Dusic

RM dis say in the embargoed section with Alfie House that he would make one or two changes today as some players aren't used/able to start 3 games in a week. Would imagine Stu Armstrong is high on that list and he hinted they might need to think about Alcaraz too considering he will be doing a lot of travelling. I reckon Adams will start this one.

The previous regime were absolutely dross at contracts. Protecting our best assets is really important and for most signings you can tell in 6months if they are really going to contribute so when they do and will clearly attract interest then it makes sense to be proactive. Good to see and I'm sure it strengthens our hand for the next couple of windows as far as he is concerned.

Might as well give Stu another start before the inevitable Scotland injury that seems to happen every Intl break.

His distribution the last couple of games has been so good, he makes it look easy when its anything but. Wait til he misses a game and we have to see McCarthy do it....

Squad: yes Individual quality: no, because we had players like Lallana, Lambert, Fonte, Schneiderlin

Downes and Smallbone were very good I thought. Smallbone probably someone teammates particularly valuable, always available for the ball and his weight of pass is usually great. Can barely remember a single misplaced pass from him, despite the chaos of the game.

To be fair at times in the first half, and certainly first 15mins 2nd half, we played some very nice football and really with some better finishes/ bit of luck would have had a comfortable lead. Considering we didnt do that then did well to limit them to some crosses and a long shot. Good win.

Would consider using James Bree as a front sweeper for this, covering the entire width of the field to stop their attacks. Bree is very much in the Frazer Richardson mould which makes him ideal for this: northern and usually plays RB.

Amazing what a bit of confidence does. He seems like he has a lot of time in the box to take an extra touch and compose himself, which was his biggest issue in the PL. Fair play as few players turn around a spell at a club after 2 poor seasons and he could easily have given up at Saints but seems like a good character and his work rate does set the tone from the front.

At the most basic level, as it exists right now: - Do our fans really support the team at hoke and make it difficult for the away team? No - Is there an advantage to playing at home? No - Does the atmosphere in the ground generally help the home team or the away team more? Away team Various, undeniable reasons for this, but that is the unfortunate truth.

Scraping the barrel. Jeez.

One small thing but I feel makes a difference. Put Edozie back on the left. Easily our best wide player this season has been Edozie. Seemed strange to me that after having his full back on toast in each of the first 3/4 games, he was moved to the right to accomodate Fraser who hasnt done much really. Pretty sure he will stick with the midfield 3 from today. Obviously lacking confidence and our crowd probably won't provide a huge amount of support so will be a very tough game. Lose that and its hard to see where Martin goes unless the club comes and says they are happy not to challenge this season for the longer term goal of resetting everything.

This is exactly the point. If you actually listened to Jason Wilcox then it would help your understanding. The club believe that if you have a specific style and that players are coached and recruited for it then you are more likely to win over the medium/long term. In particular at PL level as a small club where if you chop and change all the time its very hard to generate sustained results. Jason Wilcox has said when he came in January he saw he had no style, no strategy and that when we did win the odd game (like Leicester at home) it was mostly based on luck than any kind of specific coaching/playing success. I get results in the last two weeks have been poor but the idea of coaching, playing, recruiting to a particular style is sensible and being successful at these things when you have been unsuccessful for ages, doesn't happen overnight. I'm not saying Martin is going go get us promoted, or be a massive success. I'm saying that the change we are making is substantial, understood by the club, explained by the club and therefore lets see how it goes after another month or two. If its horrific then fair enough...but it might get better and we might finally have a strategy and plan after at least 2 years without one.

Exactly. Its not going to change and its the start of a new way of playing. I remember when Brighton started it under Potter their fans hated it at first because they were used to Chris Hughton football. Instead of asking for a new manager every 5mins we may as well get used to the fact that as you say our season will depend on how quickly the players master this. That means it might help not to give them stick for doing what they have been instructed to do. Our home atmosphere certainly doesn't help. The reasons are clear as to why fans are not happy as we have lost far too many games at home over a long period and got relegated but some patience is needed, somehow. Because at the moment it just helps the opponent.

Its pretty fucking obvious that when RM talks about being "brave" he is meaning to keep doing what they are being coached, i.e showing for the ball, being willing to receive it in tight areas, have a calmness to pass around the opposition press and to maintain this despite the reaction of the crowd or circumstances in the same. He and JW have said many times it takes brave players to play in this style because it isn't easy. Obviously some are at the stage where whatever he says they will question it but to repeat - its pretty fucking obvious what he means.

Easy, and understandable to say this but a couple of points: 1. He has been recruited because of the style of play. He won't switch to a basic 442 because the club (Wilcox who manages the football side) don't want him to and he is asking the players to be brave and keep doing it until its natural. That won't happen any quicker if he then backs down and tells them to do something totally different for a bit. 2. A lot of these players are used/suited to this style: Bazunu, Charles, THB, Manning, Downes, Smallbone, Edozie etc. The whole idea is that the recruitment and style of play are aligned which has been a problem for years. Not saying things are fantastic but when making significant and agreed change usually the wrong thing is to rip it up and do something else at the first signs of mistakes. The club wanted this style so they will persist with it because they must have known it would have some teething problems to start with.

He was successful at getting his teams to play a possession style which is what the club wanted. They obviously knew when they hired him that it would take time to coach into the squad but I guess have gambled on the fact that we have better players than Swansea did, which is true, so they could do it with better results. Time (if he gets enough of it) will tell, but I don't think they will be in a hurry to have yet more change, especially as Wilcox said the worst thing about what he found when he joined was that there was no clear style or strategy. Ultimately comes down to whether its just not quite working now but will in the future or whether it just never will. Personally I think changing at this stage would be foolish when seemingly the club are taking a slightly longer term view otherwise they wouldn't have hired him.

Please pick proper midfielders and end the Adam Armstrong experiment now. Always feels like we have an attacker too many on the pitch and just leaves huge holes. Also...Edozie has been great on the left, much less effective on the right. Fraser seems to put in 90% of his crosses with his weaker left foot. Switch them over. He will obviously get more time, but help yourself out by making simple decisions. Shea Charles looks like a good holding midfielder so play him there.

Overall great pod, a must listen each week. Like: the addition of fans from opposition clubs, really helps to get a sense of each team before we play them as well as an outside Saints perspective. Minor feedback: totally understand its patreon backed but often the actual content doesn't begin for over 4mins so have just started skipping the intro (which I usually listened to when it was of sensible length). Too much faffing about at the back, get it forward etc etc.

It wasn't, no. I think a lot of people don't bother to do that and then you certainly miss different elements. You have a different view than I do, fair enough. Personally I don't see anything wrong with correctly saying there is a negative atmosphere. There is and as he says, its unsuprising. But its pretty clear that it doesn't help our team in certain moments. Totally understand why its like it is, but as he said its better for the players to try and ignore it because he wants them to do what he tells them and not Neil from Romsey in the Itchen Stand.

Rather than just reading the shared quotes, if you listen to the whole press conference and the context in which he speaks then I found it to be pretty reasonable, honest and pretty strong. At the end of the day he has been hired to change the style very significantly. He isnt going to radically change that because of a couple of bad results. As he says he can tweak it and try to get the playera doing what he wants better but what he wants will stay and it will take time before its natural for them. The real question is whether we should have hired someone whose style is so radical. But that isnt a question for Russell Martin and he will just keep doing what he has done, which we knew when we hired him.

He is right though (about it being a widely used joke). I'm not convinced you understand social media which is why such trivial comments trigger you enough to bother screenshotting them.

Good argument he has been our best player this season. Hopefully his knock isnt too bad and he can start on Tuesday.

Biggest two issues for me of the recent games have been: 1. The midfield setup. Against Sheff Weds Smallbone was clearly holding and then JWP and Alcaraz more advanced. Downes IMO has been playing too high and is pressing when we need him to be in front of the back four. Part of the issue recently has been the shoehorning of Arma and vs Sunderland Stu into the midfield three when its not their position and then they don't do the job thats needed in a solid 433 shape. Now that Downes is injured hopefully Charles gets a run as the deep midfield and is instructed not to press the ball upfield. 2. The role of KWP. This guy is our best player and an excellent attacking outlet but the weird inverted position just means he is never available to receive the ball in those dangerous advanced positions. Plus when the ball is lost he is often out of position. Nothing against him moving inside sometimes but it needs to be dialled down.

Kamaldeen will surely be from the bench. Most interesting will be the composition of the midfield 3 with Charles, Downes, Smallbone, Alcaraz and 2x Armstrong competing for 3 places. Surely Adams starts up front.