Osvaldorama

All a bit fucking pointless really, isn’t it? Relegated in October is a new low. Even for us.

No wonder he always compliments us in his press conference. We’ve funded them signing good players by spending tens of millions on absolute shit

To put our start into perspective. If we continue as we are, we’d: - Concede 86 goals - Score 29 goals - Accumulate 5 points Some may say it’ll get easier, but we’ve played 2 promoted sides, and only 3 sides that finished in the top half last year. Put simply, Martin is doing a phenomenal job

I Absloutely true. I can think of many games that Martin has lost us with his changes. Can’t think of many times he’s won us the game against the odds. He might be a good coach & man manager, but he’s a bad tactician.

Bringing on fast wingers to run at tired defenders is something a lot of managers actually do plan to do. I know as saints fans we barely get to witness any managerial plans. But other clubs do often make plans for how to beat the opposition.

He is fucking clueless. Awful subs. Terrible tactics. Get him gone now

Get in!!

Martin honestly watches a different game to me. Don’t get this line up at all. Made sense to play Manning against saka. But against Leicester… I don’t get it at all

If we had won the league and strolled through the championship beating everyone, he would have earned more credit. Maybe then, 1 point from 21 would be overlooked. But we didnt. Of course, he had some credit for promotion, but frankly it’s all gone now. To try and pretend his magnificent exploits from last season protects him from criticism this season is insane. We have 1 point from an easy run of fixtures. It’s not fucking good enough.

Malcolm Gladwell’s book outliers talks about this. (Fascinating read if you haven’t read it already.) He looked through loads of data and essentially most professional sports players are born in September or the start of the school year for exactly this reason. I think this was in NFL or Hockey, but applies exactly the same to football.

Absolutely classic saints. If we’d signed Messi in his prime we’d probably have put him at right back

This is the weekend where it all finally clicks! Majestic possession lures Leicester in. We neatly and nimbly pass it around for 147 touches of the ball before Archer smashes it into the roof of the net. Bednarek plays like Beckenbauer in his prime, curling beautiful 50 yard passes to the wingers with ease. THB breaks a record for the best pass completion for a centre back in premier league history. Praise is heaped upon the team as 80% possession means Leicester can’t lay a glove on us. Just kidding. We are Southampton, not Man City. So we give it away at the back, vardy pounces on the counter. 1-3 Leicester. Win the possession stats though.

Pretty awful turnout by the look of things? Bit of a shame.

But we were in the premier league, where the prices are usually double. Carrillo was a joke of a signing so not defending the scouting team, but Stewart wasn’t some cheap signing. He is about on par with Carillo so far id say. Our recruitment, especially for strikers, is shocking.

Are you drunk? He’d barely played above league one when we spunked that figure. It was a ridiculous fee in the first place. At least Osvaldo has proven himself at the top level. Guido played in La Liga. How anyone can frame that his signing was cheap is truly baffling. It’s toward the top end of fees ever paid in the championship. 8mil would have been a gamble for a player with his pedigree even without the injuries!

Bit stumped with this one. I was really hoping Lesley would be the one to come in next to Downes this season and make us more solid. But after his frankly pathetic performance against Bournemouth id go: Rambo Sugawara THB Bednarek KWP Fernandes Downes Aribo Dibling Archer Fraser Lallana, Cornet and Tall Paul off the bench early doors if needed

Tbh it is very harsh to judge Stewart after such a long time out. He could easily be a very good player. But then again, it’s criminal negligence to be relying on him in the first place. Not sure what the club were thinking tbh.

Do you only operate in binary or something?

Tbh I still really hope he can turn it round with a big win against Leicester to buy himself more time. The Bournemouth game was the final straw for me in wanting him gone, the tactical naivety shown in that game was a sackable offence. But I would really like him to turn it around as he is a good bloke. I just can’t see it happening.

Has he gone yet?

What a crock of shit. THB is steadily improving week by week. And Flynn is being thrown under the bus consistently by the managers shite tactics. Of all the people to criticise at the club, those 2 are toward bottom of the list

This is a stupid argument, because if you have a shite team that’s even more reason to bring in a manager that isn’t trying to reinvent football. Why the fuck are we asking a low quality squad to play high quality football? Worse squads than ours have stayed up, just by applying a modicum of common sense. Something which sadly Southampton FC has lacked for a long fucking time

I’d even take fat Sam at this point

Agree. Naive. Wonder if Martin told them to be more progressive or if it was just emotions.

Good finish today and very happy to see him working harder. Good lad