BarberSaint

Like we did under Ralph for a while? I'd put AA against him. Quick off the shoulder so plays to JV's weakness, or one of them, tenacious and will keep his engery. He can defend from the front and then attack as well. I think all Leicester's CBs are slow. Keep the ball away from Vardy cause he's quick and our CBs aren't and their manager is slow to react, defensive and not very good. 2-2 draw or we'll win.

I don't know why people thought his concentration would improve over time. If anything, the opposite was likely to happen. That's the kind of thing you address early to make it go away or it'll stick. Serious, no? Nor was I. Last I looked mean, median and mode were still 'averages' though.

I see nothing great about Potter although it's clear he thinks he's great. He won't lower himself to us and I wouldn't want him to. Let's drag out the old favourite: Will Still.

I can just see the perfect candidate now: wind-swept, flowing locks, a beard of manly yet not over the top character, a philosophy to thrill and a WAG in tow. Or maybe just a PE teacher from somewhere west.

The mean average number of points we'll get this season over 38 league games. HTH.

Currently we seem to be on course for one goal scored every two games and two goals conceded every game = 19-76= -57 which is about right. But going like that I really can see us not getting a win or possibly a majestic two wins all season. Games I think we might win are Everton at home because they travel poorly and they're crap and a home fluke against a poor side e.g. Ipswich, but obviously not Ipswich. I'll say Crystal Palace. Someone like Liverpool might manage 5 against us because they have a Dutch manager who won't be sympathetic to our plight.

Arse nil aren't the kind of team that would go all out. They'll get to about 2-0, ease off mentally. Get one or two more and then coast. They'll end up 3rd or 4th because of that mentality and won't win anything. I reckon we can get a goal so it'll be about 3-1 to them.

I don't understand these arguments: "He got us up> he deserves a chance> he's crap> he'll bring us back up> he'll be brilliant (next time) because he'll 'learn'. There's no evidence for that. He's not good enough so we'll stick with him (because that's then guaranteed failure, whereas the unknown is then a greater chance of another result albeit slim) "He's not Nathan Jones." Yup. We know he's not good enough so the only reason to keep him is financial. Ankersen's loaded so he can pay him and his team off and acknowledge it's all part of his master plan. Then make the money back on his next book before his next TED talk: "The Goldmine effect two: how to get stupid people to buy into stupid ideas, which is why you're all here listening to me".

The manager will quote his five years of success like the ex-PE teacher will his stats for aggressive front-footedness in justification of his being allowed to stay in the job. Arteta will be miserable. We will beat them 10-0 with all goals coming after 107 minutes. Bamboozle formation: RAMSDALE Nobody at all Smallbone - Manning - Wood - TP - A Arma - Downes - Cornet - BDD - Archer - ABK - Nobody at all Subs: Lucy Pinder and all her mates.

I think they'd all agree he should get the award.

My view of the 'owner' is that this is a political/monetary venture for him. Lots of people seem to think otherwise because all they can do is believe that someone would buy 80% of a football club so that it will then go and win things. What is a 'ten year project' and how does it work? Next year we can sell Dibling and Fernandes and make loads of money and be 'competitive' in a crap league again. That's 4 of those 10 years gone then and what is the intended end product?

3-0 to them. Very depressing.

3-0 to us. Probably lose to Bournemouth. The important thing is how we do at Arsenal. If we look third-rate, we'll need a change.

Well that most certainly was neither Lazio nor Getafe as I attended both and it was readily apparent that he might well not even be semi-pro/pub-league standard (take your pick). Anyone who cannot see his complete lack of ability quite frankly presumably doesn't even know a football is square. (sic). Nice to win. On to Ipswich was a bit of anticipation and excitement now. Hope that as the team becomes a bit more settled and used to each other and some things are tweaked we will start to be competitive.

How long is it since we had one-foot Adams with us?* From what I've seen of him he's just a division three player. Someone here watches Notts Forest and liked him there so maybe he could move and kick the ball a bit when he was younger. I do also believe he's another 'confidence player' i.e. probably not really very good at the highest level. *Darn beaten to it.

I liked the league one semi final playoff between Swindon and Sheffield United a few years back. Nice to see some old faces. The one that finished 5-5.

I won't repeat what most have said about many things e.g. Archer's look of petrification before he had to take that penalty - someone should have seen that and told him to step aside - but talk about a few other things. At the risk of repeating things you all should know because they were discussed last year before RM's appointment: he's been known to get shitty in interviews when he can't spin his bullshit. That midfield of Downes, Fernandes, Ugochukwu and Dibling is a good midfield. A good mix of different styles and strengths and talents. I'd like us to stay up so I can keep on watching good players play in Southampton shirts - it's entertaining and satisfying. Archer could be a confidence player. As a forward he has to build his own confidence and self-belief because that's what good attackers do e.g. Shearer. I can't remember his name, but I had forgotten how much I dislike the muppet in charge of the opposing team and, indeed, the team and club. About 8-10th, I reckon. It looks like it might be a season where only Man City and Arsenal really put it together. So if we can, we'll survive. Defensive coach, if not Pulis, then Puel. But he's not allowed to look beyond the half way line and he can't insist we keep twelve behind the ball. We need someone who can understand players, their strengths, get the team to play to them - so keep a settled side, play ABK and have some tactical nous: adapt parts of your game to nullify the opposition's strengths and exploit their weaknesses. Basic stuff. Really, defence and defenders should first and foremost be aware of what they have to do defensively and always recognise that and have good positioning (so no Bednarek or Stephens). Someone said they wondered if Harwood Bellis would be exposed because of his lack of pace. That might be true. I'm starting to get the feeling he's a static, low-block defender only and he's mentally slow. The likes of Fernandes and Dibling not only are aware of what's happening in the game before they receive the ball but during their possession of it and afterwards. They think ahead and adapt. I agree with those who say that if it's no points after Bournemouth then I see RM going. We don't appear to have anyone in the club who actually has a clue about proper recruitment, however, not this data-driven bullshit which simply means you don't know what you're talking about but it's on a computer so it must be good. Someone once said that Carlo Ancelotti was such a good manager, and a successful one, because he made players feel good. Like it or not, Saggy shitface also had that skill. Of course Ancelotti has far more in his locker but that's a hard thing to measure and measur0e the success of. Goal attempts isn't a metric when they're 40 yard hopeful punts because there's nothing in front of you, you panic and you otherwise don't know how to change the play. Fingers crossed for Ross Stewart. Let's see him get back to full fitness (gradually) and hope he's the instinctive, quick-minded finisher we need.

Team to play and win: Rams Suga ABK (can't remember what side he plays; it's been a while)Edwards Taylor Big Les Downes Cornet Fernandes Larios (if fit - he can play and he's not a left back) Archer. Subs to come on in the 70th minute: Dibling/Lallana/SAA to replace the tired legs from all the pressing up front Subs in the 85th minute to close the game out and not concede the midfield: Smallbone Aribo I shall now apply for the pro licence as clearly I've got this manager lark off pat.

If I didn't know better, I'd think they were monitoring this site.

You alright fella? Keyboard broken?

They're crud, aka crap. 1-1 with them scraping a lucky equaliser in the last minutes.

It's a cunning plan to confuse the opposition. We'll confuse them by playing it out from the back and ignore the oft-quoted definition of insanity. Does RS have an instagram thing that someone could follow? I assume a lot of that would be censored by the club anyway.

On a separate note, the opportunity to vote for goal of the month is in: /www.premierleague.com/awards/goal-of-the-month/2024-25/august Most of them are someone kicks the ball hard. In that case Bowen wins. There's the bloke from City who ran with it a bit, probably 2nd or that could the Chelsea lad whose quick-thinking got him the goal. Ours is actually the best but what they've done is cut a few seconds off ours so that it doesn't look as good so I think they're massaging the outcome. They should have taken it from when Lallana passed to Dibling and then you can see his very Le-Tissier-esque pass to Lallana for the knockdown. It's also quite obvious Lallana's legs won't last long; he looks a bit brittle.

Thoughts from some other forums: Couldn't find much for Newcastle as they seem to have spent all their time talking about the red card and there was no obvious forum that had a good amount of stuff or a stand out single, main one. Overall the consensus from outside is somewhat lazy, but could be accurate: we are a poor man's Burnley. I think even under Adkins at the start there were signs that we'd do alright. Especially after the first game. I haven't seen much from the on the field play other than when substitutes are introduced to think that this time. Should we not beat Ipswich who are a poor side and one we could 'expect' to beat then that will be a home game (if we have home game advantage) lost, few if any points, and it will almost certainly become vituperative if we simply look to play with little real purpose and ambition (and by purpose I mean attacking intent and with the aim of both putting the opposition team on the back foot and entertaining the fans) and then carry on past Bournemouth (who may be bucket rattlers but have a team and manager that are quite good and that's who we'll play, not their accountants) with few to no points, no wins and nothing to show that we can play competitive football then I imagine things will spiral downwards pretty quickly; we will be at the end of September with little to nothing to show.

I remember J-Rod being known to be good at the level below, coming up, proving himself and then being injured for a long time. Took a long time to return and now his level is probably the league below and from what I can see he's a better player than Stewart. We don't know if RS could do it consistently and well at the level before, he's middle-aged in terms of his football career and he'll have a bit to contend with to come back, let alone be effective at this level if he can be. I wouldn't be surprised if someone wasn't arguing that he won't make it back as a footballer so let's look to get an injury pay-out whereas others are arguing that he can make it back but the fact (assumed, but obviously unknowable) that he isn't going to cut it in this league is neither here nor there.