Russell Martin

[The Kraken]

11 minutes ago, Turkish said:

just delaying the inevitable surely?

Probably. Half of our signings seemed to be made with an eye on next season in the championship so there’s an element of prepping for that.

Martin’s career record goals against is quite frankly awful, and not likely to improve much.

[Turkish]

11 minutes ago, The Kraken said:

Probably. Half of our signings seemed to be made with an eye on next season in the championship so there’s an element of prepping for that.

Martin’s career record goals against is quite frankly awful, and not likely to improve much.

go down, win the title next year, what's not to like?

[franniesTache]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

go down, win the title next year, what's not to like?

the redundancies at the club that see loads of normal sotonians lose their jobs?

[Disco Stu]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

go down, win the title next year, what's not to like?

I don't like the first part of that statement.

[Weston Super Saint]

1 hour ago, franniesTache said:

the redundancies at the club that see loads of normal sotonians lose their jobs?

Have they really been replaced from last time for a whole season?

[Midfield_General]

6 hours ago, redkeith said:

For me there have been definite signs of improvement.

Since Brentford there have been much less passing around at the back, and less hospital passes. I think some of this is down to having a leader at the back in Ramsdale. What a keeeper too! 

The defence looks more balanced with a natural Left back. Taylor also gives us more height when defending set pieces.  KWP has been a great servant, but Taylor and Suga are better defenders. For me KWP should be used further upfield unless one of the above are injured.

The midfield looks good with Downes and Fernandes and either Lallana or Les. They are a lot better at turning and playing forward than Smallbone and Aribo,  so that makes us much quicker in the transition. 

Dibling  is outstanding already. His through ball to Archer was brilliant, and towards the end of the game on Saturday, he was killing Ipswich, even with his legs gone, with the weight of pass to Sugawara. Their combination is giving me Channon/Golac vibes.

Archer looks great on through balls, less so on crosses. Ostenstaad was similar, and his goals dried up after Berkowitz left. I would hope that Archer gets into double figures, with Lallana, Fernandes and Dibling setting him up. 

If Aribo had cleared that corner against Forest, and not shied away from the shot on Saturday, we would be in mid table on 4 points now. 

 

 

Hard to disagree with any of that, but if we had hung on and won 1-0 on Saturday, wouldn't we be on a total of 3pts and -6 GD, which would still only put us in 17th, one place above where we are now? (It would have put us above Ipswich on GD but below Palace, also on GD)

Edited 26 September, 2024 by Midfield_General

[Turkish]

2 hours ago, franniesTache said:

the redundancies at the club that see loads of normal sotonians lose their jobs?

fair point. Mrs T got made redundant from Saints when we were the championship, survived the first round of redundancies, went the second year after more cut backs so got the t-shirt on that one.

[trousers]

1 hour ago, Midfield_General said:

Hard to disagree with any of that, but if we had hung on and won 1-0 on Saturday, wouldn't we be on a total of 3pts and -6 GD, which would still only put us in 17th, one place above where we are now? (It would have put us above Ipswich on GD but below Palace, also on GD)

He's also saying we were one bad clearance away from getting a point Vs Forest

[Midfield_General]

23 minutes ago, trousers said:

He's also saying we were one bad clearance away from getting a point Vs Forest

Ah, I see. I was at that game and I'm not sure I agree, but now I understand the point! 

Edited 26 September, 2024 by Midfield_General

[Charlie Wayman]

If only, if only. Mistakes must be ironed out. If your coaching staff can't sort it @RM then fire a few and add some new. Don't let "my mates" culture hamstring your ambitions.

Edited 26 September, 2024 by Charlie Wayman

[SaintsBarry74]

I know most of you lot really value possession stats (possession, got to have it all right?), but here's our performance relative to our fixture difficulty thus far.

[Dman]

19 hours ago, Turkish said:

just delaying the inevitable surely? Unless there is a huge improvement we're pretty much gifting teams at least a one goal start most games with our tactics and cant score.

Yep. If we fail to get anything at Bournemouth, give the new man a free hit at Arsenal and go to leicester with a realstic chance of picking up 3 points. 

Still believe under Martin in chagre, we'll fail to make the 12 point mark. 

[HKsaint]

I think possession is the key.

[John Boy Saint]

15 hours ago, Turkish said:

fair point. Mrs T got made redundant from Saints when we were the championship, survived the first round of redundancies, went the second year after more cut backs so got the t-shirt on that one.

Friend of mine got made redundant at Saints only this summer - she was one of the ones who helped keep the “lights on” when the abyss was looming large on the horizon.

[saintant]

16 hours ago, trousers said:

He's also saying we were one bad clearance away from getting a point Vs Forest

Which is nonsense really because, had Aribo cleared the ball, nobody knows how the rest of the game would have panned out. You can't isolate one incident and say, had it not happened, we would have got a point.

[Whitey Grandad]

38 minutes ago, saintant said:

Which is nonsense really because, had Aribo cleared the ball, nobody knows how the rest of the game would have panned out. You can't isolate one incident and say, had it not happened, we would have got a point.

The problem with that game was not scoring. As it is with most of them. When you also leak goals and give away sitters the you’ve no hope..

[Oldandtired]

If, perhaps the smallest word in the English language with the biggest ramifications.

[Raging Bull]

11 minutes ago, Oldandtired said:

If, perhaps the smallest word in the English language with the biggest ramifications.

A? 

[SaintsBarry74]

3 hours ago, HKsaint said:

I think possession is the key.

It's clearly our bread and butter innit.

[Miltonaggro]

3 hours ago, HKsaint said:

I think possession is the key.

Demonic?

[Weston Super Saint]

3 hours ago, Raging Bull said:

A? 

I?

[Charlie Wayman]

4 hours ago, Weston Super Saint said:

I?

What does AI say?

[UpweySaint]

1 hour ago, Charlie Wayman said:

What does AI say?

Let’s go?

*shit no, that’s AO …

[Turkish]

9 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

The problem with that game was not scoring. As it is with most of them. When you also leak goals and give away sitters the you’ve no hope..

we're only 9 defensive mistakes and 3 missed chances away from winning every game 1-0. #if #finemargins 

[Wade Garrett]

If we don’t win on Monday then it’s time to get someone in who can get a better tune from this team.

Obviously, I hope we get the win, but I just can’t see it.

[Sergei Gotsmanov]

1 hour ago, Wade Garrett said:

If we don’t win on Monday then it’s time to get someone in who can get a better tune from this team.

Obviously, I hope we get the win, but I just can’t see it.

 RM's compromise is to pass around the back slightly less so we make slightly less mistakes and are slightly more likley to attack more quickly and the opposition's defence is given slightly less time to organise! We are slightly better than we were but this not not enough.

[Oldandtired]

Just watched a bit of RM’s presser. If bullshit was ten pound notes that man would be a  billionaire.

 

Disclaimer . If we start winning I reserve the right to completely change my mind and display how fickle I am and lavish him with praise.

If…that word again.

Edited 28 September, 2024 by Oldandtired

[Saint Gifford]

As a lot have said, everyone has there level in football. He is a great guy with a great plan. 

I think his problem is he is not flexible enough, not willing to completely change formation and or style of play at half time, or 60 minutes even the last 10. 

At our level with the players we can afford we have to be more creative with formations and phases of play. 
 

I guess we are restricted to a budget. If that is RM, it is what it is. 

 

[Nordic Saint]

On 27/09/2024 at 07:44, SaintsBarry74 said:

I know most of you lot really value possession stats (possession, got to have it all right?), but here's our performance relative to our fixture difficulty thus far.

So, basically, we've been lucky to have such easy fixtures so far. Also in our favour has been the fact that promoted teams tend to perform much better at the start of the season than they do later on.  Promoted teams that perform better( points per game) in their opening 10 fixtures than they do in their remaining ones are much more likely to stay up (71%). The first 10 fixtures are, therefore, crucial in determining the final outcome of our season. "Over the past 20 seasons there has been a reasonably clear threshold that promoted teams have to reach to be confident of survival - 11 points from the first 10 matches. "

The stats show that anything less than 8 points from the opening 10 fixtures makes relegation for a newly promoted team almost inevitable. So, as Russell Martin is a stats man, he must know that if he can get us through the opening 10 fixtures with less than 8 points, there will be no point in us sacking him and bringing in a new manager

Edited 29 September, 2024 by Nordic Saint

[vectraman]

On 27/09/2024 at 12:53, Oldandtired said:

If, perhaps the smallest word in the English language with the biggest ramifications.

If - the biggest little word 😉

[Lee On Solent Saint]

10 hours ago, Saint Gifford said:

As a lot have said, everyone has there level in football. He is a great guy with a great plan. 

I think his problem is he is not flexible enough, not willing to completely change formation and or style of play at half time, or 60 minutes even the last 10. 

At our level with the players we can afford we have to be more creative with formations and phases of play. 
 

I guess we are restricted to a budget. If that is RM, it is what it is. 

 

With the squad we have, RM needs to find a way to make as difficult to beat. We need to grind out results. At the moment we are so easy to play against. 

[Gloucester Saint]

1 hour ago, Nordic Saint said:

So, basically, we've been lucky to have such easy fixtures so far. Also in our favour has been the fact that promoted teams tend to perform much better at the start of the season than they do later on.  Promoted teams that perform better( points per game) in their opening 10 fixtures than they do in their remaining ones are much more likely to stay up (71%). The first 10 fixtures are, therefore, crucial in determining the final outcome of our season. "Over the past 20 seasons there has been a reasonably clear threshold that promoted teams have to reach to be confident of survival - 11 points from the first 10 matches. "

The stats show that anything less than 8 points from the opening 10 fixtures makes relegation for a newly promoted team almost inevitable. So, as Russell Martin is a stats man, he must know that if he can get us through the opening 10 fixtures with less than 8 points, there will be no point in us sacking him and bringing in a new manager

There’s absolutely a point in changing if the stupid slow passing around the back continues and we challenge Derby’s low points total, that’s no good for next season. Look at Derby’s trajectory since. At least go down a bit more competitive, and better chance of bouncing back and the PSR issues get easier without Rasmus’s transfer disasters around our necks.

[Whitey Grandad]

4 hours ago, Nordic Saint said:

So, basically, we've been lucky to have such easy fixtures so far. Also in our favour has been the fact that promoted teams tend to perform much better at the start of the season than they do later on.  Promoted teams that perform better( points per game) in their opening 10 fixtures than they do in their remaining ones are much more likely to stay up (71%). The first 10 fixtures are, therefore, crucial in determining the final outcome of our season. "Over the past 20 seasons there has been a reasonably clear threshold that promoted teams have to reach to be confident of survival - 11 points from the first 10 matches. "

The stats show that anything less than 8 points from the opening 10 fixtures makes relegation for a newly promoted team almost inevitable. So, as Russell Martin is a stats man, he must know that if he can get us through the opening 10 fixtures with less than 8 points, there will be no point in us sacking him and bringing in a new manager

He couldn’t be that cynically calculating. Could he?

[Midfield_General]

4 hours ago, Nordic Saint said:

So, as Russell Martin is a stats man, he must know that if he can get us through the opening 10 fixtures with less than 8 points, there will be no point in us sacking him and bringing in a new manager

Good effort. 6/10

[Nordic Saint]

8 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

He couldn’t be that cynically calculating. Could he?

No, I was joking. 

[StrangelyBrown]

11 hours ago, Gloucester Saint said:

There’s absolutely a point in changing if the stupid slow passing around the back continues and we challenge Derby’s low points total, that’s no good for next season. Look at Derby’s trajectory since. At least go down a bit more competitive, and better chance of bouncing back and the PSR issues get easier without Rasmus’s transfer disasters around our necks.

I'm not sure you can put Derby's downfall to simply getting relegated with the lowest points total - they were a club with financial problems that went through the very core of the club combined with woeful management at a club level.

[CB Fry]

1 hour ago, StrangelyBrown said:

I'm not sure you can put Derby's downfall to simply getting relegated with the lowest points total - they were a club with financial problems that went through the very core of the club combined with woeful management at a club level.

Yes, that's right. There was a lot of water under the bridge between Derby's record breaking Prem season and their financial collapse, the two aren't related at all.

In between they had loads of boringly stable seasons under managers like Nigel Clough and then multiple nearly-there play off appearances under McClaren and Lampard. It was chasing the dream around here that got them in real trouble, buy this was more than a decade after the Prem season.

[Saint NL]

So long sweet prince.

 

[sydney_saint]

When we last came up we had a bad start. But at least we knew we had an awful fixture list with the exception of Wigan. This season hasn't even been an outrageously hard start

[BotleySaint]

Finally lost me in the first half. Totally threw away the game.

[Saint NL]

I reckon they won't sack him until 1 minute passed midnight, just to say he made it until October 👍

[danjosaint]

Unfortunately they won't sack him, he's here to stay

[Lord Duckhunter]

How anyone can still defend this fraud is beyond me. That was down to him tonight, 100%. He’s put KWP, probably our best player last season, on the bench. He put one of the best young talents in the country CF when he’s been pulling up trees out wide. When someone suggested that on here, they had the piss ripped out of them, yet unbelievably Lego does it. It’s him that sets our defence up, a fucking shambles week in week out, and it’s him that makes us play with the urgency of Mrs Miggins wandering round the charity shops on pension day. Even when we’re chasing the game, we’re so fucking boring and predictable. It’s fucking horrendous, the worse style of football I’ve seen in 50 years of supporting the club. He’s sucking the joy out of the club week in week out, fucking arrogant twat. 

[whelk]

The play off final gave me hope there may have been some pragmatism there and he might be able to adapt to PL. Clearly not and needs to go ASAP

[CSA96]

He's not making a lot of sense right now, tbh. Two or three games ago when we were losing it was time to forget what people did last season and can't be loyal to people just because of last season chat... and now he is going completely the opposite way and saying they need to come back in because we're still losing

[RedArmy]

1 minute ago, CSA96 said:

He's not making a lot of sense right now, tbh. Two or three games ago when we were losing it was time to forget what people did last season and can't be loyal to people just because of last season chat... and now he is going completely the opposite way and saying they need to come back in because we're still losing

Probably realised the players we’ve replaced them with are equally shite so might as well play his pals. 

[Suhari]

27 minutes ago, BotleySaint said:

Finally lost me in the first half. Totally threw away the game.

Yep. That set up was shocking. Trying to be too clever.

[Suhari]

So we can expect AArma, Smallbone and Shoehorn back in for Arsenal?

That'll be 'interesting'.

[Gloucester Saint]

15 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

How anyone can still defend this fraud is beyond me. That was down to him tonight, 100%. He’s put KWP, probably our best player last season, on the bench. He put one of the best young talents in the country CF when he’s been pulling up trees out wide. When someone suggested that on here, they had the piss ripped out of them, yet unbelievably Lego does it. It’s him that sets our defence up, a fucking shambles week in week out, and it’s him that makes us play with the urgency of Mrs Miggins wandering round the charity shops on pension day. Even when we’re chasing the game, we’re so fucking boring and predictable. It’s fucking horrendous, the worse style of football I’ve seen in 50 years of supporting the club. He’s sucking the joy out of the club week in week out, fucking arrogant twat. 

The lack of organisation is unforgivable but it shouldn’t surprise us when we conceded 70 last year with KWP, Bednarek and THB in the back 4. OK, 🤡 behind them until he got injured but those three are as good as it gets at Champ level. And not knowing who your first choice penalty taker is….

The tactics tonight were up there with anything late Ralph/Nathan Jones/Pellegrino/Branfoot. It’s ruining a younger squad and SR need to deal with it and also bring some football experience in to running the club and overseeing transfers. The Aldi approach to shopping isn’t working. 

Edited 30 September, 2024 by Gloucester Saint

[Wiggles31]

Truly found out at this level. Time for a change. Second half felt like the players knew time was up hence they upped their game (yet created f all).