Galway saint

i agree and that’s what i am saying - thought that was clear but perhaps not

we’ve been over all this countless times but Bazanu doesn’t make that many absolute howlers. his goals conceded tend to be more in the camp of ‘could have done better’ or ‘should have saved that’ or ‘i’d have expected him to save that one’. even if he did make absolute gaffs everyone would forgive him if he made some great saves as all fans can forgive their keeper the odd howler so long as he’s making great saves and winning points. the rotherham keeper on saturday was a case in point as what a difference a keeper can make to the outcome of a match. i don’t think Bazanu has ever done that but equally i don’t think he’s lost us any points this season - it’s just that he’s not altered the course of a game either and he’s never really been that sort of keeper and I don’t think he ever will. he’s a nothing sort of keeper. however he’s obviously not going anywhere any time soon

Just listened to the Guardian podcast and they have done an EFL special. When covering the championship, we didn’t even merit a mention ! Not a single word. The pundits were making the point that the gap between the Premier League and the championship is so great, and that is why Leicester have found it easy. No such luck for Saints as we continue to make heavy weather of it treading water in mid table. All of that said when Martin arrived, his record was as many losses as wins, and he is simply repeating that now, so at the moment it looks like another gamble that’s not paid off for the SR team.

that doesn’t seem good how does it compare to others in the division ?

if you look at his record at previous clubs he’s performing at par. there’s nothing there to suggest he can deliver on average 2 points plus per game

martin is doing what he has always done and leading a mid table side. he has no track record of doing much more so he’s performing to par looking at his managerial record he loses broadly as many games as he wins and that’s what the owners employed and that’s what he’s producing its ultimately again a SR issue not a RM issue we might get into the play offs but that’s about it

he’s done what you would expect in the last two games. nothing to get excited about. some routine saves but he has looked more assured and that’s a positive. can’t recall whether there were any low shots to his left during the last two games as thats been his achilles heel

still need a proper mobile striker. let’s hope stewart is that man and if so the team might look dangerous. starting to look more solid defensively after the shit shows of sunderland and Leicester. feel THB has made a massive difference. he’s one of those players who always seems to be in the right place. the contrast with holgate is stark

thought THB and Bednarek looked very good. been a while since you had confidence we wouldn’t concede. not sure the subs helped much eight points off the top two so need to keep winning

agreed he looked very good

good Don’t change a winning team ! when was the last time we didn’t change the line up ?

It’d be nice in years to come to have a reunion with the team of 22/2023 being the last saints side to play in the premier league for several decades with the three managers on top table and rasmus comparing the evening

Baz has a weakness ( only one) with long range shots on his left side,so one thing the goal keeping coach could do is to get him to stand on the left hand side of the goal on Saturday.

in the first half boro had a player deliberately hugging the left wing and Holgate was often inside him by some distance. thankfully the guy wasn’t much good but i couldn’t understand why we were so narrow. when you factored in armstrong didn’t really track back ( or run the channels for that matter) there was acres of space. the midfield is also narrow to the point they just get in each others way. it’s a crazy system that leaks goals and doesn’t produce many !

My point was more that RM presumably thought we needed something different to Manning so brings in Holgate and then hauls him off at HT and puts Manning back in! Yes holgate was at fault for the goal but did ok apart from that. He seemed better able to scope with their number 11 than KWP did. There was a lack of attacking threat down that flank when he was there but that seemed more down to AA not running the channels than any deficiency in Holgate. Once Manning came on we looked better offensively on that side but he looks more a right mid than defender so you would expect that. we can’t keep conceding so many goals so logically you play the more defensively minded player in the next game and try to make us harder to beat. personally i think the bigger issue lies with the Centre mid positions that are a mess and make us so easy to get at. i just don’t feel we have many options there and lack an experienced DM but we have been saying that since Romeu left.

As far as i could see yesterday smallbone was the most advanced and was supposed to be supporting adams

i think you’re probably right. unless relegation starts to look a real possibility i doubt they will make a change. if however we get beat by leeds thats 5 defeats on the bounce and it does start to look untenable. what does the club do then; it has to make some sort of statement ? the other thing to say is that playing this way it’s a terrible watch - you might excuse it if it produced results but it doesn’t. it’s got no redeeming features

back from the game and a few thoughts 1 it was better than sunderland but the opposition was worse. although better we could still have conceded 4 or more. their number 11 ran gave us a hard time in the first half. 2 the defence remains so easy to get at. charles looked less assured and downes and smallbone seemed to occupy the same areas on the pitch. wasn’t clear what the dynamic or structure is in midfield and feels a mess. 3 why play holgate and then replace him with manning at HT. he was largely responsible for the goal but thought we looked more solid. presumably that was the intention when playing him ? he was better than at sunderland but that’s not saying much. 4 Very static up front. It’s been said before that Adams is a support striker and there was a general lack of movement. armstrong had a decent first half and less effective when he moved to CF. the signing of a crocked stewart now seems a real gamble but part of the general philosophy of avoiding the simple and trying to do the clever thing. 5 less aimless passing today and actually some decent diagonals but its still all too pedestrian allowing the opposition to reset. we never muster any real intensity and build up a head of steam. 6 front three seem reluctant to run the channels and we had opportunities to break but then inexplicably the player would stop and turn back. KWP is the only one who really drives forward. 7 still a lack of cohesion and having watched three of the last four there seems no real sign of improvement. fear the next decent side we play will hammer us again. at the moment we look more likely to go down than to go up.

i’m watching it and they haven’t been boro have been the better side it’s been relatively easy for them to get through midfield and onto our defence particularly down the right thought Bazanu should have saved it not sure what smallbone is adding.

Massive game tomorrow even at this stage. Lose again and not sure what Martin can say after that and he’ll hardly have any credibility left. A win and he buys more time for things to come good. Think we will win as hopefully the penny has dropped that he needs a proper platform in midfield and he can’t have round pegs in square holes. Hopefully a better game than my last trip to the north east

i think the players are being ‘brave’; that’s why we concede so many goals from mistakes as they pass it in tight corners around the 18 yard box. so it’s not a lack of ‘bravery’ that’s the problem instead it’s playing a brand of football that assumes you have the 82 brazil world cup squad when instead you have some decent but not exceptional players. it’s why we are so easy to play against. teams just wait for the mistake.

Seems a long time since the transfer window closed and optimism abounded. People were lambasted at that time if they dared to suggest evenHolgate was a shite signing ( that was pre sunderland). Must be some sort of record for the pace of decline in sentiment. Guess it’s principally because no one with a footballing brain can see us getting promoted playing this way and the aimless fecking passing around at the back drives you mad. it’s passing for passings sake

Feels like we still haven’t hit the bottom.I remember driving up to sunderland with a fair amount of optimism but feels like after the last three games we are miles away from being a coherent team challenging for promotion. unless we sort it quickly the season is just going to evaporate and with each season the squad quality will diminish. having said all that still feel we will be in and around the play offs come the end of the season but that’s blind faith really at the moment

big ron

you say that Martin knows how to play the system and not concede lots but at Swansea he played the system and conceded lots of goals. If you look at last season you have to go down to 20th to find a worse defensive record.