Saints 0-1 Ipswich - Match Thread

[Rebel]

That was terrible last night - from the moment the line-up was announced.  Unfortunately it suggested a manager who has lost the plot a little bit.

A midfield of Aribo and Smallbone and Adam Armstrong was always going to struggle. And playing Shea Charles in defence and not midfield made no sense either with Holgate and Bednarek on the bench.

I couldn't work out if we were playing 4-4-2 with Adams and Adarma upfront or 4-3-3 with Adarma in midfield though.

I went on a bit of an Aribo watch and he was terrible - he looked lazy and unfit.  He couldn't even do the basics for a midfielder right - pass and move in to space for the return pass.  And never really seemed to be in the right space.

Likewise Sulemana when he came on - again terrible. Full of it - whatever it is - but not really any idea what to do with the ball or how to play in a football team.

With both Adams and Adarma on the pitch we still lacked a centre forward or goal scorer. They are both second strikers - although very different in style. They both need a centre forward to play-off or play behind.  Neither one really fits in a 4-3-3. 

Ross Stewart better bloody well be a superman of a centre forward when he starts playing. 

Adarma is not really a centre forward, he's not our best attacking midfielder and he's not our best winger - so why make him captain. Alcaraz and Stu should start in the AM role over him all season long.  

The team that ended the game was more like the team that should have started the game - and that's a terrible thing to have to say.

But if I am honest I'd struggle to pick a first 11 whether we were playing 4-4-2, 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1.   There are some fundamental problems with the team/squad that will take at least another transfer window - and money - too fix.

In terms of promotion I think this season is already a write-off. 

 

[OldNick]

2 minutes ago, Rebel said:

That was terrible last night - from the moment the line-up was announced.  Unfortunately it suggested a manager who has lost the plot a little bit.

A midfield of Aribo and Smallbone and Adam Armstrong was always going to struggle. And playing Shea Charles in defence and not midfield made no sense either with Holgate and Bednarek on the bench.

I couldn't work out if we were playing 4-4-2 with Adams and Adarma upfront or 4-3-3 with Adarma in midfield though.

I went on a bit of an Aribo watch and he was terrible - he looked lazy and unfit.  He couldn't even do the basics for a midfielder right - pass and move in to space for the return pass.  And never really seemed to be in the right space.

Likewise Sulemana when he came on - again terrible. Full of it - whatever it is - but not really any idea what to do with the ball or how to play in a football team.

With both Adams and Adarma on the pitch we still lacked a centre forward or goal scorer. They are both second strikers - although very different in style. They both need a centre forward to play-off or play behind.  Neither one really fits in a 4-3-3. 

Ross Stewart better bloody well be a superman of a centre forward when he starts playing. 

Adarma is not really a centre forward, he's not our best attacking midfielder and he's not our best winger - so why make him captain. Alcaraz and Stu should start in the AM role over him all season long.  

The team that ended the game was more like the team that should have started the game - and that's a terrible thing to have to say.

But if I am honest I'd struggle to pick a first 11 whether we were playing 4-4-2, 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1.   There are some fundamental problems with the team/squad that will take at least another transfer window - and money - too fix.

In terms of promotion I think this season is already a write-off. 

 

In the main I agree, but I dont on Sullemana is unfair, imo he was in the wrong position, ideal to be upfront to take flick ons, his pace is an advantage but we play him wide and the passage of play is slow and losing the advantage of his speed. The instructions seem to be play it back not be incisive. 

All the early season excitement has faded, the fans were well up for it, but already the stuffing has been kicked out of us due to the negative play. Seeing full backs overlapping at pace and players flooding the box adds excitement that gets the fans on board , that in turn lifts the atmosphere. Having playing fiddling around the back makes the fans nervous which in turn finds it way to the pitch

[Bit of a plonker]

What really gets to me with Saints is that the opposition are beating us at 80% effort, we are so easy to play against.  Without the ball we don’t tackle, hustle, close down space.  With the ball, we are sideways and backwards then hope a winger will beat a man to put a cross onto a midget forwards head.  Ipswich didn’t need to break sweat to beat us.  That should never happen 

[eurosaint]

I didn't see the game last night (watched short highlights) but am aware of the pattern which is emerging!

Man City play out from the back therefore some managers including ours, think that they can emulate Guardiola and achieve success!

There is a huge difference though in the quality of players at his disposal and ours! Touch, control, pass, move, precision & vision are essential to this system and if you either don't have it or can't maintain it then you will concede easy, sloppy goals. At least half of the last 10 have resulted from suicidal misplaced passes in our own half and it is clear that we do not have the attributes for this!

Given this knowledge something has to change☺️!

Blandly announcing that we have to be 'brave' is not acceptable, we need to utilise this group of players in a way better suited to their abilities, if we do this then there is no reason why we shouldn't push onwards and upwards....

PS. if Aribo is the answer then we must be asking the wrong questions 😵!

 

 

[SotonianWill]

Martin doesn’t learn. Perfect example on attacking corners we still have no one at least on the half way line in case of a counter. If he can’t even address this problem then god help us.

I feel bad for the defenders who have no options from a non existent midfield to pass to. Half our players (defence) are passing amongst themselves and the other half are all camped on the half way line. There’s quite literally no in between. This allows teams to drift through us out of possession as well. It’s a sh*t show tactically. 

Edited 20 September, 2023 by SotonianWill

[SW11_Saint]

4 hours ago, Wurzel said:

I was totally shocked by that. Admittedly there was no-one ahead of him (and no-one seemingly busting a gut to get up there)) but he was in so much space had he continued his run the minimum ground he could have made would have been another 25yards before anyone could attempt to challenge him. As you said, totally bizarre incicident to stop and turn and pass backwards.  Was it any coincidence he done it in front of the dugouts?  Did he get a "where the fuck do you think you're going" type shout from the bench? Or was the decision to ignore his natual instincts - and 99% of manager's preferred tactic - and safely increase  the passing stats by 1 more actually a "brave" decision?

We were baffled by that too - were sure the ref blew up, it was so abrupt.
 

And that’s a great example of the biggest issue with ‘Martin-ball’ - we’re asking players to go against their natural instincts; strikers to drive forward, defenders to get it out of danger areas as soon as they can. They are being asked to do things that don’t make sense (to them or us). No wonder they are confused and end up making mistakes. 

[Chez]

4 hours ago, gecko said:

 

I reckon the majority of fans could get on board with all the keep-ball and slow build up, even if it led to regular mistakes.... as long as, it actually led to some end product for us. I'm more than happy to ship a few stupid goals if it meant we were much more capable of scoring more than the opposition. That simply isn't the case the last few games.

Very good point. This is me to a tee. I am happy for us to pass it across and between the back four and go backwards a little too often, but only if I see the benefits of that method a few times in a game. Right now, I am really struggling to see the fruits of this labour. What exactly is it giving us? I've yet to see us get beyond a press and expose an opponent's stretched defence. Never mind creating that perfect goal, have we even created a chance as a result?

I do wonder of this approach is even needed in the championship. Getting between the lines seems relatively easy without lots of short possession based passing by defenders. 

[S-Clarke]

1 minute ago, Chez said:

Very good point. This is me to a tee. I am happy for us to pass it across and between the back four and go backwards a little too often, but only if I see the benefits of that method a few times in a game. Right now, I am really struggling to see the fruits of this labour. What exactly is it giving us? I've yet to see us get beyond a press and expose an opponent's stretched defence. Never mind creating that perfect goal, have we even created a chance as a result?

I do wonder of this approach is even needed in the championship. Getting between the lines seems relatively easy without lots of short possession based passing by defenders. 

It seems like it's just an approach for approaches sake at the moment, like you I'm not seeing any actual benefits in our general game on the back of trying this. In fact it gives us more issues, it's all very confusing.

I feel like a broken record, but the basics is crying out here. We have enough good players who can pass the ball in positions they are comfortable in, so leave it as that. All this Man City wannabe crap isn't benefiting us and I don't see how it ever will. Just a vanity trip.

[saintant]

1 hour ago, Chez said:

Very good point. This is me to a tee. I am happy for us to pass it across and between the back four and go backwards a little too often, but only if I see the benefits of that method a few times in a game. Right now, I am really struggling to see the fruits of this labour. What exactly is it giving us? I've yet to see us get beyond a press and expose an opponent's stretched defence. Never mind creating that perfect goal, have we even created a chance as a result?

I do wonder of this approach is even needed in the championship. Getting between the lines seems relatively easy without lots of short possession based passing by defenders. 

From what was said when he was appointed the idea is to build a side and system that will get us promoted with a better chance of staying in the Premier League when we get there. Personally I think it's a plan with zero chance of succeeding from what I've seen. The idea might have some merit but RM is not the manager to do it.

[saint michael]

Is there anyone out there who is happy to watch another dire season whilst this crazy experiment continues?  I find it really condescending that Martin talks to the fans about being patient. If I was paid what he is, I would be prepared to be patient instead of paying to watch this shit.
I have played and watched football for decades I think I know what good football and bad football looks like. I see zero progress and see him trying to deflect responsibility by saying it’s going to take time…strap in it’s going to be bumpy… not sure how long 5his will take…etc etc he seems to be happy clappy that the team love what they are doing. I bet they do. No consequence to poor performance. Have I slept through the moment where teams are given points for possession instead of goals scored vs goals conceded. 
as for the owners. They have bought for future value not current performance if they are driving this shit show any manager would be hard pushed to be successful. 

[AlexLaw76]

1 hour ago, saintant said:

From what was said when he was appointed the idea is to build a side and system that will get us promoted with a better chance of staying in the Premier League when we get there. Personally I think it's a plan with zero chance of succeeding from what I've seen. The idea might have some merit but RM is not the manager to do it.

imagine being half as wide open as we are in the premier league

[davefizzy14]

7 hours ago, Dman said:

In fairness, first 15 or so mins we actually did exactly that. 

We need to find a happy medium though - I've no issue with us playing out from the back, if its coached well and we have proper CM's and know our passing patterns. 

We're just all over the place atm. 

The biggest problem is the "inverted" full backs. It's taking away their strength of attacking down the line and it also seems to make Martin think we don't need to play a defensive midfielder because we have full backs covering - Its causing us no ends of problems and we have to bin it off - ASAP. 

I absolutely agree with this. This "inverted" fullback thing clearly is costing us and big gaps are appearing in midfield. It needs to be dropped ASAP. The full backs main strength is to attack down the flanks. I thought KWP was our best player last night, he was trying to make things happen including a lovely ball through to Che in the second half. It did look to me in the second half that RM altered a few things so both our fullbacks could stay more in their natural positions. This needs to continue so that we do not get exposed. 

Edited 20 September, 2023 by davefizzy14

[TheAlehouseBrawlers]

46 minutes ago, saint michael said:

Is there anyone out there who is happy to watch another dire season whilst this crazy experiment continues?  I find it really condescending that Martin talks to the fans about being patient. If I was paid what he is, I would be prepared to be patient instead of paying to watch this shit.
I have played and watched football for decades I think I know what good football and bad football looks like. I see zero progress and see him trying to deflect responsibility by saying it’s going to take time…strap in it’s going to be bumpy… not sure how long 5his will take…etc etc he seems to be happy clappy that the team love what they are doing. I bet they do. No consequence to poor performance. Have I slept through the moment where teams are given points for possession instead of goals scored vs goals conceded. 
as for the owners. They have bought for future value not current performance if they are driving this shit show any manager would be hard pushed to be successful. 

It's easy for him to ask that, he hasn't sat through recent season after season of turgid, mind-numbing ponderous football paying out large sums for the privilege. It may only be a number of weeks for him, for us, we're gagging for some entertaining football, I was right onboard with it at the start, thought we could only improve but it's quickly reverted back to the same turgid shit we've mostly been tortured with for too long. The upbeat feel of early summer has rapidly evaporated.

[verlaine1979]

4 hours ago, SotonianWill said:

 

I feel bad for the defenders who have no options from a non existent midfield to pass to. Half our players (defence) are passing amongst themselves and the other half are all camped on the half way line. There’s quite literally no in between. This allows teams to drift through us out of possession as well. It’s a sh*t show tactically. 

It's so basic - whether you're talking about City or Brighton or whoever, the DM is an integral part of playing it out from the back, coming in close to give the more limited CBs options. But our CMs almost never come to collect, leaving the likes of Holgate and Bednarek to act as playmakers. Not only is it idiotic in the extreme, it's doubly annoying as it isn't even the fucking tactic we're meant to be copying. 

[saintant]

07703836869

13 minutes ago, verlaine1979 said:

It's so basic - whether you're talking about City or Brighton or whoever, the DM is an integral part of playing it out from the back, coming in close to give the more limited CBs options. But our CMs almost never come to collect, leaving the likes of Holgate and Bednarek to act as playmakers. Not only is it idiotic in the extreme, it's doubly annoying as it isn't even the fucking tactic we're meant to be copying. 

Exactly this. You cannot play out from the back if your midfield players are hiding - they need to show for the ball to give the centre backs options. We start the process by Baz bowling the ball out to a CB but it ends there because nobody makes any attempt to move into space from midfield so it very quickly breaks down.

[hypochondriac]

I had some more thoughts about this today. If we are going to lose and perform poorly I think almost every fan would prefer to give some of our youngsters a chance to see what they could do. At the very least it would give a more supportive atmosphere at home. I'd much prefer to see the likes of Ballard as the backup this year over Mara (it would be difficult for Ballard to perform worse) and I'd probably give Dibling and Doyle a go in midfield as well and of course Ameyew who must be gutted to immediately be behind Sulemana in the pecking order. What we have just isn't working and you never know they could surprise us and outperform the so called first team. Persisting with proven failures is just bumming everyone out and leading to this terrible atmosphere. 

[Lighthouse]

5 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

I had some more thoughts about this today. If we are going to lose and perform poorly I think almost every fan would prefer to give some of our youngsters a chance to see what they could do. At the very least it would give a more supportive atmosphere at home. I'd much prefer to see the likes of Ballard as the backup this year over Mara (it would be difficult for Ballard to perform worse) and I'd probably give Dibling and Doyle a go in midfield as well and of course Ameyew who must be gutted to immediately be behind Sulemana in the pecking order. What we have just isn't working and you never know they could surprise us and outperform the so called first team. Persisting with proven failures is just bumming everyone out and leading to this terrible atmosphere. 

Been there and done that with Poortvleit, we ended up getting relegated in front of crowds of 14,000. People said Jamie White and Jake Thompson couldn’t be worse than BWP and Viafara. They were wrong.

[egg]

10 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

I had some more thoughts about this today. If we are going to lose and perform poorly I think almost every fan would prefer to give some of our youngsters a chance to see what they could do. At the very least it would give a more supportive atmosphere at home. I'd much prefer to see the likes of Ballard as the backup this year over Mara (it would be difficult for Ballard to perform worse) and I'd probably give Dibling and Doyle a go in midfield as well and of course Ameyew who must be gutted to immediately be behind Sulemana in the pecking order. What we have just isn't working and you never know they could surprise us and outperform the so called first team. Persisting with proven failures is just bumming everyone out and leading to this terrible atmosphere. 

What Ballard needs for his development is to play regular men's football, not sit on the bench coming on for 5 mins here and there. 

It's also important to remember that all Ballard has done is play well against kids. Mara, who you think should be behind Ballard in the pecking order, looked a world beater when playing for our B team. 

We made the correct decision with Ballard imo. 

[spyinthesky]

I think we may have been carried away by a pre season friendly v Reading where we absolutely murdered their basically cobbled together side (yet conceded two, nearly three breakaway goals) as well as the performance against a very poor Sheff Weds team (but including Tella and JWP) and an average Plymouth outfit.
A hammering at 4th Division Gillingham and a further recent 3 defeats on the bounce with 1 goal scored and 10 conceded is relegation form.
We have a squad which probably cost the most to acquire plus a high wage bill and we are in complete disarray.
There is the chance of a turnround but we are already beyond redemption for automatic promotion and who would fancy this squad's chances in the Prem???

[hypochondriac]

12 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Been there and done that with Poortvleit, we ended up getting relegated in front of crowds of 14,000. People said Jamie White and Jake Thompson couldn’t be worse than BWP and Viafara. They were wrong.

I don't mean anything extreme like selling all the experienced players and solely playing the youngsters, I'm just saying I'd rather see Ameyew and Ballard coming off the bench than Mara and Sulemana or Fraser at the moment. 

Edited 20 September, 2023 by hypochondriac

[hypochondriac]

7 minutes ago, egg said:

What Ballard needs for his development is to play regular men's football, not sit on the bench coming on for 5 mins here and there. 

It's also important to remember that all Ballard has done is play well against kids. Mara, who you think should be behind Ballard in the pecking order, looked a world beater when playing for our B team. 

We made the correct decision with Ballard imo. 

So is Mara developing by coming on for five minutes here and there? For my money Ballard would do more to help the club this year if we had sold Mara and given him his role for the season. Very difficult for him to do worse abd I'd rather see him play than seeing Mara fail off the bench for another season. 

Edited 20 September, 2023 by hypochondriac

[egg]

2 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

So is Mara developing by coming on for five minutes here and there? For my money Ballard would do more to help the club this year if we had sold Mara and given him his role for the season. Very difficult for him to do worse. 

I don't understand your point. You mentioned Ballard...I said that he won't develop playing a few minutes here and there. The fact that Mara doesn't learn much doing that is irrelevant. Ballard will develop at Reading. 

[hypochondriac]

12 minutes ago, egg said:

I don't understand your point. You mentioned Ballard...I said that he won't develop playing a few minutes here and there. The fact that Mara doesn't learn much doing that is irrelevant. Ballard will develop at Reading. 

Because the point is that in my opinion, Ballard has a greater chance to positively affect things this season if he is given the chances that Mara is currently getting (and let's remember Mara started a game a couple of weeks ago so he has had more than the odd five minutes). I'd rather have Ballard in that position than Mara. 

[egg]

Just now, hypochondriac said:

Because the point is that in my opinion, Ballard has a greater chance to positively affect things this season if he is given the chances that Mara is currently getting (and let's remember Mara started a game a couple of weeks ago so he has had more than the odd five minutes). I'd rather have Ballard in that position than Mara. 

Yes, I get what you want, but thankfully the club have Ballard's interests at heart and have loaned him to Reading to aid his development. 

[Oldandtired]

This manager, having previously achieved 15th and tenth in the same division as we are in now, is basically fulfilling his potential and performing at the level he is used to. What I cannot for the life of me understand is how he managed to convince the owners that he could deliver a brand of football which could see us promoted out of this division. The football he insists on is sterile, lacking in guile, imagination, entertainment and end result delivery. I thought, despite the result, it was even worse against Ipswich than it was against Leicester, Ipswich being simply a well organised hard working team that had us in their pockets for most of the night. 
 

Tuesday, apart from the usual first 15 minute huff and puff flattering to deceive runaround, was about the worst I’ve seen from a Southampton team in many a year, and yet the manager thinks we’re making progress.
 

Either I need multiple visits to Specsavers or he is an arrogant, deluded twat. 

Edited 20 September, 2023 by Oldandtired

[saintant]

46 minutes ago, Oldandtired said:

This manager, having previously achieved 15th and tenth in the same division as we are in now, is basically fulfilling his potential and performing at the level he is used to. What I cannot for the life of me understand is how he managed to convince the owners that he could deliver a brand of football which could see us promoted out of this division. The football he insists on is sterile, lacking in guile, imagination, entertainment and end result delivery. I thought, despite the result, it was even worse against Ipswich than it was against Leicester, Ipswich being simply a well organised hard working team that had us in their pockets for most of the night. 
 

Tuesday, apart from the usual first 15 minute huff and puff flattering to deceive runaround, was about the worst I’ve seen from a Southampton team in many a year, and yet the manager thinks we’re making progress.
 

Either I need multiple visits to Specsavers or he is an arrogant, deluded twat. 

Let me assure you, you have 20-20 vision, nothing wrong with your eyesight.

[Dark Munster]

1 hour ago, Oldandtired said:

This manager, having previously achieved 15th and tenth in the same division as we are in now, is basically fulfilling his potential and performing at the level he is used to. What I cannot for the life of me understand is how he managed to convince the owners that he could deliver a brand of football which could see us promoted out of this division. The football he insists on is sterile, lacking in guile, imagination, entertainment and end result delivery. I thought, despite the result, it was even worse against Ipswich than it was against Leicester, Ipswich being simply a well organised hard working team that had us in their pockets for most of the night. 

Quite simple really, SR and Rasmus W. Ankersen are clueless morons. Jones and Selles, exhibits A and B. Tall Paul, no striker last summer, etc., etc. The list of disastrous decisions goes on and on.

Smile at them, show them a nice powerpoint and have fancy hair, and they'll believe any bullshit you spout. I'm sure they're lapping up his pathetic excuses about needing to be patient, players just need to be more brave, and we're still suffering from a relegation hangover. Oh, and the fans are making it difficult for them.

And what's really worrying is Wilcox seems to be not much better.

Edited 20 September, 2023 by Dark Munster

[Turkish]

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/23801964.ipswich-towns-burns-felt-easy-read-southamptons-passing/?ref=socialflow&fbclid=IwAR1Pah_7HDktMLCcdDMoeGiAa8K4VHq58B7gZl47GrrnTKCtgdKQgL8qqms_aem_AZCpIVOO4YjqFMPFqMkvjRqNYro9D1h8AsTpCQSLK_VlJl3ngtuQj5GNyQI8x1PdISo
 

he said a lot of what’s been said on here 

[hypochondriac]

15 minutes ago, Turkish said:

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/23801964.ipswich-towns-burns-felt-easy-read-southamptons-passing/?ref=socialflow&fbclid=IwAR1Pah_7HDktMLCcdDMoeGiAa8K4VHq58B7gZl47GrrnTKCtgdKQgL8qqms_aem_AZCpIVOO4YjqFMPFqMkvjRqNYro9D1h8AsTpCQSLK_VlJl3ngtuQj5GNyQI8x1PdISo
 

he said a lot of what’s been said on here 

So essentially he is saying exactly what most fans said on here before the game about what was wrong and what we were going to do. We did exactly what we said we would do and therefore lost the game. 

[Badger]

Deleted

Edited 20 September, 2023 by Badger
Text bollocksed

[Saint_clark]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/23801964.ipswich-towns-burns-felt-easy-read-southamptons-passing/?ref=socialflow&fbclid=IwAR1Pah_7HDktMLCcdDMoeGiAa8K4VHq58B7gZl47GrrnTKCtgdKQgL8qqms_aem_AZCpIVOO4YjqFMPFqMkvjRqNYro9D1h8AsTpCQSLK_VlJl3ngtuQj5GNyQI8x1PdISo
 

he said a lot of what’s been said on here 

So the only positive of Martins style of play is that easy to nullify right at the start of the season. Brilliant. 

[saintant]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/23801964.ipswich-towns-burns-felt-easy-read-southamptons-passing/?ref=socialflow&fbclid=IwAR1Pah_7HDktMLCcdDMoeGiAa8K4VHq58B7gZl47GrrnTKCtgdKQgL8qqms_aem_AZCpIVOO4YjqFMPFqMkvjRqNYro9D1h8AsTpCQSLK_VlJl3ngtuQj5GNyQI8x1PdISo
 

he said a lot of what’s been said on here 

That really is quite worrying but nothing we haven't been expressing - hearing it said so candidly by an opposition player just confirms our suspicions. RM has made us very predictable and so easy to play against.

[Badger]

27 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

So the only positive of Martins style of play is that easy to nullify right at the start of the season. Brilliant. 

 

4 minutes ago, saintant said:

That really is quite worrying but nothing we haven't been expressing - hearing it said so candidly by an opposition player just confirms our suspicions. RM has made us very predictable and so easy to play against.

No one saw this coming of course... 

[OldNick]

17 hours ago, Turkish said:

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/23801964.ipswich-towns-burns-felt-easy-read-southamptons-passing/?ref=socialflow&fbclid=IwAR1Pah_7HDktMLCcdDMoeGiAa8K4VHq58B7gZl47GrrnTKCtgdKQgL8qqms_aem_AZCpIVOO4YjqFMPFqMkvjRqNYro9D1h8AsTpCQSLK_VlJl3ngtuQj5GNyQI8x1PdISo
 

he said a lot of what’s been said on here 

It does seem obvious, consistent patterns of play can be countered and pushing the opposition to the wings so that they have only one way to go, makes defending pretty easy. Add to that the madness of passing back instead of pushing forward makes it even easier

[Badger]

Christ on a bike, don’t think Holly Willoughby  would know how to address our supporters at the moment after the shitshows and clusterfucks of the last 18months or so, now topped off with the last three matches. Are we okay ?? - fuck off. 

Unbelievable what we’ve become, slow, predictable , boring, but remaining relatively toothless up front. Players out of position, starting Aribo, then RM’s interviews, using last seasons failings as an excuse to hide behind ..  

 Special mentions in the roll of dishonour, go to Charles (being played out of position admittedly) for his contribution to goals conceded v Leicester  and Tuesday night, Holgate, who descended to a new level of shit at Sunderland (so much so RM doesn’t trust him when we have a CB injury crisis), Manning, in what sort of parallel universe might he have been best LB in the Championship?)and Smallbone (again apparently not being played in his best position) but who - one or two nice touches aside - is often ineffective to the point of looking  a downgrade on Elyonoussi. (Could that even be possible?). 

The Leicester fourth goal captured our downfall to some degree, attempts at pretty footwork trying to look clever, and pass it about, but giving the bastard thing away for them to go unopposed to the other end of the field and score. 

Can only hope for better on Saturday, but not holding my breath.

[Badger]

On 19/09/2023 at 23:23, Osvaldorama said:

We sold most of the promotion quality players & spine of the team and appointed a total charlatan. 

Like everyone else I am speechless with rage.

I hate everything about the club at the moment. Driving back stuck in traffic I was wondering why the fuck I bother. 
 

They can’t even do the very basics. Naive, clueless, abysmal, pathetic, gutless. 
 

For Martin to say there was nothing wrong tactically when he played our best DM at centre half and a midfield 3 of Aribo, adama and smallbone… it’s honestly beyond a joke. 
 

He can fuck off and so can the club. Utter fucking cunts. Embarrassing from top to bottom. 

Your post struck a chord with me, especially after the near 17 hour day for Sunderland, which was fine except for the feeble and gutless 90 minutes... then a 1am return after Leicester ... all worth it of course. But we return because we've got years 'invested' in the club, and hope for something better. I recall a mate saying years ago after a defeat, it's days like these that make the wins even sweeter...