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Reply | Goalkeeping Options
at 10:24 31 May 2024
........and begs the question: so why did we sign an unproven teenager to play in the PL as a goalkeeper, a position where experience is so vital and players don't reach their peak until their 30s? |
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Reply | Danny Ings
at 19:01 29 May 2024
Well, it's a window of opportunity. |
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Reply | Reality v Russell
at 16:41 29 May 2024
So, you look at the replay of the goal and see an RM masterplan. When I look at the replay I see that the main reason for that goal was the total mess in the Leeds defence. Saints did well for the goal and it was a great finish by AA, but if Leeds had got the basics right, either AA would have been well offside or he wouldn't have had that space to run in to. Look again and pause the video when WS is about to play the through ball to AA and look at the Leeds defence. That's not schoolboy defending, it's worse than that. It's criminal.
Even if it had been a great goal, you can't say because we score one goal that RM's way works. It worked (mostly) in the Championship but I can't see it working in the Prem against better quality teams. |
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Reply | Transfer rumours
at 15:51 29 May 2024
Tchaouna about to sign for Lazio apparently. |
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Reply | Oriol Romeu
at 13:20 29 May 2024
- "How does anyone know whether Adam Lallana is a good coach or not". My point exactly. So, why the hell are we signing him as a coach? If we want a coach, we can get a proven good one without paying much.
- Lallana is on £90k a week at Brighton. I very much doubt he will sign for £20k. Walcott was reportedly on about £75k per week, I imagine Lallana will be in the same ballpark.
- What's this got to do with Vincent Kompany? There are far more ex-players who don't make it as coaches than those who do. There have been hundreds of high profile Saints players over the years. Very few have made it as coaches. |
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Reply | Oriol Romeu
at 11:50 29 May 2024
I agree we need experience, but this is not the way to get it. We will be paying him PL player type wages (i.e. £££) when we can get experienced coaches for far less. There are plenty of people out there with evidence to show that they are good coaches. What's more they would be committed to their careers whereas Lallana just wants to try it out and doesn't even know if he wants to do it yet.
We need to be careful with every penny we spend. Spending money on unproven coaches is the same mistake we've made, so many times, spending money on unproven players. We need proven ability at a decent price, not expensive gambles who are learning on the job.
Sadly, we're not getting 2 for the price of 1. It's more like: a third of a player plus schoolboy coaching skills for the price of a PL player. Not a good idea. |
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Reply | Oriol Romeu
at 10:58 29 May 2024
There's no case for bringing Lallana in as player coach. He says himself that he doesn't even know if he wants to be a coach yet and he's only done some of the training. He says he wants to try it out and get a feel for it. Well he should be doing that on his own money not ours.
Even if he decides he wants to do it and gets his badges (i.e. his GCSEs) what evidence is there that he will be any good at it? Absolutely none at all.
If we want another coach we shouldn't be paying over the top wages. They're 2 a penny. If Lallana is going to contribute anything to the club this season, it can only be as a player and we know that will be very limited. He's a luxury we can't afford. |
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Reply | Time to change Transfer Strategy
at 18:01 28 May 2024
Totally agree that our transfers have been more misses than hits. We've had poor value for money, no doubt about it. As Pat said, our loan signings have been better, but that's exactly the problem. We need to be buying the type of experienced player that we've brought in on loan, instead of overpaying for unproven talent.
I worry that the owners have drawn the wrong conclusions from this. The Lallana signing (if true) suggests to me they're thinking that they didn't bring in enough experience last time in the Prem, so this time they'll mix up the unproven youngsters with some 40 year olds. This will be equally disastrous. We need every penny we have and wasting money on the likes of Lallana is a bad sign.
We need to concentrate on proven pros who are oven ready to do a decent job for a full 90 mins in the PL, even if they're never going to be stars and never earn us huge transfer fees. If we don't do that, we'll be relegated again. |
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Reply | Reality v Russell
at 16:38 28 May 2024
Here's the reality as I see it - if the current Saints, Leicester and Ipswich sides had been competing in the Prem this year instead of Luton, Burnley and Sheff U, it's probable that all 3 Championship sides would have been relegated and we would have come bottom. Even the likes of Forest and Bretford are better than us.
So, we have to do something pretty drastic to stay up next year, but it's unlikely that anything drastic will happen. We're not going to change the manager and we don't have the money to change the squad much in one transfer window. Hopefully we'll strengthen a bit, but so will others. So, it's likely that we'll be relegation candidates from day 1 and if RM keeps us up, that will be a much bigger achievement than getting us promoted. |
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Reply | So Russel did it
at 14:42 27 May 2024
That "good" West Brom team are probably a worse side than Luton, Burnley and Sheff U. We will need to beat a lot better than them if we are to survive in the Prem.
I don't think we'll do well in the Prem under RM because I don't think we'll have the superior players that his style requires. But, he's earned the right to give it a go and I hope he succeeds. To be fair to him, he's shown some ability to adapt and change, but I think he'll need to change a lot more to find a style that will work with our limited resources. |
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Reply | First £20m spent from the transfer kitty. Who else.
at 11:51 27 May 2024
Barkley (he won't break the bank) is the type of player we should be buying as he is affordable and will be able to play RM's possession style well. But have SR got over their fixation with teenagers and sell on fees? Barkley is 10 years too old for our owners, but have they learnt their lesson this year? Bringing in experienced, proven players like Downes and Fraser has worked, whereas taking a chance on the likes of Mara and Sulemana hasn't. |
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Reply | So Russel did it
at 11:02 27 May 2024
I agree. Fantastic result yesterday and well done RM, but I've said all season the real test for RM will be after he gets us promoted. It's one thing to manage one of the very best squads in the division, it's another to take a squad of below average players and make them more than the sum of their parts in the PL. That's what good managers do and that's what he has to do next year.
The harsh truth we will have to face up to is that the majority of the squad isn't good enough for the Prem and some of our best players are loanees who will go. It will be a very hard job to change that in 1 summer and let's face it, previous transfer windows haven't exactly been a success.
I'm still on a high from yesterday, but recognise that pretty soon reality will bite. |
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Reply | Push me- pull you
at 18:43 22 May 2024
We've had a very good squad by Championship standards, so possession works. Next year, if we're promoted we'll have a poor quality squad by PL standards so the same style probably won't work. If we miss out on promotion, then next year we won't have such a good squad and so the style will be less effective in the Championship.
Whichever way you look at it, this season is RM's best chance to do well. I hope he succeeds. |
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Reply | VAR Yes or No?
at 13:14 17 May 2024
Well, you've just said where the law isn't factual, so thanks for that. But you're leaving out all the other areas where it isn't factual either. The law requires judgements to be made about whether a number of things were "deliberate", whether a player has "control of the ball", whether the ball was "not moving quickly" etc. There are plenty of judgements involved. |
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Reply | VAR Yes or No?
at 12:33 17 May 2024
Offside isn't factual. VAR isn't accurate in the same way as goal line technology and even that isn't 100%. VAR doing offside is just some bloke drawing a line on the screen after making a judgement about the exact moment a ball was played, where exactly the scoring parts of the body are etc. It might be accurate to within a yard, but no more than that. |
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Reply | Looks as if Adams is on his way out to Wolves
at 10:01 17 May 2024
So if you're RM and Adams comes to you and says "I'm not really up for this game. I'm thinking more about my next contract. I don't want to be injured", would you play him? I don't see how any manager could. The other players will know what's going on and if they think one of their team mates doesn't want to be on the pitch with them, that won't help.
If he says "Boss put me out there and I'll win it for you" then fair enough, but that ain't likely. |
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Reply | Broja
at 14:27 8 May 2024
TimSaint is right. It's daft to blame him for being isolated. How was he doing that, hiding behind the corner flag?
He proved himself a PL level striker with us. He also showed he had it in international matches. That's why Chelsea wanted him back and were going to play him. He was just very unlucky with his injury. Now it's Catch 22 for him. He needs the game time to get back to his best, but he can't get the game time because he isn't at his best.
Still, there's a good chance of him overcoming a very bad injury and no doubt, a shock to his confidence. So I'd take him back in a nano second. |
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Reply | Oh Sh1t
at 11:27 5 May 2024
I agree with you - if we play the kind of tactics we have done all season. But yesterday we were far more compact, gave them less space and looked less vulnerable. I'm sure RM won't be happy with the possession stats, but f**k that. If we keep this up we will start to look like a side that is worthy of promotion. Then we can worry about the PL next year (hopefully, maybe). |
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Reply | Next season
at 10:30 4 May 2024
This is what I posted on another thread a few days ago:
They may not be playing that way at the moment for various reasons, but these are good enough for the PL, if nothing else then as squad players: KWP, THB, Jan B, FD, Fraser, Brooks, Carlos Alcaraz and Perraud.
That's a similar list to yours but you don't mention KWP and you include Aribo (you might be right about him).
The bottom line for me is that this season we've had the option to use a set of players who were good enough to be promoted but would need significant strengthening if we were to survive in the PL. Next year, when we'll probably still be in this league, we might not be as strong.
We had weaknesses in certain areas (GK, CF) but these players were still good enough to be promoted. The trouble is we played a system that exposed our defence and made it look weak and some players have gradually lost confidence, so they're not playing anywhere near their potential. |
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Reply | Rotherham’s keeper Johansson
at 11:27 3 May 2024
It's not going to happen with Rusty in charge though is it? Only goalkeepers who can play with their feet qualify for Rusty and a a goalkeeper who can both keep goal and play outfield would be bloody expensive and beyond our reach. So it'll be Baz and Baz lite for us.
Of course if we had a manager who wasn't so caught up in the latest football fad... |
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Site Scores| Forum Votes: | 62 | | Comment Votes: | 367 | | Prediction League: | 0 | | TOTAL: | 429 |
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