C’mon SuzyW - Southampton have the core of a premier league team. The best all-round side we’ve seen at PR.
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3 horse race now. International break has robbed us of key players to injury but we still got over the line. Bamford’s a streak player, he’s in his anything but score streak just now. We should have been 2 up before Hull scored. Hull had lots of possession but can’t remember a save apart from their goal. Out possessioned is unusual for us but first half we were. 2nd half a different story. James finally recovered his post penalty mojo and was the threat we know he is. As the game wore on we looked stronger as Hull began to wilt. We won the 2nd half possession game. Should have scored 2 more before Summerville (best in the division?) embarrassed their full back and James scored a worldly. . As usual our opponents resorted to time wasting and the odd bit of thuggery. We deserved the victory imo. The nail biting continues, hopefully with a fit Gruev.
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I also thought they were the best team to watch at Norwich this year, all they lacked was someone to convert the many chances they created.
By the way after yesterday I’m not too confident about next Saturday!
For the (nearly) neutral, all three top of the table championship games were a superb watch. Neither Leicester, Ipswich nor Leeds actually deserved to win, but somehow found the strength of character to score very late (Ipswich in particular very very fortunate). It’s a shame that one of these will not go up automatically and have to suffer the playoffs as they’re so far ahead of the rest.
Four losses - and two dropped points against Boro - in the last eight games says it all really.
Surprised you cant feel the ITFC jitters all the way up the A140 John. We are so open and City surely wont play like at Leicester.
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We can, & probably will, play a lot worse than that.
I see a close game between two nervous teams, which in true City tradition, we will loose to a late goal.
The days of 5 - 1 victories are long gone at present!
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I’m afraid that against teams above us Wagner goes ultra defensive which goes directly to our weakness, the defence.
I am finding Wagner lacks creativity against better teams. We scraped home against Southampton and Ipswich but have been outclassed by Leicester and Leeds.
I hope our sporting director is looking for a younger coach next year.
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I hear we are going for Hodgson in the mornings & Warnock in the afternoons. Only really wanted one of them but, apparently, both need a nap sometime during the day…
Seriously, good point about the game plan against strong opposition. Having to make do with two minutes of highlights for virtually all matches this season, I hadn’t noticed this.
100% agree about weak defence. This is a problem we have had for the best part of the past 10 years & numerous changes of personal have failed to solve. Even in the Championship glory years we shipped more goals than most in the division & only have Holt and Pukki to thank for saving us from ourselves.
We have several promising young central defenders who have pace and touch which are ideal when you want to play from the back, Wagner’s preferred style.
However , he is extremely conservative and instead of trying youth he brought Duffy into the team who struggles for both pace and touch.
Fans are rapidly becoming bored by our laboured attempts to play the ball out from the back. It’s very slow and leaves us open to disaster from any team playing a forward press.
I’d like to see a young coach brought in and given a clean slate.
Pity we missed out on Russell Martin.
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Saints are in the playoff positions. All I could hope for at the beginning of the season.
What troubles me though, is the points we have lost from winning positions. More than our rivals from what I can make out. I ask (possibly rhetorically) why? And if what appears to be missing is psychological grit or resilience, can it be coached?
(The answer is possibly not by Russell Martin!)
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Wasn’t that also the problem last season as well?
As I said above, “game management” is a foreign concept!
Another interesting stat is “points won/lost after the 75th minute”. We’re not too bad in that respect (14 won, 6 lost). Worst are Blackburn (W1, L13), Coventry (W7, L10), and somewhat surprisingly, Leicester (W11, L13). Indeed, I’ve watched two of the latter’s on the TVs at St Mary’s, when LC had the early kick-off……
Southampton played some very good football at Norwich and moved the ball all over the place at speed and were pleasant on the eye.
What I thought they lacked was an out and out goal scorer to take advantage of their dominance.
I watched yesterday’s game which confirmed my opinion. Southampton should have been two or three goals up but frequently squandered their openings.
If they’d had a Temu Pukki figure they’d be the ones to chase.
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I think the same applies to all the teams fighting for those 2 places. Real quality strikers cost though and, as we saw with Pukki, what looks good in Scotland or the Championship translates to barely double figures in the EPL.
These managers and their clubs are not stupid. Unless you uncover your own gem then the money it would cost to get 20 goals a season in the EPL is not sane spending at Championship level. Thus you can be confident Martin knows he can’t do better than Adams at present just as Farke knows he can’t better Bamford or Summerville without bankrupting his club.
Unfortunately neither club has invested in infrastructure or capacity, which are realistically the only way you move up the finamcial strata unless you get different owners.
Bearing this in mind, and much as I far prefer the Championship to the EPL, I suspect Southampton or Leeds would be struggling next season bar some very astute signings. That’s putting aside that I suspect Martin isa better manager than Farke and will adapt better than the latter. Leicester will have slightly more financial clout of they make it. Ipswich? No idea.
It’s a big game at Fratton Park tonight. Fingers crossed!
Recent rises in building costs are starting to make capacity a dubious route.
Surely Saints problem isn’t lack of goals scored, its goals conceded. 20 more goals conceded than LUFC but 1 more scored in 2 less games tells its own story. When you score 2 goals away from home you really shouldn’t get beat. Don’t Norwich have a similar issue, despite setting up to defend? Ipswich are a bit of an anomaly just now but the best in any division usually have one of the best defensive records. Doesn’t matter how you defend so long as it’s effective.
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How is Kamara performing for Portsmouth? He looked a decent player the few times he came on for us last season.
Actually it’s not quite like that. Adam Armstrong 20 goals, Che Adams 11 goals. The problem is that we do not have an obvious target man in the middle to focus upon - I’ve always thought that Harry Kane played that role brilliantly - so we’re constantly running around to find someone.
Absolutely.
Coupled with the ponderous midfield and that p1$$ing about at the back that I’ve spoken about before - my Sis** reckons it’s all “Pep’s fault” 
.
**who used to play for Soton Junior ladies half a century ago!
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