Did eventually mate though it wasn't looking likely for a while. Think I've lost a bollock from being sat in the cold for three hours mind.
I think this season mate most of us are more negative than positive. Juric said on Solent yesterday he wasn't happy with the defensive display and doesn't want to see that again. As much as I liked RM as a person I am much happier under Juric even though we have not got any points under his reign.
Weird game yesterday. The scoreline and final 15 minutes made it seem a lot closer than it felt at the match. Feels mental that we'd have got a point if not for that clearance off the line and we didn't deserve one imo. That said the last ten minutes was probably the most enjoyable of the entire season so far. Thought we started pretty well albeit with our usual lack of threat going forward but then gave away two cheap goals as per, and after the second heads dropped massively and we saw the strolling around we saw vs Brentford. Really was disgraceful for the remaining period of the first half. Credit to Juric for turning the professionalism around at least for the second half. Thought Juric got his selection wrong initially, far too lightweight to play a team like Forest and Sugawara is an awful footballer at this level imo. Hopefully he will be an asset next season though. Flynn had a mare too and Lesley made a huge difference when he came on. Ramsdale had a poor game I thought. Got incredibly lucky with the disallowed goal and thought he should have done better for Wood's too. Didn't seem to command his box well either. Referee was atrocious for both teams I thought, just general incompetence all round. Says a lot when both sets of fans are ****ing a ref off after less than 20 minutes. How Downes wasn't sent off I'll never know, it was right infront of me and I'm absolutely certain it was deliberate. Thought he probably should have sent KWP off instead of playing advantage for his pull back too. Pleased Tall Paul got his goal and nice to finally score from a set piece! Thought his hold up play was really poor though and in truth he was pretty anonymous until his goal. Atmosphere was largely ****e in our end and was disappointed with the Forest fans too given how well they're going in the league. They do seem to get noise from different parts of the ground though which is what we had until this season Really don't like our chances of getting another 6 points. A win at Ipswich is essential for it imo and failure to do so will make it an even bigger mountain. Onto Newcastle and no doubt another defeat. UTFS.
Must say, thought Lesley was excellent when he came on. Looked a level above, and a proper PL midfielder.
And this: ‘"I wanted to give the minutes to Flynn Downes to come back I think he's a good player - but he didn't do well. I think it's a big difference in the Premier League.’ ‘"I think this team, when we play without intensity, we are really bad. We didn't have intensity," Juric admitted, speaking at the City Ground.’ Etc!! such a different and more appropriate summary amongst other comments from the manager. No ‘they can be proud’ stuff. As it is, like it.
Well you’re wrong about Ramsdale imo (one poor performance doesn’t make a poor player), but pretty much right about everything else. Absolutely no comfort whatsoever in a decent second half, when the game’s already been decided in the first. .
Whilst I do agree, I don't really care what the manager says after the game if we win. So far, Juric has 4 games and 4 losses (in the league). I'm not really laying the blame with him, but I just don't think he is the right manager for next season.
Given the situation he's come into I'm okay with Juric so far. He at least seems to see and acknowledge the problems with the team and he's improved Sulemana. I didn't watch yesterday but I can understand the team selection because of the mid-week game and lack of match fitness for some players. The fact he actually managed to improve the team's performance during a match suggests he's better than Martin at least. I'm particularly pleased he's already identified the need for the team to be more "evil" and this squad definitely needs a bit more devil in it so hopefully he can find a couple of bastards to bring in. But yeah at some point he needs a couple of results.
Juric has a squad recruited for RM style of play. If he had built his own Squad to suit his style I really believe we would be in a much better position than we are right now. You may well be right but if he does decide to stay and build his own squad I would be more than happy for him to be in charge next season.
The plus point is it was recruited for RM style of play. This 'style' would never work and these players especially couldn't do it. Maybe now some of what we have left can play like real footballers and with instinct, rather than to me to you to me to you....oh **** we conceded.
Well we’ll just have to see. But, in fairness to your point, a manager’s interview doesn’t change the result, I agree but for me at least the tone and directness indicates that the players must be feeling a change has come and it would seem to me that at some point (too late after 21 games etc) we’ll get some better results. I’d rather see us give teams much more to think about than we have under RM.
I am happy with manager so far but very disappointed that the delay in replacing Martin meant we lost Charlie who I liked. But every player I have ever liked Saints have sold. We are the mister Macawber of football clubs.
If you ignore the actual on-field action, I really enjoyed yesterday. That was one of my favourite away trips. As for the football, in no time at all, Lesley has put his hand up to be our best CM and Sulemana has put his hand up to be our best attacker. Very small sample size, for sure, so lets not read too much into it. But it does make you think just what a bad job Martin was doing with them. Next step please is to get KWP back on the right. At least we don't need to worry about not having Downes next season. No PL side is signing him from us.
Forgot to mention but big shout out to the Forest fan who stood up and passionately joined in with our '**** VAR' while our first goal was being checked.