Match Day Thread Derby County vs Saints, Sat 4th October, 15:00

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I think Armstrong aside we probably have among the worst striking options in the entire league.

But Armstrong is also terrible as a 9, just luckily for us he happens to be excellent from the wing in the Championship.

It’s even worse from the recruitment team because as far as we know they didnt appear to have any intention of signing another striker after Downs, its not like they were going for one and just missed out. Whilst Downs has been worse so far than could have reasonably been expected, his record suggested maybe a back up development striker this season, not the man to pin our hopes on. They really appear to have a massive blind spot for that position, every transfer there has been a failure.

We’re gonna have to fast track Oyekunle into the first team at this rate.
 
I think Armstrong aside we probably have among the worst striking options in the entire league.

But Armstrong is also terrible as a 9, just luckily for us he happens to be excellent from the wing in the Championship.

Its even worse from the recruitment team because as far as we know they didnt appear to have any intention of signing another striker after Downs, its not like they were going for one and just missed out. Whilst Downs has been worse so far than could have reasonably been expected, his record suggested maybe a back up development striker this season, not the man to pin our hopes on. They really appear to have a massive blind spot for that position, every SR era transfer there has been a failure.

Not one of our strikers can score regular boring goals which are essential to any promotion push, most of our goals have been worldies, set pieces or solo efforts and most of those contain an element of luck even if they look great, but it is not a solid basis for good form and we will continue to stagnate if that is all we can do.

The goal records of the strikers we have in this league would suggest this isn't correct.
 
Saints fans need to be a bit more respectful of the opposition. That was a great attacking performance from Derby today. Using Downs, who chested the ball off superbly for our best second half chance, as a fall guy is as ridiculous as blaming Quarshie - who the commentator was saying was a top class talent - every time a ball gets past him. That’s football.

Scienza was excellent today. Manning poor. Losing Stewart really weakened us.
 
OK, scratching around here for positives, and you do have to give Derby some credit.
Macca excellent.
Jander still looking good.
Consistent King Charles.
Azaz marginally better.
Scienza decent shift.
 
Saints fans need to be a bit more respectful of the opposition. That was a great attacking performance from Derby today. Using Downs, who chested the ball off superbly for our best second half chance, as a fall guy is as ridiculous as blaming Quarshie - who the commentator was saying was a top class talent - every time a ball gets past him. That’s football.

Scienza was excellent today. Manning poor. Losing Stewart really weakened us.

I swear we watch different games every week <laugh>

Scienza was okay. Really like the fact he is willing to shoot. But apart from that, he was quite frustrating. You said so yourself at half time iirc.
 
I swear we watch different games every week <laugh>

Scienza was okay. Really like the fact he is willing to shoot. But apart from that, he was quite frustrating. You said so yourself at half time iirc.
I said either brilliant or awful. But a constant threat.

And you have made your mind up about players and tailor your responses to that. What in that gMe justifies saying Downs will never be a footballer? What a load of horseshit. Absolutely biased crap.
 
Terrible second half. We basically fell apart once Stewart went off too which is a damning indictment of our recruitment for that position.

Beyond daft to start Stewart, always seemed an unnecessary risk to take. Really hope it's not too serious.

Alex our motm.
 
I said either brilliant or awful. But a constant threat.

And you have made your mind up about players and tailor your responses to that. What in that gMe justifies saying Downs will never be a footballer? What a load of horseshit. Absolutely biased crap.

Barely touched the ball again. Think you’re just as guilty of bias. You will praise players even when they are crap, because you’ve also made up your mind.
 
Saints fans need to be a bit more respectful of the opposition. That was a great attacking performance from Derby today. Using Downs, who chested the ball off superbly for our best second half chance, as a fall guy is as ridiculous as blaming Quarshie - who the commentator was saying was a top class talent - every time a ball gets past him. That’s football.

Scienza was excellent today. Manning poor. Losing Stewart really weakened us.

We were playing 20th place Derby county not Barca at the Nou Camp.

2 (very fortunate) wins in 9 and people are still thinking this is ok?
 
My timeline for improvement is 10 games after the transfer window closed, we have played 6 and the results are improving since the Hull match. I'd really like to see us keep a few more clean sheets and take things from there.
 
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I swear we watch different games every week <laugh>

Scienza was okay. Really like the fact he is willing to shoot. But apart from that, he was quite frustrating. You said so yourself at half time iirc.

The most frustrating thing about Scienza was how often he was fouled, or was looking for the foul, and ended up on the floor.

Needs to toughem up and try to stay on his feet a bit more if he wants to succeed in this league.
 
The goal records of the strikers we have in this league would suggest this isn't correct.

As unfair as it is on Stewart, his injury record bares out that he has been a poor signing. We signed him for a high price, on the last year of his contract at Sunderland whilst still recovering from an ACL which we all know can be a career damaging injury. I still make that a poor signing, even if its not his fault because that was an entirely foreseeable risk.

Archer had one good season at Middlesbrough and half a good season at Preston, but when we came into this season we knew he had a terrible season last year and wasn't even making the line up by the end of the season. At that point it was over two years since he had been scoring consistently and we shouldn't be relying on him to suddenly come good after so long out of form. Also we signed him as a first team striker for the Premier League so its reasonable to judge him through that lens.

Downs scored 10 in Bundesliga 2 last season, which while reasonable doesn't suggest he is the someone you sign as a guaranteed main man for a promotion push. He may come good in time, but he has been way off of it so far.

Armstrong is the one exception who has a pretty consistent Championship record and has once again looked bright this season, but that is not as a striker.
 
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