Saint Pete

12 players? That is optimistic! ☺️

... I have had a few beers though...

Boo! I feel a bit more optimistic, players will be keen to impress the new coach and will turn in a much more committed performance. A return to 1-3 away results!

A bit similar to his goal for us v Man City.

5 points from 15 games. How long can this go on, really?

What concerns the most is how on earth can VAR conclude that they should reverse the ref decision and give a foul their way for that? It's either corrupt or completely incompetent. The biggest problem with VAR is they seem determined to find a reason to disallow goals. I wish the refs had the balls to tell them to fuck off when asked to go to the monitor and review!

Just watched Match of the day and that VAR call to disallow our goal is possibly the most ridiculous decision I have seen and that's saying something with VAR. If anything, a foul our way not theirs, how they can decide to overturn the refs call for that I do not know. Some sympathy at least for Martin on that. And it definitely should have been a free kick to us in the build up to the 2nd goal, even the MOTD pundits agreed that. Doesn't change my opinion that Martin needs to go, but we were badly done to on the decisions today.

The thing is, you can live with a couple of games of hard luck stories of "we had loads of possession, they had very few chances but somehow they won", but it's the same thing over and over now and Martin clearly doesn't have an answer other than continue doing what we're doing and hope something somehow changes, hope rather than pro-active expectation. We are ineffective going forward but continue to do the same things every game. The club have to act now, otherwise it will be pointless when they eventually do as will be too late. Change of tack needed, hope someone at the club has the balls to recognise that now.

Week commencing 16th Dec. Our Russ will be gone by then, so new manager bounce should see us smash 'em 4-1. Who do we want in the semis? 👍

Brentford or Palace at home please.

It does feel like we are kind of marking time at the moment. I am not RMs biggest critic but I think everyone can see now that a change is going to be inevitable before too much longer and it feels like if we leave it another couple of games, it just makes it even harder for his successor to achieve anything this season. Regrettably, I would make the change now, although obviously it does depend on getting a better and more experienced replacement in which is not a given by any means.

I was thinking Sulemana personally. More likely to be a smaller forward player to cover the edge of the penalty area?

The defending (or lack of) on that corner was unforgivable at any level. Yes, we were down to 10 men, but there were actually 3 Leicester players on edge of the box completely unattended, allowing them to play an easy pass along the ground from the corner and get a free shot in. Ramsdale should do a lot better with the shot as well. Defending from set pieces generally is still something we don't seem to be addressing and there were several throughout the match where players weren't being picked up. So no surprise when we were eventually punished. Until we get these sort of basics right, we'll have no chance in the premier league.

Yes, have to say I was pretty shocked when Smallbone came on when we could have had Lallana on instead, who is on a different level of quality, about time Russell faced up to that. The Fraser one was different, in hindsight it definitely should have been Taylor who came on at that point, who would have had at least half a chance of coping with Fatawu better.

My first game of the season today after some very tough times personally over the lpast few months. I had an unbeaten record last season in attendance (7 wins and a draw) so I'm hoping I can bring some good luck today (I know, different league now). It's still early days in the season, so just getting a win on the board could bring some confidence and an upturn in fortunes. You've got to have hope, haven't you? Come on you Saints!