Ivan Juric has got most things wrong when it comes to team selections, substitutions and tactics since he has been at Southampton, he did so again against Bournemouth, but he did get one thing right !

As we approach the two month anniversary of Ivan Juric's arrival at St Mary's, his first report card will not make pleasant reading, it will read .

1. Team Selection - Inconsistent, strange, puzzling,- Verdict Poor.

2. Substitutions - Inconsistent, strange, puzzling - Verdict Poor

3. Leadership - Frantic, uncontrolled, invisible, manic - Verdict Poor

3. Team Building- Dictatorial, inconsistent, uncontrolled, dismantling - Verdict Poor

Indeed it is very hard to think of one positive contribution that the Croatian has made overall to the team since he took over.

However he did get one thing right after Saturday's debacle against Bournemouth, when he criticised the Saints supporters for their treatment of Will Smallbone when he was substituted in the 56th minute.

It is fair to say that the Saints fans were perplexed when Smallbone who has spent a large chunk of this season injured, starting just 3 games this season, the last of which was in August at Brentford, was put into the starting line up in place of Big les Ugochukwu, who despite being one of the successes of the second half of the season, does not seem to be a favourite of Juric, who rarely seems to play him for a full game, whether dropping him as he did on Saturday or starting him when he is usually subbed.

The Southampton supporters could see that the centre of midfield was now very lightweight and would struggle, but when Juric did change it, they were wrong to sarcastically cheer when his number went up and Juric was right to pull them up on it.

When asked about the jeering as Smallbone left the pitch he said:

"I expected more, it's obvious, but I'm really sorry for him because he doesn't deserve it. He's a good guy."

Juric is right here, no one is saying that Smallbone had a good game, but I often see the phrases bandied about on social media such as "One of our own" or "Once a Saint always a Saint" and a lot of Saints supporters forgot about that on Saturday.

Whilst I understand the supporters frustrations, to vent it against the player in such a manner and let's be blunt it was a large section of the crowd who joined in the booing.

Smallbone's poor performance was not exactly the only poor one out there and no one took into account that part of the reason was that he was in a team that was in disarray and without leadership.

This is not a new phenomenon at Southampton FC, when I started watching Saints in the 1970's I soon became aware that Hugh Fisher got more stick from the fans than his team mates, yet he is now considered an icon until after he had left the club and retired, since then there has been a long list of players, many supposedly "One of our own" such as Francis Benali, who have not been truly appreciated until after they have stopped playing.

On Saturday we seemed to find it easy to watch Tall Paul run around without actually troubling the Bournemouth defence much, without feeling the need to boo him, but Smallbone does the same and it is cue the boo's when he leaves the pitch.

This is a crisis time in the history of Southampton Football Club, it does not need division in the fanbase, it needs unity, yes it has all gone to S***, but it will not help with the fans on the back of the players.

We need to stand up and try and get the team over the 11 point mark, not push them nearer the abyss by destroying their spirit and confidence.

There will be some who are saying, there he goes again having a go at the fans again and yes they are probably right, but I make no apologies on this occasion, it is not Will Smallbone's fault that our recruitment has been awful this season, it is not Smallbone's fault that he finds himself in the team because Ivan Juric seemingly hasn't a clue on any part of being the manager, it isn't Smallbone's fault that we are bottom of the league, after all he hasn't started a game since the 3rd game of the season and played only 1 sub appearance totalling 22 minutes, between August & January, that being in October.

If there is one person who can probably say that this season isn't his fault, it is probably Will Smallbone, he has watched most of it injured in the stands.

Ivan Juric is right, the fans should not have got on Smallbone's back for a poor performance, he didn't deserve it, they should have got on the manager's back for dropping Ugochukwu and picking Smallbone.

All Photos Via Reuters

beynali73 added 09:44 - Feb 18 Spot on Nick. He scored the goal that broke the deadlock against WBA at St Mary's which opened the match up and in Saints favour. If anyone should be booed it should be sports republic
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Centurion added 10:16 - Feb 18 I agree Nick. However, the fans are just truly frustrated and are letting their frustrations be known. Smallbone, unfortunately, happened to be a good target.
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stmichael added 10:57 - Feb 18 Spot on Nick 100% agree. One of the reasons I was so keen to keep RM is because I think he guaranteed us promotion next season maybe even our first Championship title. This guy has rubber stamped relegation and sabotaged promotion in a few short months. I knew SR would make it worse with a managerial change. They have not dissapointed - well they have but you know what I mean..

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JoeEgg added 11:06 - Feb 18 The whole set up against Bournemouth was wrong with the three biggest mistakes playing Bree at Centre Back, Keeping Dibling on the bench and selecting a virtually spineless midfield. The manager has been here two months and claims to have known a lot about the Saints players BEFORE he became manager. Smallbone was targeted because Juric placed him in a hopeless situation that he could never have coped with. So in the end Smallbone unfortunately took the boos for Juric. Far from attacking the fans Juric could simply admit that once again it was I the manager that made the mistakes. It is becoming a common theme and I doubt if there are many fans left who have any confidence or even just a small ray of hope in Juric.

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Block8 added 11:59 - Feb 18 Firstly Nick although I mostly agree with this article, denigrating one player to defend another is counteractive. Tall Paul's performance is largely dictated by the players around him & thumping the ball from defence to his head for a flick on to nobody isn't much help!
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Block8 added 12:00 - Feb 18 Firstly Nick although I mostly agree with this article, denigrating one player to defend another is counteractive. Tall Paul's performance is largely dictated by the players around him & thumping the ball from defence to his head for a flick on to nobody isn't much help!
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Colburn added 12:29 - Feb 18 I agree, but the solution is to show proper passion and desire, which was missing from his performance. As I said yesterday, he didn’t sprint once and this is the sort of thing which bugs the fans, especially when you look at our position. It’s appalling to boo a player and it would have been avoided if Will had sprinted a few times to win the ball or shackle an opponent, but he jogged round for an hour, this has nothing to do with leadership, team mates or tactics. KWP, Sulemana, Fernandes any Aribo were the only players to sprint on Saturday and that is more worrying than fans booing, fans who have had enough of a lack of desire on the pitch.

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dowater added 14:37 - Feb 18 I rarely comment on topics but feel that this article is so way off the mark and some of the comments too are so far from the mark that i want to comment my own frustrations and thoughts. as much as Ivan Juric has done wrong as stated at the top of the article. what he has done is what we all asked for. we have stopped the tippy tappy football, we have more shots on target and the score lines are slightly lower, not so many 5 against. "This is a crisis time in the history of Southampton Football Club, it does not need division in the fanbase, it needs unity, yes it has all gone to S***, but it will not help with the fans on the back of the players." - why? why do we need unity, we are just fans that pay good money to watch a game and this is what we get. we are a laughing stock, Derby are hoping and praying that we are going to take their most unwanted accolade off them. so hearing lets get behind the team and support them. lets not be silly, they will get the support when they start playing good football and encouraging us to come and watch and support. "We need to stand up and try and get the team over the 11 point mark, not push them nearer the abyss by destroying their spirit and confidence." - what like they have done to us? wheres our sprit gone, 2 wins and 7 points is a joke and not fun to watch or support at present. maybe if we stopped making excuses for them and started holding them to account on their thousands of pounds a week wages (which we pay for) then they may just stand up and be counted for. if we were to get on their backs they may have got on the coaches back and said please lets stop this suicide football and come up with a way of making it work rather than following blindly like lemmings. " it isn't Smallbone's fault that we are bottom of the league" REALLY... whos fault is it then? of course its his fault and the rest of the team and clubs fault that we are in this position. every one at the club needs to stand up and take account of what they have and havent done. they all need to own the issues and problems otherwise, what???? we keep blaming the manager, when the players fail to deliver. come on. they all deserve a bashing and to have some of the blame appointed to them. also Will and a lot of the team were there when we got relegated and will be again. its not as if i can walk onto the pitch and do the job... so to sum this up. its the clubs fault, the directors, the managers, the players, the back room staff, coaches the lot. they all need to stand up and accept what's happened and be men and be counted for and admit their mistakes.

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KilkennySaint added 15:11 - Feb 18 It was wrong to boo Smallbone. The fans were beyond frustrated, tired of the same shambles every week, they were letting their frustrations be known and he took the brunt of it For Smallbone, he doesn't do himself any favours, when selected to play in the engine room of a team that's on course to be the worst team of premier league history, in a stadium full of disgruntled fans, you watch him strolling around for 60 mins, no tracking back, no tackling, not making an impression on the game (far from a Chris Marsden performance) sorry but that's not going to cut it with the fans in our current situation. Now Smallbone isn't alone here, most players are letting us down, hopefully, he can learn from this, use it and become a better player. We are down but can the players can least give us a bit of passion, fight and desire on our way, is that too much to ask ?

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