Dan Johnson

Found a way to win today, when the performance didn’t deserve it, which is exactly what Ipswich done against us a few weeks back, so I’m chuffed, because up until the winner, it felt like we were finding a way to bloody lose it! the result is obviously hugely more important than the performance at this stage of the season, so let’s keep the focus on the positives, 5 more wins and we’re promoted automatically in my opinion. the way we won might be the most significant thing about today, the results going our way, the last minute winner… the squad will feel the momentum swinging in our favour. freshen the squad up for Tuesday. Brooks, Stephens, aribo and Adam Armstrong all need rests.

Logged on to say the same thing 😄 got to be there to score them I suppose, king of the "Bundle" goal

I’ve felt the Charlie move was inevitable over the last few weeks, his appearances in the league have been restricted to 5-10 minute cameos and with the Rothwell signing adding more competition you had to wonder which player was likely to move on, with Charlie the most likely. £35m option is good money. Gutted it hasn’t worked out as well as we’d all hoped it would this season, it’s allot easier to swallow than it would have been last Summer, though. Amazing to think if Charlie leaves, the only players remaining and born outside of the UK will be Laros, Sulemana, Mara and Bednarek. I wonder if one of the strategies is to buy players from the home nations!?

I bloody love a last minute goal. I can not understand for the life of me, fans that are complaining about them. It’s the best way to win a game!? Surely there’s no better indication of the teams desire and determination than a last minute goal, trying till the very end. Im old enough to remember the Man Utd of the 90s, you just knew they’d always score late because they never gave up, the famous Chmspions League final commentary sticks in my head “can they score, they always score”they never gave up, “Fergie time” it was called back then. i had that same feeling watching us today, attack after attack in that second half, I just knew we’d score. 87th minute winner vs Sheff Wed 97th minute equaliser vs Norwich 94th minute winner vs Plymouth 95th minute winner vs Hull 96th minute equaliser vs Preston 93rd minute winner vs Millwall Some of the football in the second half was just immense to watch, it really was.

Yep, completely agree. 7 Pts from Leeds at home, Stoke away, Rotherham at home. Bitterly disappointed to not take the 3pts today, but I'd have taken that points return from those 3 fixtures at the beginning of the season every day of the week!

Frustrating result, should have won but 7pts out of 9 from the those last 3 games is a decent return. hope the fan who suffered a medical emergency is recovering, very distressing scenes

Hoping we come out of this game with a positive goal difference. 4-0/5-0 I hope 🤞

I’m absolutely gutted After our first 4 league games I really thought we’d turned a corner and found the right man. Im trying to be as pragmatic as possible, the last two defeats and the last 3 goals have all come about through individual mistakes, ordinarily you’d not blame the manager for glaring mistakes made by players. Excluding the mistakes made by Charles/Holgate/Harwood-Bellis for the last 3 goals we’ve conceded, Downes/Smallbone/Manning/KWP/Charles/Harwood-Bellis/Holgate have all given the ball away on multiple other occasions that could and probably should have led to us conceding more! This isn’t by trying to play difficult/intricate passes, we’re talking the inability to play 4/5 yard passes to a team mate and instead playing straight into the oppositions feet or dwelling on the ball for too long. Why is that?? Burns from Ipswich said after the game “It was easy to read where their passes were going, and you saw a lot of the time that they were kicking balls away, off the field or straight to us, because we’re shutting angles that we know they want to play” Is our intensity so poor in training that those angles are open in training but not in games, lulling the mgmt and players into a false sense of security that we have the personnel to play a specific way? Martin is cultivating an environment where he wants us to be “Brave”, individuals mistakes aren’t being punished by the manager if their in-line with how we’re looking to play, but those mistakes are consistently costing us points, so in that context Martin is as culpable for those individuals mistakes as the players, it’s clear mistake’s are indicative of the way Martin is trying to have us play and the environment he’s created. Team selections and substitutions have been questionable and sometimes it’s easy to point at those to berate the manager but we don’t know the ins and outs of players fitnesses/how they’ve been training/their mentality etc so I don’t want to look too much into that. However there is a point to make about selections when it comes to consistently picking players who are making mistakes and cultivating that environment of “bravery” where individuals mistakes go unpunished by the manager. Players who consistently make mistakes should be dropped, no question! lastly, post match interviews, consistently talking absolute bollocks!!! Against Leicester we were an embarrassment, every Saints fan and media publication write up saw it that way too ”Leicester tear through terrible Southampton” ”Leicester thrash woeful Southampton” Yet the manager says “I am proud of the players” And talks about how it was a close game we just didn’t take our chances. Post match interviews have been the biggest red flag for me, scarily so. It’s shown arrogance not bravery. Bravery would be playing his style, putting in good performances, conceding goals we can do little about and losing games by small margins due to the oppositions quality. Arrogance is playing his style, making mistakes, handing the opponents goals and games, refusing to change the style or the personnel to steady the ship, blaming the issues on the clubs past. My last complaint is about intensity, the complete lack of it. This should be the absolute minimum of expectations! I thought when JWP left our intensity might increase and the side ways passing would end however it hasn’t and if anything, JWP has clearly shown that he can play with intensity since he’s left, so the issue is clearly with our group of players and the way they’re being motivated. I’m not calling for Martins head yet, but I’m watching the angry mob from outside my window considering whether I want to join them. Leeds is simply a must win

I’ve been an advocate for Russell Martin, he’d won me over and felt like the long term appointment we needed but that post match interview is a massive red flag!!! What game was he watching!?! We we’re desperately weak in midfield today, Downes and Smallbone both utterly terrible and both extremely weak. We lacked physicality tonight, they both let players run through and past them consistently. Every single player was guilty of misplacing multiple simple 3 yard passes. Edozie looked good going forward but he leaves us so hugely exposed defensively, 3rd goal he didn’t stay tight, let the man run off him and it resulted in a goal. Charles needs to play in midfield as the holding midfielder.

Man of the match again for me today.

Has he signed yet?

JWP to West Ham Stephens Captain Martin confirmed another player coming in opposite direction on loan as part of the JWP agreement, didnt name names but though to be Flynn Downes Expects more to leave in the next 3 weeks Lavia not featuring tomorrow

JWP & Lavia Out Gustavo Hamer, Matt Grimes, James McAtee in

He looks excellent, the kind of player I’d love to see on a saints shirt. reminds me a bit of Hammand during our promotion years but with a little more quality on the ball

100% I said to my mates, he really feels like someone you can get behind from the start. The fact Tella celebrated with him after the first goal 10 minutes into the season says allot about how the players view him. 💪

He dislocated his shoulder twice during the season so I am wondering whether he's had to have surgery on it. If he did, then that's a 4-5 months recovery. Odd we havent heard anything about him though

"The 19-year-old is a good reader of the game and is impressive technically but remains somewhat error prone." From this article... https://arsenalyouth.wordpress.com/2023/05/31/report-zach-awe-to-leave-arsenal-this-summer-in-search-of-first-team-football/ Sounds about right for us

An entertaining game in the end with lots of positives but the same old mistakes by the same players. firstly, last nights game drove home the fact I won’t be sad if any of last seasons squad moved on, even those classed as the better players of the squad make simple mistakes or look lacking in quality KWP, Adams, Lyanco, Lavia, Djenepo, McCarthy all very poor last night. Bazunu let’s it soft goals but his distribution is miles better than McCarthys so I expect Baz to be our number 1. I thought Charles looked a bit lost for the first 20 minutes but seemed to grow in to the game quickly and finished the first half strongly even before his goal. Manning looked like a player who knew the system and what was expected of him but was playing alongside players that didn’t. I think he’ll be a good signing, intelligent player but hard to show it in the shit show of the first 20 minutes. Djenepo is an enigma, can be the player that opens up defences but also so frustrating, step overs in the middle of your own half are just not needed, seems to make the wrong decisions regularly. KWP has dropped off a cliff edge, 18 months ago he’d probably moving to a top six club and was arguably our best player, can’t see anyone willing to take the risk at the moment and makes just as many mistakes as everyone else at the moment. Adams offered so little last night, I don’t think he’ll suit the way we intend to play so I expect him to move on. Smallbone… what a revelation. If there was one of our players being linked with a £40-£50m move to a top six club you’d think it was him on his last two showings. He’s going to be a massive player for us this season. From what I’ve seen so far in pre season I’ll go as far as saying he’ll be our most important player. We could have done with him last season. Tella, dangerous and direct, again why on earth did we waste £20+m on players in January when we had him on the books already. Been impressed with Armstrong in pre season, looking Sharpe. Stu came on and proved he’s still a quality player who I think has been criminally over looked by our last few managers. all in all, I think there’s a decent starting 11 who can play the system and know what’s expected of them and have the quality to get us close to the top, whether the other 11 or so fringe players we have are good enough is another question!!

He’s on a different level to half our team and it’s very clear.

You have to wonder if anyone will come in for JWP. I thought him moving to West Ham was pretty much nailed on with Rice moving. But it seems West Ham are being linked with younger players around the £40m mark. I can’t see any top 8 side coming in for him… Maybe he’ll stay 🤔

I hope he performs, we’ve spent a big fee before and they’ve not performed, if that happens it will be like history repeating…

Fantastic fee. He’s a very good defender in one on one situations but he’s not a great footballer with the ball. He’s also prone to a mistake/sloppy play. i think he’s the kind of player who has a purple patch and a great run of games where he looks like a world beater by putting in the odd eye catching tackle but for the main part in every other aspect of his game he’s very replaceable. Personally thought he was our worst performing Center back last season (admitting Lyanco) and was one of the reasons the bad run of results started. (Said so at the time to friends) I wasn’t surprised to see him dropped. We’ve been blessed with top quality CBs since our return to the prem (VVD, Lovren, Alderweireld) I was hopefully based on the first few performances we’d found another in Salisu but after a few seasons I don’t think he’s at their level and personally don’t think he’ll ever get close to it, if anything his performances have been on the decline for the last 18 months. whether that’s been due to a commitment issue to the club (or even his professionalism) or not, I don’t know. id much rather see stephens at CB than Salisu. I think Salisu offers more as an out and out defender but stephens overall game is better

https://www.westhamzone.com/players/southampton-could-re-sign-danny-ings-as-west-ham-united-exit-development-emerges/ reported here too

I rate Che and think he’s a decent player, however the weakest part of his game at prem level is his finishing. I think the term “support striker” suits him perfectly, his hold up play is exactly what’s needed to take the pressure off the defence at times and he “puts himself about a bit” He also has great positional sense which is how he seems to score most of his goals however he’s not a natural finisher. his game is more suited to the premier league in the late 90s/early 00s and is comparable to the likes of Duncan Ferguson, Heskey, I suspect they all have similar goal ratios, roughly 1 in 5. Good for 7-10 goals a season. id keep him personally, I think he’ll be a 20 goal a season striker in the championship where his physical attributes will suit the league better

Oršić leaving official https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/news/article/orsic-completes-trabzonspor-move?fbclid=IwAR03LwnVC17xIu9JIJxx2r9NPDn5xpDZVvZF1b8d_E3Zw494_Q8OfON8MUg_aem_AZXZ0ic1UcHB0TLMGIEnpxwjhV_EJFTUtqFK84d2-2lv51gpkoAnvaqFgPe3M5tD9r4