Lallana's Left Peg

Disgraceful in possession. Absolutely shocking. Lack of leadership, ideas, quality, and no confidence as well. Jones better hope fixing leadership, ideas and confidence makes a difference because the ability of some on the pitch won't cut it.

I'm not against him, I'm just surprised he's the main target and the one they want. The owners aren't stupid, and there was a report that they wanted him at Brentford before Frank. They obviously see something in him. It must be more than meets the eye but you also can't disrespect what he has done at Luton. I'm torn between being excited with any change, the unknown of Nathan Jones and the track record of the owners meaning they rarely miss versus the risk that this is. At least it will be different, and being different was the only way we were going to stay up. If he can motivate the players and Selles gets stuck into them tactically then we have every chance.

Looks like the Premier League may well be back to being too rich for us.

So we've supposedly been tracking managers for years no matter what, intensified the search when it went even more wobbly with Ralph, and Nathan Jones is the best we can come up with? It just screams to me that we want someone who will stay with us no matter what happens this year and that the club are a worse attraction than they ever have been. From going after Gapko in the summer to heading to Luton for our new manager in the space of 4 months. Wild.

Everyone knows he is done, including Ralph himself. It's all about the timing and the replacement now.

Works hard, probably nails his defensive assignment but it's like playing with 10 men in possession. Slow of mind and physically, he just can't influence a game. Can't even see it in him to turn it around properly.

Completely unsuited as a 6. Could see him being better in a team that values the ball but he's not a destroyer and just not a match for any position in the team.

He's probably got until the winter break. It doesn't look good for him right now. He doesn't look capable of finding answers and there are signs that the players are tired of his ideas. For me, it's the lack of cohesion and idea in the final third regardless of quality. I couldn't tell you what we're trying to do or how when in possession. The players perform like the same. I don't get it.

I wonder if the striker money is being diverted to another part of the pitch or if that is still there and we're actively trying?

Refusing to sign a new deal - think he may be off somewhere.

I'm reasonably defensive of what Ralph has achieved at Saints in challenging circumstances but what concerns me most right now - more than our defence and ability to collapse under pressure - is how little of a clue we have in the final third. I know we have a chaotic style of play but we look seriously short of ideas, patterns and general behaviours in the final third to have a goal threat. Every game there are significant passages of play where the players are all on the wrong page and its been consistently like that since February.

Moi is rubbish I don't know why on earth we're giving him a new deal. We need to move on. He's slow and weak. Ok technically but wholly unsuited to this league or our style.

Yeah absolutely - I meant in the context of this game. No clear starters in defence, but plenty in midfield and attack first half. I agree with what you're saying but even then was the quality good enough whether they are starters or not? Plenty of the midfield and attack start games for Saints and I'd expect a need to get touch and fitness but not a feeling I was watching strangers play.

It's not the defence that bothers me, is the midfield and attack being toothless and ineffective.

I know its minutes in the legs time but we're terrible in possession and weak out of it. It's painful to watch our link-up play - it's like a team of trialists.

Leandro Damiao

He'll be very good for Wolves as they play 5 at the back and a defensive midfield. They play on the counter and are very good at it at it but looking good in their defence is not hard. Put him in ours, with fewer defenders, a much higher line and a pressing mentality and he'd seem like a very different player. He's a good player, but don't discount the circumstance in which he is going to be asked to play. Defenders at Southampton have a much harder job. Our defenders have also looked good when we play defensively.

Ralph said it would happen in May and it certainly is happening - we're becoming so much more athletic and powerful as a team.

Very few of our experienced players did anything to show they are the ones to stop the awful runs we seem to go on. No doubt its a risk to have such a large concentration of young players in the squad but having options to rest players and dare I say drop some should hopefully give us a positive net gain over the course of a season. I'm pleasantly surprised with not only how active we've been in the market but also how cut-throat that means we're going to be with some existing players in terms of pushing them out the door.

There is zero chance that with the money and ambition Newcastle have that they will have anything of a pathway to the first team for kids. They will buy buy buy during this first decade of being rich and kids will only go there for the money and then have to pick up the pieces when they hit 20. That is not a criticism of anyone who chooses to do so, as football is a short career with no guarantees and money talks but there isn't a single club in history that wins the lottery and then implements a short to medium term strategy of having a pathway to the first team for kids. It's just not what happens.

In Ralphs system being outnumbered in the 6 position is a consequence of a failure elsewhere - either from looking after the ball in forward positions or the press failing (in terms of the trigger from the forward players and those behind them consequently doing their jobs). The risk of both those things failing is for us to be horrendously outnumbered. Last season our 10's were horrendous in possession which caused us big issues, and we also ended up in a situation where our worst pressing forward was also the only player who looked like scoring for us. That's a tough position for Ralph to be in. Where I do think we need help in the 6 position is to be press resistant ourselves. Neither Romeu or JWP are ball carriers, but you need to be able to do a bit of that now in midfield otherwise teams can shut you down easily with pressing. I'm not excusing either Ralph's inability to see issues and address them quickly, but putting more people in midfield to stop us being over-run is conceding ground and aggressiveness and that's not what Ralph wants to do. If we got the right 10's in, and got the right striker in to help press (Che and Armstrong are good at it but unfortunately too inconsistent when presented with chances) then it would automatically help those in the 6 position massively.

Maybe we are in for him, but its not all over the media because we don't have leaky employees and leaky owners who like to get things out there as a part of doing business?

There may be amongst other reasons accounting / FFP reasons to delay officially confirming things. Saints have form for the latter.

I reckon Ligue 2 is comparable to the Scottish Premiership in terms of quality and we get linked to plenty of players from that league as well as don't seem to mind loaning players to it either 🤷‍♂️

We're about to find out this summer, as ending up with largely the same team and squad come September I'd make us firm favourites for a bottom four finish. This club has no means and the quality of our squad has been eroded on each year for the last 4 years. Clock is ticking.