coalman

That should have been a penalty.

Twang

50 seconds.

That was a piss poor penalty. Gav obvs in his head

Penalty to Coventry. Looked like a dive

Yes

Brooks has joined the Smallbone walking football revolution

Adams! Trips over the ball in a promising position.

I've managed to cock up and get SaintsPlayer AND Sky. And they're about a minute out of sync.

The important bit is getting as many different attackers on the pitch before the end. Substitutions will be key.

Posting the obligatory Che banjo reference in the hope of jinxing him into scoring.

It's less insane than Stephens in a floating role I suppose. Harsh on the other half of our best centre back partnership. Good to see Aribo get a start. A lot of onus on Brooks to be the creative force in that line up.

Does. Not. Compute. Putting aside the non existence of weather control machines for a moment. What possible motive could the government have for making it sunny for lockdown and shit weather now?

It's really not hard to say he was the worst manager we've had. He showed up, failed to use the World Cup to prepare his side and got us playing the worst football I've seen in the last ten years and I include Mark Hughes, the tail end of Ralph and Selles in that. His signings in January were panic buys that we'll be paying for for years. He lost the dressing room in record time. There was no light at the end of the tunnel. Martin has, for his faults, taken a team that was broken and in the process of being broken up and played some decent stuff. Sure, he's also made some bizarre decisions but seriously show me a football manager that doesn't make bizarre decisions. I don't see Jones getting the results we've seen this season.

The Saints-y thing to do would be to implode and miss the playoffs entirely. I have a horrible feeling that we'll wind up being relieved to crawl over the line into the playoffs at the end of the season. Which is quite a change from a month or so ago where we were in the automatic promotion spots. Martin doesn't seem to know what his best side looks like and is trying to fit too many players into too few positions. Every game seems to be about juggling our attackers and shoe horning Jack Stephens into central defence. Substitutions seem to be about that rather than game management. Our strikers can't put the ball in the net. Our keeper can't keep the ball out of our net. We're wide open on the counter. The loanees we brought in in January were in positions we didn't need and have unsettled the squad. There's a lot to be down about. But, this is the same group of players that went 20 games unbeaten playing some of the best football I've seen for many years at Southampton. Some of the attacking play has been scintillating. When we up our intensity then nobody in this division can live with us. Whether we can maintain that for 90 minutes is another matter as we seem to get more complacent the more possession we have over the course of each half. I'd like to see Aribo, Downes and Stu in midfield (assuming Stu's concussion has cleared up) as Aribo brings more bite than Smallbone and can turn his man. I'd like to see Mara given a run as our focal point because he can actually finish. I'd like to see Adam Armstrong on the right just because he's our best chance of scoring. I'd like either Edozie or Fraser (ideally one half of each) on the left. In defence please god play THB and Bednarek in the middle. Stephens should be on the bench in favour of a specialist full back - even if that means Manning on the left (with Bree out). It's got to be getting to the point where Lumley gets a go in goal over Baz. You know - stick with the people who were key to our record unbeaten run. While Brooks and Rothwell have scored some goals I don't see them working so well in our system. I would honestly rather be giving Dibling and Amo-Ameyaw minutes right now if we wanted to bring on attacking midfielders. We've really missed a chance to support their development this season. Plus trying to juggle them into the squad has upset our attacking play and ability to defend from the front. Despite all this negativity I'm still going for us to win 3-2. Can't see Coventry not scoring with the way they play and the way we defend. Which means we need our attack to fire which it is perfectly capable of doing. We could easily be 3-0 up after 20 minutes if we keep up the intensity and put away our chances. By the same token we could easily be 3-0 down if we gift Coventry space to break into and get too cute trying to play through their press.

It's a team of the season at least.

"Their keeper looks like he has cement in his boots" I'm not even mad.

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Wilcox did do well in getting value for the players we sold last summer. But.... He didn't find us a working striker. He hasn't solved our keeping issues. He oversaw unneeded recruitment in January which has unbalanced our side. He's clearly wanting out and doesn't believe in his own project. Man Utd is a massive shit show no sane human would want in on. Except the money. On the plus side if there is a side in the world that needs "just one more attacking midfielder" it's Utd so seems like a match made in heaven. Get as much compensation as we can and pretend we hope the door doesn't hit him too hard on the way out. Right now in addition to not being on top of strategy he's an unnecessary distraction.

We hire keepers who can't save, full backs who can't defend and strikers who can't play at all. It's like Football Manager on opioids.

He's nailed on in the libero side sweeper false 6 role

He needs a proven finisher in the number nine role. A man who can swing a banjo and mean it.

Even if they go up they almost need to get in the Champions League the season after.

New manager bounce y'all.

Aribo has added pace and phsyciality to his weirdly hypnotic skills this season. He looks like a proper central midfielder. Able to win the ball, break with it or hit a pass these days.