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Comment | Southampton At Liverpool The Verdict
at 20:58:47
It has been commented elsewhere ad nauseam about Downs’ abysmal performance. My pennyworth is that I counted seven or eight times he received the ball and he lost it EVERY TIME bar one. I am afraid he is dreadful, and a total waste of space - not to mention money - as all he does is lollop around, never tackles and in effect means we are playing as a 10-man team. HE HAS ZERO FUTURE AT OUR CLUB. FFS WILL, ANYBODY IS BETTER THAN HIM, YOU ABSOLUTELY 100% HAVE TO DROP HIM PDQ!!!
His near namesake Flynn though had his best game for ages. And I reckon he must start on Saturday with Quarsie and - though this may go against everything the ma ager has thought previously - forget about THB and Jack.
Overall, I presume Will did shove a serious rocket up the squad’s btms after the Hull game And if that was the case, the result was there for all to see.
Head in the lion’s mouth I know, but could we, on the basis of last night’s performance, maybe, just possibly, have started to turn the corner…??? |
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Comment | Southampton At Hull City The Verdict
at 22:04:58
I really cannot get my head around why our players always appear to muck about from the kick off - theoretically soaking up pressure, presumably with the hope that the oppo will tire and can be caught in the break - and then only get a bit more serious when they go a goal down, or worse, so they are forever having to chase the game.
So is it the manager’s doing or the players? Or maybe both?
I read this week about the Ryder Cup Miracle in Medina when Europe came back from 10-6 down to win. And the night before the deciding singles matches, the normally placid European captain Jose Maria Olazabal gave the players the biggest bollocking they’d ever had in their lives and told them to get off their bums and play as well as they were capable of….
and blow me, it paid off and they won!!!
My belief is that, however much the Saints’ manager’s inexperience is contributing, I can’t help but think the players’ complete lack of oomph stems from a massive over-confidence, the “we are really a premier league squad and far too good for this league” attitude. And the only hope of ever changing this is by the manager giving them all a serious kick up the arse and (at least for some of them) a time on the bench or worse.
Managing winning teams is easy. I think the next few weeks will show whether Will Still has any cajones…
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Comment | Southampton V Portsmouth The Verdict
at 10:37:55
Apart from the first 15 minutes of the second half this was as dire a game of football that I can ever remember. And I should imagine that the guy at Sky who suggested this as a potentially exciting game for a Sunday lunchtime audience must be on a final warning.
As it was, Pompey looked so much more like a TEAM than we did and tbh we could have lost that by two or three nil had their finishing and luck been better.
BUT…
As I said, at the beginning if H2 we did seem to get off our arses and ran at them - Still certainly had sussed out the weakness in their two backs, even if we didn't capitalise on that enough early doors.
So I do think we are getting a better and, as the new players start to meld in, we should improve further and start to get some results within the next month or so.
But pur-lease, WILL, YOU AND THE GUYS ARE THERE TO ENTERTAIN US, not to produce a bore-fest like yesterday. The last thing we/you need is a restless crowd starting to boo… |
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Comment | Southampton At Norwich City The Carabao Cup Verdict
at 17:58:55
There is no doubt what a difference to confidence the first, and especially the second, goal when they went in made to the team. It was almost as if the air of self-disbelief that seemed to have surrounded the team so far this season was suddenly blown away. And they all suddenly realised that “No, we are not as bad as others have suggested we might be. So let’s play with a bit of flair and make it FUN!!”
That said, in the negative I agree about Downes and his inability to concentrate. Over confidence is what comes to mind which was only marginally improved if at all by making him skipper on the night.
I may be wrong but I hope he has now realised that he is no longer (if he ever has been) a PL player and really needs to buck his ideas up to justify his position in the Championship. My fingers are firmly crossed.
And as for Matsuki’s HOWITZER, could this be another talent that has been unearthed from the wide blue yonder? If so, GIMME GIMME MORE PLEASE, and the memory of a certain Mr Dibling arsing about is becoming a rapidly fading memory |
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Comment | Everton Said To Have Reached Verbal Agreement With Southampton Over Dibling
at 08:33:35
This must be the best bit of business we have done since selling Danny Ings. But whereas he was over the hill TD is nowhere near even base camp. Yes he showed flashes of brilliance with us. But he certainly has given me the impression that he is soft and terrified of getting injured. Quite understandable at his age. But is he really worth not much short of half what Isak is valued at? Not in my book.
Well done SR. |
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Comment | Southampton At Ipswich Town The Verdict
at 06:50:53
Having seen the games on TV played by this season’s promoted teams to the PL, I can only say that currently we are light years away from where we will have to be to stay up, if we are lucky enough to get promoted in May.
And as for our performance against Ipswich, Harwood Bellis may have been coming back from injury but OMG he was next to useless, only made to look just about passable by the abysmal Quarsie. Jesus H Christ, was he utterly appalling? Or what?
I have a horrible feeling Stoke are going to make total mincemeat of us on Saturday. |
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Comment | Southampton Go Into Championship Opening Weekend In Strong Position
at 11:14:05
Well said!
It is always easier to talk a team down, if only because, if it doesnt turn out so good, those doomsters can smugly say “I told you so!”
But if we really are (considerably?) above the Championship average in terms of ability. then we have every reason to be optimistic. After all to draw with Brighton has to be quite a feather in our cap, especially as there have been mutterings that the Seagulls should have been much better than they were, after having won all their previous friendlies.
On another note, it will be interesting to see whether the Wrexham way of spending money - low price acquisitions but only good for a season or two at most - or ours, of spending more on better younger players, proves to be the better.
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Comment | Southampton Target Ex Liverpool Midfielder
at 09:06:13
If Clark was injured for a lot of last season, it in no way follows that he is another RS; but if nothing else I would imagine that the medical staff will be twice as wary about making sure his injury is not critical before making a recommendation to buy him. |
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Comment | Southampton Start Season With Wrexham Media Circus In Town
at 20:48:49
I think you are missing the point.
This has nothing to do with the glamour(?) of Wrexham, its all about whether we are a team that will be challenging for promotion come next year; and if we are then we have to immediately play with serious intent from the off.
And they will be thinking similar: if we (Wrexham) really are challengers for a 4th promotion in a row, then the Saints are a team we have to put to the sword.
I am optimistic; but Wrexham will still see us as a team lacking in confidence who are ripe for the plucking; we have to show them we are a lot better than that. |
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Comment | Dragan Solak Puts End To Speculation At Southampton
at 08:48:24
My Goodness! What an EXCELLENT AND POSITIVE INTERVIEW!!!
I now do feel more than justified in renewing my season ticket and am looking forward to August with rather more optimism than I dared even think about a couple of months ago! |
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Comment | Saints Linked To Kyle Walker Peters Replacement
at 13:26:48
Am I alone in thinking that KWP may have been a good servant for the Saints. But a legend? I don’t think so. Yes, not unlike Tyler Dibling, when their name first appeared on the teamsheet, some bursting runs had everybody cheering from the roof tops. But that was a good few years ago and I can barely remember a game in the last couple when KWP really impressed - and Dibling similarly.
Now Inam well aware that the style of play of Russell Martin actively discouraged bursts forward because that could involve losing the ball. But all the same, though he will go with my good wishes, I sincerely hope that any replacement is reminiscent of the KWP of four or five years ago rather than more recently. |
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Comment | Southampton V Arsenal The Verdict
at 15:36:16
Whether or not Will can (still?) make it in the Championship only time will tell. I am optimistic. (Although I have to admit that I have been ludicrously over-optimistic about most of our recent appointments - Russell Martin aside - until I wasn’t! So I cannot say I am any great predictor on that score).
What I can say with certainty - and this was absolutely evidenced when the second goal went in yesterday - is that, however much confidence the team has got left after this last ten months, it is brittle at best. They seem to have been able to get themselves up for most of the recent games but when a goal goes in against them, it has always been Night Night.
So WS has a massive initial task on his hands to get the team’s confidence back up, which will not be helped by the fact that their skills level is not the highest. And it seems to me that at least part of this is to get the team SUPER FIT from when the moment the very first ball is kicked. Because even if the players will doubtless continue to fluff their lines, at least if they are fast moving they will inevitably get themselves into decent - both offensive and defensive - positions on at least some from which they should be able to capitalise.
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Comment | Southampton V Manchester City The Verdict
at 14:04:04
Well we certainly did a job on City didn’t we?
And I cannot help but think that this was Alan Lallana’s doing, because something tells me that Farley simply was not up to the task, especially as it was AL who was up on his feet urging on the players to stay focussed as they got more and more knackered. So hats off to him.
TBH, I was really disappointed with Man City; like most fans I was expecting a masterclass in how to take a second rate team apart, but instead we witnessed a masterclass in how to defend. It was brilliant. And by the end the cheers that rang out said it all.
And to think that this was the style that Mr Moron himself Russell Martin was in awe of and trying to get us to play: so, SO predictable, sterile and BORING! SR may have played their hand very badly since buying us but thank the Lord they gave RM his marching orders, OK not soon enough but maybe, just maybe, yesterday marked the bottom of our slide down…
Finally this is a lesson in how to succeed. Forget about scoring goals, they are a bonus. GOOD DEFENCE IS THE KEY TO WINNING POINTS. So if we are to get promoted again sharpish, we absolutely have to defend like we did yesterday in every single game.
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Comment | Southampton V Wolverhampton Wanderers The Verdict
at 09:22:04
Well ten out of ten, Russell Martin! You are responsible for sapping the life out of our football club!
Because the ultra dull, sterile and lifeless style that you started has now blossomed fully under Ivan the Absolutely Terrible as, with a couple of honourable exceptions, on Saturday we witnessed A SQUAD TOTALLY DEVOID OF ANY DESIRE AND BOTTLE. Those exceptions were Fernandes, Sulemana and Sugawara (amazingly), who ran forward with the ball as much as they were able. But for the rest of them, what a bunch of disinterested, gutless individuals who were just taking the p*ss! And embarrassingly, this lack of desire now looks completely ingrained: 9 points is it.
It does puzzle me, though, that they do not seem to care that,
1. For all time, these individual players will forever be associated with being part of the lowest points-winning team of all time.
2. Even if they don’t give two figs about SFC, surely it is in their best interests to put in a performance, or else future clubs will only bid down - if at all - for some of these gutless performers (which will hit their own pockets).
And as for potential superstar Tyler Dribling(!), trotting around with his socks around his ankles thinking he is God’s gift, what an utter waste of space he is! How on earth he wasn’t substituted I do not know. (Unless, that is, the manager is playing a very clever game to stop him from leaving - by showing the world what a grumpy teenager he is, and therefore not worth all the plaudits paid to him, including, unbelievably, according to the Daily Telegraph, one of the five PL players to watch in the second half of the season!!!).
But whatever the attitude of the players appears be, above all else they have a duty to ENTERTAIN. And I can honestly say that this season I have been more BORED more often than I thought it was humanly possible to be. The fact is that there is no reason on earth why I should drive 30 miles ever again to watch this borefest.
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Comment | Southampton V Liverpool The Verdict
at 12:02:11
There is no doubt that Liverpool are a class team and we are amateurs in comparison. But Saturday’s game was interesting because it showed that, underneath all this season’s disappointments, perhaps the Saints aren’t really such a bad cohort of players, not PL standard certainly, but…
Yes, Liverpool looked off the pace in H1 for various reasons, but also because, to a greater or lesser extent, for the first 45 minutes we did give them the run around. OK, so in H2 they got off their bums and we suffered as a result. But in doing so they did give us a very simple lesson in how to win a football match:
WHEN YOU LOSE THE BALL MAKE SUPERHUMAN EFFORTS , PRESS, PRESS AND MORE PRESS UNTIL YOU WIN IT BACK, AND THEN BREAK HARD AND FAST.
There is no doubt that we are fitter than we were under the dreadful Russell Martin but, with the honourable exception of Adam Armstrong - who scored again for West Brom on Saturday - even now virtually every Saints player would be left floundering in the wake of every Liverpool player in a 100 metre dash.
Whether or not we have players with sufficient skills is one thing - their H1 performance though did suggest that they are better than some have made out - but if next season the manager, whoever it may be, makes his number one priority to get the team SUPER FIT, then I believe we just may do a lot better in the Championship than some are predicting.
PS. Will Tyler Dibling for ever be the grumpy teenager? Or does he have any chance of becoming the next Harvey Elliott? Compare and contrast ….
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Comment | Southampton At Chelsea The Verdict
at 10:19:39
I think we can all agree that Juric couldn't manage his way out of a paper bag. And clearly the dressing room is behaving as if he has lost some if not all of them.
And yes I do find myself wondering, on the basis of the last few games whether the players are just not good enough or whether they have been managed and coached really badly.
Although I have never been involved in a sports business, in my time I did work for a couple of failing businesses - which is surely what SFC is now (regardless of what the so-called success on the commercial side some fans have suggested Phil Parsons has had).
And the one common factor is that FAILURE IS ENDEMIC, IT AFFECTS EVERYBODY AND EVERYTHING, NO ONE TALKS STRAIGHT TO ANYONE, FRIENDS EVEN CROSS THE STREET TO AVOID YOU AND IT IS ONLY EVER RESOLVED BY A COMPLETE CLEAR OUT.
So no i don't blame the players really, they all know what is happening, they all know what people are saying about them, they all know the club is going down the plug hole and against that incredibly negative vibe, they are being asked to perform. Psychologically, they must be completely shot and I defy any fan to really expect anything other than the rubbish we have been served up with against such a background.
So until Dragan Solak and Sports Republic swing their hook, our beloved club and its players are doomed to continuing failure and a self-fulfilling spiral downwards. |
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Comment | Southampton V Brighton The Verdict
at 13:04:52
I think you can always tell the health of any sort of institution - and particularly a sporting one but it applies to all businesses - by the state of its loos.
For a while now, visiting SMS has been a grim, disagreeable and generally awful experience; after Saturday’s performance of “lets-see-how-many-goals-we-can-give-away-today”, the lavatories are definitely better…
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Comment | Have Southampton Fans Finally Lost Faith With The Club
at 10:22:54
Yes it is all a very interesting dynamic.
Because I don’t suppose, at least in the last few years, Dragan Solak has had such a financial disaster on his hands, whereby the merry dance his so-called trusted lieutenants have led him, will have cost him I reckon maybe £100m, if not more.
Because their entire experience, plan and policy must have seemed so eminently logical when he and SR bought the stake off Gao. And look what a totally misguided concept it has turned out to be.
So what does ho do now, indeed where/who does he turn to for good sensible advice?
I posted earlier a great article from the FT this morning about how Brest, a much smaller club and budget than us in France, has done it, such that they got themselves in to the Champions/Europa league.
I reckon he could do a lot worse than give the chairman there a call… |
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Comment | Southampton At Nottingham Forest The Verdict
at 14:07:02
No doubt we are not helped by some hugely lazy and over-rated players like Downes and Harwood-Bellis, but Forest are an example of what CAN be done. Just look at their progress this season. Remember we didn’t come far from taking at least a point off them in the first game of the season at SMS, and now look at them! They have gone forward massively: they are happy not to have the ball, but they press hard and, when they do get it back, because they are much fiiter and quicker, every attack is dangerous.
Whereas the Saints have gone backwards because that complete toe-rag, Rarsehole Martian, believed in this ludicrous tippy tappy shite which led to lack of fitness, no zip, no bottle (why run into trouble when you can save your legs by passing sideways/backwards?) and every attack - if you can call it that - is consequently slow, predictable and by-and-large ineffective.
If i was the Board I would fire Martin - apparently he is only on gardening leave - and tell him to sue us for compensation if he dares because I think his case for having done his job would get laughed out of court! |
| | davidargyll
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Site Scores| Prediction League: | 3 | | TOTAL: | 3 |
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