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Post by stsaint on Apr 21, 2024 7:00:56 GMT
The manager set them up in a way that led to us going 1-0 up and then creating clear cut chances to go 2-0 and 3-0 up. To blame him for the incompetent forwards not doing their jobs properly is ridiculous. You might as well have blame him for the weather whilst you are at it.
All season we haven't put teams away as a top side would and whilst promotion would be short term fun, I don't think next season would be anything but a disaster. I think this team would really benefit from another year in the Championship. Edozie, Larios, Stewart, Charles, potentially Ballard, Dibling, Amo-Ameyaw could all really see their progress thrive in this league in a way they wouldn't in the Premier league. Will will of course lose a few but if they were that great they wouldn't be here in the first place.
From where we were 12 months ago we have actually made great progress, it's just a shame that people can't see that.
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Post by Willshakes. on Apr 21, 2024 7:21:04 GMT
I believe we’re in a league that suits us . We win more than we lose . The Prem is a money 💵 pit . Our woeful owners have appointed managers since their ownership that were truly abysmal. Along with their other pitiful decisions. RM is ok & all of us are “Tacticians” in our own way —all sports fans are . I’d like new owners to start with . Whether it’s winning away at Walsall or beating Man United at Wembley we’re Saints fans and always will be . Good , bad or ugly 🤯
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Post by threehundred on Apr 21, 2024 7:36:54 GMT
We have two forwards who have both been top scorers in this league previously. Both have scored plenty this season and figure prominently in the top-scorers table again. The problem is that most of the time, neither can hit a cow’s arse with a banjo. The team has been set up by RM to create chances… the lack of clinical finishing killed us once again. It is crazy that we are the top scorers in this division, yet we miss so many gilt-edged chances. We should have had a hatful yesterday.
CNM was a ludicrous mistake. You don’t stick the Mona Lisa to the wall with chewing gum.
Our failure to buy a proven, fit, centre forward directly led to relegation last season and to the position we find ourselves in now.
I’m fecking fuming.
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Post by spot51 on Apr 21, 2024 7:48:25 GMT
It was that shitty white kit. The mark of Failure!
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Post by bromleysaint on Apr 21, 2024 8:25:30 GMT
The Cardiff loss was a massive kick in the teeth as we should have gone and won with ease.
Losing Stuey though is a huge blow as we go into the playoffs without anyone who can create from midfield. Without him the playoffs don’t seem that appealing. Let’s hope Rothwell steps up.
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Post by Mandochris on Apr 21, 2024 9:18:58 GMT
I'm not blaming Martin for the first half, I'm blaming him for the second half. Before Cardiff scored we were saying on the live chat that our passing was going to shit, that they were creating openings down the wings and that Martin needed to do something. It seemed strange that he played Smallbone in the Downs role, which has not worked before, instead on Charles, which has. Why did he take off Aribo instead of Stuey, who we know cannot last 90 minutes, when Aribo was still playing to good effect. That is what I am blaming him for.
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Post by choixkoix on Apr 21, 2024 9:30:03 GMT
Having slept on it, you can see it both structurally (the manager) and bad day at the office from key players.
Before there's any mention of tactics, we murdered them for 55-60 minutes. The chances we had were good chances. It wasn't slow passball carving out a sketchy half chance. Undeniable that Che and Adam (who have I think 38 goals in the league between them) had a pretty crap day with their shooting. We carved into good positions in and around their box again and again, just like Preston. This was compounded by Stu hitting a post, Brooks missing when going round the keeper and Stu not putting Adam into a nice shooting position by passing the ball behind him amongst other examples.
That ultimately is the headline. And the structural weaknesses we have dont impact the game if we have even a mediocre day with our shooting.
If you go beyond that, once we got frustrated the deeper issues arise. Manager got his subs wrong. Lack of a specialist DM in midfield to anchor us when the game starts slipping out of our control and the opposition have the bit between the teeth (in my opinion Charles should have come on once we reached 1-1). Rothwell at DM at the end - why bring him on and then bring on more subs which push him far away from the opposition box? The stats are pretty clear - we are much weaker when Downes doesn't play, so use the specialist DM for christs sake. Inability to stop crosses at source. Trying to deal with a setback in a game through the only way we seem to know - fill the pitch with attacking players and attack like we are playing a basketball match. All of this wouldn't sink us if we had the striker doing the job for us that we thought would happen when we signed Ross Stewart. But it's the bad days at the office or the unlucky ones where the finer detail of your recruitment, tactics and man management make the difference. And that might sum up why Ipswich seem to bounce out of setbacks better than we do.
4th best team in the league is pretty accurate, more so than the hope we all tried not to feel after Preston. I don't fancy us for the playoff promotion spot. Once the season is over, manager needs to look at a few aspects of his performance, we need to to stop using 8's as 6's, we need a new goalkeeper and we need a new striker in amongst the other upheaval. We need to also be a little more savvy in how we manage 3 game weeks and how we manage slender leads.
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Post by Furry Frank The Combat Wombat on Apr 21, 2024 9:59:31 GMT
The manager set them up in a way that led to us going 1-0 up and then creating clear cut chances to go 2-0 and 3-0 up. To blame him for the incompetent forwards not doing their jobs properly is ridiculous. You might as well have blame him for the weather whilst you are at it. All season we haven't put teams away as a top side would and whilst promotion would be short term fun, I don't think next season would be anything but a disaster. I think this team would really benefit from another year in the Championship. Edozie, Larios, Stewart, Charles, potentially Ballard, Dibling, Amo-Ameyaw could all really see their progress thrive in this league in a way they wouldn't in the Premier league. Will will of course lose a few but if they were that great they wouldn't be here in the first place. From where we were 12 months ago we have actually made great progress, it's just a shame that people can't see that. You're correct that he and the snake Wilcox deserve credit for arresting the slide we've been on for the last few years, and he does deserve credit for setting us up to create all those chances. However, like Ralph, he needs to learn that you can't always stick to your guns and double down, sometimes you have to be pragmatic and sacrifice some of your principles for the greater good
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Post by threehundred on Apr 21, 2024 13:33:09 GMT
Still fuming.
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Post by sotonian on Apr 22, 2024 8:06:30 GMT
If Saints do get promoted it makes me shudder to think what the prem teams will do to us if we can’t beat teams like Cardiff after so much possession and so many shots
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Post by Mandochris on Apr 22, 2024 9:01:27 GMT
I'm fine with staying in the Championship. We'll have a decent side, a manager with an extra year's experience and should be able to give it a go. Maybe Ross Stuart will be fit and firing, we'll have a new keeper, Stephens will be a good skipper and defender; Charles, Larios and Edozie will all be older; some of the kids will break into the team. It should be fun. I don't think we need fear either Luton or the Blades.
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Post by channonite on Apr 22, 2024 9:14:38 GMT
I'm fine with staying in the Championship. We'll have a decent side, a manager with an extra year's experience and should be able to give it a go. Maybe Ross Stuart will be fit and firing, we'll have a new keeper, Stephens will be a good skipper and defender; Charles, Larios and Edozie will all be older; some of the kids will break into the team. It should be fun. I don't think we need fear either Luton or the Blades. I agree with you about staying down. Yes, there will be a large turnover of players again, and we will lose a few players we would be sorry to see go, but this will create more opportunities for others. I am also keen to see Martin do another season, as although he has not been faultless, he has changed the atmosphere at St.Mary's for the better. As for the competition, I am more concerned about Portsmouth and Burnley than I am about Luton or Sheffield United.
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Post by channonite on Apr 22, 2024 9:16:44 GMT
If Saints do get promoted it makes me shudder to think what the prem teams will do to us if we can’t beat teams like Cardiff after so much possession and so many shots The Cardiff game just proved to me that promotion would almost inevitably lead to a season very similar to the last one.
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Post by saintsfan73 on Apr 22, 2024 9:46:31 GMT
Rusty has to take a lot of the blame for this. How many times have our performances declined in the 2nd half? How many times have we heard pundits say during the game Saints were completely dominant until the opposition brought on their subs and then the game turned on its head? We seem to be very easy to read and for managers to react to during the game but when they do this Rusty has no inkling of a Plan B and keeps on doing the same thing game after game...
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Post by saintsfan73 on Apr 22, 2024 9:47:44 GMT
If Saints do get promoted it makes me shudder to think what the prem teams will do to us if we can’t beat teams like Cardiff after so much possession and so many shots The Cardiff game just proved to me that promotion would almost inevitably lead to a season very similar to the last one. Yep. The only thing it will do is solve SR's financial issues. Without that I think our future outlook is bleak given our debts/losses we are running at.
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