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Comment | Southampton At Millwall The Verdict
at 10:15:01
A couple of things:
1. I do reckon that for the players this was almost the best result insofar as it was a wakeup call. We were good for a lot of the time but ultimately the side with the greater desire won and showed that, if you want to get promoted, winning is all about never, ever, giving up…
2. Secondly I don’t think the boys or TE should get down on themselves. A few forced changes at shortish notice from a reasonably settled team and we didn’t really gel. But is that so unusual in any squad? As a result of which, without a huge extra slice of luck - and we had a fair bit as it was - winning never looked likely; and the (one point) difference between drawing and losing is never going to be as decisive as between winning and drawing.
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Comment | Southampton V Leicester City The Verdict
at 17:03:54
Am i alone in thinking that Quarshie look somewhat “ring rusty” at the off?
But what was noticeable was that he was not ignored by his playing partners, as may well have been the case with previous managers, but they continued to pass to him and as a result he got better as the game progressed.
So just an observation because overall it was wonderful stuff, particularly all the razor-sharp through passing, some of which really made me gasp in wonder.
I have no doubt we all said our prayers a couple of weeks back but I don’t think any of us saw that the Good Lord would grant our wish in quite this manner…
So please don’t anybody wake me up any time soon, I’m in dreamland…! |
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Comment | Southampton At Charlton Athletic The Preview
at 09:27:03
One point worth making is that Charlton has only let in four goals at home, the equal least in the Championship, whilst we have scored 11 away, equal second most. Maybe not yet an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object, but a draw seems more than a possibilty… |
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Comment | Two Weeks Gone Since Still Sacking Are Southampton HedgingTheir Bets
at 09:44:35
Surely a much more reasonable explanation is that THERE ARE NO QUALITY MANAGERS AROUND AT THE MOMENT THAT WILL FIT THE BILL?
So Spors and Co are taking the view that Eckert will be fine as a fill-in for a week, a month, even the rest of the season, which he no doubt has been made aware of.
Furthermore I think you should credit most fans with rather more intelligence; ie I think you are wrong about the lack of decision not impressing the fans; what will impress them is that in the end we get the right man, not how long it takes to get him. |
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Comment | Southampton V Sheffield Wednesday The Verdict
at 12:13:16
A very fair report. That said, I did think the SW were terrible and tbh anything other than a convincing win would have been disastrous
No doubt about it though Fellows, Azaz, Scienza and Jander are a cut above the rest and if they keep fit and the new manager sees this and uses them effectively, I can see us climbing up the table. At the same time I do feel that the likes of THB and Flynn Downes are much better players than they have been showing and, if given better and more suitable coaching and with OR to marshall them, really could shine.
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Comment | Southampton V Preston North End The Will Still Obituary Verdict
at 10:09:24
So far as the game was concerned, PNE were, as has been said, very well drilled and from which we could learn a lot:
1. They kept a very firm back line (5) which was very tough to penetrate and were not suckered forward, thus never being caught in the break;
2. They pressed a lot and continually throughout the game;
3. Proved that possession means so much less than harrying the oppo off the ball;
4. Any of our players who did manage to get the ball was immediately tackled by at least one of theirs, often two and even occasionally three;
5. When they got the ball they went forward regardless of who was in the way; what did we do? as we did so much of under RM, turn inside and more ofter than not go backwards.
And finally re WS, for a while I knew, and indeed said, that he was a dead man walking. And so it proved. How anybody can admit to not knowing what to do and how to get out of the mess he had helped to create and thinks he has any future is beyond me. So in a funny way I actually think that SR did the decent thing and put him out of his misery.
One thing I did notice during the match, which only reinforced my view from a month back that he was losing/had lost the D/R: when there was a break in play, of the players who came to the side for a drink/a word, barely any of them paid any attention to WS but only to his assistants. Spoke volumes …
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Comment | A Big Decision Week For For Southampton FC
at 11:05:22
I have always thought that man management, as Dorsetian said, is the crucial aspect of a manager’s brief. And the key point here is not the players saying we are not performing well enough but for the manager to do something about their now almost certain losing mentality by coming up with confidence-building plans for every man in the team
I have said before that it is letting in goals that have caused us to be in this position. WS clearly has no idea how to resolve this problem, no doubt because of his lack of experience, and he is not going to be able to learn any solutions any time soon.
Either this didn’t come up in his Xbox experience, or else he didn't get that far into the game.
Either way, HE MUST GO. AND GO NOW. |
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Comment | Southampton At Blackburn Rovers The Verdict
at 09:14:14
Oh come on Nick.
You know it is the end of the road for WS.
The players are clearly not playing for him, we can all see that his game-plan is at best vague and in reality incomprehensible, and we are undoubtedly heading for disaster.
There is no coming back from this.
If he is around on Saturday, I hate to think what the reception will be like.
HE MUST BE SACKED NOW… |
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Comment | Southampton At Bristol City The Verdict
at 14:50:53
Presumably most people watched Will Still in the post-match interview?
Whatever the whys and wherefore of last night’s performance - p erraticallyI didn’t know whether to laugh or cry - the idea of supporting a manager who was ALMOST IN TEARS afterwards? Forget it!
I was all for giving him more time but, judging by his pathetic performance on tv, the guy clearly has no little round things!
Now he clearly is not up to the task. End of.
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Comment | Southampton V Swansea City The Verdict
at 12:37:22
Four comments:
1. Clearly you cannot hope to score if crosses rain in but there’s no one in middle to put them into the net. My goodness how we miss Ross Stewart, not to mention Danny Ings etc. That said, I seem to recall an informed comment made at the beginning of the season that we have five, yes FIVE, forwards so we don’t need another one. Hmmm. Not such a shrewd observation with the benefit of hindsight…
2. My seat is just over the tunnel so I watched Will Still quite a lot of the match. And if body language is anything to go by, animated he was not! More like a sad resignation of his own failings.
3. I do find it bizarre for many to say our inability to score is 100% down to the players. Yes they certainly don’t help themselves, but I do not think it is all their fault. The manager’s job is to lay out a plan - tactics, team make-up, positioning etc - that will overcome such shortcomings, and if it doesn’t work TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT AND NOT TO LOOK ALL SORRY FOR HIMSELF as he seemed to do on Saturday.
4. At his post match interview, Still said that we played the best he’d ever seen but had no luck. What rubbish. Playing badly and winning is fine. Playing well and not winning against a decidedly poor team like Swansea is not “playing well”, IT IS PLAYING BADLY BECAUSE WE DID NOT SCORE. Period.
5. But…despite all my criticisms, I note that currently we have GF at 11 and GA 11 and we sit 16th. West Brom (11 and 11 as well) and Millwall (11 and 13!) sit 5th and 6th. So on that basis, yes there is definite room for improvement, but maybe we are not quite as bad as our recent performances would suggest.
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Comment | Southampton V Swansea City The Preview
at 19:31:24
Noted Bowlercow. But personally I haven’t seen anything to suggest it wasn’t Southampton, although you may well be better informed.
I was simply arguing that rumours circulate about unsettled and unhappy teams, not about ones who know what they are doing.
Whatever the cause, all the teams I have seen play against us this season at SMG have had a certain pizzazz about them, and we just don’t, except in occasional short bursts.
We are not stuffed yet but currently do we really add up to a sum of the parts…? |
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Comment | Southampton V Swansea City The Preview
at 08:50:12
I think most are now resigning themselves to at least two seasons in the Championship which actually may not be a bad thing.
However, and I really do hope I am wrong about this, I do get the sense that there is just the smallest hint that Still is starting to lose the dressing room.
The rumours about the captain of a Championship side complaining to the owners plus the Danny Rohl situation plus the seeming lack of any game plan by the manager looks to me like an unhealthy cocktail.
Whether or not Will Still deserves five more minutes, five more weeks, months or even years will entirely depend on whether he can carry his players and get some results.
I for one am starting to have my doubts unless we can have at least one really convincing win in the next three games. |
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Comment | Southampton At Liverpool The Verdict
at 20:58:47
It has been commented elsewhere ad nauseam about Downs’ abysmal performance. My pennyworth is that I counted seven or eight times he received the ball and he lost it EVERY TIME bar one. I am afraid he is dreadful, and a total waste of space - not to mention money - as all he does is lollop around, never tackles and in effect means we are playing as a 10-man team. HE HAS ZERO FUTURE AT OUR CLUB. FFS WILL, ANYBODY IS BETTER THAN HIM, YOU ABSOLUTELY 100% HAVE TO DROP HIM PDQ!!!
His near namesake Flynn though had his best game for ages. And I reckon he must start on Saturday with Quarsie and - though this may go against everything the ma ager has thought previously - forget about THB and Jack.
Overall, I presume Will did shove a serious rocket up the squad’s btms after the Hull game And if that was the case, the result was there for all to see.
Head in the lion’s mouth I know, but could we, on the basis of last night’s performance, maybe, just possibly, have started to turn the corner…??? |
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Comment | Southampton At Hull City The Verdict
at 22:04:58
I really cannot get my head around why our players always appear to muck about from the kick off - theoretically soaking up pressure, presumably with the hope that the oppo will tire and can be caught in the break - and then only get a bit more serious when they go a goal down, or worse, so they are forever having to chase the game.
So is it the manager’s doing or the players? Or maybe both?
I read this week about the Ryder Cup Miracle in Medina when Europe came back from 10-6 down to win. And the night before the deciding singles matches, the normally placid European captain Jose Maria Olazabal gave the players the biggest bollocking they’d ever had in their lives and told them to get off their bums and play as well as they were capable of….
and blow me, it paid off and they won!!!
My belief is that, however much the Saints’ manager’s inexperience is contributing, I can’t help but think the players’ complete lack of oomph stems from a massive over-confidence, the “we are really a premier league squad and far too good for this league” attitude. And the only hope of ever changing this is by the manager giving them all a serious kick up the arse and (at least for some of them) a time on the bench or worse.
Managing winning teams is easy. I think the next few weeks will show whether Will Still has any cajones…
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Comment | Southampton V Portsmouth The Verdict
at 10:37:55
Apart from the first 15 minutes of the second half this was as dire a game of football that I can ever remember. And I should imagine that the guy at Sky who suggested this as a potentially exciting game for a Sunday lunchtime audience must be on a final warning.
As it was, Pompey looked so much more like a TEAM than we did and tbh we could have lost that by two or three nil had their finishing and luck been better.
BUT…
As I said, at the beginning if H2 we did seem to get off our arses and ran at them - Still certainly had sussed out the weakness in their two backs, even if we didn't capitalise on that enough early doors.
So I do think we are getting a better and, as the new players start to meld in, we should improve further and start to get some results within the next month or so.
But pur-lease, WILL, YOU AND THE GUYS ARE THERE TO ENTERTAIN US, not to produce a bore-fest like yesterday. The last thing we/you need is a restless crowd starting to boo… |
| | davidargyll
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