notnowcato

Firstly I’ve not seen any evidence on the lack of fitness, I would be genuinely interested in seeing numbers on this rather than the subjective view. You could argue that had Joe not managed to get into position (through a lack of fitness) to deflect the shot then the ball sails into Ramsdale’s hands and we bag the 3 points.

We could’ve stuck with him, not saying we should have. It’s easier to look back than to look forward. We’re all entitled to our opinion, I think I was in the minority of actually enjoying, in the main, what we were trying to do. There were some low moments, equally we were a shade unlucky at times. One such moment I thought was the Ipswich equaliser, Joe got just enough of a deflection on the shot to make it unsaveable; if that doesn’t go in and we bag the 3 points then with a little confidence added we could’ve been much closer to Ipswich and Leicester. Who knows but we probably wouldn’t be worried about bettering Derby’s record.

There's no (little) rewriting going on, the only thing we're 100% certain on now is that the squad is simply and evidently not good enough to compete at this level, no matter what style, philosophy, formation is applied. It was a classic boardroom move to fire someone when the issue is clearly much greater than who the manager is.

Too simple to remember that we paid £3m more for Hoedt 2 years after purchasing VVD c.25% increase I do agree that overall, for whatever reasons, we're not able to attract the potential that we once were, your VVDs and your Mane's and we seem to have less money to do so but if ever a club has shown the ability to overspend on crap it's us. Recruitment isn't just about how much you spend, it's how wisely you spend it - equally the team environment has to be one that attracts the top young talent, currently we're massively underperforming on both budget and team environment.

As much as I agree with a lot of what you've written, point 4 I don't believe is achievable. The gap between PL and Championship is far too big to bridge, they're are effectively two very different competitions and you need two very different squads. Forest nailed it when they came up, many if not most pundits mocked the Forest approach said there was no chance 20 new players would gel to compete in the PL, now given what we've seen with the past 2 sets of teams promoted it seems the most likely way to succeed.

Apparently it is but I am just a simple man. Your point started off about us buying on the cheap and failing, something repeat something madness... you then listed several defenders, some of whom cost considerably more than the 2 (Double VD and Fonte) we were looking to replace on the cheap.

If we play a 3 against Liverpool, it will be a 5 otherwise the Mickey front 3 will be ripping us apart. Playing a 5 will have our midfield overrun. Why do I even care??

Fuck knows, was trying to make sense of your post.

Weren't Van Dijk and Fonte cheap compared to most of the other defenders you mentioned?

Whatever squad we go with I'd rather we spend fuck all and no THB style deals - no offence to THB - it just starts to limit your options. The squad needs some serious trimming, any gaps can be filled by loans. Should we gain promotion then we need to do a Forest, a complete clear out and buy a new squad that can compete for 17th spot.

I dunno, at some point the dressing room has to start taking some ownership of their part in this shit show. I think this group of players have very little credibility in determining the level of authority or respect the manager deserves. The one constant in this fuck fest of a season are the players and the board.... the two constants in this piss poor campaign so far are... I'm not a fan of the way Juric sets the team up or the complete lack of purpose they show but I also can sympathise with the hand he's taken on.

FFS please play a back 4 against Liverpool, it could be the difference between a respectable loss and them tearing us a new one.

So we only need 26 points then... cool, doable 🫠

So desperate to play 3 at the back we go with Bree, Jan and Joe; no offence to those 3 but I honestly can’t remember a worse defensive line selection in the 45 years I’ve been following Saints… of course it did get worse later in the game. Fucking dog shit.

For future reference…. it’s down and across for reverse gear.