wooley7

Unfortunately there are plenty!

I’m being generous but on the break and direct.

Really happy with this signing. Quality player who is comfortable playing the type of football Jones wants to play. Great record at Zagreb particularly in Europe and plays for a quality international team. I think just as important is his attitude and experience. Zagreb fans see him as a club legend and talk of his professionalism, work rate and attitude. These are qualities that can only improve what we have and it’s a position that clearly needed strengthening.

I’m not one to moan and don’t think I’m entitled to anything as a football fan. I always support the team, the players, the manager. There was not a time under Ralph that I was particularly worried about relegation. Even through the worst of times we had an identity, you could see patterns of play. They didn’t always work out but you could see the manger doing something with the team. I never called for Ralph to go as I always felt his teams had a chance in almost any game, just needed a finisher. It changed this season and, still not calling for his head, things looked different with Ralph, like he was defeated and it was probably right to change. I was really happy with some of the business in the summer, young players with quality from good football backgrounds at big clubs. It was more about who we didn’t sign in the summer! All the clever young players stuff (big fan) but it was so clear that we needed a reliable goal scorer and this team would be ok. We still have all the same deficiencies we had under Ralph but now they are combined with no team shape, no clear tactics and, after what I saw tonight, no real belief. I thought we made a step forward in the Fulham game but after tonight that was just a slightly less poor performance. I feel this loss will make things even harder for us in the transfer market too. 3 points at home against one of the worst teams and likely relegation candidates would have put us in the mix and muddied the waters but any hope there was at 7.30 tonight has been lost. Not true, I still hope. I know the players need to take some blame but these players beat Chelsea, drew with Arsenal, they can get decent results. There have been a number of good examples lately of the massive effect a decent manager can have. These players are not that Shit!

Shape of the team looks lots better and they are actually looking fairly organised. Both a step forward from Brighton.

Has there been any insight at all about the situation with Lavia? Can’t see much about his ‘injury’ and during his website interview Jones was asked about the fitness of players not in the squad with no mention of Lavia. A Saints fan called in on talk sport today and said the rumours were that he was going to Chelsea but I’ve not seen anything about that anywhere. Obviously DT has been doing some maths and come up with Lavia is being sold due to the no news ‘injury’. There seems to be no news about him either way. He is real quality and clearly, when fit, he makes a massive difference to this team.

I think him continuing as manager would depend on how we got relegated.

I’m not one for getting too negative and will always support the team that is out there representing us but I am very worried about what I saw today. I have been happy to give Jones a chance, with him, the hope was that we would at least see some battle and speed to our play from the get go but the tactics look basic with no increase in energy or fight. It wasn’t great under Ralph towards the end but I always felt we were ok, we had enough. Watching today, I can’t see where we are going to get points. No structure to our play and all over the place at times, defensively and in transition. At this level a manager with the time Jones has had should be showing something better than we have seen in the first two games. I hope it is a case of the players not yet being able to properly execute the managers way but I am more and more thinking that the managers way is below the level needed in the Premier League. Let’s hope we see some reaction in the next few games or the season is likely gone.

It’s very difficult to provide evidence of something you didn’t do! FA need to be providing evidence we did do it

If there is one thing you could say to improve the team in attack from the start of the season it would have to be play faster. We we’re slow with our passing, cautious. To hear him repeatedly shout quicker, move it quicker is positive. Think that is something we all want to see from the team. We didn’t look to have patterns of play in our attacking moves or areas we are trying to exploit, that video is about working on attacking patterns, surely that has to be exactly what we need. Time will tell if he is working on things that will improve results but to hear Jones dealing with two specific issues I think have been a problem is positive. You can watch that video with preconceived ideas and draw what everyone confirmation you want. Let’s wait and see what effect he has had on the team before we draw too many conclusions.

I think there are two players together one heads it and the others leg is offside. It’s a pretty confusing situation. At first I thought the player highlighted on the telly was the one who touched the ball and was being show as offside!

Yeah, I have just seen this still and it does look like it was a well spotted offside. Don’t think the reply on the TV showed the situation very well. Still a shit show. Whole thing is corrupt.

If you weren’t sure that was corrupt the VAR explanation shows the man who headed it on offside as he heads it. Absolute shit show!

Le Tiss at Ewood Park. One of the best I have seen, live or otherwise.

Good performance in the first half, though we arrived late and missed the first goal. Total class apart from Coventry. Had plenty of other chances and really should have scored more. Coventry players got in a huddle after the third goal and had a good word with themselves! We controlled the game second half but Coventry were a lot tighter at the back though still offered little threat going forward. Saints made a number of subs but there was little change to their dominance. Commented earlier in this thread that I was worried about our lack of goals so great to get 3 and Wilkinson with a hat trick. 2nd in the table is a great start, I believe the team can keep improving through the season, lots of new players and lots of young players in a new league. My daughters 7th Saints game and she has yet to see us lose. 3 mens games, all draws and 3 wins and a draw for the women.

Great start to the season. Third on goal difference is amazing. If I had one concern it would be goals. We are solid at the back and have had plenty of clean sheets but we have only scored 8 goals in 7 games. Bristol City looked good in the game at Ashton Gate and you would have picked them over as as the most likely team to get promotion despite the 1-1. If we can find a few more goals maybe we could challenge them.

Is the game live somewhere?

Eastern European?

Adams has improved his all round game year on year but not his finishing. In Ralph’s usual system Adams is the ideal second striker. In that role he will get that 7-10 goals a season, if he was playing with a decent partner who could finish, we would be in a much better position than we are currently. Not getting that decent striker is really the issue. Some are saying we had something agreed and fucked it up! We aren’t playing great football but are definitely better defensively this season and have had some decent chances to win games we have gone on to lose or draw, like today. We have a good amount of time to find a striker that can do the business and get 8-10 goals before the end of the season. Sounds easy but sure it will be difficult. Let’s hope that Sports Republic come up with something.

You made a stupid statement years ago and think his current drop in form justifies the stupid statement?

I got in after 60 minutes and for that half hour we have been well on top and created some decent chances. Reading this thread it must have been really, really bad before that. From the bit I saw it looks like finishing has cost us points again. Those going on and on about Edozie playing right back, don’t you have enough ammo for Ralph without making shit up. He played right wing and Djenepo left wing and we had 3 at the back, no full backs!

I thought this too. We seemed to want a striker and we’re, apparently, prepared to offer 25-30m for Broja and Delap. We were probably aware of the situation with Gakpo and switched to him after failing to sign ‘the striker’. If that is the case I would like to know who it was. We really need a Gakpo and a decent striker.

If, as we hope, we do spend on a new striker in January, Adam Armstrong is the player to make way. He does work hard and seems to follow instruction but he doesn’t look like scoring or show much quality. He has a place in the squad but we need better to partner Adam’s.

First 20 we were all over the place. Looked to be on for a bad day. Ralph changed to the 3 at the back and we came much more into the game and looked better organised up to half time. started much more dynamic in the second half and got ourselves a lovely goal. I had to go out from there and missed the last 20 but sounded decent on the radio. Thought Lyanco was great, won every battle and showed some nice technique and passing, couple of wild passes thrown in too. Can be a little….nuts at times and was close to giving the ref a couple of decisions to make. I guess that is part of his make up but he needs to think a little more in some situations. Overall a really good point, we still didn’t play great but battled and kept going. We have a number of definite first choice players out so pragmatism was the call of the day. I hope we can take the last three results and build on them to start improving the attacking performance to go with a pretty solid defensive performance.

Not sure, it’s supposed to be live on FA Player but I can’t find it.