Dan Johnson

The Modern Day Billy Sharp. Premier league Stats Played: 73 Scored: 6 Scoring Ration 1/12 Championship Stats Played: 232 Scored: 77 Scoring Ratio 1/3 Love him for his work rate, best position for us in the championship was out wide, offered assists, defensive stability and a goal threat. I wish football had room for sentiment, he'd be in our team every week, the harsh reality is he's had a fair crack at the Premier League Whip and certainly right now, he's not good enough. I wish him absolutely nothing but the best

Next seasons star player and next seasons manager in 1 picture...

Was at the game (although left after the 4th went in) and have watched the extended highlights, highlights and match of the day to truly roll myself in the shit and try and get some understanding of what the fuck we can do to at least get an ounce of self respect back. Stating the obvious, The Midfield With Downes and Fernandes out we were woefully short of any quality in midfield, to make matters infinitely worse, we played with 2 in midfield rather than 3, those 2 players are so far off premier league quality it's embarrassing. We absolutely have to play with 3 in midfield otherwise we just aren't remotely competitive. I'd start with a midfield 3 of Downes/Fernandes/Lallana and look to get at least 2 CMs in January. I'd try and get JWP back, he's not playing at Forest, maybe we could pull on his heart strings to come back and help save this club from the abyss, add more intensity back into this midfield. Lesley Ugochukwu might be one of the worst footballers I have seen in saints shirt, he must not care and probably isnt trying because there is no way he can be that woeful. He was at fault for the first goal, his lack of competitiveness in midfield, he was at fault for the header that hit the bar in the first half through poor marking, he was at fault for the disallowed goal through poor marking, he was at fault for the 2nd goal, not following Mbeumos run, He was at fault for the 3rd goal, he gave away the penalty, his lack of competitiveness in midfield led to the 4th. Send him back to Chelsea ASAP. As much as I want Aribo to do well, he's just no where near the level we need to stay in this league, he was asked to do a job on Saturday that doesn't suit his game so I don't want to be too critical off his performance but even so his work rate alongside Ugochukwus just meant we were so pedestrian in midfield, we lacked any kind of intensity at all. The only difference between Aribo and Ugochukwu is that Aribo doesn't hide. The Defense I have no idea how this has happened but our best CB on Saturday and for the last few games is a player we bought from League 1, Nathan Wood, we looked infinitely more exposed when he went off on Saturday. Janny B/Harwood Bellis had absolute shockers, I think we need to take into account just how exposed they are and the lack of midfield protection, even so their confidence looks absolutely rock bottom. James Bree, he trys hard, he doesn't hide, he's just not good enough. KWP, our most attacking threat, making silly mistakes but probably the outfield player who comes out of Saturday with the least damage to his reputation. Sugawara, looked promising at the start of the season, looks like a rabbit in headlights at the moment and making silly mistakes again, think he could still come good if we get a settled/competitive team. Charlie Taylor, not sure what went on, asked to play as part of a back 3, looked miles off it but a player who probably should be playing more considering the number of premier league starts he has under his belt. Attack Tall Paul - Woeful, positional sense seems off, work rate has dropped massively since he came back into the side. Not sure how he's become this cult favorite who everyone thinks has been wrongly treated, the last 2 performances have shown why he was rightly a fringe player for long periods. Sulemana - I am not sure if he was asked to play alongside tall paul as a 2nd striker but he seemed intent on lingering up front and leaving KWP massively exposed. There was the off flash of quality, he had 1 good run and played a decent cross field ball, but that was his whole contribution. Doesnt work nearly hard enough for the team or defensively, feels like we're a man down when he's on the pitch Dibling - Needs to come out the side now for me, he obviously has quality but I think his work rate defensively is sub standard. Showing less and less each game of what made us so excited about his talents, he's not strong enough in tackles, he's not doing enough defensively and he's not offering much going forward any more.

I’m pretty sure it was sulemana, immediately after the goal he was arguing with the bench

agreed, think its a decent fee. I suspect we also re-couped a fee when loaning him out last season too

Kevin Phillips - Thought we'd have the perfect "big man/small man" combo with him alongside Beattie. Dani Osvaldo - 1 Goal Every 2 Games for Roma, 3 Goals in 4 for Italy the year we signed him. Saints, Signing Italys Current Number 9!!! looked every inch the super star when he turned up and was a peak "Cortese" signing, honestly felt like it was the start of the club competing for the top 4. Ryan Bertrand - felt like at the time it was an extremely shrewd signing and was really excited!!! I thought he looked every inch the natural successor to Ashley Cole at Chelsea, every time I saw him play. When we were finishing 5th/6th/7th I thought for those 3 seasons he was probably the best left back in the league. Mr consistent for the majority of his time with us, maybe one of our best ever value signings in my eyes. Aaron Ramsdale - Dont think we've signed a player with a bigger reputation in some time

Comical Defending aside, frustratingly that’s a better performance than against forest. There’s positives, pretty much every signing looks like a step up in quality from what we have. Suga, Ramsdale, Fernandes, Archer, Lallana. Then we have Dibling coming in. familiar old faces letting us down today, Stephens, Adam Armstrong missing, Bednarek. As soon as Dibling/Fernandes came on they offered us soo much more, getting the ball on the half turn and allowing us to beat the press, it pushed the game 10/15 yards further up the pitch. Then we can play our possession game with our CBs closer to the half way line. With Smallbone constantly having his back to the opposition goal the ball always comes back to our CBs and allows opposition to press and puts us under pressure. Games after the international break will tell us if Martin is learning the harsh and quick lessons he needs to, we need to see more of the new signings/Dibling and less of the old guard, harsh maybe, but necessary, 4/5 have already proved why they’ve struggled at this level previously. if we see the same starting 11 against Utd than we did today, fans will turn on Martin

Worth Noting that the Turkish and Belgian transfer windows don’t close tonight, 2 weeks for Turkey and a week for Belgium so we could still see the likes of Tall Paul and ABK leave even if they’re still here at 11:01 tonight

Tough Watch. switching to the 5 at the back worked for us at the end of last season, made us harder to break down, got us through the playoffs after a thumping by Leicester, however I thought today the formation smothered our work. When you play 3 centre backs, 1 CB has to step into midfield in possession or a striker has to come deep (like che used to) otherwise your midfielders are overrun, that was the case until their goal and we switched to a back 4. One of our three centre backs never stepped up, the 2 front players were so so wide and never dropped inside. So we looked cluttered and slow in possession as our only option and free man being a ball back to the CBs or along the back 3, having the 2 strikers out wide also pushed the wing backs inside and into traffic... again slowing us down in possession. We never looked like scoring until the formation change. Few players also looked a bit lost\out of their depth today, Smallbone, Armstrong. lets hope it was more down to the formation than the levels. Dibling looks a positive

According to this https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/einnahmenausgaben/wettbewerb/GB1 We have the 7th Highest Net spend this summer (€-51.56m) and are 11th for money out (€63.15m) We know Leicester are likely to get a large points deduction in September but there are other clubs who are sailing extremely close to the wind when it comes to profit and sustainability rules, making it look like we are under spending, when we’re not. 1 bad season could see a few clubs in real trouble over the next season or so, we have to find that balance of spending enough to stay in the premier league but not risking the clubs future. I’d like to see us get a few loans in now and I suspect we wont see much movement until the last week of the window at this stage

At £7m I think he’s an excellent buy, was expecting £15m! I think he’ll get 10-15 goals in the prem. Seems to fit the Martin mould too, was at Blackburn with Armstrong and Taylor Harwood Bellis (Rothwell too) so we know what kind of character we are buying into. i think he’s an upgrade on Che, time will tell how much of an upgrade

I remember listening on the radio round my next door neighbours, I must have been about 11? can’t remember what radio station it was but they always used to play the piano riff of Bruce Hornsby’s that’s just the way it is at the final whistle 👌 I don’t remember much but I remember it being a must win and celebrating like made when we scored

Only just came back to pre-season, exetended break due to the euros

Lis looks terrible