Match Day Thread WBA v Saints. Saturday 3rd Feb 3pm.

Well, quite.

 

He may well turn out to be a very good Manager in years to come, but this job has come too early for him in his career IMO.
I don't blame him for taking the job, I blame the man that offered it to him in the first place

 

I think the timidity of the team and manager follows on from the poor results....it is a cycle that repeats itself. Better results produces confidence and less timidity...produces better results. We have had scarcely any lucky breaks this season.....I would say in most games we have got what we deserve or less than what we deserve.

 

Exactly, and the setup that has left him floundering helplessly. There is something very rotten in the state of Southampton FC right now.

 

We absolutely should have more points on the board right now, but we lost them through the Manager trying to sit on a lead and see the game though and that was when we were midtable .

 

A Roman motto; yet Italy won 4 World Cups playing Catenaccio.

Fortune, and the gods, have always been capricious when it comes to distributing favours. The cemetaries, however, are full of the reckless.

Chelsea won the League last season, Jose Mourinho won two trophies for Man U. Meanwhile Arsenal, who are always brave under Wenger, appear to be in decline.

So no, fortune doesn't favour the brave. Fortune favours the fortunate. Napoleon knew that.

 

Point number 3 might.

 

We have definately lost points through his timidity this season though...


I do admire you sticking up for the guy Archers, but all the evidence I have seen this season intuitively tells me that he is not right for us at this moment.
I have backed every single Manager since 2009 and i'm not prone to kneejerk reactions.

 

Sitting back on leads. Not pushing for 2nd goals. I think teh only game we've killed off was Everton at home, they were dismal.

 

Has this sold out anyone know? Just curious .

 

It's the players who have (literally) sat back on leads, because they have been playing without confidence. I doubt the manager told them to get deeper and deeper away to Brighton, at home to Huddersfield, at home to Palace etc. Whether he's the man to coach that out of them, I don't know, but I don't think that's ever been a tactical decision. The substitution of Boufal for Yoshida vs Watford in the cup is the only one this season that could be described as blatantly defensive, but - oh yeah - it worked.

 

I'd suggest that a - they don't want to get relegated. And b - he's a nice bloke.

 

If it's not the managers direction then he should be on the touchline screaming blue murder at his team. If they are ignoring his direction then he needs to find a way to get through to them.

 

Likewise.

I have respect for your view Archers (and Ashby/Channon) but it really smacks of head in the sand a bit. The problems are far more endemic than the manager, but that's the easiest one to resolve (and should have been done a while ago).

 

One example (there are many others) of why I question his management/judgement is that he has selected Shane Long as a lone Striker for ten games in the league this season (some at home). Shane has many qualities, but relying on him to convert scoring chances is not one of them and he has scored only once in nearly a year.

 

If we win this I will drink 4 cans of cider really quickly.

 

No chance. The players haven’t been performing, but these are the same players bar a couple that got us to the Europa League. The manager is useless, has no tactical awareness whatsoever. He makes changes that make us worse in most games. Drops out better players, persists with long, persisted with Forster for half the season. Sorry, I admire you sticking up for him in a way, but pellegrino doesn’t have a clue.

 

Alex
Cedric, Wes,Maya,Ryan
Pierre,Lemina
JWP,Boufal
Guido
Jack

 

Ok,

• Newcastle - 2 points dropped thanks to Forster costing us 2 goals with schoolboy goalkeeping (apologies if any of you have kids that play in goal)
  
• Burnley - Failed to break down their resilient defence and midfield. Sam Vokes beats Yoshida in the air from the penalty spot. We lose 1-0. 1 point dropped.
• Huddersfield - Depoitre is left unmarked a few yards out for a header which goes in. Hoedt & Yoshida nowhere to be seen.
• Brighton - Bad starting lineup, however it isn't Pellegrinos fault Hoedt is **** and gave away a penalty (he'e been lucky to have not given a few more away). Made big changes at half time that got us back in to the game.
• Man United (Home) - Hoedt easily beaten by Lukaku in the air who scores the only goal of the game.
  
• Watford Away - Steven Davis gives the ball away on the edge of our area and they score, getting them back in to the game. They alsoscore a handballed goal in the last minute to equalise. I'm going to ignore the people on here that seem to think that only one side plays football and Pellegrino should have carried on attacking, leaving us exposed, when we were 2-0 up away from home.

That's six games where we've dropped points and they are down to our players simply not being good enough in certain areas. That's 8-10 points dropped there, which would have us in the top half very comfortably.

Pellegrino has his faults, and his tactical decisions have cost us some points, but the majority of the blame lies with the players and the board for not strengthening the required areas.