https://www.smallheathalliance.com/read.php?1,3466307 This is an interesting read. Still loads of them not wanting var despite them being on wrong end today. This is fans who won't have experienced it too bar the odd cup match?
I've seen the 1st goal a few times now admittedly without VAR lines but Taylor looks level to me? (With saints specs off) or is it have had a touch too much?
Great result but I can't get my head around what downes is being told. Every pass is back to the centre backs which forces them to try and bypass downes to our other midfielder and lead to an interception. Some teams are noticing earlier then others and are expecting the backpass which leads to stupid mistakes and needless pressure.
Just looked at penalty shout on Sky. My immediately thought was, how many times did Shane Long get clattered like that with no penalty given? You win some, you lose some.
He is great to bring on when winning as he is great at holding up the ball and slow accurate through passes. His lack of pace however makes him poor when losing and his lack of pressing allows the opposition to pass it around the back
Most important thing is that my youngest has finally seen a win (and a good one too) up close a personal. He was beaming from ear to ear and told me in no uncertain terms that I'm not allowed to call him 'jinx' any more.
I don’t think it’s quite that extreme, but we certainly wobble in the face of adversity and I still don’t see anyone taking the lead to fix it. Jack when he’s back maybe ??? And we definitely take time to find solutions to tactical changes from the opposition … but we’re getting better in all regards
Best I have seen us under Martin. Instead of giving the opposition time to reorganise when we gained possession, we actually moved it around quickly at times. Having a creative player in our midfield 3 made all the difference yesterday compared to against Preston. Stu Armstrong was involved in almost every attack first half.
My immediate impression during the first half was that Birmingham offered no opposition whatsoever. Saints seemed even more dominant than against the first half of the Leeds match. The whole team seemed to kick albeit I did feel the game should have been over with by half time. KWP and Stuart Armstrong looked good and we seemed better with Bree in the squad as opposed to Manning. The first 45 mins and the last 15 were really satisfying. The second half started poorly. We semed like a different side and Birmingham seemed to have a degree of determination that was missing previously. I think that they were unlucky with the penalty shout and this is about the third bit of good fortune in a row shwere we have not had the correct refereeing decision given against us. Listening to Marten's post-match comments, I think he came across as more positive than he might have done. There were moments where we still did not have control of the game and I feel Jo Tessum made an interesting point about Saints have the same number of attempts on goal at one point despite the 71% pocession at that time. If I am honest, Birmingham were pretty poor and the league as a whole does seem pretty sub-standard in comparison with the Premier. I do not feel we are as good as Martin believes and this week's results do not necessarily show that all the problems have been resolved. We are in a much better position than I had expected but my question would be , other than Leicester and Ipswich, the standard is pretty low. Saints are not really standing out.
Jack’s passing and execution of Russball is better than Bedders Stewart will be a different proposition to AA, who can still play wide or as a 10 when RS is on
Will be fascinating to see how Stewart does. Have a good feeling about him. As harsh as it is on Bedders, I'd like to see Jack back in the team when fit. As Spiderman said, he is more comfortable with Russball, and I could see a good partnership with THB.
With the number of midweek games I expect most of the squad will get plenty of opportunities to play and earn the spot of being a starter. James Bree being the perfect example.
I think Bednarek has looked really good and comfortable with the style. He’s actually played a load of decent forward passes and striding out from the back - very instrumental in Kwps midweek goal too. I think the preferred partnership will always be him + either THB or Jack but I think the situation will sort itself naturally with the long season, injuries and suspensions. They will all get the good game time they deserve. When Jack’s fit he will have to wait his turn. Can even see him being utilised in midfield as a sub if needed.
I was about to post a similar comment re Jack in a midfield role it's an option worth exploring. He'd also be good cover if a CB comes striding out.
Fair point, forgot extra games, injuries (not too many!) and extra opportunity and squad rotation. Think I have a soft spot for Jack hence my bias perhaps.
First game we've been to in 18 months. Maybe it's the possession, pass pass style but everything seemed to be at half pace. Having said that, Saints ability to pass themselves out of tight situations was great to see. I'm not sure how much of that was due to Birmingham's lack of confidence in closing down in numbers or Saints superior skills. Whatever it was, Saints passed their way through Birmingham at will and as has already been said the game should have been won by half-time. One thing that was irritating me was the reluctance to get the ball out to KWP more. On the occasions that he did get the ball we were immediately at them working lovely one-two's and getting in crosses. For some reason, there was a preference to play the ball out left even when KWP was in space on the right and he showed his frustrations more than once. Sulemana did very well for the goal, excellent in fact, but we were a bigger threat through KWP overall. I think it was obvious that Birmingham were going to be in our faces after half time. I also think it was not being able to deal with that pressure rather than us being asleep that gave us an uncomfortable 20 minutes or so. We didn't seem to be able to keep the ball in that time which is a bit puzzling as we are quite capable of doing so and it might have helped if the defending for their goal was more competent. They should have equalised not long after that and our overall superiority would have counted for nothing. If we hadn't won that game it would have been a travesty but it could have happened if Birmingham were anything like decent. One thing that hasn't changed in 18 months is that a two goal lead never feels like enough with Saints.
