Saints 3-1 Birmingham - Match Thread

[maysie]

5 hours ago, tdmickey3 said:

Yes but I also say it how it is, sorry it upsets you so much 

You're a tedious prick

[the colonel]

4 hours ago, tdmickey3 said:

The fan passed away, very sad

Commiserations to friends and family but hopefully he/she died doing what they loved: 'supporting their team'.

Very sad RIP.

[Dr Who?]

We are far more exciting to watch. If we could score a few more from our chances with would be much better. Defensively we are still a little shocking, but most are in this league. Love the fact we are attacking more, but overall the games are far more open, which makes for a better game. Strap yourselves in because I think we are going to try and out score the oppo rather than edging out wins. Until the last 20 and we switch to defence mode, which the transition does not work at all. 

[Sheaf Saint]

23 minutes ago, Dr Who? said:

We are far more exciting to watch. If we could score a few more from our chances with would be much better. 

I think fans of every team in the world would say the same, but the fact is that we have scored 18 in 6 since Still was sacked and outperformed our xG in every one of those games. I think the defence is a bigger concern TBH. We still look fragile at the back and give up chances too easily, and we've only managed 3 clean sheets all season. 

[austsaint]

4 hours ago, lambtiss said:

We were 3-1 up  Clearly Tonda was resting both players ahead of a midweek game, especially with star man Scienza recovering from an illness. Also, good opportunity for Robinson and Archer.

It would be another tick for Tonda if he gets a tune out of Archer and judged on Archer’s cameo yesterday he just might.   The resting of Scienza and AA in favour of Robinson and Archer worked well enough, as did the introduction of Romeu and Edwards.   Eckert’s game management (early days) is several notches higher than  Still, Juric and Martin.

 Like to see him experiment with a back four and abandon the idea of Manning as a wing back.  Good left foot though he’s got,   he is just  too slack defensively (even if played as a LB) which results in a barrage of unchallenged crosses and runs which will eventually be converted by the better sides.  Give  Wellington a run of games at LB to see if he can regain that early promise……  one of his first appearances v Palace comes to mind as eye catching.  Play THB and one other at CB, and have a three man central midfield with Jander, Downes and Charles with Downes sat behind the other two as defensive cover.    Downes was very good today and would shore up our defence in a way that Stephens and Wood consistently don’t.   That leaves Scienza, Azaz and Armstrong as the attacking three with help from Fellows, Charles and Jander.     Come on Tonda, give it a go!

 

[Patrick Bateman]

34 minutes ago, austsaint said:

It would be another tick for Tonda if he gets a tune out of Archer and judged on Archer’s cameo yesterday he just might.   The resting of Scienza and AA in favour of Robinson and Archer worked well enough, as did the introduction of Romeu and Edwards.   Eckert’s game management (early days) is several notches higher than  Still, Juric and Martin.

 Like to see him experiment with a back four and abandon the idea of Manning as a wing back.  Good left foot though he’s got,   he is just  too slack defensively (even if played as a LB) which results in a barrage of unchallenged crosses and runs which will eventually be converted by the better sides.  Give  Wellington a run of games at LB to see if he can regain that early promise……  one of his first appearances v Palace comes to mind as eye catching.  Play THB and one other at CB, and have a three man central midfield with Jander, Downes and Charles with Downes sat behind the other two as defensive cover.    Downes was very good today and would shore up our defence in a way that Stephens and Wood consistently don’t.   That leaves Scienza, Azaz and Armstrong as the attacking three with help from Fellows, Charles and Jander.     Come on Tonda, give it a go!

 

I said this to my son today, on current standings it is light years ahead, especially over Still and his throwing 15 attackers on to get a goal back subs ... 

[Saint Fan CaM]

6 hours ago, tdmickey3 said:

Maybe but surely he doesn’t coach to let so many crosses in?

Absolutely not - Manning can’t help himself…no positional sense and no defensive intent when faced with a player about to cross a ball. Fellows to be fair is not really a defender - not in his DNA - but does a marginally better job stopping crosses. My belief is that a defensive line is weakened by the full-backs being unbalanced - that is what Fellows and Manning bring to the team, however Fellows is far more of a threat going forwards as he’s braver on the ball.

[Crab Lungs]

4 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

This was a really impressive one for me, probably our most. I have been sceptical about how we return from poor results over the last few years, but we bounced back properly today. 

I thought Birmingham gave us a really good game, as I felt they would - but we break so quickly now, we don't fart around with the ball, we get it and go with pace. Getting direct players like Leo and Fellows in the team makes such a difference, because it automatically pulls players around and creates space - and Armstrong thrives in space, so he's going to nick things. 

Leo was the best player on the pitch though, it's not just his direct running, what I really love about him is his resilience - he just keeps going, he gets kicked, pulled, pushed but he keeps going - he doesn't play for the foul, he plays to make something/score something. He's the best player we've had in fricking years, a proper game changing player -  not many of those at this level.

I think what we're seeing now is the new blood showing their face - Azaz, Fellows, Leo, Jander - they've stepped up and they're pulling this team along now. We're not reliant on Downes being fit, Armstrong being fit, Edozie or Aribo being available - we've evolved and you can now finally see the improvements. There are still holes in the squad that I'm sure we'll fill, but this is more like it.

I think Still tried to put too much of a structure in place around players who didn't really want that, whereas the biggest difference I can see that Tonda has brought is enabling freedom - go and run if you've got space, drive forward if there's room. None of this pass back just to keep the ball nonsense, the target seems to be clear and they have clarity - get forward as soon as possible with as few passes as possible, keep the pace quick and drive forward. We have a squad of players built entirely for that, so now they're being allowed to play that way it's no surprise the results are coming.

Great post and much like how i feel. At some point, Still might turn out to be cleverer than we think he is but it’s plain to see he had us playing with the handbrake on.

Tonda has done something really simple; unshackled our creative players from whatever rigid structure Still was trying to implement and just lets the front players, play. He’s recognised Jander is more often than not the one who flips the momentum on a dime and gets us up the pitch and lets him get on with it.

Hes unburdened Azaz, Fellows and Scienza and has even recognised and given licence to THB to play direct killer passes to get us up the pitch and get us on the front foot instead of the sideways and backwards nonsense we’ve had to deal with. If the pass is on, he wants THB to try it.

For the first time in a long time, everyone seems to know their roles and the instructions are, as above, really quite simple when you look at it. Let our attacking players do their thing and have Jander, Scienza and THB drive the team forward with a turn, a pass or a dribble.

Hes very quickly seen our strengths and put it into action. It’s amazing how we over complicated it so much with Still. 

It’s not perfect by any means. Evidently we drop off after the substitutions quite a bit but another thing he appears to have identified is getting Robinson to play a ‘Scienza-lite’ role, which I think he successfully pulled off today. 

Finally we’re playing to our strengths and it’s bloody enjoyable to watch.