Southampton supporters turned up in their usual big numbers and were once again treated to the same type of display that they have watched all season, yet another defeat at St Mary's due to poor defending.

Under Russell Martin we had a reasonably well drilled team that lost games because they were being forced to play the possession football game in tight situations when a clearance was called for, and who passed and passed the ball sideways, rarely playing the killer ball, under Ivan Juric it is the mirror image, his side play a far more attacking game, but are about as well organised as the retreat from Dunkirk.

Once again we saw goals given away as opposition players were left completely unmarked and with us standing off to allow them to pick their shots and their passes.

But the worrying thing under Ivan Juric is that he has a complete inability to actually know who is best players really are and play them in the right positions.

As I mentioned in the Preview, Juric either picks the wrong line up and then has to make changes, but ultimately it is too little too late, or he picks the right line up and then makes bizarre substitutions that see us throw the game away.

He just doesn't know what his best defence is and completely chops and changes, leading to even more disorganisation in what is already a team without leadership.

Most Southampton fans at Ipswich would agree that perhaps our two standout players in that win were Welington & Big Les Ugochukwu, they were strong in the tackle and stuck to the duties they were asked to do.

So why in the following League game after that win, was Big Les consigned to the bench !!!!!!

The Premier League midfields are packed with big strong athletes, Big Les is perhaps the only one of our midfielders who can be classed as that type of players, so why was he dropped for Will Smallbone.

Now I am not going to criticise Smallbone here, it was not his fault he was picked ahead of Ugochukwu, he went out there and battled hard, he was just overrun and out powered, it was disgusting to hear people cheer when he was substituted.

So we had a starting line up that was all over the place, a back three that lacked leadership and organisation and saw a full back in Bree played as a central defender when we had Armel Bella-Kotchap on the bench, indeed we could easily have played Charlie Taylor in the back 3.

The side was completely unbalanced, but more disturbingly it completely lacked leadership and organisation and that was proven after only 14 minutes when Bournemouth opened the scoring with a cross that saw Ouattara completely unmarked to glance a header home, he had a defender in front of him and one behind him, but neither of them were anywhere near him.

After conceding a goal teams look to their Captain to steady the ship, when a team concede a goal they are often at their most vulnerable because they try to score one back straight away, rather than reorganise and make sure they don't get caught again.

We have to leader on the pitch, Jan Bednarek is a whole hearted player who has been a good player for Southampton over the past 7 years, but he is not a leader and that showed only 2 minutes later as we lost the ball and stood off enabling Christie to pick his spot.

Now we were in complete disarray and many feared another big defeat, but we dug in and somehow got to half time without conceding again.

At the break Juric provided his own evidence that he had got things wrong, on came Big Les Ugochukwu, but was this a straight swap ? the answer is no, off went Wellington & Wood and Joe Aribo dropped into the back 3 , with Sugawara coming on as a wingback.

This involved 4 positional changes, hardly helping a team who already didn't seem to know what they should be doing.

On 56 minutes there was another change, off went Smallbone to those disgusting cheers, where were the phrases I see & here all the time "He is one of our own" or "Once a Saint always a Saint" and on came Tyler Dibling.

This lead to a revival of sorts despite the fact that we now had only half of the outfield starting line up playing in the positions they started the game in, all the evidence that you need on this manager and his team selections and substitutions.

We started to look like a team that believed in what it was doing, although it was still a bit disjointed, and on 72 minutes Sulemana scored a goal and suddenly with Bournemouth having failed to kill us off, there were hopes of a revival.

But that hope would last barely 10 minutes until once again we got caught on the break and the game was now well and truly over.

What did Juric do ? He threw on Archer for Sulemana and Manning for Aribo, too little too late, although when you looked at who were on the bench or for that matter not even in the squad and didn't get a game, that perhaps tells you something about where this manager is leading us, Adam Lallana would have been a cool head to bring on as we were getting on top, but not on the bench, Armel Bella-Kotchap seems to be being punished for something and forced to sit on the bench without a hope of even playing.

Albert Gronbaek was played at Ipswich for an hour on his debut, 4 minutes against Burnley in the Cup is all he has been seen in the last two games, Charlie Taylor an experienced Premier League player, another old head who can organise, was on the bench but has barely had a kick under Juric.

This was yet another game that we could have got something out of, Bournemouth have got into the upper reaches of the table because they are the blueprint for those clubs who sit in the mid table and sometimes have a little push for higher, they are full of big strong, fast athletes who are well organised and well drilled, with a manager who knows how to get the best out of his squad.

The stats of this game are not much different for either side, Saints 11 shots on goal with 4 on target and Bournemouth 14 with 7, both sides had 4 shots blocked and out of that total both sides had 4 from out of the area.

On those stats we were not overrun, but those watching know the real story.

If anyone had any lingering hopes that we might be pulling off a Great Escape, this was the game that dashed even the most optimistic Southampton supporters hopes and the home sections were 3/4 empty by the time of the final whistle.

The only hope that we have had in recent months was that we had a side that could be a front runner in the promotion battle next season, but under Ivan Juric even that side is being dismantled, Adam Armstrong already out on loan, Flynn Downes seemingly estranged from the manager and not even in the squad, Adam Lallana marginalised, Charlie Taylor wondering what he has to do to get a chance.

There is no point in sacking Ivan Juric now, the season is done and dusted, but we now need Southampton FC to lead from the front, Johann Spors is the new Director of Football , lets hear from him how he sees the future !

Perhaps he is saying little as with a break clause for manager and club in the summer, he is concentrating on sourcing a new manager.

I would hope so, because the mood of Southampton supporters that had never been higher in a decade last May at Wembley, has now never been lower since 2008/09 as the club went into administration, but back then we had a good excuse.

All Photos Via Reuters

DorsetIan added 09:52 - Feb 17 There was an opportunity after Martin to steady the ship, and to stop the endless series of defeats that we and the players were having to endure. (Well there was an opportunity after about 8 games of watching Martin in the PL to do that, but let's not get into that). This chancer has come in, not improved the results a jot and I believe we are even conceding more goals than under Martin. And Nick you are spot on about his team selections and substitutions but he was like this at Roma and it's a sure sign that he really doesn't have a scooby-doo what he's doing. My worry now is it the effect that all this is having on the players. Are we really going to continue to the end of the season and inevitable relegation, playing completely random football and losing and conceding goal after goal every single week? All these players are going to need years of therapy to get over the trauma of all this. It's too much now.

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sandywelsh added 10:06 - Feb 17 Saints are now a lost cause and need a new manager in the summer. If only we could have got David Moyes. He has turned Everton around with 4 wins and a draw out of the 6 games he's been there. To rub salt into the wound a player Southampton let go scored the winning goal and had an assist in the first goal.
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saintmark1976 added 10:33 - Feb 17 “ Southampton supporters turned up in their usual big numbers”, they didn’t though did they Nick ? As of Saturday morning there were 752 unsold tickets on the ticket exchange and that figure didn’t include season ticket holders who couldn’t be bothered to put their ticket on the exchange and also stayed at home. In reality there were unoccupied seats all over St Mary’s for a game against our geographical closest rivals. As for the game itself you could have rehashed any one of your reports from pretty much any one of this season’s home games bar our only win against Everton. A clueless rabble of mainly lower division players led by an equally clueless manager. Is it their fault? Of course not. Blame for our total ineptitude rests with the owners and their employees total mismanagement of what was once a respected Premiership football club. If Sports Republic remain in control next season’s Championship experience won’t be the novelty it was last season and there will be many other opportunities to see St Mary’s partly full.

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wessexman added 10:42 - Feb 17 The big fear for me are the first 8 - 10 games in the Championship. It could be argued every big decision SR have made has been wrong. This manager has no knowledge of what it takes to get out the Championship at the first attempt. Next October, we could be well adrift from the top in the Championship if this manger stays in position. It is now mid February and we are relegated already. Let us hope our board change their habit of their lifetime and start treating SFC as a professional football club and use the remainder of the season wisely and start planning for a successful campaign in the Championship. I am not holding my breath.

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beynali73 added 11:01 - Feb 17 Sport Republics raison d'être is owning lower European leagues teams and using them to bring through young talent to sell off and make themselves profit. That is their idea of success. Being competitive isn't an objective but is a nice by-product before the calf is fatted up and sold off. This club has a lot of potential as we have seen in the not too distant past. We just need ambitious owners whose measure of success is on the pitch not solely on making money from selling players.

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halftimeorange added 11:19 - Feb 17 How can it be that we fans are questioning the obvious - Wellington taken off at halftime when Bournemouth were making little progress against him, Ugochukwu not starting, Bree played as a centre back (a feat he did not accomplish), no sign of Gronbaek, Smallbone left on when he was patently out of his depth, Bednarek needing stronger support whilst displaying his usual strengths and weaknesses....anyway the list of team selection and tactical errors goes on and on and Juric (and, apparently, those above him seem oblivious? Is Southampton no longer the prospective jewel in the Sports Republic crown? Göztepe are doing well in their league and their management structure looks settled. Are they now the favoured possession? I ask only because nobody at SR seems remotely interested in what is happening to us and in Juric we have a front man who is not delivering any shred of hope thus far and is already out of touch with the fanbase. It is just sad.

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Bowlercow added 12:24 - Feb 17 Poor team selection from the start Weird changes at half time and an even weirder event with the last substitution. ABK was starting to get ready to come on and then he changed his mind and called Manning,who was warming up,to get ready I've had enough of this guy Ramsdale punted the ball long many many times.Tall Paul won a few headers but without direction or support the ball came straight back at us At least under Martin we had a system OK it didn't work but I fail to see that hoof ball is a better watch Nick AL was injured so not on the bench Have you noticed one person is voting against every single post

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underweststand added 12:45 - Feb 17 I don't blame Juric, as he is trying to find a workable combination from an unfamiliar, and mismatched squad who had been brainwashed into Russ Ball for 60 odd games, and he is now attempting to get an attacking formula despite without recognised strikers and two CB's on the injured list. Under RM, players who couldn't play his possession style football were simply left out, or in cases (like Alcarez) were let go because they didn't. Despite the vast number of defeats; I think the players are attempting to make a game of it, but two goals concede in 5 minutes surely depletes the enthusiasm. We still have a problem in mIdfield and worse with Aribo forced to play CB , whilst Will Smallbone hasn't recovered his best form and Flynn Downes sulking because he can't get his own way, and Fernandes is getting kick around for his valiant efforts. If there is a better /perfect start side in Juric's thinking, we haven't seen it succeed yet. Bournemouth didn't have a great-looking side but went about their task, knowing that sooner or later they would score, and go onto win. On Saturday it was the former.

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Jesus_02 added 14:11 - Feb 17 We always had a mix of budget players and youth players. Players like Sulemana, Alcaraz, Fernandez, Downes, THB would all be great if we just had some seasoned pro's, hower added to a complete lack of direction and unity we just look like complete amatures. We were clsoer to winning games under Martin, at least we had some woeful officiating to blame for a smaller points total. The possession football was in the first insance a defensive measure, it migh not be as exiting to watch but if you give much better players the ball and challenge them to attack you, you simply get punnished. PS someone please explain to Juric that man marking went out in the mid 90s when holding in to players becuae frowned upon... if only we could go back!

0

Bowlercow added 16:09 - Feb 17 I think the cheering when Smallbone went off was more because Tyler was coming on x
1

Colburn added 17:33 - Feb 17 Firstly, Lallana was injured, as usual, this is why he hardly plays because he has about 10/15 mins in him per game. To attack Juric over Lallana is ridiculous. The cheering off of Smallbone was more aimed at him and it is a poor thing to do to him. Equally poor was Smallbone’s effort and hunger. He did not sprint once during his stint, I think that’s why he was cheered off. He had a chance to start and just jogged round the park again. It’s sad to see but he’s nowhere near the player we hoped he would be and it’s mainly the mentality. With SR not bringing in any forwards, yet let 3 go and without two of our main centre backs, it’s a nightmare for Juric to try to pick the bones out of it all. I think he deserves the chance to build his own team. This site went nuts about knee jerk reactions after Ralph had declined and it was obvious he needed to go yet you are again hounding someone out who has inherited a car crash and is trying to work with what he has. I agree that Les should have started Saturday and I also think we have missed the leadership of Stephens. What he lacks in some ways, he makes up for in others like organisation and how he throws himself in front of shots whereas your Bednarek tends to turn away. He was our captain and at fault for the first 2 goals. Especially the second where him running out with the ball was what opened the gap in the defence and then he played a terrible pass straight to their playmaker. Without that we may have got something, so you can’t keep blaming the manager! SR have left him with the worst situation any manager has ever had in this league and some of the senior players are letting the team down. Clearly Downes is the problem, not Juric, so I completely disagree with you, we shouldn’t be looking to change the manager AGAIN, we should back him to bring in the players who can play his style and the league we are in is irrelevant. It’s football, a simple game complicated by idiots.

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AmericanSaint added 01:03 - Feb 18 So a few things about the game - Their 1st goal was a perfect cross to a glancing header - it is what it is. Goal 2 &3 are ALL JB fault. His piss poor tap out clearance instead of putting his foot through the ball and then following his man up to expose the area behind. THIS he does so often. He constantly follows the striker on man-to-man, who pulls him away and opens space behind. He has no tactical depth awareness. He does not have the speed to recover, so he is toast once the ball is played behind. Next, Smallboane and Aribo gave the ball away so often, I lost count after a dozen times in the first half. While Soula scored the goal, he was horrible in the fist half and his decision making in/around the box is atrocious. He did not cross the ball once to Tall Paul in the 1st half. Lastly, I agree with you and everyone who stated that Juric cant pick a side. I have seen nothing good from his "playing style", which leads me to state that he needs to go at the end of the season. We are already doomed, so not worth spending more money for another coach. Now - my biggest gripe is at SR - Hiring Juric was a stupid and cheap move, which showed their true intentions. Moyes or even Potter would have had us 4-6 points more by now and we would then be able to believe we still had a chance. Not hiring a PL proven manager is as stupid as it gets and SR are solely to blame. They think they know how to operate a football club, but the truth is, the PL is so different than any other league that only money and experience in the PL works. And the final proof that they are ill equipped to run the club is Charlie Alcazar. RM didnt like playing him, yet we all could se his talent, so they sold him and now he is back in the PL and helping Moyes save their season. While Goa was a bad owner (and didnt care about the club as this was an avenue for him to get his money out), SR have proven to be worse as they profess to be good at running football clubs, yet the proof shows otherwise.

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landsdownsaint added 02:48 - Feb 18 Is Dyche working ? He’d guarantee us promotion next season . He would also make us a proper football club again, I also think he’d put some wins together with the rubbish we got at our club atm , I’m not a fan of his but there’s nothing about SFC anymore , i don’t blame Juric but that team selection was shocking , notsure he knows much about PL & the championship might even be harder for him

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