Match Day Thread Southampton vs Everton 26/11/17 1:30PM KO - Embarrassment on National TV Edition

My confidence is now ebbing away like the sand in an egg timer. Yesterday I was sure we would beat Everton, a team that couldn't defend or score....especially after a humiliating Europa match. Now I can see that Everton must be due a win....especially after a humiliating Europa match.

And as we keep being informed that luck doesn't exist (by miserable gits who should keep their common sense to themselves on a football forum), we can't even hope for that.

 

They've forgotten 17.00 hr manager sacked/carried round pitch on players' shoulders (delete as applicable).

 

Time for a Gabbi birthday hat trick.

The rest of you can join in when you like,,,,though I see that is only Beddy at the moment.

 

The club probably aren't sure which team's manager will get which treatment/accolade

 

Matchday myself and Mrs SR are having breakfast with my mum then off to st Mary's to watch us win 2-0

 

I want to be apathetic about this match, but I really can't be bothered (Probably stolen from a 'Round The Horne' programme, or one of a similar vintage)

 

I'd like to have apathy, but being a football fan doesn't really allow for that. Apathy is just a pretend shell we put round ourselves....whilst inside we die a little each day.

 

Players not being very good has never been a reason to leave them out, up to now

 

One thing that has occurred to me is that no matter how well/lucky we play today, whether we blow Everton away with our intricate interpassing, or we get a flukey own goal, we are still faced with playing Man City away on Wednesday.

Smile and cheer up, they said - things could get worse. So I smiled and cheered up, and things got worse.

 

I have just read this article by Rod Liddle in today's Sunday Times. I know I am breaching copyright but I like to think Murdoch has a touch of sympathy in his cold heart for our club. Any way having read it I reached for the cyanide pill the very lovely Mrs Godders has put out for me for use at the end of today's game.

"There are not many reliable indicators of relegation — real life always tends to confound the stats and of course teams change their shape over the course of the season. Some get better, some get worse. Southampton have been getting worse for quite a while. Their only recent win was secured with an 85th-minute goal against a demoralised West Brom side, and it came a month ago.
Before the start of play yesterday they sat in a fairly respectable 14th place, with only one point fewer than they had acquired at this time last season. But that feeling of comfort may be delusional. The trajectory has been obstinately downward and my bet is that this will continue to be the case — they were my outside tip for relegation at the start of the season.
The reason for their problems now is an ominous one, the single statistic which really does have a direct correlation to success and failure: shooting accuracy. They are the worst in the league, and by some margin, with only 21% of their shots hitting the target. Yes, that’s lower than Crystal Palace and Swansea. A shooting accuracy of below about 30% tends to mean a struggle against relegation. The mid-table teams usually score somewhere in the early to mid 30s, those at the top around 40%.
Of course statistics are not unerring and, as I say, things can change. But at the moment Southampton seem to be doing a fairly convincing impression of Middlesbrough last season. They are boring, largely competent in defence, they play most of their football in the middle of the pitch — neatly, precisely, and to not the slightest effect — and they fail to score. Just nine this season so far and, according to the statisticians, only 10 decent chances carved out. Imitating Middlesbrough is not a recipe for Premier League success. Like the Boro last time out, the Saints can kid themselves that safety must surely be achieved because of their comparatively healthy goal-difference. Aitor Karanka was still sticking to that line even when he got sacked. And Boro, who were truly negative, had a shooting accuracy of 28%. Outgunned by Middlesbrough!
All of this is a bit of a shame because for a fair few seasons Southampton were the club newly-promoted sides yearned to emulate. Steady progress, great youth set-up, top-eight finishes year after year. But it is easy to see what’s gone wrong. For a couple of seasons the Saints were regularly plundered by the top six. The best players departed with a regularity which must have depressed supporters: how they could do with, say, Adam Lallana right now. Paradoxically, you might think, the last transfer window was less harmful to Southampton than those which preceded it. But that’s because the really bright prospects had already departed and there were few left to pillage. The major exit in the summer was the French manager Claude Puel, fired for the crime of hoisting the Saints to their previously habitual berth of eighth place. You wonder what the fans and the board expected. The Champions League?"
And here’s the other point: no team in the history of the Premier League has been through more managers than Southampton. They are cheerfully cast off with a shrug of the shoulders, another fairly reliable indicator of long-term failure. Meanwhile, Puel is pushing Leicester City back up the table: I will bet you a tenner that the Foxes finish above the Saints this season. It is less than a decade since Southampton were in the third tier. There is no law that I know of which stops them from being there again, looking wistfully upwards at whoever is currently eighth in the Premier League and wondering what went wrong.
Today they take on Everton, who are also boring and also have a shooting accuracy of below 30%. As they will tell you around the Gwladys Street End, no club has enjoyed more seasons in the top tier than Everton —114 since 1888. And only Arsenal have survived more consecutive seasons in the top flight than the Toffees’ 63.
During that time they have occasionally flirted with the bottom three, in a rather coquettish manner, but this season are doing so with rather more resolve. They are missing Romelu Lukaku badly, as well as a sense of purpose. I wouldn’t expect a thrilling goalfest today. I would expect instead a certain chill and nervousness as, for these two comparatively big clubs, a certain realisation dawns among the supporters and the players. You are never too big to go down."

 

I'm older than Gabbiadini. This is not acceptable.

 

Think this might be the first time since 2009 I've not really looked forward to going to the football ... sad, really.

 

I think both sets of fans will be approaching this game with trepidation.

My one glamour of hope is that we have edged out poorly performing teams to win this year (Palace, West Ham, WBA) & it seems likely Lemina will start !

 

But at least you were smiling.

 

in the history of the Premier League has been through more managers than Southampton. They are cheerfully cast off with a shrug of the shoulders, another fairly reliable indicator of long-term failure.

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Harsh. We were once happy, but someone else caught the eye, not long after hotel meetings, then the relationship was dead. Again, harsh.

 

Ok. That is worryingly accurate.

Match day. I have decided to go to the game. I shall approach it as a game, a chance for 3 points. Liverpool forgotten. Man City ages away. Puel forgotten.

The crowd need to turn up today. Anyone thinking of watching on tv? Pick yourself up, dust off. Make your way down to st marys. COYR!

 

Bit too harsh to blame us for casting off managers...2 left us for other clubs...we would happily have kept Poch and Koeman. The sackings of Adkins and Puel were harsh....the first was due to ambition and the second was due to changes brewing at the club and panic. I find it hard to believe that we would be in a worst position under Claude....not because he is better than MP2 (jury out on that), but because we would be more settled and the team would have knuckled down knowing they had another season with Puel and they might as well get on with it.

I think the team is demoralised. If we had scored a few more goals at the beginning of the season, team confidence would have meant we carried on doing it. I think they don't expect to score and so have are fulfilling the prophecy. And we lack the player who would give them a clip round the ear and shout at them.....used to be Fonte.

 

Match day. Thank **** the footy is on cos cricket is ****.

 

I thought that.