Tonda Eckert

[Badger]

Wonder if Tonda will look to bring in any coaches to support him, possibly from previous clubs he’s worked at. Or if he’ll be allowed to. 
 

The roles may already be permanently filled from his U21 colleagues, but not sure if others have been put in place to assist Lallana. 

[West end Saints]

Came in when we had 0 confidence and struggling.

Performing, factually (points /GD) as one of worst teams in the league.

Has been manager for 6 games.

For those 6 games we have been the best team in the championship - literally top of the 6 game current form table.

We have gone from a point below skates, 10 points below Bristol in 5th, 13 points below Middlesbrough in 2nd 

To

To 10 points clear of skates, to 2 points below Bristol to 9 points Middlesbrough.

I would say unlikely any manager would have done better.

 

[Mr X]

18 minutes ago, Badger said:

Wonder if Tonda will look to bring in any coaches to support him, possibly from previous clubs he’s worked at. Or if he’ll be allowed to. 
 

The roles may already be permanently filled from his U21 colleagues, but not sure if others have been put in place to assist Lallana. 

Not sure what lallana adds think it was heart over head there! 

[goodymatt]

11 minutes ago, West end Saints said:

Came in when we had 0 confidence and struggling.

Performing, factually (points /GD) as one of worst teams in the league.

Has been manager for 6 games.

For those 6 games we have been the best team in the championship - literally top of the 6 game current form table.

We have gone from a point below skates, 10 points below Bristol in 5th, 13 points below Middlesbrough in 2nd 

To

To 10 points clear of skates, to 2 points below Bristol to 9 points Middlesbrough.

I would say unlikely any manager would have done better.

 

Can’t really argue with those stats. We’ve also gone 2-0 up in all but 1 of his 6 games.

Arma and Azaz getting 8 goal contributions each, both looked very ineffective under Still. He’s got all the attacking players firing, scoring and working their arses off. Impressive. Let’s hope it’s sustainable and we can enjoy this season.

[E_H_Saints]

1 hour ago, goodymatt said:

Can’t really argue with those stats. We’ve also gone 2-0 up in all but 1 of his 6 games.

Arma and Azaz getting 8 goal contributions each, both looked very ineffective under Still. He’s got all the attacking players firing, scoring and working their arses off. Impressive. Let’s hope it’s sustainable and we can enjoy this season.

He must have a chance at manager of the month for November which would be great as he wasn't the manager technically.  Azaz must have a shout at player of the month.  

[Saint86]

I think tactically there is an issue with the late game deep defence - we simply sit there and do absolutely zero to prevent the crosses - and its an issue, becuase we also can't then defend them when they arrive in the box.

He needs to work something out. When we're attacking its fine - the other teams can't live with us. But when we let them come on to us we are just set up quite poorly and no one seems inclined to stop the crosses, or to know who should be rushing out to pick up free players suddenly getting the ball.

[Badger]

4 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

I think tactically there is an issue with the late game deep defence - we simply sit there and do absolutely zero to prevent the crosses - and its an issue, becuase we also can't then defend them when they arrive in the box.

He needs to work something out. When we're attacking its fine - the other teams can't live with us. But when we let them come on to us we are just set up quite poorly and no one seems inclined to stop the crosses, or to know who should be rushing out to pick up free players suddenly getting the ball.

Agree with you totally we just allow the opponents to take the initiative and come on to us. The MF seem to retreat and we have taken off the main attacking outlets (although we did still create a couple of breakaway chances to put the game to bed).

Credit to the defence though there was no shortage of blocks going in and throwing bodies in front of shots. May not seem a lot, but much improved over the last couple of years. 

[chiknsmack]

In addition to sitting back and inviting pressure late we're also back to the old habit of having no-one on the edge of the box, both from corners and in general. Downes and Romeu were both dropping into the backline and leaving Zone 14 empty. For their goal Gray cut inside and Downes wasn't there to close him down. Had he chosen not to shoot he had two unmarked players he could've passed to.

It could be intentional (three at the back isn't thought to be enough defenders when the opponents are chasing the game so Manning has to play narrower and make it a compact back four - which would explain why he isn't being dropped for failing to close down crosses - and Downes has to drop back as an extra defender). But it's not working.

We'd be better off either trusting the three CBs to be good enough and taking pressure off them by closing down crosses and midfield, or changing formation to four or five at the back with at least one proper fullback instead of Fellows and/or Manning. Fellows off (or Scienza off and Fellows pushed up the pitch as an outlet) for Romeu, Manning to LB, a CB to RB, 4-3-3.

[pimpin4rizeal]

On 06/12/2025 at 20:23, Dusic said:

In what way is it rewarding stupidity to have taken time to assess how someone does in a role you might give them, and then when they have clearly shown they are highly capable, giving them that role?

Rather than rewarding stupidity its actually rewarding recruiting strong people into the club in the first place and then rewarding not making a knee jerk decision, either to give him the role without seeing how he handled it or to just get in <insert generic manager who has been in the championship lots of times before> because thats what some fans thought they should do.

 

On 06/12/2025 at 23:55, Lighthouse said:

None of that makes any sense. We sacked Still, Tonda was going to be in charge for the first two games at least. We won them both, no obviously superior candidate was immediately forthcoming so we gave him the next three. He ended up winning four out of five, including a couple of thumpings of reasonably decent teams, so we gave him the job.

None of that is stupid, it all seems fair enough to me. We could have gone out and signed someone with 'experience' of the Championship, with different players at different clubs at some point, instead we went with the guy who has experience of winning games with Southampton, right now.

Let’s come back to this at the end of the season. If you can do that without getting butthurt if it doesn’t go to plan I’m happy to be proven wrong .

at the end of the day we have two seasons to get out of this league so for this ekhart move to be a good idea he needs to achieve promotion in that time .

Also  let’s not forget  Russell Martin wasn’t too bad in the championship either with a better squad then  the rest of the league.doesn’t mean he’s a great manager though .. scienza is playing like bale atm and is the biggest factor in our form whatever happened under will still I have no idea but feels like the quality of our attack is what’s getting results 

[Nolan]

Selles had an interim status BETWEEN Hassenhuttl and Jones

Rusk had an interim status BETWEEN Martin and Juric

but when you look at it,  no manager has ever won their first 4 games with Saints.

If we hadnt offered him the job after 12 points in five games, i think anyone would wsay, "well what else could i do?" and depart to a club with cajones at the earliest opportunity

In our position there's only two options in a managers fate. either they will be so good, that they'll be eventually poached by a bigger club. Or they'll get sacked.

Hopefully, this time it will be the former.

[badgerx16]

9 hours ago, chiknsmack said:

 

It could be intentional (three at the back isn't thought to be enough defenders when the opponents are chasing the game so Manning has to play narrower and make it a compact back four ......

 

This is ehat I don't understand about having 3 CBs; if you play with 2 and the FBs drop in you have the 'compact' back 4, why can't the wing-backe drop back for us and make a 'compact back 5' ? That permits the 2 sitting midfielders to take position centrally 10 yards in front of them. This would mean thst the space on our flanks is in front of the WBs and not behind them.

Edited 10 hours ago by badgerx16

[Singapore Saint]

17 hours ago, Badger said:

Wonder if Tonda will look to bring in any coaches to support him, possibly from previous clubs he’s worked at. Or if he’ll be allowed to. 
 

The roles may already be permanently filled from his U21 colleagues, but not sure if others have been put in place to assist Lallana. 

Reese is doing a good job assisting him so best not fix what ain't broken.

[Scummer]

10 hours ago, chiknsmack said:

It could be intentional (three at the back isn't thought to be enough defenders when the opponents are chasing the game so Manning has to play narrower and make it a compact back four - which would explain why he isn't being dropped for failing to close down crosses - and Downes has to drop back as an extra defender). But it's not working.

It might not be pretty, but the results would indicate it is working. 

I strongly suspect we aren't too bothered about teams chucking in loads of crosses from 30 yards out. We've got 3 fairly big centre backs who are decent in the air, and we've been soaking up the pressure quite effectively.

It's notable that the Millwall winner came from a cross that was much closer to the end of the pitch. I think we'd rather our wing backs stood off a bit and let them cross from a long way out than risk them getting past them into more dangerous territory.

Edited 9 hours ago by Scummer

[saintant]

10 hours ago, chiknsmack said:

In addition to sitting back and inviting pressure late we're also back to the old habit of having no-one on the edge of the box, both from corners and in general. Downes and Romeu were both dropping into the backline and leaving Zone 14 empty. For their goal Gray cut inside and Downes wasn't there to close him down. Had he chosen not to shoot he had two unmarked players he could've passed to.

It could be intentional (three at the back isn't thought to be enough defenders when the opponents are chasing the game so Manning has to play narrower and make it a compact back four - which would explain why he isn't being dropped for failing to close down crosses - and Downes has to drop back as an extra defender). But it's not working.

We'd be better off either trusting the three CBs to be good enough and taking pressure off them by closing down crosses and midfield, or changing formation to four or five at the back with at least one proper fullback instead of Fellows and/or Manning. Fellows off (or Scienza off and Fellows pushed up the pitch as an outlet) for Romeu, Manning to LB, a CB to RB, 4-3-3.

Think we'd be better off pushing forward for more goals because attack has always been the best form of defence for us. No need to drop back - be brave because the oppo will leave gaps while chasing the game so dropping everyone back just plays into their hands.

[revolution saint]

10 hours ago, chiknsmack said:

In addition to sitting back and inviting pressure late we're also back to the old habit of having no-one on the edge of the box, both from corners and in general. Downes and Romeu were both dropping into the backline and leaving Zone 14 empty. For their goal Gray cut inside and Downes wasn't there to close him down. Had he chosen not to shoot he had two unmarked players he could've passed to.

It could be intentional (three at the back isn't thought to be enough defenders when the opponents are chasing the game so Manning has to play narrower and make it a compact back four - which would explain why he isn't being dropped for failing to close down crosses - and Downes has to drop back as an extra defender). But it's not working.

We'd be better off either trusting the three CBs to be good enough and taking pressure off them by closing down crosses and midfield, or changing formation to four or five at the back with at least one proper fullback instead of Fellows and/or Manning. Fellows off (or Scienza off and Fellows pushed up the pitch as an outlet) for Romeu, Manning to LB, a CB to RB, 4-3-3.

Zone 14?  Isn't that the new leisure thing at St Mary's?

This isn't a particular pop at you but my god I swear some on here would be critical of peak 1970 Brazil.  We've won 5 out of six, beat some decent teams, scored a shedload of goals and most importantly had a few patches where we've looked really really good.  Probably the best we've played in at least two years but I'd argue maybe better than two years ago as we're breaking with pace and intent rather than possession for the sake of it. 

I've no idea if it'll last or not but I'm going to enjoy feeling good about Saints for as long as I can.  Each to their own I guess.

[saintant]

15 minutes ago, revolution saint said:

Zone 14?  Isn't that the new leisure thing at St Mary's?

This isn't a particular pop at you but my god I swear some on here would be critical of peak 1970 Brazil.  We've won 5 out of six, beat some decent teams, scored a shedload of goals and most importantly had a few patches where we've looked really really good.  Probably the best we've played in at least two years but I'd argue maybe better than two years ago as we're breaking with pace and intent rather than possession for the sake of it. 

I've no idea if it'll last or not but I'm going to enjoy feeling good about Saints for as long as I can.  Each to their own I guess.

Good post and I fully agree. The fast free flowing football we are now playing is a joy to watch. We're scoring for fun with plenty of goals from open play.  Defensively we'll never be perfect but the fans want to see the type of attacking football we're producing and Tonda deserves much credit for that. Sure, we'll concede goals and lose games but I'm now confident this side can outscore most opponents on the day.

[pimpin4rizeal]

4 hours ago, Nolan said:

Selles had an interim status BETWEEN Hassenhuttl and Jones

Rusk had an interim status BETWEEN Martin and Juric

but when you look at it,  no manager has ever won their first 4 games with Saints.

If we hadnt offered him the job after 12 points in five games, i think anyone would wsay, "well what else could i do?" and depart to a club with cajones at the earliest opportunity

In our position there's only two options in a managers fate. either they will be so good, that they'll be eventually poached by a bigger club. Or they'll get sacked.

Hopefully, this time it will be the former.

But surely you need to factor in the other interims was when we was in the premiership . Even a dumb ass like Russell Martin managed to get promoted with a strong Southampton squad .. we where second favourite to win the league at the start of the season will still had us In a totally false position 

[Badger]

3 hours ago, saintant said:

Think we'd be better off pushing forward for more goals because attack has always been the best form of defence for us. No need to drop back - be brave because the oppo will leave gaps while chasing the game so dropping everyone back just plays into their hands.

Agree with this, but problem is that we effectively take off the players who look to move the ball forward and our attacking threat has gone. We end up camped in our own half. 
 

I don’t think Aribo and Romeu offered anything going forward in their time on the pitch. Robinson and Archer were a pale imitation of Scienza and AA. Robinson seemed to try and take on one player too many or run himself into trouble. You and I have covered our differing views on Archer on his own thread so won’t dwell on it here, but to his credit he did seem to stretch Birm with his pace (but it petered out with his finishing). 
 

Hoping Tonda might have better options once injuries clear, and possibly in January window. 

[Badger]

3 hours ago, revolution saint said:

This isn't a particular pop at you but my god I swear some on here would be critical of peak 1970 Brazil.  We've won 5 out of six, beat some decent teams, scored a shedload of goals and most importantly had a few patches where we've looked really really good.  Probably the best we've played in at least two years but I'd argue maybe better than two years ago as we're breaking with pace and intent rather than possession for the sake of it. 

I've no idea if it'll last or not but I'm going to enjoy feeling good about Saints for as long as I can.  Each to their own I guess.

That Pele bloke, all well and good, but he’s got to master the defensive side of his game and track back more 

 

… summary borrowed from I. Branfoot 

[saintant]

10 minutes ago, Badger said:

Agree with this, but problem is that we effectively take off the players who look to move the ball forward and our attacking threat has gone. We end up camped in our own half. 
 

I don’t think Aribo and Romeu offered anything going forward in their time on the pitch. Robinson and Archer were a pale imitation of Scienza and AA. Robinson seemed to try and take on one player too many or run himself into trouble. You and I have covered our differing views on Archer on his own thread so won’t dwell on it here, but to his credit he did seem to stretch Birm with his pace (but it petered out with his finishing). 
 

Hoping Tonda might have better options once injuries clear, and possibly in January window. 

Yeah it's a tricky balance and, as you rightly point out, Tonda tends to make quite early substitutions which weaken our offensive options. Maybe we need some additions in January that will address this issue and give us more of an attacking threat off the bench. Or perhaps there's a player or two he knows from the U21s. I'm not sure we'll ever be a side that can close out games by defending because it inevitably leads to us being pinned in our own half and panic setting in. Attack is the better option but we need the personnel to maintain a forward threat until the final whistle. I believe good tactics can play a part because gaps should open up for us when opponents are chasing the game. Can't say I'm ever comfortable or confident when we drop deep to protect what we have.

Edited 5 hours ago by saintant

[Chez]

19 minutes ago, Badger said:

Agree with this, but problem is that we effectively take off the players who look to move the ball forward and our attacking threat has gone. We end up camped in our own half. 
 

I don’t think Aribo and Romeu offered anything going forward in their time on the pitch. Robinson and Archer were a pale imitation of Scienza and AA. Robinson seemed to try and take on one player too many or run himself into trouble. You and I have covered our differing views on Archer on his own thread so won’t dwell on it here, but to his credit he did seem to stretch Birm with his pace (but it petered out with his finishing). 
 

Hoping Tonda might have better options once injuries clear, and possibly in January window. 

Aribo and Romeu just don't close players down quickly. They don't have the legs. The players they replace, Downes and Jander, are usually knackered by that point, so keeping them on doesn't help. I've not really seen Bragg, so don't know if he would offer more energy/hussle.

Also, before Downes went off on Saturday, he was dropping so deep. He effectively was stood next to the centre backs. He needs to trust the CBs to do their jobs and push out a little bit. It's natural to drop deep, but you have to hold your position and fill that space.

A minor thing, but I thought we wasted a couple of great opportunities to waste a couple of minutes. A thrown in down in the right corner to Aribo going straight out of play for a goal kick. And on the other side, a corner late in the match which we put into the box and the keeper claimed it, I think. Why are we not playing it short gets bodies around the area and fuck around with it for a minute?

[Chez]

18 minutes ago, saintant said:

I believe good tactics can play a part because gaps should open up for us when opponents are chasing the game. Can't say I'm ever comfortable or confident when we drop deep to protect what we have.

When teams are chasing we need to kill them off when we hit them on the break. We need to be a little more clinical.

IMO we have been one of the worst "breaking" teams in the league for years. But possibly Leo has changed that (and we certainly were good on the break on Saturday), but the Armstrong hatrick chance and Archer clean through chance are the sort that need to be taken when opportunities are at more of a premium. We perhaps now have the quality (at this level) of player to be extremely dangerous on the break. There is a bit more pace, and also proper dribblers now. Azaz making good decisions and then its about composure and finishing.  

 

[SWLondon Saint]

1 hour ago, Chez said:

Also, before Downes went off on Saturday, he was dropping so deep. He effectively was stood next to the centre backs. He needs to trust the CBs to do their jobs and push out a little bit. It's natural to drop deep, but you have to hold your position and fill that space.

A thousand times this. He literally drops into the back 3 and that sucks the front 3 backwards and opens up space deep in our half. Also, I think he actually confuses the defenders as it always feels like attackers get free as no-one knows who's marking who.

Ideally one of our defenders should be shouting at him to f*** off 10 yards further out of the box but we've lacked an organiser at the back forever.

[Toadhall Saint]

48 minutes ago, SWLondon Saint said:

A thousand times this. He literally drops into the back 3 and that sucks the front 3 backwards and opens up space deep in our half. Also, I think he actually confuses the defenders as it always feels like attackers get free as no-one knows who's marking who.

Ideally one of our defenders should be shouting at him to f*** off 10 yards further out of the box but we've lacked an organiser at the back forever.

It’s not just Downs it’s also whoever is with him in MF. Drives me nuts as we concede best part of our own half.

[saintant]

Can Tonda complete a clean sweep of 3 wins this week? Last time he missed out due to an under par performance at Millwall without Leo. We've beaten Brum and West Brom plus Norwich look like games we should win but upsets often happen. If he does get the two victories that will make an incredible 7 wins out of 8 and have us right back in the mix for a top six place. Top 2 by the end of the season seems too much of a mountain to climb but there are lots more points up for grabs so never say never. Let's crack on with another two wins this week.

[Chez]

28 minutes ago, Toadhall Saint said:

It’s not just Downs it’s also whoever is with him in MF. Drives me nuts as we concede best part of our own half.

It's perhaps down to tiredness and a natural instinct to protect the goal by being close to it. I guess it better they are goal side, but if you don't get close to your opposing midfielder then he's free on the edge of the box to shoot and that was the case two or three times on Saturday. Fortiunately Gray shot at Baz and just over on wo of those occasions. 

As much as the football was great on Saturday, the formation etc. does ask a lot of some players in terms of the amount of hard running. Scienza cheats a little defensively too, which means Jander and Downs and Aziz have to cover a bit more ground tyhan they should. The wing backs are making a lot of lung busting runs too. If you want to break at pace, you obviously need to run at pace , so players are working really hard and that does have a toll. It's clear the subs have to be better otherwise we are just begging to concede when we retreat into the box.

[Chez]

20 minutes ago, saintant said:

Can Tonda complete a clean sweep of 3 wins this week? Last time he missed out due to an under par performance at Millwall without Leo. We've beaten Brum and West Brom plus Norwich look like games we should win but upsets often happen. If he does get the two victories that will make an incredible 7 wins out of 8 and have us right back in the mix for a top six place. Top 2 by the end of the season seems too much of a mountain to climb but there are lots more points up for grabs so never say never. Let's crack on with another two wins this week.

I think the promotion places are still wide open. Cov might be too far clear, even if they have a dip, but Boro are nothing special and could easily go on a bad run. Win the next two, which will be hard and suddenly, like Cov, we might haver the air of invincibility to us. Bloody hell its nice to feel really positive for once, even if only lasts a few days!

Edited 2 hours ago by Chez

[saintant]

1 hour ago, Chez said:

I think the promotion places are still wide open. Cov might be too far clear, even if they have a dip, but Boro are nothing special and could easily go on a bad run. Win the next two, which will be hard and suddenly, like Cov, we might haver the air of invincibility to us. Bloody hell its nice to feel really positive for once, even if only lasts a few days!

Yeah, we've been through some shit of late so it is great to feel positive again and enjoy watching us play.