To my mind, Narrowness continues to cost us. We are giving so much width to the opponent forwards. I lost count of how many diagonals were pinged over to Amad who could just drive forwards unopposed till he hit the box. and there were always two in the box looking for the ball. It’s the same every week, giving time and space to wide players is dangerous. on the one or two occasions we got the ball to BBD he was forced out to the touch line with no space. Much harder for him to create anything dangerous.
I don’t agree. 101 defending is don’t be the last man, 2 metres behind your teammates, playing everyone onside. Stephens did this on his own 6-yard line at a free kick in a pivotal time in the match. That goal, 2 minutes after the missed penalty, killed us and lost us the game.
It's far, far too early to change manager, and he deserves the time to try and work this out. But for all the people saying Moyes, or Allardyce, I think we'd be far more likely to go for Potter if we can.
Stick with for now, we looked more than ok for the first 30 or so minutes, the penalty miss was an absolute game changer. He needs to find a way to keep their heads up after the miss. And definitely needs to start Dibbling whenever possible and get ABK in to replace shoehorn.
I know we all love to scapegoat Stephens, but this is a very hyperbolic take, even by Saints fans' standards. Yes, he had a shocker for their goal, I don't dispute that. But the fact is, if your attacking players create very little, and then miss a penalty on top of that, you can't point the finger solely at the defence for losing the game. The centre backs and Ramsdale kept the scoreline modest. It could easily have been 6 or 7. You can't expect them to be a relentless brick wall for the entire game when they are getting battered. It's our toothless attacking play that is making teams realise they can basically camp in our half and put relentless pressure on us. Neither the penalty miss, nor their first goal won the game for Utd. They were absolutely miles above us in terms of quality. Second half was ridiculously one-sided. Yes we were competitive for the first 30 minutes, but we had no idea whatsoever for how to get back into the game once the momentum had switched. I'm not blaming any individual attacking player either. I think they're all decent players with the potential to make it in this league. But when you compared the speed at which Utd passed the ball around us, to our own passing game, the gulf was huge. We're trying to outplay world-class Premier League teams with possession football. And our passing isn't close to good enough. This is why I reckon we should try Fernandes as a deep-lying midfielder. We need someone who can hit a 40 yard pass down the flanks, instead of 10 yard passes back to the defence.
Do you have any thoughts on THB defending for their 3rd goal? Or is all the **** going towards Stephens for simply being called Jack Stephens? For reference, here it is: https://x.com/JustSaints_/status/1835075309768438182?t=UKXo1T4A7iWMU6C2zJfqIA&s=19 Both just as bad, yet THB isn't getting as much stick. Wonder why? And yes, I know the game was over at that point ...
THB one was arguably worse to be honest. I think people find it more frustrating with Jack though because we've seen him do it time and time again at this level and know that his tendency to ball watch will always present problems against top quality opposition. Whereas THB is new to this league and people are hoping he will adapt and improve as time goes on.
Nobody is appointing Allardyce. He's not had a PL job for years now and his last one was a huge failure. Can't see SR going for Moyes either and doubt he'd even take it, though I don't think Potter would either. Still far too early to make a change but next week will go a long way to deciding how much time he's given. Get a win there and think he'll see November at the absolute minimum, but should we lose that then hammerings at Bournemouth and Arsenal will likely make his position untenable with many fans and possibly even some players.
If he were to go we all know the profile of manager we will appoint, and it won’t be a Moyes type or a Potter He’s not going anywhere for a while at least so pointless discussion at this time
I think we have to stick with him. In life and football there are ups and downs. You have to go through the lows to get to the highs and vice versa. Keeping us up this year, even if we had Pep is always going to be a struggle and I prefer a known quantity like Martin in the Championship next year. The most successful teams don't keep changing managers every 1-2 years. They simply don't. With regards to SR, I know there is huge criticism on here of them, but they have to balance wants with reality. They don't purposely try to relegate us...for us this is a passion, for them it is real £££.
No it’s not hyperbole Stephens was absolutely terrible. He switched off for the first goal, ran about like a headles chicken then got stupidly sent off. 2/10 performance from him. we have known for years he’s not a starting level CB. WHY are the club persisting with him? At best he should be a sub when we are trying to see out a game (if we ever score) in this league
Okay and then THB came on and made a mistake that leads to another goal? So we drop him too? We'll run out of center backs before October. Honestly if you think Jack Stephens is the biggest problem right now, I have no words.
But if you are successful you don’t need to change manager so that’s a bit of an irrelevant comment. More would be how many managers have turned things around after a sackable run and then become successful. I’d guess the answer to that is not many as “sackable run” is probably not even half a season before fans want a manager doing poorly gone, probably something like 10 games
Changed your mind on "here for the season no matter what" then. Hopefully it doesn't come to this but if we lose next week and then get dicked at Bournemouth he'll be under huge pressure. Though for what it's worth I don't think we'll lose to Ipswich.
No I still think he will be, but as I’ve said before if the fans turn on him Jones style (which I do think is a possibility) then he’ll go. But I don’t think that will happen for awhile
Fan pressure and/or player pressure will be the turning point as it almost always is in managerial sackings.
Yeah, Jack Stephens being out the team isn't suddenly going to make us score goals at the other end. We'll still be pissing around with the ball at the back etc
I don’t remember many rumblings about Jones from the players. In fact I think it was the opposite and he seemed well liked behind the scenes. The fans certainly drove that one, completely different situation to now though. A lot of fans didn’t want him in the first place so were quick to turn when we were still losing after he arrived. Actually similar to Martin after his run of 4 losses in a row at the start of last season where there were lots of calls to sack him Anyway I think he’ll see out the season as said unless we do a Derby. If he keeps players and fans onside and we go down then he’ll stay, if he loses the players especially then he should go and a new voice in charge to try and get the team back up next year. Same voice if he’s lost the dressing room will make a promotion attempt much harder
They don't purposely want us relegated no, but they don't give a **** if it happens. The player development into a Man City style before selling them on for ££££ is all that matters. They don't give a **** for the fans or the success of the club. As long as we can sell a Lavia or Livramento each year they're happy as a clam. That's why I'm not fussed if RM stays or goes. It's all moot while under this ownership.
But name an owner that will. Every owner will ultimately see it as a business as it is hard cash to them. Yes they may care about the club (Wrexham?), but ultimately it is £££ and they cant keep losing money.
