There is no way of dressing up this defeat, it was a lacklustre uninspiring performance by the entire team, not helped by two individual errors to gift Brighton their first two goals, but the main worry was the team selection and formation.

I find it very hard to rip into Nathan Jones in what was essentially his first real game in charge in the Premier League, well some of you may say, you used to give Ralph Hasenhuttl leeway, so why not Jones !

When Saints were playing badly in Hasenhuttl's last month or so, I felt there was an excuse, we were missing key players, but for this game the only real absence from those that have played this season was Romeo Lavia.

What doesn't sit well for me was that after six weeks working with the squad, we look a less organised and more importantly less inspired side than we did before we changed managers.

In essence you could excuse some of our failings in Hasenhutt's last days on injury's, but for this were no excuse.

So where did we go wrong, the first ringing of alarm bells was the team selection, perhaps our best player before the World cup break was Armando Bella Kotchap why was he on the bench ? add to him Joe Aribo and Stuart Armstrong, another two solid players and it seems that there is something not quite right within the squad.

Also in the team were Djenepo & Diallo, I can see some logic here, in fairness Djenepo did well against Lincoln and Maitland-Niles was awful, so Diallo was a natural replacement, but it still comes back to the question as to why ABK, Aribo and Stuart Armstrong were on the bench.

Thrown in at the deep end was Samuel Edozie, yes he had some dazzling moments and played without fear, but at the moment he badly lacks end product either in shooting or creating for others, I am sure this will come, but I am not sure this was the game to start him.

The lack of motivation was clear to see as was the fact that again this was a team that didn't seem to know what formation they were playing and more to the point they didn't seem to know what the game plan was.

Under ralph we passed and passed, Nathan Jones has a more direct style, but on what i have seen in these two games since the break, we seem to be under instructions as a team that we cannot make more than 4 passes in a move, two often we seem to pass 4 times and then hit the ball forward with absolutely nothing on.

This was playing right into Brighton's hands, a team that are big and strong at the back and can handle long and high balls all day.

But the hope was that we could weather the storm and start to get our game together, but that hope was soon put to bed on 14 minutes when Adam Lallana lost his marker and headed home, in truth Gavin Bazunu should have stopped it, the only excuse being it was close range so gave him little time to react, but he still should really have stopped it.

The rest of the half wasn't great, but the hope was we would get into half time only a goal down, the issue for me was we were giving the ball away too much, again instead of keeping the ball and gaining confidence and not letting Brighton get the ball back, we seemed to be under instructions to have to hit the ball forward on the 5th pass.

We never kept the ball long enough to get any sort of confidence building.

On 35 minutes we again gifted Brighton the ball, it was a good cross flashed across the goal, Romain Perraud was under pressure, but TV replays showed not under that much pressure, he really should have cleared the ball instead of slicing it into his own net.

The hope was that after the break we would be better, the truth was we were slightly, but then 10 minutes in came a goal that nobody could be blamed for, when you are 2-0 down these shots go into row z, when you are 2-0 up and everything is going right they fly into the top corner and this one did.

So 3-0 down and in disarray, the worry was that this would be a rout, but the one good thing is that we kept going and with 17 minutes left got back in the game, a rare James Ward Prowse header, sadly it came after the Brighton keeper had saved his penalty but the ball fell kindly for JWP with a simple header into an empty net.

Could Saints get a second and perhaps make the last 15 minutes uncomfortable, the answer was no.

I find it hard to work out just where we went wrong and that is because I find it hard to work out just who was playing where and if I was confused it seems so where the players, the back four was set up to keep it simple, we had two central midfield players, but then we left no real cover for the full backs, we had a loan striker with Elyounoussi floating, but did he know his job and position when we didn't have the ball.

That was perhaps the issue, when we didn't have the ball, too many players didn't seem to know just where they should be.

Few people came off that pitch being able to say they had an average game let along a good game, Lyanco led by example and James Ward Prowse despite playing a role not natural to him were perhaps the best of a bad bunch.

I have to say that although my natural instinct is to say we have to give Nathan Jones a chance, this is one Premier League game, many of our managers who have gone on to be club legends have started their Saints careers badly, Jones is not alone in this, but there is something nagging in the back of my head.

Is Jones trying too hard to impose his way of playing on the squad, is he trying to be too clever, has he underestimated the task he has ?

All these thoughts were in my head, he hasn't come in and tried to evolve the team, he is trying to revolutionise it and that seems to have caused a little chaos in the squad, why is he not playing those players who were the spine of the side in the first part of the season ?

We will perhaps find out all of these answers in the next few weeks, but I still feel that we would have been better under Ralph Hasenhuttl, who knew the task in hand and with players back from injury has proved he can motivate a squad.

However that is the past we have to move forward, what other choice do we have !

Photo: Action Images

landsdownsaint added 11:39 - Dec 27 So he identifies the problem during the Liverpool game ? We could’ve told him b4 the Liverpool game the problem was a manager that had us playing decent football but was prone too a bit of arrogance regarding team selection , a few individual errors maybe caused by mot so good man management of players & we lost Danny Ings & couldn’t replace him… what the hell was that yesterday !?

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pwithers123 added 11:44 - Dec 27 Jones appointment is a massive risk- given his experience and level of capability. The PL is unforgiving of any weakness. He has had massive amount of time with the players- far more than usually given to new managers in hand-overs. This performance feels very ominous. The owners have tried to hire a young coach. We must assume that they know what he has been coaching over the last weeks - and also what effect it is having on the players. My untutored, feeling without knowledge of these details is - I hope they are talking to some Managers who have stopped working after World Cup - because Jones cannot lose many games before he loses the squad.

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ChristchurchSaint added 12:03 - Dec 27 That was not poor- it was absolutely dire! The players look totally unfit, uninterested and not sure where they are supposed to be playing. I hate to say it, because I don’t particularly like his style, but we needed a manager like Sean Dyche. Offer him a contract and bonus similar to the one we offered Hughes, and get us safe as soon as possible. We have got a few players with some promise, but their confidence is rock bottom, and if it’s not sorted quickly, then I can see us rooted to the bottom until the end of the season, possibly without any wins.

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HythePeer added 12:06 - Dec 27 I read this in The Echo: "With Villa in trouble they appointed Unai Emery former PSG and Villarreal boss. With Wolves in trouble they appointed Julep Lopetegui former Spain and Real Madrid boss. With Saints in trouble they appointed Nathan Jones former Yeovil Town and Luton boss. That says everything and if anyone still believes in Sport Republic they must be from the blue side of Hampshire."

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HythePeer added 12:08 - Dec 27 Looking on the bright side JWP scored from open play! ⚽️🤣
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Ninja9 added 12:16 - Dec 27 That was the worst performance since the Branfoot era . Absolutely dire . Give Jones as much time as you like but it wont get any better . He is out of his depth . No ambition from Saints in appointing him in the first place .
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saintmark1976 added 12:21 - Dec 27 Another very fair and sensible match report Nick except the reference to Ralph in the penultimate paragraph. He had four years and left with us in the relegation zone. Put simply, just forget about him because he isn’t coming back. Where do we go looking forward? In any normal season teams that are bottom at Christmas are relegated. This however is not a normal season due to the World Cup break and there are plenty of games left to turn it around. Yesterday was a complete unmitigated disaster but could actually be a blessing in that the club's owners can now be in no doubt whatsoever that Jones is not going to be a miracle work. Evidence to the contrary was there to see in every area of the pitch given that we made a very ordinary Brighton look like Argentina. The question now to be asked of the owners (not Jones) is are they prepared to invest in the transfer window to attempt to maintain our Premiership status or are they happy to play in the Championship next season? My heart hopes that it’s the former, my head tells me it’s the latter. Over to you Sports Republic.

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Boris1977 added 12:26 - Dec 27 The starting 11 and formation were from the Ralph handbook as was the ease of the opponents win and scoreline. The obvious question is what the hell has Jones been doing over the last 6 weeks? Under the day diminishing returns of Ralph's tenure we were likely to go down this season but we haven't even had the positive of the new manager bounce instead we've had the new manager continuity. Something is wrong at the club which puts me in mind of the slide down to league 1 back in the mid 2000s.

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Consigliere added 12:28 - Dec 27 I fear that Saint Mark has hit the nail on the head; The new owners have taken a business decision that we are better off in the Championship.
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Consigliere added 12:28 - Dec 27 I fear that Saint Mark has hit the nail on the head; The new owners have taken a business decision that we are better off in the Championship.
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davidargyll added 12:36 - Dec 27 On the basis of the last three performances Nathan Jones is totally incapable of instigating any sort of tactics or organisation. He is utter crap and I note he is already blaming the players, a sure sign of complete uselessness. I suppose you could say he’s not the worst performer in 2022 in terms of days in the job. That honour goes to Lis Truss, but then at least she had a plan...

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kingolaf added 12:37 - Dec 27 Very fair appraisal of the game. We looked totally disjointed all over the pitch. The team selection was an absolute joke. If this is the best Jones can do after weeks of working with the squad, we are in deep trouble. We need to recruit a centre forward, centre midfielder and keeper (we have the worst ones in the league). Don’t think there’s much chance of any coming in.

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JoeEgg added 12:49 - Dec 27 Difficult to know where to start! I think Ralph was given long enough to sort things out but as HythePeer comments, if you remove a manager then you had better have a bloody good replacement in mind! Like many I was astonished when Ralph's replacement was announced but just hoped that Sports Republic knew something about Nathan Jones' potential that wasn't blatantly obvious to the rest of us. I commented before the match that I have been tremendously impressed by the work done at Brighton and was not very hopeful for a Saints win on Saturday. Fulham and Nottingham Forest are no pushovers (you will remember how much I hoped we would sign the Forest boss before they did!), but as things stand we could fail to win even these crucial matches, and relegation could quickly become a mere formality. We now have a rookie goalkeeper under enormous pressure - a midfied where the unfortunate JWP has no effective support whatsoever- while aganst any experienced defence such as Brighton's- virtually no chance that anyone is ever likely to score a goal! Well at the right end that is! Hopefully Livramento and Labia will make positive contributions, and God help us if we dont acquire a proven striker who can score goals at this level! But even so the players look totally confused and drained of any confidence. They are only too aware of their own weaknesses and apparently unable to recognise and utilise any strengths. Brighton knew how to deal with everything we had to offer on Saturday so maybe there are some excuses- they are very good side brilliantly efficient and organised. But a similar fate at the hands of Fulham, Palace and Forest will bring acute embarrassment to the goys at Sports Republic!

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SanMarco added 12:57 - Dec 27 The editorial narrative for the rest of the season is obvious. The dire performances under Ralph can be endlessly excused - those under Jones are totally down to him, with no excuses. The owners took an enormous risk in the summer bringing in a scatter gun of young 'investments' - given the team was so poor in the last third of last season it needed money spent on the core weaknesses (the one they did get right wasn't even playing yesterday) not with money-spinners for future years. That did for Ralph and now their second gamble is to bring in a totally underwhelming replacement. It was embarrassing yesterday looking at the contrast with a well-organised side playing with purpose to a plan and our unorganised shambles of individuals playing to god knows what. We will see in January whether SR are serious about running us as a Premier League club hoping to rise or just as a cash cow. I fear I can guess the answer. PS it will be very easy simply to lay into Jones but how is that going to help? I suppose a Liz Truss like departure after four games but that would need a Thatcher/Blair type replacement - we would get little Rishi...It is going to take more than 8 games at a point a game under Mark Hughes to get us out of this one.

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SanMarco added 12:59 - Dec 27 Labia JoeEgg????
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Farlow added 13:10 - Dec 27 As soon as i heard he,d picked Diallo i knew we were in trouble.With our lack of power in midfield surely Lyanco could fill that spot.We made Brighton look world class.
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ItchenNorth added 13:22 - Dec 27 I would have appointed Sean Dyche all day long. His perceived football style was purely based on Burnleys budget and player recruitment within that. Saints have have a different type of player that can offer more flare, but we lack the experience of a manager that knows the Premier League to find that balance. Jones must play to our strengths. Ralph knew the group so could find a way to within the squad to get the results. I've not seen anything so far from Jones (and he's had 6 weeks and three games to work out a plan for this squad) other than aimlessly lumped balls forward and a lack of drive from players.

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WoolstonSaint2 added 13:30 - Dec 27 Utter garbage. Saints were and are dreadful. No excuses, throughout the squad there is a complete lack of quality. We are doomed, especially playing under an ex Luton and Yeovil manager FFS. A disgraceful state of affairs instigated by a bunch of robber barons. The team is an embarrassment to the great city of Southampton. Ineptitude with a losing mentality spells imminent disaster- we’ll be relegated by March and never return.

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highfield49 added 13:52 - Dec 27 Yup, no point in glossing it over, we're in big trouble and it's a struggle to take any positives from the defeat. Brighton are an organised team who play to their ability and the problem is that we are way behind them on both fronts.
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SaintPaulVW added 14:08 - Dec 27 The problem we have is that we are piling inexperience upon inexperience. Inexperienced team now run by an inexperienced manager with inexperienced owners. Jones needs to pick a solid team and park the bus for a game or two. Build up some spirit and some confidence. Keep losing and both him and us are dead in the water. Playing like this, Tino and Lav(b?)ia coming back isn't going to save us. COYR

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cornishsaint added 14:30 - Dec 27 For me Sport Republic only have one agenda and that is to use the guaranteed Prem money to take out loans to acquire other sports clubs, even if we get relegated they will benefit from the parachute payments. Losing some of our most important staff in quick succession, a lack of any leadership from Semmens or Sport Republic is damning as we are in massive trouble with them at the helm. Appointing Jones was a terrible decision unless they were pre planning for relegation and reducing all of the salaries, Lowe's era and GAO's were shocking but we are going backwards fast under these clowns

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JoeEgg added 14:32 - Dec 27 With apologies to Lav(b)ia. I mean the letters are next to each other on the keyboard. I've no other explanation!!!
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bendybob added 14:42 - Dec 27 NJ post match interview was as limp as the performance on the pitch. Buck up and lead from the front!
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davenbennett added 14:50 - Dec 27 New owners also saying loans only, no money for new players. Gakpo now looking to be signed by Liverpool for £37m, only £7m more than Saints offered. We spend £80.4m in summer on 10 players, 1 a loan, Maitland-Niles. Only Bazunu and Edozie started yesterday. 2 injured, 1 went straight out on loan. Rest on bench. So, could have brought Gakpo and Bazunu, Lavia, Bella-Kotchap and Edoze for less than £80.4m! Of those, 3 would have started. Lavia injured, would have been 4. So should have brought 5 good players, not 10, with half not near a start! Still would have needed a No.9, but it would have been much better use of limted resources. Further, should have got rid of Walcott, Djenepo, Ely, Diallo, and kept Romeu.

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pwithers123 added 14:57 - Dec 27 Maybe we could get another Chelsea asset - Potter will be looking for a job within the next 10 games
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