Saint Fan CaM

Oh I don’t know - that seems a little rough on the lad. He’s a huge voice in the dressing room. Apparently.

At the moment I don’t see any cohesion or strategy between defence and the defensive midfield position(s). Because of the style of football we play, the wing-backs and even the CB’s are utilised to move the ball forward - usually slowly - and a turnover of possession often results in our slow defence back-pedalling with oh-so often disastrous results. Changing the formation to 4-2-3-1 with strict clear instructions to the RB/LB that if one moves forward the other holds back with the CB’s. Same with the DM’s - if one supports attack the other must protect the CB’s. The DM’s should be Les and in the absence of Downes, either Fernandes, Smallbone or Aribo - my preference being Aribo because he has the ability to turn and carry the ball forwards and I’d be playing Fernandes further forwards.

Or perhaps there’s a cut-off date for the final instalment and Saints are waiting for that to pass before putting him back out? The only reason I say this is that he seems to be in and around the squad training and featuring on the bench too, which doesn’t sound like he’s being disruptive or in a bad place with Juric.

This is what I’d like to see too, but Juric seems incapable of setting up a team of his best players with a ‘strong’ midfield and attacking intent. At this point I don’t care actually care if it also doesn’t work, it’s just damned frustrating knowing that these basics are not being tried. Anything else is purely tinkering of the highest order in my eyes.

If Juric plays 5 at the back it’s game over. So I guess it’s game over. 0-3.

No idea, but then I didn’t say he was. Others have alluded to it as a reason for his exclusion.

I’ll be very surprised to see any of those three back in a starting line-up for Saints going forward and for what purpose anyway? If you were manager why would you pick disruptors to be close to your first team?

Yes we seem to have had a succession of unsuitable managers, but then how many could claim to have had any knowledge of Bournemouth or Brightons managers? Would you honestly have taken a punt on them if they were available 2-3 years ago? Even if they came here there’s no guarantee they’d have achieved the same level of results, especially given the terrible player recruitment we’ve seen over a long period. It’s a convincing argument to say that better recruitment would have seen Ralph achieve much more success with the club, which would negate our current situation entirely.

So on the one hand you say we have no need to sell our best players, but then also say you’d be surprised if Ramsdale (who is under contract) stays. What is it?

Downes is certainly acting like a little tart.

Absolutely spot on, plus it’s about the players we’ve not signed in a timely manner…e.g. a Romeu replacement, a decent quality striker….etc

Well that’s the big challenge for Spors isn’t it and why I’ve been saying it’s going to take a massive effort in the summer to turn the squad around. To be fair, if we can keep Rambo the no.2 goalkeeper is of less urgency, however it’s as much about wiping the slate clean of the losers as it is about improving overall squad quality.

Athletic shot stopper with good distribution skills, 18-24 years with some experience at Championship equivalent level, happy to understudy Rambo. What about you?

To be honest I cannot see any advantage to keeping hold of McCarthy - he is symptomatic of the losing mentality from the last 3-4 years that has pervaded the club. His distribution has not improved, his mobility has got worse and he’s been part of a defence that has had the worst defeats in the clubs history inflicted on it. This is a player that needs to be exorcised from the club, along with a good number of others like Bednarek and Stephens…no sentimentality allowed.

As MLG said, there’s no reason initially for selling our ‘best’ players and let’s face it, even those are starting from a pretty low place - there’s not too many who will gain the opportunity of remaining in the Prem I would wager…they’ve shown themselves to be somewhat poor at that level. However my point was also that there is little hope of making all the changes needed due to the financial implications. What that boils down to is our first season in the Championship might not being our last this time around - scar tissue or whatever you want to call it, is going to run deep for some of this lot.