RTW Saint

Looking for a single Fulham ticket if anyone has a spare. Please message on 07919 216869. Thanks.

I can’t make this one now. If anyone interested in 2 tickets at face value in the safe standing in Northam (Block 47) please message me.

That was better tonight. We seem to be playing through the press with a bit more regularity and we’ve also developed a speed and urgency to our counter attacks. Dibling such a talent. I think I can see some progress from the players. End of the day it’s about points though and we don’t have anywhere near enough of those.

Some good observations there @Gloucester Saint. That is a really important point about the ineffectiveness against our relegation rivals - there are crucial points that have been allowed to be squandered through really poor decision making. Also, I can't argue with your analogy to 'real-world' business - make a mistake once its on the staff member themselves, make it more than once and it has to be on the senior manager. It does feel to me that we're close to breaking through to the level required to start taking points more regularly. However, I completely agree that conceding 2+ per game simply has to be reduced to 1-1.5 otherwise we have no chance. Losing Ramsdale and Bednarek will not help though so that feels a long way off right now 😨

Understandably a bit of a pile-on going on given the abysmal points tally and the fact we gave them three goals. I think Russ' time is probably up because this is a results business and the results have just not been good enough. However, to add a bit of balance to this I'm going to voice a really unpopular opinion. I really enjoyed the game yesterday. Saints played well and were infuriating in equal measure and I was sickened by the Liverpool comeback but when we got in the car afterwards my 14-year-old nipper said to me that was the first time he had seen Saints lose but loved the game. I asked him why and he said that he just loves seeing us try to win against one of the best teams in Europe by trying to be better than them and, as he often does given we there on that dreadful night, compared it to Grimbsy at home in 2023. I guess it is just a personality thing, but I would love for us to find our feet in the PL playing this way and then go on to compete properly over the next few years - the Brighton model is the yardstick I suppose. I don't care if Russ remains the manager, but I like the way we play. Does anybody else, or am I completely on my own?

@CB Fry - looking back it was me who used the phrase defensive solidity and I think you might be right, it’s difficult to defend the goals against record. That’s the wrong phrase and I’ll withdraw that. I think what I’m trying to get at is that the playing style should make us quite resistant to pure counter-attacking goals as we don’t commit players beyond the ball in numbers too early - and only when we’ve escaped the press. Looking at Bednarek and THB trying (unsuccessfully) to catch up with Beto on Saturday I reckon the current personnel are better suited to having lots of bodies to defend rather than being exposed with loads of players committed forward. I agree that we still concede too many goals though, so the system definitely doesn’t work perfectly in that respect.

Well said @St Louis . This fits the way i look at it - too many mistakes means that we have not won a lot of points so far this season, and that has to improve, but it is separate to being able to enjoy the way we play and seeing an element of progression in it. I completely accept that others won't see it that way. The SaintsWeb forum is overall a democratic place, and it would seem that my view is minority in comparison to those who really don't like the way we are playing - so you would have to say that the winning view at present is Russ out. However it has been good to see a few more voices piping up in the last few days to say they actually like what they are seeing and are interested to see how far it gets. May be a few more will put their views forward now...

Appreciate that St Louis - it is reassuring to know I am not completely alone! I'll keep my tin hat ready as well just in case though!

These are excellent questions @coalman and although i sense we probably sit on opposite sides of the argument, you've definitely made me consider a few things from that alternative perspective. I'll have a go at answering some of your points. I think that the playing style gives the players a constant reference point regarding what they are trying to achieve. As they practice this more in training, and more importantly in PL games, they will start to look less panicky and it will become properly drilled in. At that point the fractions of a second that this opens up will result in more time (again fractions of seconds) to be able to scan, select and execute the forward passing that we all like to see. My point is that we won't be better than City, Liverpool etc at this because they are able to select players that are technically superior but overall there will be improvements through the season and it might just get us to the place where we suffocate the opposition to the extent that they overcommit, leave space and we start to score more goals. I always think that the Swansea away game last season is a signpost of what might happen this season (sounds odd, I know, so please bear with me). If you remember we absolutely destroyed them by playing short, quick passes and springing their press to go 2-0 up and it should probably have been 4 or 5. Given they were getting properly violated by Saints, the Swansea manager abandoned his press to limit the damage and just sat off Saints letting us have the ball and dictate the play. As it happened that day Swansea came into the game more and had quite a few chances but by that time Saints had scored 3 and were comfortable. When Swansea came to St Mary's they barely pressed us at all as they knew what that would lead to, and so Saints got to play entirely in their half and just picked them off winning 5-0. Now obviously Swansea are miles off PL standard, but as Saints get more settled I'm hoping we might see that we take a couple of teams apart who come to press us and that will then make for much less goal threat from Saints losing possession close to our goal. I accept I could be wrong about this, but I think that is what we are working towards - oppo teams come to win the ball and we will play around them or choose to sit off us and they won't have the ball. We won't execute as well as City, Liverpool etc. but it will give us a style that players can rely upon and continue to grow into. On the subject of crosses - I actually think in the last few games we have seen exactly the type of crosses that are most dangerous and lead to goals. I love the runs into the byline for the pull back which we scored from twice against Leicester and then also from Sugawara to Arma for the winner against Everton. These are the kind of crosses that score goals and I think the trend is looking good there.

What a completely uninformed paragraph. I don't call out other fans views that Martin doesn't know what he is doing and that this way of playing is not possible in the Premier League (a view which I completely disagree with) because at the end of the day we are all just fans and are entitled to say what we want about their football club. However this is just about what they like to see on a football pitch - it has no relevance to what a modern Premier League manager with a job remit of establish the club in the PL over the course of the next 3 years should be doing to achieve the owner's aims. The problem is that the game has changed since those days (which I loved) of Neil Ruddock, Jimmy Case, Iain Dowie and Le Tiss - the football that is played in the Premier League is very sophisticated with truly elite athletes all over the pitch. Just being skilful (e.g. Edozie, Sulemana) is not enough. I constantly hear around me at SMS complete morons screaming 'Get it Forward' - seemingly oblivious to the fact that long forward passing almost invariably results in loss of possession with players out of defensive position in advanced areas of the pitch. There is a reason that virtually no top half teams play long passes - it invites pressure. I understand that short passing close to Saints own goal also invites pressure - but the reason for the tactic was made perfectly clear on at least two occasions against Everton when the passing sequences are completed accurately and it results in Fernandes, Downes or Lallana receiving the ball on the turn in loads of space in the opponents half to launch an attack with the oppositions midfield stranded close to Bednarek, THB etc. Its pretty clear that most of the people who write on here have not been involved in coaching at any kind of level, which doesn't make their opinion irrelevant but does seem to mean that they fail to understand that the possession statistic is not a vanity points scoring exercise, but actually a measure of defensive solidity in the game. The piece that is missing is that we don't have exactly the right personnel to be clinical once we successfully complete the passing sequences - that is where the likes of City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs excel and Saints just don't have the players right now. Fernandes is a gem of a player who won't be with us for too long, but I think as we watch him develop through the season he is going to be the catalyst for a lot more attempts at goal - he is the perfect player for the style that the manager wants to play. Martin may ultimately fail because results are, correctly, the ultimate gauge of success. But personally I like how we play because looking beyond this first few months of the PL season it has the potential to propel Saints to much higher positions in the table over the mid-term. I doubt Martin will last that long but give me technical football played by top quality players (THB, Downes, Lallana etc.) any day over the style played by Everton on Saturday.

Will also join this queue! Looking for a pair of tickets for me and my lad to go to Bournemouth. We are current ST holders but only 4 away so far!

Now gone.

I can't get down to St. Mary's on Saturday for Ipswich game. I have two tickets in Northam Block 47 safe standing. Face value. Drop me a message on if you would like to buy them.

I can no longer go to the United game (this should lead to a decent performance/result from Saints..!) Anybody interested in 2 adult tickets in Northam Block 48? Safe standing area. Face value.