Tom, you need to have a word with Russell Martin then. Because he was as angry as we were at the second half against Huddersfield and I bet he was furious with the first half today. What a deluded tosser he is!
Leicester failed to beat Sheff Weds. Leeds and Ipswich failed to beat Rotherham. Everyone drops points against teams they shouldn't. And it's a good thing as it meant I could watch Saints beat Spurs away or beat Man City at home. Oh I give up. People who expect perfection all the time will always end up disappointed.
In fairness Leeds couldn't beat Rotherham, Leicester couldn't beat Sheffield Wednesday, Ipswich couldn't beat Huddersfield. I mean, I get what you're saying, but it's perhaps not as simple as all that.
We are doing well. No denying it. as long as we keep picking up points no one can complain really. But it’s also fair to say we have been a bit crap. Look at our goal difference in the league ffs. Every team around us is in double figures and ours is still 2. We are stinking the top 6 out. Hopefully we can turn these grinds into some solid wins soon.
I'm not defending those two halves. But people need to put them into perspective. We're on a good run of results, I'm really not sure why people are being quite so harsh on the team.
We are getting better in some areas but making no progress in others. Creativity is way too low. Possession without substance is failing badly - and we have won a fair few points from great moments out of nowhere. What is the issue? Well, I think we have a few. 1. We only play with one wing. Today KWP was the only outlet on the right. This made it easy for them to control play and removed our chance for cross field passing. By the way, the opposition played several lovely crossfield balls because they had true width on each side. 2. Stu is not getting involved enough. He looks out of sorts since his Scotland heroics. 3. Charles and Downes have no creativity between them. We could play them both in a game we expected to be a fight but never in a match like this. 4. Alcaraz needs to be let off the leash. He looks great in small patches, but he has become too worried about pleasing Russell Martin. He needs to be told to go and have fun.
Look at our GD in the last ten matches, the reason we had such a deficit is because of the horrific run of four defeats in September when we scored only 2 goals and let in 12. We really need to forget that bad patch now as it was an experimental stage and the team is much more settled and not conceding so many self inflicted goals. I agree that getting a match sharp Stewart into the team could lead to more convincing wins.
I think you’ll find that was his assigned role from RM & I can’t say that’s his “best” position. Bit strange for me.
I think Charly needs to play in that slightly deeper role too, the false 9 stuff has been shown not to really work. Kamaldeen is the strange one - he still holds himself in a way that makes me think he believes himself to be better than he is, and too good to be playing in the Championship. He's got talent, for sure, but I don't think he quite understands what he is yet. There's a key to that lock somewhere, but I don't know if it's us that will unlock his potential as it's largely in his head right now.
I think Sulemana is a brilliant player but really not suited to our system. He needs space to run at or in behind defenders but because we tend to build attacks slowly, the opposition often have time to regroup and get back into shape which elimates the space he needs to work his magic. I'd still start him mind you, but I feel in a different system in this league he would be on fire.
I struggle to agree with this. He can’t shoot or cross. He has had plenty of chances where he could have made a difference. Just tonight he should have scored and put a couple of dangerous crosses into the box. Instead he ponces about thinking he’s mbappe
Weird game. BC had much better chances in first half & we created virtually nothing. 2nd half we definitely up’d the tempo but without KWP fabulous strike, we didn’t really create much in front of goal. Strangely for me, I felt rather comfortable after the goal & 1 was enough. I’m still not convinced by RM style but 10 games unbeaten & 4th is really good in anyone’s book. There’s still a big “but” tho. Ps. I got told off by the mods a few years back by using the facepalm against a fellow Saint. How things have changed.
I guess that was the remark that did the trick? I seem to have been watching a different game to most of the moaning minnies on here tonight, it was intriguing if not exiting, good saves, good goal and good battling back to defy dangerous breakaways and yet another error strewn referee, we won in spite of him.
The difference in energy levels between Bristol 1st half and 2nd half was very noticeable. They pressed very well first half, but we carved them open every few minutes in the second half. This would explain why Saints finish strongly in a lot of games, and also why our wingers look far better coming on in the last 20 minutes, rather than playing the whole first 70 mins. Maybe Sulemana should be coming on around the 60-70 minute mark for a couple of games.
See my comment above. Bristol made it very difficult for us first half, but it came at a cost for them second half. First half was okay, but like I said elsewhere, after the Hudds 2nd half it was tough to sit through. Second half we were excellent more or less. But yeah, I threw a little jinx in there to help us get the three points. I'm not ashamed.
Additionally, while I know that people don't like #stats, we're joint first in xG, and sixth in xGA. We're where the numbers say we should be. That four-game cataclysm does appear to be an outlier, and our defense has been markedly better since (particularly now that we're operating with a CB pairing who have learned each other's names).
I see it as a bit like Southgate. They have distinct styles which seem to be effective but you just wonder with the talent at their disposal if they could get a little bit more out of the players.
Apologies if posted already, but very odd post-match inrerview with Russel Madtin and Adam Blackmore: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0gwrhfs Martin comes across as a bit of a twat imo
A wins a win, and you can't really knock it when we are on the kind of run we are on. You do feel like we should be winning some of these games more comfortably though! Bristol City made it hard for us first half by playing incredibly compact. There wasn't much space to operate and they worked hard to close us down. We had a lot of the ball but just moved it around so so slowly that the only thing that was in danger was half the ground falling asleep. Add to that that we coughed up several really good opportunities for them that a combination of poor finishing and Baz pulling off a couple of really good saves kept us in it. Saw a write up on the BBC saying we booed them off at half time which wasn't the case at all, despite how dull the first half was. The booing was quite clearly for the ref who seemed very quick to give us yellows but often didn't even give a freekick for similar fouls on us. Second half the game opened up a bit. There was much more space in the middle of the pitch and Bristol stopped pressing, we started to move it forward a bit quicker but frustratingly it all came unravelled in the final third time after time and we didn't really create too many good chances. Hope LND hasn't suffered a setback? Theres a lot of pressure on his shoulders to turn us into a more potent attacking side, but I feel like we need another attacking/creative player in January too tbh.
