hypochondriac Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 OK so a really difficult start to the season. I'll be honest, I looked at the fixtures at the start of the season and thought we'd struggle to have more than a couple of points on the board by October so in that respect we've surpassed my expectations. Positives are that despite the horrendous fixtures we're not in the relegation zone and now is where we should be looking to pick up some valuable points. The next five league games are: Leeds H Burnley H Watford A Villa H Norwich A These will have a big bearing on if we are looking at a relegation scrap this year or not in my opinion. Big games and all of them we can get a point from at least and hopefully a couple of wins. I'm feeling positive and I've seen enough about us this season to think we can get a decent return. I'm going for 8 points from these five and a bit more comfortable by December. 19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWar Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 Thats the worst thing about today, the season starts now and we will be without our best and most important player for three games... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypochondriac Posted 2 October, 2021 Author Share Posted 2 October, 2021 Just now, TWar said: Thats the worst thing about today, the season starts now and we will be without our best and most important player for three games... Good chance for Diallo to step up. I'm hoping to see more of Armstrong as well. Who else would we have in the middle? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWar Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 Just now, hypochondriac said: Good chance for Diallo to step up. I'm hoping to see more of Armstrong as well. Who else would we have in the middle? Yeah I rate Diallo, was hoping Armstrong would come in and solve our massive creativity problem to be honest in attacking mid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saints foreva Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 Hopefully we can actually create some chances from open play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypochondriac Posted 2 October, 2021 Author Share Posted 2 October, 2021 2 minutes ago, TWar said: Yeah I rate Diallo, was hoping Armstrong would come in and solve our massive creativity problem to be honest in attacking mid. I can see why he didn't in this game when caution is the main thing. Generally I think we've done really well against the big teams this season and played those games decently. The big test now is if we can actually take the game to some of this smaller teams and that's where Armstrong will be crucial. I hope the team shows some ambition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted Bates Statue Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 (edited) We need six points minimum from these fixtures. Not asking much, just two wins before December. Anything less and we are looking at a "Mark Hughes" relegation zombie start to the season, and another manager about to be relieved of his duties. 8 minutes ago, Saint Matty 76 said: I feel like six points would be disappointing from that. I think we should be aiming for 3 wins at least. I agree that it would certainly not set the world alight but I think we have to be realistic. We're not going to suddenly average nearly 2 points per game, no matter who the opposition are. If there's anything that I've learned following Saints, it's that we pull out decent performances against top sides but trip up against the lower teams. Where Hasenhuttl has done fairly well in his time with us is that we have tended to get three points in our matches against relegation-threatened teams. He now has five games to do that and save his job. In 2004-2005 what did for us was failing to win all but one of our six pointers with the bottom four sides. With our reduced goal threat my worry is that we might be better than we were last season, but we won't have enough to convert draws to wins. If that happens, then I expect we will have a new manager in December. Edited 2 October, 2021 by Ted Bates Statue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypochondriac Posted 2 October, 2021 Author Share Posted 2 October, 2021 6 minutes ago, Ted Bates Statue said: We need six points minimum from these fixtures. Not asking much, just two wins before December. Anything less and we are looking at a "Mark Hughes" relegation zombie start to the season, and another manager about to be relieved of his duties. I think we can do it. Obviously ings is a big loss but other than that we should have more about us than last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint Matty 76 Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 I feel like six points would be disappointing from that. I think we should be aiming for 3 wins at least. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypochondriac Posted 2 October, 2021 Author Share Posted 2 October, 2021 1 minute ago, Saint Matty 76 said: I feel like six points would be disappointing from that. I think we should be aiming for 3 wins at least. I think it will be tough to beat Leeds and Burnley. Should get at least one hopefully two wins against Norwich and Watford and I've got no idea against villa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iansums Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 Sorry but I can only see relegation. We may have a bigger squad but we’ve lost two of our best players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colinjb Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 Couldn't agree more with Hypochondriac's sentiment.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypochondriac Posted 2 October, 2021 Author Share Posted 2 October, 2021 7 minutes ago, iansums said: Sorry but I can only see relegation. We may have a bigger squad but we’ve lost two of our best players. I can't see how you can say that at this stage. Some very credible draws against top teams and we aren't even in the relegation zone! No chance Norwich finishes above us and Newcastle looking likely to go down at this stage. Could easily finish above about 4 others too. We could easily go down but we will know a lot more after the next five. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobM Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 No. It doesn’t. The season is well under way. What starts now is Ralph’s interview, his time to prove he deserves the job. He has the players he wanted, few injuries, seemingly no off-field distractions (e.g. big ego problems as we’ve dealt with before), two weeks of training, followed by five winnable games. If we don’t come out of this period with proof that Ralph can create wins from the squad he has built, he has to go. That would give his replacement time to assess the squad ahead of the January transfer window. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turkish Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 41 minutes ago, hypochondriac said: OK so a really difficult start to the season. I'll be honest, I looked at the fixtures at the start of the season and thought we'd struggle to have more than a couple of points on the board by October so in that respect we've surpassed my expectations. Positives are that despite the horrendous fixtures we're not in the relegation zone and now is where we should be looking to pick up some valuable points. The next five league games are: Leeds H Burnley H Watford A Villa H Norwich A These will have a big bearing on if we are looking at a relegation scrap this year or not in my opinion. Big games and all of them we can get a point from at least and hopefully a couple of wins. I'm feeling positive and I've seen enough about us this season to think we can get a decent return. I'm going for 8 points from these five and a bit more comfortable by December. Spot on. take each game in isolation the only poor result was wolves. Two good results against the Manchester clubs, expected losses at Everton and Chelsea. We’ve played 5 of the top 7 in our first 7 games so in reality 4 points isn’t a bad return. However it does put pressure in these games now to get a few points on the board the longer we go without a win the more of a monkey on our back it becomes. We should be looking at 10 points or more from the next 5 games. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypochondriac Posted 2 October, 2021 Author Share Posted 2 October, 2021 12 minutes ago, RobM said: No. It doesn’t. The season is well under way. What starts now is Ralph’s interview, his time to prove he deserves the job. He has the players he wanted, few injuries, seemingly no off-field distractions (e.g. big ego problems as we’ve dealt with before), two weeks of training, followed by five winnable games. If we don’t come out of this period with proof that Ralph can create wins from the squad he has built, he has to go. That would give his replacement time to assess the squad ahead of the January transfer window. The season doesn't literally start now obviously but our potential for serious points does. Many of the games in this first seven are what I would consider to be free hits. These are games where one player on the opposition bench costs more than our entire first eleven. Given the lack of investment and our current position I think the points return from Everton, United, City, Chelsea and West ham and even Newcastle away is about as good as can be expected. Now is where we must deliver as you say. I wouldn't call our start to the season a disappointment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golac's Cunning Stunts Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 A lot of people saying how well we have done against the top teams and therefore we are doing ok and will hopefully pick up points against some of the "lesser" ones. I think the way we are set up, pressing and playing on the counter suits us to do ok against the better teams. Lets' see how well do when we play say Burnley who will come and park the bus. I foresee disappointment mainly because we do not possess the creativity or flair to break those kinds of teams down. Can easily see that result being a 0-0 or a 0-1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saintsfanuk Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 I expected 0 points by now with those fixtures so we have done ok for me so far. Even if a bit frustrating in some games. It now defines the season and if Ralph is worth keeping around or not. I'd expect 9 minimum from that, really should be winning the next 2 homes games and beating Norwich if we don't want to be in a relegation battle. These are now defences I'd expect Adams and Armstrong to actually be able to score against. If we can't get goals in these we are going to have serious issues. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRM Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 I just can't see where our goals are going to come from, especially against teams who sit deep and defend against us. So obvious how lower sides will play against us, wait for the inevitable defensive error and hit us for a 1-0. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rickman42 Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 It’s always a meltdown every week… we drew with Man Utd, away at Man City, and were level away at Chelsea until the red card. of course the big test is to beat the teams around us, but we’ve not been dreadful. A couple of wins and the Ralph out brigade will be back in their box. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRM Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 8 minutes ago, Golac's Cunning Stunts said: A lot of people saying how well we have done against the top teams and therefore we are doing ok and will hopefully pick up points against some of the "lesser" ones. I think the way we are set up, pressing and playing on the counter suits us to do ok against the better teams. Lets' see how well do when we play say Burnley who will come and park the bus. I foresee disappointment mainly because we do not possess the creativity or flair to break those kinds of teams down. Can easily see that result being a 0-0 or a 0-1 Completely agree, we have no match winners who will create and take half chances, Burnley will know how to set up for a 0-0 or 0-1 down here, we've seen it before enough times. Ings saved us last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrian lord Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 9 pts from that clutch of games is a realistic target. Less than 7 would be a very poor return. 10-12 would be excellent all things considered. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lallana's Left Peg Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 36 minutes ago, JRM said: I just can't see where our goals are going to come from, especially against teams who sit deep and defend against us. So obvious how lower sides will play against us, wait for the inevitable defensive error and hit us for a 1-0. This too is what tempers any enthusiasm about a run of 'winnable' games. Our strikers aren't particularly efficient and our team is not very creative, so I don't really feel like the way we play against the better teams gives us much encouragement for facing weaker opposition that play much more defensively. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypochondriac Posted 2 October, 2021 Author Share Posted 2 October, 2021 20 minutes ago, adrian lord said: 9 pts from that clutch of games is a realistic target. Less than 7 would be a very poor return. 10-12 would be excellent all things considered. Agreed. I predicted 8 but 9 would be pretty good as you say and would put us on more than 1 point per game. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexLaw76 Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 Some good game coming up. We will have to win a few soon 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diabolus Ex Machina Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 In the last 38 league games our only wins have come against Newcastle, Brighton, Sheffield United (x2), Liverpool, Burnley, Crystal Palace & Fulham. Liverpool was obviously a good result but the rest shows you the level we have been at for the equivalent of a full season now. I actually think our start has been decent but that we needed more from the Newcastle and Wolves games. The games coming up though are the games we have to be picking up wins in because it seems highly doubtful we can pick them up elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teddeer Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 4 hours ago, hypochondriac said: I think it will be tough to beat Leeds and Burnley. Should get at least one hopefully two wins against Norwich and Watford and I've got no idea against villa. Watford will not be easy to beat at their place. All 5 of these games will be a bit of a lottery and we'll need heaps of luck to secure more than 5-6 points from them which won't be a great return. Unless Ralph suddenly discovers the magic formula to picking the right team,playing the right formation and winning games we are heading for a very tough season. There's no sign of him doing that stretching back from January after we beat Liverpool. Sadly he seems too set in his ways and rarely springs any surprises or pulls a rabbit from his hat. What you see is what you get. How much longer he is allowed to continue this horrendous run is the big question. Those running things must surely be seriously weighing up the options as they have given him longer than most clubs would, I don't think anyone could doubt that. I'd like nothing better than for Ralph to make a success but I'm just not sure he has it in him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notnowcato Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 Even a very basic trends analysis puts Ralph’s job in jeopardy. The reality is we’ve been awful for 10 months now. I’m far from a knee jerk type of character but the writing is on the wall. It’s a shame as Ralph is clearly a decent guy that appeals to a club like ours but it is time for a change. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodsaint1 Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 6 hours ago, iansums said: Sorry but I can only see relegation. We may have a bigger squad but we’ve lost two of our best players. Are you really counting Vestergaard or Bertrand as one of our best two players. Danny yes, but them two no f***in chance. The fact we're cursing Stephens injury says it all about CB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNSUN Posted 2 October, 2021 Share Posted 2 October, 2021 If we could score goals from open play, we'd have a chance of a decent points haul. Need a LOT of players to step up over the next few games or we really will be in the shit. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Singapore Saint Posted 3 October, 2021 Share Posted 3 October, 2021 I remember Stuart Gray saying, "There are two divisions in the Premier League - the top six or eight and the rest of us." He got the sack shortly after. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Singapore Saint Posted 3 October, 2021 Share Posted 3 October, 2021 Just now, Singapore Saint said: I remember Stuart Gray saying, "There are two divisions in the Premier League - the top six or eight and the rest of us." He got the sack shortly after. Sorry I think the complete quote is "There are two divisions in the Premier League - the top six or eight and the rest of us. Our job is to do well in our division." The board were clearly unimpressed with this too-clever-by-half remark after a dismal run of results similar to what we are seeing under Ralph and Gray got the boot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rooney Posted 3 October, 2021 Share Posted 3 October, 2021 I wuold never compare Stuart Gray with Ralph. He was a cheapskate after Hoddle, not his fault but Rupert's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IFHP Posted 3 October, 2021 Share Posted 3 October, 2021 Anything less then then 8 points would be continuing our relegation form. 8 points would mean we’d have 12 points from 12 games( a point a game or 38 points over a season should be enough to keep us up) 7 points we’d have 11 points from 12 games around 0.9 points s game ( 35 points over a season which would more then likely not be enough to stay up) I guess the big Question is, is Ralph cabable of getting a minimum of 8 points from those games ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pamplemousse Posted 3 October, 2021 Share Posted 3 October, 2021 I'd be disappointed if we didn't win at least three of those. We are better than Burnley, Watford and Norwich, we need to show it. Think we'll beat one of Leeds and Villa as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verbal Kint Posted 3 October, 2021 Share Posted 3 October, 2021 7 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said: I'd be disappointed if we didn't win at least three of those. We are better than Burnley, Watford and Norwich, we need to show it. Think we'll beat one of Leeds and Villa as well. I'll repeat what was said on the thread before the wolves game where some posters were talking about winning 5 out of the next 7 - if you have attacking players as poor as ours then you will struggle to win games in this league, no matter how poor the opposition might be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pamplemousse Posted 3 October, 2021 Share Posted 3 October, 2021 Just now, Verbal Kint said: I'll repeat what was said on the thread before the wolves game where some posters were talking about winning 5 out of the next 7 - if you have attacking players as poor as ours then you will struggle to win games in this league, no matter how poor the opposition might be. Ralph's got two weeks to fix it on the training ground. I'm sure we'll see a different approach and one which will see us pick up a fair amount of points. The goals will come. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verbal Kint Posted 3 October, 2021 Share Posted 3 October, 2021 2 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said: Ralph's got two weeks to fix it on the training ground. I'm sure we'll see a different approach and one which will see us pick up a fair amount of points. The goals will come. Who is to say the current approach doesn't get the best out of them? I'd love to know what different approach fans think is going to suddenly get the likes of Walcott, Redmond, Djenepo and Elyounoussi creating chances and scoring goals. Same for Armstrong who has been completely anonymous in most games and is showing he has very little else to contribute if he isn't getting chances put on a plate for him. Our season is going to rely on S.Armstrong's form and fitness and hopefully Broja forcing his way in to the team and scoring a few goals Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toadhall Saint Posted 3 October, 2021 Share Posted 3 October, 2021 17 hours ago, hypochondriac said: OK so a really difficult start to the season. I'll be honest, I looked at the fixtures at the start of the season and thought we'd struggle to have more than a couple of points on the board by October so in that respect we've surpassed my expectations. Positives are that despite the horrendous fixtures we're not in the relegation zone and now is where we should be looking to pick up some valuable points. The next five league games are: Leeds H Burnley H Watford A Villa H Norwich A These will have a big bearing on if we are looking at a relegation scrap this year or not in my opinion. Big games and all of them we can get a point from at least and hopefully a couple of wins. I'm feeling positive and I've seen enough about us this season to think we can get a decent return. I'm going for 8 points from these five and a bit more comfortable by December. Thought same as you Hypo when I looked at our start. Funnily enough I think we will get the points away from home with more draws at home. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toadhall Saint Posted 3 October, 2021 Share Posted 3 October, 2021 23 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said: I'd be disappointed if we didn't win at least three of those. We are better than Burnley, Watford and Norwich, we need to show it. Think we'll beat one of Leeds and Villa as well. Burnley will park the bus and hit us on the break - same old same old with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teddeer Posted 3 October, 2021 Share Posted 3 October, 2021 9 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said: Ralph's got two weeks to fix it on the training ground. I'm sure we'll see a different approach and one which will see us pick up a fair amount of points. The goals will come. He couldn't fix it in pre-season or in the last international break yet you think he is suddenly going to have a light bulb moment in the next 2 weeks? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee On Solent Saint Posted 3 October, 2021 Share Posted 3 October, 2021 It's clear we have to be winning the games against teams around us, the bare minimum would be not to lose any of them. Not sure I can see that myself. We just don't have the quality to unlock packed defences or the ability to make something out of nothing. Games against Burnley tend to be scraps, which with the players they have, they will be up for. Leeds, although no where near as effective as they were last year, will probably just out run us, and eventually swamp us. Watford and Norwich will probably be our biggest chance to pick three points up from. Villa, we all know the script for that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CB Fry Posted 3 October, 2021 Share Posted 3 October, 2021 (edited) All I can see is a season of a lot of "well, it's completely unrealistic to expect us to beat them" followed by a lot of "well, on another day we would have won that" and plenty of "well, bad day at the office" followed by the occasional win. And of course, when that win happens the exact same people who keep referring to our defeats as one-off events, and berating other users for their negative knee-jerk reactions to "look, it's just one defeat" will respond to that singular win as comprehensive and irrefutable proof that absolutely everything is fantastic and great and off we go into challenging the top half and all you doubters have been proved utterly wrong because we won that one game. What a season it's going to be. Edited 3 October, 2021 by CB Fry 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitey Grandad Posted 3 October, 2021 Share Posted 3 October, 2021 8 minutes ago, CB Fry said: All I can see is a season of a lot of "well, it's completely unrealistic to expect us to beat them" followed by a lot of "well, on another day we would have won that" and plenty of "well, bad day at the office" followed by the occasional win. And of course, when that win happens the exact same people who keep referring to our defeats as one-off events, and berating other users for their negative knee-jerk reactions to "look, it's just one defeat" will respond to that singular win as comprehensive and irrefutable proof that absolutely everything is fantastic and great and off we go into challenging the top half and all you doubters have been proved utterly wrong because we won that one game. What a season it's going to be. I strongly suspect that this season will be no different from most of the others that we have suffered through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Duckhunter Posted 3 October, 2021 Share Posted 3 October, 2021 18 hours ago, TWar said: Thats the worst thing about today, the season starts now and we will be without our best and most important player for three games... Is OR also out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWar Posted 3 October, 2021 Share Posted 3 October, 2021 49 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said: Is OR also out? OR has looked pretty poor in a number of games this season, his passing has been very suspect. Had a quality game at City but I wouldn't put him in our top 5 best performers this season (jwp, Livramento, salisu, Stephens pre injury, KWP) pretty telling they are all defensive players really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chapel End Posted 3 October, 2021 Share Posted 3 October, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, CB Fry said: All I can see is a season of a lot of "well, it's completely unrealistic to expect us to beat them" followed by a lot of "well, on another day we would have won that" and plenty of "well, bad day at the office" followed by the occasional win. And of course, when that win happens the exact same people who keep referring to our defeats as one-off events, and berating other users for their negative knee-jerk reactions to "look, it's just one defeat" will respond to that singular win as comprehensive and irrefutable proof that absolutely everything is fantastic and great and off we go into challenging the top half and all you doubters have been proved utterly wrong because we won that one game. What a season it's going to be. No they wont, stop trolling for bites. Edited 3 October, 2021 by Chapel End Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rickman42 Posted 3 October, 2021 Share Posted 3 October, 2021 (edited) It’s a big couple of weeks for Ralph on the training ground, and hopefully some big performances over the next five games. it was always going to be a difficult start to the season, but we’ve picked up big results against Man Utd and Man City… sure, we haven’t won a game yet, but a few results in the next few weeks makes our start look very, VERY different, and much more positive Edited 3 October, 2021 by Rickman42 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iansums Posted 3 October, 2021 Share Posted 3 October, 2021 14 hours ago, woodsaint1 said: Are you really counting Vestergaard or Bertrand as one of our best two players. Danny yes, but them two no f***in chance. The fact we're cursing Stephens injury says it all about CB Well that’s not actually what I said but yes, both are very good players doing pretty well for Leicester at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chapel End Posted 3 October, 2021 Share Posted 3 October, 2021 1 hour ago, iansums said: Well that’s not actually what I said but yes, both are very good players doing pretty well for Leicester at the moment. Not according to their fans,go check their forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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