coalman

This is it. The big job interview. Beat Stoke and the Man Utd job is so close Martin will be able to taste it.

It is one of the more reliable ways for us to regain possession, yes.

I'm willing to bet he's going to make a point of saying that in his next press conference.

Football players?

At the risk of being the cunt who gets dragged into the argument I will point out that everyone here who posts regularly wants Saints to do well, we probably shouldn't call each other cunts and the number of times in human history that an argument has been defused by someone telling someone else to stop being angry can be counted on the fingers of no hands.

This is a great chance to build some cohesion and confidence.

Why bother thinking about meaning it if you don't mean to think of it?

That's based on the flawed premise that possession equates to goals. Where you have the possession matters. In our case our possession tends to lead to our opponents having the ball in our half with our midfield or defence out of position. This is compounded by our inability to move the ball quickly to the other end which means our opponents feel comfortable flooding our half to press us into making mistakes. Instead of that - coaching our team how to defend might be a worthwhile first step, whether Martin stays in post or not. This starts with things like knowing when to get rid of the ball, how to defend set pieces / crosses, tracking runners, closing down attackers etc.

I'd be more excited about yesterday's performance if I thought it was something we were going to build on rather than a heroic defeat against a top team that we're going to follow with another spineless effort.

I think Martin's recent interviews have been a bit thin skinned but I also imagine getting asked when you're getting fired multiple times a day is going to get old quickly. I also think he's out of his depth, am not sure he's got the ability to learn or adapt and don't trust the club to hire a viable replacement.

Is that the sound of someone leaving the fence? 😉

We've fallen behind schedule being only a goal down after 12 minutes. Come on lad, be brave and keep doing what you're doing.

That does seem like the selection best designed to keep the ball in our own half for as much of the game as possible.

Sometimes I wonder if it would be easier to ask about players who fulfilled their potential with us.

You do realise that Pep is complimentary about every team he plays against? It's simple professionalism to talk up your opponents as it can breed complacency but at the very least doesn't make the manager team talk easy for his opposite number. Not to mention setting the example for your team of taking every game seriously. Contrast that with our manager whose press conference is "we just have to be brave and keep doing what we're doing". Every. Single. Week. I don't think that the pundits want us to fail. This isn't some noble fight against the system. It's a man rigidly following an ideology no matter what evidence he is presented with backed by another man who seeks to make a name for himself out of contrarian usage of statistics and a billionaire who must be starting to doubt his life choices.

Today's team selection. Draw a circle. Write Jack Stephens in the middle. Put Ryan Manning somewhere randomly leftish. Then arrange the rest of you team around them making sure to ignore any players in form. Simples.

Leicester and others may disagree with that

I struggle to believe that. It's not like he has to do any running

Pep is nothing but thorough in his preparations.

Christ, his body language is terrible in the press conference. Arms crossed, looking off to the side. That's before you get to the content of saying things like "we need to keep doing what we're doing", "we had no control over the sending off" and "we need consistency on the pitch". And needing to reiterate how people are just interested in who gets the sack first instead of maybe the fact that he's scored fewer points than Nathan Jones in the same number of premier league games.

Honestly, I'd be down for the utter shit housery a Mourinho appointment would bring. Better than watching spineless capitulation after capitulation every week.

No one can argue Brentford has been successful. It's arguable that their success was down to Rasmus or those who stayed behind. I would err towards the latter option.

He adapted during the playoffs to get us promoted. There was a tiny hope that he'd carry those lessons forward. He hasn't and seems only to be getting more entrenched. There's also the concern that the next manager is going to be more Rasmus left field nonsense as well. But, agree there's no future in which I see Martin succeeding here and it's not easy watching it play out.