StrangelyBrown

God willing!

"How do we guarantee relegation before march?"

Having called for NJ to go many times already, I'm now on the fence simply because there's the slightest glimmer of hope - I can see that the squad have a sense of togetherness and that there at least looks to be a semblance of a plan. Trouble is it's the hope that kills you.... Sadly the same problems persist - namely we have a young keeper who shouldn't really be starting in the prem yet, Che and the alternatives just aren't good enough to play up top by themselves (not enough quality) and we give the ball away far too easily. The latter is something that should come with a bit of confidence and a bit more coaching, the other 2 are in SR's hands. NJ has bought himself a tiny bit of time, but he needs some results in the league very quickly. A bit of crowd interaction would help buy him some favour, but I think he'd rather chew his nails.

A funny game today, it seemed like we were in the game all the way through and the result hinged on very fine margins - a different day we get a goal rather than it being chalked off. Villa are masters of the darker side of the game and properly conned the ref - every time a player received the ball with their back to goal you knew they were going to get a foul, but fair play to them for doing so. What is becoming more and more apparent is that Bazunu simply isn't good enough, that we give the ball away far too cheaply and that Che just doesn't offer quite enough quality. Fix those three things and we stay up. Don't and I think we won't. Having been a fierce critic of NJ I don't think he's particularly to blame for today's result (apart from some iffy subs and timing of the second set of changes) and I'd argue that on average he is slowly getting us playing better. What is clear is we are still in need of some serious upgrades.

Fair play to NJ and the team. That showed some proper bottle.

100% this.

“I have ignored everything really. Some of it’s justified, some of it’s not. I think I’ve handled myself with real dignity in recent weeks.” Not exactly true NJ...

I don't disagree with you that singing "your football is shit" wasn't the way to deal with things and agree that booing at the end of the game would have been more appropriate. I also think you're talking a lot of sense re going after opposition players. I don't agree re the being one of us. NJ made his bed when he very deliberately avoided using language like "we", "us", etc after each of the first few games - it was so reminiscent of saggy chops who also refused to take responsibility for his failures. It seems NJ is lacking the humility to be a really good leader and admit his mistakes. If he simply came out and said sorry I fucked up he would get a lot more respect.

I don't think the club or NJ should be expecting fans to blindly follow without voicing an opinion. As fans we invest a lot of emotion and money into the club, but we get no say in how that investment is used. Rightly or wrongly NJ is an unpopular choice and should earn the backing of the fanbase - he and the club have no right to expect people's backing without challenge and if the club were in touch with the fanbase they should have known it was a difficult appointment and should have prepared NJ for a difficult start. Had the club chosen someone more popular I think people would have been a bit more forgiving. If the club appear to have made a mistake (whether true or not) fans should be able to vent their frustration just as much as giving their adulation when things are going well. NJ would do better to let his results do the talking rather than "giving it back". Or do you think that fans should blindly follow the club's decisions without voicing an opinion?

We'll undoubtedly have to play someone like city if we progress far enough in the fa cup - do we throw the towel in at that point?

Not sure what the logic is here, we played a strong team against Palace which suggests we're not throwing the towel in for the cups and then we put out this team. I get the "rest the team argument" and I know it's about timing, but we're within a couple of games of a final - It would make more sense to rest players for the fa cup game. Just plain bizarre team selection.

"I would imagine, the next two to three weeks, you'll see a good balance in the work that we do.” Is this a commitment to improved performance in 2 to 3 weeks or just imagining it just might happen (God willing)?? To me it looks like he's set the timescale for us to judge him. If it's still shit in 3 weeks then he has to go.

Agreed, but Bazunu can kick a ball to our team... McCarthy can't. They're both shit and we should have better. The fact we're still in this league having had such bad keepers for so long is astounding. Even more astounding is that we've done nothing to make anything better so far...

I'm not sure Bazunu is worse than McCarthy? It's easy to forget how shit he is when you haven't seen him for a while.

And yet he's also said this... So not sure what he's shouldering responsibility for??? He's taking responsibility for 2 "harsh" results. "Two results have been harsh this week. In terms of Fulham away, I thought we were excellent, I really did. [We were] really structured - I thought we were the better side. We limited them to very, very little." Excellent at Fulham???? Seriously. Some of the worst football I've see saints play in years.

Fair play to NJ for a win today, but I'll remain unconvinced until we start to put together some football that creates goals and win games without relying on set pieces and forced errors. The football needs to improve, but at least there is a glimmer of something better. Can't say his interviews are endearing though, but then again if he can deliver decent football and results then I'm sure he'll be forgiven for being as much of a bellend as he likes.

I'm really worried now... After Wednesday I thought he'd be gone before the Palace game, but he's still here, has shouldered no responsibility for the utter shite he's served up and is talking about being judged in a number of months. With most of the fanbase against him and with us getting worse not better this really isn't going to end well unless SR act now.

There's only two words I want to hear from NJ now: "I resign". There's literally no excuse and god clearly isn't willing...

Jones needs to resign - there shouldn't be any sort of compensation for this level of incompetence. Hopefully his in-laws will have a word...

Having taken time to reflect on yesterday's performance, what worries me most about the current situation is SR seem to have thrown away "the Southampton way" in favour of a more direct/long ball approach which we are poorly equipped for and could require a rebuild of the club's playing staff from top to bottom. For me it feels like the wrong time and circumstances for a significant change like this. I'm not sure why NJ believes that was a good performance (aside from the two moments we switched off) - while the second half was better than the 1st we really were poor on the ball for most of the game and seemed to be far too content to let Fulham play - although admittedly we did have more than a couple of decent chances. If this is what good looks like then I can see NJ's tenure being very difficult even if he starts to get some results. On a positive note where NJ is concerned at least there was a semblance of a plan. With the new SR approach, I do wonder if we're going to be able to attract the same calibre of technically able players (like Lavia and Edozie) and whether we may switch our attentions to more physical athletic players instead? I guess January will be pretty revealing...

Yes, but fortunately the club has become part of fabric of something much bigger irrespective of religion, race, sexuality, ... So I'm not sure what point you are trying to make?

To be fair it is NJ that time and again brings religion into the conversation... Football is no place for religion (or politics for that matter). Sometimes an appointment is clearly wrong on day one; it was wrong with Branfoot, wrong with Wigley, wrong with Gray, wrong with Pellegrino... Are fans not entitled to recognise the signs and call it out for what they think it is?

Which suggests either he hasn't been able to inspire the players and get them onside or we haven't managed to recruit high quality premier league players who are capable of learning (at least the basics of) a new system in 6 weeks. I know where my money is.

He clearly isn't, but with him in charge doing what he had been doing I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have lost to Brighton and we would grind a win or two out of the next two games - but it would be painful watching. With Jones in charge I'm doubtful we'll get any points out of the next 2 which are games we simply have to get points from if we want to stay up.

You forgot the bit where he says: I haven't got a turd polisher or any other sort of polisher, so I guess the best I can do is recall Jan bednarek as he's a turd and also polish