I very much like Manning and Charles. We really look a decent outfit, just lacking that cutting edge which I think will come
I must admit as the season gets closer my initial optimism (not huge but it was there) is leeching away, I hope that the team makes me look a miserable twit once it starts for real. Last season didn't help. Not the relegation, which is part of football, but the endless 1-0 defeats where it looked like we were playing for a 1-0 defeat. In football terms - depressing.
as much as I understand the need and talk of experience, this team needs confidence and if it comes from a 17 year old, so be it.
I get where you're coming from, but this overhaul was always likely to take time. I suspect we'll need to hold our nerve for a while yet. Hopefully though we're talking weeks, rather than months, for the fruit to grow and ripen. My optimism is brittle, but it's still very much there at the moment.
I have often been pessimistic. I had given up on Saints staying up by Christmas last year. I actually like the look of the team this year. The cull is slow but the right players are leaving. We are going to have a lot of money to spend so a slow start isn’t the worst thing (it may shake a few more pennies out for class players). And Amo-Ameyaw looks really exciting!
The key thing is the mentality and establishing the winning one that will be needed to have a good season. On paper the 3 relegated teams are miles ahead of any of the other teams in the division (as it stands anyway, things could change in the next month), but games aren’t won on paper and confidence/mentality is crucial to sustain the consistency you need. This won’t happen overnight, someone told me that Burnley got 10 points from their first 10 games and we all know how they walked the league, so patience will be required as we try and develop that mentality. A fast start isn’t absolutely necessary, although it obviously would be everyone’s preference
Compared with the posts on some of the Saints Fans Facebook pages you are extremely optimistic and happy. They are already getting ready to given RM and the team a roasting for trying to play football. Even saw calls for Tall Paul to be in the team so we can pump the ball up to him and not "mess around" keeping possession. I give up sometimes
Even now I struggle to have any idea how we will perform this season, I predicted 3rd but I'm still ranging anywhere from 1st to 12th. I have tried to compare our pre season to Leicester and Leeds but its incomparable really as we have mostly taken some harder fixtures on bar Leicester getting thumped by Liverpool. Business has been reasonable but feels incomplete so far (which it is), the more we close in on the season the more I feel we do need a proven Championship striker asap (I know Adams and A Armstrong are, but we need someone with a more recent record of goal scoring to at least challenge or work alongside them) and maybe a CB. Central midfield will need a new JWP replacement should he leave, but I think Charles is the Lavia replacement in early. Very very cautiously optimistic despite P5 W1 D1 L3 in pre season.
Been supporting/following Saints for a long time and being pessimistic comes with the territory. I must have been proven wrong on countless occasions, unfortunately, I've been proven right too. Usually when I'm most pessimistic is when I'm wrong so perhaps I should join Saints Fans Facebook and really pile on the negativity. I think I would prefer possession tippy-tappy than bloody hoofing the ball up front for it to come straight back. I just wish we'd stop letting in crap goals and shanking the ball wide from fairly easy chances. It's getting repetitive and not funny anymore. Maybe it'll change? Stranger things have happened.
Bottom line: it doesn’t matter what style of football you watch, if your defending is crap it will be miserable to watch.
Not sure I agree. If you can compensate at the other end of the field, a season full of 4-3 wins, 3-3 draws, and 3-2 defeats, is far from miserable. But if it's style over substance, with a failure to put the ball in the net regularly, then even the prettiest football in the world won't prevent crap defending making it miserable.
Yeah you’re right I should. And I guess I didn’t really think that through, it’s better to play well and lose than play badly and lose.
