A bit similar to Baz in a way in that the championship was always likely to be the best place for him to develop and it was never going to go well in a struggling PL side.
Yes, hard to disagree with any of your comments, not to sure about him making much of an impacr from the bench, but I'd be delighted if he does come good.
Yeah similar to Bazunu really. It was always obvious he had talent but only signing him and not someone more proven/older didn’t help us much last season. I expect that we managed to get the likes of him/Lavia/Mara by telling them they would play a big role straight away so it was clearly the strategy the club wanted to take. Might be beneficial to their careers longer term being involved so early, but clearly detrimental shorter term for the club (in Mara’s case especially, Bazunu I still don’t think was particularly to blame for last year, though he didn’t help much either)
I think Downes level of fitness will be key in this one. Hopefully he's over his latest stomach issues and is 100% again having had 2 weeks rest. Sheffield Wednesdays resurgence under Rohl seems to be in no small part due to the high press. We have generally become really good at passing out from the back under pressure but are still liable to the odd **** up. I think Downes is a vital part of us successfully playing out from the back against a team that is good at the high press, as he always makes himself an option for the defence to pass to and is so good at shielding the ball under pressure and making the simple pass to a player in a bit of space. He's so calm in possession and rarely makes the wrong decision. It will be Interesting to see if Wednesday change their tactics up since it's typically teams that sit back and stay compact and organised that we often struggle to break down. If they can get the right mix of staying compact and organised and deploying the high press at the right times then they could hurt us. We also have fewer attacking options to bring on to change the game in our favour which has been a huge part in a lot of our games. Super sub Fraser will have to start and it'll be youth off the bench to replace him (or shoehorning a striker out wide). Also hope that RM is over shoehorning Stephens in to the team and KWP plays RB.
I'm expecting them to come out and press from the off. It is a philosophy Rohl clearly believes in and so far he has had brilliant results deploying it with Sheffield. An effective press is often the best way to combat possession-heavy sides so no result would surprise me tomorrow. I think it is going to be a lot tougher than you'd think considering we are the form team and seemingly unstoppable at home up against a team at the other end of the table.
It will go one of two ways: Sheffield Wednesday will make it bloody tough for us or we'll play through their press and utterly destroy them. As we saw with Ralph, the pressing game can go catastrophically wrong.
Maybe the 19 game unbeaten run, being entertained and enjoying going to matches for the first time in a while will help us to get over it?
Yeah, I think a 3-0 Saints is just as likely as an away win - impossible to predict. One thing I will say is an away win at 6/1 is very good value.
Just adding to my previous post, Sheffield Wednesday over the last 8 games are 4th in the form table, having won 15 points, 3 fewer than Saints. Might need the fans to stick with the patience they have shown of late, when we are looking for the opening goal.
You've just highlighted a permanent concern we Saints fans have once we appear to be on an unstoppable run.
