Match Day Thread Gillingham v Southampton, EFL Cup 1st Round, 8th August, 19:45

[Toss saints]

Realistically, a good cup run for us is what, the fourth round? Would anyone look back with great fondness on a glorious trip to the fourth round, or even remember it? It sucks to go out here, but we're already staring at about 50 competitive matches this season. That's rather a lot. We can't play our best XI for cup matches unless we're intentionally playing a weakened XI in the Championship to accommodate it, and we should not be doing that.

Oh FFS. These guys have just had three months off and just played yes, 90 minutes of competive football, and we are rotating already. Surely we should be building on pre= season mat h fitness. I really can't comprehend a 100% rotation on ghe 8th August. I get it on the 20th November. Too many excuses for snow flake players

 

[Le Tissier's Laces]

The game or our reaction to it?

They both sit in the same bell curve...

 

[Schad]

Oh FFS. These guys have just had three months off and just played yes, 90 minutes of competive football, and we are rotating already. Surely we should be building on pre= season mat h fitness. I really can't comprehend a 100% rotation on ghe 8th August. I get it on the 20th November. Too many excuses for snow flake players

The problem is not 'snowflake players'. The problem is that the Championship is an incredible grind, which is why you get so many surprise promotions: the teams that make it out aren't always the most talented, they are the teams whose players are mostly intact come February. I don't think that immediately throwing players into 180 minutes per week is building on preseason fitness, no.

 

[Toss saints]

Feels like this was an annual thing even with fewer matches. Play our best XI in every match! No excuses! Wonder why our performances seem less energetic in the second half of seasons!

Sorry was that under Poch or Ralph (first season) when we won games against a few top ti.es and finished upper mid table, or I am wrong?

I thought we got relegated later than than that when we started rotting more. Have I got that wrong as well?. My memory is seriously messing with me tonight.

 

[brb]

I despair. We can possibly have an outside chance to progress in two competitions a year, and you are happy one has gone against a **** team even before the August Bank Holiday

If your gaffer had done his homework he would have known we had new owners who ploughed a lot of money into the team preseason, players we could not previously afford. Any decent side that had done it's homework properly would have known this, you only had to look at no further back than Saturday when we beat one of the bookies favourites to win the league on their own turf. Even the second half of last season held a clue, in us being one of the top form sides. Even if you know nowt about L2, and missed all the previous clues, surely the names Neil Harris and Kenny Jackett would have given your lot some inkling this was not going to be a walkover tonight.

 

[Osvaldorama]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0g5lb96

One of the best post match interviews I’ve heard from a saints manager.

Pulls no punches at all, takes responsibility.

I really like this guy and I believe he has what it takes to turn us around. Hope I’m right for once

 

[Schad]

Sorry was that under Poch or Ralph (first season) when we won games against a few top ti.es and finished upper mid table, or I am wrong?

Fun story about our run to the League Cup final: people bitched for the first several rounds that we were fielding weakened sides. I can distinctly remember the angst that we were throwing a cup run away by playing away to Arsenal with a number of regulars rested...that just got memory-holed because we won. Here's the squad:

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/38073806

 

[Toss saints]

The problem is not 'snowflake players'. The problem is that the Championship is an incredible grind, which is why you get so many surprise promotions: the teams that make it out aren't always the most talented, they are the teams whose players are mostly intact come February. I don't think that immediately throwing players into 180 minutes per week is building on preseason fitness, no.

Or teams that are close and bonded together and are good mates. I don't know for sure but the squad that got us promoted in 2012 would not have been huge. Personally, I think players are keen to just play early on. I don't think 180 is too much

 

[RedandWhiteManofKent]

If your gaffer had done his homework he would have known we had new owners who ploughed a lot of money into the team preseason, players we could not previously afford. Any decent side that had done it's homework properly would have known this, you only had to look at no further back than Saturday when we beat one of the bookies favourites to win the league on their own turf. Even the second half of last season held a clue, in us being one of the top form sides. Even if you know nowt about L2, and missed all the previous clues, surely the names Neil Harris and Kenny Jackett would have given your lot some inkling this was not going to be a walkover tonight.

Credit where credit is due, well done on the result and the way you played.

I don't think that we didn't do our homework or under estimated you, we just weren't good enough on the night, and with our squad we should have been better.

 

[Toss saints]

Fun story about our run to the League Cup final: people bitched for the first several rounds that we were fielding weakened sides. I can distinctly remember the angst that we were throwing a cup run away by playing away to Arsenal with a number of regulars rested...that just got memory-holed because we won. Here's the squad:

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/38073806

Mate

That was a reasonable team and aligns my argument. Good keeper, 3 good defenders (one world class), okay midfield, weak attack, but still 5=6 first teamers

 

[tomw24]

Or teams that are close and bonded together and are good mates. I don't know for sure but the squad that got us promoted in 2012 would not have been huge. Personally, I think players are keen to just play early on. I don't think 180 is too much

Sorry but you are seriously underestimating how tough a 46 game Championship season is.

 

[Lovelocum]

Fun story about our run to the League Cup final: people bitched for the first several rounds that we were fielding weakened sides. I can distinctly remember the angst that we were throwing a cup run away by playing away to Arsenal with a number of regulars rested...that just got memory-holed because we won. Here's the squad:

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/38073806

Forster Martina Yoshida Van Dijk Bertrand.

That is one hell of a back line for a second string.

Clasie and Davis in midfield. Long and Boufal up top.

That team would beat our best 11 now.

 

[Ian Thumwood]

Disappointing as Russell should have already known from pre-season who needed to be moved on. I do not think this result is a shock. Many of these layers are the ones responsible for us getting relegated last season. Mixing them with teenagers was never going to be a solution for a successful outcome.

The manager sounds like he has tried to get the whole squad to work his system. I honestly feel that this is a long process as there is a lot to put right. This is a squad used to failure and I feel needs to be whittled down. In my opinion Russell is going to get more wrong that he is going to get right in the beginning of this season. The expectations after Friday have become unrealistic and I just think things are unlikely to gel before November. It is a major task to repair the damage. This season can only be a transition to correct the faults. Next season will be about getting the kind of performance to get promotion. Saints fans need to be patient and pragmatic.

 

[Toss saints]

Sorry but you are seriously underestimating how tough a 46 game Championship season is.

Ah okay then. As I keep saying, I am getting so much wrong tonight m my mistake. So sorry

 

[Saints Fan4Life]

James Bree: ""We’re a Premier League team, really, against League Two opposition, no disrespect to them, a result like that shouldn’t happen especially the way it did."

**** off mate. "We're a premier league team really." No, no we aren't. In case you hadnt noticed we got relegated.

If that's the attitude and arrogance of the squad, no wonder we failed to turn up tonight.

 

[tomw24]

Yeah that's not a smart comment to make TBH.

 

[Lovelocum]

James Bree: ""We’re a Premier League team, really, against League Two opposition, no disrespect to them, a result like that shouldn’t happen especially the way it did."

**** off mate. "We're a premier league team really." No, no we aren't. In case you hadnt noticed we got relegated.

If that's the attitude and arrogance of the squad, no wonder we failed to turn up tonight.

Completely agree. And Brie only joined us for the last 6m on the way down, hardly had a sniff of the PL.

 

[Toss saints]

If your gaffer had done his homework he would have known we had new owners who ploughed a lot of money into the team preseason, players we could not previously afford. Any decent side that had done it's homework properly would have known this, you only had to look at no further back than Saturday when we beat one of the bookies favourites to win the league on their own turf. Even the second half of last season held a clue, in us being one of the top form sides. Even if you know nowt about L2, and missed all the previous clues, surely the names Neil Harris and Kenny Jackett would have given your lot some inkling this was not going to be a walkover tonight.

No disrespect meant to you BRB.

Ot was aimed at. Y club and our fans who thought we cod get a result by changing 11 players. That was never going to work. We would have needed the majority of our first team to win tonight, which I have been arguing all night on this forum. Well done and well deserved and good luck

 

[Shandy_top_89]

James Bree: ""We’re a Premier League team, really, against League Two opposition, no disrespect to them, a result like that shouldn’t happen especially the way it did."

**** off mate. "We're a premier league team really." No, no we aren't. In case you hadnt noticed we got relegated.

If that's the attitude and arrogance of the squad, no wonder we failed to turn up tonight.

Oops might feel a bit uneasy when he hears his managers view on the first point….

 

[RSS]

Ive seen various people saying things along the lines of we are a PL level club and they’ll work to get us back where we ‘belong’. We’ve just been relegated after 10 years in the PL and haven’t sold many of our PL players yet so it’s not a stretch to say what he said really.