No need to be so consistently rude mate, this is a forum of people with different opinions, using this platform to share them. All I know is the way I felt leaving that game was worse than many of the drubbings we have taken during this 10-year stint in the PL. Yes losing 9-0 to Leicester, 6-0 to Chelsea were bad. But losing at home to one of the worst teams we have faced in this period and not getting a single shot on target whilst hoofing the ball everytime we touch it was as bad as I can remember. A touch of recency bias perhaps but it is right up there.
I give you the last dozen games of the Pellegrino era m'lud. Chelsea at home last season was abject and could easily have been a record defeat.
It doesn't seem right that we are happy with our current lot if it is comparable to our worst two managers since returning to the PL. We are still bottom of the league and for the first time in ages no one is cut adrift at the bottom of the league at the half way stage. Could be any 3 from Forest down to get relegated. Though I believe Leeds, West Ham and Leicester will have enough. Leaving 3 from these 5: Forest, Wolves, Bournemouth, Everton and Saints. For me it's Bournemouth and Everton with one of us, Wolves and Forest.
And as bad as that Cardiff game was, we outplayed them totally and were unlucky to lose. We've had loads of games like that, the 2-3 vs Villa in 2013 comes to mind. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/25115885
NJ = Probed if he sees the players approaching him with tactical thoughts of their own as a positive or a lack of control, Jones beamed before the question was even uttered. “It's absolutely a positive,” he said. “I get paid to make the decision but the information I get, sometimes players can get a feel for a game and I trust my players. “I don’t see it as anarchy, I don’t see it as them questioning my tactics. I see it as my players saying, ‘gaffer, I think we can get a bit of a press on a bit better’. “Then I can say, ‘good, but I’m more concerned with something else and that’s why I’ve done it’, and then they go out and execute it perfectly. “But look, I’m open for that. It’s a democracy but in a democracy there is always a decision-maker, and that’s what I’m paid to do.” Pottychino never said that, he just did it.
Very good week for Jones and JWP. Pleased to be proved wrong on both. I wanted JWP dropped a few games back, but Jones seems to have got him back close to his best. Still not a 100% convinced by Jones, but he has stopped the ship sinking and is building a head of steam and he gave us Wednesday night!
I’ve never doubted JWP, he’s shown us time and time again his quality through the years. His level has dropped for a lot of this season but thought it was pretty clear that was mainly due to what he’s been tasked with in the team without a proper DM in there. No surprise that his best performances this season have come with Lavia also in the team. His effort and energy has never dropped for me even when playing a less effective role. What an unbelievable role model he is for the young players we are bringing in and developing. Mr Southampton, the ultimate professional Jones I had and still have doubts over, but he deserves his chance with us after this week. Still a lot of work to do but everything suddenly feels much more positive and hopeful moving forward. Add in a few more players and the only way is up! COYR
Forest are still unbeaten in the league this year, in the top half of the PL form table (five points behind Arsenal at the top), and a fellow semi-finalist in the Carabao. They may have not put much up in that game, but I wouldn't call Forest an abject team. There's so much context goes missing in these posts. We've won three matches since then, and Forest was only his third league match (not counting Liverpool - who, by the way, I wish we had played a month later). On another note, related to other posts by many in the past and not aimed at you at all, six weeks training with a new team means very little when you haven't been able to play an actual league match with them. People are talking about that period as if it is a travesty what he's done - but he could have six months training with them, and it wouldn't make a jot of difference until he starts playing games. Plans and ideas are brilliant, but mean nothing until you've had a chance to put them into practice. Like Mike Tyson said, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. I just don't think the six weeks training should even be in the equation when you basically haven't experienced your team in a game before. Qatar had a six-month training camp pre-World Cup, and they were the worst team the tournament has ever seen. They were looking better by match 3. Matches are the only way you can genuinely learn about your team, and he needed a few before he was able to make some progress.
I started this thread based on the Forest game, after weeks of preparation, it seemed hope was lost. This week is a massive turning point…we can win games. Against the very best sides and against the Goodison curse. Nothing but positivity from me now. Up the ****in saints
I’m happy to get behind the group and Jones moving forward (the players seem to have taken to him) but it’s definitely going to take more than JWP single-handedly winning us one league game against a truly dismal team with a crap manager to do a total U-turn. Players playing for a manager can go a long way, though, and Jones strikes me as the sort of guy who can build the sort of togetherness and siege mentality that is valuable in a relegation battle. Keep it up!
They had scored 1 goal away from home all season with zero victories before coming to St Mary's. They've done well in the last few games but coming in to that game they were bottom of the league and everyone's favourite to go down.
I had previously said that also the time with the players during the world cup was the same for every other manager. The managers in the bottom half will have all had less players away than teams in the top half. People mention it time and time again like it was exclusive to NJ whereas everyone near us had it and most would have had an almost full squad( I haven't checked numbers but I assume just a small handful of players per club went to the world cup).
There isn't much relevance to being bottom of the league at the moment, seeing as the bottom seven teams are separated by 2 points, and those seven don't even include Forest. Most of the games between bottom half teams these days are going to be extremely tight, and decided by one moment of luck/skill/error/refereeing decision. We beat Everton because of one bit of skill. We lost to Forest because of an error. Both could easily have been the other way round.
I don't see the need to remember the Forest game (i'm trying to forget it personally!) as we have had 3 wins since and performed more like a team. You can see by the reactions of everyone at full time yesterday that NJ has all the players with him and that can only be a good thing as I think that Ralph had lost a few by the end. I've always said that you can go a long way with good team spirit and momentum and that is building nicely at this precise moment. There's no point in dwelling on what has been because I think he has done enough to see out the season at the very least, which he should do imo.
Just had a look at the odds of relegation out of interest more than anything, and it’s pretty interesting. Us, Bournemouth and Everton are all odds on and the 4th favourite are almost 3/1 so it seems they have made their minds up on who is going down. Still ridiculously close and I’m sure everything will change again next week
As for Jones he’s shown that the players are playing for him so deserves credit for that. I’ve always thought that we have a decent side who just have been so **** for so long that confidence was on the floor and that was the biggest (and hardest) thing that needs to be rectified. Hopefully this last week has done a lot to do that and we can push on. If you look on paper I’d say that Bournemouth have comfortably the worst squad, Forest coming next (but still much better than Bournemouths) then everyone else involved is much of a muchness. Going to be a bit of a rollercoaster second half of the season
Yeah I thought the 6 week break would help Forest the most of any team with the amount of signings they made. Seems to have been the case with the results they’ve been getting