At two up last night I thought we were on for our usual four or five after a run of poor results. Even Norwich couldn’t blow this…
Shattered, but not totally surprised by what happened. We must be the only side in the country capable of this sort of capitulation on such a regular basis.
Still, nothing a new manager & eleven new players can’t sort out.
Well, The Mighty Whites huffed and puffed their way to a win against Millwall at Elland Road tonight.
It was a largely scrappy game, following our being gifted an o.g. in the third minute.
Sometimes, though, you just have to keep on doing what you’re doing, in the hope that it will come right eventually, and so it proved to be, with an absolute belter of a goal from Tanaka, in the 85th. minute.
So we return to the top of the league once more, two points clear of The Blunts, and more importantly, four points ahead of Burnley, in third place, with nine games still to play.
M.O.T.
@mikehughescq Is Johannes Spors a good appointment at you know where please?
(Asking here on this thread because this is where Saints will be next season.)
Thanks.
C.
I think there’s a risk attached and it’s perhaps more of a risk than one might guess. He was pursued by Newcastle as the replacement for Ashworth but that didn’t work out. Much talk about permits but also some concern there about his model, which sees him as the centre of everything and it all working like a benevolent dictatorship. He looks impressive on paper but there were issues at Hamburg and his successes thus far have been within the constraints of working within the 777 group of clubs. A very strong sense that he’s moving now because he’s desperate to get out of 777.
I have to say that his BBC Sounds interview didn’t impress or reassure. Hard to say for me. It could work out if the personalities all click and accept his role but it one party doesn’t accept his central role I suspect the wheels could come off pretty quickly. Suspect that initially others will leave before he does.
Not the best of games against not the best of opponents. We did enough & were untroubled by Millwall who barely made our half of the pitch, especially in the 2nd half when we upped the intensity a little. In between the own goal and Tanaka’s wonderful strike we scored one of the goals of the season only to be denied by the assistant ref. Radio Leeds pundits thought the offside decision dodgy. Such a shame. We move on to London, where we never win for an early KO which we never win. Special mention for Rothwell, clear motm. If he could only shoot he’d be the complete Championship centre mid.
Thanks Mike. Early last season you made me realise the importance of key appointments.
With all the fallout from whatever is going on at Man Utd and the departure of expensively poached Dan Ashworth, I had wondered if he might have been the right man for us. No doubt Ashworth sees himself as a Premier League operator. But hopefully he was approached. We are unlikely to ever know.
If he wasn’t, that for me would demonstrate perhaps the biggest problem of all, Southampton’s poverty of ambition.
Very personal opinion but he strikes me as very 0dd. Other people on his role see themselves as co-ordinating a team to support the manager. He is very clear that he sees himself as head of the team and all should revolve around him regardless of who is the manager. It’s like he’s instantly setting himself up to be able to say that when there’s a clash of personalities the magister should always be the one to go not him. As we’ve seen at other clubs, in a clash of personalities the manager stays if results are going well and leaves if they are not. Here he’s basically advocating to keep relatively poor managers if they get on with him and bin them regardless of results if they don’t. That seems to have been at the heart of his dispute with Hamburg. At RB he seems to have been in a different kind of conflict whereby they were data driven and he felt that his opinion was data and should therefore count just as much. What plays out now will be fascinating.
If I were a Saints fan I think the question I’d be asking would be around the few supportive structures put in place around Russell Martin and why those are only appearing now. It’s all rather odd.
Re: your last paragraph, in the online comments section of the Southampton local paper recently, there was a suggestion that media mogul Dragan Šolak’s main reason for buying Saints was that if he was able to show that he could host live televised games in the Premier League, it would make it all the more likely that he would gain the TV rights in his native Serbia.
I put the lack of support structures around Martin down to the board’s naivety. The usual story of lions led by donkeys. There was a strong desire to be in the Prem but no plan as to how to keep us there.
Anyway, with ten games left, we are at home to Wolves tomorrow…
Being positive at least I’m not freezing in the stands watching Norwich City tonight!
The eight Championship sides, who still have to play us before this dreadful season ends, probably can’t believe their luck. I imagine there’s no team in the EFL that wouldn’t fancy their chances against us at the moment.
JHT (if he survives) & the board appear to have a massive rebuilding job ahead of them this summer.
If the current performance level is not improved I seriously doubt we will be able to rely on almost full houses at Carrow Road game after game & worry about the effect the subsequent reduction in income would have on the boards future plans & ambitions.
With the team seemingly going backwards it is looking like a miserable summer is heading our way.
There is one bit of good news amongst the gloom. My prediction of a 10th to 16th finish looks more likely with every match!
I feel the same way about us right now.
You may both recall that new money or not I did suggest you might regret the calls for change. On the other hand one might argue that this is actually exactly what a transitional season looks like. Glimpses of sunshine; obvious deficiencies and massive frustration.
Manning a good example of what happens if you give people time.
The drop in attendance has already happened. Last Tuesday there wasn’t 20,000 in the ground. Large areas of vacant seat all over the stadium.
The figure they announce includes 22,00 season ticket holders regardless whether they attend or not.
Fans are bored with this senseless tip tapping about in our own penalty area to no advantage. It’s monotonous in the extreme.
We give goals away with this daft approach and then for the final ten minutes play entertaining attacking football when it’s all too late. We’re constantly left with what might have been.
A point in London with an early kick off having given QPR a 2 goal start feels like a decent result. Big side QPR who play to their greatest asset, size, something we can struggle against. Average 2 points per game should be enough so we’ve met this week’s target and get to rest a few players for a couple of weeks now. Meanwhile the EFL & Sky continue to make life as difficult as possible by moving more of our games to 12:00/12:30 than our promotion rivals which makes preparation tougher.
Well, The Mighty Whites set off like a train at Loftus Road this afternoon, with slick accurate passing being the order of the day … … … until … … … Brenden Arronson, (who needs to be gone, btw), produced the slickest side footed pass of the day so far, straight to the happy feet of Kōki Saitō, who promptly smashed it into our net.
Listen, Brenden son, nowhere, within the Laws of the Game, does it state that, just because the home side provide the match ball, you are obliged to return it to their possession at every given opportunity.
Fifteen minutes later, our defence were asleep at the wheel, and it’s 2-0 to QPR.
We ended the first half snatching one back, which was Junior Firpo’s all day long, rather than the o.g. credited.
Wee Willie Gnonto came on for the second half, and set about showing what he could do with some great incisive passing, and Jaydon Bogle, the other fullback chipped in with a 51st. minute equaliser.
Not quite able to finish things off with a winner, so I guess the draw will have to do, and we still enter next week at numero uno, regardless of results elsewhere.
Onward and upward.
M.O.T.
Definitely feeling that pain. Wrexham is not easy to get to for 12:30pm kick offs but it doesn’t seem to bother Sky. Incredibly hard to get from and home midweek too but, again, they just don’t care.
They don’t share the pain around fairly.
Nowhere near getting home but at least I’ve a signal now.
4 hours, 3 trains, an hours walk to the ground, a terrible view from the allegedly accessible seating and then a performance every inch as bad as the last few months. Sad to say the 35 minute delay because one of our fans was taken ill might just have saved our season. A 20 minute game in which we cleared one off the line; saw an absolute worldie of a save by Arthur and then ludicrously saw Smith lash in/volley the winner. Subdued delerium at the end and understandably so. Kudos to Wycombe fans, players and officials who were superb.
Missed my intended train back and do here we are. Expect to get back to Manchester for 11:30pm and then if I don’t make the 11:40pm bus I’ll be on the 00:12am and home for 1am.
I am sure someone will be discussing this on the PL thread despite it having nothing to do with the PL so let’s start it here. Congratulations to Newcastle. Thought Burn and especially Joelinton were outstanding. Thoroughly deserved.
I feared for Liverpool (not that I cared) after 120 minutes of high energy football, and losing, v PSG midweek. They looked out on their feet. Luckily for them they have a 12 point gap in the league.
I do think it’s interesting and more than a little depressing that we’re now beginning to see the direct consequences of too many matches. Would City have had this season if they played 10 less games? Would Newcastle have even had the opportunity if Liverpool hadn’t had that game?