 | News
Comment | These Foolish Ings. The Rumour Mill Goes Into Overdrive About Danny !
at 12:08:22
It's all up in the air at the moment. It seems like there is a lot of factors in place. From what you hear from journalists who are close to the club, it sounds like Ings wants to stay at the moment, but he wants to keep his options open. Which is fair enough. That's why a release clause is important. If we add a release clause to his contract for £70m then that's unrealistic. Even if he scores 20+ goals this season and next, £70m for a 30-year-old striker is a lot of money. If it was set to £20m, then any club could activate that and even if Ings scores 10 goals next season, £20m for a proven PL striker isn't a risk for a big club.
I think if we get European football, he will sign and maybe a new contract will be drawn up where we disregard a release clause. The only issue is that the longer this goes on the more you fear that a club could come in over the summer and bid £25m for him and it wouldn't surprise me if the club is to accept that offer.
I'm not against selling Ings. However, I would say we'd want to get his replacement in the transfer window before we sell him, which is the only issue when you consider the club finances. If you look at the length of time it takes players to adapt to Ralph's system, then 6 months for a striker to get up to speed with the system and we might not necessarily be missing as much as we initially thought. Obviously, 20 goals a season strikers don't grow on trees, but if we can find a young striker who is good at making runs in behind the defence and can finish 1-on-1 then that would be the ideal replacement for Ings. |
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Comment | Why Southampton Want To Win Against Arsenal In The FA Cup
at 11:50:46
This would be my team to play Arsenal for the FA cup.
GK - Forster
RB - KWP
CB - Bednarek
CB - Stephens
LB - Vokins
CDM - JWP
CDM - Diallo
RAM - Watts
LAM - Armstrong
ST - Adams
ST - N'Lundulu
I think Watts, Vokins and N'Lundulu deserve to start. They all played well against Shrewsbury. Watts had a level of unpredictability about him that I enjoyed to watch. Vokins loves to get forward, something which is exciting because Bertrand doesn't often get forward. He looks like he can be an option to switch the play and play the long ball. Similar to KWP. N'Lundulu scored his first goal and offers more than Long, would make sense for him to start. Would be interesting to see what kind of partnership he would form with Adams. As Adams has formed decent partnerships with Ings and Walcott.
For me, the Premier League is more important. Especially because if Arsenal beat is they will go above us. Considering they're having an awful season and we're having a great season this seems unfair. |
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Comment | Ralph Hasenhuttl On Chelsea Shortlist
at 10:40:21
I don't think Ralph will leave the club for a while. There's lots of reasons why I think this.
1. The job he currently has is much more bigger than just managing a first team as the club have set up their entire football ethos around his philosophy. I can't say any other club in the Premier League would do the same.
2. It would've been easy for the club to sack him after the 9-0 defeat against Leicester and he knows that. But the club has shown that believe by backing him and we're now reaping the rewards. I think he recognises how much the club have done for his career and have allowed to progress and show what a top manager he is, despite that defeat.
3. He's genuinely passionate about the club. For me, it seems like this job is more than just a job for Ralph. His reaction on Monday night proved this and also he cried a bit when fans came back, I think he genuinely loves the club.
But let's face it, Ralph is probably the best manager outside of the "big 6" in the league so everytime a manager at the big club gets scrutinised, he's going to be the top runner to replace them. The same happened with OGS and now we're hearing the same with Frank.
I low key think the developments happening to the club atm are similar to what Poch was able to do at Spurs (okay we're not as big as Spurs). I think Ralph will want to stay for a couple of more seasons to see where he can take the club. |
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Comment | Saints At Fulham The Verdict
at 11:26:28
Fulham beat us tactically, they pressed us well in the first half. Zonally marked the right areas of the pitch, meaning the switch to the fullback was hardly on. Then toward the latter stages of the game, they just sat back and allowed us to come toward them, again we failed to break down a team that parks the bus. Going forward, Fulham drew in our players for the press and made the pitch really wide.
Shane Long and Adams shouldn't partner each other. Theyre both similar players that want to hold up the ball and bring others into the game. Adams needs someone who will make runs to stretch defences as he's probably our best passer in the final third. He needs to work more to find space on the pitch. I also don't think that Shane can lead the press, even Tella did a better job at that against City.
I wonder if there's an arguement that we should change our system going forward when we're not creating chances. I think we could easily play a 4-3-3, but switch to a 4-2-2-2 when we're pressing opponents. If you swap Djenepo for Long then he can play LW with Walcott on the RW and Armstrong can drop in as a number 10. Constantly changing formations going forward would mean that defences will need to adapt to this. Which could make it easily for us to create chances. |
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Comment | Ralph Is Taking The Positives From The Arsenal Game
at 11:43:33
Erick, I think it's harsh to look at us as the team who have dropped the most points this factually. On paper, it's a fact. But you look at the individual performances and it's harsh to feel that the draw against Wolves was 2 points lost, that was a very even game.
Spurs put 5 against us in the second half, after we only had a 1-0 lead. I don't think we could have held out for even a draw, they have too much quality.
Then you do look at the United game as potentially 3 points dropped, but to be honest, we didn't deserve the lead in that game. United was a better team than us on the day.
Then the result last night, if Gabriel doesn't get sent off then it's a very open game. It's not like Arsenal went down to 10 men and scored their equaliser in the final minutes of the game, if that was the case I'd say we dropped 2 points. . |
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Comment | Saints At Arsenal The Verdict
at 09:48:19
I agree with what you've written the red card might've been the best thing for Arsenal, we became the more on top after they scored there goal and the game was a lot more open. Then after the red card, this allowed them to just sit back and make their penalty area compact. And we got sucked into this system, Ings and Adams barely touched the ball after the red card. It's still a big weakness in our game, being able to break down a compact team. I think Ralph will look at this game and try to figure what we could've done different, it's not often a team will go down to 10 men and play for a draw, so there's a lot to learn. The only thing we might've done retrospectively is swap Romeu for Stephens, which would have allowed Vestergaard to be a target man for Stephen's to hit.
But most teams in the Premier League would've struggled to beat the 10 man Arsenal yesterday, we need to give some credit to their organisation.
It is still very tight at the top, looking at teams form, no team has really got a constant streak going. We could go either way on Saturday, I'm not too sure what we can do to beat City. The home fans will be a great addition to help us out. |
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Comment | If Saints Are Still In Top 5 After Weekend People Will Start To Take Us Seriously !
at 10:28:07
It's interesting that we've not been taken seriously so far. When you look at the past year, this doesn't seem like a flukey run of games, where we're one loss away from losing 5 games in a row. I believe we've won the third-most games in the Premier League this calendar year. Since the restart, only Spurs and Liverpool have taken more points than us. I don't mind the club going the radar, I'm enjoying the football we're playing and the results we're getting. |
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Comment | Saints V Sheffield United The Verdict
at 10:11:31
Amazing team performance. Everyone had a good game today, we were unbelievable in the first half. We did struggle to break down the stubborn defence and were fortunate with Adams goal. That being said every time we lost the ball, we won it back almost instantly. Our press when we lose the ball is so good to watch, Sheffield United must've felt absolutely hopeless after that first half.
It's also so great to watch us at the moment with all the options we have going forward. You have Vestergaard able to ping a ball anywhere, you have a confident defensive unit who are able to suck the oppositions attacking players into the press and pass out of it, which creates so much space in the attack for a counter-attack. Yesterday was probably the first time this season that we've looked hungry to score more goals in the final moments of the game. Against Everton and Newcastle, we looked satisfied with the 2-0 leads and didn't really go searching for any more goals, but yesterday was much different. Very impressed with the confidence that the team are playing with at the moment. I hope we can keep this momentum going for the next two weeks. |
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Comment | Saints At Brighton The Verdict
at 08:54:30
This was probably one of our worst first-half performances of the season. Maybe it was down to being overwhelmed by the Brighton supporters. It must feel weird from a players perspective having not had fans in the stadium for 9 months. I'm not sure what was wrong, but we could barely string together a bunch of passes. We didn't look like getting into the game, if we had played a better side, we could've found ourselves 3-0 within the first 20 minutes. We were sloppy with and without the ball, we never really looked to press in numbers, I'm not sure if this was down to Brighton tactically having 3 CM's and 3 CB's.
Nonetheless, you can beat what's in front of you. And the second half was a lot better. I'm not sure if it was the introduction of Ings or what Ralph might have said at halftime. But we looked a lot more comfortable in possession in the second half, we still didn't create too many chances and both of our goals came from set-pieces.
Both centre backs had excellent games, Bednarek covered the pitch so well, made some great blocks and tackles. Jannik scored the goal to get us back in the game, and also read the danger so well, sensing the danger and coming into midfield to win the ball back and then moving the ball forward. His range of passing is also excellent, that gives us another attacking avenue with KWP finding lots of space on the right. JWP gave another 8/10 performance for me, his consistent is excellent and his ability to control the tempo of the game is something we've lacked since we sold Schneiderlin and when you know you have someone with his set-piece ability you know all you need is a corner and you can grab a goal (so even if the penalty had been a freekick JWP probably would've assisted Vestergaard again) |
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Comment | One Month To Go Until The January Transfer Window Silly Season
at 07:26:18
We won't sell JWP. Most of the big 6 teams have a load of CM's so I couldn't realistically see any space for him at any of the clubs.
I'm hoping with all the work that's gone on at the club in regards to getting the first team players to sign new contracts, we're going to be serious about keeping our best players. Unless it's toys out the pram time from the players. But I can't see JWP being one of those players.
I don't think we'll sign or sell anyone. Maybe we'll go in for a loan deal on Brandon Williams again. But that feels like a waste of time. |
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Comment | Jan Bednarek Signs New Four Year Deal !
at 21:50:45
Quality work from the board, getting him to sign a new deal. One of the best defenders outside of the top 6. And still so young, he could easily be considered one of the best in the Prem in a couple of seasons.
It's great to know as a Saints fan that we've got this squad that want to commit to the future of the club. |
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Comment | A Bad Day At The Office For Saints Now Just Regroup Refocus & Move Forward
at 13:14:10
I think for Ralph's pressing tactics to work everyone really has to be on top of their game. I think it shows that if only a few players have a bad game we can ship 3 goals. I don't think it's right that a lot of fans and outlets are targeting individuals. I think if United had got the first goal and the match had ended up 3-2 the perspective from fans would be a lot different. It's easy to point out the players like Vestergaard, maybe he shouldn't have come out for the first goal. However, in recent games he's been excellent at reading the danger and coming out from the back and winning the ball back, he did it a few times yesterday. And I agree with you Wally, the more I rewatch the second goal we conceded he's the only one who's gone back and anticipated that something might happen for Man U, and the goal was very similar to the goal we conceded to Wolves a shot comes in from outside the box and we're second to react. It's easier to point out Vestergaard because if he pushes up with the rest of the team than Cavani will be offside, but instead, maybe the rest of the team shouldn't have been too hasty to push out as McCarthy didn't effectively clear the ball.
Again Djenepo angered fans and I can't understand why? I don't know what the fan base expect from him as simply saying he's not good enough doesn't really work for me, they can't expect him to beat the back 4 every time he gets the ball. Sure his decision making and final ball isn't the best but the only way he's going to improve is if he plays more football. He was probably our best player in the first half, creating loads of space for himself out wide, dragging AWB over to try to deal with him. Going on a run which leads to him being fouled, which lead to the goal. The only downside to his game is that he probably doesn't have the chemistry that Bertrand and Redmond have, which means he's the one who needs to do most of the attacking work going forward.
The truth is we never really got into the game, we looked to get forward as fast as possible and try to get early balls into the box as fast as possible. This is probably why KWP was adjudged to give the ball away so many times because it looked like he was just trying to get the ball into the box every time he got forward to catch out both the centre-halves. |
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Comment | Saints V Manchester United The Verdict
at 08:24:56
A hard pill to swallow after losing a two goal lead to lose a match and concede the winning goal in added time. Although, we didn't deserve the half team time we could've done more to try and hold onto it.
But we did deserve to lose today, we were sloppy in possession for majority of the game. Similar to Wolves we never looked like stringing a few passes together in Midfield. Our tactics simply seemed like we wanted to get the ball forward as quick as possible and pray on United making mistakes defensively. This worked for short period of the game, after we took the lead as United looked completely rattled.
I agree with what a lot of you have said. If we find ourselves 2-0 up, this is when we need to be more aggressive going forward to try and get a third or you park the bus like we did against city and shut them out. As it was, we did neither and the team tired very early on in the second half, we were caught out defensively for the 3 goals we conceded. But we also shouldn't take anything away from the quality of Cavini, his movement for the winning goal was quality and the ball from Rashford was on a plate for him.
We were going to lose at some point. I just think the manner in which we lost will cause the fan base, the most upset. I think Ralph needs to put more trust in the younger squad players, I saw Diallo was mentioned and I can't help but feel sorry for the kid, he's meant to be the next Kante and we're bringing him on for Armstrong every game and playing him out of position, put some trust in him, maybe bring him on for Romeu. If he's the player he's rumoured to be then surely we would've found that energy helpful in midfield toward the end of the game. |
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Comment | Saints At Wolverhampton Wanderers The Verdict
at 10:41:14
Before a ball was kicked I would've taken a draw. After watching the full 90, I will still take the draw. I didn't particularly think got into the game, we looked sloppy throughout the game and didn't really look like controlling the game as we did against Newcastle and Everton.
Our defence has come on so well, McCarty looks solid as does Vestergaard. We did get in behind the Wolves defence a few times. Kilman probably did enough with Armstong's chance to put him off. I thought we were fortunate with our goal, it was a nice ball by Djenpo and Adam's did will to get into space but his first touch goes hits Kilman which helps him out because he gets the ball back then plays a great ball into Walcott at the back stick. Then Walcott misses a great chance, which he should've put away or at least worked the GK, not sure whether he should've taken another touch to settle himself and try to move Patricio out of position.
One of my biggest concern's is that we looked like we keep playing to win a freekick in dangerous positions, we did the same thing in the Villa game. It looks like our midfield tries to occasionally hold the ball up in our own half to win a foul, which is just a big no. KWP did this, he ran the ball forward and could've played an easy pass back to Romeu/JWP but instead loses the ball. |
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Comment | Gareth Southgate Could Take A Leaf Out Of Ralph Hasenhuttl's Book !
at 11:56:01
My main issue with Southgate is that I don't see a style or brand of football he tries to play. Obviously, it's more difficult for an international to do this as they only have 10 days with a large group of players every couple of months.
However, I feel that if you do have an idea of the type of football you want to play, you can then pick the best players to play that brand of football. For example, if he wants to set up a team that can press high, he should look at clubs who press high and can win the ball back.
It feels as Southgate's brand of football is to sit back and beat teams on the counter-attack. However, with Kane as our main man, is that style of football best for him? I don't think it is. I would argue that if you wanted to pick the best 11 English players in the Premier League 8/11 would probably play for the top 6. |
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Comment | Can Saints Regain The Top Spot This Weekend ?
at 11:42:23
I'd take a draw. Wolves are a very good team. I don't think we'll dominate the match for 90 minutes as we did against Newcastle and Everton.
But I am very excited about what we could achieve this season. I don't think this recent run of results are a fluke, that will see us drop off a cliff as soon as we have a bad game. Look at this year, I think we've had the 3rd most wins in the PL and since lockdown, I think only Man City have picked up more points.
Overall, I'd be ecstatic if we can pick up more points across the entire season than we did when Koeman was in charge. As you mentioned it is very close this season, but we've already played 5 of the current top 8. |
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Comment | Salisu Not Fit Until October
at 12:05:44
If the lads only been training with the squad for a couple of weeks, I think this makes sense. I'd rather wait a month for him to start and look solid instead of rushing him into the first team only to look shakey just because he's our new summer signing.
RH has stated before that our CB's main problems are that they can't defend in 1 on 1 circumstance, I'm guessing this is something he'll be working on with Salisu before he can start. |
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Comment | James Ward Prowse A Rare Success In Lucky England Win
at 09:28:20
JWP played really well on Saturday. Like you said he moved the ball really quickly, he seemed like he knew what he wanted to do before he had the ball at his feet. Something that's very valuable considering the England team are the sort of team that enjoy playing on the break. Not that this really worked before Iceland were defending very deep.
Foden looked out of sorts. I think he plays the role in the pocket very well for City. But with Iceland defending so deep, he was never able to get on the ball and the same can be said for JWP when we were attacking.
I didn't enjoy watching England. I can't really tell what brand of football Gareth Southgate is trying to play. It just seems like he wants to play the best 11 players that he has at his disposal and hope that it works out. |
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Comment | Saints At Tottenham Hotspur The Verdict
at 10:07:04
I think what it comes down to is us not having enough players that can play Ralph's high pressing intensive style of football for 90 minutes. We managed to play it for 60/70 minutes on Wednesday and as soon as we started to tire Spurs found gaps in midfield and capitalised, the tired legs pressing made it much easier for Spurs to make fast interchanges in midfield. That's how you end up conceded so many goals in the final periods of play as we have done in the last few games.
I think that Jose got his subs right and in-game changes made a difference. |
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Comment | Manchester United And Arsenal After Lemina
at 16:51:10
I can see him at United. With Herrea leaving and rumours of Matic and Pogba leaving they'll need another CM. Can't see him at Arsenal especially since they've already Torreira, Xhaka and Guendouzi. Apparently we've listed him for £18m, hopefully, we can make two teams fight for his signature and increase the value that we've listed him as. |
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Site Scores| Forum Votes: | 3 | | Comment Votes: | 17 | | Prediction League: | 0 | | TOTAL: | 20 |
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