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WBA 0-2 Saints - Match Thread


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like rm`s previous sides one dimensional,if we are honest last nights result has been coming for a while,teams have sussed us out lets see if we can change things up a bit.Worryingly rm said we were close to getting a result,thats not how i saw it hes deluding himself.

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1 hour ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Either a 1-0 or a 2-0 defeat.

We need to change something, we’ve become too predictable, and that was evident by Huddersfield and Bristol City’s pressing.

West Brom will certainly be turning up for this.

I'm thinking that, odds look tempting with the bookies as well

 

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4 hours ago, trousers said:

 

 Is it not logical to contemplate altering the formation/system to compensate for not having a suitable replacement for Downes...? 

With one day to implement before our next match? No. 

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Unreal level of doom on here today :) . Come on guys we went 25 matches unbeaten plus just showed the spirit to turn around the Huddersfield game . Maybe that game zapped our energy and combined with losing downes and a few changes contributed to the poor performance vs Bristol, but this is not a crisis and our bench is of frightening quality ., sure we can get back to winning ways soon enough, you don’t go 25 unbeaten by accident 

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1-0 Saints

Goal from a corner with one of our defenders scoring

Aribo comes back into the team and breaks some legs.

I really hope Mara gets a start

Edited by thesaint sfc
I paid my £5 subscription and wanted to flex
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12 hours ago, trousers said:

So, potential line-ups then....

If Downes is still out, I'm inclined to agree with the 3 CBs option...

Bazunu, KWP, THB, Stephens, Bednarek, Bree/Manning, Charles/Bragg, S.Armstrong, A.Armstrong, Adams, Fraser

But if Downes is back...

Bazunu, KWP, THB, Bednarek, Bree/Manning, Downes, Smallbone, Edozie, A.Armstrong, Adams, Fraser

(As good as he is, I'm wondering if the introduction of Brooks has maybe upset our 'automatism' somewhat, so I'm thinking he'll be better as an impact sub for the time being?)

 

 

 

 

 

I have serious doubts that Brooks will be OK for tomorrow anyway. He was clearly badly hurt when he collided with the post, took a long time to recover and hobbled around for a while before he was subbed off. I winced when he slammed into the post, for a few moments (and on the replays) looked like a really serious injury. Hopefully just badly bruised.

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1 hour ago, notnowcato said:

With one day to implement before our next match? No. 

Fair enough, we'll have to agree to disagree. (You'd hope that the coaching team have certain trained contingency plans to cover scenarios such as this, especially where there is an obvious single point of failure) 

Edited by trousers
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Big question for me, is if Downes isn’t fit, does Martin give Charles another go in there? He is capable, but he was shocking against Bristol City.

It completely disrupted the team Tuesday, as had to move Smallbone, had no Stu, Fraser and Adams. It was too many changes. 

Do we know if Che is fit for Friday? id like us to go back as close to the following as possible…

Bazunu, KWP THB Bednarek Manning; Downes Smallbone Stu; Arma Che Fraser

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There are a few conundrums Martin needs to figure out:

1. If our best form of defence is retaining the ball, then what he does when Downes is missing.  Smallbone is half the player without him in the team, and Charles does not have the passing ability.  It completely ruins our midfield.

2. Brooks may be one of our best players but it means Adam Armstrong plays up front and he doesn't perform there as well as he does when he starts on the right.

3. Teams are going to attack us now and whilst I don't want Martin to change the way we play at all we need a few answers to keep teams honest when they press us.  I don't think he'll ever want the ball to be passed long which is usually a natural counter to a high press so really we need to change our shape a bit in the final third to offer better passing lanes as the ones we have right now have been honed for low blocks and the team seem a little rattled by a high press.

It's all fixable 🙂 

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1 hour ago, Lallana's Left Peg said:

There are a few conundrums Martin needs to figure out:

1. If our best form of defence is retaining the ball, then what he does when Downes is missing.  Smallbone is half the player without him in the team, and Charles does not have the passing ability.  It completely ruins our midfield.

2. Brooks may be one of our best players but it means Adam Armstrong plays up front and he doesn't perform there as well as he does when he starts on the right.

3. Teams are going to attack us now and whilst I don't want Martin to change the way we play at all we need a few answers to keep teams honest when they press us.  I don't think he'll ever want the ball to be passed long which is usually a natural counter to a high press so really we need to change our shape a bit in the final third to offer better passing lanes as the ones we have right now have been honed for low blocks and the team seem a little rattled by a high press.

It's all fixable 🙂 

To number 2: going forward I think maybe playing brooks as a 10 might be the solution we then get to keep Arma where he’s most effective and I could easily see brooks being our most creative 10.

thoughts on the January window: it’s again looking like we have failed to address the obvious whilst making all our moves in positions we didn’t really need again,we seem to love doing this.

the positions that needed attention was cf (still don’t really have a clinical striker and it’s been a issue for ages) lb and also defensive midfield as bar downes we have little. Instead we make signings in the positions we are absolutely loaded in. Not sure why it’s so hard to recognise the weaknesses and concentrate on those, most people can see them 

Edited by pimpin4rizeal
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8 hours ago, VectisSaint said:

I have serious doubts that Brooks will be OK for tomorrow anyway. He was clearly badly hurt when he collided with the post, took a long time to recover and hobbled around for a while before he was subbed off. I winced when he slammed into the post, for a few moments (and on the replays) looked like a really serious injury. Hopefully just badly bruised.

He was actually shoved with two hands into the post by the defender, which unbelievably went unnoticed by the commentators. I wondered if it was something VAR would have looked at in the prem. 

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8 hours ago, thesaint sfc said:

1-0 Saints

Goal from a corner with one of our defenders scoring

Aribo comes back into the team and breaks some legs.

I really hope Mara gets a start

Mara has had two good halves of football. I want him to do well but wouldn’t be expecting too much from him in a game like this. 

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8 hours ago, trousers said:

Fair enough, we'll have to agree to disagree. (You'd hope that the coaching team have certain trained contingency plans to cover scenarios such as this, especially where there is an obvious single point of failure) 

I’m not certain that had Downes played on Tuesday that all would’ve been well. He’s clearly a top player for us but so many of those that started and came on were off their game. No doubt the staff know of many formations that they could switch to but for me we gave the ball away too easily in situations you’d expect us to retain control, that was apparent all over the pitch. 

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We have a very big weakness, far post defensive cover and its been exposed a few times in the last 2 games, this needs to be addressed as I`m pretty sure West Brom will have noted this and will exploit if we continue to be so open in that area.

Away from home we don`t have the scoring ability of Leeds, they manage to score freely home or away we need to up our away goal tally

Edited by tdmickey3
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4 minutes ago, tdmickey3 said:

We have a very big weakness, far post defensive cover and its been exposed a few times in the last 2 games, this needs to be addressed as I`m pretty sure West Brom will have noted this and will exploit if we continue to be so open in that area.

My fear is our weaknesses have been “noted” generally, so I hope Russel isn’t averse to changing things around. My mind goes back to the very day Ralphball  was sussed, at home to Norwich, Dean Smith’s second game at sms in a couple of weeks, although we muddled through that game the next league game was 0 - 4 to Villa away, we continued to struggle thereafter. I hope Russ isn’t as stubborn as Ralph was.

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21 minutes ago, tdmickey3 said:

We have a very big weakness, far post defensive cover and its been exposed a few times in the last 2 games, this needs to be addressed as I`m pretty sure West Brom will have noted this and will exploit if we continue to be so open in that area.

Away from home we don`t have the scoring ability of Leeds, they manage to score freely home or away we need to up our away goal tally

Leeds have a very, very good front 4 at this level. Probably the best in the league. Pacey and powerful players perfect for away games.

Edited by Harry_SFC
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If Downes is out then it's time to hand the prestigious Front Sweeper role to Manning. I'm serious.

Meghoma at left back for Friday and Manning and Charles in midfield with Stuey in front of them. I think Smallbone looked tired on Tuesday. Charles looked positively asleep, but that would have been ring rust (oooohhh Mrs) rather than fatigue. 

More like a 4231 than the usual set up. 

Adam A wide right and Fraser or Edozie left with Mara or Adams up top. 

We will have, as ever, a pretty nuts bench so let's keep it solid and win it in the last half an hour.

Up the Saints inshallah!

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Think RM needs to change formation to 3 at the back and wing backs, preferably Bree or Meghoma. Far better to shore up with a 0-0 draw than give WBA the chance to take all 3 points. He won’t do that though as it will admit defeat for his system and his mate Manning is undroppable.

Alongside the loss of Downes, I do wonder whether the introduction of Brooks and Joe R has disrupted the squad…we were looking real good prior to their arrival, albeit with a slim squad?

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15 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

If we can't go away to the likes of Bristol City or WBA and get a result, do we really want to be getting promoted? 

I think that is a moot point, if we get promoted we would need a massive overhaul of players, and Russ would have to adapt his style drastically. So, in my opinion, it would require a practically new team along with a new playing ethos 

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43 minutes ago, benjii said:

If Downes is out then it's time to hand the prestigious Front Sweeper role to Manning. I'm serious.

Meghoma at left back for Friday and Manning and Charles in midfield with Stuey in front of them. I think Smallbone looked tired on Tuesday. Charles looked positively asleep, but that would have been ring rust (oooohhh Mrs) rather than fatigue. 

More like a 4231 than the usual set up. 

Adam A wide right and Fraser or Edozie left with Mara or Adams up top. 

We will have, as ever, a pretty nuts bench so let's keep it solid and win it in the last half an hour.

Up the Saints inshallah!

Could Stephens be a defensive midfielder

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6 minutes ago, Osvaldorama said:

Birmingham is an absolute shit hole. 
 

We are gonna smash these Peaky Blinder sounding, 3rd world country residing, shit accent wankers. 
 

Dunno what all the fuss is about. 4-0 saints 

No doubt you said the same about the cider drinking, straw eating , slave traders a few days ago. lol

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30 minutes ago, Osvaldorama said:

Birmingham is an absolute shit hole. 
 

We are gonna smash these Peaky Blinder sounding, 3rd world country residing, shit accent wankers. 
 

Dunno what all the fuss is about. 4-0 saints 

Reckon most Baggies would see themselves more Black Country than Brummie.

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Ever since I reverted back to my ultra-positive self a few weeks ago we've possibly shown a few faltering signs.... As such, I'm going to predict a 2-1 defeat for this game so that we can get back on track and back into full domination mode again. You can thank me later! :)

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1 hour ago, Toussaint said:

I think that is a moot point, if we get promoted we would need a massive overhaul of players, and Russ would have to adapt his style drastically. So, in my opinion, it would require a practically new team along with a new playing ethos 

Which I don't think will happen...

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46 minutes ago, Winnersaint said:

Reckon most Baggies would see themselves more Black Country than Brummie.

It is 6 miles from West Bromwich to the Centre of Birmingham as a matter of interest 

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1 hour ago, waylander said:

wtf are you trying to say?

"Leaking". Must have pressed space before the N and it corrected to leaky. I wasn't going to bother correcting it because I didn't think it was that hard to decipher but I'll edit it just for you 😘

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3 hours ago, Osvaldorama said:

Birmingham is an absolute shit hole. 
 

We are gonna smash these Peaky Blinder sounding, 3rd world country residing, shit accent wankers. 
 

Dunno what all the fuss is about. 4-0 saints 

That’s the spirit 😂

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13 hours ago, Lallana's Left Peg said:

There are a few conundrums Martin needs to figure out:

1. If our best form of defence is retaining the ball, then what he does when Downes is missing.  Smallbone is half the player without him in the team, and Charles does not have the passing ability.  It completely ruins our midfield.

2. Brooks may be one of our best players but it means Adam Armstrong plays up front and he doesn't perform there as well as he does when he starts on the right.

3. Teams are going to attack us now and whilst I don't want Martin to change the way we play at all we need a few answers to keep teams honest when they press us.  I don't think he'll ever want the ball to be passed long which is usually a natural counter to a high press so really we need to change our shape a bit in the final third to offer better passing lanes as the ones we have right now have been honed for low blocks and the team seem a little rattled by a high press.

It's all fixable 🙂 

We need proper wide players who like to hog the line when teams squeeze up against us.  If they make the pitch shorter, we have to make it wider.

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5 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

We looked a better side with Bree at left-back as it gave KWP licence to bomb on and we had a virtual back three.

Can’t do it with Manning as he can’t defend for shit.

Also Brooks didn't seem to want to do.l any defending so it's even less likely KWP bombs forward.

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