notnowcato

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.

I can't work out whether us not losing or us scoring 2 was what triggered me to respond. Whispers from the training ground are that the CM pairing of Sule and Larios is looking shit hot 😂

Nah Juric's team selections are taking care of making his life more difficult.

If true, it just shows what a cluster fuck this operation is.

Unfortunately we have much bigger issues than which formation to play.

Playing players in EPL games to see if they’re what you what you want in the Championship?? What could possibly go wrong? Fuck me, what a load of bollox. He fucked up, again.

It’s only fair to look at Juric based on his time here and the hand he’s been dealt. There are varying opinions on the cards he has to play with, I’m firmly of the opinion that we have a relegation squad, have been since August. As for what I’ve seen of Juric’s team’s performance, I’m not convinced. I see no patterns of how we’re trying to win games, we’re living off scraps. There have been some frankly strange selections and our shape often shows a barren midfield.

Smallbone, obviously.

That midfield 😳

Essentially the defence / midfield is not good enough no matter what the formation, philosophy, fitness level etc etc. The gap between the best in the championship and 17th upwards in the EPL is massive. Ipswich have probably made the best fist of getting the right players in, adopted and adapted a style and have a decent manager but even they are more than likely to go straight back down.

Do we have to?

This. I see no obvious pattern or where we are trying to cause the oppo pain. We used to worry about no Plan B (a term I fucking hate) but I don’t see a chuffing Plan A. The second half became ridiculous we had zero presence in the middle. At one point you could have drawn a circle with a 30m diameter in the middle of pitch and no red and white in sight. Poor. Just really fucking poor.

Let’s hear what our Graham has to say…. MB has had a mare, think what you like about the owners but enquiring about JWP, I think not.