But were not under a different manager. And this is the way we play. "and will continue to do so" according to a certain Argentine. Its not about who has the best XI on paper. Last year who would have thought Fonte would be a vital part of the 2nd best defence in Europe? A players percieved quality is only about how well he plays.
It's exactly this sort of Champions League chit-chat that precedes an embarrassing defeat at home to the likes of say, Fulham. Let's wait until February.
^^This! ...maybe I've just watched the Saints for too long, but after reading this thread I too can see a frustrating 1-0 loss tomorrow. That's the 'Southampton Way' I remember. However, the last 3-4 years have gone some way to dispelling my views, though there is still that niggling doubt that we will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory I probably need 5 minutes with Nicola, as he seems to hypnotised all the players - maybe he should do a hypnotic session on the big screens before the match to convince the rest of us?! No 7
This is what Jamie Carragher was saying...you don't just play our way...it is drilled into you. Hence our double sessions...every player knows what he has to do in each situation...seconds are saved if they act automatically. Mauricio knows the strength of this system and knows its weaknesses, but this is the way we play and MP thinks the result will be seen at the end of the season. In other words, we will lose games, but overall the results will be good. Mauricio admitted that he had been looking at our players for a while and knew he could make his preferred system work here. Gary Neville mentioned how good the system would be with the kind of quality players that Chelsea etc have, but I wonder if it is better to have talented players who are not at the top but willing to work incredibly hard in order to achieve levels they could only dream about. In other words, egos don't get in the way. Our players believe in Mauricio and they can see that it works...which is why they are dreaming of the Champions League.
We should look at West Brom Last season, a great start but it faded and went off the rails, I dont follow West Brom enough to know exactly why that happened, but whatever they did we want to make sure we avoid it! CL qualification is a dream, and for this season may still be a bit fanciful (if not impossible) but next season??
I too, in certain moments of rare clarity, believe that this team can achieve great things. I have thought that from the moment we beat Leeds on the opening day of the Championship 2 years ago. However, like a lot of people here, I have been supporting Saints for a good many years and things never quite go to plan. Let us not forget that Sunderland only have 1 point to date and that came against us in a game we could easily have lost; we were somewhat lucky to beat Swansea; only the crossbar at Man Utd stopped us from going 2 down from which I doubt we'd have recovered, and so on. Yes, we are looking like the best Saints team there has ever been but we are still a long way from Champions League. All the up and coming games are interesting for one reason or another. Can we finally beat a lowish ranked team convincingly, what will happen against Arsenal away etc.? All-in-all, I'm loving it but somehow I preferred it when it was our secret, if you like, now everyone seems to be an expert on the "Southampton Way". Maybe, one day Surrey based football fans will start supporting Saints rather than Man Utd!
Well we beat Liverpool this season and drew with Man Utd. Against the others, last season we lost and beat Man City, drew and lost with Arsenal, drew and beat Chelsea, and lost twice to Tottenham. I think on our day we can beat any of these teams, where we're more likely to mess up is against the 'smaller' teams, which is the difference between us and those listed. However, so far this season we have matched or bettered almost all of our results compared to last season, so if we keep that up we could have a strong season.
I think a big difference this season is all the teams are beating each other. No one or two teams are breaking away.
That is one reason that this could be a good year for us (or any team that can string some results together). The usual suspects aren't all getting expected results.
We're only eight games into the season and we've only had two games against top-half teams. Talk of champions league qualification is extremely premature.
Yes I understand that, and I think you could make a case for us possibly having a top 6 side under MP, but talent wise I don't think we do. Would still rather have any of the "top 6" best 11s than ours tbh. Would take a very fortunate season in terms of injuries, suspensions and form for us to break the top 6 imo. Think our aim should be to try and finish 7th (hopefully above Everton as I have a rather large bet with a friend of mine that we will finish above them)
I'm still hoping for Saints to finish in the top half of the table, its great we are getting points on the board now but if we are in the top 10 in the new year after our tough run of fixtures then I will be chuffed.
Saints are nowhere different than what I expected at the start of the season, at this time of the year. I do however feel that December is a big month for us. "Big teams" such as Man Utd and their ex managers (fergie) will tell you that if you are still in the mix going in to January then you have a chance. Games come hard and fast for us in December so get lets get through this and evaluate from there. personally top 8 achievable, Top 6 a very good season and top 4 ambitious but achievable.
Take your point but did you really expect us to win at Anfield and get a point at Man U? I expected us to be top half by now but not top 6. We've still not played anywhere near our best yet either. Some-one is due a thrashing!
On the other hand we lost at Norwich and only managed to draw with Sunderland and West Ham, so if you were being optimistic you'd have predicted about this many points even assuming losses against United and Liverpool.
The only problem is that we are about 3 injuries away from a crisis. Take away Boruc, Shaw and Clyne and we are looking very weak suddenly.
That's what MP has to think about during the January window, Think we are OK in midfield and central defence but keeper, lb, rb and out wide we are still a few top quality players light.
