vectraman

Which in fairness to AA is not his fault! We knew what we were buying last year - a forward who likes a quick through ball to run onto, outpace defence and score. Our turgid slow play doesn’t give that option to him. Surely you play a system to suit your players strengths, not their weaknesses…. Or not as the case may be…

Could go one of two ways… Saints, brilliant, sit top of the league on the crest of a wave… Or… Like the Titanic, Saints are sinking beneath the waves to the Championship…

Time will tell if the new spine of our side is any good or not. None of them have played in the premier league before, all are very young and inexperienced. Could be fantastic signings, may be not. No one knows! For sure though, they need to be good enough to be starting our first game, because we need first team starters not ones for the future…. If next season starts with any of Bednarek, Redmond, McCarthy, Moi, Long, Lyanco, Stephens in the starting 11 we have failed this summer with recruitment! 🤞we have chosen wisely

Agree - we definitely need to spend money on midfield and forward options, back up right back/centre back when we have one is a waste of scarce cash I’d say…

I also don’t think our plodding slow build ups help his game either. He needs a quick through ball to run onto, he gets lethargic build up play sideways, sideways, backwards, sideways which enables teams to reset and get everyone behind the ball leaving no space to run into. Ralph’s doing I’m sure (obsessed with not losing the ball - but we do sod all with it either at anything other than snail pace). Ralph’s set in stone ‘strategy’ is I’m sure why our forwards have scored so few goals, service is strangled by slow build up play. It’s not as though we concede less goals playing cautiously either 🙄

Agreed. Wembley cup semi final, live on tv, biggest stage possible, and the useless Lemina strolled around in a way that I don’t think could have said “I don’t give a f*ck” more clearly. Useless oxygen thief whose ego was massively greater than his ability shown with Saints…😡

Angus Gunn and Paulo Gazzaniga would suggest otherwise…. We really should just spend the cash and bring in an experienced No1 keeper and not another young lad. Suicidal decision making if we go down the ‘for the future root’ when the keeper is a critical position. I’m fully expecting Alex McCarthy in goal for the first game next season, and preparing to be underwhelmed by our summer business. I hope I’m wrong 🤞🤞

I’d love to know the stats for us giving the ball away. Simply appalling Saints. Diallo and Tella are particularly poor. Broja not in the game because he’s lacking one crucial thing - the ball. No one can pass the ball to him. Our midfield is just so weak and ineffective without Romeu in it.

Backs to the wall horrible scrappy 1-1. 🤞🤞 Screw their winning the league up - please 😀😀

Newcastle United are looking to tempt Roma boss Jose Mourinho to St James' Park this summer despite the recent success of current Magpies manager Eddie Howe (Marca via Express) Above is from BBC football gossip today. If there is any truth in it then it’s staggering they’d sack Howe after he has turned them around this season 😮

Yeah it did. Last five home games all goalless for Saints with turgid possession for possessions sake football. Those saying he is a lost messiah have forgotten how boring the football at home was…. Especially playing for a 0-0 at home with the might Hapoel. Which is why the amazing European adventure ended. Leicester also found him, err, less than adequate and he got sacked there too. So with a better squad he also failed to meet expectations…..

I’d go and buy a Toyota Corolla, dull, functional, reliable with a little care. Ralph can’t - it’s got no future sell on value we are told. He’d buy a boy racer Fiesta, go faster spoilers and big bore exhaust. It’d break down regularly, and of no use as a car. It’d be called a Djenepo or similar. Eventually the MOT will run out and we will scrap it for nothing, having spent thousands trying to get it running reliably…..

An experienced centre back and goalkeeper would be sensible I think. Positions where nippers are too exposed…

Because it will make the asking price higher if Berlin have to give some of that cash to Liverpool….

Wise words 👍😀

Can’t disagree with most of your thinking there. We absolutely must have:- A first choice keeper. Not Forster. For 4.5 years we have regretted having him on a reputed 75k a week. He is not suddenly a world beater. He has had a few good games granted, but he really isn’t all that. Flapped at Leeds, flapped last night when Burnley scored the disallowed 3rd goal ( I mean he just flapped the ball straight at Rodriguez, and by luck it was disallowed. Totally crap keeping). As a keeper you should be pushing the ball out to the sides to safety. Even against Chelsea, he flaps the ball back into the danger zone but people say great save…..I’m not fooled. Criticise me if you want but I’m sorry he is just not the answer to our keeper problem. A starting quality centre back. Salisu on his day is decent (been awful recently, I think he’s thinking he’s off to greater pastures….) no one else is a good enough quality starter. Need an experienced CB, not some nipper who can have a sell on value one day, maybe. Evans at Leicester as an example. Of the type of player we need. Experienced head, knows what it’s about, can help our younger players improve. Assuming Broja can’t be retained we need a striker. No idea who or where from. But with Che on 7 goals, JWP on 7 and Broja on 6, the bar isn’t high….However, I think our strikers struggle due to lack of decent service…..leading us nicely onto… A creative number 10. We haven’t got one. In fantasy land a pacey player, who can take on and beat someone and play a quality through ball/cross. A Mahrez type player, but for £10 million…..not asking much I know 🤣. As a Saints fan, I know we could do with all of the above. But….. If I was the Saints owner, I’d be in this quandary. We may finish between 10th and 15th. Prize Money difference £10 million. Invest £50/60/70 million to gain maybe 5 premier league places (£10 million). No. Makes no financial sense at all. That is I believe the issue. There is nothing to gain by investing bigger, realistically you aren’t going to get better than 8th regardless, unless you put in hundreds of millions. Which we never ever will. So survive, stay up, is all we ever will strive for. Sorry that’s my logical head, and I can’t see anyway it’ll be anything but this… Mediocrity until we go down. Which we will. I want to be wrong, I’m a Saints fan. Please someone tell me why my outlook is wrong. Genuinely!

That twat Carragher is surely the most irritating, annoying pundit on tv. He has a voice like fingernails down a blackboard. I would pay to watch Martin Tyler fuck him. Preferably with a crowbar.

Ralph stating in today’s echo interview that there are actively looking at offering a contract to Fraser Forster…..

Wouldn’t argue against any you’ve mentioned - I think Pukki would be worth a punt, he couldn’t be less prolific than what we’ve got!

Because we don’t want an unknown quantity in goal. It’s the key position and we can’t afford to buy a nipper from abroad with no PL experience, and then find he is gash. And end up with McCarthy in goal again who is mediocre. yes abroad may be better value - but only if they end up any good! I don’t care if abroad is better value, I’m not paying. I just want a good quality number 1 keeper. I’m a Saints fan, not an accountant.

Forster has played fantastically well last few games, just like he did 5 years ago. We gave him a lucrative 5 year deal and for most of it he has been mediocre. No way does he deserve a new deal as number 1. McCarthy also should not be number 1. I so hope we have a new number 1 lined up and get him in early. Please not Johnstone - he has been crap for WBA this season. We need an experienced goalkeeper with PL experience. Not a nipper. We do not want to start next season with McCarthy in goal.

Well played Saints - you can do it when set up Properly. Well done Ralph for changing the formation 👍

Right Saints, keep it tight, get your bodies on the line, and go out and win this 2-0! It’s time we turned up and put a performance in for the St Mary’s faithful 🤞🤞

Got to play tighter and harder to get through… Forster KWP. Stephens. Bednarek. Salisu. Peraud. Armstrong. JWP. Romeu. Moi. Broja. Play difficult to get through, play on the break with KWP and Peraud getting forward with their pace, playing in Broja through a stretched Arsenal high defensive line 🤞🤞

Generally there are two ways team play away, everyone compact and hard to get through (Burnley, Newcastle, Watford and dare I say it Chelsea) and they look to hit you in the break. Or on the front foot, high line, possession football like Arsenal, Liverpool, City etc. We are generally terrible against teams that play deeper and stifle midfield. Chelsea, despite their recent poor home form, have let in just 9 goals away from home all season. Yep, just 9. I know that, I’m sure Ralph knows it. So you don’t set up with a weak 2 man midfield. That’s insane. You play deep, compact and try and hit them on the break. I’d have had Stephen’s in the back alongside Salisu and Bednarek, at least he plays with his heart on his sleeve and gets stuck in unlike most of our ‘nice’ players (and I know he’s not gifted technically, but his effort is there). Play deep, make it hard to play through, try and snatch a breakaway goal. we did nothing like this. Ralph really has no answer to compact teams (especially a quality one). Oh for us to have a horrible nasty dislikeable player like Alonso in our team. We are too nice, too inflexible, too one dimensional with our tactics. Getting beat by a good side, yes of course it happens. Making it easy with no backbone, fight, grit, determination or purpose is inexcusable.