Ivan Juric has been explaining why after starting Albert Gronbaek at Ipswich, he has barely used him since, but it beggars the question as to why we signed him in the first place.

Just over two months into his reign at Southampton, Ivan Juric has slowly making Saints supporters wonder, just what he is doing, under Russell Martin we were well organised, our former manager had to go not because of the way he set out his sides, but because of his disastrous tactics.

Juric has seemingly taken that team from a relatively organised unit into a leaderless rabble with sides packed with players out of position.

So when I read Juric's comments to The Daily Echo I was a trifle baffled:

"No, he can play more, but if I put Dibling and Sulemana, then I cannot put him in. Even today we put Mateus as a midfielder."

Perhaps the only decision that Juric got right against Brighton, because Gronbaek is actually a midfielder not an attacker, a look at transfermarkt.com suggests that the Dane's position is in the centre of midfield, either in a conventional role or as a more attacking player such as Mateus Fernandes.

That is the position where he made his name in Denmark before his move to France last summer.

It was at Stade Rennais that he found himself pushed out wide, perhaps not with too much success, as he soon found himself on the bench and at odds with the manager, he probably saw a loan move to Southampton as a way of playing in his preferred position and finding his form again, but that has not proved to be the case and he now is getting a sense of deja vu after Juric's treatment of him and his comments from the weekend.

Why sign Gronbaek if your preferred attacking option was always going to be Tyler Dibling and Sulemana, not to mention that when he arrived at the club, he also already had Adam Armstrong, Cameron Archer, Tall Paul Onauchu & Ben Brereton Diaz, how many more attacking options did he need, but if he wanted a striker why did he not sign one.

Juric's comments mirror those made by him when he was asked about why Adam Lallana was getting little game time, Lallana himself must have wondered why Juric had signed Gronbaek and thought it showed that he has little future at the club, if Juric is boss next season.

Juric's team selections, substitutions and comments get stranger by the week, but it is not this season I am worried about, it is the next one, this one is done, whatever our trials and tribulations now, we did have the consolation, that our squad was just as strong as the one that won promotion last year, with a few players leaving for big money, we could improve it and be one of the front runners to go up again.

I have no confidence that this will be the case under Ivan Juric, I think his way of doing things will be about change and more change, as it has been this year.

That means we will not hit the ground running, but find ourselves trying to completely rebuild the squad and Juric's transfer dealings haven't exactly set the world alight so far.

So more strange comments from our manager and we go to Chelsea wondering what bright ideas he might have up his sleeve from this game, the only player he seems to trust is Sulemana, who although is a great improvement on his form prior to Juric's arrival, is still hit and miss, great pace looks good from the stands, but it has to have end product and too often it doesn't,

Likewise Tall Paul, Juric seems to play him one week and drop him the next, he again has had no real end product, a couple of goals is a decent return by our own low standards this season and no one can accuse him of not trying, but like Sulemana, there is too much work outside the box and not enough end product in it.

The more I hear from Ivan Juric, the more I worry.

All Photos Via Reuters

saintmark1976 added 10:18 - Feb 24 Good luck to what’s left of our club in trying to sell next season’s tickets if Solak sticks by his promise that Juric will be our manager in the Championship. There will be plenty of space in the Dell Pub and fan zones and they may as well shut the club shop completely.
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Bowlercow added 10:50 - Feb 24 Fed up with commenting about how bad Juric is There is a redemption option.Get rid of him now,put Rusk and LaLa in until the end of the season,get bids in for Ramsdale,THB,Bednarek,Dibling,Fernandez,Sulemmana,Tall Paul,
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StillaSaint added 11:01 - Feb 24 Its a total shambles . We were better of with Martin no question . Juric has done nothing in my opinion . We need to re employ Martin for next season or Rolf . What i don't understand is why the board would go with an unknown manager who has never managed in the prem when there were others available who now the league . Now look we are so poor its painful to watch . I have been supporting Saints for over 50 years and this the worst iv seen . As a football coach at an academy i understand football and really don't get what the manager is going . HE NEEDS TO GO YESTERDAY before like saintmark1976 said its to late and all the supporters give up totally .

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underweststand added 11:06 - Feb 24 To be fair I don't think I can blame any party. After enduring 60+ games of Russball, it's becoming hard for Juric to find a workable attacking formation when we have only one recognised striker and too many injuries to talk about. We haven't seen enough of Gronbaek to make any judgement, but he looked to be an attacking MF but Fernandes is already one of our few dependable players and is in that spot. Very little MF creativity, and Smallbone is still lacking form, and Downes (whilst out of the doghouse) isn't the same player as last season. Even if the players are trying to be positive from the start, it isn't only fans who drop their heads after the first goal goes in, andhold on to the hope that we don't concede too many more before the final whistle. We can't attract " the better class of player " when we are priced out of the market over transfer fees and the higher salaries demanded by their agents, and despite some valiant efforts by certain individuals it's clear that (like Ipswich and Leicester) we just aren't good enough for the top tier at present. It would be good to get a few more points as some sort of recompense before the end of season, but in all fairness I feel that after the summer it won't be a case of "who will leave", but more likely - who is still left. We may never get a good look at Gronbaek, and his long future with Saints is probably no better than many others.

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JoeEgg added 14:09 - Feb 24 It was only last weekend that Nick suggested that the Brighton fixture on Saturday was 'winnable'!! Now we have our central defenders getting injured and a lunatic in charge. How can any game be regarded as 'winnable' with the Club in total chaos. If Gronbaek, and a number of others are to achieve anything at Saints, it will be with an English manager who can organise and understand how to get the best out of a pretty poor squad. The Brighton result could have easily been 0-10 - we are that bad under Juric. We missed out on Potter so perhaps Steve Cooper could be brought in immediately. Just one more week with Juric represents total insanity.

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JoeEgg added 14:12 - Feb 24 Further Comment! With apologies to the Welsh - I believe Steve Cooper was born in Wales!
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YosemiteSaint added 17:51 - Feb 24 These are unfortunate times at Saints in that there's nothing to play for except a spot in a Championship side next year. So everything thus far this calendar year, and everything to follow in the final twelve matches, is pure experimentation at best. Hopefully we work out whatever we need to for next year. It won't make for attractive or successful football through the end of the season, alas.

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Newdawn2014 added 18:27 - Feb 24 Sometimes you just want to lay in bed and wake up on May 26th 2025 and it`ll all be over . COYS
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