Since the defeat to Chelsea it has been meltdown season again with social media full of messages of panic, but the first thing to to is keep calm and take stock and identify the issues.

With five Premier League games gone most Saints fans were happy with the situation, we had come through a difficult start and sat nicely in mid table, all the talk was of Moussa Djenepo and the flair of our attacking players.

Indeed we went into the Bournemouth game knowing that a win would push us into the top 3, but we also knew our central defence was frail and that proved to be the case against the Cherries and the two games in the League since.

But we all knew that at the start of the season, so there is no need to start screaming now as if it is the biggest surprise going.

The manner of these three defeats was disappointing, but in essence last season these three games yielded only a single point, so it is not as if we were expecting all 9.

I have been saying now for three years about the central defence, at times to howls of derision that I have something against certain players, I pointed out back in February 2017 that we had failed to bring in a quality central defender to replace Jose Fonte, that the centre of our defence was Championship quality, yet I was told I was wrong.

No one is telling me that now.

But moaning about it won't change the situation, we cannot do anything till January at least, then hopefully we will do something about it, but there are things we can do differently & better.

The weak spine of the defence is at the core of all our problems, teams know they can exploit us here and they target this area, this in turn leads to uncertainty in the team, the midfield are scared to push forward in case our defence gets caught on the break and the goalkeeper loses confidence because he is unsure what the central defenders will do next.

So we can't bring in anyone till January, but we can do things differently, Kevin Danso was signed to play in the centre of defence, he has never played there, something is strange there, Danso looked big strong and pacy in his three appearances, however he didn't look like a wing back.

We have nothing to lose by playing him in his natural position, let's at least find out if he is good enough rather than watch the same players make the same mistakes week in week out.

Alternatively lets try something completely out of the blue, play Oriol Romeu in the centre of defence and move Danso into a central midfield holding role, he has played there in Germany, we need to do something to break the circle and get the ball rolling again.

So why has Ralph Hasenhuttl started to make different decisions than before ?

It is hard to tell the simple thing is that he no longer has Danny Rohl at his side, this is an obvious answer and may have some basis, but I think it is not so much the loss of Rohl but who replaced him and his coaching staff as a whole.

Richard Kitzbichler has taken on a role as an assistant first team coach, but he is only one of several, Dave Watson, Kelvin Davis, Craig Fleming are also in that role.

They all have one thing in common, they all have little actual experience in the job they are there to do, Kitzbichler has the most, he is essentially an analyst but went into physical coaching with RB Salzburg in 2015 and 2 years there was followed by another in China.

Hardly the experience necessary at this level, but hopefully he is Hasenhuttl's man and someone to bounce ideas off.

Dave Watson was goalkeeping coach at Saints for a while and filled that role from the summer of 2014 up till the start of this season when he was promoted to assistant coach, now I can't find any reason as to why he should fill that role, he is a respected goalkeeping coach, but that is a completely different job to coaching outfield players.

Likewise Kelvin Davis, his rise to first team assistant coach has been meteoric and without any real credentials to do that role.

A little under two years ago he was Football Development Executive at the club after retiring, no one is quite sure what that role involved it was a job given to hi for his service at the club rather than anything else, but it did not involve him with the playing side of things and he hadn't even coached at youth team level when after the departure of Eric Black in December 2017 he was appointed as an assistant coach to the fist team, footballing reasons were not cited, more his ability to help Mauricio Pellegrino with the knowledge of the Premier League.

A year later he was caretaker manager for a game when Mark Hughes was sacked, but like Watson, he is a goalkeeper with no real experience of coaching outfield players.

The fourth assistant Craig Fleming has just as little pedigree as the rest, although he has worked his passage through the ranks and played a lot of games in league football, his coaching career is not so glittering.

He started at Lowestoft Town in 2008 and stayed with them for 7 years as coach/manager, he got them promoted but the highest level they reached was Conference North.

Fleming joined Saints as U18 coach in 2015 and then became U23 coach in July 2018 jumping to the first team bench when Mark Hughes got sacked last December.

So Fleming has no real experience of coaching at this level, essentially we have four coaches who have not got the experience and indeed in the case of Kitzbichler, Davis & Watson are not actually coaches at all by trade, this is their secondary skill.

Here we are hitting the nail on the head why we appear to be lackustre and lacking leadership, the loss of Rohl was big because he was the only man on board who could take training who would command respect, now our first team squad are being coached by three men who they have been used to seeing in minor roles around Staplewood or coaching the goalkeepers.

This situation has to change, the quality of the players in the squad is there apart from in central defence, but they are lions being coached by inexperienced donkeys to coin a phrase.

The addition of Kitzbichler will bring some experience and support to Hasenhuttl, but from the body language on the bench the other three are very detached from the manager, they are in positions they are not qualified for, is Hasenhuttl happy with this, is it being forced on him, if so that is a recipe for disaster.

Short term we can get away with it, but longer term it cannot end well, the coaching team does not have enough experience or indeed command the respect that it needs to have, that could be a reason there is clearly indiscipline in the squad at the moment.

The board need to act and work with Ralph Hasenhuttl to bring in a head coach, someone who can not only get the squad motivated again, but can bounce ideas between manager and head coach.

Truth is there are no leaders in the team and Ralph Hasenhuttl aside no leaders in the coaching staff, that is why we are losing games.

Photo: Action Images

Big_T added 17:26 - Oct 8 Pick the best players ! Stick with a keeper and a settled back four , week in week out so they learn to play as a unit ! Have we played the same back 5 two games in a row since Ralph came in ? We all know they aren't the best but pride, work and togetherness can get them through . You won't convince me that Burnley have the best defenders in the league, but boy do they work hard for every point they save.

4

saintlee added 20:50 - Oct 8 Basically it all boils down to poor recruitment. Vestergaard, Hoedt at centre back are not good enough. You can chuck Stephens in there too. Full backs when fit are good. Bakery though has a lot to learn defensively. We still need cover at left back. Bednarek is gonna be a class act. As Nick said, don't know about Danso yet cause he hasn't played centre back for us yet. Ward-prose is overrated completely. Doesn't bring enough to the team for me. Not creative enough apart from the odd set piece. Romeu wears his heart on his sleeve but gets booked too often. All the fans have been complaining about playing players out of position so Nick suggests playing Romeu at centre back. Hmmm- don't think so mate. If Danso not a wing back then our Oriel is not a centre back. The forwards. Well !! Full of pace and trickery but not a lot of end product. Djnepo is sorely missed but I sincerely hope we are not pinning all our hopes on him because he's very young and still very raw. Boufal I think is class but keeps running up a dark alley. Ralph needs to take some the blame regarding team selections and substitutions. Bringing players on with 10 mins to go and expect them to change the game is too much to ask of anyone and is quite frankly bloody ridiculous. If Mr Ago is not willing to invest in the team, especially the back four then his investment in the club could soon be up in smoke. No one can deny if we keep making stupid mistakes at the back from sub standard players then there is only one outcome and we could be playing the blue few a lot more regularly than we are now.

3

saintlee added 20:53 - Oct 8 Basically it all boils down to poor recruitment. Vestergaard, Hoedt at centre back are not good enough. You can chuck Stephens in there too. Full backs when fit are good. Bakery though has a lot to learn defensively. We still need cover at left back. Bednarek is gonna be a class act. As Nick said, don't know about Danso yet cause he hasn't played centre back for us yet. Ward-prose is overrated completely. Doesn't bring enough to the team for me. Not creative enough apart from the odd set piece. Romeu wears his heart on his sleeve but gets booked too often. All the fans have been complaining about playing players out of position so Nick suggests playing Romeu at centre back. Hmmm- don't think so mate. If Danso not a wing back then our Oriel is not a centre back. The forwards. Well !! Full of pace and trickery but not a lot of end product. Djnepo is sorely missed but I sincerely hope we are not pinning all our hopes on him because he's very young and still very raw. Boufal I think is class but keeps running up a dark alley. Ralph needs to take some the blame regarding team selections and substitutions. Bringing players on with 10 mins to go and expect them to change the game is too much to ask of anyone and is quite frankly bloody ridiculous. If Mr Ago is not willing to invest in the team, especially the back four then his investment in the club could soon be up in smoke. No one can deny if we keep making stupid mistakes at the back from sub standard players then there is only one outcome and we could be playing the blue few a lot more regularly than we are now.

5

davidargyll added 07:48 - Oct 9 My pennyworth would be the following. Has the quality of the PL generally improved in the last 3 or 4 years and how have we performed relative to everyone else? I would say Yes; and gone south. And therein lies the problem: ultimately it’s about our players having to play better now than they were back in Poch and RKs time just for us to stand still. That’s why the likes of JWP today appear and arguably are so pedestrian, everyone else has got better and we haven’t. Is RH the man to improve the abilities of our squad? I’m seriously beginning to have my doubts.

6

underweststand added 12:30 - Oct 10 As a postscript to previous diagnosis (above) about ...".what's wrong with"... we might take some small consolation if reading the Daily Mail article which highlights the lack of goals coming from new Premier League signings this season. Over £235 million spent on almost a dozen strikers who have yet to break their " duck" (I know ...wrong sport synonym) in the Prem.this season. Ché Adams was the lowest fee amongst the newcomers and some other clubs might be sweating bricks to see the huge fees they've paid out resulting in zero goals. It takes time to adjust and one wonders how long it might be before they start to find form. Don't worry Ché - goals will come.

2

Blogs 31 bloggers

Wolverhampton Wanderers Polls