My Saints 1, Brighton 2 earlier today.
A comment on the Beeb site: “Southampton were so bad even B&H couldn’t throw it away.”
With 4 points from the last available 36, I’m troubled.
Kenny Jackett has departed from Fratton Park, not before time. Whether the team can do enough to even make the playoffs has to be debatable. It was all looking so good at Christmas and since then it’s gone horribly wrong. Hopefully they can get someone a bit more inspiring, as there are lots of decent players in the team who somehow seem to have lost their way.
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I think Hasenhüttl won’t be far behind. Which is a shame, as I think he has been good for Saints.
But the rot has well and truly set in.
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@anon4489532, I agree that it was right to sack Jackett. He has had four seasons to get Pompey out of L1. A very nice guy and a true gentleman but he had clearly lost the confidence of the squad who have looked laboured, timid and ill-at-ease with his tactics for much of the season. Even when we were top at Xmas, the performances didn’t command confidence. Jackett seemed unable to see that the tactics weren’t working and he stubbornly kept repeating the same failing formula. Yesterday’s performance against Salford, 9th placed in L2, was awful. Afterwards my son and I concluded that Pompey’s season was over and all we could look forward to was Jackett’s contract expiring at the end of the season and not being renewed. Today’s announcement has given us both a lift in the sense that with a new manager who hopefully can give the players their confidence back and 13 games still to play, a play-off place is still possible.
I do hope so. Take Ronan Curtis - he was amazing when he arrived but seems to have had the stuffing knocked out of him. So many players seem promising when they arrive but somehow fade. The look on Jack Whatmough’s face said it all really. As you say, Jackett is a gent, which is all too rare, but that simply isn’t enough in the end. He’s good at picking players but not so good at getting the best from them.
Are you still coming to see Eddi in October? We’re keeping everything crossed.
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Good win for Arsenal today so will be looking forward to MotD. I was expecting a draw or loss to be honest given their form of late. Just goes to show you never can tell.
@anon4489532 - you’re spot on, Nigel. Yes, Jack W’s face and comments were depressingly telling. And, yes, I’m still hoping to get down to Emsworth to see Eddi R on 6th Oct. Hope to meet then. Mike
Now that Spuds have lost the North London Derby, they can get back to the all-important business of ending up trophyless at the end of the season.
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A good start, too negative thereafter. Had the Moyesiah approached that game with a more positive attitude, we might have got something.
We don’t want him, than you very much. Anyway, Sheffield Utd to Celtic is way too big a step up. 
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I’m not just saying this as a biased Gooner but we dominated The Spuds yesterday Song went off injured but both Bale and Kane where kept very, very quiet. A great result for us.
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There where some big performances yesterday David Luiz’s best in an Arsenal shirt e and his partner Gabriel where so solid I’ve not seen Harry Kane kept so quiet in a derby match ever.
Kieran Tierney was again immense he just seems to get better but the two best where Smith Rowe and Martin Ødergaard they just ran the match for us.
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Well, what an abject, dismal display by my lot. Flat, negative, embarrassingly inept. There’s no excuse for that in a NL derby. Both Jose (for the set up, the negative style and strange subs selection) and the players (for their woeful, lazy performance) should be ashamed.
Arsenal were no great shakes, but, they were sharper, always first to the loose ball and played on our weaknesses in defence. They ‘wanted’ it much more. However, I don’t think the Arsenal defence did anything special - they had nothing to do for most of the game. Bale and Kane were invisible because they never saw the ball.
Doherty has always been a poor defender and I’m bemused Jose would pick him to play against quick boys like Smith-Rowe and Tierney - it was always going to end up in tears - instead of the more steady Tanganga or Aurier (if he was fit).
Lamela going all ‘Lamelary’ - from the sublime to the ridiculous.
The penalty was soft (Sanchez was a bit daft) but no more than Arsenal deserved.
All in all, we were well battered.
From a Spammer ??
As a Leeds fan having endured years and years of Football in the championship - what’s very interesting is how the Premier League is different.
I wouldn’t say the games are more competitive - and I wouldn’t say there are generally better teams.
There are some great teams of course - nobody can knock Man City - and there are some teams that can be very good on their day, and pretty nondescript on others. Some teams have lots of “stars” that for whatever reason don’t seem to gel as often as they should - we look at Tottenham and Chelsea and Arsenal here. Obviously Liverpool are misfiring badly, and look like they need a full rebuild.
Being in the championship so long you naturally think that the players in the premier league are just on a different level - and generally they are not. Some are of course - but these are the exceptions. Burnley, Brighton, Fulham - these are essentially teams of good championship players who have been coached to be hard to beat.
So there are some decidedly average teams. Plenty of them. Where negative tactics are to the fore, and “professional performances” are what it’s all about.
Some teams have maybe have a couple of outstanding players and setup to play to their strengths - Crystal Palace spring to mind - Zaha and Eze being their top trumps. These teams strike me as being just about maintaining status - and little else. Do Palace fans actually enjoy the football they are served? …I’m not sure I would (feels I’m picking I’m on Palace a bit - I’m not - they’re just a great example!)
Which brings me to my own team - the amount of coverage that Leeds style attracts was pleasing at first, and then a bit concerning for the game. Because it indicates that the norm of attritional football is so widely accepted that it makes anybody who plays offensively an oddity, and one that can’t possibly work, and one that is naive. It’s like the establishment WANT football to be tedious, and that’s the blueprint for a Premier League team.
So I’m not sure the quality of the “product” in terms of overall entertainment is superior to the championship. Maybe it’s just lacking the spectacle of fans to elevate it - but I think that’s not it - I think there is much more need to not lose, because of the high stakes, and this breeds a negative approach, which is anathema to entertainment.
Because of lockdown I’ve watched far more football than I normally would, and it’s fair to say that some of it is intensely tedious. Apart from when Leeds are on obviously - and Man City. I do wonder if the bubble will burst - as surely the legions of fans around the world see what I see.
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Similarly, lockdown has resulted in my watching many games involving teams other than Leeds, and you’re right, there’s some sleep inducing footy out there.
Still, the template for success utilising an attacking style is there with Man City, and is not wholly down to their exceptional pool of players, but also having an inspirational manager in Pep.
Generally though, the accepted philosophy seems to be not to lose, rather than go for a win.
Leeds’ return to the PL was initially greeted in equal measure by the pundits with “great to watch”, and “completely naive”, but most Leeds fans would agree that our showing in the PL, in our first season back, with what is largely last season’s Championship winning side, and playing our high press attacking style is what we all want to see.
It’s what all fans want to see, witness the rave notices which Raphinha is getting … a completely “one of a kind” player who entertains, and who can change the outcome of a game single handedly.
Our most important signing in years has been Marcelo Bielsa, and if, as looks possible, we can hold onto him for a while yet, and continue to add to the squad with the input of Victor Orta, then anything is possible.
M.O.T.
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@mattcray Manchester City may well sweep all before them this season, but they are, for me, the apotheosis of dull. I will grudgingly concede they’re impressive in a steamroller sort of way, but I don’t find them even slightly entertaining. As Rory Smith wrote in the NYT, the response to City’s style is intellectual rather than emotional.
City are the football equivalent of gastric-band surgery: They put a ring around their opponents and squeeze. This is why it’s called throttleball.
Like gastric-band surgery, it’s effective but it ain’t much fun for spectators.
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The lack of goals this season at Man City has been less fun than in previous years. So far they have only managed 99 goals in 44 matches. Slackers!
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That means nowt…
Spurs have scored over 100 goals this season. 
Unfortunately, nearly the same have been scored at the other end… 
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Some wonderful imagery in there! 
I do agree that there is an efficiency around the strangulation, that squishes the opposition and in turn creates chances - but there is plenty of flair in there too - and i do find it better to watch than Crystal Palace or Burnley!
Be interesting if they splash the cash on an Aguerro replacement and get a proper number 9 next season (obviously I’m talking about Haaland - who is no “false 9”) and how that changes the style, as it should put them back into the realms of convention, but just with top quality everywhere.
Maybe they’ll get fewer points (but not too few not to win the thing again) but win more friends.
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