Agree with all that but there’s no doubt opposing managers have figured a front half or final third press causes us all sorts of problems especially in the later stages of games & RM / Saints have no answer.
I seem to recall that Kelvin Davis got a lot of flack when he first arrived and he turned into a club legend. Baz is still young and goalkeepers seem to get better the older and more experienced they get. I wonder how many saves Baz has made that have kept us in games compared to his mistakes. The referee yesterday was terrible and he is supposed to be a premiership referee. If he is the standard of referee that the premiership are getting then God help us if we do go up. Having said that I guess VAR helps bail him out in the premiership.
I still don’t think Bree should have been red carded because Davis didn’t have the ball under control and THB was coming across to help, BUT I don’t know why Bree didn’t just lean into the player and knock him off balance, instead of putting his hand on him. This one game epitomised both teams’ season. We missed clear cut chances to put the game to bed and they scored from half chances at crucial times. With regards to how crowds react, we are also our own worst enemy in as much as by missing “easy” chances it gives their fans a lift and by playing a sloppy pass we often give the opposition a chance, which also gives the fans and opponents a lift.
Any player with any kind of niggle now needs to be rested and given time to get fully fit ready for the play offs. If I was Martin I’d use the next couple of weeks to give certain players a bit of a rest, the likes of S Armstrong, Bednarek, Downes etc so use the next 2 or 3 games tinker around use as a bit of a pre season to iron out the issues we’re currently having, but then you want your team ready and in place for the last 3-4 game's ready to go and get winning momentum into the play offs. We’re probably going to finish 4th so won’t have to play the 3rd place team until Wembley. Now is all about getting ready, being fit etc for the play offs.
Tough balance though because the “strongest 11” has to improve and get their swagger and confidence back. We need clean sheets and for the first choice team to go into the play offs in a more confident mood.
Not massively confident about the play-offs but you never know. The form (just the results not the performances because despite what Martin says it's the results they put down in the record book) is patchy to poor so that's never a good thing. I do wonder when Saints fans are going to see at least one stellar season? I mean even when we got double promotion we didn't win the league either season. Oh and if the boss thinks we have any chance of winning all of our remaining games then he is just about the type of chap to come and post silliness on here - just ultra positive to balance it out. The last couple of things he is quoted as saying would concern me about his character if he were a work colleague. At least my brother died two years ago so he never got to experience last season and the disappointment of this season.
This was a concern of mine going into the past weekend, that basically we would be out of the auto hunt after it. Now we have 8 basically dead rubber games and then have to get up for the intensity of the playoffs. It will be very hard to keep the players at 100% over the remaining league games and then to raise them for the play offs if they do switch off a bit. I’d say we are in a bad situation to go into them with any sort of momentum. A positive is that West Brom are our likely opponents and are in a similar situation where they are unlikely to drop out of the playoffs. Would not feel too confident if Norwich were to be our SF opponents though
Think the most disappointing thing about yesterday was the inevitability of it. Did anyone truly believe that we'd find a winner once it went to 2-2? Martin has done a lot well this season and deserves credit for that but it's hard not to think a couple of his big flaws are the difference between us being a good side and an excellent one. Mainly the lack of defensive solidity and inability to react to changes on the pitch. Felt to me yesterday that from the minute Bedders was clattered in the second half it lifted their crowd while we were a bit rattled and we didn't really recover. Felt like changes should have come then really and I really didn't get taking Che off as we were bound to come under pressure. Stu also should have been off much earlier than he was. Stephens has played well in recent games but I still really don't understand why we've broken up the only back four which has brought us defensive solidity this season. Our goals conceded per game since Hudders must be dreadful and that's what' cost us ultimately.
Yeah for all the “well we create loads of chances playing this style and the players miss them” defences of Martin (there is definitely some truth in that), his inability to manage a game in the last third is absolutely terrible.
Yep. Agree with all of this. Martin overall has done quite well but he doesn’t have the X factor required to win those tight games. He was slow to make changes and it cost us… again. The Che point is valid. Without him we had no outlet. Same against Middlesbrough. Even when Che is playing badly he still offers an out ball. Without him to hold it up we resort to the crab football and then get caught out and concede chance after chance.
12 hrs on & it seems we’re all or mostly agreed about the season & where we are. If only we could get RM on board.
This is absolutely true. I really think we’d have beaten Boro if Che had stayed on. That out ball from centre back into his feet on the centre circle is vital.
Yeah we definitely do have an issue with not taking chances but I really don't think that's the main issue as we've averaged 2 a game for the season which should be sufficient really. You're not going to score 3-5 in 30+ games and when those games where you're wasteful come you have to be able to be solid defensively to see out games. Our best run this season is when we did have a settled defence and was conceding less goals. We don't keep anywhere enough clean sheets either. The best team we've kept a clean sheet against is wba and then the next team is Cardiff in 11th. No idea how they're 11th mind as they were utterly abysmal at St Marys.
I suspect that we are destined for the playoffs, so does anyone know about, or know where to look for, the rules on away fan numbers for the playoffs? Is it similar to a league match, so a smallish allocation, that won't get far beyond regular away fans, or is it like a FA Cup game, with a bigger allocation for away fans? I've just looked at the EFL Championship site, on their Playoff page, and the 'Rules' link doesn't work (for me).
