Nor do we get to play any more Championship sides. We may want to cheer for WBA to pick up some points in their next four matches, actually. They play Swansea and Newcastle in April, and Palace on the final day of the season...chances are they'll be relegated before that final match, but it wouldn't hurt if they had something to play for against the Swans/Toon.
If we are going to continue this draw-fest, I guess we could survive with two wins, five draws, and three defeats to Chelsea, Arsenal and City. That puts us on exactly 38 points. And would surely be a record for most draws in one 38-game season. But it's also very eggs-in-one-basket. (And still might not be enough.) Three wins is surely the realistic option, plus X number of draws. And yes, if we come out of our three March games with less than two of those three wins, then the smart money has to be on Championship football next season. (They'll surely be no way back with zero wins from March, whilst just the one would give us a small mountain to climb).
Yeah, the current record for draws (since the PL went to 38 games) is 17; five draws in ten will make us the new champions. Last year's leader in draws in La Liga? Alaves. That might not be a coincidence, heh.
West Brom's home support was excellent last week, and only got louder when they went behind. At half time, the bloke next to me pointed out "if this was St Marys and we were a goal down, our fans would have booed the players off". Couldn't argue with him. West Brom were **** 2nd half too, for the most part, but it didn't stop their fans trying to lift them.
In the old relegation scraps, going a goal down was more dangerous as that roused us. Now it just makes people groan and moan about how crap MP2 is and how Les Reed should be shot etc. Booing does nothing. Cheering and encouragement, may actually get a goal or two.
The tough thing about being in charge of a football team (or any sports team tbf) is that you are judged on current form. In any other business, past good years can be carried over to the fallow years. The Saints board have had a couple of dodgy years, but in a business where mistakes really bite you....expensive players don't perform, but you can't just cash them and buy someone else and others get injured and miss out half a season. The abuse levelled at Les Reed is as if all his past good work counts for nothing....he has been in charge of the football side through some great years and some good years as well as two less good ones. Perhaps it is time for him to move on...everyone can get stale...but he certainly doesn't deserve the dog's abuse he gets from fans in some quarters.
He doesn't, you are quite right. What I find frustrating is, a lot of the mistakes were avoidable. We knew what we were lacking under Claude, yet we dismissed him and hired someone else and didn't address the problems. So if Les's right ear is a little warm, I think he has earned that.
Maybe the West Brom fans should try booing, seems like getting behind their team is having a negative effect. I say we boo as loud as we can even if we go 4-0 up keep the booing going as cheering obviously never works!!!!!
Maybe not booing, just general whining. Saints fans could win medals for that if it was an Olympic event.
You are right, but I think they had recognised the problem, but unfortunately their solution didn't work. I'm not sure whether the problem is solely MP2 or whether he is just not the man to sort out the problems within the team. We have so many similar players....good, but not game changers. Like a decent choir without soloists. It is easy for a manager to manage a team with players who can nearly win on their own....just becomes a case of get the ball to those players. If Mauricio is here next season....and brace yourselves, boys and girls, he probably will be.....he has to be given the players he needs.
That is the crux of the problem, isn’t it? It wasn’t Claude Puel’s fault that he never had a target striker last season, or Pellegrino’s fault that he didn’t get one until January. The replacement for Mané still hasn’t appeared, although our hopes were raised and then dashed by the Quincy Promes debacle. If Les makes good on his hint that Promes, or an equivalent, will arrive in the summer, then fair enough, but we’ll still need a replacement for Virgil, and ideally a backup keeper, unless Fraser can lose a couple of stone and improve his command of the area. All this rests on our staying up, which given the big holes in our squad and a manager who is only just beginning to use what he has effectively, is far from being a given.
If you are looking for coincidence; try disruptive Fonte left, Saints got to Wembley; disruptive VvD left....? Furthermore, results pre VvD going were pretty bad, since his departure Saints have improved their record exponentially! Coincidence maybe?
Even when times are good this is a complaint I've always had about our fans. There always seems to be something to grumble about, there always needs to be a scapegoat....Feel for those supporters as they didn't seem to enjoy the good times as much as they should have. Nah sod it I don't
When we sold Fonte, we had already won the first leg of the semifinal for the League Cup. Yes, I would call that very much coincidental. And no, results have not improved exponentially. When VVD left, we were on 20 points in 21 matches. We have since posted 7 points in 7 matches. A meteoric rise, that is not.
To be fair, those seven points have come from matches away to City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs, Utd and Leicester. I mean, if instead they had come against the likes of Palace, Brighton, WBA, Burnley and Watford, well that would be somewhat embarrassing, painful, and very costly to our survival chances.
