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Reply | Reality v Russell
at 10:21 28 May 2024
According to the statements he made post season/match he claims that possession gives us a chance to be the best we can be.
That's a meaningless statement on its own. You could argue for instance that having the majority of the ball denies the opposition a chance to bring their strengths to bear. Just depends on your point of view.
The reality is that we will not have the ball as much in the PL and therefore the bedrock of the RM way as expressed above, is unlikely to be a valid strategy.
We will therefore need to be more like the team we saw in the play offs which displayed some strength but left some questions.
Ryan Fraser at left wing back? Was that really sensible given that Manning was available?
Equally the flexibility across the back line was good.
For me the most worrying aspect was that without the ball, the team struggled to transition from defence to attack. The midfield seemed to be limited in which areas of the pitch they operated and that stifled our forwards and robbed them of service.
That said, I was pleased that Edozie came on for Brooks rather than asking AA to move wide and bringing on Che which would have unbalanced the team.
Edozie is however a very lightweight defender and is not a PL class forward. I think he may be a casualty this summer.
After all the noise has died, it is obvious that the RM "way" next season has to be closer to what we saw in Sunday because playing for 60/65/70% possession is just not possible against the better sides.
And we were third best - the facts don't lie.
(Very strange to get a huge cup for third?) |
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Reply | 2024/25 predicted PL table, and guess what…?
at 09:43 28 May 2024
The PL is not about football but rather it's a club for sovereign funds and billionaires to further sports washing their brand or showing that they have more money than the rest of us.
It's a place where fairness is lost in the blizzard of money; where the powerful can rely upon the administrators to shield them from the rules that the "little people" have to follow; where the rules make it very difficult for newbies to create a platform to stay in the league.
And the worst thing is that all the owners want to be there.
The football industry has many problems which are arguably damaging the game we love and this is evident even to the extent of village leagues. When I was a teenager, I could have played for any one of perhaps four or five village teams near me. Some of them had two teams. Now there is one team covering that whole area.
And why? Many reasons but a key one is lack of funding for this grass roots level as more and more money is sucked into the PL.
The PL is not a level playing field and never will be.
If City ever get a points deduction of any meaning - 15 points plus - it will be a cue for endless legal appeals and a contest between who can afford the better lawyers, the PL or City -and I know where my money would be. |
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Reply | I wonder what J W P honestly thought at 17.00 yesterday.
at 09:18 28 May 2024
Do we know that JWP wanted a transfer or was it the club who needed the money and asked him to move?
He certainly had a very good first half of the season at WHU - the second half perhaps not so consistent.
He would have fitted in well with the RM "way" but equally we played him in a deeper role which meant we were not getting the best out of him. WHU played him further forward which suited him and the team. Would RM have done that and would he do that if he came back to us? Who knows?
Ultimately however he is a professional player selling his skills for the best price. He may have a lingering loyalty to Saints but there is no place for that in the ruthless world of professional sport. I venture he was pleased for us but would not bother himself too much beyond that. |
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Thread | Reality v Russell
at 09:11 28 May 2024
First, RM did change the way we played (even though he claimed he didn't) for the Leeds game and it worked. It frustrated Leeds and nullified their best attacking options and for that RM deserves some credit.
Equally I thought KWP played Summerville out of the game and when he was subbed off it was all over for Leeds.
Second, I've said all season that I thought RM would stumble at the last and he didn't and we were indeed the third best team in the Championship this season.
Third, he seems to have gotten carried away in interviews after the game claiming that it was "his" way which got us there and that next season "his " way will be enough to give us a decent PL season. I have my doubts on both statements. |
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Reply | Russell Martin Sunak
at 11:31 23 May 2024
I agree that Blair did many things that were for the benefit of the country. I agree that he always comes across as smug. I hate the way he - even now - tells anybody who will listen that he's always correct and some sort of visionary. He is his own biggest fan and would give RM a run for his money in the Ego Stakes (3:15 at Kempton this weekend).
I cannot however forgive him for lying to the British people over Iraq and contributing to a campaign which has led to probably millions of dead, injured, displaced people.
And for what?
To please the Americans? To bolster his own popularity at the polls? To prove that his vision was visionary?
He contributed to making the world a more dangerous place and his party was too weak or in awe of him to stop it. |
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Reply | General Election called for Thurs 4th July
at 11:24 23 May 2024
I've not made up my mind and probably won't until I vote.
The Tories have shown a fanatical capacity to sabotage their own party. They had the liar in chief Johnson because he "was popular in elections". They had the lunatic Truss who single handedly destroyed the economy and we're still recovering. Now we have Rishi who seems to be ignored by half his party and barely accepted by the other half.
Labour has the amazing invisible man as a leader. Does anybody know what he really believes or what his plans are? He has a bunch of wannabes at his heels who have little experience and whose ideas as they been allowed to disclose them, are at best hopelessly optimistic and at worst unachievable. If they get into power, it will need at least three years to sort the wheat from the chaff and have a Cabinet even vaguely fit for purpose.
LD and the others are either the option for the undecided or single issue parties. Do I think the Greens for example have the bandwidth or expertise to run the economy? No.
We look in incredulity at the two candidates for the US president role but are we really much better? |
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Reply | Leedz pre match chat.
at 10:01 23 May 2024
I think I'd go with Bednarek, THB and Manning.
I'd allow KWP to move forward and ask Downes to play in left midfield in front of Manning who has never impressed me going forward but is solid enough if limited to defensive roles.
I agree that I would not start Brooks. He has not really done enough for me after the first game or two. |
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Reply | General Election called for Thurs 4th July
at 09:33 23 May 2024
This election has been triggered by a piece of economic news which at face value points towards some improvement but does not really move the dial in terms of pointing toward an improvement in our every day lives.
Elections are always about the economy but this one more than most.
Headline inflation is 2.3%. However service sector inflation is close to 6% and shows little sign of falling soon. So the cost of the can of beans in the shop is going up less quickly, but the cost of getting it there is going up more quickly.
It's also a fact that the key driver to the 2.3% value is reducing oil/gas prices. The Gov't has done absolutely nothing (and do nothing) to influence that price, driven as it is by geopolitics. Claiming credit for a fall in energy prices is pretty desperate.
So would Labour do any better?
Some of their headline economic promises are little more than squalid attempts to capture attention which in practice would be very difficult to achieve.
For example, they want to privatise rail/energy/water without compensating the shareholders. Do they really think that said owners will not fight that? (And no, I don't own any shares in any of those companies).
The also promise a "Value for Money" office and a "Covid Corruption" campaign. The first seeks value for money for taxpayers. Gov't has had something like this for perhaps a century and it's staffed by Civil Servants all afraid to make commercial calls. I've experienced this first hand and I cannot believe that Labour will find the people to make this work within two terms of Gov't let alone one. Covid corruption? That money is long gone and if Labour (or tory) Gov;t recovers more than 25% of it, I'll buy 10 season tickets and give them away.
Headline grabbers without substance - all of the above.
For me it comes down to whether I think the Tories can get rid of their lunatic fringe and bring some stability and longer term planning to the table and Labour who think that they have got rid of their extreme leftie elements (and various discriminatory elements) but do I think they have?
It may also be that in my constituency the only credible opponent of the Tory is the Lib Dem. I would consider voting LD on a tactical basis if I decide that I don't want a Tory as an MP. However in the last election the Tory got 67% of the vote and the LD 17%. That's a huge gap to close.
All the parties however will struggle to break down the "always have" bloc of voters. These are people who "always have" voted Tory/Labour/LD/other and regardless of history, plans, promises, credibility, personal charisma, the good of the nation, etc.
Going to be an interesting ride. |
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Reply | Che Adams Scared Of Missing Euro's ?
at 09:09 23 May 2024
My two penn'th is that he became a pro football player because he has a modest talent backed by a strong drive and ambition. He has always tested himself at the best level he can find and always wanted to play.
A good showing on Sunday (a hat trick in the first 20 minutes) and he is a sure fire starter for Scotland in their first game. |
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Thread | Push me- pull you
at 14:15 22 May 2024
I've been struggling with an issue here.
All season I've been saying that RM is, in my opinion, a few percent short of what we need in a manager to get us promoted. He missed out on a top 2 place of course but we are now literally 90 (or 120) minutes from promotion.
I very obviously hope that we win on Sunday but I do worry that RM will feel that he has been vindicated when in my opinion, he will have been lucky.
Lucky because the division this season has had few teams of any quality so his preferred style of play has worked. When we met teams in the second half of the season who had had a chance to work us out, we saw some real problems. RM's fixes for those problems (Captain Jack in midfield, inverted full backs, AA on the wing) have failed to convince.
He needs a Plan B and perhaps several players if we do win on Sunday and then will have a real test in the PL. I am not looking forward to that. |
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Reply | Russell Martin Sunak
at 13:57 22 May 2024
It's an interesting point.
RM is not just RM. He is the manager of a club and as such has obligations to represent the club. That includes putting what is best for the club over his personal position. If he cannot do that, then he needs to consider his position.
Rishi is also a post holder, one of a long line of them and in due course he will hand over that obligation to another (usually unwillingly). We can respect of the office and role of a PM regardless of the individual.
It has to be observed however that some individuals do their best to abuse the post of PM (Johnson, Truss, Blair in my memory). Does that or should that reduce or remove our respect for the post? Probably not, but we're humans and often separating person and office is not an objective decision we make in real time.
We have other celebrity fans. Would RM refuse to meet them I wonder?
For me this is more about RM's view of himself and putting his ego above the club and - in this case - the PM. Am I surprised? Not really. |
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Reply | Leedz pre match chat.
at 10:01 22 May 2024
Leeds are a very front foot team. Their strength is in their forward line and even though the manager changed things a little for the games v Norwich, he will still be looking to play on that strength.
They are also fast starters and many of their games see them scoring early. Games in which they don't don't early seem to go into long periods of stalemate with perhaps a few purple patches.
Their forwards are quite "traditional" in that Bamford/Piroe are not going to be making runs into wide places and will rely upon their quicker wingers to do that.
In my view we should take a positive approach here and apply a press to stop the "out" ball to the wingers. Believe in ourselves as being the better team and not worry too much about them. A press probably means outnumbering them in midfield which in turn sort of points to a back three and full backs helping out in midfield.
If that works and we get ahead, then reverting to back four is easy enough.
RM does need to avoid some of the mistakes he's made this season.
If we are a goal up with 20 minutes to go, don't put on a forward (esp, not Mara) but rather a midfielder or defender.
Don't start with Captain Jack in front of a back 3 or 4. He might be decent enough there against lesser quality teams but not Leeds. Bring him on in the last 20 by all means but as a CB.
Start AA in the middle., not on the wing. |
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Reply | So Russell martin Does Have A Plan B
at 12:00 20 May 2024
So those of us advocating a change to something like he used v WBA have now understood all season how to avoid some of the issues his favoured 4-3-3 system created for this group of players, but when he changes, literally in the Last Chance Saloon, he's a "tactical genius".
Total puff piece without a hint of remorse. |
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Reply | Looks as if Adams is on his way out to Wolves
at 09:43 17 May 2024
Don't have an issue with Adams seeking a better quality of football - I think he'll do well if his head and his heart are aligned.
I say however that we beat WBA, then Leeds and buy Piroe or another of the Leeds forwards. |
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Thread | Lalana to Saints?
at 09:41 17 May 2024
Did I read the BBC right in that he is interested in playing one last season for us? |
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Reply | VAR Yes or No?
at 09:39 17 May 2024
There is a balance between accuracy of decisions and the spirit and passion the game should generate.
Goal line tech = yes, keep it.
For me however the delays, controversies, hairline decisions, etc are all robbing the game of the energy and passion the fans want and feed on and having a small percentage of more accurate decisions is not worth it.
I also hate seeing players throw themselves down in the box and then making the square sign to the ref asking for VAR. That should be a yellow card. |
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Reply | Three teams that got promoted are straight back down
at 11:27 13 May 2024
If we think that there is no point in chasing promotion to a league which is assumed to be too good for us, why bother playing at all?
The logical conclusion to your point is that clubs like ours should abandon ambition and the better financial rewards of the higher league and instead be content where we are.
The only way that owners and investors would be continue to be attracted to the like of Saints, if it were accepted that the PL was forever barred to us, would be a radical shake up of the leagues and their money making system. Very, very few owners are content to support clubs because they have a passion for football or the club. they are in this for the return in investment.
Some of the ideas for a radical shake up make sense. Regional leagues with salary caps for instance. Would get the vote of the eco warrior class. Matches televised every day. Would get the vote of the couch potato class. A European super league for the "top" clubs with perhaps four teams demoted each season - promoting a play off system domestically. Would get the vote of ?
However to suggest that owners etc will never get to the PL where for the moment the riches lie, would see a mass exodus in the "lower" leagues of the necessary investment. |
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Reply | Details of Stadium changes & fan parks!
at 16:32 7 May 2024
And this has nailed the whole purpose.
The club wants fans to get there early, buy their overpriced and undervalue drinks and food and now stay longer after the match and spend yet more money.
Not for me - nor I suspect many others.
If block 29/30 is going to be under siege from away fans during and after a match, why would I want to stay?
If I want decent food and drink in Southampton, there are dozens of places I'd go in preference to SMS.
The club however wants to make 90 minutes of dull and boring football the centrepiece of a "matchday experience".
Well good luck with that. |
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Site Scores| Forum Votes: | 99 | | Comment Votes: | 43 | | Prediction League: | 0 | | TOTAL: | 142 |
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