Ronald Koeman has spoken of the need for unity in his squad during this awful run and that rings just as true for the Saints supporters.

Saints manager Ronald Koeman has reminded his players that cannot be able to celebrate the good times together unless they have been a cohesive unit when they have had their backs against the wall.

“It’s still not worse, I like to be the manager, I am happy to work with the players.

“It’s the most difficult situation until now of course.

“Everything was going well, we had a lot of positive critics and that was the message to the players — it’s so easy when everything is going well to make dancing in front of everybody, but now we have to keep togetherness.

“That is what I expect and that is not what we showed today because that is against that message.”

Koeman knows as both a player and a manager that it is much harder to achieve your goals if not everyone is pulling together and that message should be taken on board by the supporters as well.

Some on social media seem to be losing some perspective of where we are and where we have come from, yes we are in the middle of a truly awful run, perhaps as bad as we have ever had in the top flight, but that doesn't mean that everything is bad.

Koeman is right that we need to be able to pull together in the bad times, but some see it as a time to have a pop at the club.

We have had constant progress since 2009 when Markus Liebherr took over, every year has seen an improvement on the previous season's League position, but some have forgotten that at times these previous six seasons have not all been a bed of roses, we have had our ups and downs during that time and we have come through because we all stuck together.

But for some now they cannot seem to accept that sometimes there are choppy waters, that sometimes a football team has to regroup and rebuild and come back stronger, they have forgotten just how bad we were in the first half of our first season back in the Premier League, how bad that squad initially was, but how it grew together got on the right track and finished 14th in the League.

Ironically players that are spoken about now in hushed tones after they have left, were given stick in that first season back, but they stuck together and improved and that can happen again.

Now if we could achieve that position with the squad we had three short years ago, then we are more than capable of not only matching that but improving on it.

I said at the start of the season that our goal should be a third consecutive top 10 finish and that goal remains attainable.

But some seem to want progress in terms of League position year on year out and to be blunt that was always going to be near on impossible, the reality of the Premier League is that money talks, it is good to see club's like Saints last season and Leicester this challenge, but the reality is that breaking even into the top six is hard when you look at club's like Liverpool, Spurs & Everton, giants from the past, but rarely able to break into the top four these days, but still a big hurdle for any club harbouring 5th, 6th o 7th in the league.

Saints job is to keep challenging for that top 10 position and in doing so keep improving the squad and keep improving our chances of not only a top five finish but of getting to a Cup Final and winning it.

Yes it s difficult to watch Leicester do so well when we have dropped like a stone in the past six games, but we showed against Arsenal what we can do and if we can repeat that in our next two games both at St Mary's then the world will look a rosier place.

So the message from Ronald Koeman to his players is clear and it should be the same to the supporters, the very definition of the word is that we are there to support the club and not hinder them.

Photo: Action Images

IanRC added 10:44 - Jan 4 Agree with most of this but for the first time I find myself challenging some of RK's decisions, notably dropping Mane rather than fining him....
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SanMarco added 10:52 - Jan 4 It is not surprising that people 'lose perspective' when we have 'dropped like a stone'. It is up to the players and management to restore our faith/confidence. No one would be going at Mane and Wanyama if we had won 1-0 on Saturday and that was our fifth win out of six. Poor results, especially caused by the same factors each time, drain our 'perspective'. Yes the stuff about 'steady progress' does have a lot of truth but in this day and age most people live in the moment and in this particular moment I, for one, feel only a couple more defeats away from 'panic'...

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SaintNick added 12:06 - Jan 4 Perhaps it is a sign of the times, but I would prefer steady progress rather than the boom and bust tactics that have seen Leeds & Pompey almost go to the wall
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SaintPaulVW added 12:13 - Jan 4 It's a shame that our season hasn't progressed how any of us would have wished. Factors are JRod not really recovering, the defence not really firing on all cylinders and midfield looking a constant work in progress. Add in Pelles seemingly customary mid season break and you need your big players to stand tall. Unfortunately 2 appear to have their heads elsewhere. It's not solely their fault or RK's that we are where we are. Agree totally need to stand together weather this bad time rather than turning on individual players or the team. COYR.

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schatfield added 12:42 - Jan 4 I never get these 'time to rally round' comments when any club is going through bad form...does that mean for the rest of the year the fans don't care? happy to sit silent? Probably not. It's just the British public like to have a moan, more so on social media now, and thats life. I doubt the players notice. I doubt they read these websites. So we moan and eventually the team will pick up regardless. ho hum (perhaps I am Mr bah humbug today, being a Monday morning back in the office after a cushty 2 weeks lazing....)

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law101 added 12:46 - Jan 4 I'm as disappointed as anyone, but i agree with Nick a sense of perspective is needed. We are one of about 6 clubs who start the season hoping to achieve what we did last year in the league. Other teams have improved 10% this year, whilst we have dropped off. It is just not feasible for us to expect to finish 5-7th each year. Another top 10 finish would be great. It is harder to take with Leicester, Watford and Palace up there, if the top teams performed like this last season who knows what we could have achieved.

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saintwonston added 13:26 - Jan 4 Totally agree with you Nick. Whose to say Leicester, palace and Watford and others near the top are not going have a run of games without a win like we have done. If we can play like we did against Arsenal a top 10 finish is still possible. It would be good to know how long those who post on this site have supported saints. Us older supporters (nearly 50 years) have seen some bad times as well as the good times but still support the team through it all. Let's all have a New Years resolution, support the saints and not complain in 2016.

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BoondockSaint added 14:17 - Jan 4 Here we go with the "Blame the supporters" bit! So now when the players don't put in an honest shift, don't score one or maybe, God forbid, two goals against a team lower down the table, they have their excuse all ready: "The fans didn't cheer for us when we played like crap! Wah! Wah!" They forget the supporters cheering them on all season and they still played awful. The reason we look at teams like Leicester, Watford, West Ham, Palace (even Stoke!)etc. is because they blow all the excuses out of the water. They just have players that don't give up, have grit, and can finish a play. Someone at the club: owner, manager, player has to rip into this team and let them know this is not good enough. If they are too fragile to hear this, then they are in the wrong league.

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SanMarco added 15:06 - Jan 4 I think all the regular contributors on here are obviously 'true' supporters, that's why they are regular posters. Supporting any football team is not intellectual it is emotional. I agree that we shouldn't panic and that of course in the scheme of things football isn't very important - but that is not how I FEEL. I have been supporting for the full fifty saintwonston and for that whole time: good results = happy, bad results = unhappy. I strongly suspect that will always be the case for me.

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IWOZTHERE added 17:07 - Jan 4 While I've got my own views about the squad strength and the fact that our transfer dealings (player for player) have left the '1st team' considerably weaker than last season, I agree with St Paul that lady luck has been very unkind to us. I think the biggest problem has been caused by Clasie being out at the start of the season. We've got to trust RK's judgement that he will be a capable replacement for MS and assume that we've even now, not seen the best of him. As it is, we've had a 'mixed up' midfield for the season so far, plenty of holding options, but lacking in the attacking element we've obviously needed. Steven Davis has tried his best but he needs some help and RK's got to make his mind up whether Clasie is fit enough and good enough or whether he's got to invest in an alternative while he's got the chance.

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halftimeorange added 18:58 - Jan 4 Bookmakers aren't often wrong. Saints are 20-1 with Betfair to be relegated down from 650-1 eight weeks ago. The Arsenal performance is beginning to look like a blip for Arsenal rather than the start of a Saints recovery. We can cheer all we like but confidence must be low and losing is a habit (just like winning). We need a shot in the arm, a bullying leader on the pitch. We have a sophisticated scouting system and they need to find him. Sorry, but I doubt that our current squad possesses enough collective fight to finish the season comfortably.

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SaintBrock added 07:55 - Jan 5 I hope you and they are wrong HTO. There are some pretty awful teams below us and unless things change dramatically in the next month or so the trio of Villa, Sunderland & Newcastle seem doomed already to a period of recovery and renewal in the Championship. We are hopeless right now, of course we are but I cannot see this stage of affairs being allowed to continue for much longer. My hunch is that Ronald Koeman is not sitting quite so comfortably in his chair as he and we all thought he was a couple of months ago. Under Cortese he would have been sacked long before now but his recent outbursts against specific players deserved or not, represents a nadir in his management spell here and signals real pressure and tensions behind the scenes. Who could replace him? Well, Rafael Benitez ha just become available.... ;-)

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SanMarco added 11:07 - Jan 5 halftimeorange - 650-1...anyone that stuck a cheeky tenner on that will start getting very interested if we lose the next two! Of course 20-1 still says that they think it highly unlikely we will go down.
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mesquita added 14:14 - Jan 5 I would like to speak about 2 issues, firstly RK's future and then the investment in the squad, not exactly unrelated. RK clearly sees his long term ambition as the manager of Barcelona, a fine objective and one that I do not begrudge him. He has all the credentials for the job except for trophies in the EPL. He gets only one shot at this as failure at Saints will mean no other appointment in the EPL. So, he will stay with us as long as he feels he can achieve success here and I would be amazed if the board considered sacking him. What does he need to succeed with Saints? He needs a better squad, a settled squad and that means more investment by the owners. No-one needs to leave we do need better players so that some of our current good 1st team become squad players because the new recruits are better. Now the Academy - promotion to the 1st team has slowed to a stop either because RK does not rate them or because as the EPL gets stronger it becomes harder to make the grade. Either way things need to change, let us clear out the good, but not quite good enough and use the money received and places opened up to bring in new hopefuls. We cannot go on simply stockpiling "almost good enough" players

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