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Comment | Southampton At Fulham The Verdict
at 02:12:53
There have been players who oughtn't have been in the side—which means they were keeping out players who ought to have been. (This is of course an obvious point, although it was clearly lost on Russell Martin.) Here's hoping some of those are brought in from the cold and we build on the restored energy. |
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Comment | Southampton V Tottenham Hotspur The Verdict
at 00:42:43
Le Tissier put it pretty well in this instance: "It was a great watch last season under Russell but if we’re honest we got away with the way we played because of the quality of the opposition at times, always thought we’d need to adapt our style of play a little bit with the upgrade in the standard of opponent in the PL but sadly we didn’t. Wish Russell all the best in his next venture." |
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Comment | Enough Is Enough ! Russell Martin Has To Adapt Or Go !
at 18:34:10
As for Stevens, how ever will he make the apprenticeship hours to become a hairdresser if RM keeps picking him to play football?! We saw the inevitable outcome of this yesterday when he couldn't resist playing Cucurella's barber! |
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Comment | Enough Is Enough ! Russell Martin Has To Adapt Or Go !
at 18:31:04
No team in EPL history has stayed up after going 1-2-11, so we're effectively relegated now. The question going forward is whether RM is the man to lift us back out of the Championship in eighteen months' time, and whether we're OK with being England's 23rd best side. |
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Comment | Southampton At Brighton The Verdict
at 21:04:35
I have thoughts on the VAR controversy, and I'm confident I'm right. Archer was level with the last defender, so it ought to have been a simple call: a goal. The linesperson didn't see it that way and raised their flag. Given how close the play was, I can concede that decision, and feel that VAR should have simply confirmed it because they couldn't come up with any incontrovertible evidence to contradict it. In American sports (such as baseball and gridiron football), review can be as simple as that; if video assisted replay can't produce anything that definitively overturns the ruling on the field, it stands.
But then VAR went and muddied the waters, taking five minutes to fiddle around with the video, and then claiming that "the referee's call of no goal was checked and confirmed by the VAR as Armstrong was in an offside position and deemed to be impacting [Brighton goalkeeper Bart] Verbruggen's ability to play the ball." How on earth can one judge whether a player being offside impacts another player's capacity to play the ball, and why should that matter?! Does VAR have a direct line into the goalie's head? Do calls always favor the keeper? No—we want goals. In baseball, the tie goes to the runner, and this should have sufficed in our instance.
These kinds of messes make on-field refereeing redundant. I'm sure the refs were as butt hurt as we were by VAR's infinite complication of the call.
I appeal to those who know the rules of the game better than I do to set me straight. In the meantime, all this seems a no-brainer to me. Why play the game at all if we're just going to reduce it to eternities of fussing over videos of it, FFS?! |
| News
Comment | Southampton V Liverpool The Verdict
at 05:47:19
The Man City and Liverpool results these past couple of weeks really weren't surprising. They're the only two sides in the division that want to attack _all_ the time. In other words, unlike the seventeen other EPL sides, they never resort to getting everyone behind the ball and leaving us to pursue our own undoing (except that we managed to do just that anyway against Liverpool!).
I honestly can't say what we're paying Martin to do. (Is his job description to organize charity matches? To be a Puma clotheshorse? To entertain Lucy Pinder?) He can't pick the right side. And he's doing FA as a tactician (in fact, to call him one would be downright absurd).
If all this was our plan all along, we should have stayed in the Championship and continued to enjoy ourselves. I can't even be bothered to hit the "on" button on the remote anymore at this point. |
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Comment | Do Southampton Need To Recall Bella-Kotchap For Liverpool Clash
at 18:22:03
My best guess is that the rift between ABK and everyone else at the club is too far to bridge. Premier League managers find out how to overcome such stuff. But managers whose imagination doesn't extend beyond the Championship apparently find ways to leave proven talent on the wayside. |
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Comment | Southampton V Leicester City The Verdict
at 00:13:57
I'm sure to get some stick for this, but it's been a long time since I enjoyed a season of football like the past one in the Championship. The Premier League is just a big poker table rigged by the "Big Six/Seven/Eight," and we're always doomed to nail-biting and looking over our shoulders because we don't have the chips. In other words, it's just not been fun.
If the goal is to return to the Championship—which I think I wouldn't mind—then keep Martin and we'll have another enjoyable go of it next year. Perhaps our only punishment is to punch above our weight and spend seasons in the Premiership for it. |
| News
Comment | Southampton V Leicester City The Verdict
at 00:12:59
This article does a nice job of patiently pointing out the problems: https://defector.com/southampton-is-too-stubborn-for-the-premier-league.
In the meantime—and I'm sure to get some stick for this—it's been a long time since I enjoyed a season of football like the past one in the Championship. The Premier League is just a big poker table rigged by the "Big Six/Seven/Eight," and we're always doomed to nail-biting and looking over our shoulders because we don't have the chips. In other words, it's just not been fun.
If the goal is to return to the Championship—which I think I wouldn't mind—then keep Martin and we'll have another enjoyable go of it next year. Perhaps our only punishment is to punch above our weight and spend seasons in the Premiership for it. |
| News
Comment | Southampton V Arsenal The Preview
at 18:29:32
Well, if recent seasons are anything to go on, we've got to get 9-0 out of the way at some point, so it may as well be tomorrow. |
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Comment | Southampton V Ipswich Town The Verdict
at 19:17:23
I am buoyed by the positive comments here, because most of the time I dwell on the suspicion that we don't have the personnel—the manager or the players—to compete in the Premier League. Here's hoping I am wrong. |
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Comment | The Solution Is Clear For Russell Martin If He Is To Stay In His Job
at 19:54:08
I get that the idea of tippy-tappy football starting at the back is to suck opposing players into pressing high, to beat the press, and then it's off to the races. But why can't we do this sort of thing in relatively defined vertical zones up the pitch? Tippy-tap all you like on the wings in the middle third (so long as you eventually go forward). |
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