James G

Happy Xmas everyone

Yeah, I didn't know much about him. A few people spoke positively about him, but obviously it went pear shaped. You get events, they are mainly about football helping in the community, and you get random attendees. Southampton,off the pitch, are great. But I am based in Scotland, so a colleague has been going to them of late. We're struggling to get money from the local council, so we count on funding from the police, NHS, sport, local schools. All that shannanigans

My family run a mental health charity in England and we get funding from football and attend occasional events to keep up appearances. I've not been to one for a while, but that is my line of contact for this. It might just be gossip, I don't know

There is a rumour within the club that Martin is going, but there's nothing beyond that, and that is from someone in the events team, off the record

I was thinking of the clear and obvious rule. If VAR is taking 5 minutes, then it surely can't be classed as clear and obvious. It's just an idea

I think you give var a limited amount of time, like 45 seconds, then it goes with the decision of the referee.

It's exactly what I was going to say. Liverpool didn't earn any goals, it was all mistakes again, and it's the same story every week. It's a shame

Liverpool press the space, anticipate the passing passages, so this will lead to goals from defensive errors this week. They also push players forward to overwhelm space, so to win, we need to go forward fast and outnumber them after they have come forward. If we play as usual, I can see Liverpool scoring a few

What's happening is, teams are blocking the passing route forward for Southampton and leaving the route to the keeper open. Martin is then shouting at the defenders to pass to each other to create new passing routes forward, but eventually a mistake occurs and the opposition attacks and scores. It doesn't matter what the formation is. This is what needs fixed

It's interesting, because Pep said Southampton were defending by having the ball and moving it around and not by actually defending. But there is an argument whereby the possession based game is deskilling the players by not allowing them to do the fundamentals of the game. And I suppose if the training sessions focus on possession, that is why the players appear bad and unprepared when the opposition has the ball

If Southampton have 80 per cent possession, that gives the opposition 18 minutes of the game to score a goal. Obviously, we've not been winning with all that possession. However, if we were to play differently and have less possession, would that mean the opposition with more possession would score even more goals. If you think our defense I bad, then I'm assuming it's not a good idea to give the opposition the ball. So, maybe if we are considering a managerial change, it has to be someone who plays in a similar way, but can turn possession into goals, if such a person exists

XG and statistics, in general, balance out over a long period of time, and statistically Saints are doing OK. It's all odd but it's the way it works. However, if Saints statistically deteriorate in the future, then we won't see everything balance out The defending is down to the system. If you watched Chelsea, Brighton today the defending was awful. The difference is, they are both scoring goals I think there is an issue with nerves in the team. Now, if that coming from the manager then that is a massive issue. I think with the players we have, we need to stick to the system we use, but it needs to tweaked so everything is happening further forward. For me, if Russ is the issue with the nervousness and if he cannot tweak his system appropriately, then I think he needs replaced, sooner rather than later. As others have said, every manager has their level and this might be a step too far

I think this is spot on and a great observation. If you are three at the back, there's an extra defender to keep an eye on when it comes to keeping the line and making challenges. It also means if you are playing out from the back, there is more likely a passing option beside you rather than in front. Russ needs to think about getting the ball forward to midfield quickly and defending from there, so if mistakes are made you have that line behind to protect the goal.

I think this is where the problem lies, it's not so much the style, it's the number of passes. If we have the best team of players with a 90 per cent pass rate, the ball is given away 10% of the time, so more passes means more mistakes. If you eliminate the side to side passing and just move it forward quickly, it's less transitions, and you can then push higher up the pitch. The reason we are passing to the side is because of the formation, there is always a higher chance of an available player to the side of you than in front

I agree. If he puts Les and Downes as the 2, then Fernandes as the AM 1, kwp and Sugawara keep some width, then the front two stay central. It felt like 8 in defence on Saturday and no real link to the front two who were often out wide. Smallbone and Aribo are effective in certain circumstances but I don't think they suit the current setup. Once Justin beds in, we might be able to go two at the back eventually which might bring Smallbone and Aribo back later. I think the three at the back just now is to protect the gk. I think with the current setup, there are always more passing options sideways than forwards, the forward options looked further away