HarvSFC

Shocking. Everything I hate about the current Saints team on show today. Okay, starting with the positives, we did manage to keep it to 0-0 for 70 minutes and we were defending okay up until that point, but everything after that was a disaster. Firstly, the Smallbone for Sulemana substitution killed us. I know Sulemana can't do anything with the ball, but he was providing an out ball, he was giving us some width and he was still occupying Cash. He skied a chance moments before coming off. I thought we were too narrow in the first half and that Rusk brought Dibling on for Onuachu to give us some width, but that was silly of me, as said we brought on a hopeless midfielder for a wide attacker. We didn't look like scoring before Smallbone and Stewart came on and we had even less of a threat after they came on and were weaker with them on. I know we talk a lot about a lack of athleticism and physicality in the Saints side and Smallbone and Stewart are the epitome of it. Two players you wouldn't be surprised if the wind picked them up and blew them out of the stadium. Dibling also put in another horror show. He's just far too casual on the ball and a luxury player who provides little protection off the ball. I don't know if he's just fallen for the hype of being the best thing ever, as his agent, family and the media are telling him, if he's just having a bad spell, or if he's gone all Van Dijk and just going through the motions. I guess we'll find out in the summer, but either way I'm not going to be too disappointed to see him leave. He played a huge part in us conceding the first goal, but again I do not understand what our players are doing off the ball. Villa forced us into mistakes across the 90, they gave us little time on the ball and we surrendered possession easily. Us, on the other hand, we give the opposition players all the time and space they could possibly want. Look at first two goals back. All our players are in our own half when Mings has the ball, he can do what he wants with it. He goes to Tielemans, in the centre circle, he's able to take touch and release the ball and Stewart is still nowhere near him, as the closest player to him. Tielemans, a Premier League player can play a ball over the top, if given space, as we did and we're 1-0 down. The second, again Onana is on the halfway line unchallenged, he plays the ball to Rogers, and for some reason Smallbone and Ugochukwu get taken out of the game by that pass. They both amble back, given the defence no protection. Bednarek doesn't know what to do, Stephens actually runs away from Malen and Manning is doing his usual defensive act, 2-0. On individuals, as already mentioned - Dibling too casual, Smallbone and Stewart hopeless and out of the game, Sulemana no final ball, Ugochukwu also hopeless. Manning has all of the weaknesses of Danny Fox, but none of the strengths, never takes on the opposition, always turns back and rarely puts in a cross, never a good one. Bednarek, Stephens and Harwood-Bellis were okay before shitting the bed and two of them decided to give away silly penalties that you never see another Premier League defender give. Onuachu and Archer also poor, neither are good in open play. I don't know why Onuachu has so many supporters. He's scored a handful of goals, and really Henderson should have saved his most recent goal, but his open play game is so poor. We've seen some proper target men in recent years in Lambert and Pelle and he's not good enough to lace their boots. Only two to come out with any credit again are Fernandes and Ramsdale, neither of them deserve to be in the worst Premier League team of all time. One other positive should be at least Spors should be looking at this team's performances in detail and thinking he needs a bigger clear out. A lot of these players stunk out the Premier League a couple of years back, and they're still here. If Stephens starts next season as our captain, we'll have gone wrong somewhere. Rusk has taken charge of two Premier League matches now and we haven't looked like scoring in either. Here's to the next six and then we can hopefully put this all behind us.

Coventry's goalkeeper is from Southampton, too.

Only going by Midfield General's summary, but if we were losing matches and going down with a fight then he could have probably been disappointed at not getting more time and not being able to have another go in the Championship. But, we weren't. We were well under way to becoming the worst team the Premier League has seen under Martin and he's part of the reason why we couldn't replace him with anyone half decent. If anything, he got too much time in the Premier League. His last game, we were 5-0 down at half time. Also highlights what we all knew in that he'd rather be mates with the players than their manager. If he wants to manage in this way, then similarly to Adkins, he needs a bad cop as his assistant and Adkins had Crosby. Matt Gill is also pally pally with the players, going from the social media videos from last season and while it's clear that the players did love playing under Martin and his management, standards have been at an all time low this season. On Tyler Dibling, from recent months, it looks like he still hasn't learned how to do the running without the ball. Clearly a talent, but he's not a false 9, either. The Bournemouth performance lives in the memory, where he was completely nullified and looked well out of his depth. Bemoans losing players like we lost peak Lambert, Lallana, Fonte, or Schneiderlin. We lost Che Adams, Stuart Armstrong and David Brooks from the starting eleven and all three should have been replaceable. Yes, the recruitment team let him down, but Wood, Downes and Fraser is all him, while Matt O'Riley hasn't done too much for Brighton this season, either, showing another blot on his judgement. In summary, he has to take some responsibility.

I've aired my reservations over Rohl already, but Rosser is usually a reliable source, so if he is our top option, lets not dilly dally over £4m and get it done once the season's up. Hopefully, under the new leadership they will be a bit more proactive in the market with the old regime missing out on a host of players in their three years here after wasting time going for the top options. I know, they try to do it to save money, but we end up spending just as much, if not more trying to sign the backup options as we do the original player. See missing out on Delap for £20m and signing BBD and Archer for £7m and £15m. And Ipswich will make money on Delap, while we'll be looking to spend more money on replacing BBD and Archer this summer. Could just as easily spend £4m on the backup manager choice through sacking him and replacing him with someone else if he's unsuccessful.

Just suggesting that Nathan Jones also had a club, of a much smaller size than Sheffield Wednesday punching well above their weight in the Championship with little resources... I think we've been burned twice by appointing managers who haven't achieved anything more than a mid-table finish in the Championship and am a little apprehensive to go for a third time. As previously stated Rosenior is too similar to Martin, also. Sheffield United had a horrific season, but they've recovered as they have a promotion expert in Wilder managing them. It's clear what their transfer policy has been also, add Championship experience with Kieffer Moore, Sam McCallum, Callum O'Hare, Tyrese Campbell, Harry Souttar, BBD, Hamza Choudhury, Harry Clarke, Rob Holding, Tom Cannon and Michael Cooper. They also managed to keep Hamer. We need a similar approach this summer. With all that said, I just want a manager who puts in the work of what the job requires. A manager who in the week, assesses the opposition and sets the team up on Saturday to exploit the weaknesses of the opposition in the best way possible. Rather than the lazy approach of a manager who thinks he's cracked football, sets his team up every week to play the same way, when it's super inconsistent and doesn't always get the best out of the situation, and even then, doesn't adapt those tactics in game. This ultra possession football isn't the way. We played great football under Adkins, it certainly wasn't hoofball and we went into each game confident of getting a result.

Not one Tottenham player closed down. They play it out from the back, able to pick out a pass in midfield, who has all the time in the world, plays it out wide and as routine, our lot just back off and let the ball into the box.

Brereton-Diaz and Armstrong not very well liked at their loan clubs at the moment. BBD: "Brereton-Diaz had one good game since we signed him?" "his touch is terrible and can’t dribble with the ball at all" "He’s massively coasting and needs to up it. Poor since he re signed" "Do we have a receipt for Ben Brereton Diaz?" "Never seen a professional with a touch that poor. Always goes in the air whenever he’s bringing a ball under." Armstrong: "He has to go for purely insisting on picking Adam Armstrong when we have 3 better options up top in Grant, Lankshear, Dike" "It would appear that Adam Armstrong is a bit shit." "How many games do either persist with with Adam Armstrong because he’s called Adam Armstrong. I can’t see what he’s offering" "What does Adam Armstrong do?" "Has Adam Armstrong got naked pics of Tony Mowbray? He’s been crap yet again" I had a small glimmer of hope that they could actually do something in the Championship for us next season.

You have to appreciate that after the summer's shitshow, we still went out in January and added another useless signing in Gronbaek. Alongside some U21s, who I don't know how they're getting on in Udoh, Sanda and Izzet Furkan Malak. I really hope it's Mowbray and Martin who oversaw all this, and not somebody still at the club going into the summer.

Since the introduction of five subs, I've been beating the same drum every week. You don't need to make five substitutions because they're available. We've all seen friendly matches since we started watching football where after the subs, the match become disjointed. You're changing half the outfield team and we keep turning to the squad players when our first eleven is bad, let alone the squad players. Happened against United and it happened again tonight. I'll always draw the comparison with Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal as well. The three best teams in the country of the last few years, who barely ever make all five of their subs. Arsenal made three last night, and one was forced in the first half with Gabriel. Liverpool made two in the 90 minutes and Manchester City made two in the 90 minutes. While, we're making all five and those three have bigger and much better squads. If a player can't last the 90 after three weeks off then they shouldn't be here. On the subs, Ugochukwu for Aribo. Okay, he's not going to track back or win the ball, but he can try and help us keep the ball a bit. He's carryable in the team, but did weaken the midfield, giving Downes more to do. Manning off for Wellington, okay Manning went down a couple of times just before with what looked like a shoulder injury, like for like change, add a bit of energy into the team. And then the last three... We gave up our two out balls and completely gave up the midfield as we took off our only defensive midfielder. Bringing on Dibling, who's clearly getting a move elsewhere and hasn't looked interested since Martin got the boot. Sugawara, who is an accident waiting to happen and Archer, who again is looking for a move elsewhere and his only contribution was handballing the ball in the box from an attacking throw-in. Onto the positives. All season, I've been saying our players have been too scared to make a tackle, get close to the opposition or try and win the ball. That wasn't the case tonight. For the first time this season Onuachu closed down the goalkeeper and fortunately for Henderson the ball bounced off him for a goal kick, but it was a positive move. Fernandes won the ball high up the pitch too, but Onuachu couldn't get his feet sorted and there was a chance in the first half that Onuachu lashed at wide after we got the ball up the pitch. Even in the closing minutes Wellington ran around like a mad man, made the Palace defence panic and they kicked the ball back to us. Rather, than letting the opposition play out of their half. There was also a sequence within about five minutes of each other where Ugochukwu and Downes won the ball with sliding tackles. Feels like I haven't seen a sliding tackle from us all season. If we had played like that all season we'd have a fair amount more points on the board. That's how Ipswich have played each week, battling despite their limitations. Fun stat - With Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Stephens, Walker-Peters, Manning, Bree, Wood, Sugawara, Wellington and Bella-Kotchap , we started the match with more defenders in the match squad than we had points.

New goalkeeper New RB - Edwards/Wood* - New CB** - New LB Charles - Downes New RM/Armstrong*** - New AM - New LW New ST Think that's the reset we need this summer with next season in mind and some long-term signings needed. Obviously, KWP, Ramsdale, Dibling and Fernandes will be off, so that leaves the goalkeeper, right-back, wing, and attacking midfield options free and then the other positions just need strengthening if we want to be competitive if we come back up in the near future. I know Downes has also let himself down in recent months, but you'd hope in the Championship he could regain his form under a good manager. Him and Charles shielding the back line in the Championship is serviceable with priorities elsewhere. *One of Edwards, or Wood will do, but I wouldn't be starting both of them. I think they need an actual leader next to them like we had with Fonte and someone who can be quite dominant at the back again like with Van Dijk. I don't think either Wood or Edwards are the dominant force we need back there. ** I know Bednarek is good in the Championship, but I think it's just his time to move on. He should have been moved on last summer, as he's proven he's another one of those who struggles at this level and I want to see someone more physical in his place. Perhaps also a threat from attacking set-pieces, which Bednarek is not. *** If Armstrong wants to stay, then he's serviceable, but at the same time I wouldn't be distraught if he left and we brought in a more traditional winger who can take their opponent on and create opportunities on their own. His goals would obviously need to be replaced in the striker position though, and given SR's track record there... Sell: Stephens, Aribo, Sugawara, Fernandes, Sulemana, Harwood-Bellis, Archer, Taylor, Fraser, Ramsdale, Onuachu, Dibling, Bednarek, Brereton-Diaz, Bazunu and Bella-Kotchap. Some through choice, some because they won't want to play in the Championship again and some through attitude and the noises coming out in the last few months. And while last season was good, a lot of these names have also given us two horrendous seasons out of the last three. Hopefully Ankersen's little transfer club will help us shift a lot of names off the books.

Watching the goals back is so shameful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqz-m3KZDqY Now, I'm not an expert on defensive shape. However, we've all been watching football long enough to cast a judgement. Paused the above video at 0:43 and you can see Fernandes on his heels, walking as though he isn't in a Premier League match when he's the closest to the Wolves player, who has the ball and all the time in the world to pass the ball to another Wolves player, who is completely free in our half of the pitch. From the still image at 0:43, you can actually count four Wolves players completely free in our half with Sulemana, Dibling and Sugawara just walking and on their heels, not setting themselves at all. Doherty then moves forward with the ball, unchallenged with Sulemana.... Yeah, not exactly sure what he's doing, but he's making no attempt to stop the player on the ball, the most dangerous player on the pitch and he might as well be on the other end of the pitch. Doherty then plays a simple pass out wide to another unmarked Wolves player with Manning doing his classic defensive positioning. This gives Bellegarde all the time in the world to set up his cross, and if you give a Premier League player time on the ball, they will punish you. He's able to pick out Larsen and fuck knows what ABK's doing with his defending there, giving Larsen a free header. The second goal starts at 1:10. Onuachu gets completely dominated in the air, which happens quite a lot despite his size. Notice how the Wolves defenders are willing to challenge for the ball and win it back, unlike ours? He heads it down, but the ball is still not under control and you'd hope Aribo/Ugochukwu who were around the ball at the time would attempt to put in a tackle. But, that's too much to ask. Aribo gets completely taken out of the game with one flick. ABK then puts in a feeble attempt to get the ball, and he also gets completely taken out of the game. Bellegarde then has all the time once again to pick out pass with KWP running back, rather than running to him. Larsen gets the ball and you'd expect THB to try and do something. Put pressure on Larsen so that he isn't able to pick out the corner of our goal, perhaps? Nah, THB kept backing off. Larsen couldn't believe his luck. This has been the worrying thing all season. Under Martin, under Juric. Our players make no attempt to put any pressure on the player with the ball, they make no attempt, or effort to challenge a player on the ball. The player with the ball is the most dangerous on the pitch and our lot give them all the time they want. It's like passing around a bunch of cones during a training drill. I'd say our off the ball work is a lot worse than our on the ball work and that's pretty horrific.

Scary thing is Martin had played in the Premier League himself as a player, a number of our players were already failed Premier League players (Armstrong, McCarthy, Downes, Aribo, Smallbone, Stephens, etc...), Liverpool's reserves humbled us last season and Leicester, the closest team to Premier League quality we faced last season, destroyed us for 180 minutes across the two fixtures. Yet, it still all came as a surprise.

Sugawara costs us a goal every time he plays.

Two centre-backs and two full-backs playing on their natural side seems to be working. Who'd have thought that! I know it's Liverpool, and we always raise our games for these types of matches, but KWP's playing like his old self again and Sulemana's been causing issues. Probably get battered in the second half, but that was a good, competitive, pragmatic first half against top of the league.

Jose Fonte was signed for over a million when we were the first League One club to do that in years the previous summer when we signed Rickie Lambert and Van Dijk to us is still the 10th highest fee in Scottish football and was the record sale from Scotland at the time. So, in their context, Van Dijk and Fonte were signed for significantly big fees.

Seem to be going with the same tactic we used to get Martin in terms of compensation fees and being a Championship club.

Do we think Lucy Pinder would leave Russell Martin for Steve Cooper?

And Hasenhuttl got 8 of those wins!

Only one word to describe the current situation at the club, unforgiveable. This is our club, this is our passion, this is our city, but it's currently a laughing stock from top to bottom and it's totally out of our control, as is always the case in modern football. I don't know what Juric is doing. I could've told you that having Smallbone in midfield would have struggled and then Aribo, Bree and ABK as the centre-back options again, simply wasn't going to work. Like with Selles two years ago, there isn't any signs of encouragement, or any attempt of a change in tactics in an attempt to get better results and therefore, like Selles, Juric isn't up to the task of trying to manage a team to promotion in the Championship. Same issue as Martin, play the same tactic every week and it will bring the same results in this league, defeat after defeat. It's amazing how bad Sports Republic are at selecting managers. I can't work it out how we've ended up with these, they aren't even the cheap free agent options like we used to restrict ourselves too. It's a joke that Ralph Hasenhuttl is the last Southampton manager to win more than two games in the Premier League. Adding to this point, like with Selles two years ago where we went down without a fight, a similar group of players are doing exactly the same. Fuck them. Only player worth keeping, who's still putting up a fight is Fernandes and he's too good for the Championship, unless he fancies doing a Hamer, Berge, or Buendia, which is doubtful. I hope we have a complete clear out in the summer and go for a similar approach to 09-10 when we brought in Lambert, Hammond, Fonte, Puncheon and some decent squad players to compliment them in Harding, Jaidi, Connolly and Barnard. A new spine is needed. Goalkeeper, centre-back, centre-midfielder and striker and then work from that, but those four need to be the best available to a Championship club. Can't get those positions wrong again. I want to be done with this season, but there's still 11 games of this pathetic team to embarrass us further.

Add Stephens and Smallbone to the list of players Rangers could hopefully afford.

Just going to point out that West Ham paid £40m for Max Kilman last summer. 27, no England caps and not particularly great, dependable. Considering we bought THB for £20m, no way should we be selling for a loss. I'd probably sell for anything over £30m.

Four managerial appointments under Sport Republic: Nathan Jones - 1 Premier League victory from 8. (7 losses) Ruben Selles - 2 Premier League victories from 16. (10 losses) Russell Martin - 1 Premier League victory from 16. (13 losses) Ivan Juric - 1 Premier League victory from 9. (8 losses) At least they're consistent.

Well, the fixture computer had a good laugh putting these two home fixtures back to back. This is exactly the same as the Selles era. Players just turning up in a formation that looks like they're playing for a draw. However, there doesn't seem to be any tactical plan, the players don't have any determination and barely break out into a jog as though they're too scared to put in a tackle, because it could cause injury and stop a summer transfer and they get soundly beaten each week without putting up a fight. Only players who dared carry the ball up the field today were Fernandes and Sulemana, and the latter can't do anything with the ball. All the others got the ball, slowed the play down and recycled the ball to the easiest available pass, or punted it up to a Brighton shirt. Ramsdale's kicking was abysmal today. Compare how little time Brighton gave our players on the ball, forcing a mistake, to the amount of time our players gave their on the ball, allowing them to pick a pass which any Premier League player is capable of with time. We need to ditch this pathetic formation. We need another body up the pitch. Archer was too isolated and was ineffective. I know Ounachu is crap, but Archer could do with hi around. Or, get another body in midfield, so that we aren't carved open by every single attack. The ball wouldn't stick up the pitch for us today and that's because half the team are asked to be defenders, leading to an onslaught every week. Newcastle, Brentford, Bournemouth and Brighton today. The only man who has made us look semi-competitive this season is Rusk and that's because he kept it simple against Fulham. The Sports Republic Midas touch continues. Jones, Selles, Martin and now Juric. What an incredible selection of managers. Could have had Jesse Marsch too. Gronbeak is also keeping with the theme of this seasons signings. Our one senior January signing, and he can't even get into this awful team apart from a cameo in the last 5 minutes. It would be an anomaly if Spors is actually any good. At this point, it looks like we're beating Derby's record.

They're in for a shock. Even in our team last season, he was pretty dreadful in the central position. It was out wide where he thrived. The miss against Brentford this season in a central position also lives in the memory.

Scenes at Elland Road tonight. 🙄 I thought losing Gray, Kamara, Summerville and Rutter in the summer would affect them, but they're top of the league and 7 clear of third.