I don't think you will find many Saints supporters in disagreement about this game, it was a shambles, a team with no leadership or direction and more to the point no attacking threat, it does not bode well.

It is hard to find anything good or positive to say about this game aside from the stats, 58% possession, more attempts on goal, 4 shots on target with Palace having only 2, but the only stat that mattered was the scoreline.

Aside from a brief period in the last 10-15 minutes when Saints finally woke up and poured forward albeit with little cohesion about their attacks, there was little to speak positively of in this display.

But if Saints are relegated and bizarrely that is still far from being rubber stamped, despite yet another setback, it isn't this game that will have sent them down, it is a chain of events some out of the club's control and many that are, that will have all added up to one great mess that sees us relegated.

I am not going to go into detail yet, but when you have three managers in a season that is an indication of just what a mess we are in and that those in charge are either panicking or didn't know what they are doing in the first place.

We panicked when we dumped Ralph Hasenhuttl, a man who had experience in football management at the highest level and had suffered from a horrendous injury list in his final half dozen games and replaced him with a man who only had experience in the lower leagues and whose coaching methods were outdated and soon had to be sacked.

Ruben Selles is a decent man and in time may become a top coach, but the truth is he had no experience as a manager only as a coach and not at a level that was needed in a relegation battle.

He should not have been put in this position, clearly the players like him and respond to him, but he does not have the experience to make key tactical decisions and more to the point has little experience to lean on to help him out in his coaching staff.

This is why yet again we are putting out a team that clearly has talent, but has no set pattern of play and no leadership or organisation on the pitch, James Ward Prowse leads by example and he is one player who comes off the pitch having left nothing on it in terms of effort, but he is not a leader of men, he leads by example but that is not enough out there.

The truth is in the summer walk down Above Bar last summer and ask any Saints supporter what the squad needed and they would have told you, an experienced leader in the centre of defence and a proven Premier League striker up front.

What we got was a plethora of youngsters, all with talent, but with little experience, a recipe for disaster.

Ralph had dragged out enough good displays with no money for two seasons, but even he couldn't just hand youngsters experience, it had to be gained.

Sports have made mistakes, no one can accuse them of not spending money, it has just not been spent well, that is perfectly clear.

So what we got again was a Saints performance that on paper wasn't that bad, but in reality went the same way as the other games, unable to keep clean sheets at the back and toothless up front, it's the story of the season, no matter who has been the manager and who has been on the field.

So what is the answer, truthfully at the moment I can't see it coming from within the club, we have a young inexperienced team being led by a young inexperienced manager, where is the motivation coming from.

I don't blame Selles, how could he turn down the job when offered, but he wasn't ready for it, but the biggest mistake was not giving him an experienced assistant to counsel him, look at the Saints coaching staff, absolutely no one with any experience at this level to help him.

What is the answer, surely not a 4th manager ? although to be blunt I wouldn't be averse to it with the situation we are in, although we would lose a good coach who could well have been a top manager with the club given time, but we could have a compromise, bring in someone on a temporary basis as his number 2, someone who can motivate and help him through the last few games.

On the pitch it was a strange starting line up, Joe Aribo up front, a man who had played just 147 minutes of Premier League football, since the return after the World Cup break, but more to the point only 11 minutes since 4th January, a three month period when he has been completely out of the picture and only a few weeks ago could not get into the matchday squad let alone on to the pitch.

This strikes of pure panic, you could say it is trying something different, but this wasn't a player pushing for a first team start, it was totally out of the blue. Ruben Selles in his 8 Premier League games in charge before this game, had not given Aribo a single minute of first team football, indeed he had only actually included him on the bench once, so how the hell is he suddenly the man to lead a forward line, especially when he is essentially a midfielder.

In truth I couldn't work out who is playing where at times, was it 4-4-2 or 4-2-2-1-1, who knows !

I feel sorry for Tall Paul Onauchu, he is clearly not suited to the way we play, no one can fault his effort or commitment, but truth is he has had little service, those who played out wide during his 30 minutes on the pitch are not wingers in the traditional sense, they are attacking midfielders, they like to run at sides and look to get a shot in, Tall Paul needs balls into the box, but when you are playing Palace that is food & drink to them.

So yet again people were streaming out of St Mary's early, they had seen a side who offered too little for too long, a side with no fight and no leadership on or off the pitch and clearly when you look at the coaching staff listed on the club's official website, no experienced coaches on the training ground.

Relegation is far from certain yet, if we had beaten Palace we would have been off the bottom and one point off Forest & Everton, truth is it is now perm 3 from 5 and Leeds are on the cusp of reducing that pack down to 4.

But yet again we have thrown away points that we should of won, our problem has not been so much our failure to win games, but a failure to draw them, even just under Selles in the last 9 games, if we had drawn at Leeds & West Ham and held on to a point in this one, that would have changed the table drastically and have given us a fighting chance.

But we cannot change the past only the future, the time for post mortems is when the maths say we can't stay up, until then we have to keep fighting or at least try to start fighting and hope for a great escape.

Photo: Action Images

landsdownsaint added 16:48 - Apr 17 This is what happens when you get rid of a manager like Ralph & replace with a fitness coach , Ralph showed total commitment &!produced results when needed & for that we should’ve backed him , Southampton fc let down Ralph
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AmericanSaint added 17:52 - Apr 17 Well that was a waste of 2 hours to watch that game. To be fair, we played well in the 1st half and TW and JA should have both scored. The the error by Bazuna and we are done. I will agree that JWP has reverted to his old boring, safe passing and cant pass beyond 6 meters. Re-watching highlights, he slowed play down so much to make the safe pass. Also, WTF is Roman not starting at LB. Utter stupidity by RS. At natural LB who can cross, hmmm. Also, Sulemana should ride the bench and only be a substitute for punishment for all the balls he gave away. He never picks the right pass and seems to be trying to showboat so he can go to another club. Well since we can't score goals, all of this is pointless and I will find something else to do for 2 hours every time the games are on as it is not mentally healthy to watch this lot. I do finally see the plan of SR. They will sell Lavia, JWP, KWP, SA, Sulemana, Salusi, and Che to make about $150M and not re-invest in the club as they have a $110M bill due.

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Colburn added 18:00 - Apr 17 Dell boy, Walcott was our only forward on the pitch, not difficult to suggest the others couldn't finish when we had no strikers on the pitch. His big chance was sliced into the side netting. All the while Burnley are very keen to be playing Tella in their PL side next season when it was obvious he was ready for us this season and Ralph loaned him out and brought in younger less experienced, lessee prepared lads... I mean seriously.. Keeping Tella alone would have given us 5 or 6 more points and more threat to the oppo all round.. Stupid decision after stupid decision, and now Selles is still there today.. They must go out and offer Potter whatever he wants to bring us back up, he might even provide a miracle.. One thing is for sure now, Selles is woefully short of the requirements for a PL manager. We looked better under Jones and that was bad enough. I don't see us winning one more game as things stand.

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Block8 added 18:14 - Apr 17 I think if you asked Selles who his hero's are in management he would say Gaurdiolla and Arteta and the style he is trying to emulate is theirs, the false nine is proof of this. We play pretty good triangle between the back four and the defensive midfield but it all falls apart due to lack of movement beyond that. To implement this style takes far longer than he ever had available and shows his lack of experience. We have wingers and a big striker, it may not be pretty but for me that's how we need to play until the season ends. Play four at the back, two mobile holding midfielders (not JWP as this wastes his talent) an attacking central midfielder, two wingers and a centre forward. Move the ball faster from defence and look to go wide, leaving the centre forward up the pitch at all times, to enable us to break more quickly. Then if we do actually manage to remain in the PL or go down get someone on board to organise the players that remain ( I can see at least six leaving on transfers and maybe a couple more not retained) into a TEAM as we are nothing like one at present!

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RomseySaint72 added 20:31 - Apr 17 Totally agree with all Posts, the common theme of inconsistent performances, surprise team selections and the general miss management of the club this season. The only comments I would add are that we have been poor now ever since that moment we topped the premier league back in November 2020 following that there was a horrific run of results, (Blamed on the stack of injuries) we survived because of that good start to that season. The following seasons we have come close to the drop. Last season the 2 surprise back to back wins away to Spurs & West Ham probably saved us from the drop which we probably deserved. There have been to many opportunities to intervene and ignored like there will be always one more chance or the genuine belief from the club we couldn't get relegated. Last chance saloon gone I'm afraid and real concerns the club will not adopt winning strategy in the Championship next season.

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GlennP added 22:05 - Apr 17 I don’t disagree with most of the report however I personally think we are down now, and that we should look towards next season and get the new manager in now if possible, mso that he can assess the players we have, decides who stays & who goes, and what we need - our squad is not affordable in the championship !!
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dowater added 16:16 - Apr 18 the only good part about this game was the pre match offer to upgrade your tickets so that you could have lounge access, 3 free drinks and food. my brother in law was over from Aus and he always likes to come and watch a match. i was so embarrassed about the whole fiasco that i just got drunk to forget what i had just experienced. first half we were okay at best, more like palace were terrible. all our passes were to the left wing for KWP, who was met with resistance from palace players. they knew what we would do and had the game plan to stop it. the amount of times Theo was in space on the left and no one passed him the ball was criminal. having JWP on our team (one of the best dead ball specialist and able to make a pass that hits our own player) why didnt he paly a nice cross field ball to Theo and let him run on to it and cause the opposition defense troubles. the one time we did, we nearly scored. then RS took him off..... why because he wasnt doing anything. WRONG, no one passed him the ball. AMN was good in defense, but going forward was hopeless and failed to make the early pass and get the wingers running at the opposition defense, to often taking the ball to far and loosing it. we were like a one trick pony all day and easy to read and beat. keeper passes to KWP, KWP_ runs down the line and into 3 palace players. loose the ball and back to defend. i have never wanted to slate JWP, but i cant remember him making a single pass that was forward in the whole game. they were all side ways and back. we need to get the ball and play it forward quickly, use the pace of theo and sulamana and the others to run at them and cause them problems. what happened to switching play and going from left to right and not just down the same side all the time. its like they get the ball and just head down run. they need to look up and know that if they paly the ball wide that wingers are running onto the ball and going to be in certain spots ready. thats what Theo done all game, ball goes left he runs into space, calls for it and we dont pass to him. unlike most, i was quite happy with the team selection. most of the players up front had scored this season and it was more of an attacking line up, just a shame that we didnt use them. then the substitutions came. tall paul on, but no tall long balls for him to connect with. he ended up back in his own half trying to pick the ball up and not doing what he should be doing, dragging their defense back as he would break their off side trap. watching the game it was hard to see who you would sub in the game. no one played particularly bad, we just had no idea what to do or what they are supposed to be doing. but then RS took off the only people that were actually doing something and brought on what can only be described as lesser quality. Theo off Djenepo on.... sorry but Theo has been there, done it and got the t shirt, Djenepo IMHO is not prem standards and not a fighter, bad decision by RS. Aribo off tall Paul on, Aribo was okay no service so cant expect much from him, but if you bring on tall paul you need to get down the wings and get crosses in. not sure i saw one in to him. Alcaraz off and Edozie on, again another strange sub. Alcaraz looked okay, had shot on goal and made a menice of himself, Edozie is a young lad and does not have the experience that we needed on that pitch that day. bring on the first division and maybe we can get back to wining ways. as next year anyone with quality will be off and we will be left with a lot of over paid rubbish and in the same position as this year.

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