Saints 0-1 Forest - Match Thread

[Saint Fan CaM]

OK, two games in and I’ve modified my thought that we need a GK replacement as a priority - we still do need that, but there are actually more pressing matters.

1. We definitely need a big strong CF…a focal point that takes defenders away from BBD and AA.

2. We definitely need to play two more attack minded midfielders who have the ability to move and pass forwards at pace. Why are we selling Alcarez? He must have refused to grow a beard.

3. RM needs to get BBD and AA off the wings to allow the wing backs space to do their job (if we persist in a 5 at the back).

4. Most importantly, Russball needs a make-over. Yes, use possession to our advantage at times, but in the Prem trying to pass the ball into the back of the net will not happen past 11 players. We need to mix up our attacks and move at pace more…get more shots on target.

[hypochondriac]

40 minutes ago, saintant said:

A tad harsh on Armstrong who was totally let down by RM's poor tactical set up yesterday - playing your two strikers wide on the flanks was a hopeless ploy that didn't work from the first minute. Judge Armstrong in a set up that gives him something to feed off which certainly wasn't the case against Forest.

I'll give him more of a chance but as yet I'm not convinced he's beating his two goals per season prem record. 

[gio1saints]

16 hours ago, hypochondriac said:

He's not good enough for the prem. You have to be ruthless if you want to stay up. He can be a squad player but he shouldn't be starting games for us. 

Based on two games? 😂.
By that reckoning none of the first team are good enough and none should be starting next week. hysterical knee jerk stuff Hypo 🤣

[revolution saint]

35 minutes ago, egg said:

I can't agree with that. There has to be a threat to possession, otherwise it's literally a case of passing until we lose or give away the ball. 

Strachan called this style of football propaganda football. It really is. It's tedious to watch, it gives us no edge, and exposes is at this level. 

I'm with you on the lack of CF and players getting in the box. It's obvious to anyone bar RM that we need runners to stretch the oppo, to give us an outlet, and to give is some chance of actually scoring. 

I honestly can't recall the last time that we played such baffling tactics. 

Yeah, there's a definite tendency to think possession for the sake of it is the goal and takes precedence over scoring them.  We had a spell last season where the players drifted into a comfort zone of passing it around the midfield and afraid to take any risks (Barnsley at home springs to mind).  TBF to Martin he did call that out eventually and we started playing it a bit more direct once we beat the press.  Need to start doing that again although, as you say, there needs to be better quality options up front to allow us to do that.  

The funny thing is, if you look at the highlights of people like THB, Big Les, Fernandes and new Dutch keeper, we have the players who can do those long passes to the front.  

[East Kent Saint]

Early days but watching Motd Saints were awful , Forest could have at least 3 goals while Saints could have had one . All I saw was Forest attacking at pace , Bednarak being beaten and no real attacking intent from Saints . Uplifting end of window might help but Martin needs to give the team at least a chance .

[hypochondriac]

3 minutes ago, gio1saints said:

Based on two games? 😂.
By that reckoning none of the first team are good enough and none should be starting next week. hysterical knee jerk stuff Hypo 🤣

No based on his history and his career. I said as much prior to the first game so my stance hasn't changed, it's just that we now have two extra games of evidence to back up that opinion. There's nothing knee jerk about it. 

[Lord Duckhunter]

7 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

I'll give him more of a chance but as yet I'm not convinced he's beating his two goals per season prem record. 

He’s not good enough at this level, end of. He’s out of his depth.

 

As for BBD he did fuck all as well, made a twat of himself last week and pretty average this week. Unlike Armstrong, who is a proven failure for us at this level, I’d give him a bit longer, but not impressed so far. He looks like a CF to me not a left winger. 
 

Edozy is another one, horrendous performance when he came on, & did Archer even touch the ball? 
 

What summed it up is we’re pushing for an equaliser, Charlie Taylor knocked a beautiful cross for a tap in, and nobody reacted like a goal score should. 
 

Here’s an idea Lego head, play wide men  on the wing together with a central striker. Because if we continue to mince around with false 9’s & the like we’re going down.

[hypochondriac]

1 minute ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

He’s not good enough at this level, end of. He’s out of his depth.

 

As for BBD he did fuck all as well, made a twat of himself last week and pretty average this week. Unlike Armstrong, who is a proven failure for us at this level, I’d give him a bit longer, but not impressed so far. He looks like a CF to me not a left winger. 
 

Edozy is another one, horrendous performance when he came on, & did Archer even touch the ball? 
 

What summed it up is we’re pushing for an equaliser, Charlie Taylor knocked a beautiful cross for a tap in, and nobody reacted like a goal score should. 
 

Here’s an idea Lego head, play wide men  on the wing together with a central striker. Because if we continue to mince around with false 9’s & the like we’re going down.

Bereton Diaz is a bit of a flat track bully and seems to be quite a limited player for this level. He's the opposite of the sort of player I imagined we would be signing given our style of play. Archer has been mostly anonymous so I can't yet comment on his qualities and how he suits our style. 

[LuckyNumber7]

1 hour ago, egg said:

I can't agree with that. There has to be a threat to possession, otherwise it's literally a case of passing until we lose or give away the ball. 

Strachan called this style of football propaganda football. It really is. It's tedious to watch, it gives us no edge, and exposes is at this level. 

I'm with you on the lack of CF and players getting in the box. It's obvious to anyone bar RM that we need runners to stretch the oppo, to give us an outlet, and to give is some chance of actually scoring. 

I honestly can't recall the last time that we played such baffling tactics. 

Probably the last time we played Forest at home under Nathan Jones. Not sure we even had any tactics that day.

[gio1saints]

27 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

No based on his history and his career. I said as much prior to the first game so my stance hasn't changed, it's just that we now have two extra games of evidence to back up that opinion. There's nothing knee jerk about it. 

Literally his last proper match at SMS he played brilliantly and scored a vital goal v WBA. He played well in the Final. Integral part of getting us up and “ one of our own”. 

He may well not be good enough and we will know after a fair number of gages - but 2??
You’re entitled to your option but claims of prophetic level foresight in the telling of is Will going to be good or not before a ball is kicked at this level for him or even after two matches are still laughable all the same. 

 incidentally : what did BBD and AA achieve all game except run a lot? How many shots did they Flynn and Joe manage - and on target ? How many defensive headers did THB win? Has AM turned into an EPL goalie cos he can actually save shots? Why doesn’t Sam Edozie shoot when he sees the goal? Why is KWP still the only player can run with the ball ( apart from Tyler) - are the rest still not up to EPL standard at doing this basic skill? 
You can pick on a lot of areas to criticise but to claim you chose Will as your fall guy BEFORE the season starts - and despite one meh and one very bad performance is still very strange - and very funny.🤣 

[hypochondriac]

4 minutes ago, gio1saints said:

Literally his last proper match at SMS he played brilliantly and scored a vital goal v WBA. He played well in the Final. Integral part of getting us up and “ one of our own”. 

He may well not be good enough and we will know after a fair number of gages - but 2??
You’re entitled to your option but claims of prophetic level foresight in the telling of is Will going to be good or not before a ball is kicked at this level for him or even after two matches are still laughable all the same. 

 incidentally : what did BBD and AA achieve all game except run a lot? How many shots did they Flynn and Joe manage - and on target ? How many defensive headers did THB win? Has AM turned into an EPL goalie cos he can actually save shots? Why doesn’t Sam Edozie shoot when he sees the goal? Why is KWP still the only player can run with the ball ( apart from Tyler) - are the rest still not up to EPL standard at doing this basic skill? 
You can pick on a lot of areas to criticise but to claim you chose Will as your fall guy BEFORE the season starts - and despite one meh and one very bad performance is still very strange - and very funny.🤣 

Again I wasn't judging him on two games. Not sure why you keep repeating that, I was saying he's not a starting player before the season started based on what I'd seen from him previously. Plenty of players perform well in the championship and can't make the step up. He played well at points last year but this isn't the championship. I think he should be in the squad and given opportunities but he shouldn't be a starter in a team not wanting to get relegated. Yes you can also criticise many other starting players or question their selection. 

[Lord Duckhunter]

18 minutes ago, gio1saints said:

He may well not be good enough and we will know after a fair number of gages - but 2??

Who was that bloke who has 68 premier league appearances before this season. You know the little short Geordie bloke, what happened to him? 

[Oldandtired]

16 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Who was that bloke who has 68 premier league appearances before this season. You know the little short Geordie bloke, what happened to him? 

Isn't he hanging on for Newcastle to pay up his contract?

[Saint Marky]

My tuppence worth… was really looking forward to our first home game, especially after the uplifting performance last week dominating Newcastle and I really feel we would have won that, if it had stayed 11 vs 11. Atmosphere seemed great in the stadium, moving the away fans to the corner and having ‘the wall’ did seem to give a noise advantage, maybe if we see some decent attacking football, not the sideways, backwards stuff we had yesterday, this will really step up a notch and get the stadium rocking. My main concern leaving after the game ended, is this suicidal playing out from the back, no matter what.         .                                                                                                                                                                                                             Aribo, although fouled, had a chance to put his laces through the ball, but elected to try and dribble out of the box with two Forest players right next to him, resulting in losing the ball and them scoring. It’s just getting ridiculous now, it’s the prem, not the championship and we don’t  have the players to implement Russball, two games, two mistakes, two losses. I just hope Russ has the sense to allow the hoofing of it to safely, before it’s too late and we get the inevitable change of manager, when we been cut adrift. As much as it was great being one of the contenders last year in the champ, for me there’s nothing like being in the prem, with the players and teams we’re mixing with each week. We just need to survive this year, so we have more financial muscle to improve the squad, to play the way he wants next year, I hope he’s not so stubborn he won’t adapt.

[FarehamSaintJames]

It’s going to be a learning curve for him. He needs to be ruthless, if players can’t hack it he needs to drop them for ones that are.

Loyalty is only great up to a point.

[manji]

Apart from the usual examples there was some unusual stuff, players getting in the way of each other, not making space for each other, a couple of very indecisive pieces of decision making. Now before I’m criticised for lack of obvious examples . I get wrapped up in the whole game and should have worn my varifocal glasses but if they were obvious to me I’m sure they were must have been obvious  to the more tactically aware members of this forum and hopefully Russell Martin. 
im not back tracking from my usual SR inspired confidence but Matt O' Riley can’t turn the team round on his own. 
Dragans phone is off, another golfing day FFS. But I will be straight on to him tomorrow, just hope it isn’t a Bank Holiday in Serbia.

[Owen The Saints]

Worse than 2 seasons ago. Thought we were the away side trying to get a 0-0. NF goalie had nothing to do for the first 36 minutes. Then he caught a shot which was nothing more than a back pass. BBD is not a winger. McCarthy, Stephens, Aribo, Smallbone, Armstrong and Edozie are not Premiership quality. Not sure about the remainder, but we must have some continuity. We went down because our goals scored amount was at least 20 shy of safety. Lack of goals is relegation, percentage possession is bollox

[conaero]

Well more time yes, it was never going to be easy and more recruits are needed. Against Newcastle we played very well and was happy with that over the score line. NF was a different matter. We should have at the very least matched them and drawn. It’s a long season and the lack of a goalkeeper, everyone knew. Typical slow cost saving board, RM can only work with what he has. 

[Thereisonlyonemickychannon]

That's was a shocking performance.

Smallbone was shite.

[Badger]

1 hour ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

It’s going to be a learning curve for him. He needs to be ruthless, if players can’t hack it he needs to drop them for ones that are.

Loyalty is only great up to a point.

Need to buy a few upgrades  first 

[saintant]

5 hours ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

I’m not a fan of Stephens playing as a whole but he was not the worst centre-back today, THB was a lot worse.

McCarthy kept us in it. 

were not competing against the top ten, it’s the bottom ten we need to be careful of, yesterday was a huge opportunity and tactically it was all wrong. 
You should never be inviting pressure on home soil.

Hopefully Russell Martin learns quickly from that.

THB and Bednarek are a good pair and generally play well together. It seems to me when Stephens is added it results in THB looking poor. Let's get back to a defensive four with Stephens on the bench apart from games against the top sides.

[saintant]

24 minutes ago, Thereisonlyonemickychannon said:

That's was a shocking performance.

Smallbone was shite.

The system is shite making most of the players look shite including Smallbone. I have major doubts about him at this level but the way RM sets up and expects us to play is suicidal.

[Saint Billy]

We are simply not quick enough. Every time we move up the pitch it is slow and ponderous, and then we start to recycle the ball backwards giving the opposition plenty of time to regroup. It's frustrating to watch and even worse to hope for a result from.

Most of us complained about it throughout the championship season and it continues now but to a much higher level of opponent.

[Saint Matty 76]

A day on and I still just cannot get over the tactics of the first hour.

If you're not going to attack Forest at home as a winnable fixture, which game are you?

I'm praying it's just a case of not having the options ready to set-up differently, but if he intends for us to look like that with two wingers (strikers) who cannot beat a man, and Smallbone and Aribo lumbering 10 seconds too late into the box... christ.

[gio1saints]

2 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Who was that bloke who has 68 premier league appearances before this season. You know the little short Geordie bloke, what happened to him? 

Bit early in season for you to get your childish name calling digs at RM, the club, and any saints player you dislike to isn’t it? 

The last six months must have been hell for you watching us get promoted . No wonder you hardly posted. 

Well, the good news for you is that in this league we are likely to get beaten a lot more than last year, and probably by some cricket scores at times.

My what laughs and fun you will have badmouthing the club. and telling us the good news about how shot this or that player or our manager is. It’s going to be such a laugh with your Lego head this and that. 

Whats quite unusual though is that the kind of belittling of our club stuff you exclusively post is usually only the preserve of skates masquerading as saints on here. Any defeat or misfortune for SFC and you are on in a flash. 
 

Sadly for me it’s going to be a lovely year for you and no doubt you will be posting gallons of your very funny, entertaining and oh so very clever negative poison after every defeat. Or if there is a Lord, you will stfu if we win and go back to the PFC forum where you can feel at home with your fish friends and still dis Saints, the club and its loyal support to your hearts content.

[trousers]

5 minutes ago, gio1saints said:

Bit early in season for you to get your childish name calling digs at RM, the club, and any saints player you dislike to isn’t it? 

The last six months must have been hell for you watching us get promoted . No wonder you hardly posted. 

Well, the good news for you is that in this league we are likely to get beaten a lot more than last year, and probably by some cricket scores at times.

My what laughs and fun you will have badmouthing the club. and telling us the good news about how shot this or that player or our manager is. It’s going to be such a laugh with your Lego head this and that. 

Whats quite unusual though is that the kind of belittling of our club stuff you exclusively post is usually only the preserve of skates masquerading as saints on here. Any defeat or misfortune for SFC and you are on in a flash. 
 

Sadly for me it’s going to be a lovely year for you and no doubt you will be posting gallons of your very funny, entertaining and oh so very clever negative poison after every defeat. Or if there is a Lord, you will stfu if we win and go back to the PFC forum where you can feel at home with your fish friends and still dis Saints, the club and its loyal support to your hearts content.

 

[Fitzhugh Fella]

13 minutes ago, gio1saints said:

Bit early in season for you to get your childish name calling digs at RM, the club, and any saints player you dislike to isn’t it? 

The last six months must have been hell for you watching us get promoted . No wonder you hardly posted. 

Well, the good news for you is that in this league we are likely to get beaten a lot more than last year, and probably by some cricket scores at times.

My what laughs and fun you will have badmouthing the club. and telling us the good news about how shot this or that player or our manager is. It’s going to be such a laugh with your Lego head this and that. 

Whats quite unusual though is that the kind of belittling of our club stuff you exclusively post is usually only the preserve of skates masquerading as saints on here. Any defeat or misfortune for SFC and you are on in a flash. 
 

Sadly for me it’s going to be a lovely year for you and no doubt you will be posting gallons of your very funny, entertaining and oh so very clever negative poison after every defeat. Or if there is a Lord, you will stfu if we win and go back to the PFC forum where you can feel at home with your fish friends and still dis Saints, the club and its loyal support to your hearts content.

There's's a lot of hot air in this post. So you disagree with LD but do you have to take up so much space to let everyone know? He's just a fan who thinks differently to you FFS. 

PS The lego head quip actually made me smile.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

3 hours ago, gio1saints said:

Literally his last proper match at SMS he played brilliantly and scored a vital goal v WBA. He played well in the Final. Integral part of getting us up and “ one of our own”. 

He may well not be good enough and we will know after a fair number of gages - but 2??
You’re entitled to your option but claims of prophetic level foresight in the telling of is Will going to be good or not before a ball is kicked at this level for him or even after two matches are still laughable all the same. 

 incidentally : what did BBD and AA achieve all game except run a lot? How many shots did they Flynn and Joe manage - and on target ? How many defensive headers did THB win? Has AM turned into an EPL goalie cos he can actually save shots? Why doesn’t Sam Edozie shoot when he sees the goal? Why is KWP still the only player can run with the ball ( apart from Tyler) - are the rest still not up to EPL standard at doing this basic skill? 
You can pick on a lot of areas to criticise but to claim you chose Will as your fall guy BEFORE the season starts - and despite one meh and one very bad performance is still very strange - and very funny.🤣 

I'll make this easy for you. Smallbone, Armstrong, Stephens, Aribo, Edozie and McCarthy are Championship players. End of. None of them are getting into any other Premier League team bar us. Jury is out on THB, BBD and Sugra. Even Downes to a lesser extent. KWP is truly the only player that teams competing at our level, which is bottom half would seriously look at. We are a Championship team playing Premier League. 

[Saint_clark]

Just now, Lee On Solent Saint said:

I'll make this easy for you. Smallbone, Armstrong, Stephens, Aribo, Edozie and McCarthy are Championship players. End of. None of them are getting into any other Premier League team bar us. Jury is out on THB, BBD and Sugra. Even Downes to a lesser extent. KWP is truly the only player that teams competing at our level, which is bottom half would seriously look at. We are a Championship team playing Premier League. 

Careful. I said that I wasn't sure spending that much money on Downes, when we needed a goalscorer badly, made sense as he is still unproven in the Prem and got shouted down for it. 

[Lee On Solent Saint]

1 minute ago, Saint_clark said:

Careful. I said that I wasn't sure spending that much money on Downes, when we needed a goalscorer badly, made sense as he is still unproven in the Prem and got shouted down for it. 

He was outstanding for us last season, at times yesterday he was doing two jobs as Smallbone was so ineffective. 

[S-Clarke]

There was a lot of talk about this being the redemption from the Nathan Jones Forest Home masterclass, but that wasn't any better which took some doing.

I think there are a few players in our side who are top half Championship players, but poor PL players. There have been tons and tons of those players over the years, sadly we seem to be a bit littered with them.

I have confidence in Suguwara, KWP, Downes, THB etc as I think they've got the potential (but THB didn't help himself yesterday). Now we're sorting out GK, the area that is lacking any star quality is attack. In the Championship it's passable, but you need to have more about you at this level and we just don't have that.

We started the season at Sheffield Wednesday with forward options such as Tella, Edozie, Mara, Adams, Armstrong, Stu Armstrong, Sullemana, SAA, Moussa, Charly. We now have Edozie, Armstrong, BBD, SAA, Dibling, Sullemana and Archer. We're down on numbers and quality in that area.

We need an AMC (who can play across the 3) and a proper number 9 if we are to do anything this year. Sounds like the club agree though. The funds from Charly, ABK and Onuachu will help us get a few good level players into the club I hope.

[Saint_clark]

Just now, Lee On Solent Saint said:

He was outstanding for us last season, at times yesterday he was doing two jobs as Smallbone was so ineffective. 

He was. But the point I made was that he was outstanding at a job that we could get by with someone doing "just enough". We spent a lot of our budget on someone who isn't a match winner, and may not be up to doing the job he does in the Prem anyway.

Would have rather we went for Smodzic for example.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

2 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

He was. But the point I made was that he was outstanding at a job that we could get by with someone doing "just enough". We spent a lot of our budget on someone who isn't a match winner, and may not be up to doing the job he does in the Prem anyway.

Would have rather we went for Smodzic for example.

Agreed, but he was always going to be are number one target no matter what. I think he'll be fine, but he needs to play alongside players that are going to help him, rather than just recycle the ball backwards and forwards.

[Challenger]

SR said after promotion that they were not going to make the same mistakes regarding the last Premier League season.

I know it's only two games in but I see these negative tactics having the team rock bottom after a couple more games, and like last time remaining there.

[S-Clarke]

1 minute ago, Challenger said:

SR said after promotion that they were not going to make the same mistakes regarding the last Premier League season.

I know it's only two games in but I see these negative tactics having the team rock bottom after a couple more games, and like last time remaining there.

I think what they were referring to in that comment was our recruitment, and they were true to their word on that. We signed too many kids last time, this year we've gone for more of a balance - but we do still have some enormous holes lacking any decent quality, so still work to do.

[CanadaSaint]

Woke up today with steam still coming out of my ears.

I posted yesterday that we’re set up to adhere slavishly to Martin’s style, regardless of the game situation. EVERY ‘attack’ is required to start with risky interplay at the back. I lost count of the number of times yesterday that we “recycled” the ball back to Stephens, Bednarek and THB even when we had forward momentum and didn’t look like losing possession. And WTF was the rationale for playing two strikers on the touchlines, negating our wingbacks and leaving us target-less in the box?

It explains why his starting lineups include low-skill players who adhere to his style like robots, and have no place for creative mavericks who bring the attack-focused unpredictability we need. It’s no coincidence that we looked much better when he was forced to bring a couple on.

The only positive I can glean is from the start of last season. Martin was forced to make some significant changes after we were whacked by Championship teams that found us predictable and easy to play (and coach) against, and after we were embarrassed by Gillingham.

Fingers crossed for a shit-kicking at Cardiff.

[Lord Duckhunter]

1 hour ago, gio1saints said:

Sadly for me it’s going to be a lovely year for you and no doubt you will be posting gallons of your very funny, entertaining and oh so very clever negative poison after every defeat. Or if there is a Lord, you will stfu if we win and go back to the PFC forum where you can feel at home with your fish friends and still dis Saints, the club and its loyal support to your hearts content.

Fuck me, you need to calm down, it’s only Aug and your blood pressure must be through the roof. 
 

All I said was Adam Armstrong isn’t good enough, if that makes me a Skate there must have been a lot of skates in the Cricketers after the game. 
 

Adam Armstrong, Edozy, Smallbone, were woeful yesterday & I’ve seen enough of them to form the opinion they never will be good enough. BDD was poor, but I haven’t seen much of him (but haven’t been impressed with what I have seen). THB had a poor game, but he’s a good player. The stand outs for me were the little Japanese bloke, Downes & KWP.

As for Lego, his tactics in the second half at Newcastle were poor & his tactics yesterday were baffling. Taking the third best squad in the championship to promotion doesn’t give you a free pass to be tactically inept in the Premier league, not from me anyway. He needs to sort it out pronto. 

[DT]

It could be worse. We could have Brentford’s away kit

[gio1saints]

2 hours ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

I'll make this easy for you. Smallbone, Armstrong, Stephens, Aribo, Edozie and McCarthy are Championship players. End of. None of them are getting into any other Premier League team bar us. Jury is out on THB, BBD and Sugra. Even Downes to a lesser extent. KWP is truly the only player that teams competing at our level, which is bottom half would seriously look at. We are a Championship team playing Premier League. 

Thanks for your condescending remark.
No need to “ make it easy for me” because your opinion of who is a championship player is only yours and it’s not relevant to the discussion. 

However -  I know a negative person when I see non stop threads putting Saints down from them. As is the case with the OP. If it’s not RM it’s now AA and if neither of them it’s Jack or no doubt Will or others.
 

Try finding any post remotely positive and supportive of our team from him especially in bad times - but I don’t hold your breath.
 

So called fans who stay away but then pile in with the negative stuff the minute it does not look so rosy are rather contemptible in my book.
 

Exactly the sort of person you would never want to have in the trenches with you. Faint hearts bailing out minute it gets tough and the fastest to bitch about it too - eager to make themselves look clever as they diss the team the manager and the players - and those who support them frankly. 

Free country criticise at will. I will take umbrage at people taking cheap skate-like shots at the team I support.,
 

[Lord Duckhunter]

5 minutes ago, gio1saints said:

Thanks for your condescending remark.
No need to “ make it easy for me” because your opinion of who is a championship player is only yours and it’s not relevant to the discussion. 

However -  I know a negative person when I see non stop threads putting Saints down from them. As is the case with the OP. If it’s not RM it’s now AA and if neither of them it’s Jack or no doubt Will or others.
 

Try finding any post remotely positive and supportive of our team from him especially in bad times - but I don’t hold your breath.
 

So called fans who stay away but then pile in with the negative stuff the minute it does not look so rosy are rather contemptible in my book.
 

Exactly the sort of person you would never want to have in the trenches with you. Faint hearts bailing out minute it gets tough and the fastest to bitch about it too - eager to make themselves look clever as they diss the team the manager and the players - and those who support them frankly. 

Free country criticise at will. I will take umbrage at people taking cheap skate-like shots at the team I support.,
 

I’ll make it easy for you.

What a load of old pony.

[Long Shot]

13 minutes ago, gio1saints said:

Thanks for your condescending remark.
No need to “ make it easy for me” because your opinion of who is a championship player is only yours and it’s not relevant to the discussion. 

However -  I know a negative person when I see non stop threads putting Saints down from them. As is the case with the OP. If it’s not RM it’s now AA and if neither of them it’s Jack or no doubt Will or others.
 

Try finding any post remotely positive and supportive of our team from him especially in bad times - but I don’t hold your breath.
 

So called fans who stay away but then pile in with the negative stuff the minute it does not look so rosy are rather contemptible in my book.
 

Exactly the sort of person you would never want to have in the trenches with you. Faint hearts bailing out minute it gets tough and the fastest to bitch about it too - eager to make themselves look clever as they diss the team the manager and the players - and those who support them frankly. 

Free country criticise at will. I will take umbrage at people taking cheap skate-like shots at the team I support.,
 

Windbag

[Lee On Solent Saint]

23 minutes ago, gio1saints said:

Thanks for your condescending remark.
No need to “ make it easy for me” because your opinion of who is a championship player is only yours and it’s not relevant to the discussion. 

However -  I know a negative person when I see non stop threads putting Saints down from them. As is the case with the OP. If it’s not RM it’s now AA and if neither of them it’s Jack or no doubt Will or others.
 

Try finding any post remotely positive and supportive of our team from him especially in bad times - but I don’t hold your breath.
 

So called fans who stay away but then pile in with the negative stuff the minute it does not look so rosy are rather contemptible in my book.
 

Exactly the sort of person you would never want to have in the trenches with you. Faint hearts bailing out minute it gets tough and the fastest to bitch about it too - eager to make themselves look clever as they diss the team the manager and the players - and those who support them frankly. 

Free country criticise at will. I will take umbrage at people taking cheap skate-like shots at the team I support.,
 

You need to take off your red and white tinted glasses once in a while. You berate any fans that aren't happy clappy and dare to criticise the club in anyway, you are exactly the fan that Semmens was on about when he said we should be grateful for just being in the Premier League. My opinion on who is a Championship player and who is not is totally revelant to a discussion on a football forum about the team I support, so you can take you thinly disguised Pompey jibes and shove them up your arse. If calling out bad tactics and bad in game management makes me a negative supporter then I can live with that. I was treated to enough inept displays in our last Premier League season, so I was expecting us to at least have a go against a bang average Forest team. We offered nothing, did you honestly believe once we conceded that we were going to score? That's not being negative, its being realistic on what we were seeing out on the pitch. 

As a fan, did you enjoy our last relegation season? 

 

[SouSaint]

The formation yesterday was a weird one. The two forwards playing as wide men ensured the Forest CBs had an easy day. I'm not sure what the thinking was behind it but hopefully that will be binned off pretty quickly. 

[Roo1976]

4 hours ago, Badger said:

Need to buy a few upgrades  first 

what,you mean the right ones?.............

[Roo1976]

1 minute ago, SouSaint said:

The formation yesterday was a weird one. The two forwards playing as wide men ensured the Forest CBs had an easy day. I'm not sure what the thinking was behind it but hopefully that will be binned off pretty quickly. 

Bloody hope so ,but we have a stubborn manager and not so fluid plan Bs that we can turn to. Highlights i watched on MOTD we seemed disjointed and weak,Tactics need to change and quickly, otherwise the longer we go on without a sniff of a win or a draw, the tighter our play will feel and ,it starts to be transmitted to the fans. For me its early days and still work in progress,play the forwards as forwards and wingers as wingers,simple right?...............COYS.

[Whitey Grandad]

27 minutes ago, Roo1976 said:

Bloody hope so ,but we have a stubborn manager and not so fluid plan Bs that we can turn to. Highlights i watched on MOTD we seemed disjointed and weak,Tactics need to change and quickly, otherwise the longer we go on without a sniff of a win or a draw, the tighter our play will feel and ,it starts to be transmitted to the fans. For me its early days and still work in progress,play the forwards as forwards and wingers as wingers,simple right?...............COYS.

And believe me, those were the highlights. Both of them.

[CB Fry]

1 hour ago, gio1saints said:

Thanks for your condescending remark.
No need to “ make it easy for me” because your opinion of who is a championship player is only yours and it’s not relevant to the discussion. 

However -  I know a negative person when I see non stop threads putting Saints down from them. As is the case with the OP. If it’s not RM it’s now AA and if neither of them it’s Jack or no doubt Will or others.
 

Try finding any post remotely positive and supportive of our team from him especially in bad times - but I don’t hold your breath.
 

So called fans who stay away but then pile in with the negative stuff the minute it does not look so rosy are rather contemptible in my book.
 

Exactly the sort of person you would never want to have in the trenches with you. Faint hearts bailing out minute it gets tough and the fastest to bitch about it too - eager to make themselves look clever as they diss the team the manager and the players - and those who support them frankly. 

Free country criticise at will. I will take umbrage at people taking cheap skate-like shots at the team I support.,
 

Jesus wept.

[Ambsaint]

The 5-3-2 we played to win the playoffs worked fine and surpised West Brom and Leeds. Led to (nearly) no given away goals. Fair play to RM but he did not play this for the previous rest of the Champ season. Clearly it worked for those 3 games, to the point I was quite relaxed 5 mins from the end for the first time in my life.

Prem, well to be fair he's trying it, but possession football to the extent he wants it is surely madness.

5-3-2 makes no sense for us, I'd much prefer 5-4-1 (if you are serious about getting a few defended points). Don't really care what we do at home, with the new DM addition I'd say a standard 4-2-3-1  and hope for the best - we really don't have a Prem team so need to defend every game for our lives and hope to nick points. Obviously the usual standard tactic is to counter, can work, but if we insist playing tip tap all day we'll lose the majority of games.

Will Smallbone is possibly ok as a link in a midfield 4-5-1 but otherwise not at all, JS as a sub at best etc. We really can't afford to play passengers, this is the Prem league.

 

 

[gio1saints]

2 hours ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

You need to take off your red and white tinted glasses once in a while. You berate any fans that aren't happy clappy and dare to criticise the club in anyway, you are exactly the fan that Semmens was on about when he said we should be grateful for just being in the Premier League. My opinion on who is a Championship player and who is not is totally revelant to a discussion on a football forum about the team I support, so you can take you thinly disguised Pompey jibes and shove them up your arse. If calling out bad tactics and bad in game management makes me a negative supporter then I can live with that. I was treated to enough inept displays in our last Premier League season, so I was expecting us to at least have a go against a bang average Forest team. We offered nothing, did you honestly believe once we conceded that we were going to score? That's not being negative, its being realistic on what we were seeing out on the pitch. 

As a fan, did you enjoy our last relegation season? 

 

Who is talking last relegation season? Not me. Think you are answering wrong thread. 
 

I was discussing @Lord Duckhunter undisguised contempt for our Club, our manager and currently AA. 

Im happy to criticise the club the manager and players and the style -  my posting history shows it - but equally I will argue the case if criticism is unfair or frankly just being negative for the sake of it. Dont know about you but anyone bad mouths my club unfairly I  question it. 
 

My point is with supporters like @Lord Duckhunterwho the hell needs enemies!  Cannot say a positive word about the club- at all. Ever. Refute his crap as I have and now I’ve become part of the problem also! 

Oh - and you mistake red and white glasses for having an objective pov. Call it bad when it’s bad but ffs don’t go on and on and on about it in 199 times


 

 

Edited August 25 by gio1saints

[Lee On Solent Saint]

1 hour ago, gio1saints said:

Who is talking last relegation season? Not me. Think you are answering wrong thread. 
 

I was discussing @Lord Duckhunter undisguised contempt for our Club, our manager and currently AA. 

Im happy to criticise the club the manager and players and the style -  my posting history shows it - but equally I will argue the case if criticism is unfair or frankly just being negative for the sake of it. Dont know about you but anyone bad mouths my club unfairly I  question it. 
 

My point is with supporters like @Lord Duckhunterwho the hell needs enemies!  Cannot say a positive word about the club- at all. Ever. Refute his crap as I have and now I’ve become part of the problem also! 

Oh - and you mistake red and white glasses for having an objective pov. Call it bad when it’s bad but ffs don’t go on and on and on about it in 199 times


 

 

After sitting through yesterday's game, I think the criticism shared on here is not unjust in the slightest. Yesterday was every bit as worse as we've seen under Jones and Selles when we were last here. I don't think it is negative to say we got beat by a bang average team who are likely to be bottom six come the end of the season. That for me is the biggest concern. RM talks about being brave and having a go this year, but there was nothing brave in that performance.