****ed right off after sitting through the last two home games. Obviously the goals we conceded were utter **** and shouldn’t have happened, but it was the second half that really pissed me off. Absolutely zero urgency to get back into it. So slow, pedestrian and predictable. After saying he was going to keep it simple the team lined up at the start of the game with THB rb, Stephens CB and KWP lb. Goals we conceded aside first half, we were moving it around quite well, just the final ball was off. But I was still confident we’d turn it round as although Millwall had somehow scored twice they offered **** all apart from being dirty ****ers. Ref was utter **** too letting them get away with it and booking us for complaining. Twat. Result was on us though not the ref. This is what Swansea said RM teams do. Go on good and bad runs. Can’t afford bad runs if you’re going for autos, this year more than ever. Seething.
It was one of about five different positions which Stephens played tonight. None of which made any sense to me, at all.
More likely we get hammered. We struggle against teams who press us and they're one of the best in the world at it. If we go to Anfield without a DM it could be horrific.
Said at half time our formation and set up was very odd today. THB seemed to start at RB or was it a back 3? Still not sure what the actual set up was.
This comment from RM has thrown me. I'm not sure I've seen a single Saints team since Jack first made his debut in 2011 that 'needs' him in the starting XI, sorry. Even the sh!t ones.
For the second time this week, I'm putting that defeat firmly on Martin. There is no justifiable reason to put KWP on the left. And trying to shoe-horn Stephens into all manner of different positions, just to have his presence on the pitch, was wrong. He then took far long to change that. Bringing Che off was odd. Bringing Rothwell on had zero positive impact. Leaving Mara on the bench, when we were crying out greater penalty box presence, was questionable. First half, I thought we played OK (we just had the wrong defence). Second half, we were awful. Slow, predictable, and really weird formation tweaks.
First half we regularly switched between those two set-ups. Then second half we started a third way, by having the two usual CBs, with Jack at DM and no-one at RB. Then Aribo had a spell at RB. Then Martin finally woke up and remembered that the best RB on the league was already on the pitch.
Tbh we have done really well this season considering we don’t have a proper striker. I thought we’d see more of games like today where we struggle to score. Arma was smashing it on the right wing, time to put him back there. The rest we can change
HT we had 80%, 3 on target vs their 2. FT 80% 7 on target vs their 3. Not really sure where the 7 came from but regardless that was pathetic. Talk about a fall from grace. A 24 unbeaten run to the Hudds game which was just unreal but certainly highlighted some flaws. Since then soundly beaten by BC, HC & in a way similar today & 2 of them at home. So many question marks about RM & the team. Can’t quite fathom. No chance for autos & very sceptical we have the resolve, firepower or mental aptitude for the playoffs. Nor RM’s tactical awareness.
I felt so, so sorry for Brooks today. For the majority of his time on the pitch, he had absolutely no help on the right side - all because of Martin's tactics. The guy is good, but he's not a genius. He needed some degree of support. He probably felt quite jealous, watching KWP, Stu and Fraser/Edozie all playing neat little football between them on the other side of the pitch. Whilst he was billy no mates.
Repeating myself a bit but the conclusion I’m reaching is that Downes injury has blown RM up tactically and he is ****ing around with the side trying to find an answer. Luckily Downes will be back shortly and I think RM will stabilise us, but we may have lost any chance of the autos by the time he does, we are definitely on the brink now. He clearly doesn’t trust Shea Charles which is a shame because he absolutely looks like the answer. I thought Stephens actually seemed reasonably effective on the right wing, but by the time he found himself at left back it was just a colossal mess really.
Home now and had time to gather my thoughts. Not really sure I see the need to panic like many seem to be. We were always going to hit a bad run at some point and this seems to be it. A few of us on here made the point that promotion was always going to be a tough ask when people were getting giddy about cutting Ipswich's lead down purely because they had had their bad run and we were yet to have ours. I think the disappointing/frustrating thing for me is that after Bristol defeat we initially did respond well at West Brom with arguably one of our best performances of the season but we've not seen that same bunch of players on the pitch since. Onto today and I didn't think we were that bad at all first half, not great by any stretch but far better than we were on Tuesday and seemingly were playing with a bit of purpose. The second half was dreadful though and we never really looked like winning the game. As mentioned I found the formation/set up with the defense very strange and seemed rather unnecessary. Definitely strikes me a bit of trying to be too clever. I also don't get why we put KWP at LB; he's by far our best player so it seems mental to lessen his impact by not playing him in his best position. I know Manning has his flaws but these are the type of games he should definitely be playing in imo and I thought he did well when we came on. Edozie was our best player today for me. Constantly running at his full back and trying to turn their defence which seemed far more likely to produce something than the umpteen crosses we put in that they dealt with comfortably. Strange subs today I thought and they definitely seemed to make us worse rather than better. I presume Aribo was fitness related but I didn't get taking Che off at all.
Really enjoyed Hampshire Police walking the Millwall bubble straight into a bunch of us waiting at the traffic lights by KFC while they were in the process of kicking off btw. Top work guys .
Agreed, my concern is that despite the differences in the style of defeats, it could be very encouraging to teams playing us that our plan B or C doesn't seem very effective. But as you say 2 points per game is very good and hopefully RM and the boys can put this month behind them.
