Blackburn 0-0 Saints - Match Thread

[hypochondriac]

I swear if Martin doesn't play bednarek and THB at CB and KWP at rb in the playoffs and we lose as a consequence, I will go insane. If he has to shoehorn Steohens then maybe stick him on the left where he can be less disruptive to the team. He hasn't even played particularly badly, he's just completely disrupted a settled team. Add to that the disruption of Rothwell and Brooks to the a lesser extent and we've really just made the team weaker. We've expanded out options which has just made people's jobs less clear. What was wrong with Amo Ameyew off the bench? Why is Edozie now getting hardly any chances? All of then deserve chances over some other players. 

[Lee On Solent Saint]

4 minutes ago, Chez said:

So basically, you are calling for Manning to return.

To be fair, I'd rather have a proper full back playing there, rather than a centre half. Martin made a rod for his own back by making Stephens captain and proclaming that we absolute need hinm in the team. 

[Chez]

2 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

To be fair, I'd rather have a proper full back playing there, rather than a centre half. Martin made a rod for his own back by making Stephens captain and proclaming that we absolute need hinm in the team. 

I still don't understand why we chose not to have two left backs in the squad. 

[Lee On Solent Saint]

Just now, Chez said:

I still don't understand why we chose not to have two left backs in the squad. 

Maybe we expected Larious to rerurn from injury? Or Meghoma to step up more than he has. Either way, its a shit show from the club. Should have been addressed in the winter window instead of wasting a loan on Rothwell. 

[sfc4prem]

19 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

We're run by a man who credits himself with Brentford's rise. What's worse is he's one of those guys who can't imagine doing things any differently to what he's done before, and he's prepared to break any system to suit the mould he wants. Saints were functioning well enough when they came in (given the lack of input under Goa), and had started to turn the transfer side of things around once Hassenhuttle and Semmens had full control in the past year or so. Yes we were losing pace with the league, but what do people expect with no investment compared to every other team? SR then came in, undermined the manager and dismantled the coaching setup, completely disrupted the backroom staff across basically the entire club (from the academy and scouting to the business and financial side), and then they spent over £160M reshaping the squad with players that either weren't needed/ready, or didn't fit... and in the middle of all that, they singularly failed to do the most important thing - which was to sign a bloody striker to replace the goals of Ings. How you can spend £160M on a side with a good manager that badly needed investment and it make them worse is beyond me... but thats SRs legacy - relegation.

The level of change they oversaw was a clear klaxon that they didn't know what they were doing, and that they were going to break everything to follow their incredibly arrogant and vain view that they were secret geniuses who were smarter than everyone else and who could do something new in football...

The grand summation of all that, is that Rasmus Ankerson has taken the club with the 11th highest cumulative prem points total, and turned them into a club shitter than Brentford (when he was there). Russel Martin is just the latest instalment of the man's ego project. And in terms of transfer policy this summer... No decent fullback cover, no depth at CDM, and still needing a proper goalscorer.

Fuck, that's one hell of an indictment.

Edited April 6 by sfc4prem

[Saint Fan CaM]

2 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

To be fair, I'd rather have a proper full back playing there, rather than a centre half. Martin made a rod for his own back by making Stephens captain and proclaming that we absolute need hinm in the team. 

Absolutely this.

And if the system is not allowing the quality of Fraser and Brookes to get results, then Edozie and Mara are unlikely to find success either. Match preparation must be either non-existent or largely ineffective as both the midfield three and the forward three looked liked strangers today. That’s on Martin and the coaching staff…perhaps they’ve switched off knowing their boss has buggered off or perhaps Rasmus has returned to swing his dick around Staplewood? 🤔😉

[Chez]

6 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

What was wrong with Amo Ameyew off the bench? Why is Edozie now getting hardly any chances? All of then deserve chances over some other players. 

Not sure there is much wrong with selecting Fraser/Edozie and AA/Brooks/Sulemana. Which do you want dropping for Amo?

All have been given chances. When Fraser was missing we called for him to come back. Now we have him back and its Edozie we miss. Not sure our wide players are the problem. When one is poor the sub often does well. 

[Chez]

2 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Maybe we expected Larious to rerurn from injury? Or Meghoma to step up more than he has. Either way, its a shit show from the club. Should have been addressed in the winter window instead of wasting a loan on Rothwell. 

it was the same last season(and possibly the season before - I ant remember now), relying on KWP to provide cover.  Great until he is injured or out of form.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

1 minute ago, Chez said:

it was the same last season(and possibly the season before - I ant remember now), relying on KWP to provide cover.  Great until he is injured or out of form.

Therein lies our greatest problem over the last 3 years or so, our recruitment has been utter shite. For a team that once were among the best for scouting and recruitment, the fall grace has been spectacular.

[Micky]

38 minutes ago, CeeBee said:

As a previous poster said, this possession football is boring when played at a funeral pace. Watching City earlier was a revelation. Crisp passing and first time shooting. And guess what, passes played forward not sideways and backwards.

Martin's possession football is nothing like Cities, ours is based around winning the ball and securing it. In order to secure the ball we always go backwards towards our own goal and basically reset the game with us in possession and 11 opposition players in front of us.  We then mess about, sideways backwards, trying to retain possession, creating very little throughout the course of the game.   When City win possession they are comfortable to transition from anywhere on the pitch, no reset required. Obviously they have much better players. 

We are one dimensional, slow, laboured and no plan B, enjoy this season because the next 3 or 4 seasons are going to be much worse I fear. 

[Convict Colony]

Never did i think we would 75pts and 7 or 8 games left and be sad.

This season has had 3 epic teams in it and us.

[Toussaint]

31 minutes ago, badgerx16 said:

"This indecision's bugging me"'

Darling you’ve got to let me know ?

[revolution saint]

Have to say I quite enjoyed it when the empty crisp packet blew onto the pitch, great movement and so so brave.  Other than that I thought it was a bit boring.

[hypochondriac]

13 minutes ago, Chez said:

Not sure there is much wrong with selecting Fraser/Edozie and AA/Brooks/Sulemana. Which do you want dropping for Amo?

All have been given chances. When Fraser was missing we called for him to come back. Now we have him back and its Edozie we miss. Not sure our wide players are the problem. When one is poor the sub often does well. 

My issue is with our January transfer dealings which has judt confused things, frozen out some players and hasn't made us stronger. I don't have a particular issue with an individual player, it was just clear that what we needed was an attacker. In truth it was our decision to sign a crocked attacker as one of our main signings in the summer that has cost us the most this year. 

Edited April 6 by hypochondriac

[Toussaint]

Just now, revolution saint said:

Have to say I quite enjoyed it when the empty crisp packet blew onto the pitch, great movement and so so brave.  Other than that I thought it was a bit boring.

What flavour crisps were they?

[revolution saint]

Just now, Toussaint said:

What flavour crisps were they?

Dunno mate, the packet was inverted as is the modern way.

[FarehamSaintJames]

I don’t see how Manning didn’t play against either Middlesbrough or Blackburn. Inferior opposition and I think we’d all agree he plays better when attacking, both those teams we would’ve been a banker to win and create chances.

Shoehorning Stephens into a settled back four will be the downfall of the season. Yes he’s played well the last couple of games but it doesn’t mitigate the twenty five matches before that when he wasn’t missed.

[Toussaint]

45 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Any system is crap to watch when it’s not working. When teams found a way to play through Ralph’s press, it didn’t work. Jones’ long, direct football didn’t look good against anyone at all. There’s no universally great system, otherwise every team would be playing it every game and never lose.

Why have one rigid “system”? Ralph didn’t have a plan b or c, nor does Russ. Plenty of other manages have systems but aren’t afraid adapt  in game if the situation requires it.

[ally_uk]

Get Cooper in ASAP I've seen enough of this caaaaaaaant! 

It's not rocket science is it get the players in right positions for a start and stop trying to be clever... 

[Convict Colony]

To be honest the whole stephens thing, i am not bothered he is playing as overall he has been pretty good, i just get that he splits up the polish beckenbauer and THB which then coincides with us being utter shit which is a team problem.

If you then look at who causes us to be shit and lose or throw away wins its not stephens. 

[Chez]

10 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

I don’t see how Manning didn’t play against either Middlesbrough or Blackburn. Inferior opposition and I think we’d all agree he plays better when attacking, both those teams we would’ve been a banker to win and create chances.

Shoehorning Stephens into a settled back four will be the downfall of the season. Yes he’s played well the last couple of games but it doesn’t mitigate the twenty five matches before that when he wasn’t missed.

Manning was fucking shit in lots of those twenty five games. We won a lot despite not because. 

As other posters have pointed out, Stephens wasn't shoehorned into a settled back four. He was picked because the back four was leaking goals. doesn't mean he can't be dropped mind. He has played pretty well in several games, but I thought he looked ponderous today.

Edited April 6 by Chez

[Fabrice29]

27 minutes ago, Convict Colony said:

Never did i think we would 75pts and 7 or 8 games left and be sad.

This season has had 3 epic teams in it and us.

People would do well to remember this. We're having a perfectly good season but there is 3 teams better than us at the moment having insanely good seasons. It's frustrating we're not doing that as well but we're still well on course for a 3 game shoot out at the end with one of them, which again, is perfectly reasonable considering we were below two of those teams last year and probably had more squad disruption that both.

14 minutes ago, Chez said:

Manning was fucking shit in lots of those twenty five games. We won a lot despite not because. 

As other posters have pointed out, Stephens wasn't shoehorned into a steel back four. He was picked because the back four was leaking goals. doesn't mean he can't be dropped mind. He has played pretty well in several games, but I thought he looked ponderous today.

This is correct. Stephens really is not the problem on his own.

21 minutes ago, ally_uk said:

Get Cooper in ASAP I've seen enough of this caaaaaaaant! 

It's not rocket science is it get the players in right positions for a start and stop trying to be clever... 

This is insane. It's been written on here for years despite having had 4 different managers, at least 3 different ways of playing and trying every combination possible. Maybe the core players we're still relying on that have seen us gradually decline to a Championship side might be the issue rather than people trying to be clever.

Edited April 6 by Fabrice29

[stknowle]

1 hour ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Therein lies our greatest problem over the last 3 years or so, our recruitment has been utter shite. For a team that once were among the best for scouting and recruitment, the fall grace has been spectacular.

3 years!? 😂. Been generally fucking dreadful since Van Djik was sold and we spunked it on failures like Hoedt and Boufal.

Edited April 6 by stknowle

[RedArmy]

1 minute ago, Fabrice29 said:

People would do well to remember this. We're having a perfectly good season but there is 3 teams better than us at the moment. We're still well on course for a 3 game shoot out at the end with one of them, which again, is perfectly reasonable considering we were below two of those teams last year and probably had more squad disruption that both.

 

They’re playing the same teams we are and doing better. 

The league outside of the top 4 is very poor let’s be honest, if you’re above average you should be having a good season. 
 

With the squad we have we should be right up there with the top 3 but we’re not. We’re struggling to hold on to ‘best of the rest’ if anything. 

[Fabrice29]

4 minutes ago, RedArmy said:

They’re playing the same teams we are and doing better. 

The league outside of the top 4 is very poor let’s be honest, if you’re above average you should be having a good season. 
 

With the squad we have we should be right up there with the top 3 but we’re not. We’re struggling to hold on to ‘best of the rest’ if anything. 

Yes, that's why I said its frustrating not to be there but it's not the crisis some people on here seem to think it is. 

[Osvaldorama]

There are definitely some personnel issues this season which are hindering us. Not having a striker / target man to hold the ball up is a massive problem when Che is not playing. Left back and goalkeeper are poor. 

But almost all of our recent problems are self inflicted by the manager chopping and changing the team and sticking to the same ridiculous strategy of passing it backwards with zero forward intent. We don’t react to the opposition at all. Our best 11 is good enough to beat anyone in the league..

I also have to ask is the squads mentality alright? Norwich beat Ipswich today simply because they wanted it more.  I think we have better players than both of those teams, but as a great man once said  - hard work beats talent, if talent doesn’t work hard  

 

[Harry_SFC]

2 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

Yes, that's why I said its frustrating not to be there but it's not the crisis some people on here seem to think it is. 

If Martin doesn't get us up this season, do you think he should he be sacked? Given that is the clubs expectation. 

Given we are actually getting worse as the season has gone on and the fact we would almost certainly have an inferior team next season, I can't see how he'd be able to continue. 

[Whitey Grandad]

2 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

If Martin doesn't get us up this season, do you think he should he be sacked? Given that is the clubs expectation. 

Given we are actually getting worse as the season has gone on and the fact we would almost certainly have an inferior team next season, I can't see how he'd be able to continue. 

“If Martin doesn't get us up this season” then he never will.

[CB Fry]

6 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

If Martin doesn't get us up this season, do you think he should he be sacked? Given that is the clubs expectation. 

Given we are actually getting worse as the season has gone on and the fact we would almost certainly have an inferior team next season, I can't see how he'd be able to continue. 

We can't afford to sack him.

In every scenario he is still employed by us by the October International Break.

[RedArmy]

10 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

Yes, that's why I said its frustrating not to be there but it's not the crisis some people on here seem to think it is. 

Yes that’s why I said if you’re above average you should be having a good season. 
Saying we’ve got x amount of points at this stage isn’t a glowing review. 3 clubs have got far more than we have. We have underperformed. 

[Galway saint]

1 minute ago, CB Fry said:

We can't afford to sack him.

In every scenario he is still employed by us by the October International Break.

why can’t we afford to sack him ?

[stknowle]

4 minutes ago, Osvaldorama said:

There are definitely some personnel issues this season which are hindering us. Not having a striker / target man to hold the ball up is a massive problem when Che is not playing. Left back and goalkeeper are poor. 

But almost all of our recent problems are self inflicted by the manager chopping and changing the team and sticking to the same ridiculous strategy of passing it backwards with zero forward intent. We don’t react to the opposition at all. Our best 11 is good enough to beat anyone in the league..

I also have to ask is the squads mentality alright? Norwich beat Ipswich today simply because they wanted it more.  I think we have better players than both of those teams, but as a great man once said  - hard work beats talent, if talent doesn’t work hard  

 

What annoys me more than anything - even his hair - about Martin is his insistence that he’ll keep on playing the same old way whatever happens like it’s something to be proud of. It’s nothing to be proud of whatsoever and is tantamount to an in plain site admission that he is a poor manager.

[CB Fry]

4 minutes ago, Galway saint said:

why can’t we afford to sack him ?

Because we're up shit creek if (when) we don't get promoted.

[Fabrice29]

13 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

If Martin doesn't get us up this season, do you think he should he be sacked? Given that is the clubs expectation. 

Given we are actually getting worse as the season has gone on and the fact we would almost certainly have an inferior team next season, I can't see how he'd be able to continue. 

Personally, no. As stated above, it wouldn't be wise financially firstly but more importantly I just don't think there's evidence of discontent that needs to be resolved. He's quite clearly appreciated by those that work at the club so unless that changes, I don't think we need to be disrupting things. We'd be a much different squad next year obviously and I don't think another new manager at the helm to oversee that would be wise. He'd be best placed to transition the younger guys I think. It would be disappointing though obviously and we'd have to start the season well, not least because the fanbase would be toxic otherwise. 

5 minutes ago, RedArmy said:

Yes that’s why I said if you’re above average you should be having a good season. 
Saying we’ve got x amount of points at this stage isn’t a glowing review. 3 clubs have got far more than we have. We have underperformed. 

We've only underperformed if you compare us to the 3 above us though. Which is of course natural but take them out for a moment and our record obviously stands up. That's credit to the 3 above us obviously and whilst it's not a glowing review it's also not a disaster that people would have you believe. We're still very much in with a good chance of achieving our goal. I think the season should be played out before people come to conclusions that Martin has to go for example.

[Jack]

I don’t know what the question is but the answer certainly isn’t Stephens roaming from left back into central midfield and getting in the way. He’s created a problem that didn’t exist. Russ thinks he’s clever but he’s really hurting us. Square pegs in round holes again and more dropped points against inferior opposition. 
 

It’s not even surprising that every game there’s a new experiment gone wrong but it’s fucking ridiculous. He’ll get a shot at taking us up via the playoffs but I don’t want to watch us do all this again next season with inferior players 

[washsaint]

Since when did Saints fans become so entitled?  We have no god given right to go up.....blimey, the people shouting the loudest were the ones at the start of the season saying we'd be lucky to finish mid-table.

This season has been better than I thought it would be but the final 1/3 of the season looks like it will be a damp squib which is unfortunate.

I'm more annoyed Dibling has been completely frozen out (and SAA too) despite looking really promising.

I stand by my thoughts that bringing in Brooks and Rothwell was completely unnecessary and has completely unbalanced the squad.  I thought they were both dire today.

 

[Turkish]

13 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

Because we're up shit creek if (when) we don't get promoted.

We really arent. We have an identity and a philosophy, not all shit creeks are bad one. Imagine being up a shit creek where you’re playing entertaining football, proud of what you’re seeing. Imagine that and cheer up you sad fuck

[AlexLaw76]

15 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

Because we're up shit creek if (when) we don't get promoted.

But, it will be the greatest shit creek in our history

[Jack]

2 minutes ago, washsaint said:

Since when did Saints fans become so entitled?  We have no god given right to go up.....blimey, the people shouting the loudest were the ones at the start of the season saying we'd be lucky to finish mid-table.

This season has been better than I thought it would be but the final 1/3 of the season looks like it will be a damp squib which is unfortunate.

I'm more annoyed Dibling has been completely frozen out (and SAA too) despite looking really promising.

I stand by my thoughts that bringing in Brooks and Rothwell was completely unnecessary and has completely unbalanced the squad.  I thought they were both dire today.

 

I don’t think it’s entitlement, I think it’s just clear that we’ve got a superior squad to the opposition most weeks but still often makes a complete balls of it with the same mistakes. It’s out of frustration, we should be doing better than we are with the resources available and how the games have played out 

[BotleySaint]

15 minutes ago, washsaint said:

I'm more annoyed Dibling has been completely frozen out (and SAA too) despite looking really promising

With less of a budget next year, we might be seeing more of them then! 

[RedArmy]

26 minutes ago, washsaint said:

Since when did Saints fans become so entitled?  We have no god given right to go up.....

 

The fans or the club don’t, no. But the squad we have should have finished in the top 2. 

[markr27]

As I said in another thread, what worried me today was that Saints were ooking for a out of position centre back, whom is playing at left back and wandering into central midfield, to be our main creative genius.

 

It worked a treat, didn't it.

[Convict Colony]

The goals v minutes played pisses me off the most, we've played 39 games this season, the amount of goals for some of the minutes played is disgraceful.

[sandwichsaint]

2 hours ago, ally_uk said:

Get Cooper in ASAP I've seen enough of this caaaaaaaant! 

It's not rocket science is it get the players in right positions for a start and stop trying to be clever... 

Manager wanted, mustn’t  be too clever.

[Wiggles31]

Sit back and enjoy the play offs. This season has been far more enjoyable than the last 3 combined. If we are in the Championship next year we’ll give it another go and have to Derby games to boot. If we don’t go up approach Cooper. 

[Mr X]

Just now, sandwichsaint said:

Manager wanted, mustn’t  be too clever.

Arry's your man! 

[VectisSaint]

3 hours ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

To be fair, I'd rather have a proper full back playing there, rather than a centre half. Martin made a rod for his own back by making Stephens captain and proclaming that we absolute need hinm in the team. 

So that's a no to Manning then.

[VectisSaint]

2 hours ago, RedArmy said:

They’re playing the same teams we are and doing better. 

The league outside of the top 4 is very poor let’s be honest, if you’re above average you should be having a good season. 
 

With the squad we have we should be right up there with the top 3 but we’re not. We’re struggling to hold on to ‘best of the rest’ if anything. 

We had no right to expect anything better than a distant 3rd, based on where we were at the start of the season. Leeds and Leicester were much better than us in the PL (9 and 6 points better respectively). At the moment they have widened that gap a little, but not a huge amount. The problem for us is that Ipswich "came from nowhere" and have proved that it is no fluke, they built a good Championship side last season in League One. Yet we still have the chance to beat them (in the play-offs) assuming they finish 3rd. But we will only win the play-offs if we rediscover some form in the last 7 games, unlike today's dismal display.

[Harry_SFC]

32 minutes ago, VectisSaint said:

So that's a no to Manning then.

From what I've seen, Meghoma is actually our best left back. 

[Whitey Grandad]

1 minute ago, Harry_SFC said:

From what I've seen, Meghoma is actually our best left back. 

Not forgetting Perraud of course.