coalman

Which would be fine if he wasn't taking a coach load of impressionable young adults with him.

This could well be a fixture where we don't get any points. With Jack Stephens' calm leadership to organise the defence and Will Smallbone pulling the strings in midfield, Russell Martin knows he can give any team a game. Even a champions league team like Villa. But, both of them are out - one injured, one persecuted by the PMGOL - so Russell Martin will need to shuffle the pack. This could well be the game where he decides to surprise our opponents with people playing in their natural position, choosing players in form or overlooking his mates. It also might not. He'll just have to load up the selection tombola and see what happens. Fortunately, after a summer during which Martin and Ankersen didn't just dive into the transfer market but positively plumbed its depths, we have the weakness in depth to make sure we keep playing the system to its full potential. For Smallbone we have an equally dominant box to centre circle midfielder in Adam Lallana. For Stephens - ok Stephens is irreplaceable so we'll have to make do with not fucking with the formation to accommodate him. This could well be the week it all clicks and Unai Emery adds his approval to the growing chorus of awe from Premier League managers. As they queue up to praise Martin's footballing philosophy in what is definitely not some kind of sick bet as to who can get away with the most ludicrous statement. On the pitch Villa face their toughest game of the season against a team in record breaking form. They won't know whether we're going to simply fold from the start or play well for twenty minutes then simply gift them a goal. They'll be hoping we score early so we can sit back and invite the inevitable equaliser and injury time winner that has become a Martin trademark as the team fades in the second half. However, Saints have scored fewer goals than every other team so Villa may just have to do it the hard way. Bearded excuse monkey, Russell Martin, will be hoping the referee is involved at some point so he can soulfully bemoan the injustice of it all in his post match interview in-between heartfelt sighs. Before repeating his mantra that it's all part of the long term plan and he's proud of everyone. Villa go into the game knowing a win could take them as high as fifth. Saints could climb as high as 20th and ensure they don't have the lowest ever Premier League total at Christmas. There really is everything to play for for both teams here.

If Chelsea had scored 10 last night it wouldn't have flattered them. We could easily have shipped five before we were down to ten men. As a positive we made some good chances but we give away more clear cut chances than we create. Every. Single. Game.

Making Jack Stephens captain was a warning sign at the start of Martin's reign. Luckily he was out for a big chunk of last season. He's not the example we want to set for our team. Both his sendings off this season have been stupid. The latest particularly brain dead. And picking a line up to get him on the pitch is just bonkers. He's clearly not one of the two best centre backs. Playing five at the back to accommodate him just unbalances us. If you have Messi in your squad then pick a team to get the best out of him. Stephens has gone from surplus and loaned to Bournemouth's bench to having a team arranged around him. Even if he was a competent premier league centre back that would be nuts. As it is he's an ok squad player. When you champion mediocrity you get mediocrity. That's the culture Martin is instilling in Saints.

I agree. The worse your side is relative to every other team the more important it is to protect your defence. Our best times in the Premier League were based on solidity in front of the back four.

I've been in a few positions where a team was really happy with their manager who I then had to fire. The manager just tells them they're great and it's all going to work out. Not having lost the dressing room is not a sign that Martin is doing a good job. Conversely, my most successful teams all had a manager who was willing to be direct and give (and receive) feedback that was uncomfortable. Another thing they had in common was the ability to adapt and learn.

Martin doesn't seem to see the point of defensive central midfielders. All he appears to focus on is ball retention so he'll happily pick Lallana in central midfield and then wonder why we get steamrollered.

I'm just assuming they're likening the football team to a bulldog.

I'm actually curious as to what happens behind the scenes. We are the FYRE festival of football clubs.

History shows us that when Saints are shit this forum goes Lord of the Flies

At left back we have.... Manning, Stephens (somehow), Taylor, KWP - at what point was there a pathway into the team for Meghoma? Recruiting Taylor (and not even playing him) in the summer sent a pretty strong message he wasn't in the manager's plans.

It feels like a Jonesian outburst is on the horizon. He does a little forced smile at the end of answers to questions he doesn't like too.

Dibling showed he was ready at the start of last season to play a part. Martin instead chose to destabilise his team by bringing in attacking midfielders we didn't need and the team lost momentum before scraping through the playoffs. I don't buy that Martin is good for our youth players. Meghoma probably wouldn't be at Brentford now if that was the case.

https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/video/press-conference-part-one-martin-looks-to-brighton That's a really uncomfortable watch. He's gone back to spending half his time looking off to the side. Incredible quantities of beard stroking and really prickly to stress how early he is in the long term plan.

Russell Martin isn't winning games. Saints aren't making money. The system isn't trying to shut Russell Martin down. Other than that spot on.

People have asked me for ten year plans before. I usually make up something in the least amount of time possible and try and refocus them on where we'll be in six months time while cursing their existence via my inner monologue. Or sometimes it spills out and I just start laughing at them 😉

Ten year plans are usually a work of fiction. But, if you are going with a 10 year plan then you would have a clear idea of whether you're on track after 1, 2, 3 years or even after 6 months. In fairness to Martin year 1 was probably "get promoted back to the Premier League" so a tick for that. At the end of year 2 I doubt the plan said "be back in the Championship with a demoralised squad". Just because you've hit the first milestone doesn't mean the whole plan is good. Within that you'd also have intra year checkpoints to see how you were doing. And again, I would suggest the checkpoint wouldn't be get to the end of November with 4 points on the board (yes, I know we might get points at Brighton before the month is up). At the very least you'd want to feel like you should have won more games (based on Rasmus's pet metric of xG that really isn't the case). In any sane environment you'd look to take remedial action if you were significantly behind your next objective towards the ten year plan. Doing nothing and hoping that it will just get itself back on track is the province of lunatics. At the very least you should have some hypotheses about your plan that you've either proven or disproven in that kind of timescale so that you can adapt and do better. All plans are subject to change because no plan over any non trivial timescale is worth a damn past writing it. As Eisenhower said "plans are useless, planning is indispensable". Success in any field is about how you adapt when it becomes clear that reality doesn't match your plan. Anyone who says "this is just part of a ten year plan" is effectively saying "fuck off and stop questioning me".

Lampard has gone to Coventry. RVN about to go to Leicester. Leaving the way clear for Saints to get Potter... LOL

From the minutes he was getting early last season he looked ready for the first team. Maybe not to start but to be getting minutes almost every game. So what did we do? Brought in Brooks and Rothwell on loan and then he didn't get another look in. I'd say under a different regime he would have had much more experience already coming into this season and be further along in his development.

You mean priceless Premier League experience. It's only scar tissue if it came from the previous manager.

Lowest points total at Christmas is Sunderland with 5. Next lowest is 7. Easy 3 points in Brighton because surely someone has to get complacent eventually and we're sitting pretty.

Liverpool had 27 shots.

"I'm proud of the boys. They were brave. We deserved more from the game. We just have to keep doing what we're doing."

Time to sit back and play out the 3-2 defeat so Martin can bask in the plaudits from Slot.