Match Day Thread Will Still's useless XI* v Preston North End, 1st November, 3pm

It is and it isn’t.

As we’ve been saying, it’s entirely possible to build a team that still has an identity, despite a relatively high turnover of players.

Brighton, Brentford, Bournemouth are good examples. We were also a good example of this before SR came in too.

But SR have got it all wrong. They have essentially gutted the first xi and have never had a coherent strategy.
We have players signed by different managers, for different systems & ways of playing.

The only common factors between our players seem to be that they’re all **** and they all think they’re too good to be here.

Scienza being the only one that came over to the fans after that disgrace of a performance says it all.

That’s why this weekend is a massive game. The players need to show something.

 

It’s all relative though isnt it. It’s entirely possible for us to build a side of average Championship players who have identity and we do alright by the players ability levels (eg finish about half way in the Championship)

Most of these players would have no interest from clubs a step up from us and therefore would stick around for as long as we would have them.

It’s far harder to build a side that has a number of players (or as a collective) that can compete with the top half PL sides, whilst being a relative minnow. As you say the three Bs have done it, and we have previously done it. As have numerous other clubs in the last, what, 20 ish years? Bolton, Stoke, Swansea off the top of my head at times have built sides able to compete relatively consistently in the top half.

I think this is what SR (and every club of our size owner) is attempting to do, they just haven’t got it right. The main constant in their “no recruitment plan” has been buying players and appointing managers with “upside” and I think they have concentrated far too much on what could happen if these players/manager all pan out than the here and now and we’ve suffered because of it.

The season we have been successful in their time was hugely down to loaning in players. You can’t get much more “here and now” than loaning a player. However they then ****ed that up by signing players like Downes and Fraser permanently who aren’t PL players and spending a decent wedge on them. THB was an obligation which I can forgive seeing as when the deal was made he would’ve then been part of 3 promotion winning Champ sides so logic says he deserved a shot at the PL.

Then this year they’ve decided to **** the loans off (which would’ve given us a huge advantage) and go back down the future route, ignoring that if we don’t go up this year we have far more chance of our next league being League One than it being the PL.

People can say “oh we need time to repair the damage at the club” but ultimately we have a huge financial advantage for this year and this year only and we have basically wasted it by appointing a gamble at manager. Something SR love to do but are like that pissed pensioner in the bookies who has been waiting for his daily 20p accumulator to come in for the last 70 years

 

We have actually recruited on an individual basis far better this year as Azaz and Fellows are not really gambles, Scienza, Jansen and Jelert are clearly decent signings and Shea Charles is back and much improved

However, the gaps as a whole let us down
No Striker, No Leader, Lacking in defensive midfielders, Not enough experience in the first XI and an inexperienced manager

And now our injuries leave us trying to plug gaps up front, in defensive MF and at RB

 

I agree that the recruitment of players this season, on paper, looks decent at worst. Obviously your opinion on the striker issue or goalkeeping issue will influence on how much better than decent you want to give the grading.

The issue so far has been appointing a manager with a personality vacuum so he hasn’t turned round the mentality of a talented squad at this level. A manager who’s built his career on being the underdog and playing as such and a manager who doesn’t seem to know how to set a side up to really take the game to the opposition, which is what we should be looking to do more often than not.

This season is a write off now and it’s just about not going down, something i think has a realistic chance of happening under Still

 

We are 7 points off the play offs with 34 games left so not sure how you can say the season is written off. If we sack Still in the next week or two then the season is far from over. Obviously it then depends on who we get in to replace him.

 

Yeah no way can you say the season is a write off at this stage.

 

Nah the damage has been done, no chance we finish above half way

 

There are still over 100 points to play for, get in a manager to make the best use of the players we have and we can still make the play-offs.
We have a top 6 squad if used correctly.

 

Doesn't take long to move up this league if you hit some form. League seems even tighter than normal this year too.

Its only about a quarter of the way into the season.

 

I'm annoyed at the performances and the repeating mistakes but I'll still be going on Saturday (mainly as I've paid for it, don't like wasting the money, tend not to spend much on the overpriced piddle that is served there and it's a couple of hours out of the house) and I will still (no pun intended) be sat there with the hope of 3 points.

If we were 7 points off the play-offs with 10 games left, we'd all be urging the team to go on for a run of games as that deficit could be overturned. with 3.5x the games left despite all the crappy performance so far we still can do it and maybe even better - we just need to show some life in the team to stoke the belief we can do it

 

Rangers fans would have likely said same...

 

Yeah but any idiot should get a tune out of a Rangers side in the SPL

The writing is on the wall for us this year, quarter of the season gone and the loser mentality hasn’t gone

 

It feels like the writing is on the wall for Still and it's a matter of when, not if. Our season depends on who we replace Still with, and whether we get someone new in with enough time to turn things around.

 

Still has made some dreadful decisions, chief amongst them his insistence on having 3 CBs on the pitch.

Bar Scienza, the transfer window is looking worse by the week.

As for the players I can only think of 3 who are currently playing at a level required to not finish in the bottom 3 ...Scienza, Wood, Charles.

 

Forgot to say this on the academy thread. But I wonder if the lack of Sesay last night suggests that he might be playing or at least featuring on Saturday?

 

https://not606.com/threads/southampton-st-marys-1500-hrs-1-11-2025.420390/

We appear to have turned the corner, things are changing behind the scenes, on the pitch after what seemed like 5 years of mind boggling dull football, virtually all the games we have played this season have actually been entertaining.
Got a few injuries but that's life

 

Charles out for 6-7 weeks.

 

Edozie not available for foreseeable either.

 

If Archer hasn't trained all week I can't see him starting and that will mean sticking Armstrong through the middle again. **** that ****, I'll stay at home and watch the rugby instead.