sledger Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 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. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarehamSaintJames Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 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. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maggie May Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 3-1 WBA. Wheels well and truly off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRM Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notnowcato Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SfcPhil Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 I'll chuck a tenner on West Brom and we'll be certain to get a result. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pimpin4rizeal Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 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 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thesaint sfc Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 (edited) 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 February 14 by thesaint sfc I paid my £5 subscription and wanted to flex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VectisSaint Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trousers Posted February 14 Author Share Posted February 14 (edited) 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 February 14 by trousers 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint Garrett Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 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 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lallana's Left Peg Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 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 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pimpin4rizeal Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 (edited) 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 February 15 by pimpin4rizeal 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thesaint sfc Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 Aribo could be our saviour in place of Charles, no? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint_clark Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 15 hours ago, EssEffCee said: Ah my mistake. Obviously getting confused with something else He scored the opening goal V Portsmouth on the final day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexLaw76 Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 (edited) Those stupid draws have put additional pressure on games like this, where we will likely not win Edited February 15 by AlexLaw76 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkshire Saint Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 3-1 🚭 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toussaint Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toussaint Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notnowcato Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cabrone Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 Hopefully Tuesday was the rocket that the team needs to get back on track. Got a sneaking suspicion we might get a win up there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRM Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 10 hours ago, SfcPhil said: I'll chuck a tenner on West Brom and we'll be certain to get a result. Just done the same, decent odds offered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdmickey3 Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 (edited) 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 February 15 by tdmickey3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toussaint Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 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. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry_SFC Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 (edited) 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 February 15 by Harry_SFC 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benjii Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarisbury Saint Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 We only lose away to teams in red, so I’d go for a draw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint Fan CaM Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 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? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farmer Saint Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 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? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midfield_General Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 I’m going to go ahead and say ‘yes’ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toussaint Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 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 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldNick Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 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 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toussaint Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 1 minute ago, OldNick said: Could Stephens be a defensive midfielder THB maybe a better shout as he’s very comfortable on the ball, and has very good distribution, bring Stephens in as cb? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osvaldorama Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 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 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldNick Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandmale Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 A quick bounce back, the squad will be fired up enough to get back to winning ways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winnersaint Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trousers Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 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! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trousers Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 2 minutes ago, Winnersaint said: Reckon most Baggies would see themselves more Black Country than Brummie. I think that may have been part of the 'wind-up'.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 (edited) Sorting out the defending should be the priority. We can't keep leaking goals if we want to stay in the race for top 2. Clean sheet please! Edited February 15 by Disco Stu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farmer Saint Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 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... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waylander Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 28 minutes ago, Disco Stu said: Sorting out the defending should be the priority. We can't keep leaky Ng goals if we want to stay in the race for top 2. Clean sheet please! wtf are you trying to say? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 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 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stripey McStripe Shirt Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 We'll be the first club to play with the new LGBTQQIP2SAA ball. Trailblazers. https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/news/article/efl-and-puma-launch-footballs-first-ever-rainbow-ball 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 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 😘 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaintsFan86 Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 Baz; Stephens, ThB, Bednarek, KWP; Downes?; Smallbone, Stuey; Arma, Mara, Edozie/Fraser. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wade Garrett Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 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 😂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wade Garrett Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wade Garrett Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 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. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaintsFan86 Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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