Morning all. Just thought I'd get your early views on Sundays game. You''ll be looking to bounce back and we badly need to get back to winning ways. We've got a reasonable record against you at home and hopefully will have a couple of our injured back. That said we will still be without Boruc and Wanyama so it's going to be tough. Certainly can't see it being a goaless draw! Presumably AVB will change things around as you have a big cup game in midweek so I'm hoping that will help us. I'm going for a 2-1 Saints win.
Villas-Boas will have to really turn things around now! Hard to tell, as we don't currently have a manager and we've got a game midweek with no defenders, but it's looking good for your lot, Lamballana. I'll revisit this closer to the day, though.
Are both Clyne and Shaw fit? Saints where my pick for surprise team of the season and they haven't disappointed but after reaching the giddy heights of top four you have now dropped to 9th, just shows how quickly a few defeats can have an impact but credit to saints for their performance agaisnt Man City as the Villa defeat was a smash and grab, they just hit you on the counter while you done all the work. Its difficult to say how the players will react as we don't have many leaders on the pitch, we're a multi national side who at times play like strangers , just needing some leadership and that isn't going to happen in a week, yet again it depends on who our manager is, to how we will respond. Right now I don't fancy our chances but if we bring in someone like hiddink then i'm sure we will be more confident!
I predicted 5-2 to Soton in our prediction thread. Now AVB's gone I'm hoping the players may get that rejuvenation and desire to impress and stake a claim for the new manager. So maybe 2-2 now. Hard to call though, you guys have been really impressive so I'm not too optimistic to be honest.
AVB going shouldn't make a differnce but sods law it does. Think we could do with you having a hard game on Weds.
Of course it partly depends on who manages the team but more important is who is fit in our defensive region
With everything considered, I can't see anything more than a saints win. But fingers crossed that's not the case, obviously.
What did AVB get wrong? Was it just too many imports at once and failing to gel. Have to say pre season I thought you'd invested the Bale money wisely. Will be interesting to see what happens in the window. As for Saturday Sherwood is a real fighter but not sure he has the tactical nous for the PL. We will soon find out.
The concensus seems to be that he was too stubbornly sticking to "his" system. A system that didn't seem to suit anyone other than Lloris. Either that, or he wasn't coaching the players in the way of the system well enough
He was wrong in that he did not look at the players he had when he came in and decide a system that works best for them. Instead he came in with a system and spent the next months trying every permutation to make his system work. Signings since imo aren't suited to his system either, and here's the grey area, did avb select ALL these individuals?, its looking like he didn't. Did he agree to them willingly or just agree because he was outnumbered by those who did? We don't know...yet. As we know from his time at Chelsea, he'll probably spill some beans in the press in a few months. He is a belligerent character who will not deviate one bit, imo lack of flexibility will continue to be his downfall if he doesn't address it. This manner of his has also been carried into some disciplinary issues with two key players left out in the cold, when really we've suffered in their absence. Both are senior players not handled well, he did the same at Chelsea ruffling senior player feathers. Weird bloke, glad he's gone.
Question that'd be easier to answer would be "What did AVB get right?" and the answer would be not a lot really. As for Sherwood, the best part for him is that he has Chris Ramsey by his side, I'm a huge fan of Chris and the work he does at the club with our younger lads so adding him to Sherwood who I feel has a good footballing brain, will be interesting to see how they get on. In all honesty, they really can't do any worse than AVB.
Interesting. He has now failed at Spurs and Chelsea so will be a big gamble by the next club who hires him.
That depends on where he goes, in my opinion. I don't think that another Premier League club will be in a rush to offer him a managerial role, though I could be wrong, as chairmen do funny things. He needs to step back and establish himself over the course of several seasons in one job. A move to Italy might be good, as his ideas would seem closer to their own style than ours.
Yes and no. He's still a popular figure with the fans, for obvious reasons, but he failed as a manager at WHL and hasn't done anything of note since. As others have stated elsewhere, he seems to be good at working with youngsters, so a job at the academy would be good for everyone, but as manager? Pass.
Saints will win on Sunday. We dont have a team atm, we have individuals and tbh even as individuals they ent that good.
