Preston 2-2 Saints - Match Thread

[AlexLaw76]

9 minutes ago, beatlesaint said:

No, he’s shite.

after a bright start, Stewart will be the same, unless we change it up

[LGTL]

11 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

How the fuck are we 5th 🤪

Yep. Said on more than one occasion that it’s a proper shit league and we won’t need to do much at all to get into the playoffs. 

[woodsaint1]

12 minutes ago, LGTL said:

Bazunu a better striker then goalkeeper 

Charles suffering with Martin dropping him for no particular reason

Stu Armstrong needs to play every game

Can’t keep relying on last minute goals

No patterns of play. We just knock it about in front of the defence. No surprise we look so utterly toothless. 

Martin is a fraud. No chance of anything under him. He’s lucky he’s got better players at his disposal then Swansea yet still manages to have one of the worse goals conceded in the entire league. 

Charles suffered because he couldnt even give a 5 yard pass. He was terrible for NI last week when he got sent off also. You can criticise RM for lots of things, but having to rotate the side due to injuries/three games in a week is not one of them. Charles just needs to be better. Felt for Downes tonight having to do double the work

[Southner]

11 minutes ago, Roo1976 said:

your right are we going to be smart enough for him to get into positions where we can create enough for him to thrive from?......................oh shit forgot smallbones the answer.....................

Saints sadden me. 

[Give it to Ron]

Just now, Fabrice29 said:

It’s not even out of October yet. If they are still there at the end of Feb and the manager hasn’t jumped ship to the league above then we can start assuming they are up.

They did say tonight that we have more points now than Burnley did last season!

We need Armstrong to get going! Adams to find a run of games where he contributes in the area. Charly and Sully to get in the goal areas too justify selection.

[revolution saint]

2 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

We don’t have any attackers who have consistently scored or created goals for us in the squad. I think that’s a much bigger problem than the manager. But yeh, let’s change to another one with the same garbage up front.

Tend to agree, we’re crying out for a decent in form striker although playing devils advocate we’ve tried Adams, A Armstrong, Alacaraz and now to a lesser extent Mara. The system either doesn’t favour the central striker, or they’ve all played a bit shit when they’ve played there.

[beatlesaint]

3 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

after a bright start, Stewart will be the same, unless we change it up

We’ll I’m kind of hoping he might move his arse a bit more than the sulky waste of space Adams is !

(Please note this will probably mean Adams comes off the bench and scores the winner Saturday against his old club 😜)

[samcrocker]

To those complaining about “crab” football, and not utilising the pace in our attacking players, do you not realise that everyone will sit deep and let us have the ball, not allowing space for our attackers to use their pace? The “crab” football is designed to draw them out and create space for our players to exploit. 
The alternative is we flood forward and try to get the ball through 9/10 players on the edge of their box, mostly at this level solid defenders who will kick and head it away all night with our tricky pacey players not getting a sniff. Then once we’ve got everyone in their half they counter us and score. Kind of how we used to play against Citeh…

Unfortunately we’re in the Championship with Championship players, only Leicester can claim to have a Premier League 1st 11 and be able to play on the front foot and break teams down easily all season!! 

[Golac's Cunning Stunts]

1 minute ago, revolution saint said:

Tend to agree, we’re crying out for a decent in form striker although playing devils advocate we’ve tried Adams, A Armstrong, Alacaraz and now to a lesser extent Mara. The system either doesn’t favour the central striker, or they’ve all played a bit shit when they’ve played there.

i'd say its both.

The system doesn't favour a central striker and the people we've tried there have been shit

[david in sweden]

19 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

How the fuck are we 5th 🤪

we've stopped losing matches... and are relying on 96 minute games to get points....

[Fabrice29]

6 minutes ago, revolution saint said:

Tend to agree, we’re crying out for a decent in form striker although playing devils advocate we’ve tried Adams, A Armstrong, Alacaraz and now to a lesser extent Mara. The system either doesn’t favour the central striker, or they’ve all played a bit shit when they’ve played there.

None of them are good enough as a lone striker. Also think the wingers just flatter to deceive as well. Stewart will help but we really lack anybody in the squad who has a record of delivering match defining moments. Tough to find to be fair but Adams and Armstrong have especially have failed to deliver for a few years now. Said all summer they weren’t good enough but was consistently told we couldn’t dare thinking about selling Adams. He’s inconsistent, always has been, always will be.

Edited 25 October, 2023 by Fabrice29

[SNSUN]

2 minutes ago, Golac's Cunning Stunts said:

i'd say its both.

The system doesn't favour a central striker and the people we've tried there have been shit

If we are going to persist with playing AA then personally I'd play him there - he could do no worse than anyone else and it would free up the right spot for Fraser, SAA or Edozie - someone who would be more effective there.

[madge]

6 minutes ago, samcrocker said:

To those complaining about “crab” football, and not utilising the pace in our attacking players, do you not realise that everyone will sit deep and let us have the ball, not allowing space for our attackers to use their pace? The “crab” football is designed to draw them out and create space for our players to exploit. 
The alternative is we flood forward and try to get the ball through 9/10 players on the edge of their box, mostly at this level solid defenders who will kick and head it away all night with our tricky pacey players not getting a sniff. Then once we’ve got everyone in their half they counter us and score. Kind of how we used to play against Citeh…

Unfortunately we’re in the Championship with Championship players, only Leicester can claim to have a Premier League 1st 11 and be able to play on the front foot and break teams down easily all season!! 

The problem is when we do pinch the ball and forward options are on, we often play safe and go Backwards or sideways. I get it when we have possession from a goal kick that we try and draw teams out but you have to move the ball quicker. 

[notnowcato]

5 minutes ago, revolution saint said:

Tend to agree, we’re crying out for a decent in form striker although playing devils advocate we’ve tried Adams, A Armstrong, Alacaraz and now to a lesser extent Mara. The system either doesn’t favour the central striker, or they’ve all played a bit shit when they’ve played there.

Adams has been the biggest disappointment. Armstrong hasn’t really played as a 9 this season. Alcaraz did a sterling job leading the line but clearly isn’t a striker but arguably has been the best of the 3 that have played the role. Mara has been poor but not really expected anything different, disappointing but true. 
 

Armstrong has played well as an 8 but time for him to shift to 9 and allow Charly to take the 8 spot. 

[Lord Duckhunter]

Sully came on, ran at the full back and got to the byline 2 or 3 times. Average crosses, but he looked dangerous and was causing them panic,  then what happened? Lego must have had a word because be started knocking it sideways and stopped going at them. 

[Mr Saints]

We completely shat it in first 10 mins of the second half, so unavoidable and so frustrating. We manage that period of the game and we win.

Is Mara the worst player in our history? Wouldn’t even have got near our 08/09 side.

Thought Bree was decent.

[teamsaint]

29 minutes ago, Give it to Ron said:

The female commentator had it spot in so slow and safe passing no threat until be upped the tempo.

Teams can stroll back behind the ball by the time we pass it ten times between goalie and defence and midfield.

Yep, she has us worked out, and if she can, so can  Championship managers. 

[Farmer Saint]

Cashed out when the ball went out for a corner... 

 

 

[kevdoh]

This whole thing seems similar to England and Southgate. Southgate has his supporters because of where England have come in recent tournaments but I think that's in spite of Southgate not because of him. A decent manager and England would have won one of the last 3 tournaments. A squad and starting 11 that should be going all out attack with the quality but instead play Tippy tappy slow shite that gives any team against them a chance. A decent manager with our squad should be blowing most teams out of the water and not be grateful we are still in play off places and scraping draws away to preston

[Ted Bates Statue]

2 hours ago, Saint86 said:

Baz just scored a goal basically... Should do his confidence no end of good as well.

At the time you posted this I didn't know what you were on about. Let me know the lottery numbers when you get a moment.

[Fabrice29]

8 minutes ago, kevdoh said:

This whole thing seems similar to England and Southgate. Southgate has his supporters because of where England have come in recent tournaments but I think that's in spite of Southgate not because of him. A decent manager and England would have won one of the last 3 tournaments. A squad and starting 11 that should be going all out attack with the quality but instead play Tippy tappy slow shite that gives any team against them a chance. A decent manager with our squad should be blowing most teams out of the water and not be grateful we are still in play off places and scraping draws away to preston

All out attack! England! Ra ra ra!

How I wish I was such a simpleton that I could say such bollocks and genuinely believe it. 

‘should be going all out attack’ ffs 😂 like it’s a computer game. 

[northam soul]

Win the next 20 in a row and we will be second in the league so what’s the problem.

[Jack]

On the train on the way back to Manchester. 
 

Absolute garbage after going 1-0 up. Not a chance we’ll challenge at the top end of the league. The spine of our team is far too weak and last minute goals for points will dry up - reckon we’ll finish around 10th without a serious challenge for playoffs 

[Graffito]

We’re soft. Preston tactics first 10 of second half were no more sophisticated than get into em fuck em up. And we caved in. 

[Exeter Saint]

Martin rotated the squad. Gave the reserve team players a chance to prove themselves. Unfortunately Edozie, Mara and Charles aren’t up to it at the moment.

[kevdoh]

1 minute ago, Fabrice29 said:

All out attack! England! Ra ra ra!

How I wish I was such a simpleton that I could say such bollocks and genuinely believe it. 

‘should be going all out attack’ ffs 😂 like it’s a computer game. 

Yeah when you have the quality of course you attack. Have Brazil been the best footballing nation of all time by winning possession stats or utilising their qualities? Play to your strengths and our strength is clearly not keeping clean sheets so why not play with pace and attack teams? Like I say similar to England our talent and strength is further forward so playing this slow shite is stifling us just like Southgate does. Negative boring shite. Doesn't take a simpleton to work it out. Love the way as well instead of actually having a debate you resort to insults. Shows who the simpleton is 

[Fabrice29]

3 minutes ago, kevdoh said:

Yeah when you have the quality of course you attack. Have Brazil been the best footballing nation of all time by winning possession stats or utilising their qualities? Play to your strengths and our strength is clearly not keeping clean sheets so why not play with pace and attack teams? Like I say similar to England our talent and strength is further forward so playing this slow shite is stifling us just like Southgate does. Negative boring shite. Doesn't take a simpleton to work it out. Love the way as well instead of actually having a debate you resort to insults. Shows who the simpleton is 

You’re just saying cliche things like ‘attack and play with pace’ like it’s a button to press and that’s it done. There’s not much of a debate to be had. 

Btw England have been more successful under Southgate than Brazil have been recently, but sure, attack with pace, it’s so simple. 

Edited 25 October, 2023 by Fabrice29

[Turkish]

1 hour ago, CB Fry said:

I can't wait to see this team when they have completed all of their learning of the system. It's going to be immense 🤩😍🤩😍

Just you wait until those last 9 games when it all comes together. 7th will be ours 

[saintant]

42 minutes ago, samcrocker said:

To those complaining about “crab” football, and not utilising the pace in our attacking players, do you not realise that everyone will sit deep and let us have the ball, not allowing space for our attackers to use their pace? The “crab” football is designed to draw them out and create space for our players to exploit. 
The alternative is we flood forward and try to get the ball through 9/10 players on the edge of their box, mostly at this level solid defenders who will kick and head it away all night with our tricky pacey players not getting a sniff. Then once we’ve got everyone in their half they counter us and score. Kind of how we used to play against Citeh…

Unfortunately we’re in the Championship with Championship players, only Leicester can claim to have a Premier League 1st 11 and be able to play on the front foot and break teams down easily all season!! 

Never heard of players seeing and slotting into space - there's enough of it on a football pitch, pass and move or getting between the lines or some long balls over the top? Those are what draw opponents out, cause them to make errors and break down low blocks - you won't do it with lazy walking, tippy-tappy crab football. 

[VectisSaint]

Well that was a total crock of shit. Can't believe how bad we were but saved at the death by Bazunu, how the hell did that happen. We have to stop this idea that we have some world class players. Charles was awful (at least defensively), his sloppy passing is clearly why Martin has dropped him, yet we all know he is a class player, what has happened. Kamaldeen has no end product, his crosses are absolute shockers, every time, it is no good beating your man (which he does with ease) if you can't deliver the ball to a team mate. Sorry to say Charly is really not any better. Adams is a total waste of space (as he always was), the list goes on, only KWP and Stuart Armstrong look really capable (though I will give credit to Bree for being a whole lot better than Manning). Bednarek is doing a decent job as well. 

Apart from the goal, most of the game was ponderous passing and misplaced passes with no incisiveness, players looked nervous. Thankfully PNE were pretty hopeless as well. Yet here we are 5 unbeaten and 5th place (would have been third if we had won).

Oh and please save me from that god-awful co-commentator, nothing to do with being female, but she just didn't know when to stop talking, why do these people think they have a right to talk and talk and talk, and in such a dull monotonous voice as well.

[kevdoh]

3 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

You’re just saying cliche things like ‘attack and play with pace’ like it’s a button to press and that’s it done. There’s not much of a debate to be had. 

Btw England have been more successful under Southgate than Brazil have been recently, but sure, attack with pace, it’s so simple. 

Yeah, despite of Southgate not because of him. Put a decent manager in charge of this England squad over the last 4/5 years and we rip teams apart, not plod through and shit ourselves against any half decent team  we play against. It's not cliché it's a thing that when you're clearly better than the opposition you shouldn't shite your pants and play negative,slow, shite football

[Farmer Saint]

48 minutes ago, samcrocker said:

To those complaining about “crab” football, and not utilising the pace in our attacking players, do you not realise that everyone will sit deep and let us have the ball, not allowing space for our attackers to use their pace? The “crab” football is designed to draw them out and create space for our players to exploit. 
The alternative is we flood forward and try to get the ball through 9/10 players on the edge of their box, mostly at this level solid defenders who will kick and head it away all night with our tricky pacey players not getting a sniff. Then once we’ve got everyone in their half they counter us and score. Kind of how we used to play against Citeh…

Unfortunately we’re in the Championship with Championship players, only Leicester can claim to have a Premier League 1st 11 and be able to play on the front foot and break teams down easily all season!! 

No, people don't understand this. I've realised that the vast majority of fans who post on this site are morons. I've only been on here about 6 months, but I've already cut down my posting as reading this forum is making me stupider. 

[kevdoh]

Just now, kevdoh said:

Yeah, despite of Southgate not because of him. Put a decent manager in charge of this England squad over the last 4/5 years and we rip teams apart, not plod through and shit ourselves against any half decent team  we play against. It's not cliché it's a thing that when you're clearly better than the opposition you shouldn't shite your pants and play negative,slow, shite football

 

[Osvaldorama]

49 minutes ago, revolution saint said:

Tend to agree, we’re crying out for a decent in form striker although playing devils advocate we’ve tried Adams, A Armstrong, Alacaraz and now to a lesser extent Mara. The system either doesn’t favour the central striker, or they’ve all played a bit shit when they’ve played there.

As shit as they all are, it’s the system. 
 

Even Haaland or prime shearer wouldn’t get a look in plying with these tactics. 
 

How many dangerous balls do we play in?

How many counter attacks do we have?

 

Fuck all. We dick about in midfield, meanwhile the opposition sets up into a nice 11 man defensive block and easily cancels out any attacks. 
 

The manager is making us worse than the sum of our parts. We cant defend very well, and we can’t attack very well, despite having some of the best players in the division.

[Fabrice29]

3 minutes ago, kevdoh said:

Yeah, despite of Southgate not because of him. Put a decent manager in charge of this England squad over the last 4/5 years and we rip teams apart, not plod through and shit ourselves against any half decent team  we play against. It's not cliché it's a thing that when you're clearly better than the opposition you shouldn't shite your pants and play negative,slow, shite football

There’s absolutely no evidence for anything you’re saying, but yeh, good debating.

[saintant]

4 minutes ago, kevdoh said:

Yeah, despite of Southgate not because of him. Put a decent manager in charge of this England squad over the last 4/5 years and we rip teams apart, not plod through and shit ourselves against any half decent team  we play against. It's not cliché it's a thing that when you're clearly better than the opposition you shouldn't shite your pants and play negative,slow, shite football

A manager who picks Rice and Philips in the same midfield and leaves out Madison is not one I'd put much faith in.

[kevdoh]

2 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

There’s absolutely no evidence for anything you’re saying, but yeh, good debating.

The evidence that teams with good attacking players should play to their strengths and attack. It's not hard to understand. And to say England have been more successful recently than Brazil shows your ignorance 

[Fabrice29]

1 minute ago, kevdoh said:

The evidence that teams with good attacking players should play to their strengths and attack. It's not hard to understand. And to say England have been more successful recently than Brazil shows your ignorance 

Mate, there’s absolutely no evidence in recent history that an England team would rip through anyone under anyone. There’s barely an international team ripping through anyone let alone England doing it. There’s also no evidence this squad of Saints players could rip through anyone. In fact, all the evidence suggest this group has consistently lost games of football until this season and all the evidence suggests that England squads have failed to go very far in tournaments until Southgate got in charge. 
 

But hey, you keep believing in your simple world with simple cliches because it seems much better that way. 

[Miltonaggro]

In a matter of days we’ve proved that we can win ugly, and then draw hideously away from home. Looking forward to an overdue ravishing win at home on Saturday.  The seven points from niners! 

[JRM]

55 minutes ago, Mr Saints said:

We completely shat it in first 10 mins of the second half, so unavoidable and so frustrating. We manage that period of the game and we win.

Is Mara the worst player in our history? Wouldn’t even have got near our 08/09 side.

Thought Bree was decent.

Agree with all points. 

We'd be better off with a David McGoaldrought from that era, Mara is like the invisible man such little impact on the game. 

Overall the team deserved a point, gifted PNE a couple of goals , despite being 5th we have the (joint) worst defence in the division and it shows.  We were missing players today but its a huge black mark on Martin's record. 

[Chris cooper]

1 minute ago, Miltonaggro said:

In a matter of days we’ve proved that we can win ugly, and then draw hideously away from home. Looking forward to an overdue ravishing win at home on Saturday.  The seven points from niners! 

You know it’s a nailed on Rooney’s 1st win.. brum will then go on a run like boro did wen we played them .. think they were bottom at the time 🤔

[JRM]

1 hour ago, Fabrice29 said:

None of them are good enough as a lone striker. Also think the wingers just flatter to deceive as well. Stewart will help but we really lack anybody in the squad who has a record of delivering match defining moments. Tough to find to be fair but Adams and Armstrong have especially have failed to deliver for a few years now. Said all summer they weren’t good enough but was consistently told we couldn’t dare thinking about selling Adams. He’s inconsistent, always has been, always will be.

I watched back the goals from our promotion season and realised what a difference it made to have someone like Lambert, won us so many games and we have no one like him now. 

[saintant]

1 minute ago, JRM said:

I watched back the goals from our promotion season and realised what a difference it made to have someone like Lambert, won us so many games and we have no one like him now. 

Added to the fact that we were set up properly, played as a well-drilled unit and entertained with some sparkling football. About as far removed from the current dross as you could get.

[JRM]

26 minutes ago, Osvaldorama said:

As shit as they all are, it’s the system. 
 

Even Haaland or prime shearer wouldn’t get a look in plying with these tactics. 
 

How many dangerous balls do we play in?

How many counter attacks do we have?

 

Fuck all. We dick about in midfield, meanwhile the opposition sets up into a nice 11 man defensive block and easily cancels out any attacks. 
 

The manager is making us worse than the sum of our parts. We cant defend very well, and we can’t attack very well, despite having some of the best players in the division.

We also don't midfield very well, always seem to be lacking balance. 

[doc oli]

I went and I enjoyed it. Football. Drama. Storylines. It’s what it’s all about. 
I didn’t enjoy much of the last few years of premier league football. So fuck it if we don’t go up. 

[kevdoh]

Just now, Fabrice29 said:

Mate, there’s absolutely no evidence in recent history that an England team would rip through anyone under anyone. There’s barely an international team ripping through anyone let alone England doing it. There’s also no evidence this squad of Saints players could rip through anyone. In fact, all the evidence suggest this group has consistently lost games of football until this season and all the evidence suggests that England squads have failed to go very far in tournaments until Southgate got in charge. 
 

But hey, you keep believing in your simple world with simple cliches because it seems much better that way. 

The championship is shite. We may have struggled last few years but the difference between prem and championship is massive. We have a squad that any half decent, tactically aware manager would get us promoted with ease. Hence why I compare to Southgate and England. Southgate is shite. I wouldn't want him as saints manager. He's been fortunate that he has an unbelievable amount of talent that give him an ok record despite the fact that the attacking players we have is insane. Pace, skill, dribbling yet we play turgid shite. The England squad is not dissimilar to the city squad in terms of quality and pace yet look at the contrast in styles of play. Put it this way if pep was in charge of England we would blow teams away. Southgate in charge of city and he sucks the life out of them

[Patrick Bateman]

39 minutes ago, Osvaldorama said:

 

 

Fuck all. We dick about in midfield, meanwhile the opposition sets up into a nice 11 man defensive block and easily cancels out any attacks. 

Absolutely, 100% this.  I posted earlier about the dicking about, but it's so true - we look like we're going to break and counter, but stop. Pass. Pass. Pass again. By then, the opposition know they have time to get all 11 men back and then nothing happens apart from the insipid passing from one side of the pitch to the other, via 4 or 5 players, only to be in the same situation on the other side.  It is slow, ponderous and insipid.

I don't mind possession based football as it happens, it can work well, look pretty - Pochettino's Saints did it well enough, although the "get it forward" brigade hated him too.  But what pisses me off is the lack of ability to finish off a counter attack without a sideways or backwards pass. I think there were a couple of times today when exactly that happened - a break, ooooo, edge of your seat, something might happen.  Stop, pass sideways. Fuck off. 

(All I want is to mix it up a bit - it shouldn't be solely about possession, sometimes, let a break happen and the players should be encouraged to pour forward to support, just sometimes)

Edited 25 October, 2023 by Patrick Bateman

[Fabrice29]

1 minute ago, kevdoh said:

The championship is shite. We may have struggled last few years but the difference between prem and championship is massive. We have a squad that any half decent, tactically aware manager would get us promoted with ease. Hence why I compare to Southgate and England. Southgate is shite. I wouldn't want him as saints manager. He's been fortunate that he has an unbelievable amount of talent that give him an ok record despite the fact that the attacking players we have is insane. Pace, skill, dribbling yet we play turgid shite. The England squad is not dissimilar to the city squad in terms of quality and pace yet look at the contrast in styles of play. Put it this way if pep was in charge of England we would blow teams away. Southgate in charge of city and he sucks the life out of them

Yes Pep might be one of the greatest managers of all time and Southgate isn’t. Really proving your simple tag wrong there.

Now stop replying to me until you can actually provide evidence of  ‘We have a squad that any half decent, tactically aware manager would get us promoted with ease’ because all I see is a group of players that has consistently lost games of football for 3 years and with 4 managers in that time, the only one that has got them winning games on some level is this one. 

Oh and btw, you saying it over and over again doesn’t make it evidence. 

[JRM]

54 minutes ago, Graffito said:

We’re soft. Preston tactics first 10 of second half were no more sophisticated than get into em fuck em up. And we caved in. 

I thought Preston were very limited side, but if your defence is as bad as ours can't blame other teams for using that tactic. 24 goals conceded already this season, not good enough 

[Lee On Solent Saint]

1 minute ago, Fabrice29 said:

We have a squad that any half decent, tactically aware manager would get us promoted with ease’ because all I see is a group of players that has consistently lost games of football for 3 years and with 4 managers in that time, the only one that has got them winning games on some level is this one. 

Just saying, but Martin is managing us in the Championship. Not really a fair comparison