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Comment | Southampton V Nottingham Forest The Verdict.
at 20:55:24
Nick criticised the early leavers from the ground on Saturday, despite their disappointment at Saints performance.
I think it is more relevant that the disappointment we all felt was caused by our peculiar strategy regarding the recruitment priorities of the club. In this I agree with Colburn's comments earlier.
We have spent considerable money on bringing in quite a few young, apparently highly promising players all of whom have negligible experience of playing in the PL. In the meantime we appear to have lost sight of the three key positions that I had understood there to be unanimity about the necessity to upgrade ie. goalkeeper, no 10 and central striker.
We have a proliferation of young hopefuls and a paucity of viable experienced players and we seem to have no backbone down the centre of the pitch.
While I am a little sceptical of RM tactics recently, I do not think the failure to fill these three key positions has all that much to do with his decision making. It was obvious that he was particularly keen to obtain Celtic's O'Riley asap. Our disastrous failure to do this seems to me to be the responsibility of the higher level of management whose transfer policy is buy potentially quality players, as yet unproven at the highest levels, relatively cheaply and hope to make a killing on their increased value when we are later forced to sell them (a la Lavia to Chelsea) AS we reached the end of c3mths transfer dealings we were still trying to reduce Celtic's price of £25m (even though the player was initially keen to link up with RM)and ended up losing out to a far more realistic approach from Brighton. Similar failures to compete for specific players, that we appeared to favour, surrendered to Ipswich and Brentford etc
I hope some of these new 'unknowns' prove to be highly successful esp the CB from P'borough, Suguwara, Fernandes, Archer and the lad on loan from Chelsea sound exciting...but where are the tried and tested players experienced in the PL with mature skills and tactics to show the way for these bright young things? |
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Comment | Southampton Nearing Cash Plus Player Transfer Deal
at 12:14:54
Don't really understand why we want another expensive unproven midfielder with the same potential settlement difficulties that overseas players often seem to experience to our teams detriment.
On the other hand spending this cash and the Mara income on an established attacking midfielder, especially the Celtic player, would make the loss of Alcaraz much more bearable and perhaps very worthwhile? |
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Comment | Southampton Set To Smash Scottish Transfer Record For Celtic Star
at 11:09:20
I certainly hope this is true ie. both that we are seriously interested in this guy, and that he is interested in us and that we are prepared to pay the asking price or thereabouts that a real quality player justifies.
Despite my high regard for SA his fitness record was far from perfect and other than him it is a long while since we had an attacking No 10 , let alone one capable of such a high goal scoring/assist record.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but it is the hope that kills you in football...especially with the Saints since I first watched them in 1966/67 |
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Comment | Southampton Transfer Deadline Day News
at 11:22:00
I agree with you about Sekou Mara, I think he has good potential, but needs some dedicated coaching, there's much underdeveloped talent there that we would be unwise to cast off too easily
Certainly think that the departure of our better players, albeit at generally good profits, should end now...the likes of Walker Peters, Alcaraz, Adams and even Bednarek should be retained for the 'better' future prospect. I wish we had kept Perraud too
Too many Chamionship players do not necessarily represent a more likely climb back into the PL, indeed likely to trap us in the up/down syndrome experienced by Norwich in recent years!
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Comment | Southampton At Plymouth Argyle The Verdict
at 18:02:59
It's news to me that Alcarez is on the market...is this true? If so what the f***?
Can anyone up dateme on the circumstances of the young defender we bought from Chelsea 18mths+ ago, was his name Guede(?)...anyway what has happened to him? Or have we already sold him?
Surely there is a limit to the number of talented players we are prepared to sell, leaving us with just the dross and the untried or inexperienced! |
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Comment | Saints Squad In Better Shape Than This Time Last Year
at 16:54:58
Nick,
I agree about the need for an experienced capable centre back (hopefully worldly enough to be a leader and captain on the field), but clearly THEY (those who decide on transfer targets and player budgets etc) don't!
If they did they would have done the very sensible thing ie. sign either Tarkovski or Mee who were available on free transfers, but Everton and Brentford had more sense and moved quickly while we collected promising but some way from fully accomplished youngsters, by and large. |
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Comment | Why Do Southampton Always Do Badly On The Opening Day
at 14:25:29
My view is that we don't play enough pre season friendlies that are competitive enough to test us and show where we need to focus our efforts.
Four is not enough to get all the squad up to match standard
We should play 6 pre season games with at least the last four with genuinely challenging opponents.
We are all too leisurely about it and I believe quite undercooked and more often than not unsure about who should be in the first team and on the bench on the day before the first and highly unlikely to be ready for the likes of Spurs.
I anticipate a miserable time on Saturday, probably a 3-0 defeat and all that pressure as per previous feeble starts |
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Comment | Two More Signings Needed For Saints This Summer But Only One Is Crucial !
at 12:21:17
I think we need both an experienced CB and a proven striker ( 10 to 12 goals per season) who is of the scale to intimidate defenders in the box and able to play with his back to the opposition goal when necessary...a la Pele.
Dembele, Ihaneacho type perhaps; I would have welcomed the guy Burnley bought last year who had plenty of goals to his name in European leagues, but they have now loaned to a Turkish club. OKay he scored just a single goal for Burnley, but he played a role of one lone striker for them with negligible support from midfield...but he worried defences and kept the ball effectively and laid it off well.
Promising youngsters are good but not enough to survive...I hope I'm wrong!
Both are vital, just one would be a serious setback |
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Comment | Southampton On Verge Of Signing French Striker
at 18:19:07
Perhaps worth the gamble, but unlikely to be capable of playing and scoring consistently for a season or two. We need a proven mature strikes...what about the likes of Iheanacho of Leicester, or the Dembele guy at Lyons? |
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Comment | German U21 International Set To Become Southampton's Next Summer Signing
at 18:05:55
Including this gent (and excluding Phil Jones who we are regularly associated with) this means we are likely to have 7 central defenders, several of whom are not really up to it and none of whom played to an acceptable level in the last third of the season.
Apart from Salisu who has plenty of promise Messrs Bednarek, Stephens, Lyanco and Valery are inconsistent at best, Simeu has no PL experience. None of them have the leadership qualities urgently required...and we need a spine in the team, also painfully absent for much of the season...oh and we're desperate for a reliable goal scorer or two and a No.10!
Is this madness or what....who are we going to sell the dross to? |
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Comment | Southampton V West Ham United The FA Cup Verdict
at 14:38:01
Yes fantastic performance...and so unexpected when I saw the line up...and groaned with frustration. we have a squad of very much improved players and made Wham's squad depth look like ourselves in the darkest moments of last season.
Until recently my faith in Ralph had been slowly declining, but after the last couple of wonderful months, that's all banished. Now I'm worried that he may be dragged away by some wealthy predatory club at the end of the season...perhaps Man U (ugh) perhaps Spurs etc, perhaps one of the major European sides. sign him up now and pay him very well...don't repeat the mistake that we made with Koeman. The point is that to keep him we have to remunerate him according to his value to us and we have to demonstrate that there remains a will to aspire beyond a mid table, survival position. Like Koeman we mustn't let him think that the grass is greener elsewhere even though I like to think he has no particular wish to leave, but ambition needs to be encouraged not suffocated.
So two other lessons from last night
1. we need at minimum two strong, tall, fast strikers (like Adams and Broja) in preference to two fast, shorter, less robust strikers without the ability (like Armstrong and Long) to intimidate large quite mobile centre backs like Wham's defence last night. Adams has got good speed and a fast turn and i am sure he will get more relevant to the squad, but we will have to be as patient as we were with Che in his first 18mths. We need to play more intelligently to exploit his talents. And like many others I fear Broja's development has made it inevitable that Chelsea will want him back at the end of the season
2. a very similar lesson. We cannot afford to take the field with less than one central defender with height and assertiveness and obstinacy (like Bednarek and Salisu and perhaps Lyanco) in every important game we play. Otherwise we will be dominated in the air in our box and have little threat at corners in the opposition box. Nevertheless I did think Stephens played an excellent game last night for which he deserves much credit, he led the defence effectively. |
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Comment | Chelsea "Insider" Reveals Interesting Southampton Broja Transfer news
at 17:42:29
I'm confused, not about Broja, but about McCarthy!
I was pretty sure that I read on this site that McCarthy had recently signed a new contract and this clearly meant that FF was second choice and he would be leaving when his very expensive contract expired in the summer.
Now it seems that both keepers' contracts end this summer (hence the interest in various others over the last couple of months). Yet I didn't think it was all that long ago (c18mths?) that McCarthy had had his existing contract extended
Can someone please tell me authoritatively what the state of play is with regard to tweedle dum and tweedle dee between the posts? |
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Comment | Southampton At Swansea City The Verdict
at 23:00:46
We should have been 3 goals ahead by the time Valery was sent off! Why are we so often unable to take advantage of relatively easy chances; the number of goal opportunities we waste are not worthy of a Premiere League side. Swansea were a pretty poor side yet we were hapless in front of goal after Redmond scored. Broja looked uninterested and Redmond seemed to think he had done enough after that too. At least Long still knows where the goal is. Tella looks full of talent but he simply doesn't hit the ball hard enough when shooting and Adam Armstrong seems to have lost any idea of what he needs to do to score. Some signs of Stuart Armstrong getting match fit at least. |
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Comment | Southampton V Aston Villa The Verdict
at 13:16:22
Given the number of times that Villa put the ball into our box in the second half, sometimes with farcical attempts at putting it into the net, I think we should all be grateful that Ings wasn't playing. He would have scored several in all probability.
Our scoring problem remains the quality of our passing/crosses that actually reach players when the opposition has been pressed back into last ditch defence. I feel that AA is capable of being as good as Ings without the injury absences, his first touch is usually good, he turns very quickly and he would most benefit from playing beside Broja who will disrupt opposition defences much more effectively than the industrious but erratic Adams.
And yes, it's obvious Tino should be on the right side of midfield (and Walcott on the bench, not on the field) with KWP at right back and the very effective Perraud at left back. Why doesn't RH explain why he is not doing this...its inexplicable (irrespective of Tino's rather disappointing for much of the second half...at 18 he probably needs resting here and there. |
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Comment | Southampton V Leeds United The Verdict
at 22:44:24
Is it possible that Redmond has been consistently disappointing for some time because we have not been playing him in the best position for his talents?
For a long time I have felt that we have missed an effective No10, a player to play in the hole behind preferably a strong tall striker (perhaps Brojan, like Pele) and a fast runner in the channels (perhaps A Armstrong) Could it be that Redmond isolated on the right or left of midfield for long periods in the past has found his niche with a freer role in the centre working between the lines.
In the past I have thought Stuart Armstrong could do this job for us (and score goals),sometimes that JWP might fit the role (though not much recently) and now perhaps Redmond.
OK too early to say with much confidence, but well worth an extended trial there; he certainly seems to have found a knack of increasing his assist tally in recent weeks
Go on Ralf, give him a chance and give him a freer role in the opposition's half of the pitch
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Comment | Southampton At Manchester City The Verdict
at 18:19:07
I feel a good deal better about AA than many of the other correspondents on this site.
He turns very rapidly, like Ings, and works as hard as Che and I think he looks sharper. Penalties against him both at Newcastle and probably at Man City would have contributed a total of 4pts, but for VAR...indeed he might have scored both of them had he not been dragged down.
His problem, just like Ings, when he also had to be the single striker who pressed from the front , is the chronic lack of support. The best solution seems to me to start him with Broja and then I think, after gainingsome familiarity with each other, we would likely see them both amongst the goals. Of course we would have to forfeit one midfielder... |
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Comment | Southampton V West Ham United The Verdict
at 13:21:24
Key things to learn here I suggest:
* Broja and Armstrong up front is the best combination, the latter's speed on the turn and the former's directness, strength and opportunism bold well, if they are played together
* Elyanoussi looked far more effective when moved into the No10 roll in the second half and more predatory
* Romeu looks very off form and Diallo deserves more game time
* Tino was again outstanding and should be on the right hand side of midfield, with KWP restored to right back
* Perraud was impressive, especially the speed he possesses when we have given the ball away and he has to get back to defend which he did effectively
* credit to Stephens and McCarthy for good games, especially the latter who came off his line effectively and quite often (has somebody at last started to coach him in this previously neglected skill?
* Djenepo deserves great credit for his effort and playing a role really alien to his nature; okay his final pass leaves much to be desired but surely we can improve on this skill with focused training. I love his attitude and speed. Why don't we post him half way up the field when we are defending corners etc, clearing the ball up the field to him would likely give some opposition defenders a real fright with his breakaway speed
* why is Redmond so erratic in performance?
* Salisu has great potential but needs better distribution, why is Bednarek getting the cold shoulder? Could we play three at the back as a viable tactic...I'm undecided
Some mysteries here...what is going on in Ralph's mind?
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Comment | Southampton At Newport County The Verdict
at 11:13:35
Well, 3 goals and two assists surely suggest that Elyanoussi deserves a first team run out in the place that Walcott strolls around so ineffectually in? |
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Comment | Southampton V Manchester United The Verdict
at 10:40:27
Yes, very fair report.
But we need to better understand what is going on in Ralf's head.
It's blatantly obvious to almost everyone that Forster is far better than McCarthy, so why does RH keep making this curious decision. McCarthy looks nervous, he makes the fans nervous, he must scare his defender's s**tless. So on what rationale does he choose him. Has it anything to do with the many goalkeepers he has on the staff?
The second question is about Walcott, lovely man etc but doesn't seem to represent any sort of serious threat. Negligible involvement in the first half, great improvement in the team's shape when he didn't reappear. Can't understand why we have taken him on at all.
Any explanations about why no Bednarek from the start, he's our best central defender even if he does lack a little pace. What's Ralf thinking there, is he still giving him rest time from the Euros?
Ralf needs to explain himself, since none of the supporters have a clue about what his decisions are based on. What does he see in training that persuades him to make these odd selections.
If he was happy with the side that lost it in the second half against Everton, so didn't change the side for yesterday's game, what will he make of the performance against ManU - presumably that will have cemented McCarthy's first choice status? Madness
I heard that Stu Armstrong was injured, he's such a key player for us that I hope there is no other underlying reason for his non appearance; his departure would be very hard to bear! |
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Comment | Southampton At Everton The Verdict
at 10:48:20
Yes, to all your comments, but some more inexplicable (weird?) selections from Ralf re McCarthy, Walcott and Stephens and the usual overly delayed substitutions. Though heartened by the performances of Livramento and Djenepo. Armstrong is fundamental to our cause too. Perhaps having more players to choose from is more challenging for Ralph than having fewer. Also think we must have Broja on the bench as an alternative to two too similar strikers. But promising start from Armstrong with a very Ings-like goal.
Ralf has to get himself together |
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