Shandy_Top_89

Just raking this thread back up for a second to actually say something positive. I felt there was a vast improvement in service at the ground for the Leicester game, fastest queues I have experienced at St Mary's (actually served in under 5 mins at half time). It was nice to watch Wolves - Man City with a beer before hand and I actually noticed some of the increased product range. I'm now going to need a sick bucket after writing the ultimate 'satisfied customer' post. But I felt I need to give credit where it was due. Shame about the football part of the day....

While I agree that the atmosphere can be a bit muted at times, I don’t think that we are any different from most PL teams, and given the clubs form at home the atmosphere should be stone dead by now. The atmosphere against Leicester was pretty good until Højbjerg decided to perform his dying swan act and even then it wasn’t silence, more incorrectly directed anger at Jon Moss. I would also say that I’ve found most PL grounds welcoming. I don’t think the atmosphere is so bad that it is is dragging the teams performances down, if anything it would definitely be the other way around. Placing away fans next to our core support helps the atmosphere and I like how we surround them with the Itchen corner, I actually don’t think any movement would help things.

Different from last year where a lot of defeats were down to sheer lack of quality. This was down to blunt laziness and stupidity instead. Although I didn’t like the initial line up I think the first 55 mins showed Hughes had it right, even if the subs were strange. Højbjerg needs to be taken out and shot for that though. Clean through but opts to back up to try and draw a foul which telegraphed to the ref what he was about to do, then blatantly dives on a yellow card. Although on refllection opting to risk a sending off, rather than taking a shot when through on goal is about the most Saints thing I have ever seen. Lazy defending for their equaliser, sleeping for their winner. Players let Hughes down today.

Vestergaard (based on 1 game though) Yoshida Bednarek Stephens Hoedt Stephens at least had half a decent season under Puel. Also he is good on the ball, despite his struggles with positioning and in the air, so there is at least one positive. Hoedt has nothing.

-----------------McCarthy---------------- -Cedric-Vestergaard-Yoshida-Bertrand- -----Prowse---Armstrong---Lemina----- -----Redmond----Ings---Elyounoussi--- Subs; Gunn, Bednarek, Targett, Romeu, Højbjerg, Gabbiadini, Austin. In reality it will probably be Hoedt and Stephens again and a 4-4-2 featuring Gabbi or Austin instead of Armstrong.

Mandatory Tahar El Khalej mention.

I mean, its great if they are following up on this. However, did anyone actually see any of these changes in action (bar signage)? Or is this supposed to be a work in progress?

I was waiting for a thread to appear about service at St Marys today. It made me laugh after the supporters survey, how things had very obviously declined even further today. When the thread was up for the survey a sizable number of people noted the issues with queuing and lack of variety. So the clubs reaction over the summer was to change the signage, install eye bleed inducing red skirting along the pitch, introduce action cheese entry music from some generic b movie as the pitch entry music and add some random pyrotechnics that no one could give a toss about. Meanwhile queues have got worse (today is the worst I have ever seen it and that's saying something, because it was consistently dire before), the product range hasnt changed, prices have gone up and the screens in the stand were displaying the line ups from the Man City game last season. Extremely shoddy stuff that almost yells 'We have you by the balls, who gives a **** if you have a good time'. Its even worse when you compare it to the Rose Bowl, which by and large is a great day out, even if Hampshire are trash.

At 55 mins I was despairing. Hughes performed an anti Pellegrino and changed the game with an effective double sub / formation change. McCarthy 8 - Great saves, dodgy distribution, but he was facing suicide passing from the CB’s, particularly Hoedt. Stephens 6 - Not his best, but just about okay. Solid defensive RB after 55 mins, couldn’t do the forward work though. Vestergaard 8 (Motm) - Absolutely excellent, looks like the missing puzzle piece. Strong in the air (as he should be), but also good on the ground. Especially when you consider that he spent the whole game having to bail out Stephens (a bit) and Hoedt (a lot). Hoedt 2 - Garbage, an absolute liability. I have seen nothing in him apart from his first couple of games to suggest he will ever improve. Yoshida instead please, permanently. Cedric 6 - Not too bad, not too good. Borderline invisible in fact. Bertrand 7 - Good going forward, however we seemed to be leaving a gap between him and Hoedt at the back that Burnley repeatedly exploited in the first half. This may be down to Hoedt though. Romeu 6 - Solid, I actually don’t think he had that bad a game even in the first half, but like everyone else dramatically improved second. Lemina (First half 1, Second half 7) - Absolutely atrocious pre subs, totally wasteful, losing possession at every opportunity, then a different player immediately, with some good orchestration from the centre. Armstrong 7 - Best player first half, lots of energy on display and was the only player really putting Burnley under pressure at that time. Hope his injury isn’t a bad one. Redmond 7 - Good game, but as per usual takes a lot of flak from the stands. Can appear to be frustrating, but 9/10 he knows what he is doing and is unpredictable for the opposition. Creates quite a few opportunities for others through this. Austin 6 - Totally isolated first half, best spell of the game came in the brief period where both him and Ings were on though, seemed to play off of each other well. Subs; Ings 7 - I was sceptical before today, but if he can have the effect over 90 mins and not get hit by injury he will be talismanic for us. Early days but superb impact, great distribution and full of energy and attacking intent. Elyanoussi 7 - played like Tadic on a good day + good crossing and corners. Played really well off of Bertrand and Ings. Promising signs. Along with Ings totally changes the complexion of the game. Gabbiadini 6 - Didn’t seem to be quite as effective as Austin when alongside Ings, still I’m quite confident in him and expect some good performances this season. Quick question if anyone gets this far in my essay - Were Austin and Ings once Burnley’s front two in the Championship, or was Austin there before Ings? Just out of curiosity.

Honestly would rather see Long shipped out ahead of Gallagher.

To give you a straight answer - No I wouldn’t.

After that ****e I’d throw the whole pre season strategy and go 4-3-****ing-3 ——————-McCarthy———————- -Cedric—Vestergaard-Yoshida-Bertrand- ——-Prowse—-Romeu—-Lemina ——Gabbiadini—Austin—Elyanoussi Subs; Gunn, Stephens, Targett, Højbjerg, Armstrong, Redmond, Gallagher. Res; Forster, Bednarek, Hoedt, McQueen, Valery, Reed, Davis, Sims, Long. (Note: this will not happen) Also - How does Hoedt seem to be a preferred starter, he is absolutely the worst of the 5 Center backs and has been consistently so since mid way through last season.

Think we would be in with a shout, Russia had stadia under 40,000 capacity so might even be do-able without expansion. Very well geographically located with top transport links and one of the better training grounds in the country + a Premier League team (for the moment anyway). Imagine there may be an attempt at a ground per English region, in which case we might have to compete with Brighton. I would imagine London and Manchester will have multiple venues and Liverpool, Newcastle, Leeds and Birmingham would also be shoe ins. I also reckon you would likely see Bristol, one of Leicester/Derby/Nottingham, Sunderland and maybe Norwich if an Eastern stadium is demanded. I would prefer an England only bid for the World Cup, but only because id quite fancy a joint Celtic bid for the Euros close by (Scotland / Wales / ROI / Poss NI).

Louis Armstrong's version of 'Oh When the Saints' or just haul the band in from the front of St Marys to play the instrumental version as players run on, keep it simple. Then read out the team sheet to the instrumental of 'Valentine' by The Delays (away team sheet too, we are the only club I know not to do this) . Would be nice to see some local artists showcased during pre game and half time too.

Simple answer, its not. Doesnt mean its not absolute ****e, but it is slightly slightly slightly more practical ****e. Sod all of this lot though, no matter the outcome this fight is going to span a generation with varying degrees of ferocity, it wont simply end once we leave the EU, this country is sharply divided through the middle for the long term. Someone should congratulate David Cameron, because that is his legacy.

Redmond is unironically better than Boufal, their Saints records back that up.

Saints goggles off please, Bertrand was absolute garbage for 90% of this season. Want to go to a World Cup? Try turning up for your club first.

The thing I hate most about it is that some teams will only get 2 games. Hardly a complete World Cup. Honestly if they want to expand it so badly my OCD would much prefer it if they went the whole way and just expanded it to 64. It would be logistical hell and the quality would be further diluted, but id prefer it to Groups of 3. Same with the Euros, would rather 32 than 24.

Just realized that the they actually made that tapestry in the BBC World Cup Promo (as opposed to pure CGI ******y). That is absolutely outrageous and brilliant! Say what you like about the BBC, but they absolutely nail Sports promos.

It does say something that amateurs with photoshop regularly produce far faarrrr better designs than what the 'professionals' do for a measley £50 a pop. This is vom inducing and the third kit is just a cash grab, hope the club / UA make a loss on it. Although those that are wishing for Adidas back have very short memories, the Poch season kit was the worst ever Saints home shirt, no contest at all. That said id take a **** kit and a fantastic season over a beautiful kit and a **** season.

Unless we get two experienced CBs, Yoshida should be here for at least the next season. Dont understand the 'not a leader' tag, clearly one of the most notable leaders in the squad (albeit one that is fairly short on them). Also in the last few games he was the key organiser of the defence, visibly instructing Hoedt, Bednarek and Stephens. His absence was notable against Swansea as the three left over ran around like headless chickens without an iota of positional sense for the entire match, luckily Swansea were extremely limp in front of goal and McCarthy had a blinder. Hoedt is good at tackling, but horrible at passing, dribbling and positioning was atrocious. Potential is there though and as mentioned elsewhere he declined after an encouraging start to the season. Stephens is good on the ball, but has awful positioning and is weak in the air. Bednarek in the few games he played looked encouraging and appeared to ease our aerial weakness slightly. He definitely is quite far off the finished article though. Take your pick.

For realism's sake here is a line up with players that are still active; ----------------------McCarthy---------------------- -Clyne-----Van Dijk------Alderweireld--Bertrand- -----------Schneiderlin--Wanyama---------------- --------------Oxlade-Chamberlain----------------- --Mane-----------Gabbiadini------------Bale------ Subs; Boruc, Lovren, Shaw, Lemina, Lallana, Tadic, Austin. Don't know if it would win the league, but decent chance of Champions League qualification i'd imagine.

Unfortunately I've got to say I found him horrendous; slow, poor control of the ball, poor passing, poor in the air and indecisive. Right now id have him down as our worst CB, Stephens edges him by being better on the ball. However, he isn't a bad tackler and has age on his side. I think he deserves another season but if he doesn't improve massively then get rid. Surprising really because he seemed to have been successful at Lazio. Bednarek on the other hand really surprised me, much better than I expected and looked to be an immediate upgrade on Stephens. I really didn't understand our defensive decline this season. I mean losing Van Dijk and Fonte was a big blow, but Yoshida and Stephens were looking a solid, if unspectacular partnership before Hoedt joined the party. Certainly not the relegation standard that we have had to endure recently.

Think we will run with McQueen/Targett for a year and if it doesn’t work go for Tierney. More likely to invest in CB and RB this year I think.

People are kidding themselves if they think Bertrand has been a better left back than Young this season. Bertrand only has himself to blame by letting his performances slide. Not the best England side by a long way, but that's just the general quality of English footballers right now, rather than Southgate's fault. Welbeck has always been a better international than club player bizarrely, although I would have had McCarthy as back up GK over Heaton. No selection disasters to the level of influential PL Champion Danny Drinkwater being dropped for Jack '180 mins of PL football all season' Wilshere last time round. Still ****es me off thinking about it. Still think they will do better than last time out, cant do much worse really, glad there is some youth in there.