We are currently the worst team in the league so are where we deserve to be. The going with youngsters policy is fraught with danger - it is not a league to be pissing around in. Literally men against boys Huge window for our new owners - if they don't sort out it in Jan we will be comfortably relegated
2nd half was ok. It's the first which was really concerning. Brighton were able to pass it out from the back at will, beating our half-hearted press with embarrassing ease. It's just as concerning that Jones did nothing about it until HT, at which point the game was all but gone. Jones was taught a harsh lesson today, hopefully he learns from it quickly. The games against Fulham and Forest are huge and will give me a clearer indication of whether Jones can cut it at this level.
Solving the defensive midfield problem is crucial in giving us a chance to repel attacks and winning the ball back. In the past Ralph pushed various players into the position - Stuart, Aribo, Diallo, AMN - and it hasn’t worked. I don’t like Lyanco as a CB but, **** it, he could be an absolute wrecking ball in midfield. He’s energetic and quite skilful on the ball and yes I know it’s another square peg in a round hole, but when we are this desperate, why not? He could be another Romeu, just barging through players.
Having Stu and Aribo on the bench whilst Ely and Djenepo start rang alarm bells for me. The line up didn't seem too much different from the last few games under Ralph. Hopefully Jones will get tough now he knows the old system doesn't work. Even if we stay up by the skin of our teeth, it's a bit depressing year on year. Still, much more important things in life!
We know what happened the last time we relied on youth and inexperience don’t we? History teaches you lessons that you should learn from don’t think we have
Not sure how he can look out of his depth already - not doing any worse than Ralph after he had 3+ years with this squad. I fully expect us to go down but we cant blame any of this on Jones.
Hell of a Christmas present from Saints there. So NJ has had a full month with the side (bar Salisu and ABK) and all I saw there were the same defensive issues with decreased chance creation from the RH era. That starting line up was honking. While I still think Sports Republic will be good for Saints long term, they have really ****ed the strategy for this season, massively naive. Wrong signings, wrong managerial decisions. I’m 90% sure we are going down now. I think the season was recoverable with the right managerial appointment and a decent striker, but NJ has had a poor start and what quality striker would want to come here? 5 games left to start saving ourselves and we look like we are getting worse.
Youngsters like Livramento, Bella-Kotchap, Lavia you mean? Nothing to do with the players age as literally proven.
Well that was ****ing terrible. Only positive right now is there are only a couple of points separating the teams down at the bottom.
Gus Poyet speaking quite well post match - says if he were a Southampton fan he’d like to see one new player on the 1st January, and the second on the 2nd January to give NJ a chance. Says that we have known the position we’re in for a while, so the club should have done the work in the market to get those players in early.
Jo Tessum making some good points on Solent. Jones has a near impossible task ahead of him. But he needs to get right into their heads about what is/is not acceptable with attitude, performance and commitment. That does not seem to be the case at the present.
I don’t even believe that for us, we didn’t create anything that clear cut bar Edozie’s shank did we? All three of their goals came from our poor play, so can agree with Brightons. 3rd was a screamer but we gave Solly March all the time and space in the World to do it.
