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Comment | Southampton At Bournemouth The Verdict
at 17:51:40
I think it’s much more to do with how much faith Solak still has in Rasmus Ankersen’s black box. Because I reckon Moyes would just blow it up, in other words there has to be a board room bust up for there to be any change in managerial philosophy. |
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Comment | Southampton At Bournemouth The Verdict
at 17:10:39
On April 20 1653, Cromwell addressed parliament:
It is not fit that you should sit here any longer. You have sat here too long for any good you have been doing lately … In the name of God go.“
I can think if no better words to be addressed to Russell Martin…. |
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Comment | Graham Potter Lined Up For Southampton Job
at 09:55:50
I’ve long been an advocate of booting out RM asap because he simply is not up to the task of running a PL club.
Forget about his inability to get his team selections, set-up and subs right, what all the “give-him-more-time” merchants seem to be forgetting is that last season we got promoted despite letting in 63 goals, which was 14th in the league! Now if anyone tells me that was produced from a style of play that will be successful in the Premier League, I will respond by saying you're clearly smoking the wrong sort of cigarettes.
To hell with not scoring enough goals - although it would be a bonus if we could! - teams get relegated not because they don’t score enough, but because they let too many in. And without a change in management it is a racing certainty that is the way we are going. |
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Comment | Big Big Game For Russell Martin At Bournemouth
at 12:51:43
I think Saintmark where we disagree is that you think it’s the Board’s fault us being where we are, by which I presume you mean that you think their black box buying process is cock-eyed. Whereas I happen to think we have got some good and indeed one or two very good players who are able to survive in the PL but who are currently being managed wrong. In my view RM will not succeed regardless of who he’s got in his squad because he simply has not got the wherewithal to be a successful top flight manager. |
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Comment | Big Big Game For Russell Martin At Bournemouth
at 10:14:22
I sincerely hope we do well this weekend. But I will be amazed if we do.
Because we cannot progress any further under this manager and I cannot understand how others fail to see this.
He is naive in his tactics, his set-up, his subs, his penalty taker(!). And he’s far too chummy with the players.
Are we really saying that he is doing better, or more importantly WILL FROM HEREON do better than Ralph? Or God forbid Nathan Jones?
Moreover, everybody seems to be forgetting that all the other teams around us aren’t standing still, they are all starting to get their acts together. So no matter what we do, our task will just get harder over the next few weeks.
And as for all this rubbish about five games is not long enough. How many bad results do you want before you will admit he’s no good? 8? 10? 20?
The longer SR takes to sack him the worse the pile of poo we will find ourselves. End of.
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Comment | Southampton V Ipswich Town The Verdict
at 16:26:13
Talk about a nail-biter! Which inevitably ended the way all 6-pointers do… Trouble was we were struggling through the entire game to contain…Ipswich, for God’s sake!, who are barely out of short trousers (aka L1j.
But overall was this a better performance? Well in parts, yes, especially Ramsdale, Lallana, Dibling, Fernandes and Sugawara. But then against that you have the massive negatives of Archer (such a lightweight), Harwood-Bellis (far too big-headed), Ugochukwu (slow and careless) and Ross Stewart (embarrassingly slow and unfit). So I would say on a scale of 0 to 10, we may have moved up a shade, from say around 4 to maybe 5, but still well short of what is required.
I know the optimists will say we played better, but that isn’t really the point, because WE STILL LOST! And I continue to think that under RM we really won’t, indeed cannot get much better because he is out of his depth. No one is going to wave a magic wand and suddenly make him a better manager because we have seen the total length and breadth of his talents, he’s not going to improve, and the longer SR wait to sack him - and note he will definitely be sacked, it is just a question of when - the further down the track we will be before a new manager can start to get us playing better as a team.
In a nutshell we are a half decent car being driven by a man who will forever be stuck with his L plates on. And if you need further proof, as someone else has commented, how come Fulham, a similar sized club and level of abilities to us, can do it and we can’t? Answer: the manager pure and simple. |
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Comment | Southampton Already Have Their Target To Replace Russell Martin
at 09:06:02
Goodness me I hope this is a nonsense, because frying pans and fires come to mind…
I do think RM is not capable of keeping us up but, all the same, another Championship manager? Oh pur-lease…!
That said, I get it that the number one criterion for all business owners is not to lose money.
At the moment the £120m+ the club will earn this season will go a long way to offsetting the total net outlay on players this season. To which the payoff for RM - which would presumably come out at around £5m - needs to added.
So we get relegated, we lose a number of players for whom we recoup let’s say £30m-odd.
Plus the parachute payment(s) et voila, SR are not much out of pocket, if at all.
But, if they were now to go for a high profile manager, he might cost £5m-10m a year and the cost of firing him if unsuccessful would be a lot higher.
In other words, it seems that SR believes that RM is getting the most out of this squad and a big name would not be guaranteed to do any better. And it therefore makes more economic sense to line up a cheaper “good prospect”, hence the idea of choosing Eustace over a much higher profile name, ie the whole thing is financially-based.
Sad, but that is today’s world. |
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Comment | Southampton At Everton The Carabao Cup Verdict
at 10:29:42
If you’d just landed from Mars and you watched this football match, I would imagine your friendly Martian would be pretty hard pressed not to be able to decide where these two teams currently are in the Premier League: because “mainly dross” would be the description he would undoubtedly come up with.
That said, I think it maybe showed WE ARE NO WORSE THAN EVERTON, which I suppose is something. And of course it may instil a bit of confidence in the squad for Saturday.
But I did count at least half a dozen times when we were pressed by Everton and lost the ball trying to do tippy tappy. And yet there was definitely more cases of hoofing the ball out instead. So maybe that is sign of improvement, even if better teams would take more decisive advantage, as has been shown so far this season.
Yes I know damning with faint praise but I still maintain getting out of the bottom three under this manager is going to take one helluva lot more than we showed last night, especially as we were hardly playing our reserves. |
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Comment | Will Fate Once Again Force Russell Martin's Hand
at 13:59:48
JoeEgg- agree with all that.
And in answer to your last point UNEQUIVOCALLY NO WE DO NOT.
The fact is he WILL be sacked, be it in a week, a month or a year. Because he simply does not have the wherewithal, the nouse and the tactical know how to be even a bog standard PL manager, let alone a successful one.
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Comment | Southampton V Manchester United The Verdict
at 09:30:34
There are two common-heard expressions in the media which I loathe:
The first, is after some poor individual has got stuffed in his or her particular sport, is virtually in tears and a moronic reporter immediately shoves a mike in their face and asks “How do you feel?”!!!
And the other is after your team has got well beaten, everybody is really down, and the manager waxes lyrical about being able to take “loads of positives from the game”. Aside from the fact that you will never hear a winning manager say “ Well, we will be able to take loads of negatives from our performance”, this is always a pathetic attempt at arse-covering. Because, a defeat is a defeat, no matter how much you try to tart it up, and, Russell Martin, nil-three at home is not far short of a thrashing. And for you to think otherwise just shows how deluded you are.
My read on Saturday’s successful plucking of defeat from the jaws of victory:
1. The reason we lost pure and simple was RM’s idiotic decision to get Cameron Archer to take the penalty, when Diaz, who has scored seven out of seven, clearly was the better choice. That one decision deflated the team and the crowd and it was all over.
2. It is small decisions (like that one) that win or lose you games, not whether for example you play three, four or five at the back. And that decision alone shows that RM just hasn’t got the X factor.
3. RM now seems to have got into the appalling habit of apologising, as if that will make it any better! And what does this tell us? That HE IS LACKING IN THAT INNER CONFIDENCE THAT IS REQUIRED TO BE A PREMIER LEAGUE MANAGER. And If you doubt this, when did you last hear Pep or Jurgen or even the likes of Nuno or Ten Hag or Dyche apologising. They don’t, because they have 100% self-belief coupled with PL experience.
4. And if you want further proof, a really good manager would have been able to lift the players’ heads up at half time, said that Man U are quite beatable, and got them to play the second half with spirit and pride. Instead our drab H2 performance speaks volumes about RM’s non-Churchillian half-time talk.
5. JS’s thoroughly deserved red card spoke volumes about the frustration which RM’s style has created in the team.
6. Finally he says “The lads are trying so hard, they are giving everything they’ve got”. But isn’t that the point? It’s under him they are doing the best they can, ie he has reached the end of his limited footballing knowledge and if that wasn’t proof positive that he has to go, I don’t know what is.
I’ve said it time and time again, top managers make average players into A1 teams; can anyone honestly put their hand on their heart and say with confidence that RM can do this? We need at least nine wins to stay up; right now I struggle to see where we are going to get our first point from, let alone our first win under him. I believe he must be shown the door and PDQ. He has taken us as far as he can, he’s not going to get any better, and anybody who seriously thinks we should give him more time is as deluded as he is, because the longer we keep him the more he will squander the talents of this half decent team. |
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Comment | The Knives Are Out For Russell Martin In The Media But Do They Have Substance
at 11:27:54
To win points from here we need to play better, I think we all agree on that. But we are also depending on other teams playing worse but, if we think we can play better then why on earth shouldn’t others be able to?
I actually think I am a half full person because I see some if not most of our players up to PL standards. But under this manager I just cannot see them being able/allowed to play to their best.
Brian Clough was brilliant at making B and C class players into an A class team. Can we really say that about Russell Martin? |
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Comment | The Knives Are Out For Russell Martin In The Media But Do They Have Substance
at 09:50:39
Before all the “give RM a chance” merchants spout any more from their ivory towers, one statistic that many forget about is that last season we conceded 64 goals, which was equal fourteenth, yes FOURTEENTH!
Which I believe underlines the basic underlying problem with RM’s possession-based style which is exactly that, TOO MUCH POSSESSION.
And it’s simply a case of mathematics.
Suppose you have 35% possession and you lose the ball ten times in a game. That may or may not lead to a goal or two against you, maybe more, may less.
But….
If you have 70% possession, then by simple maths, that would lead to maybe 20 losses of the ball, so twice as many chances of conceding.
But even if you manage to play better with more possession and keep the loss of the ball to say 15 times or less - and we clearly have been unable to - then that still means you are much more vulnerable than if you only have 35% possession.
And this is without the increased tiredness that comes with it.
So proof positive that lots of possession is a good thing is an utter fallacy. We may have got away with in the Championship, but in the PL? Not an earthly
AND THAT IS WHY RUSSELL MARTIN HAS TO GO…
PS. I seem to recall all those nutters who were saying sacking Adkins was completely wrong and look what then happened; and it’s the same now, fine in the lower leagues, out of his depth in the PL.
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Comment | Southampton At Brentford The Damning Verdict
at 09:49:05
I’m afraid I think you are being much too generous in your comments Nick.
Saturdays display was surely was the epitome of a team that is all over the shop defensively with a manager who doesn’t know what to do about it given he refuses to change his system.
Watching what in my view was a near train crash of an interview with RM - not looking at the camera, trying to big up the team’s performance, looking miserable, saying it was his fault - I got the distinct impression that he was trying to hide a sense of defeatism, along the lines of “it’s all going wrong, the players are losing confidence, I don’t know what to do, I’m out of my depth, take me out of my misery”; and hence his comment about living and dying by the sword, which is another way of saying “I think it’s only a matter of time before I get the boot.”
What is more this must leak back to the team, and the latest comments, from the likes of Adam Lallana and Jack Stephens surely show that team spirit is fragile at best. And what will happen to it in the Man U game if we ship a silly goal or two?
But more importantly, having spent around £60m+ net in the transfer window, the really interesting question now is how long SR will now give him, because they must see that currently we are cannon-fodder for every other team in the PL. I reckon end-November max and could be (much) less if we don’t get some points on the board PDQ and the boos ring out at SMS |
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Comment | Southampton At Cardiff City The Carabao Cup Preview
at 09:44:18
“The manager will have two objectives from this game, the first will be to obviously win it, but the second is perhaps more important for the season, that is to fine tune the players on the fringes to the possession game he has introduced to the club and hopefully create some competition in the squad going forward.”
Sounds familiar?
Yes unfair I know but this was from Nick’s preview of the Gillingham game last year.
Plus ca change…? |
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Comment | Southampton V Nottingham Forest The Verdict.
at 15:11:46
We did not seem to be able to cope with Forest’s style of pacy play and their non-stop press, and they are supposedly one of the lesser lights in the PL. They just seemed more skilled, fitter, and half a yard faster and generally made us look like an average Championship team (which arguably we are), who were lucky not to have lost by two or three goals.
That said we might still have got something out of the game if our two wingers had someone in the middle to aim for.
Over the last few seasons the yardstick is at least 9 wins to stay up, in other words half your home games give or take. Last season Luton Burnley and Sheffield united won 14 games between them, ie around five each (whereas Forest in 17th spot won 9). Because unless or until we get in a goal scorer or two plus a goalkeeper in the next couple of days, on this evidence, given our frailties at the back and at the front, it is going to be a very long season…
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Comment | Vacancy- Ball Playing Goalkeeper Wanted Apply St Mary's Stadium
at 09:58:02
Great post and I don’t think there are many fans who would disagree.
Except RM that is!
As I said in a previous post, I do find bizarre the comments he made about AM being a great goalie and the blame for goal mistake should be shared..
Call me a cynic but it could be argued that he is making a fruitless effort to defend/justify a new 2 year contract (which he was presumably aware and supportive of). Furthermore, if he really does believe what he is saying, I just wonder, reading between the lines, whether RM - who after all is just 4 years older that AM - sees him as an ally and/or therefore might find it rather difficult telling off his contemporary…. |
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Comment | Southampton At Newcastle United The Verdict
at 15:47:48
I have commented about previously on how utterly useless I thought AM was and should not have tried to play silly buggers. In fact I think almost a worse crime was looking utterly shambolic when Isak passed to Joelinton, AM didn’t even make a half hearted attempt to save it.
However, just to be boringly even-handed about it… I just wonder whether looking at AM’s pass straight to Isak, it doesn’t look worse on TV and/or in the crowd? because we look down on the play and can see everything clearly, whereas the goalie only sees things in his direct eyeline and to him the pass may have seemed, or indeed to him it definitely looked, on.
More worrying though is the comments RM made about AM being a great goalie and the blame for goal mistake should be shared. Because I just wonder, reading between the lines, whether RM - who after all is just 4 years older that AM - might find it rather difficult telling off his contemporary…. |
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