Mboto Gorge

This is going the way of the hull game so far. Expect more tippy tappy and then concede another one or two in the second half

2-0 saints. Downs to come on and net a double, one a towering header and another bulldozing run, outmuscling the defence before blasting home. Prompting the following headline in the papers the next days; ”Downs downs blades”

Now there’s a visual image I was hoping to avoid….

Don’t worry he’ll come good, after all…., Group Technical Director Johannes Spors said: “Damion is a player we have been monitoring for some time who possesses excellent physical qualities and the ability to disrupt defences. “Strengthening our attacking options was one of our top priorities this summer, and Damion is a player who will add real quality to the group. Despite his relatively young age he is already a senior international, so we are excited to see him thrive in the environment here at Southampton.”

What’s more worrying about that quote from Spors, other than the obvious bit about Downs non existent physical attributes, is that he states that striker was one of our top priorities, which indeed it was. So being that he was well aware of that, this bloke , and this bloke alone, was who he was banking on to solve our striker woes, as the main man this season. Let that sink in

Johannes Spors upon the signing of Downs….. Group Technical Director Johannes Spors said: “Damion is a player we have been monitoring for some time who possesses excellent physical qualities and the ability to disrupt defences. “Strengthening our attacking options was one of our top priorities this summer, and Damion is a player who will add real quality to the group. Despite his relatively young age he is already a senior international, so we are excited to see him thrive in the environment here at Southampton.” im sorry but this is up there with Les Reed saying that Pellegrino was going to bring “high intensity pressing attacking football” to the club

This is the key difference, and where my thoughts are at with this. To do a solid effective job for us, AM doesn’t have to pass it out from the back, that’s not his main job. He can hoof it and still have a good game by making saves. Bazunu DOES have to make saves. Bazunu can complete every pass out as accurately as he likes, but if he’s letting standard shots past him , he isn’t having a good game and is costing us points. It’s an absolute no brainer.

if BBD is Mbappe, then Downs shall be Mcrappe. Actually that might catch on……

Hopefully Still gives him a long break from the first team squad….

I watched him closely at Hull and also last night, I’ve seen enough football over the last 30 or so years to know that he’s never going to be up to it at this level: he isn’t suddenly going to start being aggressive or putting more effort in, and become effective, it’s not in his makeup clearly to put himself about. I wonder if anyone has got him name on the back of their shirt when he signed 🤣🤣🤣

Shite? He’s not even that good! Beggars believe that we’ve spent 7m on this bloke, something must be going on with him surely? He can’t always have looked this bad, I fail to accept even our dreadful Recruitment network watching him play like this and thinking “yep that’s our man”

There is an opta table of “prevented goals” data for every keeper who’s played a minimum of 10 premier league games since 2016, and guess who rocks in at rock bottom, 86th out of 86 for goals prevented? Our Baz. Let’s not pretend he’s anything other than utter shite . All the stats over the last few years show that he just doesn’t save shots! Hes a fucking keeper who doesn’t save anything, he shouldn’t be in our starting 11.

To be fair, if games against liverpool were the only games judged , Sulemana would’ve been our player of the season twice running

Your last paragraph is the most excruciatingly frustrating part of the evening. At actual goalkeeping, McCarthy was fine, really solid. But we all know that error will give the club all the reason they need to start Bazunu again at the weekend: without the error I reckon it could’ve been very difficult to justify keeping Bazunu in goal but you can sure as hell guarantee he starts Saturday now.

Yep, he looks exactly how players playing well above their level look. I know hes mentioned a lot in jest, but Ali Dia didn’t look any worse in the one match he played, similarly out of his depth.

Yep, it’s already fairly obvious that, like Mara, he’s nowhere close to being suited to demands of English football . This will be yet another player who we will counting down the clock until we can get rid of him over the next couple of years as his contract winds down . It was evident with Mara fairly early that he wasn’t up to it, and this guys even worse.

Like to know why people think it’s a definite no re Onuachu? We are in a league with a lot of strikers at his level of ability, or are we still struggling to get out of the premier league style snobbery whereby it would be unfashionable to say that he would have been more effective in this league than what we’ve been left with. Clearly he’s better than Stewart and Downs. So bearing in mind the alternatives are those two, then yes he should’ve stayed if we are simplifying things. The reason most of us were happy for him to leave was because we (stupidly as it happens) assumed Spors would sign a better target man to play up front. But he’s signed a total dud.

I was sort of playing devils advocate there, the club thought Stewart would be our main target man striker based on a goal against Arsenal in the final game last season, so they’ve just half arsed it with another “project” striker who is a complete gamble. We obviously needed someone to be our key striker signing, but again we’ve just invested in another “for the future”. Ridiculously naive yet again to be relying on an injury prone and very rusty striker who’s not had a proper run of games since he’s been at the club, and a very raw seemingly lazy American youngster who doesn’t seem to understand or want to get to grips with the physical demands of the English game at championship level.

Wasn’t everything going to be different under Spors though? MLG was raving about him, it was going to be a new dawn apparently.

That’s sort of what I was getting at, whilst trying not to be overly harsh. We have neglected the fundamental core positions which from which a successful team is built . We did shift a lot of deadwood and we signed some supposedly creative players , who’ve done nothing yet mind. But whatever way you look at it, if you spend over 50m and find yourself 19th then something is going badly wrong. Fucking embarrassing to be honest . Saturday was shambolic, we are such an easy touch and will be bullied every weekend at this rate by teams with similar game plans to hull.

Double post

Yes we should, but you’re forgetting that wouldve got in the way of the “Baz Proejct” that’s still clearly in full flow within the boardroom, whereby he needs to be showcased as a good goalkeeper, and whereby it definitely wasn’t a mistake to sign him because he definitely is not absolute crap. Signing anyone better than him (not a difficult task), would’ve thrown this project into jeopardy.

Indeed, the transfer window was largely ok for us, yet we’ve still neglected two of the single most important game changing positions on the pitch. Goalkeeper and centre forward. We also have an abundance of stock piled average to mediocre centre backs all of similar ability levels, but none particularly good that you’d say they’re our best centre back. You can’t say we’ve learned any lessons with recruitment while we have Bazunu as first choice goalkeeper, and whilst we still don’t know who to pick up front because no one is performing , having not signed a proper centre forward in the window.

Quite. I think a lot of people, neutrals included, were blinded by the “Sport Republic effect” and assumed that the gap was getting far too difficult to bridge for all newly promoted clubs based largely on our performances, rather than taking us in isolation as a horrifically poorly run football club who were so under prepared it was untrue. It’s key not to tar other clubs with the same brush, who actually have a clue how run their club, with our premier league “effort” last season.