Greenridge

Couldn't agree more. Spot on observation.

According to SSN they spent 90% of their turnover on wages (06/07 I believe) and only Wigan spent more (100%). With their summer acquisitions of Crouch etc you'd have to imagine this has changed again. So clearly it's not sustainable but then it's the case for virtually all teams.

That's an interesting way to spin things. Lucketti and Pericard came from CCC teams did they not? By the same token Forecast, Pekhart and Cork are from Premiership clubs I believe.

I believe posts #57 and #60 on this thread both give independant references from the OS site itself that this was a factor.

A few people seem to be missing the obvious here and that you have to address the 'cause' and not the 'sympton'. The cause appears to be a combination of the formation and the players in that formation giving little or no cover to the full backs. It wouldn't matter if we had Micah Richards or Gary Neville at right back, without cover they will be exposed and the same goes for down the left. Mills looks to have some potential, especially going forward however James is struggling in all aspects of that there is no doubt.

I expect RaWA will make an apology. It's disappointing to see we have a two page thread discussing a term used by the wind-up merchant which I'm sure he'll be loving but there we go. It's of course difficult to make any kind of objective argument as to whether Pearson would have been better than JP but he had many qualities to suggest he would have done a decent job as he's proving at Leicester.

Sorry but you've lost me there. The circumstances of the two are not even remotely similar. Pearson came in at the end of the season to someone else's team that was rapidly in freefall and had to hit the ground running. JP had the whole of preseason and a team made up of personnel of his own choice.

It's quite convenient that you recognise the mess Burley inherited from Redknapp but not the mess Pearson inherited from Burley / Gorman / Dodd. There ends any credibility to your post.

Yes, would agree with you there Foxy. It has to be a combination of formation and application. At the Norwich game in particular it seemed pretty clear that Roeder had sussed our formation and put two very good 'wingers' out who pushed right up the pitch and virtually every attack was from wide positions and not up through the middle. I would expect other managers to make the similar decisions thus the problem repeating itself.

I think the formation we are playing is compounding the problem. Look back to when Saints were doing so well under WGS and the key factor was 'defending from the front' with the likes of Beattie and Ormerod chasing down and harrying the oppositions defenders. With our 4-2-1-3 or whatever you want to call it formation we are great going forwards but if the wide up-front guys don't track back then we're in big trouble. From what I've seen of Mills and James then they need some help from the team. In fairness any fullback would need this help but James in particular is struggling. It might be time to adopt a more conventional 4-4-2 approach and see how this works. It just might be that the team does fine.

Maybe we both have perceptions of each other wrong - as we have in the past. I would consider myself very much 'middle ground' on the situation at the club in that I can see some positive elements in the work RL and his team have done but also see that there are many negatives ones also. I have no bias either way and am more than happy to debate and take on board contributions from all 'sides'. Surely that is what a forum is for? Like you, from my limited knowledge of such matters I see absolutely no positives for the case of administration which could easily be the end of the road for SFC. I guess we'll continue to disagree but as long as it is an adult manner then I for one have no problems and like you wish for a brighter future for our club. Financial strength and a united Club (Board, Staff, Players and Fans) is the way forward but as we all know from bitter experience there appears to be no easy route to this.

I can't see how you can take that comment as offensive or arrogance but that is your choice. It was not meant as either. I am not saying you are wrong, my point is Nick is that debating with you is somewhat pointless as you only see the absolute positives of everything connected to SFC and RL in particular. It's clearly not just myself who find your perceived obsession with RL as somewhat intriguing. If you were able to acknowledge that not everything they touch turns to gold then maybe it would make the debating process more constructive. We all want the same thing and to achieve that we have to recognise there are some significant shortfalls in where we are right now.

This has been clear for some time however to a certain element on here you are not allowed to make such blasphemous comments. His problem is somewhat compounded by the formation which gives him little or no cover.

Thanks Jan for joining Santsweb, I'm sure you'll enjoy being a member on here! Seriously though let's keep our fingers crossed that this enforced strategy will work for SFC, afterall all fans want us back on track. I do raise a wry smile each week though to see the new posts whose emphasis is purely down to whether we've had a good or bad week with the two 'opposing' camps poised at their keyboards waiting to pounce....

I take it you think he played well on Tuesday then? Did you see the game out of interest?

And let's face it James in particular has plenty of room to develop. Whilst I accept he had little or no protection from DMG on Tuesday he has probably spent the rest of the week on the treatment table being unknotted.

I have to say I'm becoming increasingly fed up with every other new post on this forum being about fans / attendance. On page one alone we have the following (very closely) related threads: http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2530 http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2532 http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2563 http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2550 http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2527 I'm sure everyone appreciates the revenue from attendances is key to our future however people do not need to justify why they do or don't go to games and certainly not to uber-fans who come across as though they are better than others. Good football will bring them back and like it or not so will the Premiership. SFC is not alone in that attendances fall when droppping a division - it's a fact of life whether people find that hard to swallow or not. I'm open in that I don't go as much as I used too but I went last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. Let's try having a few more threads on football rather than the petty point scoring and one-upmanship that is so prevelant right now.

I'd say that was spot on Chez. Maybe would have given Robertson another point as I thought he was outstanding.

Didn't look like 4-4-2 to me if you are referring to last night? More like 4-2-1-3. Both Surman and Cork seemed to be very central in front of the two CB's with Lallana in a free roll and Robertson, Peckart and DMG up front (then switched to BWP / Robertson / DMG). It was this lack of wide midfilders that seem to cause us problems when Norwich attacked as there was no protection for James and Mills. On the attack we look very dangerous but we also looked exposed when they attacked us down the flanks.

Stunning performance from the new guy. He didn't look like a true left winger in those first 25 minutes and seems JP saw that as well. I was directly in line with him for his cracking goal. Once up the centre he gave us energy, running, good control, brought other players into the game and an eye for goal. If he carries on like his debut he will be a fantastic 'acquisition'.

Another painfully anal post to cause more derision and angst amongst the fan base. Well done. A moaner moaning about the moaners, how ironic.

James was horrific and that is no understatement. The 'problem' with our formation is there is no protection for the full backs. To operate with no wide midfield cover you need outstanding full backs and very mobile centre-halves. We don't have that. Robertson was outstanding and I was pleased to see JP recognise he was no left winger and put him straight up the middle. KD was also top drawer and his saves kept us in the game when it could have been very different. Norwich could easily have been 2 or 3 up in the first half. As for our 'penalty' well cough cough LOL!

Wes started it Miss, honestly it was Wes.

That's a matter of opinion I guess. If he was to try and stray from his restrictic vocabulary of 'flat caps, Lord Lowe, Golden Duo and class issues' then maybe he'd be funny but at the moment he is like a scratched record although how he gets so many bites does bring a wry smile I'll grant you.