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1.Ralph should have been supported better by buying a class striker and some experience to help the promising youngsters. 1.a Romeu was a big loss. 2.Jones appointment. A manager with no Premiership experience thrown into a relegation scrap. 3.Jones had the matches that we could have picked up vital points but didn't 4.Too many players being in and out of the side ,strange team selections and substitutes. 5.Subsequently we are left with too much to do in too little time. 6.3 Managers in one season. The match yesterday was vital but the players looked lost and with them our Premiership place. We deserve to go down. Still a Cup to play for, Grimsby will be no pushovers. Sorry to be so pessimistic but that's how I see it. Team to see the season out McCarthy / Cabellero KWP Salisu Bella-Kotchap Perraud JWP Alcaraz Lavia Sulemana Onuachu Adams
[Post edited 26 Feb 2023 18:09]
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A Season of Mistakes on 18:38 - Feb 26 with 2265 views
1. You are right, that is the biggest single issue here.
1 A. Romeu wasn't a big loss, the injury to Lavia was the big loss
2. It was a rather puzzling appointment
3. I agree, but it wasn't all his fault, he didn't instruct the team to leave a man unmarked at the back post in the final minute of the fulham game for instance.
4 Yep too much panic changes.
5. There are still 14 games leftit feels shorter than it is due to the mid season break.
6. Yes at least 1 too many, I would have liked to have seen Ralph given the chance with new signings in.
With regard to who should play in goal, see your question 4. Bazunu might not be great but he has not made as many howlers as McCarthy did last season, people forgot the goals he was letting in in the first half of last season
Bazunu might not be the answer, but neither are McCarthy & Caballerro
Satisfying The Bloodlust Of The Masses In Peacetime
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A Season of Mistakes on 10:22 - Feb 27 with 1995 views
A Season of Mistakes on 10:12 - Feb 27 by SaintNick
1. You are right, that is the biggest single issue here.
1 A. Romeu wasn't a big loss, the injury to Lavia was the big loss
2. It was a rather puzzling appointment
3. I agree, but it wasn't all his fault, he didn't instruct the team to leave a man unmarked at the back post in the final minute of the fulham game for instance.
4 Yep too much panic changes.
5. There are still 14 games leftit feels shorter than it is due to the mid season break.
6. Yes at least 1 too many, I would have liked to have seen Ralph given the chance with new signings in.
With regard to who should play in goal, see your question 4. Bazunu might not be great but he has not made as many howlers as McCarthy did last season, people forgot the goals he was letting in in the first half of last season
Bazunu might not be the answer, but neither are McCarthy & Caballerro
Agree about Bazunu,he is still learning. My biggest problem with him is he does like to distribute the ball from his area to our players who being close to him are clearly marked, dangerous!
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A Season of Mistakes on 10:28 - Feb 27 with 1990 views
A Season of Mistakes on 10:12 - Feb 27 by SaintNick
1. You are right, that is the biggest single issue here.
1 A. Romeu wasn't a big loss, the injury to Lavia was the big loss
2. It was a rather puzzling appointment
3. I agree, but it wasn't all his fault, he didn't instruct the team to leave a man unmarked at the back post in the final minute of the fulham game for instance.
4 Yep too much panic changes.
5. There are still 14 games leftit feels shorter than it is due to the mid season break.
6. Yes at least 1 too many, I would have liked to have seen Ralph given the chance with new signings in.
With regard to who should play in goal, see your question 4. Bazunu might not be great but he has not made as many howlers as McCarthy did last season, people forgot the goals he was letting in in the first half of last season
Bazunu might not be the answer, but neither are McCarthy & Caballerro
Our loss is Spurs' gain: 2 clean sheets in 7 days for Forster puts Spurs in the top 4 and we could see a return to the Champions League for Forster: a competition he has excelled in before.
Of course, Hojbjerg, another player underappreciated by Saints' fans, has also been important for Spurs.
From the Fighting Cock:
SA96 Yesterday at 3:18 PM #1,481 If Fraser Forster was in goal for the entire season, we would have more points.
He is so reliable and doesn't make stupid mistakes.
Kosher Kid Yesterday at 8:58 PM #308 Fraser Forster is the best keeper at THFC.
It's official.
Kicks, passes, catches, communicates, makes saves.
Agree about Bazunu,he is still learning. My biggest problem with him is he does like to distribute the ball from his area to our players who being close to him are clearly marked, dangerous!
This is clearly part of the overall strategy to pass the ball from the back, I agree though sometimes you have to just hoof it
Satisfying The Bloodlust Of The Masses In Peacetime
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A Season of Mistakes on 10:47 - Feb 27 with 1954 views
A Season of Mistakes on 10:39 - Feb 27 by SaintNick
This is clearly part of the overall strategy to pass the ball from the back, I agree though sometimes you have to just hoof it
Such a stupid strategy to play a youngster in goal in the Premier League. Goalkeepers don't reach their peak until their late 20s/early 30s. By, then, if Bazunu eventually becomes good enough and his confidence isn't shattered by being thrown in to the deep end far too soon, he'll be long gone.
Since the Summer transfer window trying to strengthen a very weak squad. Have any of the players actually made a positive impact?
Bazunu £12.3m - Statistically the worst keeper in the PL DCC £7m - barely played Alcaraz - £12m - actually scored a goal and looks one of the better ones but what will he contribute to keeping us up? Mara £13.5m - not scored a single PL goal Lavia £11m - Looks good but inconsistent and injury prone (go figure, he's a teenager ffs!) ABK £10m - See above (apart from the teenager bit) Edozie £7m - done dick all of shit Aribo £6m - Who? Larios £6m - more likely to appear in panto than the PL Orsic £5m - We needed a panic buy in Jan to help us now, instead we got a player two managers have deemed he's not even fit enough to be on the bench Bree 750k - Golfing buddy of a manager no longer at the club. Ironically of all our transfers will get the most appearances for the club as we will be lowering ourselves to his level Elongated Paul £16m - yet to score a goal doesn't look like he's going to be banging them in at the rate Ings is for West Ham... Sulemana £22m - 22m?! Might be ok but will he contribute to keeping us up this season and even be here next?
What an absolute shower. If I were the Croatian moneyman I'd be sending out the hit men.
Is this what happens when a motivational speaker who likes spreadsheets is given a PL club to play with?
"Playing Devil's Advocate since 15th January 2014"
A Season of Mistakes on 10:47 - Feb 27 by dirk_doone
Such a stupid strategy to play a youngster in goal in the Premier League. Goalkeepers don't reach their peak until their late 20s/early 30s. By, then, if Bazunu eventually becomes good enough and his confidence isn't shattered by being thrown in to the deep end far too soon, he'll be long gone.
[Post edited 27 Feb 2023 10:51]
I do agree with you about the strategy, but truth is he is the best option we currently have, there have been young keepers who have come through and made the grade in the top flight.
In the past Ray Clemence and Peter Shilton were both first choice keepers at Liverpool & Leicester at a young age.
Eric Martin was in the Saints first team at 21 , Tim Flowers was 19 when he joined Saints and was a regular in the first team by the age of 21.
Jordan Pickford came to the fore at Sunderland by the age of 22.
In general goalkeepers take a bit longer, but there have been some good ones who have broken through early, im sure there are many more.
Satisfying The Bloodlust Of The Masses In Peacetime
A Season of Mistakes on 10:47 - Feb 27 by dirk_doone
Such a stupid strategy to play a youngster in goal in the Premier League. Goalkeepers don't reach their peak until their late 20s/early 30s. By, then, if Bazunu eventually becomes good enough and his confidence isn't shattered by being thrown in to the deep end far too soon, he'll be long gone.
[Post edited 27 Feb 2023 10:51]
It's not as if the club could have predicted that though is it? It's not like we had recently signed a young keeper from City for large sum of cash and ruined his career by playing him too early is it?
"Playing Devil's Advocate since 15th January 2014"
The whole concept of buying a bunch of youngsters and expecting them to be ready for the Premier League is totally flawed. Even the top clubs' U21 teams regularly get thrashed by lower league teams in the EFL Trophy.
Yes, you might find one or two who can hack it if surrounded by older players but you can't expect them to be the backbone of your team. Real Madrid, the best team in Europe,have a team largely made up of players in their 30s: Modric, 37, Benzema, 35, Kroos, 33, Nacho, 33, Hazard, 32, Carvajal, 31, Vazquez, 31, Alaba, 30 and Courtois, 30.
Fulham, a small club with a limited budget, have done very well out of playing older players. When they needed a goalkeeper, they bought 30-year-old Bernd Leno for £3 mill. The 34-year-old Willian, signed on a one-year contract for free, has been one of the main reasons for their success this season. Big name players at the end of their careers are what Lawrie McMenemy used to build the most successful Saints' team ever. When players reach 30 at Southampton nowadays, we get rid of them, and most of them we offload long before that.
A Season of Mistakes on 11:05 - Feb 27 by dirk_doone
The whole concept of buying a bunch of youngsters and expecting them to be ready for the Premier League is totally flawed. Even the top clubs' U21 teams regularly get thrashed by lower league teams in the EFL Trophy.
Yes, you might find one or two who can hack it if surrounded by older players but you can't expect them to be the backbone of your team. Real Madrid, the best team in Europe,have a team largely made up of players in their 30s: Modric, 37, Benzema, 35, Kroos, 33, Nacho, 33, Hazard, 32, Carvajal, 31, Vazquez, 31, Alaba, 30 and Courtois, 30.
Fulham, a small club with a limited budget, have done very well out of playing older players. When they needed a goalkeeper, they bought 30-year-old Bernd Leno for £3 mill. The 34-year-old Willian, signed on a one-year contract for free, has been one of the main reasons for their success this season. Big name players at the end of their careers are what Lawrie McMenemy used to build the most successful Saints' team ever. When players reach 30 at Southampton nowadays, we get rid of them, and most of them we offload long before that.
[Post edited 27 Feb 2023 11:38]
I do agree with you here, it is about getting the balance right between youngsters and experience McMenemy did that, look at most of his teams and they had the right balance, some over 30's, the bulk around 25/26 and then a couple of youngsters.
Football has changed though, for teams like Saints, you have to sell players on, you cant let them grow too old too gracefully.
Leicester problems this season are due to letting Schmeichel & Vardy get too old and therefore not having a sell on value to replace them
Satisfying The Bloodlust Of The Masses In Peacetime
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A Season of Mistakes on 12:08 - Feb 27 with 1849 views
A Season of Mistakes on 11:53 - Feb 27 by SaintNick
I do agree with you here, it is about getting the balance right between youngsters and experience McMenemy did that, look at most of his teams and they had the right balance, some over 30's, the bulk around 25/26 and then a couple of youngsters.
Football has changed though, for teams like Saints, you have to sell players on, you cant let them grow too old too gracefully.
Leicester problems this season are due to letting Schmeichel & Vardy get too old and therefore not having a sell on value to replace them
"Football has changed though, for teams like Saints, you have to sell players on, you cant let them grow too old too gracefully."
But we don't sell them on Nick. We buy them, realise they are shite and loan them around Eurp until their contracts expire or continue to play them, even though they contribute f'k all - a la Elyuseless, until their contracts expire.
Who wants to buy players from a shit PL club?
The days of selling players for a nice profit disappeared with Poch and Koeman - days when we were a decent club.
"Playing Devil's Advocate since 15th January 2014"
A Season of Mistakes on 10:28 - Feb 27 by dirk_doone
Our loss is Spurs' gain: 2 clean sheets in 7 days for Forster puts Spurs in the top 4 and we could see a return to the Champions League for Forster: a competition he has excelled in before.
Of course, Hojbjerg, another player underappreciated by Saints' fans, has also been important for Spurs.
From the Fighting Cock:
SA96 Yesterday at 3:18 PM #1,481 If Fraser Forster was in goal for the entire season, we would have more points.
He is so reliable and doesn't make stupid mistakes.
Kosher Kid Yesterday at 8:58 PM #308 Fraser Forster is the best keeper at THFC.
It's official.
Kicks, passes, catches, communicates, makes saves.
Tottenham's number 1.
[Post edited 27 Feb 2023 10:40]
we have lost by the single on so many occasions, FF could well of made the difference.
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A Season of Mistakes on 23:55 - Feb 27 with 1663 views
A Season of Mistakes on 10:28 - Feb 27 by dirk_doone
Our loss is Spurs' gain: 2 clean sheets in 7 days for Forster puts Spurs in the top 4 and we could see a return to the Champions League for Forster: a competition he has excelled in before.
Of course, Hojbjerg, another player underappreciated by Saints' fans, has also been important for Spurs.
From the Fighting Cock:
SA96 Yesterday at 3:18 PM #1,481 If Fraser Forster was in goal for the entire season, we would have more points.
He is so reliable and doesn't make stupid mistakes.
Kosher Kid Yesterday at 8:58 PM #308 Fraser Forster is the best keeper at THFC.
It's official.
Kicks, passes, catches, communicates, makes saves.
Tottenham's number 1.
[Post edited 27 Feb 2023 10:40]
Agree when Forster regained his place in the side Ralph should have backed him and binned AM He didn’t and we have suffered since
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A Season of Mistakes on 01:23 - Feb 28 with 1647 views
A Season of Mistakes on 10:47 - Feb 27 by dirk_doone
Such a stupid strategy to play a youngster in goal in the Premier League. Goalkeepers don't reach their peak until their late 20s/early 30s. By, then, if Bazunu eventually becomes good enough and his confidence isn't shattered by being thrown in to the deep end far too soon, he'll be long gone.
[Post edited 27 Feb 2023 10:51]
Not trying to compare and obviously I am somewhat biased (being the same nationality as Baz) but a certain Iker Casillas took the gloves at Real Madrid at 17 .. The Portuguese and FC Porto keeper is only 23 and he has been linked to bigger clubs after taking Rui Patricio´s position in the last world cup. What I am saying is that just because they are young doesn´t mean that they are not up to the task. I think as everyone would agree the fact that the players directly in front of him havent given him too much protection.
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A Season of Mistakes on 09:16 - Feb 28 with 1543 views
biggest mistake saints made was not binning ralph with all the other coaches,such a weird decision,should have got a new management team in the summer,a new broom and all that.
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A Season of Mistakes on 10:07 - Feb 28 with 1530 views
We are where we are because of a series of errors that started at the very top.
The club owners knew that previous owners had stripped the club of funds and players prior to the start of the season and that RH had kept us in the PL with a combination of some luck and a purple patch where we were unbeatable. As a business plan or a strategy for a top class football club, that is unsustainable.
They should therefore have had contingency plans. What happens if RH can't produce a run of 5 unbeaten games? What if our better players get injured? There was no margin in the plan for these and other potential problems.
So when RH became more and more desperate and started making match day experiments in terms of tactics and playing positions, the plan departed further and further from the expected trajectory. Eventually it reached a point where RH could not be part of it.
That had nothing to do with fan pressure. The owners care nothing for the fans and are interested only in revenue sources from TV and the league. Even the league prize money is woeful compared with TV. The fans contribute relatively little in match day revenue.
Having decided that RH could not bring the team back to the expected line of travel, they had no plan which identified any managers or tracked their progress and as a result a panic appointment was made.
I don't blame NJ for taking the job but it was clear that he was out of his depth very quickly and he tried to ape the RH tactics and player positioning to no better effect than RH.
He had a patch of games in which 12 to 15 points were possible and he got nowhere near that, so had to go.
Selles has the advantage of knowing the players and seeing the errors of RH/NJ but he has little time and a series of games against teams who are frankly better than us. His task is huge and getting the necessary points is tough.
There are signs in the Chelsea and Leeds games that he's doing the right thing and making us hard to score against, but he is hampered by the same issues as RH/NJ.
We do not have a striker or a pair of strikers who are good for 12 to 20 goals a season.
Given that RH chose to play our most likely midfield goal getter as a defensive holding player for half a season, that did not help.
Continuing with Mara was also (in my view) an error. He may be good enough at this level in a season or two - not now. And that highlights the final issue for this post - we have a team that doesn't know how to win.
They're generally too young and even in winning positions, will be making decisions to attack when the better answer is to defend. Selles can perhaps fix that?
At the end of the day however the playing and management staff have been badly let down by the owners and executive staff and I really hope that we start next season better prepared.
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A Season of Mistakes on 10:29 - Feb 28 with 1515 views
A Season of Mistakes on 10:07 - Feb 28 by saint901
We are where we are because of a series of errors that started at the very top.
The club owners knew that previous owners had stripped the club of funds and players prior to the start of the season and that RH had kept us in the PL with a combination of some luck and a purple patch where we were unbeatable. As a business plan or a strategy for a top class football club, that is unsustainable.
They should therefore have had contingency plans. What happens if RH can't produce a run of 5 unbeaten games? What if our better players get injured? There was no margin in the plan for these and other potential problems.
So when RH became more and more desperate and started making match day experiments in terms of tactics and playing positions, the plan departed further and further from the expected trajectory. Eventually it reached a point where RH could not be part of it.
That had nothing to do with fan pressure. The owners care nothing for the fans and are interested only in revenue sources from TV and the league. Even the league prize money is woeful compared with TV. The fans contribute relatively little in match day revenue.
Having decided that RH could not bring the team back to the expected line of travel, they had no plan which identified any managers or tracked their progress and as a result a panic appointment was made.
I don't blame NJ for taking the job but it was clear that he was out of his depth very quickly and he tried to ape the RH tactics and player positioning to no better effect than RH.
He had a patch of games in which 12 to 15 points were possible and he got nowhere near that, so had to go.
Selles has the advantage of knowing the players and seeing the errors of RH/NJ but he has little time and a series of games against teams who are frankly better than us. His task is huge and getting the necessary points is tough.
There are signs in the Chelsea and Leeds games that he's doing the right thing and making us hard to score against, but he is hampered by the same issues as RH/NJ.
We do not have a striker or a pair of strikers who are good for 12 to 20 goals a season.
Given that RH chose to play our most likely midfield goal getter as a defensive holding player for half a season, that did not help.
Continuing with Mara was also (in my view) an error. He may be good enough at this level in a season or two - not now. And that highlights the final issue for this post - we have a team that doesn't know how to win.
They're generally too young and even in winning positions, will be making decisions to attack when the better answer is to defend. Selles can perhaps fix that?
At the end of the day however the playing and management staff have been badly let down by the owners and executive staff and I really hope that we start next season better prepared.
Summed up superbly Sir.
Well done. ðŸ‘
We thought that we had the answers,
It was the questions we had wrong.
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A Season of Mistakes on 12:45 - Feb 28 with 1464 views
According to the stats, we'd have been fine this season with even an average goalkeeper. It really is that simple.
In terms of shots allowed on our goal, we are, in fact, one of the top 5 teams in the league. But Bazunu is letting half the shots he faces into his goal. That means the opposition only needs 1 or 2 shots to score. His stats really are historically bad. Bazunu even broke the all-time Saints league record for the number of games played before he kept his first clean sheet.
Whilst statistically, Bazunu is having the worst season of any goalkeeper in the entire history of the Premier League, the 2nd worst this season is the other youngster, Leed's Meslier. Two teams condemned to failure by their decision to put a youngster in goal
1) Ralph should have gone in the summer and given time for his replacement to work with the team and have a say in new signings 2) The appointment of Joe Sields to much reliant in city’s youth team and if he got his man we would have spunked our record fee on Liam Delap 3) The summer transfer window recruitment. Mainly Not sorting out the keepers position and not signing the one player every single fan knew we needed . 4) Lettint Romeo go with out a replacement for if and when Levia was injured/ needed replacing 5) Appoointing Nathen Jones when after Raplh was sacked with us in the bottom 3. 6) giving Nathen Jones too many games ( many which on paper we should have got points from ) before finally sacking him after wasting the wolves game when every fvcker knew jones was on his last legs beforehand . 7) the jury is still out on our January window but so far it doesn’t look too promising. 8) Spending the best part of £125 million to achieve the worst saints team in top flight history .
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A Season of Mistakes on 09:53 - Mar 1 with 1217 views
Got woken up in the early hours by loud noise coming from the street , I looked out the window and it was Walcot, Bazunu and Diallo playing football with a hedgehog I was going to go out and say something but then the hedgehog went 1-0 up.
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