Left it until this morning to post as I was too angry yesterday and I'm still raging a bit now. That was absolutely the worst and least professional display that I have ever witnessed by a Saints team and it beats some strong competition. It started off badly and progressively got worse and by the end they had completely downed tools which is unforgivable and a massive kick in the teeth to the paying public. It looked like a team feeling sorry for itself and sulking that they had lost RM and not willing to try and salvage something from this disastrous season with the new manager. Only Ramsdale emerged with any credit at all and if it was possible i'd like see all of the outfield players dropped for the next PL game but that won't happen. So many contenders for the worst player but that award has to go to Sulemana who managed to make Ali Dia look like Le Tiss. I really don't know where we go from here because if the players won't try and perform to their best then there are surely even worse hammerings down the line. There has to be a complete reset in the Summer because there are so many that don't deserve to wear the shirt right now.
Martin was the problem. His stubbornness in the style of play and his part, as well as SR, in signing mediocre powder puff players, is a big part of the reason why we are where we are. We havent got the players to play the way Juric wants to, and that isn’t going to be sorted in this transfer window. Our big signings in THB, Downes and even Ramsdale have been disappointing imho. Fernandes has been the only signing to look like he is and could remain a premier league player. Start building for a promotion push as we will be in the best PRS position as would have 2 years of accounts out of the premier league remit. Sell of what we can this window and then have a good clear out In the summer.
Sacking Martin was the right decision. The wrong decision was sticking with him for so long. The players might all be sulking that Martin has gone, or they aren’t complete idiots and know we are 99.9% down so confidence is at an all time low (mainly due to Martin) so when we concede heads drop and we aren’t good enough to not get battered when that happens.
The only thing that’s really changed that I can see after yesterday was if Martin was in charge everyone would be blaming him, instead everyone is blaming the players.
Yes they are low on confidence and Martin is to blame chiefly for that but professional players should not be giving up so tamely and tbh they were not at it from the start. I'm not blaming Juric yet as he has come into a **** storm and needs the players to give blood, sweat and tears for the cause, they were miles from that yesterday and have no excuse.
The style of play is very different even if the result is the same. IMO the reason why the players were rarely blamed under Martin was because you could see they were trying (in most games) and it was the style of play more often than not that was causing us problems, even before you got to our own lack of quality. Yesterday it was very evident that they just didn't give a **** and had thrown in the towel before the game even started. That's why I think the blame has fallen at the players feet now. We know they lack the quality, but so do Ipswich, so do Leicester and yet they are generally making more of a fist of trying to stay in and win games then we are. As with most things in life, it's rarely black and white. The people saying this proves it wasn't Martins fault and we shouldn't have sacked him are not looking at the bigger picture. Martin was part of the problem, but not the only problem.
Yeah I said this yesterday, the style Juric wants to play sounds perfect for a team trying to stay up. Not so perfect when you come in mid way through the season to a team that is 99% down. It requires a lot of commitment from everyone involved and that is very hard to do with such a demoralised squad. If Martin was still here the players probably would look more bothered, but would still be getting battered most weeks as we saw Jurić being in charge for a full pre season could make us good to watch again. But I don’t know how his rumoured style would work with a team that is going to be favourites a lot of the time like we will be next season. Obviously if performances like tomorrow become the norm for the next 18 games or whatever it is that’s left then he won’t be here next season
Well done to the strategic geniuses of SR. They have the opposite of the Midas touch. Absolutely everything they do turns to ****
Yeah thought so. I was very surprised you thought Bree was ok yesterday. I’m Northam (just right of goal from terraces, so good view of Bree) & you could see clearly he was totally out of his depth as a defender & even going forward was so hesitant. Obviously you had a much better view of Suga in 2nd half to see how “good” he was. Jeez, we have a lot of dross.
Yeah, can't make it out that well all the way down there! Both Bree and Sugawara can be good players on their day, but when you don't have a midfield (or attack), then the whole team gets pulled out of shape. As soon as Brentford realised how crap we were in the middle they just ran riot. Our defence was stitched up by the attacking five (although Dibling gets a pass of course). The Brentford full backs regularly jogged with the ball 50 yards from the edge of their box over the halfway line totally unchallenged.
Juric should have started with the two best fullbacks and not given Sulemana a start. But he’s getting used to the squad.
Aribo cheated the ball further than Che could trap it, went direct to their player. Lesley did the okie kokie and he easily got past, quick through ball and goal. Well taken goal though, I’d have not got excited if Adam Armstrong was in that position.
Still tickets left in loads of blocks too having been on general sale since 23rd December. Likely be the first league game we don't sell out this season I'd say and there'll probably be Geordies everywhere.
