Saints 2-1 Lincoln City - Match Thread

[badgerx16]

10 hours ago, Saint-Reece said:

AMN and A.Armstrong I don’t want to see anywhere near the starting 11 ever again…,😫

I fear you are going to be disappointed.

[FarehamSaintJames]

11 hours ago, Saint86 said:

Did anyone else see Lyanco doing his arms clenched/pumping celebration for that foul (by jackson in our box) being given... he clearly is not right in the head.

Said this at the start of the season and got slated because everyone else said it was PaSsIoN! 🤪

[suewhistle]

7 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

what do you learn from that?

You? Very little I imagine, but hopefully it's a wake up call for a few people in charge.

Not much left to be said really, although I remember why I didn't renew my membership as match threads are such a joy and in The Lounge poor Turkish will be exorcising his LGBT demons with strawman arguments.

TheCat was right, there was genuine and widespread laughter of disbelief after those misses. I was more annoyed with Ely for not taking responsibility though, and he had a generally typical game of not being quite there or winning his tackles, but nowhere near as bad as AMN. What's the arrangement with him, I hope we have no obligation to buy although he was marginally better at full back. Lyanco was dire with his overhit passes, and stupid: that foul was in front of me and completely unnecessary.

Edozie (miss apart) is promising, Adams' strength is his strength and hold up play, not his finishing, the subs helped but generally there weren't many positives. JWP hasn't been playing well but he has to do so much to tie up the loose ends, and there are plenty of those, but he's always in position to receive the ball. Lavia back will be a great help. Perraud should also be mentioned in a positive light, but KWP looked rusty and not the asset we were once so happy to see playing. It will be good to see Livramento back.

Jones will have learnt more from that than from months of training and friendlies. Who do we want in the next round? 😉

 

 

[FarehamSaintJames]

I’d actually rather Sean Dyche. 4-4-2 Brexit football now. A team of hard nuts that will put their neck on the line. 😅

I’m more concerned about the five at the back against a League One club. Player-wise there’s not an awful lot he’s got at his disposal right now.

[SotonianWill]

13 hours ago, Dman said:

Same agent as Aribo I believe. Said agent is supposedly a good friend of Shields. 
 

Add AMN to the Shields fuck up list next to Bazunu. 

Ralph wanted AMN for a long time 

[SotonianWill]

12 hours ago, Crab Lungs said:

It’s almost systemic. It doesn’t matter who manages the team, who is the first 11, whatever formation we play… we’re just insufferably sh1t 😞

dosent help he picks the exact 11 ralph normally played in the exact same positions. at least stick in a different player for once who hasn’t played as much this season

[Turkish]

22 minutes ago, suewhistle said:

You? Very little I imagine, but hopefully it's a wake up call for a few people in charge.

Not much left to be said really, although I remember why I didn't renew my membership as match threads are such a joy and in The Lounge poor Turkish will be exorcising his LGBT demons with strawman arguments.

TheCat was right, there was genuine and widespread laughter of disbelief after those misses. I was more annoyed with Ely for not taking responsibility though, and he had a generally typical game of not being quite there or winning his tackles, but nowhere near as bad as AMN. What's the arrangement with him, I hope we have no obligation to buy although he was marginally better at full back. Lyanco was dire with his overhit passes, and stupid: that foul was in front of me and completely unnecessary.

Edozie (miss apart) is promising, Adams' strength is his strength and hold up play, not his finishing, the subs helped but generally there weren't many positives. JWP hasn't been playing well but he has to do so much to tie up the loose ends, and there are plenty of those, but he's always in position to receive the ball. Lavia back will be a great help. Perraud should also be mentioned in a positive light, but KWP looked rusty and not the asset we were once so happy to see playing. It will be good to see Livramento back.

Jones will have learnt more from that than from months of training and friendlies. Who do we want in the next round? 😉

 

 

 Why are you name dropping me in this thread you wierdo? 

[Turkish]

Watched the second half on the stream, aside from the two comedy misses at the end i was surprised how similar it was to Ralphball. I know he said he wasnt going to change to much too quickly but really it was the same players doing the same things in the failed system that we've tried many times and ditched under Ralph. We look so much brighter when Stuart Armstrong plays and despite the miss Edozie was a bright spot, got on the ball and made things happen, the only one on the pitch who looked remotely exciting. 

[Saint_clark]

10 hours ago, Harry_SFC said:

I've noticed that KWP actually looks more threatening in a back 4. 

Because as the only wide player he's got two sometimes three players defending against him down that side. 

[Whitey Grandad]

3 hours ago, captainchris said:

That was poor.

No midfield at all. Wing backs and JWP too far away from the back three so it was impossible to build any kind of possession. The only tactic was for Lyanco to hit a very long inaccurate ball into touch or to a Lincoln player…

Where was the much lauded’ support for the man on the ball’ Didn’t see that at all.

God and as for picking Adam Armstrong ! Jones needs to pick his game up quick because that was worse than a Ralph performance by him… 
Tactics, coaching and team selection for this game were of the lowest order and a very disappointing start Nathan considering you had six weeks to study and plan…What have you been doing ?

 

 

He’s been learning from the players how to play Ralphball.

[Greedyfly]

13 hours ago, Crab Lungs said:

I’ve always been perplexed by people who said he was good, even my Arsenal friend said he was. I always thought he was a jack of all trades, master of none.. but universally poor in most.

This 100%.  Still we had a 8/10 window apparently...

[JRM]

3 hours ago, Toussaint said:

I wouldn’t read too much into that game, a very rusty Saints side who haven’t  played for weeks with  a new manager who is only just getting to know his players. We know we need to invest heavily.

Rusty was exactly how someone behind me described us, probably right when you think we often start slowly at start of the season good to get first game back out of the way.

[Toussaint]

6 minutes ago, JRM said:

Rusty was exactly how someone behind me described us, probably right when you think we often start slowly at start of the season good to get first game back out of the way.

It reminded me of a lethargic early pre season game, which in some ways it was, the difference is the opposition were fully up to speed. 

[LeBizzier69]

Refreshing to see a manager happy to make major tactical and personnel changes if things aren’t working….and not waiting until the 87th minute.

Fair play to him, I just hope that those who come on Boxing Day are going to get behind him and the team and give the guy a chance. 

[Turkish]

2 minutes ago, LeBizzier69 said:

Refreshing to see a manager happy to make major tactical and personnel changes if things aren’t working….and not waiting until the 87th minute.

Fair play to him, I just hope that those who come on Boxing Day are going to get behind him and the team and give the guy a chance. 

I agree. lets face it, we look doomed this season, it's going to either take a wonder transfer window or a miracle worker to keep us up, relegation cant be put on Jones. We've got a really crap team, been in decline for a while so In many ways he's got a free hit, if we go down it's not his fault, if we stay up he's a hero. 

[DonnieD]

10 hours ago, OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint said:

Totally agree. We can't do 5 at back and midfield were absent in first half. And can the lads who keep letting off flares in the Northam concourse (happened at Sheff Wed and again tonight) please save a couple to shove up AMN's a*se!

That’s why he’s Anus Maitland Niles.

[The Curse of St Mary's]

I watched in disbelief the amount of aimless long balls being punted by the three centre backs during the first half. It was excruciating to watch.

We looked much more comfortable with a back four even though all four centre backs looked well off the pace. 

Midfield is a major problem. There is nothing there. JWP looks a shadow of his former self. AMN was woeful. He doesn't do the pivot job like Lavia does. You watch him closely and he will 7/10 times place himself so that there is no clear passing pathway to him. 

Without Che we would be doomed, that said he's not a natural finisher by any stretch so we desperately need a quality striker partner for him. Che and Ings complimented each others styles and we need a partnership like that to stand any chance of staying up. Adam Armstrong is trash. Offers absolutely nothing.

Stu Armstrong and edozie certainly brought some imagination and bravery. Aribo but be bad in training if he's not getting any minutes. 

 

[Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan]

49 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Watched the second half on the stream, aside from the two comedy misses at the end i was surprised how similar it was to Ralphball. I know he said he wasnt going to change to much too quickly but really it was the same players doing the same things in the failed system that we've tried many times and ditched under Ralph. We look so much brighter when Stuart Armstrong plays and despite the miss Edozie was a bright spot, got on the ball and made things happen, the only one on the pitch who looked remotely exciting. 

Edozie was magic when he came on, really wanted to take players on, and kept getting into the box and the byline. Have to feel that given 90 minutes of that eventually a right back is going through him and giving away a penalty. Also his positivity seemed to impact Perraud too who suddenly was running beyond more.

Watching in the stadium it was odd, we still seemed to be playing sideways like we did under Ralph but it did feel different. Seemed like there was more movement ahead of the back 3, they just weren't quick enough getting the ball moving to make use of it. A few times AA and JWP seemed to be frustrated that they had moved into space and the ball never came, about 15/20 minutes in there was a period where the ball seemed stuck with the centre backs and JWP was shouting and waving his arms around as if to say they needed to be moving the ball quicker. 

Initially (for the first half and a little of the second) the aim seemed to be to form a passing triangle between the wide centre back, wing back and midfielder on that side to move the ball up the pitch and then cross the ball in. We just then weren't winning any headers or second balls. That didn't seem to give AMN much of a role and he looked very lost. When we moved things around in the second half, JWP moved back a little and seemed to be on the ball a lot more and looked a lot sharper than he has recently

We definitely had a massive switch in the second half to a 4-3-3 which definitely got through them easier (helped by Armstrong carrying the ball through midfield).

One thing I did notice is that everything seemed to be in a hurry, throw ins were taken quickly, free quicks in our half played instantly to the spare centre back.

 

[Toussaint]

5 minutes ago, The Curse of St Mary's said:

I watched in disbelief the amount of aimless long balls being punted by the three centre backs during the first half. It was excruciating to watch.

We looked much more comfortable with a back four even though all four centre backs looked well off the pace. 

Midfield is a major problem. There is nothing there. JWP looks a shadow of his former self. AMN was woeful. He doesn't do the pivot job like Lavia does. You watch him closely and he will 7/10 times place himself so that there is no clear passing pathway to him. 

Without Che we would be doomed, that said he's not a natural finisher by any stretch so we desperately need a quality striker partner for him. Che and Ings complimented each others styles and we need a partnership like that to stand any chance of staying up. Adam Armstrong is trash. Offers absolutely nothing.

Stu Armstrong and edozie certainly brought some imagination and bravery. Aribo but be bad in training if he's not getting any minutes. 

 

I think Aribo is a complete dud.

[FarehamSaintJames]

Aribo is shit. He has been since he joined, his two zig-zag goals which on both occasions he overdid have covered up how lazy he really is.

I hope someone has a word with Adams, so effing selfish yesterday, sure he’s on a hat-trick but he’ll do himself no favours. Team game.

[Toussaint]

2 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Aribo is shit. He has been since he joined, his two zig-zag goals which on both occasions he overdid have covered up how lazy he really is.

I hope someone has a word with Adams, so effing selfish yesterday, sure he’s on a hat-trick but he’ll do himself no favours. Team game.

The thing is, he could have had a hat-trick if he'd hit it on the first or second opportunity, it seemed he was showboating. 

Edited 21 December, 2022 by Toussaint

[Sheaf Saint]

No highlights anywhere online yet???

[AlexLaw76]

Just now, Sheaf Saint said:

No highlights anywhere online yet???

The hilarious misses were the highlights

we should have given away a penalty and our first goal was offside

[Manuel]

21 minutes ago, The Curse of St Mary's said:

Midfield is a major problem. There is nothing there. JWP looks a shadow of his former self. AMN was woeful. He doesn't do the pivot job like Lavia does. You watch him closely and he will 7/10 times place himself so that there is no clear passing pathway to him. 

 

This, leaving the back 3 unable to play it out and ending up hoofing it.  Even if you give it to JWP you know that 80% of the time it's coming straight back to you.  

[JRM]

Some great comedy here 

 

[Mr Nimbus]

I'm always kind of wary of the type of comment NJ made last night, that allude to the result is all that matters.

Technically yes, winning is all that matters, however if you consistently perform as badly as we did you'll lose far more than you win. 

Im a fairly patient person and have wished it would turn for players like Adam Armstrong but I think his time here should be over pretty quickly. There was a chance in the first half, he's in on goal and squares it to Che (who missed a pretty easy chance)

That pass showed me everything I needed to know. His confidence has gone. Id happily take 5 million from a championship team. It's not going to work.

Jury is still out for me. I was away when NJ was appointed so wasn't in the loop on what people were saying etc. One thing I am picking up from people who watched Luton etc is he likes experienced players. Seems at odds with the entire recruitment strategy of the summer but maybe I am looking too deep at it.

Anyone know why JJM and or Ballard were not involved?

[Sheaf Saint]

14 minutes ago, JRM said:

Some great comedy here 

 

That's fucking horrendous from Che. Really piss poor even by his standards. A simple square pass and it's a goal FFS.

[Fabrice29]

10 hours ago, StrangelyBrown said:

How did that work for us tonight?

3 centre backs compromises us in attack and relies on us having good players up front. When one of our attacking players is Armstrong we really are in trouble.

I was hoping Jones might have something a bit better in his locker - hopefully he has a plan B.

Literally showed you he had a plan B last night and it worked.

Don't mind the 3 at the back, that wasn't the issue last night but it's the easy go to thing to point out. The detail of the game showed a lack of imagination and incisiveness. That's a long standing problem and isn't solved by 3 at the back or 4. Doesn't matter what formation we have, you need good players up front and you need to move the ball quickly. The idea of sticking more players up front who aren't good enough seems counter intuitive to me so until personnel changes I'm still thinking 3 at the back is our best option to start the game, we just need to do it better. Edozie is suited to playing wide only and is suited to playing at the end of the game so for me, so allowing our wing backs to be our more proactive players is still the best way forward. I think having Stuart Armstrong in the middle really helped as he moves the ball quickly and incisively, otherwise we're a little one paced centrally.

[Fabrice29]

2 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

That's fucking horrendous from Che. Really piss poor even by his standards. A simple square pass and it's a goal FFS.

The clip before shows a simple square pass and it not being a goal tbf. Absolute cluster fuck of a few minutes.

[Lighthouse]

2 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

That's fucking horrendous from Che. Really piss poor even by his standards. A simple square pass and it's a goal FFS.

That and the fact that he did all that p*ssing around, trying to get around the keeper and when he did he still wouldn’t shoot. Wouldn’t even take on the single defender standing on the line. The fact that our best striker has such awful instincts in front of goal is pathetic.

[alehouseboys]

1 hour ago, Toussaint said:

It reminded me of a lethargic early pre season game, which in some ways it was, the difference is the opposition were fully up to speed. 

And had a enthusiastic and supportive crowd behind them, lethargy was in abundance in the home stands too

1 hour ago, Sheaf Saint said:

No highlights anywhere online yet???

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/12772240/southampton-2-1-lincoln

[Lee On Solent Saint]

28 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

That's fucking horrendous from Che. Really piss poor even by his standards. A simple square pass and it's a goal FFS.

No excuse for that, the first one is bad enough, but the second one is just beyond laughable. Had it still been one a piece at that time, he would have got slaughtered, and rightly so. 

[FarehamSaintJames]

Just now, Lee On Solent Saint said:

No excuse for that, the first one is bad enough, but the second one is just beyond laughable. Had it still been one a piece at that time, he would have got slaughtered, and rightly so. 

He had about four or five attempts to leather it and he tried to be a cocky so and so to complete his hat-trick. Now if I were a team mate I would’ve been laying into him after that. For a while.

Thats the difference between a confident player, a good player, and a player with absolutely no fucking confidence or lack of ability.

[disconnect]

34 minutes ago, Mr Nimbus said:

I'm always kind of wary of the type of comment NJ made last night, that allude to the result is all that matters.

Technically yes, winning is all that matters, however if you consistently perform as badly as we did you'll lose far more than you win. 

Im a fairly patient person and have wished it would turn for players like Adam Armstrong but I think his time here should be over pretty quickly. There was a chance in the first half, he's in on goal and squares it to Che (who missed a pretty easy chance)

That pass showed me everything I needed to know. His confidence has gone. Id happily take 5 million from a championship team. It's not going to work.

Jury is still out for me. I was away when NJ was appointed so wasn't in the loop on what people were saying etc. One thing I am picking up from people who watched Luton etc is he likes experienced players. Seems at odds with the entire recruitment strategy of the summer but maybe I am looking too deep at it.

Anyone know why JJM and or Ballard were not involved?

I'm also quite concerned about this - effectively writing off 80% of our summer transfer dealings, and a big thing which has brought us success in the past. There's also been constant talk from the owners and managements about not being financially able to buy ready-made experienced players, and having to hone younger / unproven players into great players. Then we get last night, where not a single youngster (excluding Edozie - already one of our best players, who still cant get a start) even makes the bench against a mid-table League One team. Maybe it's just as wanted to get all the senior players some minutes, but hopefully we wont be seeing same old sh*t every week and some 30+ year old injury prone rejects from a mid-table premier league team being brought in on big money as our saviour January signings... Feels a bit 2005 currently, but keeping fingers crossed these concerns are soon flushed away!!

[Toussaint]

13 minutes ago, alehouseboys said:

and had a enthusiastic and supportive crowd behind them, lethargy was in abundance in the home stands too

 

We do seem a bit collectively broken, hardly surprising given the steady decline , that's why a prefer away games, much more positive atmosphere from our supporters. 

[Turkish]

1 hour ago, JRM said:

Some great comedy here 

 

It’s not any less amusing the second time. Awful

[Saint_clark]

1 hour ago, Toussaint said:

The thing is, he could have had a hat-trick if he'd hit it on the first or second opportunity, it seemed he was showboating. 

That wasn't show boating, it was just overthinking it. 

[Saint_clark]

1 hour ago, JRM said:

Some great comedy here 

 

Ffs look at the point the keeper goes down, just lift it over him into the left hand side of the goal. I don't understand why he tried to take it round him at all just aim for the corner when one on one.

[Toussaint]

Just now, Saint_clark said:

That wasn't show boating, it was just overthinking it. 

Your probably right, showboating would be out of character for him, its  a shame, he look crushed immediately afterwards, if only he'd take his chances earlier.

[skintsaint]

Ah well, best out of the system in a game we had won by this point.

Edited 21 December, 2022 by skintsaint

[Lighthouse]

1 minute ago, skintsaint said:

Ah well, best out of the system in a game we had won by this point.

We aren’t getting anything out of the system, this crap has been happening all season. Without it we’d be mid table and it’s going to carry on happening. 

[skintsaint]

1 minute ago, Lighthouse said:

this crap has been happening all season

I'm going on the Jones era, Che was good against Liverpool, 2 goals last night. Yeah shocker that but best out the system as I said.

[Appy]

We signed Lyanco and Adam Armstrong in the same window. 
 

What a wild summer. 

[Saintscummer]

2 hours ago, LeBizzier69 said:

Refreshing to see a manager happy to make major tactical and personnel changes if things aren’t working….and not waiting until the 87th minute.

Fair play to him, I just hope that those who come on Boxing Day are going to get behind him and the team and give the guy a chance. 

Someone speaks sense. A modicum of sense in a sea of sh1t. What do people expect with first proper game. The opposition had been playing for a month and are match fit. Plus they would of raised their game. You can see that this is a new way of playing being gradually phased in. 
 

We generally played the ball forward a lot quicker. There were more crosses and more running at their full backs. Also cut back crosses were good to see. 
 

The transition from defence to attack was quicker. People need to cut him some slack and support the direction of travel otherwise we will implode very very quickly. 
 

I like him so far. I see bits of WGS in him. Who was also slagged off when he joined us. NJ might be crap but can we give him a go first. 

[John Boy Saint]

18 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

That's fucking horrendous from Che. Really piss poor even by his standards. A simple square pass and it's a goal FFS.

The fact that he'd put the keeper on his backside and he was on his right foot compounds that - nowhere to hide when Jones has his tuppence worth in his post match analysis.

The Lincoln goal was farcical and was nearly duplicated a little later with ABK heading to clear again, and once again sending the ball straight up high into the nights sky and again dropping towards goal at a very awkward angle for young Gavin who probably thought "you have got to be kidding - again". The first goal offside confusion was yes a Lincoln player was possibly offside, but the ball came off ABK's shite "clearance" dropped and hit Gavins hand and in- Lincoln player didn't touch it.

It certainly was Stumblebum Utd v Lincoln City for a fair amount of last night, both Salisu and ABK, in particular, looked very ropey and being young probably thought "I've just been to the World Cup so I must be better that everyone on the pitch".    

AMN can be packed up and sent back to Arsenal, or pinned against the wall and have it beaten into him that he is a million miles away from being a Brazilian. On more than one occasion he did these silly blind backheel type passes, one was so bad I think even the 3 Lincoln players he back heeled the ball into the middle of paused, thinking "do they have an invisible player!?" or even "careful lads its a trap". Many moons ago Graham Taylor was the manager of the Celebs on one of the early Soccer Aid thingys, something he tried to get into their heads was the thing that all good professionals do is take photographs in their head of who is 360 degrees around them, either as a threat or who to pass the ball onto. I think AMN (and Elyounoussi too for that matter -actually I don't think he even owns a camera) is waiting for his head photos to be developed at Boots! No wonder JWP is being dulled, he's having to keep his eye on a liability alongside him.

Bright spark of the night was Sam Edozie, enjoy him while he is here folks. He looks like you could snap him like a twig, but his close control and especially his deception is a joy to watch, even I was suckered more than once sat up on row EE in the stand. I'll forgive him his miss, as I think he was more ready to tidy up than receive the ball.  

   

[beatlesaint]

1 hour ago, Sheaf Saint said:

That's fucking horrendous from Che. Really piss poor even by his standards. A simple square pass and it's a goal FFS.

Yeah, the Edozie one wasnt as bad as i expected, but the Adams one.....fuckin hell !!

[danjosaint]

The Edozie one was bad but it was an awful pass from Ely, 

[Chez]

1 hour ago, disconnect said:

I'm also quite concerned about this - effectively writing off 80% of our summer transfer dealings, and a big thing which has brought us success in the past. There's also been constant talk from the owners and managements about not being financially able to buy ready-made experienced players, and having to hone younger / unproven players into great players. Then we get last night, where not a single youngster (excluding Edozie - already one of our best players, who still cant get a start) even makes the bench against a mid-table League One team. Maybe it's just as wanted to get all the senior players some minutes

Do Bazunu, Bella-Ketchup, Mara and Edozie not count as youngsters? Our summer transfer dealings also included AMN, Aribo and Caleta Car. So not sure why you think we are `writing off 80% of our transfer dealings'. Lavia was injured, so that means only one summer signing, Larios, was not involved. 

Or by `youngsters' do you mean youth team players?

 

[Yozzman]

34 minutes ago, danjosaint said:

The Edozie one was bad but it was an awful pass from Ely, 

Come on nothing wrong with the pass, Edozie just went with the wrong foot.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

15 minutes ago, Yozzman said:

Come on nothing wrong with the pass, Edozie just went with the wrong foot.

It was noticeable that during a break in play after the miss, Moi put his arm around Edozie and said something to him.