I want Jones to stay, genuinely! Feel this is more a player issue than the manager. His seemingly odd tactics etc to me could well be trying damage limitation as he knows we could well get spanked, so he's doing what he can to bide time until we sign some players that will improve the players we have and get back to putting in some kind of performance. It's not like we were on a great run of form when he took over was it, that's why Ralph went. What happens on here if he wins his next 4 games and suddenly has a 50% win rate. If nothing else I live the fact that there is such a meltdown on here - NJ is getting called names, the Welsh thing is being mentioned a lot, his religious beliefs and now some of you are turning on each other, it's batshit crazy at the moment and we are a few wins from being out of the bottom 3! I have the popcorn ready, this Season Finale is getting good and I'm here for it!
See the points difference isn’t the worst thing but we are burning through ‘winnable’ fixtures fast, we have a brutal stint coming up towards the end of next month. If we went on such a run I’d gladly change my tone, but I really really realllly cannot see it. Listen to the Higginbotham comments above if you haven’t already, he has tried EIGHT systems in five games. There is literally no way that can possibly work.
So less than 2 a game on average, not totally bonkers is it? The only match I have fully seen was against Brighton and I do not even recall what tactics we set up with or changed to. It was a poor match but I don't recall at any point thinking anything was off with the set up, more the players desire really! My main thing is, SR have made this decision, even if they were to change now, would anyone have any confidence they would appointment someone that could make a difference? Get the signings over the line, looks like we have 1 which is a good start early in the window. Got a little while now until the next league match, so get a few more in, work to the supposed system that he likes with players more suited and let's see what we can do. I feel changing again will cause even more disruption and confuse the players even more than they are now. What if the new manager doesn't want the signings we have lined up, we panic and end up with a Carillo up front! I know it's not gonna happen but get behind the manager, the players and have a little faith that things can work out and if not, well it's only football, many of us have real world issues that are way more important than any of this!
It's pretty bonkers. As Higgenbotham notes, part of the problem is that players are getting thrown into multiple different roles within the same match, many of which are not suited to their strengths, some of which they haven't played before. And there's really no need for it. It's one thing to bring on a wide player in place of a CB, and switch from a 3-5-2 to a 4-4-2, if you've drilled both. It's quite another to do what he did last match, where at one point he removed a LB, DM and forward and replaced them two wingers and a forward, resulting us having the following lineup: Bazunu KWP - DCC - Lyanco - Salisu - Edozie JWP Aribo - Elyounoussi Che - A Armstrong That is a ludicrous lineup. There is no midfield, so we were reduced to playing the ball even longer than previous. But there's also no size, so playing the ball long was unlikely to accomplish anything. The only particularly creative player in Edozie spent most of his time running back to his own end to try to chase counterattacks. And then later, when he threw on another attacking player, Edozie found himself as a left back in a back four. Yet with all of those attacking players, we couldn't consistently work the ball forward at any tempo because we had no midfield. Again, I'd normally be inclined to give some benefit of the doubt (chasing the game, squad has serious deficiencies) but the above lineup looks like he chose the players out of a hat. There's a difference between having a Plan B and simply wildly flailing.
If only this forum contained some functionality that allowed us to see how opinion was split between us.
I admire your optimism, but it is misplaced. There isn’t even a single shred of evidence that he can get the players playing. I have genuinely never seen a more disorganised premier league team than the one against Forest. Not exaggerating. No hyperbole. It was that bad.
If Twitter had been around in 1975 Lawrie would rapidly have been toast... <Hypothetical of course, but we would never have won the FA Cup without him imo.
. No evidence yet, but he seems to be asking each player to show him what they are capable of, it seems they aren't capable of much at all.
I’d like to raise you Southampton 0-9 Leicester. That day, we were the most disorganised mess I have ever seen. Even with 11 men, Leicester were going to put a hat full past us. We do look disorganised though. And Jones still has my support. I will judge him after the transfer window when he has players that hopefully fits to his idea
That’s probably true, but there were two 9-0 fixtures over how many seasons with Ralph? They were also against decent opposition. We’ve had 4 PL games and they’ve all been bad. And getting worse. Despite being against the 2nd worst team in the league.
It was obviously a complete shambles that night, but we did at least manage some shots on target... Jones has made us undeiably worse and it is becoming clear that Ralph was over achieving with a massively limited squad in the last 3 years. We finally have some financial backing and we ditch him in favour of someone who has had 2 jobs, of which one was a cataclysmic failure at Stoke. It will take something serious for Jones to win fans over going forwards. The football is abysmal to watch, he's terrible at press interviews and just appears completely contradictory to the "energetic nutter" that he was billed to be.
Because it turns your 13 into 21? Im probably not the best person to talk to about gambling as I’m a greedy ****er who is never satisfied no matter how much I win
Why are we looking at an individual to blame ? That doesn’t make sense. In any league defences cannot afford to make basic mistakes as we did against NF. We were lucky we were not punished even more than we were. We definitely need more experienced players that’s for sure. Then see how we go.
Sadly I think that we are stuck with him......SR will never ever admit that their complete reliance on stats and gambling on them is a problem. Contrary to what some may believe, I genuinely wanted Ralph to succeed. I've never wanted saints to lose a game, in fact if someone was to offer me the choice between England winning the world cup or Saints winning just one more game in any season, I would take the latter. I dearly dearly love my club. It's very important to me for a variety of personal reasons I don't feel comfortable sharing on here. But.....I'd happily lose tomorrow and the following cup game if it meant Jones was sacked. That's how strongly I feel. I'm seriously toying with the idea of not turning up at St. Mary's until he's gone. I've always gobbed off about boycotts before, but this time I've really had enough. SR do not respect us fans at all. We're an issue for them. Why am I paying for my ST? Why paying a fiver for the pint, or a programme for the nipper? Why am I spending money in the club shop for shirts for the kids to try and get them to love the club the way I do, when the club doesn't care? I'm not alone in saying I was there for Sheffield United away on a cold Wednesday night in the championship. I was there for Exeter away in league 1, Millwall, Derby, Plymouth, Forest. I went to them all. I don't care about winning, I care about our players trying. I care about a manager trying to play football and if we lose, so what? I'm not paying the best part of £100 a game (when including petrol etc) to watch a Brazilian kick it as far up the field as he can. Jones shouldn't have even been on our radar- SR have taken the piss and just don't care
