Fabrice29

Going by his performance against Palace and compare it to Armstrongs, who would you want to start Saturday out of interest? One got an assist, one didn't. Or is just picking random games to ask this question a bit daft?

100% correct btw. Would genuinely be insane on so many levels to not do anything. We need to improve and if we can do so then we must. Whether we can actually do that is a whole other question but any opportunity to find improvements should be sought, if only its for short term credibility reasons rather than anything long term. Would happily watch someone do well from January to move again in the summer when we go down.

He's better at left back imo. Whole pitch opens up to him when he plays there because he's comfortable cutting inside onto his preferred foot and going outside around the edge of the box for those short cut backs on his left foot. I'll be surprised if we don't cash in on him in January though. From memory the stats show this as well. More key passes and more shots from left back over his career. As for the manager, he's hampered at this level by the squad, like previous managers since Ralph. Quality and mentality both lacking at this level. Not fair to judge him and the problem transcends tactics and will manifest itself just in different ways but hopefully this way of frantic football will produce some results and better vibes. If we can get some goals in January there's a chance of some credibility to be gathered. He isn't staying without some better results though.

Fuck me good luck with that, I'm done.

I suspect he's started less games at St Marys than Onuachu tbh. Oh good point mate, my bad. How silly of me.

Its facetious but I would also point out for a man who has "no track record as a goal scorer" he's got more PL goals and goals at St Marys then Onuachu. But not relevant etc.

Okay cool, him and Cornet up top today then and each game until you're ready to judge. Finally a run of starts for them both.

I also think Onuachu has something to offer today. I’ve been calling for a physical presence up front all season as well although I’d much rather we signed one in the summer than relying on someone who didn’t/still maybe doesn't want to be here and hasn’t scored for us yet despite scoring everywhere else. I don’t really see him as the answer but my point isn’t whether he’s the answer or not, it’s that he’s not done anything for us of note yet, we did well without him last season and we signed others to play whilst he was planning on leaving so it’s hardly a shock he was down the pecking order. I also still think Martin is wonderful and will manage at a higher level than we’ll get to anytime soon. Hopefully I’m wrong on all accounts.

Again, as I’ve stated a few times in here, this isn’t about our tactics or RM, it’s about Onuachu not being hard done by. I know this place is a bit obsessed with RM but there appears to be a thread with his name on it that’s still going so maybe that’s the best place for chat about him. If you want to discuss whether Onuachu was deserving of better treatment then this is the place for that.

I’ve said all season we don’t have the strikers capable of scoring regularly in this league. The idea that Onuachu, who until Thursday barely looked like scoring for us let alone actually having done it, is not only the answer to that but has been all along and RM is the only one who didn’t think it…is fanciful.

Going by their goal scoring records for Southampton who would you rather start? It’s really easy to limit the parameters and get the answer you want. I’d much rather we signed another striker and start neither tbh, but that’s unlikely today. They were asked to play completely different roles from what I could tell on Thursday so I don’t think it should be a choice of the two anyway. Think Armstrong is competing with Archer in this way of playing and we’ll have to accept that the rotation of strikers when playing so frantically is to be expected.

Well he wasn’t very good is how I can judge him. When he did start games he wasn’t very good and when he came off the bench he also wasn’t very good. Just as I’m sure we’ve all judged Maxwell Cornet as not being very good for us and undeserving of regular starts up until now, TP was the same. Anyway, we’re going around in circles. Maybe you always believed was our saviour, despite actually being bought to be our saviour last time and not being good enough to get regular starts, maybe he’ll score for us one day, hopefully today.

‘He wasn’t very good under the two managers previously either. One of which signed him and played tactics similar to his strengths’ Everything I’ve said here is correct. Cheers.

He wasn’t very good under the two managers previously either. One of which signed him and played tactics similar to his strengths. I’m all for judging him going forward, I was just pointing out that we shouldn’t rewrite history.

If I wanted to pathetically defend RM I'd be in the thread titled with his name quoting you from last season every time you said we wouldn't be promoted with him in charge. As it happens, I came into this thread to just point out TP hasn't been very good up until now and isn't some hard done by soul so keep being wrong hun xoxox

Keep up the good work mate.

The Turkish transfer window closed mid September and he made various substitute appearances throughout October and November before starting against Liverpool which for someone who didn't play in pre season because of the aforementioned plan to leave, seems reasonable so yeah, I agree, good point.

Right, well when you've decided you think the time is right to receive the punishment then give the club an email and inform them of the business plan you've uncovered. Then just copy in the FA and I'm sure they'll oblige and apply the punishment right on cue and definitely wont apply complex and confusing investigations, rules and punishments that will leave everyone baffled. Fool proof.

I think I'm insulting people because despite posting the quote of TP saying that RM encouraged him, people still think he discouraged him.

Right. Now lets get you to realise that going from 6 points to - 6 points is not the genius tactic that you seem to think it is and we can all get back to living lives that most people would dream of.

I think what you mean is teams who make mistakes playing it around at the back, which is a perfectly valid point but you're not actually saying that, so you just sound stupid because I can assure you every single team in this league plays it around at the back, including the league leaders.

I have zero idea what point you're trying to make now, I think you've got yourself into a weird knot. Martin clearly told him he wanted him to stay and he would get chances, TP decided he wanted to leave anyway (which I don't actually have an issue with btw), so I understand why Martin might spend the summer/August trying to find a replacement and why others (who produced for him last season and have produced in the PL before unlike TP) were ahead of him. If you can point to evidence that not only did you clamour for TP to be in the side at the end of the Turkish transfer when it turned out he wasn't leaving but also knew that he was going to be the superstar this messageboard thinks he is after the West Ham game then by all means I'm happy to bow down to your footballing greatness. Otherwise, I'm going to continue to think you're a numpty who spent all last season telling us we wouldn't be promoted and convincing yourself you didn't enjoy it.

I didn't say Martin gave him assurances he would get chances, the player himself said it. I justified those chances being delayed. If you're going to keep pressing on the topic then I suggest being factual would help.

Playing the ball around the back being a fad and teams that do it are struggling is on a par with suggesting we should take a 10 point deduction, presumably in order to ultimately get more points for stupidity.

I would again point out he was behind players that had produced for the manager the season before and players the manager had signed because they'd produced in this very league before, unlike TP. Anyway, we're going around in circles. I'm not convinced the performances now of TP are evidence that he should have played earlier, especially considering his performances for us before but some of you might think they are, I just don't remember people clamouring for it before and feel like people are rewriting history.