| Back from a weekend in London 22:51 - Dec 12 with 842 views | A1079 |
A good weekend down in London - that is, if I ignore the 90 minutes or so I spent at the Emirates watching Saints.
For 20 minutes we looked reasonable - I say reasonable, which is not the same as good but for those brief minutes Arsenal did not look much - then they scored against the run of play and we melted away like a summer ice cream. The thing is with Saints under Ralph, when we go behind you can be fairly sure it will be followed by more goals being conceded and next to no chance of turning a game around!
The thing is that in those brief 20 minutes (and a few minutes towards the end when Arsenal decided that they could take the foot off the gas) we did what we have done repeatedly - offered no cutting edge and did not take advantage.
But it is not so much the result that gets me (I kind of expected it) it is the nature of our collapse or woeful overall performance. You might think that at half time we would come out and show some fight - no, not at all. 3-0 could have been 5 or 6 nil.
Only 3 players escape criticism for me yesterday - Tella and Kyle Walker-Peters and for short periods Redmond made some effort. I am not saying they were great but they did at least try.
Our midfield was non-existent. Diallo was woeful. He offered nothing the whole game. If he is the future then he needs to do alot better than this. JWP - what has happened to him? He really needs to be dropped. I have always liked JWP but this season he is offering nothing and a captain he is not - though in truth I have no idea who is?
Our defence was what it was - alien to each other. Quite why Lyanco did not start is beyond me. Stephens and Bednarek were all over the place though did improve when Lyanco came on. Perhaps I should not be surprised - they have had little time together and Bednarek has not had a good season either. Caballero - difficult to be critical but he looked all over the place at times. Perhaps understandable.
Livramento is losing his way and he needs a break. He was all over the place yesterday. I was not sure what his role was. I don't blame him, there is too much on his young shoulders and unfortunately he is being forced to take responsibility in a poor team with experienced players around him offering no help, leadership or support.
Romeu will be back on Wednesday and he has been a great servant for the club (and I will not say much against him) but arguably his stupid foul and free kick was very costly for us - it lead to Brighton's equaliser and his absence yesterday meant we did not have the protection in front of our defence, though others should have stepped up to the plate and didn't. But a lesson to Romeu - engage brain when deciding to make a tackle.
Our strike force was non-existent.
I cannot for the life of me find any positives from yesterday's game. Some will say it was a free hit - no it wasn't. We let Arsenal look good. True we had some of our so called best players missing and had they been present it may have been different - but I am not so sure.
Saints support has been good this year but yesterday there was a sense of resignation and little to be motivated by. I don't know where we go. I cannot make my mind up as to whether Ralph is just not up to it or whether the quality of our team has become so diluted that there is little he can do. Tactically he seems all over the place at times. I want consistency and stability in our management but I am no longer sure Ralph can change anything - the trouble is, if not him, who?
This next week is crucial for the team and the manager. I would say a minimum of 4 points out of Palace and Brentford and a desperate need for a home win to bring back some belief in the team and the fans. Fail to win either of these games and it will really not look good for us or for that matter Ralph's future.
The game aside - went for a nice meal at an Italian in Upper Street and visited various hostelries around London Bridge. So, it wasn't all bad! |  | | |  |
| Back from a weekend in London on 23:23 - Dec 12 with 790 views | PatfromPoole |
Great report, sir.
You typify why when I go out on the occasional Saints weekender away, I go out on the Friday night rather than the Saturday night. I tend to come home straight after the game on the Saturday.
At least if you go out on the Friday night, you can enjoy it without being wholly cheesed off at Saints’ performance.
If we lose, I just want to go home and hope that I have cheered up by the time I get home. |  |
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| Back from a weekend in London on 23:53 - Dec 12 with 775 views | Saintsforeverj |
Good assessment of the game and day. I was there too. In my opinion, ultimately it's the lack of quality and lack of investment in the team that is killing us. Ralph is clearly making mistakes but so did Hughes, so did Pellegrino, so did Puel. Another manager could come in and freshen things up, new start, but I doubt it would last. They would soon start making mistakes too and losing the plot too, when they realise the hopeless situation they are in with championship standard players.
It's arguable it's time for a change of manager, it's not enjoyable at the moment but like most of us, I have given up thinking it will be any better when we would still have a vastly inferior squad to most. I felt optimistic when Hughes left and Ralph came in, as did we all, but here we are again. We just have a very average squad and hope that Norwich, Burnley and co end up being worse. And to be honest, would it matter much if we went down? Cheaper tickets, get rid of the plastics, new grounds to visit, proper fans, more chance of winning a few games. It just feels so pointless. [Post edited 12 Dec 2021 23:55]
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| Back from a weekend in London on 04:51 - Dec 13 with 724 views | 1teeminants |
The problem is until we get new investment with a new owner things wont change. What decent manager would want to come here at the moment ? Top players will always want to leave us to win trophies and double salaries. Having Investment so we can pay higher wages and buy better players will help us and improve the team .This all seems pretty obvious I know.
We still have a pretty average squad but having said that I think we should be doing better. KWP ,Salisu, Romeu, JWP, Tino, Broja are all decent but apart from Salisu the others really aren t performing at the moment which makes me wonder whether the players are playing for Ralph now. There are reports that we just gave up v Arsenal which has to be down to Ralph. |  |
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| Back from a weekend in London on 07:06 - Dec 13 with 661 views | saintwizzler |
Too many players going through the motions.
The manager looks a beaten man.
Will there be a change of manager.
No, he has 2.5 years on his contrast so a £15m payoff.
That’s not going to happen.
As said previously we are hoping there’s 3 worse teams than us.
Burnley v Watford on Wednesday. |  |
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| Back from a weekend in London on 08:08 - Dec 13 with 589 views | saint22 |
As always 1079 an astute report
I don't know were we go from here, it now starts to look like the players have given up, no fight, energy levels gone
Tino stopped marauding, tired or told not too?
That loss to Norwich was key for me, totally debilitating and inexcusable, lets hope we don't go down by a point
I really think Newcastle and Norwich will struggle, Burnley i would love to go but Dyche always seems to find a way, though if Tarkowski goes in January maybe
We need defenders again!!! Leaders in January, Jansson, Worral at Forest someone to get hod of the back line and hold their positions, so many goals we concede is because we are SO out of shape
Oh and decent keeper but thats not new | | | |
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