Match Day Thread Southampton v Leicester City Friday night football 25.10.2019 8pm

Three. So the two City matches, plus Everton at home.

 

Better than 9-0? Yes. I honestly think any of us could go out there for one game and manage Saints to less than 9-0. “Right. Just uh.. do what you do. Play good.” 5-0 loss.

When you lose that bad, it’s not negligence. Either you have lost the players and they are intentionally or unintentionally tanking, or you have given them instructions they cannot follow that actually make the team worse than if they had no instructions at all.

It was probably a combination of the two.

Don’t forget we played a perfectly decent PL game on Saturday. So obviously the talent level is not THAT awful. We might be truly bad. Awful, even. But no one should lose 9-0. Do you need a manager to tell you not to give up a penalty in extra time down 8-0?

TBF, Hasenhuttl is not this bad a manager. If he were he never would have gotten nearly this far. Not to mention this same team played well under him last season, and even last week.

You just don’t lose 9-0 without a multitude of things going wrong. Everyone could have done better. Easily.

 

Could everyone have done better if they’d been managing the team for 11 months? I think the players would have seen through my veil hiding the incompetency.

It is not really fair to pick one game, an utter sh1t fest of a game, and say, “Everyone could have done better.” The things that have lead to this have been building over a period of time, so rocking up for a one game comparison is not a great comparison.

Clearly something is wrong with what’s ralph is doing, but let’s keep some reality here.

 

Should be 2 matches... Bertie‘s red wasn’t the reason last night happened... maybe he’s an aggravating factor off the pitch.... i’d happily play Che Adams there if he gave an honest performance.... but more realistically I’d think Vokins. Need Ralph to make a statement of intent regarding name of player vs ability/potential....

 

Where is everyone getting 2 matches from? It's always been 3 matches.

 

knew it was more than one.... took a punt... got it wrong... 3 it is....

 

Prior to this game, I think many of us would have said the club was right about where it should have been given the talent level and the schedule we have played. Even if we had dropped this game in a normal fashion, like 2-0 we would not be too panicked.

Not that people are wrong to be extremely worried. 9-0 is definitely a wake up call.

But I don’t think there’s a simple answer as to what happened, so the fix won’t be as simple as replacing a manager either. We should be starting a search, especially as things could easily snowball now. But no reason to replace RH yet, and it’s also not all his fault.

I think that everyone blasting the board and Gao and RH and whatnot... I mean, they deserve the blame but I don’t know that they are villains, either.

Gao has pretty much cleaned house since he got here. A move I think most people would agree was needed. He’s spent a decent amount of money. Enough that we should be much better than we are.

We also this summer, bought the right kinds of players (young, high potential, hungry) at the right positions (CB, wing, striker). We have a thoroughly modern manager.

No one has been sitting on their ass. We’ve been bold. If anything, too bold. The players we got were likely not to take a bit of time to hit their stride. So we were sticking to our philosophy and building a team for the future.

We designated a core of players, most of them young— Redmond, JWP, Bednarek, Valery, PEH, Gunn to build around. Most of us approved of this group, yet these are the players (aside from Redmond) that have let us down most this year.

Everything we’ve done this last year has been correct, philosophically. It’s just the execution is bad.

Honestly, IMO we lost the plot when we were good in the latter KL years. That was when we were an exciting team for young players to come play for, and we had the money to sign them. But we gave some players extensions instead, and sat on the cash, most of which has been squandered on desperation moves like Carrillo.

We’ve had a ton of change over the last season or so. When you change that much, and have to take risks, some of your moves are going to be duds. It is quite possible that the beginning steps to changing the club have already been taken, we just had a farther way to fall before we pick ourselves up.

 

Because of the first word?

 

sorry ?

you have honestly lost me !

 

You said IF his no 2 was the brains.... Quite correctly. No one knows whether that is a material factor or not. They're just putting 2 and 2 together and making 7. That's why its worth sticking with RH. Because the people that do know are better placed to make the decision.

That said, I've no doubt his no 2 (who never really had a chance to settle here before the interest from abroad) was good - but I've no reason to believe the new guy isn't just as good.

 

I still don’t think Danso was a planned CB signing. That to me feels like a last minute panic because we couldn’t afford (or wouldn’t pay the money) for a targeted CB. I think it was a “don’t you know a cheap CB from Germany or Austria Ralph,” type of signing.

We clearly needed a CB but didn’t raise the cash when we didn’t sell the not wanteds.

Just a guess.

 

Personally always thought Bertrand was a useless hot head that rates himself above Maldini. I’d rather a player like Targett that knows his limitations and plays for the team. Crosses better and from deeper positions too. We should have sold Bertrand and kept Targett. That’s what I would have done at least.

 

Problem is we sold Targett who should be playing instead the team and squad is a big mess, possible lost cause now. We need a new left back in January that is team orientated reliable , calm and stays in position. We don’t need roberto Carlos , maldini, Cafu or whatever in full back roles just reliable pros with a passion for clean sheets not goals.

 

Naw, we wouldn't last three games in charge of even the best team in the world.

The fact that RH lasted 11 months with this group is a testament to his skills as a real life first division pro manager.

But that doesn't matter. If you have lost the players, you are no good, even if it is not your fault. I'd prefer to change out at least half the team before I would sack RH, but that isn't an option. When it gets to the point where RH is less effective than even we would be, it's time to think about a change.

It's quite possible none of this is Ralph's fault, or even Hughes before him. Maybe the next guy is no better, but if we get 8 months of competence before it goes to **** again, at least we survive.

At this point we have to be considering every option available to us to survive. And sacking Hasenhuttl is certainly one of them. And one of the few we can do right away. It's not a magic fix, but we're way beyond that now.

 

We can't keep doing that. Honestly, we need to go down, regroup and start again. Yes, I'm aware it's financially suicidal, but we can't just keep surviving every year. We are in danger of becoming Sunderland.

 

What more needs to happen?

From what I can see, we're a fully paid up member of the Sunderland-Villa club. Dreadful results. Consecutive seasons of struggling to survive. Board who don't properly invest. Turnover of managers. Loaning out of expensive misfits. We've even now got the painful 7/8/9 goal defeat.

 

We probably already are yep ... we certainly will be when we go down.

 

Keown - " Ndinino"

****ing meat head ****!

 

Genuinely don't think I've ever seen a manager look so broken, so defeated in a post-match interview as Ralph has been.

I've actually found it very difficult to watch.

 

I agree with this. Bertrand is way more technically gifted than Targett, but attitude counts for a lot in sport. And a youngster with the right attitude is more likely to improve than a player who already thinks he's better than he is.