Saints 0-1 Forest - Match Thread

[Lighthouse]

On to the next one. Does Les come straight in? Does Archer start? It'll be an interesting team selection.

[Saint Matty 76]

Definitely going to be an interesting team selection player and formation wise, in what is probably on paper one of our most winnable games of the season. 

I'd probably start Archer over a defender/midfielder and go a little more positive from the off, if he's deemed ready. 

Imagine Les will probably get some minutes off the bench before taking Smallbone/Aribo's place, who both did alright yesterday.

[Saint Fan CaM]

Can’t imagine that Les will not get substantial minutes, but not entirely sure he’ll have enough Russball coaching behind him for Saturday to anything but a bench warmer. It does leave a 2nd question over who drops from the bench to give him space. Russ will be starting to ponder over how he’s going to keep team spirit high with the numbers not making the bench from last season increasing. It would be great to see a little more drive and positive play from our team though, moving the ball quicker so as to take advantage of our high possession periods.

[Harry_SFC]

Lumley; KWP, Bednarek, THB, Sugawara; Downes, Smallbone, Aribo; AA, BBD, Archer.

Subs - McCarthy, Stephens, Taylor, Bree, Les, Fernandes, Edozie, Dibling, SAA.

A bit conflicted on formation but as Saint Matty says, the onus should be on us to go out, be positive and win this one. 

Basing this on Onuachu, Alcaraz etc not being available for obvious reasons. 

Edited August 18 by Harry_SFC

[Jack]

We served up an absolute turd of a performance last time we played these at home, lost 1-0 and I’m not sure there was even a shot on target. Hoping for better this time 

[Turkish]

The Dexter Blackstock Derby. 
 

Will be a good test as to how we compare against another bottom half team. Forest are a decent side although they’ve got a nut job chairman. 
 

the PTSD from Nathan Jones lives on with this one hope we can put it to bed

[SNSUN]

52 minutes ago, Turkish said:

The Dexter Blackstock Derby. 
 

Will be a good test as to how we compare against another bottom half team. Forest are a decent side although they’ve got a nut job chairman. 
 

the PTSD from Nathan Jones lives on with this one hope we can put it to bed

Or the Nigel "The Relegator" Quashie derby. Sunk more clubs than Uncle Albert sank ships. 😀

[OttawaSaint]

For me this is a "must not lose" game and even borders on a "must win". 

We can't really afford to go into the Brentford game asking where the goals are coming from and/or when will we get saves etc.

The feel good factor of being back can evaporate quite quickly.

[St Chalet]

Possibly the lowest moment for me supporting Southampton against this lot two years ago. Sure I've seen a couple of 9-0's but this hurt more.

A true bellweather of how we will do.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

1 hour ago, St Chalet said:

Possibly the lowest moment for me supporting Southampton against this lot two years ago. Sure I've seen a couple of 9-0's but this hurt more.

A true bellweather of how we will do.

Oh. This is the match I've erased from my memory isn't it. Just little warning signs coming up there.

1 hour ago, OttawaSaint said:

For me this is a "must not lose" game and even borders on a "must win". 

We can't really afford to go into the Brentford game asking where the goals are coming from and/or when will we get saves etc.

The feel good factor of being back can evaporate quite quickly.

Whew! You nearly said "six pointer" and the first poster to say that gets...oh heck...>ACME sound effect of falling piano<

 

We're a little unsur going into this with all the changes, and set up to be fairly solid. Forest don;t offer much, and it looks very likely to be a draw. But since that's no fun for a prediction, I'm going with an Archer winner, late on.

[V.Johnathan.Wilson]

Nuno played 4-2-3-1 last week which is a formation we tend to have great performances against (i.e. Leeds), the difficulty will be how far does he push up his defensive and midfield lines, the further up the better for us. 

[sfc4prem]

Reckon Brerry will bag a goal, and I'm really hoping we play in exactly the same manner we did against Newcastle. If so, I can see us picking up 3 points, which would be excellent so early in the season.

[Patches O Houlihan]

17 minutes ago, sfc4prem said:

I'm really hoping we play in exactly the same manner we did against Newcastle. If so, I can see us picking up 3 points, which would be excellent so early in the season.

3 at the back suits us, but I'd be surprised if RM doesn't set us up in a 4-3-3, at home against a 'weaker' PL side.

Edited August 19 by Patches O Houlihan

[rallyboy]

Is it too early for a must win game?

Nah, not if you want to stay up.

Drop points at Newcastle, Liverpool, Man City etc, but you have to win home games against relegation rivals whenever they come in the season.

Must win.

[east-stand-nic]

I watched the whole game Saturday and thought to myself, against lesser teams we should be OK this season if we keep going with that level of effort. I thought we were actually pretty good. Forest is one of those games they have to take serious and fight just as hard. We must learn that winning the games helps to keep us above the bottom 3. I have no idea if we will win but we bloody well should and have more than enough about us. I think we look pretty good at the back aside from the silly risky pissin about with tippy tap. And now with Big Les in we have another very good string to our bow. It is just up to RM now to play the best 11 and make the right subs at the right time.

[Nordic Saint]

The result will be very much influenced by whether we get a new goalkeeper in time to start against Forest. Of course, a centre forward would help too, but that's probably too much to expect. Relegation may very well be determined by just 1 or 2 points, so playing these early games without a decent goalkeeper or striker, just because the end of the season seems a long way away is not very smart.

[Challenger]

2 minutes ago, Nordic Saint said:

The result will be very much influenced by whether we get a new goalkeeper in time to start against Forest. Of course, a centre forward would help too, but that's probably too much to expect. Relegation may very well be determined by just 1 or 2 points, so playing these early games without a decent goalkeeper or striker, just because the end of the season seems a long way away is not very smart.

Unfortunately the owner's don't appear too concerned about these long standing deficiencies.

[trousers]

11 minutes ago, east-stand-nic said:

I watched the whole game Saturday and thought to myself, against lesser teams we should be OK this season if we keep going with that level of effort. I thought we were actually pretty good. Forest is one of those games they have to take serious and fight just as hard.

IMO, one of our weaknesses in PL seasons gone by is that we've tended to raise our game against the bigger sides and coasted somewhat against the lesser sides. I doubt that Russ will let them slip into this mindset under his tenure, so I'm confident we'll see the same level of graft as per Newcastle.

Edited August 19 by trousers

[trousers]

9 minutes ago, Nordic Saint said:

The result will be very much influenced by whether we get a new goalkeeper in time to start against Forest

I've got a feeling Russ will revert to 'playoff mode' for the upcoming game(s), until we get a keeper upgrade. i.e. I think we'll now see a few more long upfield clearances from Alex in certain situations....

[saintant]

26 minutes ago, Nordic Saint said:

The result will be very much influenced by whether we get a new goalkeeper in time to start against Forest. Of course, a centre forward would help too, but that's probably too much to expect. Relegation may very well be determined by just 1 or 2 points, so playing these early games without a decent goalkeeper or striker, just because the end of the season seems a long way away is not very smart.

As others have said it smacks of us bumbling along with make-do until Baz, who is not very good himself, returns from injury.  I hope this is not the case and that things are being done in the background to solve the goalkeeper issue.

[Saint Garrett]

The bigger question for me - will we go back to a 4 at the back and more attacking, or will be shoehorn Stephens into the side still?  Wouldn'tbe surprised if no changes from Saturday.

Surely no way THB or Bednarek get dropped, and feels like Sugawara & KWP will play. For me, if we play 4-3-3 or similar, the left side is a bit of a problem as IMO Edozie isn't good enough, and Sulemana is injured. Is Diaz better through the middle?

If we go 4-3-3 then I'd go the following.  Harsh on Aribo who I thought had a very decent game on Saturday, but don't think they brought Ugochukwu in to sit on the bench, likewise Fernandes...? Will we get to the point where we see a midfield 3 of Ugochukwu / Downes / Fernandes.

Macca (reluctantly)
Sugawara THB Bednarek KWP
Ugochukwu Downes Smallbone
Armstrong Archer Brereton Diaz 

If it's 352 then the following:

Macca (reluctantly)
Sugawara THB Stephens Bednarek KWP
Ugochukwu Downes Smallbone
Armstrong Brereton Diaz 

[hypochondriac]

I think it will be unchanged from this week. Archer on at half time maybe. 

[saintant]

8 minutes ago, Saint Garrett said:

The bigger question for me - will we go back to a 4 at the back and more attacking, or will be shoehorn Stephens into the side still?  Wouldn'tbe surprised if no changes from Saturday.

Surely no way THB or Bednarek get dropped, and feels like Sugawara & KWP will play. For me, if we play 4-3-3 or similar, the left side is a bit of a problem as IMO Edozie isn't good enough, and Sulemana is injured. Is Diaz better through the middle?

If we go 4-3-3 then I'd go the following.  Harsh on Aribo who I thought had a very decent game on Saturday, but don't think they brought Ugochukwu in to sit on the bench, likewise Fernandes...? Will we get to the point where we see a midfield 3 of Ugochukwu / Downes / Fernandes.

Macca (reluctantly)
Sugawara THB Bednarek KWP
Ugochukwu Downes Smallbone
Armstrong Archer Brereton Diaz 

If it's 352 then the following:

Macca (reluctantly)
Sugawara THB Stephens Bednarek KWP
Ugochukwu Downes Smallbone
Armstrong Brereton Diaz 

I doubt RM will put Ugochukwu straight in - he tends to integrate new signings starting from the bench.

[ecuk268]

14 hours ago, Jack said:

We served up an absolute turd of a performance last time we played these at home, lost 1-0 and I’m not sure there was even a shot on target. Hoping for better this time 

If we couldn't beat them when we had the best manager in Europe, we're going to really struggle this time.

[trousers]

35 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

I think it will be unchanged from this week. 

30 minutes ago, saintant said:

I doubt RM will put Ugochukwu straight in

Yep, agree 

[Hatch]

Will be an exciting game,   loads of mistakes , loads of clear cut chances

 

0 - 0 

 

 

[jamesfp1]

4-0 Saints. We will walk this league.

[JRM]

Everyone seemed to except defeat against Newcastle, expectations were low and helped cope with the result, I sense expectations are a lot higher for this one so pressure on the team to get a result. 

First home game with the new Northam wall, looking forward to seeing what the atmosphere will be like , fans need to be up for it. 

[EssEffCee]

Really looking forward to this. Will be great to see the away fans stood in silence now they've been moved to the corner.

[Andrew Watson]

Very few crosses in our box on saturday,will be more of an acid test saturday playing against Chris Wood and two good wide players supplying the crosses.

[Pamplemousse]

Hopefully we can get that first win of the season under the belt and focus on re-establishing ourselves at this level. Forest you'd expect to be in the mix down the bottom so would be a big win.

Apparently they played pretty well against Bournemouth but tailed off at the end, so I fancy us to resume our old habit of getting a late winner. 2-1.

[CSA96]

 

[TheAlehouseBrawlers]

2 hours ago, EssEffCee said:

Really looking forward to this. Will be great to see the away fans stood in silence now they've been moved to the corner.

Droll....3,000 away fans will probably still make more noise than the home fans where ever we put them, assuming the new...ahem...Northam Wall haven't learnt any new songs over the summer. OWTSzzzz on repeat is going to be pretty mind-numbing.

[Wade Garrett]

We’ve got a better Archer than Robin Hood.

Going to really announce ourselves back into the Premier League.  2-0, fuck off Forest.

[Osvaldorama]

5 hours ago, TheAlehouseBrawlers said:

Droll....3,000 away fans will probably still make more noise than the home fans where ever we put them, assuming the new...ahem...Northam Wall haven't learnt any new songs over the summer. OWTSzzzz on repeat is going to be pretty mind-numbing.

Why don’t you support someone else then? If our fans are that shit? Away fans almost always outsing the home fans as they’re on the piss all day 

Negative / sarcastic comments like this annoy the fuck out of me.
 

At least the club are trying to improve things. The atmosphere was decent for much of last season without all the plastics as well. 
 

If you hate our own fans that much, why even bother going?

[eurosaint]

Four days to go and this is all they have to say on the buses :

• By shuttle bus

Information will be coming soon on new pick-up and drop-off points for anyone taking a shuttle bus from Southampton Central Station or Town Quay to the stadium.

Surely they have made a decision by now 🤫

[Wade Garrett]

12 minutes ago, eurosaint said:

Four days to go and this is all they have to say on the buses :

• By shuttle bus

Information will be coming soon on new pick-up and drop-off points for anyone taking a shuttle bus from Southampton Central Station or Town Quay to the stadium.

Surely they have made a decision by now 🤫

Town Quay and Southampton Central?  Walk you lazy bastards.

[JRM]

20 minutes ago, eurosaint said:

Four days to go and this is all they have to say on the buses :

• By shuttle bus

Information will be coming soon on new pick-up and drop-off points for anyone taking a shuttle bus from Southampton Central Station or Town Quay to the stadium.

Surely they have made a decision by now 🤫

Think I read new drop off is Brittania Road where away coaches used to go 

[Charlie Wayman]

On 18/08/2024 at 20:05, Saint Fan CaM said:

Can’t imagine that Les will not get substantial minutes, but not entirely sure he’ll have enough Russball coaching behind him for Saturday to anything but a bench warmer. It does leave a 2nd question over who drops from the bench to give him space. Russ will be starting to ponder over how he’s going to keep team spirit high with the numbers not making the bench from last season increasing. It would be great to see a little more drive and positive play from our team though, moving the ball quicker so as to take advantage of our high possession periods.

Natural selection will help RM in his choices. We are in a higher division now and not all from last season will make the grade. Players will step up a gear to keep their places but in the end talent will succeed over energy and effort. It's hard to predict who will reach a higher level and who will fall by the wayside but enthusiasm and development potential should aid the younger players.

Absolutely we must up our drive and pace to stay competitive in this league. 

[Charlie Wayman]

33 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

Town Quay and Southampton Central?  Walk you lazy bastards.

• By foot

With the introduction of a new away end, now located in the Chapel / Kingsland corner, you might notice that your usual route getting into the stadium and on to our footprint has now changed. Access into the stadium is best reached via Marine Parade, Britannia Road or via the Railway Footbridge off Northam Road. If fans are sitting in the Chapel Stand, we would advise entering the stadium via Marine Parade. Away fan coaches will now be parked on Melbourne Street, so access for home fans on a matchday will be limited via Melbourne Street.  

[JRM]

Talking to my Forest mate he reckons they'll try to hit us on the break, probably let us have most of the ball, he also asks if Diaz will need to sit this one out due to concussion/ head injury rules, anyone know? 

[Whitey Grandad]

2 hours ago, Wade Garrett said:

Town Quay and Southampton Central?  Walk you lazy bastards.

Further than you might think. 1.3 and 1.2 miles respectively so about half an hour.

I take it you’ve never been old?

[CSA96]

3 hours ago, JRM said:

Think I read new drop off is Brittania Road where away coaches used to go 

Yeah, that's right - was in the video they released yesterday

[Saint Fan CaM]

Looking forward to seeing the difference the Northam ‘wall’ makes - hopefully very noticeable.

In terms of the football, if we’re on it we should win providing there are no cock-ups at the back thanks to playing keep ball. They will setup to not press high I suspect or at least drop back after 15 minutes, so ensuing we don’t fall for the trap of getting caught on the break (e.g. from our own won corners) we should be OK - even with McCarthy in goal.

I would like to see Les come in, but it might too early for him. Go 2 up and that might be a good time for him.

2-1 Saints

[Nordic Saint]

3 hours ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

Looking forward to seeing the difference the Northam ‘wall’ makes - hopefully very noticeable.

In terms of the football, if we’re on it we should win providing there are no cock-ups at the back thanks to playing keep ball. They will setup to not press high I suspect or at least drop back after 15 minutes, so ensuing we don’t fall for the trap of getting caught on the break (e.g. from our own won corners) we should be OK - even with McCarthy in goal.

I would like to see Les come in, but it might too early for him. Go 2 up and that might be a good time for him.

2-1 Saints

It's all very well saying 2-1  but what happens if Forest get more than 1 shot on target? Not every team we play will be reduced to 10 men.

[Saint Fan CaM]

1 minute ago, Nordic Saint said:

It's all very well saying 2-1  but what happens if Forest get more than 1 shot on target? Not every team we play will be reduced to 10 men.

Well it’s all ifs and buts I guess. Just think we’ve got enough about us, plus there’s good competition now for places, all of which makes me think we’ll do the business.

[TheAlehouseBrawlers]

5 hours ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

Looking forward to seeing the difference the Northam ‘wall’ makes - hopefully very noticeable.

I'm in it this weekend so hoping it's a continuation of the play-off game atmosphere - although we've probably got even less chants in our limited repertoire than last season now we're up and Stuey Armstrong's gone. Hopefully something that will improve as the season goes on, the usual "You've only got one song" will no doubt be heard on Saturday.

[TheAlehouseBrawlers]

Just had a scoot over a couple of Forest boards, they generally feel confident of the three points. I’d suggest this post sums up the general consensus:

“I'm not looking forward to sitting through the attempted water boarding possession torture tactics of Russell Martin but as we know its all nice and fancy playing 27 passes between the central defenders only for us to skull them on the counter and rack up a few goals”

I’ll go 2-1 Saints.

[Whitey Grandad]

1 hour ago, TheAlehouseBrawlers said:

Just had a scoot over a couple of Forest boards, they generally feel confident of the three points. I’d suggest this post sums up the general consensus:

“I'm not looking forward to sitting through the attempted water boarding possession torture tactics of Russell Martin but as we know its all nice and fancy playing 27 passes between the central defenders only for us to skull them on the counter and rack up a few goals”

I’ll go 2-1 Saints.

They’re not wrong.

[V.Johnathan.Wilson]

Nuno apparently likes to play more front footed against bottom half sides, plus they seem to have an issue of there being a big distance between their front 4 and their double pivot when they are setup more offensively, not too dissimilar to Farke's issues with Leeds. We have to exploit the man advantage centrally and hope that AM doesn't gift the ball to one of Elanga, Gibbs-White or Hudson Odoi. Not sure how much Nuno varies his tactics mid game either. 

Edited August 21 by V.Johnathan.Wilson