Saints 1-1 Rotherham - Match Thread

[saintant]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:13, HKsaint said:

Martin considers he wins this game as he got 80% possession. 

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That stat proves the process is working. The result is unimportant.

[adrian lord]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:08, BotleySaint said:

No, we need new keeper though.

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The Rotherham guy is a good place to start 

[Streaky]

I dont even like the football Martin has us playing. Boring ponderous nothing ball and if it isn't getting results what's the point.

[beatlesaint]

So do you bring Aribo and Mara on for the last 10 mins to win the game then? (Just asking for a friend) 

[Micky]

And that is why there is no chance that we will get promoted.  I don't really do stats, can't understand them, but the half time stats on the stream that I was watching basically said we had wiped the floor with them in every department, except one. 

If you don't score goals, you don't win game, it's not fucking rocket science, will somebody please tell this buffon of a manager. 

Some of the players looked to me that they believe in their own hype, job was done at one nil.  How fucking stupid can you get, once they had equalized we never had a clue what to do.  As for the subs,  I have no idea why Stu or Sulamana were taken off, no idea what he was doing. 

We are now miles off the top because this manager has no idea how to get the best from a squad that is one of the best in this division.  Woeful tactics, led to a woeful result. 

Edited 7 October, 2023 by Micky

[OttawaSaint]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:14, Bad Wolf said:

Why would he do that? If I were him and I saw comments like this, I'd just start screwing things up more and take the massive payout.

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I've found Nathan Jones!

Edited 7 October, 2023 by OttawaSaint

[Bad Wolf]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:17, OttawaSaint said:

I've found Ruben Selles!

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Nathan Jones*

Because I'm convinced that's what he did.

[derry]

The really shocking thing is changing a winning team. Adams is a myth. Ok he hit the post for the first goal but he is  a poor striker. Alcaraz should have started. Edozie shows a lack of intelligence. Aribo is ponderous and the substitutions made us worse. Goals win matches not five hundred passes. Some of the players including Smallbone, Downes especially seem to think that passes are the be all and end all. Two easy points dropped.

[OttawaSaint]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:17, Bad Wolf said:

Nathan Jones*

Because I'm convinced that's what he did.

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Yeah I changed it. Forgot Selles wouldn't have got a payoff.

[Block41 Saint]

That miss from Smallbone BTW, pathetic. If he keeps it on the ground its 2-0, he's put it the one place the keeper has a chance of saving it. 

[Gloucester Saint]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:10, Bad Wolf said:

oooo you're hard. Silly little chav.

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Educated at world top Unis. Get your facts straight boy. Don’t wind our fans up like you are always are on here or you’ll get a reaction. If you can’t handle that, and you can’t, wind your neck in about our fans. Try a lower league club where there’s no expectation, you’ll prefer it.

[OttawaSaint]

RMs shit subs aside, if smallbone and Adams could hit the broad side of a barn we'd have walked away with 3pts.

[saintant]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:17, derry said:

The really shocking thing is changing a winning team. Adams is a myth. Ok he hit the post for the first goal but he is  a poor striker. Alcaraz should have started. Edozie shows a lack of intelligence. Aribo is ponderous and the substitutions made us worse. Goals win matches not five hundred passes. Some of the players including Smallbone, Downes especially seem to think that passes are the be all and end all. Two easy points dropped.

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Let's remember they are taught to play this way in every training session and it's not going to change anytime soon.

[SaintTex]

  On 04/10/2023 at 09:43, JRM said:

Is anyone on here old enough to remember when we last won 3 games in a row? 

Especially 3 games in a week? 

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not so fast, my friend!

it's been 3 years.. and still counting.

[goodymatt]

Martin’s set up really isn’t the issue here. We should have scored 4 goals today at least. Shocking finishing or great goalkeeping is the difference, they are your options.

[Greedyfly]

  On 07/10/2023 at 15:50, Wsaint said:

Last time I checked martin didn't just get lobbed in goal and isn't the one who nodded it straight to the Rotherham player. Could be wrong though.

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Nope but we shouldn't have been in this position in the first place. Ponderous build up play, awful tactics, not trying to kill the game off, shit subs, shit starting line up, all of his own doing.

 

I didn't dislike his appointment, but he's getting slower and more predictable each week and I dislike him with each game that passes.

 

Fucking Rotherham.  A competent manager has us beating them without incident

 

Edited 7 October, 2023 by Greedyfly

[The Kraken]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:19, Gloucester Saint said:

Educated at world top Unis. Get your facts straight boy. Don’t wind our fans up like you are always are on here or you’ll get a reaction. If you can’t handle that, and you can’t, wind your neck in about our fans. Try a lower league club where there’s no expectation, you’ll prefer it.

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🤣 I know you’re angry fella but fuck me, that response 🤣

[Bad Wolf]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:19, Gloucester Saint said:

Educated at world top Unis. Get your facts straight boy. Don’t wind our fans up like you are always are on here or you’ll get a reaction. If you can’t handle that, and you can’t, wind your neck in about our fans. Try a lower league club where there’s no expectation, you’ll prefer it.

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Hetrophobe

Maybe YOU should try supporting Celtic or Ajax or something.

[Bad Wolf]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:21, The Kraken said:

🤣 I know you’re angry fella but fuck me, that response 🤣

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I mean, someone who's been educated at "world top uni's" (Whatever that means) is usually going to define themselves as being from or living in Gloucester.

[Wsaint]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:09, Gloucester Saint said:

Get these club PR people off our site

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Not everything's a conspiracy and club plant blah blah blah, some people just aren't as reactive to a draw as you.

[stknowle]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:13, HKsaint said:

Martin considers he wins this game as he got 80% possession. 

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Exactly HK my old pal, it's as if possession stats are more important to this IDIOT than actually winning games. I think the C**T saw this match as an opportunity to revert to type after we actually won a couple of games not playing his way. Look how it turned out!!!

[Micky]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:10, LGTL said:

Rotherham will finish bottom on about 20 points. That is an absolutely astonishing result. 

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We'll not be far behind at this rate, we are woeful. 

[Simon3737]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:13, saintant said:

My guess would be that the half time chat was along the lines of 'keep the ball, pass them to death and they'll tire and allow us to pick them off.

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Agree. If we played and passed faster, I think this tactic would work. Today, we passed too slow to tire Rotherham out. We look miles better when we pass fast and there’s lots of off the ball movement. I think the players are good enough and fit enough to play that way. Doesn’t need a radical change to Russell’s tactics to get there imho.

[badgerx16]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:16, Micky said:

 As for the subs,  I have no idea why Stu or Sulamana were taken off, no idea what he was doing. 

 

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Nor had he.

[gallaghert366@yahoo.com]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:17, derry said:

The really shocking thing is changing a winning team. Adams is a myth. Ok he hit the post for the first goal but he is  a poor striker. Alcaraz should have started. Edozie shows a lack of intelligence. Aribo is ponderous and the substitutions made us worse. Goals win matches not five hundred passes. Some of the players including Smallbone, Downes especially seem to think that passes are the be all and end all. Two easy points dropped.

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An abysmal performance compounded by leaving Alcaraz, who Wilcox waxed lyrical about recently, on the bench for over an hour. 

[saintant]

Maybe time to accept we are at about our level with the players and coaching set up we have. I think if we were all that in the Championship we'd have demonstrated it in numerous games by now. We're average at best.

[Micky]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:13, Sidney Fudpucker the 3rd said:

Ahh well, at least we get a Derby against the skates next season. 

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Can you imagine this lot representing us in that derby? There is no affiliation to Southampton, they'd shit themselves and crumble. Not something I am looking forwards to at all. 

[Bad Wolf]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:25, gallaghert366@yahoo.com said:

An abysmal performance compounded by leaving Alcaraz, who Wilcox waxed lyrical about recently, on the bench for over an hour. 

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Yeah, how dare he not start a player who was not fit enough to start.

[Vancouver Saint]

How we failed to win that I have no idea. Really poor second half - looked like players thought it was easy and they'd saunter to victory. No ruthless cutting edge. 

I know everyone is fuming at a poor result, but not entirely the manager's fault IMO...everyone singing his praises at HT for dominating, doing everything right except score a second. 

Rotherham goalkeeper played a blinder to be fair - 8 saves of which at least three were amazing saves. Was Bazunu out of position for their goal or just beaten by 'one of those'... well-taken first-timer...the mistake was in the weak header out more than the 'keeper for me.

We've lost ground today but the season won't be defined by today...looks like every team is having ups and downs except Leicester.

[Patches O Houlihan]

[HKsaint]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:22, stknowle said:

Exactly HK my old pal, it's as if possession stats are more important to this IDIOT than actually winning games. I think the C**T saw this match as an opportunity to revert to type after we actually won a couple of games not playing his way. Look how it turned out!!!

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He don’t know possession doesn’t count.
 

If choosing between more goals and possession, he chooses the latter. 

Edited 7 October, 2023 by HKsaint

[The Cat]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:22, stknowle said:

Exactly HK my old pal, it's as if possession stats are more important to this IDIOT than actually winning games. I think the C**T saw this match as an opportunity to revert to type after we actually won a couple of games not playing his way. Look how it turned out!!!

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When a team puts 5 at the back and then 4 in front there's no real other way to play. What else do you propose we do to break that down other than what we did which created enough chances to win the game comfortably?

Why is it always the managers fault but not the players? The manager sets the team up to create enough chances to win a game which we did. 

They scored from 1 of their only 2 shots on target.

It's understandable that people are frustrated but these things happen. I would imagine there's many other games up and down the country today where one team outplayed the other, created way more chances but didn't win.

[Convict Colony]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:28, Patches O Houlihan said:

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This stat just make me pine for the loch ness drogba more - 22 shots/10 on target and 1 fucking goal.

 

 

[tdmickey3]

Ponderous,pointless possession football for the sake of it

The man is a complete fraud, a waste of everyone's time

We will get a win or 2 mixed in with some shit like today and the better teams will beat us with ease as has been proved 

Congrats to SR you chosen a dud AGAIN

[East Kent Saint]

10 shots on target , something we used to dream about 😄

[Wsaint]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:21, Greedyfly said:

Nope but we shouldn't have been in this position in the first place. Ponderous build up play, awful tactics, not trying to kill the game off, shit subs, shit starting line up, all of his own doing.

 

I didn't dislike his appointment, but he's getting slower and more predictable each week and I dislike him with each game that passes.

 

Fucking Rotherham.  A competent manager has us beating them without incident

 

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21 goal attempts with 8 on target doesn't scream ponderous build up play and awful tactics (don't come at me whitey I'm sorry), more so our players still can't put goals away for shit, only the other week people were saying we were more direct, so I don't buy we are playing slower with each game.

Russell Martin is not a world class manager or a tactical genius by any means, but some of the outrage on here is laughable. Not you personally, but it's quite funny.

[Convict Colony]

I might be seeing a reason for our struggles - I blame the celts.

Russell Martin - scottish

Stuart Armstrong - scottish

Che Adams - scottish

Ross Stewart - scottish

Bazunu - Irish

Smallbone - Irish

Manning - Irish

[LGTL]

The Smallbone miss is criminal. Such an awful, awful player and good for absolutely nothing. 

[goodymatt]

I don’t understand the lazy blaming of Martin-Ball. Did you actually watch this game? We absolutely battered them and should have scored at least 4 playing this style. Rotherham had 0.07xG, it was daylight robbery.

We’ve all been frustrated at times this season but Martin didn’t cause our players to miss big chances today. He set us up to win the game comfortably and we only have our finishing/their keeper to blame.

One poster even compared it to Forest last season where we didn’t even have a shot on target. Quite ridiculous.

[Wade Garrett]

The subs Martin made are ones you make when 3-0, not 1.

Fucking ridiculous.  As for Che Adams, he’s like the invisible fucking man in the penalty area. Fucking dogshit.

[Wsaint]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:37, goodymatt said:

I don’t understand the lazy blaming of Martin-Ball. Did you actually watch this game? We absolutely battered them and should have scored at least 4 playing this style. Rotherham had 0.07xG, it was daylight robbery.

We’ve all been frustrated at times this season but Martin didn’t cause our players to miss big chances today. He set us up to win the game comfortably and we only have our finishing/their keeper to blame.

One poster even compared it to Forest last season where we didn’t even have a shot on target. Quite ridiculous.

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Agreed, although don't go quoting xg, they'll be on you like a pack of dogs in seconds.

[Wade Garrett]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:37, goodymatt said:

I don’t understand the lazy blaming of Martin-Ball. Did you actually watch this game? We absolutely battered them and should have scored at least 4 playing this style. Rotherham had 0.07xG, it was daylight robbery.

We’ve all been frustrated at times this season but Martin didn’t cause our players to miss big chances today. He set us up to win the game comfortably and we only have our finishing/their keeper to blame.

One poster even compared it to Forest last season where we didn’t even have a shot on target. Quite ridiculous.

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Did you watch the fucking second half?

[tdmickey3]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:08, Bad Wolf said:

Does anyone actually want to go up? 

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We all do mush but we wont with this clown, but perhaps we could all clap like performing seals like you irrespective of the tactical garbagethis fool wants us to use resulting in pathetic results like this one

[Chewy]

On the face of it that’s utterly sh1te. Don’t understand recalling Adams and dropping Charlie, and don’t understand withdrawing Stu and Kamaldeen. Definite mistakes imo but despite all that we murdered them (as we should) and could have scored a hatful.

As p1ssed off as I am, I can’t actually blame the failure to turn that into a win on Martin - ultimately it’s the same f*cking issue that we’ve had for 3 seasons. We would still be a premier league club if we’d replaced Ings properly, and we’d have won today at a canter with a half decent striker. Dreadful finishing by sun standard forwards. Mara isn’t going to improve things, we loaned out our only possible youth option, and our major striker signing was late and injured. After 6 transfer windows I’d hoped for better.

Ross better be good, otherwise we’re not going to win an awful lot of games that we should and results like this will be as common as they have been this entire sodding decade so far.

 

I seriously hate Saturday evening’s feeling this p1ssed off and frustrated. The kind of annoyance that makes you want to chuck it in. It’s easier when we’re dreadful. For once we weren’t and we still f it up because the club recruitment has been incompetent for years.

[gallaghert366@yahoo.com]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:27, Bad Wolf said:

Yeah, how dare he not start a player who was not fit enough to start.

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Where was that fact available to morons like myself?

[stknowle]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:29, The Cat said:

When a team puts 5 at the back and then 4 in front there's no real other way to play. What else do you propose we do to break that down other than what we did which created enough chances to win the game comfortably?

Why is it always the managers fault but not the players? The manager sets the team up to create enough chances to win a game which we did. 

They scored from 1 of their only 2 shots on target.

It's understandable that people are frustrated but these things happen. I would imagine there's many other games up and down the country today where one team outplayed the other, created way more chances but didn't win.

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Listen Cat. I like your reasonableness and pragmatism and sometimes I wish I had a bit more of the same things BUT when boiled down to basics all I am really seeing this season is a very expensively (for this division) assembled team massively under performing at the hands of a manager who ain't up to the job.

[JRM]

Felt like a defeat.

Wasteful Wasteful Wasteful 

Martins walking football can do one 

[Sidney Fudpucker the 3rd]

With the exception of 1 or 2 players, every member of our team has premiership experience and should be more than good enough at this level. Only 1 or 2 of them currently look like they'd get into a Premiership team. The reason they're not performing is because we've got a manager who isn't getting the best out of them and is trying to play a style of football not suited to The Championship. You need to be physical and direct to get out of this league and we're just not strong enough. We lack a leader on the field and we lack a manager with a plan B. 

If our board had anything about them they'd get rid of Martin immediately and go and get someone with an old wise head on their shoulders just to get us up. Wilder, Warnock, Allardyce, Potter. Any of them would get more out of this lot. 

[goodymatt]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:40, Wade Garrett said:

Did you watch the fucking second half?

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Even though the second half was much less productive, Smallbone still missed a huge chance and we also had one cleared of the line. Meanwhile they scored their only shot on target. It was an excellent finish tbf, out of nowhere and totally against the run of play.

Regarding the subs, it’s third game in a week and Martin would have been hoping Fraser, Edozie and Alcaraz could give fresh impetus. Sadly none of them did and Edozie in particular was very poor. Solely responsible for wasting away most of the added time. I don’t think this is why we don’t win though, it’s the big chances missed.

[The Kraken]

  On 07/10/2023 at 16:36, LGTL said:

The Smallbone miss is criminal. Such an awful, awful player and good for absolutely nothing. 

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I watched him a lot second half and I noticed so many times where in defensive positions he wanted to have a touch for the sake of it. Comparing him with Lavia last year is obviously completely unfair in terms of ability; but when getting the ball from the defence, Lavia was so often looking to play on the turn and make things happen. Smallbone (and others tbf) just seem to want to get the ball from the defenders and play it straight back to them on the first touch. It’s not “brave” as we’re told, it’s just non committal, and just pegs us into having possession while the other team gently gets all their players back into position. It’s ponderous and predictable.