Jack Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 (edited) 8 hours ago, Midfield_General said: In a season full of increasingly weird statements and decisions, this Smallbone thing is starting to look like one of the weirdest. I've got nothing against him as a competent, tidy enough Championship midfielder, and he played Armstrong through for the play-off winner of course so he'll always have a tiny bit of Saints history for that, but who, who has actually watched him play at Premier League level, looks at him and thinks "I feel so much better when he's on the pitch", let alone actually vocalises that thought, and let alone a professional manager? I don't doubt that Will's a great lad to have around the place. The more limited players usually are because they know they've got way fewer options elsewhere, so they have to try and hang onto their places in as many other ways as possible. But beyond that it's so hard to see any form of rational justification for that sort of glowing tribute. He doesn't really run, doesn't tackle, doesn't win headers, has got a reasonable eye for a pass but isn't exactly Pirlo, doesn't score many, doesn't really track back. It's baffling. It's Elyonoussi all over again. Even if we mere mortals can't see it, what would his stats show that RM Is so impressed by? It can only be racking up short, safe, sideways passes to drive up that all-important possession %. I literally can't think of anything else. JWP had his limitations but had something of a trump card in being worth 10 goals a season from free-kicks. Aribo will also never be the greatest but he has had some good spells (he was excellent first half against Leicester for example), is increasingly getting stuck in and winning physical battles, has good close control to retain the ball and can play out of some really tight situations. I just don't see what Will's 'thing' is meant to be. I do think that maybe RM is running out of ideas now that his only style of play has been found wanting, and now he's falling back on 'the lads he can trust', so those are the ones he's bigging up ahead of the inevitable backlash when he puts them in the team over better players. Trust to do what though, I'm not sure, because the ones who seem to fall into that category (and we all know who they are) are the ones who have been proven time and again not to be up to the required standard. Very odd indeed. I think at this point he realises he’s too far out of his depth and wants to get paid off, and is just trolling us. Edited October 25 by Jack 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trousers Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 3 minutes ago, Suhari said: I fully expect JS and WS to start tomorrow. Smallbone is injured and not in contention 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warsash saint Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 (edited) I am one of the mad 3000 Saints fans making the 9 hour round trip tomorrow - I think I will do the Poznan the 90 minutes & stand with back to pitch 🙈 Edited October 25 by warsash saint 2 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toussaint Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 38 minutes ago, trousers said: Smallbone is injured and not in contention Phew, we wouldn’t want Pep poaching Russ’s secret weapon in January. Best keep him concealed from the big gun predators! 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lighthouse Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 50 minutes ago, warsash saint said: I am one of the mad 3000 Saints fans making the 9 hour round trip tomorrow - I think I will do the Poznan the 90 minutes & stand with back to pitch 🙈 For the price of travel and a match ticket at the Etihad, you could fly to actual Poznan and have a much, much nicer weekend. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turkish Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 2 hours ago, Pamplemousse said: I see in his press conference, Pep said that RM shouldn't change anything and defended his stubborn game plan. Classic. would you want us to change anything if you were playing us tomorrow? 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holmes_and_Watson Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 11 minutes ago, Turkish said: would you want us to change anything if you were playing us tomorrow? Another go at the U formation, for a laugh. Pep will be happy putting Pep-lite to the sword. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Munster Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 2 hours ago, Pamplemousse said: ABK clearly doesn't want to play for us. Even though he said the opposite at the beginning of the season? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
franniesTache Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 Interesting injury for Smallbone 😳 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suhari Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 1 hour ago, trousers said: Smallbone is injured and not in contention Thank fuck for that. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suhari Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 9 minutes ago, franniesTache said: Interesting injury for Smallbone 😳 He bends over backwards to please RM in training. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneMrsWallace Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 6 hours ago, Midfield_General said: Just watched the press conference. RM: "We just have to keep on doing what we're doing". What, losing. 2 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaintsBarry74 Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 Today is 5 years ago that we broke our 0-9 cherry. Tomorrow we face Man City. Good times. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suhari Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 8 minutes ago, SaintsBarry74 said: Today is 5 years ago that we broke our 0-9 cherry. Tomorrow we face Man City. Good times. If we start on the back foot and concede a couple early, based on defensive errors, it could be double figures. Our team is weaker now than when we had either of the 0-9s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry_SFC Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 (edited) Taylor, SAA, Wood, Edwards and BBD all playing for the Under 21s. Taylor playing is a bit of a shock. Personally think he should be playing at left back tomorrow! Goes to show we signed some real poor players in the summer. Edited October 25 by Harry_SFC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davefizzy14 Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 (edited) 3 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said: Taylor, SAA, Wood, Edwards and BBD all playing for the Under 21s. Taylor playing is a bit of a shock. Personally think he should be playing at left back tomorrow! I don't understand Charlie Taylor playing for the under 21s tonight. He should be starting tomorrow in my opinion. Edited October 25 by davefizzy14 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holmes_and_Watson Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 2 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said: Taylor, SAA, Wood, Edwards and BBD all playing for the Under 21s. Taylor playing is a bit of a shock. Personally think he should be playing at left back tomorrow! Stephens is available, and will be first on RM's list for that left back/3rd centre back position. 🙂 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaintNewForest Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 21 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said: Taylor, SAA, Wood, Edwards and BBD all playing for the Under 21s. Taylor playing is a bit of a shock. Personally think he should be playing at left back tomorrow! Goes to show we signed some real poor players in the summer. That's a damning assessment of our summer recruitment. Just shocking. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davefizzy14 Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 (edited) I can understand BBD, Edwards and Wood playing tonight and they need game time ahead of the cup game next week. But Charlie Taylor should be starting tomorrow. Really can't understand this one. Edited October 25 by davefizzy14 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coalman Posted October 25 Author Share Posted October 25 4 hours ago, trousers said: Smallbone is injured and not in contention I struggle to believe that. It's not like he has to do any running 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 (edited) In January 2023 we beat them in the league cup, unbelievable to think we managed that, look at the teams: https://www.11v11.com/matches/southampton-v-manchester-city-11-january-2023-378129/ only KWP and Adam Armstrong (starting) and Aribo (bench) are the only players from that squad that are available to play tomorrow. Our last PL point against them came in January 2022 in a 1-1 draw https://www.11v11.com/matches/southampton-v-manchester-city-22-january-2022-373450/ only KWP and Bednarek remain from the starting line up and Stephens and Armstrong from the bench. I remember thinking we were good value for the point that day. We seem to have fallen a long way from that in a relatively short period of time. Edited October 25 by Green Error 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaintsBarry74 Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 No more fucking about, lets just smash these. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint86 Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 1 hour ago, Green said: In January 2023 we beat them in the league cup, unbelievable to think we managed that, look at the teams: https://www.11v11.com/matches/southampton-v-manchester-city-11-january-2023-378129/ only KWP and Adam Armstrong (starting) and Aribo (bench) are the only players from that squad that are available to play tomorrow. Our last PL point against them came in January 2022 in a 1-1 draw https://www.11v11.com/matches/southampton-v-manchester-city-22-january-2022-373450/ only KWP and Bednarek remain from the starting line up and Stephens and Armstrong from the bench. I remember thinking we were good value for the point that day. We seem to have fallen a long way from that in a relatively short period of time. We should have won at the etihad. Should have been a penalty and 10men. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldandtired Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 5 hours ago, Turkish said: would you want us to change anything if you were playing us tomorrow? With one point from eight games obviously not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vectraman Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 I’m guessing that it’ll be back to 5 at the back. As Jack’s back. If Sugawara is injured I’d hope something like.. Ramsdale KWP. Bednarek. THB. Stephens. Taylor Aribo. Downes. Lallana. Fernandes Archer Lallana off and tall Paul on after 60 mins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaintNewForest Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 20 minutes ago, vectraman said: I’m guessing that it’ll be back to 5 at the back. As Jack’s back. If Sugawara is injured I’d hope something like.. Ramsdale KWP. Bednarek. THB. Stephens. Taylor Aribo. Downes. Lallana. Fernandes Archer Lallana off and tall Paul on after 60 mins. No chance. Taylor played for the u21s tonight so he won't be involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarberSaint Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 Well we know he likes the KWP/Manning combo so it'll be Capn Jack on the bench to start and then: Ramsdale Sugawara Janny B Harwood-Bellis KWP Downes Manning Dibling Aribo Fernandes Archer Subs - a number of people Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Master Bates Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 (edited) "Man City are at risk of going nine Premier League home games without a clean sheet for the first time in their history." Sounds a Saintsy thing for us to do. Saints win 1 0 / 2 1 Edited October 25 by Master Bates Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry_SFC Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 I'd actually go for the same side that started against Leicester. Looked pretty solid until RM started making the changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatlesaint Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 (edited) 4 hours ago, davefizzy14 said: I can understand BBD, Edwards and Wood playing tonight and they need game time ahead of the cup game next week. But Charlie Taylor should be starting tomorrow. Really can't understand this one. He’s sticking with Manning isn’t he? Or doubling up with the ever reliable Manning/Stephens combo. Perhaps the idea is for Haaland to be laughing so hard he misses chance after chance that we present him on a plate. Edited October 25 by beatlesaint 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vectraman Posted October 25 Share Posted October 25 1 hour ago, SaintNewForest said: No chance. Taylor played for the u21s tonight so he won't be involved. Ah that buggers that line up then!! Worryingly looks like Manning at left back then…. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HKsaint Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/czxvd4rzy2eo envy those teams have big centre forwards. Although we have Tall Paul, sadly he doesn’t suit our system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Munster Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 4 hours ago, HKsaint said: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/czxvd4rzy2eo envy those teams have big centre forwards. Although we have Tall Paul, sadly he doesn’t suit our system. Our system doesn’t really suit any players. 1 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farmer Saint Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 15 hours ago, franniesTache said: Interesting injury for Smallbone 😳 Think the whole team may have that injury after today's match... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiberalCommunist Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 We’ll have a perfect ref today. So that will be nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint Scott Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 53 minutes ago, LiberalCommunist said: We’ll have a perfect ref today. So that will be nice. Nice to see Anthony Taylor has been awarded the biggest game of the weekend after last week's performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Behind Enemy Lines Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 (edited) Last time I met Pep, I asked him that once they go 5-0 up against us, please take off all their main attacking players and play some kids, and they’d still win by 6 or 7. I got a smile as we shock hands. Not sure if that was a yeah ok, no problem smile, or a no way, we want to smash the record smile! Time will tell sadly 😂 Edited October 26 by Behind Enemy Lines Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BranfootsLoveChild Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 So.....as I see it...Martin and the board will see this game as "a free hit". We will lose. Martin will keep his job (again) as there's no way we can beat City. Another week goes by. Another game less to save our season. It's all gone to shit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Challenger Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 Apparently every Saints fan will find a free gift on their seat today that they can take home with them. What use an Abacus will be at home is an issue of debate, but it's the thought which counts. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr X Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 Good morning on this fine day! Russ says he is looking forward to starting Stephens in a hugely influential defensive role! 💪 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristopheVAFC Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 Hello friends, on this match day, I hope you get your 1st win of the season. Of course it won't be easy against Manchester City, but I sincerely wish you a positive result this afternoon. Let's go Saint's ! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coalman Posted October 26 Author Share Posted October 26 5 hours ago, Dark Munster said: Our system doesn’t really suit any players. Leicester and others may disagree with that 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coalman Posted October 26 Author Share Posted October 26 Today's team selection. Draw a circle. Write Jack Stephens in the middle. Put Ryan Manning somewhere randomly leftish. Then arrange the rest of you team around them making sure to ignore any players in form. Simples. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint Fan CaM Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 12 minutes ago, coalman said: Today's team selection. Draw a circle. Write Jack Stephens in the middle. Put Ryan Manning somewhere randomly leftish. Then arrange the rest of you team around them making sure to ignore any players in form. Simples. Sad thing is, that’s probably a fair summary of RM’s thought process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypochondriac Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 Ramsdale Sugawara/kwp Bednarek THB Stephens Manning Downes Aribo Dibling Fernandes Archer Is something like that most likely? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coalman Posted October 26 Author Share Posted October 26 Just now, hypochondriac said: Ramsdale Sugawara/kwp Bednarek THB Stephens Manning Downes Aribo Dibling Fernandes Archer Is something like that most likely? That does seem like the selection best designed to keep the ball in our own half for as much of the game as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Duckhunter Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 It won’t be 9. It would be if they needed 9, but it’ll be a routine 3 or 4 as they’ve got 2 away games in 4 days so will want to get the job done with the minimum of effort. Like Arsenal I suspect we’ll put on a better show than expected, as the pressures off and professional pride will also kick in. If we’re still off the bottom by the end of the weekend, it will have been a good one. If we’re still only 3 points behind 17th it’ll be a great one, and if Lego head is sacked Sunday it’ll be a fantastic one. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint lard Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 My rare weekend off work.……no doubt the twats at the club will see it royally fucked up as soon as the starting 11 is announced. cunts. 🤷🏻♂️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 1 hour ago, coalman said: Today's team selection. Draw a circle. Write Jack Stephens in the middle. Put Ryan Manning somewhere randomly leftish. Then arrange the rest of you team around them making sure to ignore any players in form. Simples. …take off any remaining in form players around the 60-70 minute mark, regardless of situation. Replace with Championship level dross. Concede further goals. Complete capitulation by conceding late goal from undefended set play to edge of box. Praise performance. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miltonaggro Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 7 minutes ago, Jack said: …take off any remaining in form players around the 60-70 minute mark, regardless of situation. Replace with Championship level dross. Concede further goals. Complete capitulation by conceding late goal from undefended set play to edge of box. Praise performance. Will be - Stunning and brave… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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