Oh dear oh dear dreadful game to watch. Every thing saints seem to do was at walking pace. Saints had numerous opportunities to move the ball forward quickly but seem to broadcast there move by being so slow. Giving Bristol the time to move to defend. The missed passes tonight really upset our movement forward too. Play like that against West Brom and we will have two losses on the trot. Come on you saints!!!
Hope you had a great night mate. Your team were impressive, though I have to say, I think any top-half team would have beaten us tonight. Good luck pushing on for the rest of the season!
Can’t lie, with Bristol City being my second team’s rivals and us on the best run in our clubs history, I always had a funny feeling that this fixture was cursed for me ! (happy to take the blame for this one haha) Although we lost and performance wasn’t what it’s been up to, I’m quite happy our unbeaten run has finished now, takes the pressure off a little and if we can rediscover some composure against the Baggies on Friday, I think we’ll put together another solid run until the end of the season. Downes staying fit seems like it’s going to be a huge factor in us going up. Staying positive as we were always going to lose soon! Also, maybe Russ will go a little less full on in the cup now too, as let’s face it we’re not gonna beat Liverpool in Klopp’s final season when he’ll be desperate to win trophies and I’d rather we rest H-B, Downes, Bednarek, W-P etc & see the youngster play with total freedom when we’re expected to lose.
I know it's a bit knee-jerk, but I if we are going to miss out on the autos, it might be better that it happens sooner rather than later. Trying to match Leeds/Ipswich over these final 16 games could really exhaust the squad. If our fate is known with 3 or 4 games to go, then we can rest key players in the final few weeks. With a fully fit and rested squad, we should win the playoffs.
We always seem to suffer from a blind spot in one position on the field Our goal scoring problem has gone away and now it’s defensive midfielder I’d be interested to know how any conversations between RM & the coaches with Charles go as he looked low on confidence and didn’t seem to want the ball We don’t have anyone else to fill this position when Downes is out and it affects our ability to transition from defence to attack as well as our ability to defend We have options in all other positions I thought Manning had a decent game though. Maybe it looked different on TV?
I didn’t think Charles was *that* bad. His positioning was good, and he grew into the game as the half went on. Just his passing was poor, but he wasn’t alone in that. I just thought he was rusty.
Post went before I finished. Added more EDIT: It was his not looking for the ball that worried me. And no one seemed to want to give it to him. Downes is involved all the time
Yeah with hindsight, he wasn't that bad...just kept misplacing passes. This, I hope, is rustiness as if Flynn is out then we need him as Smallbone is not a DM. I'm reasonably chilled about last night. We needed to have a bad game and let's face it, the game on Saturday wasn't that good really for the most of it. We can now reset and take the next 16 games as a mini league. I said at the beginning of the season that I don't think we had clicked - even though we were not losing. I felt we clicked around Christmas and the first half v Swansea away was probably the best we have played. That was with a very settled team. We have a few incomings now that take 2-3 games to get up to speed and a few enforced changes through injury. Once Brooks & Rothwell are firing on all cylinders and Edozie, Sulemana and Charles are back in the swing of it, we will be fine.
We just looked generally poor yesterday. The passing was off all over the field. I can give Bristol some credit for making it difficult, but I lost count of the number of times we passed it to them without any real pressure. I disagree on Charles. I thought he was really spectacularly bad. He looked ok when running with the ball but his defensive work was slow and his passing stood out as bad on a night where everyone sucked. At the start of the season he looked a different player. I worry that hooking him off was a mistake, in hindsight. He desperately needs a run of games!
Just look at Manning third goal. Half-attempts to press his man, gets completely bamboozled by the turn and acceleration, ten metres behind in half a second. Woeful. He's okay against crap teams at home, but any decent winger will dominate him.
Like many others on this, a great perspective on last night v rest of season. One off-game does not change the direction of travel. We're on course, caught off guard but Russ and the squad will be better for it.
Just as one swallow doesn’t make a summer, one loss doesn’t spell disaster. Except when you’re a football fan
Yeah that's how I saw it too. And although he was probably the main culprit he was by no means the only player misplacing passes in the first half either. I thought THB was uncharacteristically sloppy regarding this in the first half.
