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Comment | Southampton At Middlesbrough The Verdict
at 10:35:31
You say we are only 5 points off the play-offs as if that should give us hope. But Nick you have to ask yourself how well we would do with this team and manager even if by some miracle we made it to the Premier league through the play-offs. I can't remember being this depressed about Saints in the 50 years I have supported them. When we were in League 1 I had hope and I could see the plan in action. Now I feel we are crumbling. The owner clearly has no idea how important the manager is to a team and no idea how to pick a good one. The managers are causing a talented squad to lose confidence and belief. How I would love to see a manager come in and start from scratch by instilling the art of defending into the whole team. When you are conceding bucketfuls of goals you have to go back to basics and take pride in defending and keeping clean sheets. Russell Martin can't grasp this and doesn't understand that the defenders we have are not in the same league as Man City. We will get caught out every time. I don't know what the answer is but this season looks like trouble! |
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Comment | Saints At Burnley The Preview
at 16:05:27
Spot on perazi, the midfield is thin, without energy and not doing its other job of covering the defence. Romeu is someone you never mention. He is slow, looks overweight and from what I have seen would struggle to get into a championship side. Not good enough by far. We need quality and energy in midfield, we have had months to prepare and it is worrying |
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Comment | Saints At Everton The Verdict
at 12:45:28
Just a word about keeping positive and supporting the team even through hard times. Nothing makes me more proud of Saints than when I hear loud support even when we are struggling badly. We are struggling now and may well be relegated. Since 1970 I have seen us relegated three times (twice from the top league and once to the third tier) this looks like being number four in nearly 50 years. It is bad but not the end of the world. Some of my most happy times supporting Saints was during the 1973-1978 period when we won the FA Cup and I was at the game against Spurs when we got back into Div1. Maybe my favourite moment ever!! We are not down yet and may survive, but I can tell you that if the crowd turns against the team then two things will happen : First the team will play with nerves and make more mistakes (our away form proves this) ; second the players will feel less love for the club as a whole and will not want to stay and help get us back into the Premier league next season. Try to be philosophical about it and realise that your support should be given even through tough times. After all millions of fans support teams vocally even in the lower leagues and when they know their club will never win anything. |
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Comment | Saints V Everton The Verdict
at 11:21:37
Generally agree Nick. My one worry is central defence. Alderweireld was a highly intelligent defender and martialled the defence perfectly. Now he is gone we are shipping goals. When we lost Michael Svensson all those years ago to injury we never adequately replaced him and the result was relegation. I am not saying we are in danger of that but we MUST replace him with top quality and soon. We finished high last season because we were mean at the back not because we scored more than our rivals |
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Comment | How Will Ronald Koeman Use Dusan Tadic ?
at 12:00:21
As you have highlighted Nick, we have a really good attack midfield group. No doubt. What is worrying me is the defence at the moment. The main reason we finished so high last year was the fact that we conceded fewer goals than anyone except Chelsea. This meant clean sheets and we could pick up points when we were not playing so well. With Forster out all season, Clyne and Toby gone I worry that we are going to be much more vulnerable. This is where I want us to spend money on real quality. If we do we can be even better! |
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Comment | Has Eljero Elia Done Enough To Earn A Permanent Deal.?
at 11:15:17
Like you Nick I thought he looked good to start with but since then he has begun to irritate me. I would like to see us sign Matt Phillips personally. I think he is more powerful, dangerous and deadly in front of goal. Also with Jay Rod returning I would personally say no to Elia !
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Comment | Fifth At Christmas Is Good Progress
at 10:37:12
It occurred to me that our poor run of five games may be to our favour in that it may have cooled off some "bigger" clubs desire to steal our best players away in January. Can you imagine winning those five games and being joint top now? The press would be on fire with speculation about six or seven players leaving for the same old clubs !! Instead we may still lose Morgan but after watching Harrison Reed on saturday I feel a lot more confident again. COYR |
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Comment | Saints At Arsenal The Verdict
at 10:43:22
Agree with saintjez here. I feel the only mistake was not bringing on Reed and leaving Alderweireld in central defence. Moving your best centre back into midfield was always going to be risky and could end up costing us his being missing for weeks. As a club our aim has been to trust our young players no matter who the opposition are. Still I do not think we should be panicking. January not far off and I trust the board to act responsibly ! |
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Comment | A Signing A Signing My Kingdom For A Signing
at 11:38:12
True Nick. I suspect real incompetence now after so long and with the season upon us. When we lost Michael Svensson to injury we never replaced him with real quality and it cost us dearly (in my opinion the most important reason why we were relegated-we could not keep the ball out of the net!!) Central defence is crucial and what is worse is that we have so much more cash than we did then! 12 million for Shane Long is mystifying given that we seem to be penny pinching on centre back. Also, if we let Cork go to a rival so cheaply you have to ask questions about the competence of this board. |
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Comment | Saints Brace Themselves As Liverpool Close In On Tea Lady
at 11:51:16
Regarding the possible sale of some of our players for big money, it has not really been said yet that although it would be sad to see them go, there is a good chance that these players may not be quite as good as many think. I believe that that played so well because of the SYSTEM that they were playing within. They were kept very fit, yes, but the high pressing and possession system was what counted. I believe that if we are offered big money for them it would not be a disaster to sell as we can still play the same system (given a manager who knows how!!). They can be replaced by more young hungry players. Optimistic ?? |
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Comment | Saints Still Not Melted Down Yet ! Keep Calm And Carry On !
at 10:29:03
Excellent article Nick.! I do also agree with exiled supporter though. I feel the key is keeping the manager in this case. The most stable club in the league has to be Arsenal and that is down to the longevity of Wenger. If we keep MP, who is a very good young manager he will demand that no players are sold. The only exception may be Shaw who is worth so much money that we could sell him to United (and maybe take Buttner in part exchange). This would leave us with funds to seriously strengthen !! |
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Comment | Summer Clear Out At St Mary's
at 10:21:33
Good article Nick. You are being very decent to Guly and I agree with you.. good luck and thanks. Also the same to Barnard. When he came I thought he was a real trier giving it all he had to chase balls down. My worry with all the paper talk is who we will lose. What are your gut feelings about who will be sold ?? |
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Comment | 17 Games ! 17 Points !
at 11:30:15
If you look at the stats which I do after every game you will find that we always boss possession. This is good news for our general style and pressing style. Where we fall down is that while we nearly always have more shots, we have less shots on target generally and most importantly we convert a smaller ratio into goals than the opposition. The Villa match saw them have 3 shots on goal and 3 goals. This sums up so many of our games. We are not clinical enough. For me we need a clinical striker and a goal scoring midfielder. Cover in central defence also. We will always be safe if we play as we do but will never challenge for honours if we cannot create and convert more chances |
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Comment | Saints At Sunderland The Verdict
at 11:56:22
Personally I agree with you Slynch. The manager has stated his dislike of the Europa League and pointed out that Swansea have really suffered this season because of it. Its a shame but I do think that the league is much more important. People say we have nothing to play for now but if we keep winning we can still end up above Man Utd and maybe higher. After all we still have to play these teams. I have not given up hope yet! |
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Comment | Saints At Sunderland The Verdict
at 11:12:22
My sympathy to those fans who travelled there to get to a 12.45 kick off. Where to begin...last time we played them they did not get a kick in the first half. This time we looked like a team with 9 or 10 players. I know Guly tries his best but when I saw the line up I knew we were going to lose. My girlfriend put a bet on that Hoiveldt would score an own goal for a start. We were terrible!!. Davis could not kick, Shaw could not cross, SRL could not finish. You cannot change 6 players and expect fluency. It is clear that the manager uses these games to 1) rest players for league games 2) give games to fringe players 3)try young players. All good in theory but what about the loyal fans who travelled hundreds of miles and spent a bloody fortune to see us on a FA Cup saturday that used to be magical days. A shame !! |
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Comment | Deadline Day Is Here !
at 11:06:06
All true Nick. Normally at this time of year I am praying for one or two unexpected quality players to arrive, but as we are safe I can understand waiting until the summer. However wouldn't it be nice if they did sign a good central defender as Lovren could be out for some time. I know Hoiveldt tries hard but he simply cannot cope in this league. |
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Comment | Time To Concentrate On The Football
at 11:39:11
Agree Nick. It would be great to get into europe. It would be a great education for some of our young players eg Chambers, Shaw and JWP. We are safe in the league and seem to have little chance of climbing much higher. Lets go for it ! |
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