Doctoroncall

I hope he does as well as he did for us, otherwise we should get a refund!

finishing school is for girls!

A question for those that went - was our defensive line pushed up higher than the two previous games?

To be fair, formations are a piece of the puzzle and provides a starting point. Arguing what formation is best is nonsense. I'm sure Chapman didn't have the best players available but still managed to win by applying what was required of the roles, especially in the early days when the opposition favoured the 2-3-5 and the weaknesses exploited. Perhaps these days you could say the better the players available to the team the more likely they are to win. However, I don't think it was always the case, as you could have a fantastic player but either doesn't fit into the system or the system had a weakness to great to overcome (Veron's role at Man Utd comes to mind).

I thought the Stoke fans were way ahead of us in appraising his footballing talents.

Like I said "Any system needs to have the right combination of players that understand the role and are good enough to play that role. " Formation is used and will continue to be used to describe positions on the pitch based on pre-match tactics and part of the role taken on by the player. The role of each position is different but they have been defined overtime so you cannot talk about formation alone. To take the example of the WM formation: Chapman moved the centre half from a position in midfield to the centre of the defence. With what were called the inside forwards at the time (part of the 5 front line) brought back to the midfield to cover for the absence of the centre half and link up with the forwards. This changed the usual formation of a 2–3–5 to 3–4–3, or a 'WM', so called after the shape it formed on the pitch. The consequence of this was to push the full backs out to cover the wings and the sole centre half controlled the off-site trap while the spare full-back now helped the centre back if there was an attack down the opposite wing. But if you see it as a points scoring contest, I'll leave you to it!

You are basing your argument of formation doesn't matter on corners, so that accounts for what, about 5 minutes play? Perhaps you maybe on to something and coaches know nothing and formations haven't changed over the course of history!

I think you'll find that's what happen at the start of the football era more than a hundred years ago before formations came into effect when winning games were more important than performance and scoring goals. The introduction of league football changed the development of team tactics and where teams played 1-3-5. Why do you think Chapman introduced the WM formation if players were only moving with the flow and his team became incredible successful with it? Any system needs to have the right combination of players than understand the role and are good enough to play that role. This is where JP will earn his wage by deciding whether he has the right group of players and developing them into the roles to play in the team.

That says more about the ex-managers than the current players IMHO. Let's see how the next few games pan out, at least they haven't had an inept performance and a drubbing like the palace game last season.

Sod it - let's have a clear out! Skacel Thomas BWP Dyer Euell John In that order and hope there would be funds left over for three decent loans: a left and right fullback and a striker.

Gannon is a good manager and the team plays decent football, but JP will be around for the season irrespective of what we do. The only way he will go if he gets fed up of the whole situation at Saints.

From football economy website: SAINTS IN A FINANCIAL HOLE – 26/7/08 Saints supremo Ruper Lowe added, 'With the year completed likely to show income down by over 35 per cent and player and coaches wages rising by over 15 per cent year on year the operating loss was all too predictable. We expect to report a substantial loss before tax of around £5m (after playing trading and interest charges) and this is despite a profit on dispoals of players amounting to over £12m. This is clearly not acceptable or sustainable.' Lowe admitted, 'with little spare family silverware left to sell, we will continue to concentrate on reducing the costs at operating levels. The financial results will show an increase in the level of borrowing which has required extensive discussions with the company's bank and loan holder'. While they are stated to be supportive of the board's strategy, these discussions cannot have been comfortable. Another Championship chairman told me that banks no longer want to know a club when it is relegated from the Premiership. The club states that it is excited about a 'young dynamic team' and that 'We firmly believe that the future rests with our talented youngsters.' I have two good friends who are Saints supporters, but I am afraid this sounds like whistling in the dark to me. They are having to play youngsters because that is all they can afford.

Leicester City were the only club to gain from administration. The rest have suffered greatly. LSC - you forgot the points deduction.

Not a lowe-ite, but wanted to comment on his masterplan: I suppose the point of having an excellent academy which he saw the value before many other chairmen was develop players with a first class coaching team so that they could be introduced into the first team along with the odd incoming transfer based on the fact we would continue to sell players. Where he totally messed up and perhaps should have gone foreign much earlier is on the football management side to support this process. It seems this country is never going to adopt radical changes unless there is a foreign manager (Wenger, Ramos, Benitez etc) to instigate them. Great coaches they are but we also had them once but the likes of Hogan, Hutton and Hamilton had to go abroad to continue to develop football the way they wanted to play (passing game rather than the physical game).

Yes, just checked and he's played both games and has been given the No. 6 shirt.

Indeed (or why isn't he knocking on our door?). Defence seems to be in need of a recruit or two given the frailty of our CB's and the form of Thomas. Certainly more so than the midfield with the alledged interest in Pulis.

Alan Bennett was released by Reading so he's available as a free. He was rather miffed by it to considering he wasn't one of the many first teamers who what to leave and continue their EPL career.

Yes, as well as a 5 live interview by Hoos.

Oh well, I can see this being repeated unless we can get a decent goalscorer!

Is this the joke where his team mates are in the bar but he still manages to get a draw?

I was lucky to go last time and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was extra sweet as I was staying with a SA friend who was a rugby fanatic and we won the series for the first time in ages playing some great rugby. I'm sure you'll have a fantastic time. On the SCW issue, I thought it was a bad time with what was happening at Saints, however when is a good time to introduce change? IMO, it's better to focus on how to impliment the change for a successfully transistion to where you want to go than to just let it happen naturally as seems the case at Saints. Bringing in a character like Clifford though was a joke - bad personal skills and a maverick who's happen to hit on a good idea.

total football is more than attractive football - it's about pressing the oppostion, reducing their space, the off-side trap, using the ball to create space for us. If practiced correctly the bonus is that it looks attractive. Lets see how intelligent these players are to put the theory and training into a match day situation.

That's great to see, lets hope they can cope and also hope Killer can get through the 90 mins unscathed (remembering what happen to Santa last season).

Have to agree with your analysis Wes, and I suspect certain players are as fickle as some us fans! I'm sure he found it hard to deal with the situation when out of the first team, selected occassional, played with a different strike partner or played a different role last season. I would imagine the exit plan of players was set by the plc and given to JP based solely on financial aspects, although it would be nice to think he had some input on what players could not fit into the system and be sold. What is at risk is if plan A of McGoldrick fails or is injured only John is available when Rasiak has left unless we try another youngster to fire in the goals. How do you balance cost against results on the pitch when in the financial mire? With regard to "low costs with low revenue is no better than higher costs with higher revenue", the differential is likely to be greater the higher the turnover so I wouldn't say it's the same financial position.

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