Chelsea v Saints Saturday 16/12/17 KO 3.00pm.

Get rid of Eric Black.

I don't think Redmond should play at all.

The problem is that both Boufal and Tadić are best on the left. Tadić is also good in the middle, he himself said that he prefers that position and it is also where he plays (and very well) in the national team. So we can compromise and put Boufal on the left and Tadić in the middle. The best option for the right wing is JWP, even if we include all of his many limitations. But much better option would be to buy the damn right winger. And then you have the defence sorted, you play two of HOjbjerg/Romeu/Lemina in the central midfield and striker up front. This team should easily be top half of the table with a competent manager.

So in january a right winger and a competent manager.

 

Statistics would say we'll be in the bottom 3 come the end of December. The new year fight back up the table starts against Palace. Good job they're crap! gulp!

Nah, we'll beat Utd!

 

We've needed a right winger since we sold Chamberlain. If there's one thing I am very confident on, it's that we will not be signing a right winger next month.

 

Nah they have Lukaku, our nemesis

 

He should just admit he's failed big time and walk but like the rest of them he'll hang in there for the big pay off. Nice job if you can get it.

 

I listened to the match on the BBC World Service, and from the commentary point of view, the Saints challenge was rather tame against a Chelsea team that performed well within themselves as they were not really forced to up their game at all. Something has to change, and it needs to be soon or else we are visiting the likes of Wigan, Sheffield Wednesday and Millwall next season. We know the last time SFC went down, it took 7 seasons to regain PL status, so if relegation comes it is unlikely to be an immediate bounceback.

 

you can't bring out the best in a player without a system that will bring the best out of them. i've said this before but i don't believe in 'best' players, just players best suited to a system. if the system suits them, they play well. right now we have a mix of players that really hard to get anything out of. we are good defensively, but only really have Boufal and Long who can counter and make use of that. we have several players who can cross but only Austin to get on the end of them and a manager who doesn't play like that and 2 strikers who like balls through the middle and no AM to do it.

Playing to players and managers strengths is , IMO, the most important thing and what we're not doing.

Sacking the manager isn't some magical solution to this problem.

 

One last thing - there’s just no joy in the way we play right now. There’s no fizz in the players. It’s prescriptive and grim.

 

Could be worse than just the bottom three. Hell, it's not unthinkable that in two days time, we'll only be three points off the bottom! And that's before we deal with the back end of December!

 

If there is a change of manager, what about the Aberdeen guy who turned down Rangers? Or even Murty himself. I am sure either of these guys would be able to motivate the players better than MP2 is currently able to.

 

I disagree I’m afraid. Tadic can play that 10 position just fine. We can cross low, near post crosses (which Gabbi thrives on). We can look up more for channel runs. We can take players on. We can stop the first thought screaming “safety”. We can be braver. We can push players to believe in their ability more. We can give players more freedom to express themselves.

We do none of that.

 

Btw Van Dijk was dropped because Pellegrino said he isn't committed enough.

 

That's good from Pellegrino.

 

We DO play like that though. We've put in the second highest number of crosses in the league this year. Thing is, Austin is the only striker we have who can be effective in that system and for whatever reason he hasn't had that many minutes on the pitch.

Completely agree about players suiting the system though, which has been my point about Austin all season. As a striker he suits the way we play far more than Gabbiadini does, even if Gabbiadini is in many ways a better player. I would still like to see a pretty fluid three of Tadic (left), Boufal (central) and Gabbiadini (right) playing behind Austin.

 

Then you look at how Leicester played against us and you see all those attributes being used the very same manager who couldn't get them out of our players.

 

Replace Gabbiadini for Prowse and thats my formation. most of our players suit that the best for sure imo. its how i would play if i was manager.

 

But you’re asking for someone who can cut in and shoot? That would be Gabbi. He has a wand of a left foot.

 

when the going gets tough, sack the ma

but we did beat West Brom!

 

We needed a fresh start in the summer. Things had gone stale and there was all this malcontent that we would hear whispers of going on behind the scenes. We needed to freshen up the attack...I mean, we've needed to do that for several seasons now...but all we did was sell JRod. We needed to allow the new manager to bring in his own staff regardless of whether the coaches have been in any way to blame, we needed a fresh start. I've never had a good feeling about Black, but that's just a feeling that goes along with the rumours. It seems like the board got the manager wrong too, but we never lifted that gloomy cloud from last season. I don't care if the players look like they're in high spirits, playing games in the dressing room, they can get on and be friends,...but having several senior players that obviously want out isn't really a great foundation to start on, even if their performances aren't directly the problem. Nothing really seems to have changed except the face on the sideline. And yet despite all these failings, we should still be doing a hell of a lot better than we are. We have a stronger squad than last season with less games to play.

I don't know where you go from here really. My personal feeling is that we need big changes, but I'm not sure January is the time for that...the summer was, and early in the summer too. We need to have a significant transfer window regardless. I generally am not a fan of short termism. But maybe we need a manager just to keep us up and then start completely from fresh in the summer.

 

And a Merry Christmas to you too.