saintjay77

So Pearson was the best we could do? Or Burley? Or Gorman and Dodd? Or even WGS? A choice is made to go with who ever based on where the board want the club to go and who they think will take the club in that direction. The board wanted the club to play fast attacking football and had to rely on a large number of the kids with most of the experienced high earners being offloaded. They looked about and found a man that is used to working in this kind of climate and went for him. It might be an oversight that he doesnt have experience in the english leagues and one which the board will regret should we get relegated but I dont think they will change direction while we still have a reasonable chance of staying up. At the moment though JP is ticking all the boxes needed as far as the board are concerned as he is playing the kids, the system is fast and set up to attack and when it works it looks great and we are not in the bottom 3. It could still go either way, the team could fold and get pasted every week with no hopes of come backs or the penny drops and we start converting enough of our chances to rack some points up to see us safe. We can all find better alternatives every day of the season. But the fact is we have what we have and thats it.

I was going to try to come back with a counter argument but in a way i think we are both right. IMO the system would work fine if the players could play it to all its plus' but the wide forwards dont get to the bi-line to get some crosses in, the full backs dont do the same enough and the target man cant hold the ball up well enough to bring the others into play enough. They all do get it right sometimes and we get plenty of chances from playing this way but not enough about us to make it count. Where it doesnt work is BWP is no winger, james is no RB, Skacel is wasted at LB and Lallana cant play wide right very well either. Playing 4-4-2 would at least get more players into positions they know better and short term I think we would see better results. BWP up front would only work if he has learnt to stay onside BTW. If 4-3-3 is ever going to work though it has to be stuck with. Its no good changing there mind for a while then trying again later on. Ifit is doing enough to keep us out of the relegation spots and showing signs of improvment or learning then its fair to say it will be stuck with until the players get it right or completly wrong.

Those fuzzy tactics that are hampering us are generally producing more shots on goal from us than any game from last season, more shots on goal than the oposition this season and generally a team set out to attack fast. The execution has been the problem IMO. Sometimes down to players not in there favourd position and unsure of the best thing to do but other times its just been down to not being clinical enough. Lallana and McGoldrick have both had countless shots and the latter still doesnt come away with enough goals to shots to make any of us think he is anywhere near being a decent striker. When it has gone wrong (which it often has) its been down to us not taking the many chances and not being strong enough at the back. Take the Burnley game for example, wek at the back and we are down 3 goals and could have been more. That had sod all to do with fuzzy tactics or strikers that cant make there shots count. Burnley came at us and we were not strong enough to cope with it. 2nd half we had Robertson, McGoldrick, BWP and Lallana who all had chances and if they had each taken just 1 of there chances we would have scored 6 ourselves. We only needed 1 of them to take a chance and we would have earnt a point. The system is not the problem, its the staff being asked to carry out that system. They are not good enough yet but have improved allot compared to the begining of the season. If they turn out to be good enough to keep us out of the relegation spots then its been a job well done.

When we are playing well it is hard to understand how we havent killed games off with a hatfull of goals so in that sence I can see what he is saying. Results are what matter though and if we are not picking them up when we are playing good, we have no chance when we are playing bad. Good teams pick up 3 points even when they dont perform. We are a long way off of that. So considering we cant pick up 3 points when playing fantastic attacking football I would say that we are on form for a relegation fight and jan would probably do well to keep that in mind for the rest of the season. Plenty of good teams go down and poor teams stay up in any league.

LOL so you think the knee jerk hacking down of the squad was JP's idea? And if Pearson was still here it wouldnt have happened?

Im going to sit out for this one as I think some of the list should be in the A team vote in different positions and would have had fabrice fernandes on the right in the B team or as a sub.

Seeing as Leicester are in a league below us with more money and a CCC squad you mean? While we are in the same position that Pearson left us in with less money and a team made up of a handfull of CCC players and the rest from the acadamy and reserves. Whats your point got to do with Ince or JP though?

think the jump from MK Dons to Prem was a bit too big and he needed to cut his teeth in the CCC for a season or to. Keene looked to have what it takes but ditched the black cats as soon as thinks looked like they were going bad.

dont want to speak too soon but we are still out of the relegation places so as far as any pre-soeason targets I had are concerned we are still on target. Anything higher than 4th from bottom is a bonus to me this season. He is right about putting away the chances too. Its not like we dont get enough chances to put games out of reach but our goals to shots is awful. Who else do we try up front to change that? I would love to bring Rasiak or John back and send out McGoldrick on loan to a club that can teach him how to shoot but if that was an option then im fairly sure it would be done. If I earnt enough to pay the wages of a decent striker I would as I think although we will more often then not let in 3 goals, we make enough chances to score 10 per game.

I kind of see where you are coming from but they also hit the bar 3 times and were ripping us to shreds right from the start. Mistakes are mistakes but it was pure luck that we were not 4 or 5 down by half time. Credit to the team for having a go in the 2nd half though. Not many teams go 3 down after 15 mins and have a serious go at getting a result in the 2nd half.

there have been a few times this season when i have thought I will be able to see saints play against torquay and exeter in the league and that would be able to double my away games for a season. but then there have been other games where it looks like we are heading in the right direction. Ill just be glad when the team decide which way they are heading and stick to it. at least we as fans will all be thinking the same thing week in week out. lol

Sorry i wasnt having a dig at BWP as I think he has done fairly well from the left considering its not his natural position. Still think we might benifit more from having a proper left winger playing there. lallana seems to drift all over the place and it amazes me that as a young kid trying to learn his trade he is not given better instruction on how to play the position asked. Lallana has got potential and could become a really good player but maybe he just needs to go back to basics and do the job that is needed rather than a free role.

Very good point. We are a young fast counter attacking team that doesnt get players to the by-line from wide positions. This system rely's on wide players getting down the wings and JP even commented on missing Holmes as he is a real winger. BWP might not be a winger but surly its not hard to tell him to hug the touch line and get some crosses in? He certainly trys to do that more than Lallana does. I think we would do much better to have an in form Dyer back and play lallana in the middle and Holmes on the left. Chances of Dyer coming back in form are probably slimmer than us winning the league but the point is this system needs round pegs for round holes.

Thing is we as saints fans build all our opinions on IF's! IF we had a better manager IF Lowe wasnt here IF we had money IF we were not playing the kids it goes on and on when the truth is we dont know what it would be like IF things were different. Things were supposed to get better when we got Redcrap in and many of us thought it would at the time but we got relegated which IMO is considerable worse than what we was expecting Many of us also thought that WGS coming in was a Big mistake and we would pay for it. Wehere would we be now IF we never got WGS? Im not disagreeing with you or the other poster that you commented on but the argument of IF's is just as solid as the argument of Luck. The target has got to be dont get relegated and stay out of Administration. I find that hard to take as my expectation is push for promotion so hoping we get the handful of points needed for survival is a really tough pill to swallow. I want the team, JP and even Lowe to do well while they are at our club and I am gutted when they dont. When someone finally replaces Lowe (if ever ) then I will want that person to do well same as whoever our manager is at the time and on our playing staff. Results like today do no good for any plans and just give the players and staff less time to do enough to hit the required targets.

Played in the right position James is not half bad. He has his faults as a RB though but not all goals conceded come through him. We need to be leaner in giving goals away and im not sure JP has it in his locker to make this happen. He either is able to get the team attacking and being week at the back or stem the flow of goals against and the goals for dry up. Answerso on a post card on a solution and send them to SMS please.

As much as I think JP could do the business eventually I do think we would benifit now from a manager that could get us to toughen up as a team. we are to soft and as a result leek to many goals. Personally I would like to have someone with both Pearson and JP's qualities to give us both the grit and flair.

the way i felt after 15 mins this result actually feels like we got points out of the game!!!! I was expecting it to finish 7-0 so a 2nd half fight back is a bit of a bonus

Steady on im not trying to be argumentative. lol As it stands our 2nd half comeback is worthless unless we can get the equaliser.

If that was the case there shouldnt be any need for the manager to be at any game as he can set the team up in the days leading up to the game

I was surprised about that to. aint burnley flying high in the CCC?

LOL good point

I dont know the full story on him getting there late. I know the team didnt get there till 2pm. if JP got there later then it might not have been him who set the team? not trying to suggest anything but if for instance he got there too late to give his pregame talk and set the team how he wanted and we played like a bag of pooh, then at half time the team have his full attention and come out playing like they know what they are doing and there is a chance that we will get a result. might be that he got there the same time as the team and they all did exactly what they were told by him and we sucked. lol

fairr enough.

despite the argument of weather JP should be with the team or not, if its true that he wasnt there to do his job and as a result we lose 3 goals in the 1st 15 min..... Does the 2nd half performance make people think he is a bit better than he gets credit for???

Sounds like a new song for the northam to sing at the next home game.