bugenhagen

That's what we should have done, tbf. We started to play and gifted them the goal. Who knew?

Yeah - if I had a little glimmer of hope left...

For me, this the telltale sign that things are going wrong. Use fewer players and get better results. I thought we loved stats...

Good post! There is always a new trend in football, and soon after a newer one trying to conquer the former. There are times when passing can be good to keep the ball, control the pace of the game or even draw out the other team. A more direct forward play, high-press or even route one can be beneficial at other times. I understand that every manager will have a philosophy, but for gods sake: You are not betraying your principles by adapting as the game changes. Koeman probably did this best in my opinion. Whatever style we end up with next I will probably allways favor the more fluid approach over the rigid.

The most Saintsy way for this to unfold would be for Rasmus and Kraft to convince (or con for short) another money-man or consortium (we do love those) to buy out Dragan...😄

When Dibling played him through against Ipswich. Probably some speed over distance there.

No, no, no, no

This: Recepie for disaster!

So we can hope for a few more crosses coming in from him this season then?

I wasn't paying close attention tonight, but surprised I missed this: The changes had an instant impact with Saints needing less than five minutes to pull a goal back, Harwood-Bellis adjusting well to stoop down and head in from Fabrice Fernandes' cross for his first Premier League goal. https://www.skysports.com/football/bournemouth-vs-southampton/report/505858 We are so bad at creating anything that we needed a cross from 20 years ago to score?

This is going to be a difficult job to improve on, even if it should be easy. The combination of the manager and the players are evidently not good enough for this division. The only thing we can change short term is the manager, so... hey-ho, let's go! I liked the idea of how we have tried to play under Martin, and I found it entertaining when it worked for large parts of last season, but one important factor was that the qualty of our squad was better, or on par with our opponents most weeks. We shipped a lot of goals, and our CB's are still the same this season... and relative to the quality of the league our forward players are weaker. There was probably something like a snowballs chance in hell that sticking stubbornly to our principles was going to work - but I am a man of hope, and thought maybe something would click, and some (or a lot) of the players would take the PL by the balls, I don't know... either way, the smart money was not on that outcome.

Bring on Tall Paul, and we have a hattrick of poor first touch up front

Fight, determination and passion. The least you can give. Come on. And right now I celebrate it?!? 😉

Maybe we can rename these build up threads, the “slow, pedestrian build up thread” in honour of our playstyle? 😉

Wait... where does Stephens fit? 😉

Yeah, I agree - just hope that he is interested in signing a new contract.

If there is hope, it lies somewhere within here. I don’t know what he tells the players, but even if he says keep the ball at all costs, I would hope that the players soon figure out that you don’t put your fellow teammates in such difficult situations, even if you are told to keep the ball. There is also football intelligence that lets you know when it is probably ok to put a teammate in a difficult situation and when it is not. Some of our players are not showing that. At the end of the day Martin has to adapt to keep his job. He won’t abandon his principles, may not even acknowledge that he has changed something, but the bottom line is what we have seen so far won’t work. We have to adjust.

Happy to see him back. I value a player who puts the team first, and himself second. He brings a different directness on the pich, and will be a very good squad player. He will probably start most matches on the bench, but if he hits a purple patch or two for us during the season when someone else is struggeling for form or injured, it will be worth it. Welcome back, Wee Man!

He may not be particularly interested in playing for Saints, but maybe he had a wake up call and figured out that he needs to play for himself or the future of his own career. If that motivation is strong enough I would keep him.

Turn, and run forward...

Two weeks rolling...

Better than the lineup in the Saints app

Don’t be silly, there is no such filter. They are using the value for money filter, but have forgotten to exclude “Players injured a lot” 😉

Well, if we had signed Bijlow we would still be up poo creek, but with a fractured paddle…

If you fail our medical you must really be fucked!