Coventry 1-1 Saints - Match Thread

[Lee On Solent Saint]

Just now, saints-til-i-die said:

Boring. It’s hard to watch us at the moment.

Just so infuriating to watch us play safe boring football against absolute bang average teams. Save for that Wright fella, Coventry were fuckin awful. 

[notnowcato]

1 minute ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

With some of  the shite I’ve written the past 50 years, “not the worst” isn’t very fucking encouraging. 

Fixed it. You’re welcome. 

[Yozzman]

40 minutes ago, Saint Matty 76 said:

Had some decent cameos this season but absolutely shite today Aribo

Watching a different game to me, he's been fine. 

[FarehamSaintJames]

We could go the rest of the season unbeaten and finish 15th, and RM will probably say “we’ve done ourselves proud” or words to that effect.

He is not convincing me.

Slow sideways styles of play don’t get you far. 

Be direct and run at teams.

[FarehamSaintJames]

1 hour ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Cracking first half!!! 
70% possession! Get in!!!!

We finished with 72%!

Can’t wait for the parade tomorrow!

[notnowcato]

3 minutes ago, Yozzman said:

Watching a different game to me, he's been fine. 

Agreed, bar a dodgy 5 minutes this evening I thought he had one of his best games for us. 

[Dellyears]

4 minutes ago, saints-til-i-die said:

Boring. It’s hard to watch us at the moment.

Yes it is boring. I wonder what Mick Channon would make of this sort of play. Why doesn't anyone run at defences now? There is no excitement in crab football and nothing to put fear into any defence

[revolution saint]

17 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

Agreed, bar a dodgy 5 minutes this evening I thought he had one of his best games for us. 

Yep, I agree. That was one of his best games. He wasn’t that good but least he wasn’t as bad as he can be.

[trousers]

Everything's pretty rosey according to Russ... 

 

 

[maysie]

All Armas chances seems to come on his left foot today which was a shame

[maysie]

1 minute ago, trousers said:

Everything's pretty rosey according to Russ... 

 

 

Did you actually listen? He said he was annoyed we conceded the way we did and that we had to get the second goal.

I agree  with him that the players have come a long way in terms of playing the football he wants ( whether the football is what the fans want is another question altogether).

[obelisk]

More points dropped. Not really working is it?

Approaching the half way point of the season and I'm still wondering when we're going to see RM's style of play start to pay dividends - if ever. Yes there's plenty of possession but not much in the way of end product. Hardly any clean sheets either.

I think we can forget about automatic promotion. Even with this unbeaten run we've not made up any ground on the leading two. If we fail in the play-offs then I'd expect Saints to be in this league for many years. Just hope the football gets a bit more appealing.

[Vancouver Saint]

Missed this one all bar 10 minutes on a dodgy stream...just in time to see Manning lose possession was it and Coventry score an easy goal..switched off and went into a Zoom meeting. Sounds like it was more entertaining than the game. 

Is it fair to say missing Stewart, Sulemana and Downes limited our attacking threat - or would it have made no difference with Russball approach? Answers on a postcard... 

[Harry_SFC]

Ryan Dilks from the second tier podcast was spot on. He said "I haven't seen a Southampton game this season and come away thinking wow, that was really good".

Cardiff is the only one I can think of tbh. 

[Lee On Solent Saint]

1 minute ago, Vancouver Saint said:

Is it fair to say missing Stewart, Sulemana and Downes limited our attacking threat

Stewart and Sule have done the square root of fuck all, so not really missed them. Think we have missed Downes though, massive for us at this level.

[Lord Duckhunter]

The team has grown a huge amount from where we were at the start to now"
 

 

[hypochondriac]

1 hour ago, Long Shot said:

Did you watch it? You sound satisfied? If you are you need to have a long hard look at yourself because it was awful fayre. Boring, unexciting pedestrian predictable and full of errors. There was not a decent Saints player on the pitch tonight. They were all shit and you pronounce yourself satisfied. Sums us up I guess. 

I'm satisfied with a point away to a decent team on a good run of form. Any normal championship year and we'd be top of the table right now. Yes I want some better performances but I'm not pissing my pants like some people. 

[Dark Munster]

49 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

More than enough chances to win this game, our finishing was piss poor.  Caused ourselves more trouble than Coventry did. 
Not a great night but not the worst. 

Are you Russell’s Dad?

[northam soul]

We just don’t seem capable of working their goalkeeper.

Two pretty lame shots on target with the rest blazed over just sums us up.

Blackburn have ordered a lazy boy chair for their shot stopper on Saturday.

[trousers]

15 minutes ago, maysie said:

Did you actually listen? He said he was annoyed we conceded the way we did and that we had to get the second goal.

Yes, I did listen (thanks for asking ). I was referring to his overall positive assessment of the season so far, not his specific  comments on this one game. Apologies for my lack of clarity...it's been a long evening...

Edited 13 December, 2023 by trousers

[S-Clarke]

Cov aren't a bad side, they were a play off side last year and have strengthen in the summer (minus Goykores). These two away games aren't bankers by any means. It's not a bad result in our aim to finish in the playoffs, that's all we're doing - so save yourself the disappointment by continuously looking at Leeds/Leicester and Ipswich's results - they're gone and away into the distance, no catching those guys. Just need to make sure we're the best of the play off teams when we get there.

It's disappointing because we could be doing better, but that run in September pretty much killed any auto promotion hopes stone dead. Our recovery since then has been promotion worthy, but the damage has been long done. I don't think we're playing badly at the moment, we're just not going to be able to recover from September.

Manning though is probably the worst LB I've seen us with in many, many, many years - truly dreadful footballer, I don't know how this guy got into the team of the season. He is awful in all aspects of his game - touch, positioning, passing. Error strewn mess. Just play Bree, but priority for me in January is an actual left back.

Adam Armstrong had a really poor game tonight, he's set a high standard this year though so we can probably excuse him this one - but he was really poor. Blackburn on Saturday, they're not doing too bad at the moment at all, but if we win that 5 from 9 points in a week is 'ok', not ground breaking but it keeps things ticking over. Big Christmas coming up to create that gap to 7th.

[notnowcato]

5 minutes ago, Dark Munster said:

Are you Russell’s Dad?

What’s your point Dark one? Something you disagree with?

[Roo1976]

17 minutes ago, obelisk said:

More points dropped. Not really working is it?

Approaching the half way point of the season and I'm still wondering when we're going to see RM's style of play start to pay dividends - if ever. Yes there's plenty of possession but not much in the way of end product. Hardly any clean sheets either.

I think we can forget about automatic promotion. Even with this unbeaten run we've not made up any ground on the leading two. If we fail in the play-offs then I'd expect Saints to be in this league for many years. Just hope the football gets a bit more appealing.

Maybe his style of play is working for him? because were a slightly better performing side than the way swanseas squad were?

[notnowcato]

45 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

We finished with 72%!

Can’t wait for the parade tomorrow!

I’ve got a feeling that bus won’t be leaving the station tomorrow. 

[Chewy]

Been at the game and haven’t read anything above so not sure who stood out or otherwise for the tv viewers, but I thought overall it was dull. Certainly the first half. 98% possession and not one moment of excitement (I may be slightly exaggerating). 
Thought Stu was dreadful, and I’m a fan. Manning obviously at fault for the goal, KWP a class above and centre backs solid enough against a physical challenge.

Biggest issue was lack of movement - with Aribo and Smallbone we had no mobility so everything was slow and ponderous. We didn’t once switch our forwards to confuse the defence, and with Stu off form just never looked like creating, stretching, testing … anything-ing.

Surprised first set of subs removed our only mobile midfielder (Shea), surprised Stu wasn’t hooked at any stage, surprised Charlie only got 5 minutes when we needed a spark and were chasing a winner.

Overall, weird tactics, weird that we chose to have no midfield movement, and definitely weird substitutions. A poor opposition who we should comfortably have beaten actually shaded the contest on chances despite having none of the ball first half, and only a little second.

Just an odd and disappointing game. Unbeaten so no great harm done, but a definite missed opportunity.

Good stadium, weird location (edge of town retail estate) easy access, diabolical toilets.

[maysie]

7 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

I'm satisfied with a point away to a decent team on a good run of form. Any normal championship year and we'd be top of the table right now. Yes I want some better performances but I'm not pissing my pants like some people. 

This, a little annoyed with our finishing and the mistake for the goal but we really weren’t as awful as people are making out today.

I will say when we break the press though we do need to attack quicker and get runners joining the attack.

 

 

[hypochondriac]

2 minutes ago, maysie said:

This, a little annoyed with our finishing and the mistake for the goal but we really weren’t as awful as people are making out today.

I will say when we break the press though we do need to attack quicker and get runners joining the attack.

 

 

Yep. Hoping for a couple of reinforcements in January to help us with this. I'm sure the club would have been counting on Stewart being fit now to contribute to things. We've also lost Sulemana which will inevitably make us slower. Very confident of getting playoffs now and little chance of automatic which tbf I would have taken after we lost 4 in a row. Hoping to increase our goals scored which should give us more chance of success in the playoffs. 

[Saint-Michael]

More of the same, not improving in the right areas.Martins style doesent work in practice so boring to watch we need a massive reset.

 

[Lighthouse]

14 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

I'm satisfied with a point away to a decent team on a good run of form. Any normal championship year and we'd be top of the table right now. Yes I want some better performances but I'm not pissing my pants like some people. 

I broadly agree with this and in isolation you'd never say there's anything wrong with a point a piece in back to back games at Watford and Coventry. What concerns me most is our completely inability to put in a truly strong performance, which includes taking our chances and maximising our good play. Our points total, as you say, would usually put you top two but we're halfway through the season with a GD of +4. That's pretty awful and is normally indicative of a team struggling to get into the top half, not league leaders.

[S-Clarke]

1 minute ago, hypochondriac said:

Yep. Hoping for a couple of reinforcements in January to help us with this. I'm sure the club would have been counting on Stewart being fit now to contribute to things. We've also lost Sulemana which will inevitably make us slower. Very confident of getting playoffs now and little chance of automatic which tbf I would have taken after we lost 4 in a row. Hoping to increase our goals scored which should give us more chance of success in the playoffs. 

I think a lot of the over reactions right now are because of our run in September, had it not been as bad as it was we'd have been right in there - and that's in a season where the top 2 are setting records, so in the general context we're doing as you'd expect a promotion chasing team to do - it's such an extreme top 2 though that we just couldn't afford the September we had, in any other season that month is probably recoverable from but this year it won't be.

[notnowcato]

Just now, Lighthouse said:

I broadly agree with this and in isolation you'd never say there's anything wrong with a point a piece in back to back games at Watford and Coventry. What concerns me most is our completely inability to put in a truly strong performance, which includes taking our chances and maximising our good play. Our points total, as you say, would usually put you top two but we're halfway through the season with a GD of +4. That's pretty awful and is normally indicative of a team struggling to get into the top half, not league leaders.

There’s probably not many occasions where a team in 4th have been properly humped twice like we have and therefore our goal difference does look a little odd. 

[hypochondriac]

15 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

I broadly agree with this and in isolation you'd never say there's anything wrong with a point a piece in back to back games at Watford and Coventry. What concerns me most is our completely inability to put in a truly strong performance, which includes taking our chances and maximising our good play. Our points total, as you say, would usually put you top two but we're halfway through the season with a GD of +4. That's pretty awful and is normally indicative of a team struggling to get into the top half, not league leaders.

Yes I agree with you. We haven't truly dominated an entire game all season which I think is partly because of the amount of players we have from last year still. I'm not sure we have the calibre of players to dominate other teams with this style of play but this is what we have decided to go for so we have to make it work as best as we can. I'll be interested to see if we can make it work better with a few different attacking options beyond ones that have never really worked like Mara.

[hypochondriac]

Will add that I don't think we should really place much stock in much that Martin says in interviews. He's routinely said about making changes and then playing the same team or Downes being ready and then him not making the bench. I think that largely his post match comments about pride and how good we were is just bland platitudes to build up the players. Who knows if he really believes much of what he says. 

[Dragon_man]

1 hour ago, Master Bates said:

How many more bookings does Martin need before he gets suspended again?

Is he suspended after today's yellow or one or two more?

I think he wants a seat in the stands so he can snooze with the rest of us. 

[SaintBobby]

Dull. Not a bad performance, but we sure lack a cutting edge. Or any apparent urgency.

[Dragon_man]

'A point on the road'

It's our new catchphrase y'know

[macca155]

Put our sense of entitlement aside and that is a point salvaged.

Coventry were really solid and blocked off any routes of attack. They didn't give KWP one inch of space.

We were slow ponderous and lacking any sort of invention up front. I thought Charles and Smallbone did OK. The latter put in some good covering tackles. They just had no outlet, all they could see was sky blue shirts.

I've said a few times that Marc Robbins is a decent manager and it showed tonight. Totally nullified RM's strategy and we had no plan B.

Our football is so dull and exhausting to watch. I like Martin, I think he is a good manager overall but he has to revisit these tactics. None of the decent sides play this way, and it is pretty obvious why. Weird subs as well. Aribo was blowing from 75 mins, Alcaraz was an obvious replacement.

Always like visiting Coventry, nice ground, easy parking, but as someone said terrible toilets.

Just got to keep going.

[The Kraken]

1 hour ago, macca155 said:

Put our sense of entitlement aside and that is a point salvaged.

Yeah man, exactly. Don’t expect anything too much.

1 hour ago, macca155 said:

…..we had no plan B.

Our football is so dull and exhausting to watch. I like Martin, I think he is a good manager overall but he has to revisit these tactics. None of the decent sides play this way, and it is pretty obvious why.

Down with expecting better from these things. Down with it. Too much expectation.

[OttawaSaint]

I find our football so boring and frustrating that I couldn't be bothered to watch a stream today. I'm hearing it was more of the same. I think Blackburn is on DAZN here but I'm not holding my breath that it'll be any different. 

[Baird of the land]

4 hours ago, macca155 said:

 

Our football is so dull and exhausting to watch. I like Martin, I think he is a good manager overall but he has to revisit these tactics. None of the decent sides play this way, and it is pretty obvious why. Weird subs as well. Aribo was blowing from 75 mins, Alcaraz was an obvious replacement.

Always like visiting Coventry, nice ground, easy parking, but as someone said terrible toilets.

Just got to keep going.

This dull ponderous football is Martin’s style, no clue why you’d think he’s going to revisit them.

[rooney]

A boring game, mistake by Manning and three good chances put over the bar by our top goal scorer. Back to normal but accolades  to Bazunu who had a good game with saves, passing and kicking.

[tisspahars]

Whilst there are clearly things that can be improved on, the way a large chunk of this forum has moved from "Never mind promotion this clueless clown is going to get us relegated" during our run of losses to "We may be on a 13 game unbeaten run but it's play-offs only under this clueless clown" without any semblance of self-awareness is truly remarkable.

[Lord Duckhunter]

8 hours ago, notnowcato said:

I’ve got a feeling that bus won’t be leaving the station tomorrow. 

It would be driven sideways if it fucking did. 

[obelisk]

2 minutes ago, tisspahars said:

Whilst there are clearly things that can be improved on, the way a large chunk of this forum has moved from "Never mind promotion this clueless clown is going to get us relegated" during our run of losses to "We may be on a 13 game unbeaten run but it's play-offs only under this clueless clown" without any semblance of self-awareness is truly remarkable.

That's just another way of saying that things could be improved on.

[The Cat]

Other then the goal my favourite bit was us passing it out from the back in injury time while their players swarmed all over us. Bazunu has some bollocks on him to do that while under pressure.

A draw was fair, both teams missed a couple of chances they probably thought they should have scored.

They were really well organised and had enough pace to trouble us on the break. Thought we looked more threatening when we made the subs and played with width.

[Kermitzasaint]

The irony that only two games ago it was stated that Saints had reached a point where the Lego head haters had to fall in to line and accept Martin's greatness.

Now we are back to RM football in all it's ponderous excruciating best. 

He is insufferable. The 'Always' of football coaching. He is exactly what we were warned he would be.

[Charlie Wayman]

9 hours ago, trousers said:

Everything's pretty rosey according to Russ... 

 

 

Oh dear, the poor sod has lost the plot. He may be gone by Christmas. Surely must be conversations in the boardroom.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

5 minutes ago, Charlie Wayman said:

Oh dear, the poor sod has lost the plot. He may be gone by Christmas. Surely must be conversations in the boardroom.

There is absolutely no chance of him being sacked

[saintoaks]

TBH I stood there for 96 minutes bored shitless, got to 1-1 then thought we'd have a right go but oh no we just passed the ball around at the back and nearly conceeded. this is exactly why we will not be in the automatic places, the two teams above us would have put this game to be in the first 20 minutes, also, well done to the prick behind who just kept calling everyone twats wankers for not singing, fuck me we've got some retards.

[notnowcato]

1 hour ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

It would be driven sideways if it fucking did. 

Sideways driving bus… cool. 😎