be in the right position to win headers. Wood was pretty poor for Swansea in the championship in his two final seasons there and I didn't see a PL player when he got the odd chance, despite a few liking what they saw. Not sure what the consensus is on him right now - I've not watched the last few games live, so am not able to give an opinion. I don't care what Edwards did at QPR. He has looked very lightweight for a CB to me. He has been bullied by big centre backs. First and foremost a CB must wins headers. He doesn't do that. Quarshie has the attributes we need. His ability with the ball leaves a lot to be desired. I can't see him stepping up to the PL, but maybe his limitations are manageable in the championship. He has a mistake in him, but which of a CBs doesn't? Agree with the assessment. Would have liked Edwards to come good but it's clear his physical limitations probably mean he won't be any good in the league above and we'll have to replace all of them.
benjii Posted 6 hours ago Posted 6 hours ago 2 hours ago, Saint86 said: Because we refuse to play with a fucking anchor. Does my head in. 3man midfield with 1 as a proper CDM - I would play Downes/Jander there (either of them will hoover up lose balls, harry, and can will recycle possession very nicely), leave Charles as box to box as he has a great engine and all around playstyle, and sit Azaz in a floating CM position as playmaker. Then you feed the likes of fellows and Scienza on the wings, and have AA given a roaming striker role and free to make runs as he sees fit - it gets all our best players on the pitch, puts our attacking players in the right positions generally, and means that someone is actually in charge of defending the CBs from these constant free balls into an otherwise yawning chasm of space between our current midfield and our donkey CBs. And last but not least - actually seek to play counter attack whenever its on. Let the other teams out to come on to us, wait for them to make the mistakes at times. The arrogance of our recent championship managers where they seem to think we should always be high up the pitch dominating the ball is just mental to me. We are not a Guardiola side - be prepared to mix it up. Agreed. Also a sign of our weird recruitment that we haven't signed a proper defensive CM. As you say, it's not Charles' natural game and I don't think it's Jander's or Downes' either. We need a big athletic bloke in there to protect the defence. 1
Toussaint Posted 6 hours ago Posted 6 hours ago 4 hours ago, Baz Fl said: Please give me some leeway, if six chefs all fail to make a good dish with the same ingredients perhaps they aren’t all bad chefs, it might just be the shite ingredients they were given. Yes Will is not my personal favorite but every manager has failed miserably here in recent years. A lot of the goals we concede are coco the clown defending and our attacking focal point has been awful for years. SR and Spors are the ones that need to get their act together and sacking another manager is not making this lot into a 5-star meal That’s exactly how I see it and why I’m not in favour of a change at this stage. We may have to re think later if we start getting pulled into the relegation area. SR are really unlikely to get a proven manager with the necessary authority's and gravitas to sort this out, it will be another coach who has to work within a framework and with what he is given by the geeks who are calling the shots. 1
beatlesaint Posted 5 hours ago Posted 5 hours ago If we can find a manager who can do the following then Still can go - Turn McCarthy or Bazunu into a consistently competent keeper. Turn Stephens into a decent defender Extract THB’s head from his own arse and remind him he ain’t all that like he was 2 yrs ago. Turn at least one of our mis-firing strikers into a goal machine. Stop players missing from less than a yard out. Stop players passing the ball around either backwards or square without getting anywhere. Toughen them up and put a stop to the mental fragility that is prevalent throughout the club. Stop the players making stupid mistakes. Unite the club and fanbase. Should be a simple task shouldn’t it? 3
Convict Colony Posted 5 hours ago Posted 5 hours ago whats that bollocks about manifesting things to happen, im going to try it. We will score goals and we will not be shit defensively in the same match, downs will play well in 1 game, a actual right back might not be injured and armstrong will stop combing his hair forward every 1min with his hand.
Holmes_and_Watson Posted 5 hours ago Posted 5 hours ago 3 minutes ago, Convict Colony said: whats that bollocks about manifesting things to happen, im going to try it. We will score goals and we will not be shit defensively in the same match, downs will play well in 1 game, a actual right back might not be injured and armstrong will stop combing his hair forward every 1min with his hand. See you in league 1 🙂 3
Convict Colony Posted 5 hours ago Posted 5 hours ago 2 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said: See you in league 1 🙂 Be there or be square bro
Southner Posted 4 hours ago Posted 4 hours ago On 18/10/2025 at 21:16, Patches O Houlihan said: Full video if anyone's interested.
Lord Duckhunter Posted 4 hours ago Posted 4 hours ago 9 minutes ago, Southner said: Full video if anyone's interested. What a load of old fucking pony.
Pamplemousse Posted 3 hours ago Posted 3 hours ago Had a thought about it - there are 4 games until the next international window - Blackburn (A), Preston (H), QPR (A), Sheff Wed (H) Not beating Sheff Wed should be a sackable offence on its own but there needs to be significant improvement over the other games. If not, that 2 week period would be the perfect opportunity to get someone else in. 1
Badger Posted 3 hours ago Posted 3 hours ago 16 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said: Not beating Sheff Wed should be a sackable offence on its own but there needs to be significant improvement over the other games. If not, that 2 week period would be the perfect opportunity to get someone else in. But not as good as the last one.
CB Fry Posted 3 hours ago Posted 3 hours ago We will beat Sheffield Wednesday and it will be talked about on here as some phenomenal result from a genius manager who finally has got his team to click and now we push on etc etc etc Some shitty win at Sheff Weds will keep Still in role until Christmas 1
Football Special Posted 3 hours ago Posted 3 hours ago 4 minutes ago, CB Fry said: We will beat Sheffield Wednesday and it will be talked about on here as some phenomenal result from a genius manager who finally has got his team to click and now we push on etc etc etc Some shitty win at Sheff Weds will keep Still in role until Christmas That Sheffield Wednesday team won at Fratton, I'm not totally convinced we'd beat them at St Mary’s, now that would be the massive boulder that broke the camels back
Football Special Posted 3 hours ago Posted 3 hours ago I didn't hear this last night but did leave before the final whistle, did we sing sacked in the morning?
Turkish Posted 3 hours ago Author Posted 3 hours ago 11 minutes ago, CB Fry said: We will beat Sheffield Wednesday and it will be talked about on here as some phenomenal result from a genius manager who finally has got his team to click and now we push on etc etc etc Some shitty win at Sheff Weds will keep Still in role until Christmas The same Sheffield Wednesday with Joe Lumley as gloves man, Yann Valery smashing it in the over laying, inverted, offensive right outside back role, the ageless Barry Bannon winning turnovers and Jamal Lowe in the form of his life? Yeah gonna be a piece of piss, get behind the boys FFS 1
Pamplemousse Posted 3 hours ago Posted 3 hours ago 16 minutes ago, Football Special said: I didn't hear this last night but did leave before the final whistle, did we sing sacked in the morning? No. There were chants of 'You don't know what you're doing' when he brought Downs on but no sacked in the morning chants.
Saint_clark Posted 3 hours ago Posted 3 hours ago On 18/10/2025 at 21:16, Patches O Houlihan said: Think everyone should watch this clip. Confirms to me what I've thought, that our squad is a massive rebuild job not in terms of personnel but in terms of mentality. I firmly believe Still is the man to do it 1 1 1
SouSaint Posted 2 hours ago Posted 2 hours ago 18 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said: No. There were chants of 'You don't know what you're doing' when he brought Downs on but no sacked in the morning chants. That's a shame. The guy is clearly out of his depth.
Lighthouse Posted 2 hours ago Posted 2 hours ago 22 minutes ago, Saint_clark said: Think everyone should watch this clip. Confirms to me what I've thought, that our squad is a massive rebuild job not in terms of personnel but in terms of mentality. I firmly believe Still is the man to do it It's over five months since we played our last PL game and half of that squad isn't even at the club any more. We're 'mentally rebuilding' from PL relegation, not the Battle of the Somme. Still's tactics are sh*t, it really is that simple. 4 1
Football Special Posted 2 hours ago Posted 2 hours ago 44 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said: No. There were chants of 'You don't know what you're doing' when he brought Downs on but no sacked in the morning chants. Thanks. I thought I missed something leaving a couple.of mins early
Football Special Posted 2 hours ago Posted 2 hours ago 17 minutes ago, Lighthouse said: It's over five months since we played our last PL game and half of that squad isn't even at the club any more. We're 'mentally rebuilding' from PL relegation, not the Battle of the Somme. Still's tactics are sh*t, it really is that simple. He's diagnosed players with PTSD who weren't even in the battle (Premier league) maybe it's contagious
Willo of Whiteley Posted 2 hours ago Posted 2 hours ago 55 minutes ago, Saint_clark said: Think everyone should watch this clip. Confirms to me what I've thought, that our squad is a massive rebuild job not in terms of personnel but in terms of mentality. I firmly believe Still is the man to do it I would rather keep Will Still than hire say Michael Carrick or Gary O’Neill etc 1
Badger Posted 1 hour ago Posted 1 hour ago 11 minutes ago, Willo of Whiteley said: I would rather keep Will Still than hire say Michael Carrick or Gary O’Neill etc Indifferent to Carrick, suspect he’s trading on his name as a player. O’Neill got a fair bit of credit for his time at AFCB but crap at Wolves (plus skates link). No idea who SR will go for. Worrying. This may lead to giving it to Lallana as this season’s Rusk. What a mess. And what some fucking imbeciles we have running things. So avoidable. 1
StrangelyBrown Posted 1 hour ago Posted 1 hour ago I'm wondering whether this isn't as simple as Will Still being the problem... We have 2 coaches (Lallana and Martin) who have been present throughout our recent problems. We've brought in Paul Trollope to help Will Still. Someone who has basically followed Chris Hughton around and that's about it. Perhaps we've got a bang average (at best) team supporting a young manager who is finding his way. Perhaps we needed to surround him with better coaches? Something that could be fixed quite cheaply... This isn't a let off for Still. I think he was the wrong appointment for us to bounce back, but given our best shot now is scraping the playoffs maybe we need to fix other problems first? 1
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