The only way is up for Nathan Jones after his first game in charge saw another defeat much in the style of those under previous manager Ralph Hasenhuttl, however it was clear that this was not a team that was picked by the new manager.

In many respects this was a free hit for Nathan Jones, if he got a point or 3 at Anfield then he would have been hailed as the new messiah, whereas if we lost then having only been at the club a couple of days he could hardly be blamed.

It was clear from the starting line up that he was having to pick the team under the advice of Ruben Selles, watching the League cup win over Sheffield Wednesday was not going to have given him much of an overview and he would have had only Friday's training session to get a look at his squad.

So there were no real surprises in the starting line up, in the preview I hoped that with Liverpool's patchy form this season we might get them on an off day, but there was no such luck, from the start it was clear that the home side were out to finish with a bang, perhaps the news that Manchester City had lost to Brentford spurred them on a little, whatever the reason they were up and at us from the start.

They seemed to be able to carve us open at will, the truth is we are missing both Tino Livramento & Kyle Walker on the flanks, both for their ability and more importantly their pace.

Romeo Lavia back from injury seemed to cement us in the centre of the park, but it was down the wings that Liverpool were double teaming us and getting crosses with ease.

Liverpool looked to exploit that and seemed to go down the wing and cross in for their forwards who frequently lost their man and got in chances.

We could have already been a goal down when Liverpool took the lead after only 6 minutes with a header from Firmino, but we were back on level terms only 4 minutes later a great header from Che Adams giving Saints hope.

But at the other end we still struggled, Nunez scored on 21 minutes and at this point you feared a rout would be on the cards, it took a decent save or two from Gavin Bazunu to keep the score within reach.

As half time loomed it looked like Saints might get in with a fighting chance for the second half, but the defence was carved open again to send us in 3-1 down.

But in the second half we rallied a bit, we got our act together a little and it took three great stops from Alisson in the Liverpool goal, the last a superb stop from a Che Adams header that meant that there would be no revival for Saints.

So our poor run of form at Anfield continued, so what could we take out of it.

The first thing was that we struggled at the back, we lacked organisation and a lack of Premier League experience showed, too many times we were second to the ball and allowed our men to run off us too easily.

But on the hour mark, Jones made a triple substitution, switched from a back 3 to a back 4 and brought on pace in the shape of Edozie & Walcott to try and change the game.

The old issue up front was still there, but we still created chances and we only had two less chances on target than the home side.

So as stated at the beginning this was a free hit for Nathan Jones, he has had little chance so far to exert his influence, he promised that his sides would play with passion and to be truthful that showed in the second half, at 3-1 down it was going to look like a long 45 minutes ahead, but we didn't give up and with a little luck could have got something back from this game.

Jones has to be given a chance, social media has been full of those who moaned that Ralph should be sacked, now moaning that we haven't succeeded him with anyone they wanted.

But the deed is done now and we have to back the new man to get us out of trouble, now we have a six week break for him to work with the team and to get things right.

Personally, I am confident that we can pull out of trouble when we return to Premier League action on Boxing Day, hopefully then we should have Kyle Walker Peters back as well as the return of Tino Livramento imminent, add a striker to the mix in January and we should have enough to pull clear.

Photo: Action Images

landsdownsaint added 10:04 - Nov 14 As I’ve always said on here I was a complete RH fan & still think it’s a mistake him going.I’m gonna get right behind NJ just through the sheer passion he has for the game itself & the club & supporters .my only worry is he might be another Paul Allen type manager but we will see . I think home games might be quite exciting due too his passion he’ll get everyone involved … let’s all get behind him

9

SaintNick added 10:12 - Nov 14 Good points well made, we have to give him a chance before we condemn him out of hand
7

JoeEgg added 10:19 - Nov 14 "Good points well made, we have to give him a chance before we condemn him out of hand" Decent of you. How about 4 years like the last candidate for your approval?!
-7

Rossm2006 added 10:27 - Nov 14 Unless we get at least 3 experienced premiership players in Jan we are big trouble. We need a whole new spine really. Need striker an absolute must, and two people who can open their mouth and lead and talk. This is the weakest group I remember at saints in terms of leadership, experience and physicality. Whilst some are extremely promising you could also argue in terms of quality, proven quality at least. Given the position it will be very hard to bring in the players we need in Jan. I don't blame either manager for this , for me the recruitment has been shocking and shows real inexperience of the league. We still have a chance after Christmas , I really think the WC has saved us here. However , we need to be realistic and say we have a side going out and no one has ever doubted their effort and commitment, that means they are simply not good enough as is.

3

Rossm2006 added 10:32 - Nov 14 Actually it reminds me of the young team we had in the championship, lots of talent but couldn't perform for a whole game and often simply over powered in the second half. Again I don't blame the players or manager for this , it is what it is . I wish the new manager all the best but if Ralph struggles with this squad so will he. It is that simple.
0

halftimeorange added 11:03 - Nov 14 Apart from the erratic Lyanco we don't have an enforcer, something that seems to have been overlooked when Romeu left. This, together with poor leadership on the pitch, is becoming as big a problem as not scoring. The board can't be that short-sighted so as not to recognise these shortcomings and I will be astonished if no effort is made to rectify them in January. I know we're in deep trouble but, if they offer the right money they will get some takers as we are not doomed to the Championship just yet. If they don't act, then we know that their policy of signing young talent gaining experience of playing in the EPL up to the end of this season is to either get us out of the Championship at the first attempt or make themselves lots of money by selling on. I hope it's neither.

1

Ifonly added 11:21 - Nov 14 " I am confident that we can pull out of trouble when we return to Premier League action" Well I hope you're right and I'm wrong because I think we'll be relegated. I also think the board are ok with us being relegated - strange as that sounds. Look at all the feedback on the appointment of NJ. It's all about "the development of young players". Well, sorry but you don't win a relegation fight by developing young players. If the priority was avoiding relegation, we'd have appointed someone like Sean Dyche. That's what happened when we appointed Mark Hughes. Then all the talk was about survival, a big bonus for Hughes if we did and money available for an experienced striker. There has been none of that this time. Mind you, I don't think it such a bad strategy. NJ has the knowledge to do well in the Championship and we could be back after a year. Meanwhile a young side would have gained a lot more experience and we would then be better able to survive in the PL. I'll back NJ and hope we survive this season - but I don't think we will.

2

Boris1977 added 12:19 - Nov 14 Rossm, my thoughts exactly comparing the current team that went down from the championship and ifonly agree with your points about re the boards thinking on the managerial choice. I believe that we were a team going down whether Ralph stayed or not. The board possibly made the decision to change manager now not so much with the objective of staving off relegation but to stop the cycle of diminishing returns Ralph's tenure had produced and was likely to continue with an inevitable whimper to relegation. With a new manager coming in now he's been given 6 weeks to work with the players, reenergise them after the last several months of attritional football performances and results giving him the best chance to refresh and reset. This needed to be done as Ralph was shattered. It may not result in escaping relegation, something we've been rolling the dice against for the last 5 years or so, but if it doesn't work NJ will hit the ground running in a division he knows well.

1

SonicBoom added 12:21 - Nov 14 We are misfiring everywhere at the moment. Clearly we can't finish. If we could then Ralph wouldn't have been sacked and we would be comfortably mid table. But also we can't defend. We are way too easy to score against and often it comes from the flanks. That doesn't mean it's the wing backs necessarily. There is a lack of support from midfield. I don't mind Stuart Armstrong but on the second goal he really isn't fussed about busting a gut to close people down and that is symptomatic of us as a team defensively. Newcastle are flying high, not because they score goals but because they don't let any in. We defend like the keystone cops and often have 4 or 5 chances to clear which we make a complete comedy out of. Fruststrating because we have the players but we are completely disorganised. Hopefully Jones can do this because Ralph was here for years and could never organise the defence.

7

highfield49 added 12:55 - Nov 14 Amongst the doom and gloom expressed by lots of supporters I'm still optimistic that the season can be turned around. It's quite a bonus that NJ has several weeks to work with virtually the entire squad, not many tired legs after lots of World Cup shattered dreams leading to mental and physical fatigue come January. As for the Liverpool game there are now no excuses for getting caught out so easily defensively when the season resumes. Quite simply, the ease with which we were exposed in wide positions has to be rectified by the coaches. The young players should all now be far more aware of the qualities of the players they are up against every week and able to up their game. Che had some decent chances and more space to operate in, whether that was due to Liverpool's defensive weaknesses or more freedom to play his natural game I don't know. Against a lesser goalkeeper he could have knocked in more goals, my point being not that he failed to score more than one but that he looked sharp and free to from inhibition. Having KWP and Livramento available in the new year will be like having two new players on the squad, both capable wide players and defenders. AMN is going to be better integrated into the tactical plans and maybe, just maybe, the coaches can work out how to get Adam A a role that gives him confidence. Ok, so my optimism may be cloud cuckoo land but I'm not going to spend the rest of the winter preparing for relegation when I'm convinced that we have better players than several clubs that have not many more points than us at present. We have matches against Brighton, Fulham, Forest, Everton, Villa, Brentford and Wolves coming up. With a proper plan A and a viable plan B in place, with motivated players, I see no reason to think we're going to struggle let's get behind the manager and players and put a post match smile on our faces again.

3

ItchenNorth added 13:07 - Nov 14 As was famously once said 'you'll win nothing with kids'! I'd pin that on the dressing room wall if I were you, Nathan. I think this squad is better than any in the previous 3-4 seasons. We've just been hampered by injuries to key players. Get these back in the World Cup break, and go get a striker, and we'll be fine imo. COYR
8

dwayne_dibley added 14:02 - Nov 14 .... also on the Christmas wish list...
0

davidargyll added 16:41 - Nov 14 Whilst we’ve clearly got a lot of talent in the squad, we played on Saturday like we have done most of this season. Very good in patches. And rubbish in others. So I was pleased to read NJs comments after the game in which he stated that he clearly gets what needs correcting immediately to get us keeping clean sheets and scoring goals. Let’s hope he is able to put into action what he sees needs doing. In the meantime the one crumb I can offer is the last time we were in the bottom three after 15 odd games was in 2018/19. We then had 9 points, our goal difference was -16 and we finished 16th on 39 points. This season currently we have 12 points with a goal difference of (only!) -12. So unquestionably the only way is up (titter titter…!)

0

Block8 added 16:43 - Nov 14 Your disdain for Perraud seems to come through, even when you don't actually mention his name! I really don't understand why? He is our best FB, defensively and pretty good going forward. The reason we leak goals is because we are reckless going forward at FB and easy to get behind when we lack discipline & lose our shape. I think NJ will move the ball forward quickly and as he did, eventually, play a more static back four! We will all have to wait and see? COYR

1

Gadge60 added 17:24 - Nov 14 We have to give the man a chance..... Come February it will be blindingly obvious whether it was an inspired appointment or a major mistake.
1

felly1 added 17:57 - Nov 14 I thought Bazunu was at fault for the first goal. He really should have saved the flicked header.. I do wonder if NJ will preserve with him, he's by far and away the youngest regularly playing Prem goalie. Also think we'll need two attackers in Jan. One might not be enough.
0

Colburn added 19:02 - Nov 14 I thought the second half showed glimpses of what we see under NJ. He was very high on my list of candidates to take over having watched his progress at Luton and some of his post match interviews over the last couple of years. So I'm quite pleased about the change, I have every faith in NJ's ability to change the mentality from cautious to courageous with the ball and equally as aggressive without it. I firmly believe we will see more exciting approaches to games and improved results under him. Onwards and upwards, full support for the new man!

0

LoisDeem added 16:58 - Nov 15 The 'press' as it's become known, is so hit and miss, and clearly some players think it is beneath them. Opposition players do not have to 'work' to arrive near our goal for chances. This manifests itself in a knife through (one thin layer of) butter. Thankfully, this not always evident and the effort shown in some past games need not be just confined to memory. I rather think this team will be re energised by this new young manager, but starting with the forwards I do hope that with fresh application and learning we can save ourselves and more. Everyone's allowed to underperform, just not in the same game or without sufficient application. As always, this will take much effort and practised teamwork. Good Luck to the Jones boys.

0

aceofthebase added 19:15 - Nov 15 I just hope that NJ has better tactics than just the 'press'. Oppositions just go route one and bypass the energetic forward players. It worked for a while and can always be used again but it is not the complete answer.
0

Blogs 31 bloggers

Chelsea Polls