Something I forgot to mention is that I thought Che was excellent today and seems to be hitting a good bit of form. When he's playing like he is currently he really shows his class in this division. Bodes well for the run in.
Too many early goals conceded this season. In half a dozen games Saints have been one down in the first 10 minutes. That should not happen, especially against lower teams. Yesterday was another example of Saints being too casual early on. I know we have scored early ourselves, but sloppy defending is happening too often.
Yeah, we can blame the goals on certain individuals, but by and large they mostly seem to come down to putting ourselves under unnecessary pressure. I like the whole building from the back thing, but it shouldn't be a constant 9O minute philosophy. Let the game settle first. It only takes about 10 mins usually. Then do the risky stuff.
I missed the bollocks about Smallbone, but read of it after the game. FFS! On Wednesday night I was as horrified as anyone by the way the second killer goal was scored. Maybe it was the crap acoustics of the new Anfield Road end but I don't recall anyone screaming abuse at Smallbone. When he tried to repeat the trick shortly afterwards I heard someone ask if the lad had been told they weren't playing in red. So keyboard warriors have been giving him grief. I wouldn't have blamed him if he'd played safe every time against Brum. That he didn't is to his enormous credit. I suspect no player's performance has ever improved as a result of dog-**** abuse from so called fans. Martin wants players to be 'brave'. You can't be brave if you're not willing to accept that sometimes you'll make ****-ups. Nathan Redmond springs to mind.
Bravery IMO and RM: “Better to try and fail than not to try at all” ― Nicole Krauss, The History of Love
Fair enough like I say I've not watched it back and was also quite far away from it. From that distance it didn't look hugely dissimilar from the one Smallbone himself got booked for.
I thought I caught a glimpse of you on the highlights. Were you close to being behind the goal about halfway up the stand?
Nah I was in the far corner away from the goal, pretty much as far away from the red card as I could have been!
That was playing in a system with three CBs though, so he was usually played as a wing back or even as a LM. No one has questioned his attacking ability. In a flat back four he's a liability.
Lots to agree with here. Go back to playing THB at CB. If Martin is that desperate to play Stephens, then the better answer for me would be to drop Bednarek rather than mess around with THB. (Personally I just wouldn't play Stephens.) I mentioned yesterday about the huge volume of corners which we're winning at present - almost every match. But so many of them we're wasting. Obviously I don't expect them to be leading to a chance on goal every time, but I do think it's an area we could improve on. Arsenal clearly have this season, to the extent that they're now just as dangerous from corners as they are from open play. Having Rice to take their corners now appears to be one factor in that. And yeah, with Manning, yesterday was our 35th league game, not our 3rd league game. So his narrow positioning is far more likely to be as a result of Martin's instructions - because if it wasn't, Martin would have got across an alternative message to him by now. I'm still not convinced that he's particularly good, but it's not all on him.
I can’t offer any explanation for why Manning was so narrow for the opening goal but I would definitely say that he is playing to RM’s instructions. Several times yesterday, when Bednarek was on the ball near our box, Manning made diagonal runs into midfield to take a player with him, giving Bednarek a simple pass to Stuart or Adarma, who had come short on the wing. I think Manning is then playing in the inverted FB position, taking up Stuart’s position, which is why when we lose the ball we are so wide open down our left. Manning isn’t the quickest and Stuart doesn’t always backtrack well, but other than play with 3 CBs I don’t know how RM will solve the problem.
I kept thinking that was the case, but thought I was mixing him up with a Luton player. Too much churn of players and staff last season.
