Match Day Thread WBA v Saints. Saturday 3rd Feb 3pm.

I may be alone here, I may not, but I've thought since probably September that we'd be in trouble this season. And that's not gloating because I wish I was wrong, but the reason I thought that is because we've never had a defined style of play or any real threat. This hasn't changed and that to me is the fault of the manager and the board. I think a lot of this falls at the manager but the board are heavily involved in our downward spiral too.

They should have identified this at the end of last season when we were on the down (five 0-0 home draws in a row!!!!!!). They didn't get what we needed in the summer player wise, or manager wise in my opinion. I feel sorry for MP because he's inherited a squad that isn't good enough, a crowd that were already negative and a board lacking the ambition and will to strengthen where we needed. Van Dijk hasn't helped, but I think that's probably an easy excuse. And the sale of the club hasn't helped either, we've hardly seen the owner, not heard from him and there's rumours about his intentions/lack of funding.

Moral of the story, the whole ****ing thing is a mess.

Anyway, away from home tomorrow may help the players nerves and I have everything crossed for a win. I think we need our points from now until the end of March because April and May will be too tough I think.

 

Of course, it must have been a **** Everton side, and nothing to do with us just clicking that day...

 

Who else would he have used?

Gabbi started the season and did next to nothing also...

 

I don't believe the new owners don't care. It's a huge investment to make and just watch it go down. It must be in their interests to keep us in the PL, but they always probably planned to leave the football side of it to the incumbent board. I think they didn't plan to make any further investment so close to buying the club....we have always looked a nice safe mid-table team and could be left to grow nicely. Can't see them being happy at all.

 

I dont, otherwise they could have got rid in Dec or first week of Jan.

I seriously think there is a good manager in there, we need a little luck to change, win a couple, stay up and I think he will im;prove massively, providing he is cirrectly supported in the market.

Im not being funny, the team he inherited is pretty ****, Redmond has always been pretty poor, I never totally got the Gabbi love, I think he has strengths, but they dont suit what the manager wants to play, and we have other poor performers throughout the team. We sold JRod and loaned Gallagher (which I assume the manager authorised), but it wasnt him who failed to replace them.

 

True, we did click. But why have we failed to click since? Have we not watched replay after replay to see what we did right and build on it? Every time we put in a good performance (Nov) I think 'right, this is the start of the upturn'. It doesn't happen.

 

It was meant in jest, must remember the blue font.

 

Seriously? I think you are alone on this one. He has not demonstrated any tactical nous, dropped players performing well, persisted with poor players, not ordering us to kill of games.

Yes the squad is not great but not relegation material. If we had a Dych, Hodgeson or Howe do you really think we would be where we are?

 

To be fair to MP2 he's realised fans moan a lot about is useless substitutions so he has addressed this by naming a useless starting 11 and then when he makes changes he gets praised for it. Genius

 

Fair points, and none of us truly know the answer to why.

I prefer to still believe...

 

I may well be alone, time will tell. Even if I didnt believe he were good enough, I certainly dont believe I would be as vocal and unreasonable as many on here (not necessarily saying you btw).

We could very well be worse off with those.

Dyche will struggle next year and Burnley I believe will be in trouble. For me, they could be one of the first to sack their Manager.

Hodgson - didnt England lose to Bejams?

Howe - only last couple of games have they clicked and may still end up in the ****...

 

Tried playing two Strikers or Shane out wide maybe?, Shane up top on his own was never going to threaten goals.

 

We have a league win % of 16%. Lowest ever, lower than Portveilt. 12% lower than ian ****ing branfoot. If we must keep him then we needed to back him, which we haven't really done. Can anyone tell me of a manager with a lower win % in the PL era- for any team?

My point about other managers- they are getting more out of poorer squads.

 

Yet if his plan is one striker, he maybe didnt want to use two? To be fair, the two attacking players either side could have been supporting more.

 

Pellegrino has got the worst win percentage of any Saints Manager in the modern era, fans have a right to voice concerns.

 

Dont know about stats and not really interested that much tbh.

The club gave him a **** hand (as they did with Puel) and they havent backed him either. Id argue its harder for him that Puel this season also.

The other managers - Dyche has done better - maybe they just had one of those seasons - let's pick that one up in 12 months, the others are hardly playing like Barca are they, and they are both still in the **** as far as I can see...

 

To my mind, you always need at least one natural goalscorer in a team, Shane has never been that.

 

He's had it easier than Puel in regards to fixtures and injuries IMO.

 

I agree, but his options are severely limited. I only ever play Shane as a last resort as a sub, kind of like when you play the big lump of a defender up top with 5 mins to go to chase a win in the old days. Isnt really his fault he doesnt have striking options until 2 games ago, and even then the club barely helped him.

 

Not sure I agree - he barely had VVD available for one reason or another and he was super disruptive. Puel had him for half a season.

Others have had niggles this season (Cedric, Bertie, Lemina). They may have played less games this year, but Puel declined in performances as they games were less congested.