Match Day Thread Saints vs Newcastle Saturday 7th March 3pm

I agree. Newcastle were never going to score until the unfortunate incident involving Toons only competent attacker

It was an awkward ball to deal with at an awkward height

 

Indeed. There are a number of key failings
Bringing games back
Remote technology shouldn’t referee a game just support the referee
Stopping games for too long

If a ref doesn’t ask for help he shouldn’t get it
At least with Djenepo he made the decision
Boufal decision was nuts as ref saw nothing. Consequence of this is all decisions being made from an office in London and get rid of referees

 

Are we the only club to have two reds from var now?

 

Probably as we have the most Premier League reds I read somewhere this season.

 

Worst home record in PL, 6th away. Nuts.

 

VAR is just as unreliable as the referees going on current experience.

I think the Premier League should put the refereeing of matches out to tender then we might get the contract awarded to an Italian or German refereeing association and we would have decent refs at last. We bring in foreign players and managers so why not foreign referees?​

 

I think what we are realising with VAR is that football is not meant to be perfect. It is meant to be crazy, chaotic, scrappy and at times unjust. It is meant to hang on a subjective decision here and there by a referee who is part of the action, feeling the game develop around him. The referee sees it in real time, making decision not just on what he sees but on what he hears and what he feels. More than anything football is about flow, speed and the rollercoaster experience of the match day crowd.

I think keep VAR for offsides (but they must be obvious) and then allocate an appeals system.

 

There’s a big difference in results - we’re winning away. Now we don’t set up particularly differently away to how we do at home. So why the disparity? It’s clearly something psychological going on about playing in front of our fans. I’m not sure that is squarely at Ralph’s door...

 

I agree with this in part but I cannot understand why we can perform really well away from home yet cannot set up for "difficult" home fixtures and grind out a result. The blame does not entirely rest with Ralph as there have been so many different factors. However, Ralph has failed to come up with a solution which has dogged Saints since the arrival of Claude Puel. I do not think that the crowd as St Mary's are at fault either even if the ground is not in the least intimidating. If we had not had Danny Ings this season I think we would still be in the bottom three.

In my opinion Ralph should be coming under more scrutiny. I totally reject the notion that he needs to be replaced but I certainly think he needs some help with the coaching and I think he needs backing from the board to address the lack in depth in the squad too. No one can be satisfied with the home performances which have deteriorated with Koeman's departure. I would also like to know why the new recruits like Adams, Danso (who is played out of positions when he does get the nod) and KWP are not getting selected and why it took so long to recognise that Armstrong was going to be so instrumental to the upswing in our form. Granted that Cedric is now injured, allowing him to leave on loan may present future problems. I can appreciate Ralph's potential but I similarly think there are question marks which did not exist with the likes of Adkins, Poch or Koeman. Of the past managers, Ralph reminds me somewhat of Chris Nicholl - excellent when things went right but ultimately being a little bit of a let down when they didn't. That said, I think CN inherited a much better squad in his day.

 

Perhaps it’s the use of the word unacceptable which irks me Ian, you support the manager but the home form is unacceptable.
Disappointing, yes. Particularly the results, despite moments of quality, but if it’s “unacceptable “, then what? Are you going to refuse to take your seat? Call for the manager to be sacked?
I recall Koeman and Pochettino being criticised for not “having a plan B” and that was “unacceptable “ as well. I will support the manager as he is getting an ok team to play attractive football, and keeping us out of the relegation fight. Yesterday, we were without key players and we had a player sent off, and another make a mistake. You think it’s unacceptable, Perhaps we just have different expectations?

 

I do hope the price of season tickets will be reduced next year ... fat chance of that, I know.

 

Channon

I was very careful in my posts to differentiate between "performance" and "result."

A significant element of the problems experienced since the arrival of Claude Puel has been the unsatisfactory results at home. This ultimately did for Claude Puel and, along with the lacklustre style of football, was deemed more of an issue the final position in the league and the cup final. I have never called for Ralph's head and believe it is probably the manager who has perhaps best understood what the club is about since Nigel Adkins. That said, the inability to win at home continues to be a big problem for Saints which he has not resolved. I do not have the luxury of a lot of free time to travel away to watch Southampton and therefore my experience of his tenure is limited to the home matches where we currently have the worst record in the league. I feel that any analysis of Ralph's performance needs to be more balanced.

Judging by your pen name, you must be of the same generation as myself and surely cannot be pleased by the lack of wins over the last few years on home turf? I grew up expecting us to always win at home and whilst I recognise that the game is very different from the one I grew up following, we are now in our 4th season where the realistic expectations of the home supporters are not being fulfilled. As I keep saying, the club needs to get behind Ralph in the transfer market and we need acquisitions who are going to go straight in to the starting XI and not sit on the bench.

For me, this is an intriguing debate because I think Ralph in the best manager we have had since Koeman yet I have found the results at home to have been a total let down. I am struggling to recall how many home matches I have seen of late where I have felt that everything clicked and fell in to place.

 

I, for one, put it firmly at the feet of the fans - I’m sorry, but when some fans are moaning at players BEFORE we even kick off (and this goes right back to the shameful treatment of Fraser - and hasn’t improved much since) I lose my rag.
You can see the confidence draining away from the players as more and more fans moan, shout “get it forward” and “you useless .... (enter whatever word you like here)” and it really takes it out of you. if we go right back to the Puel days when we managed to “grind out” enough results at home and away to end up 8th and the fans BOOED him and the team as they did their lap at the end of the season. It took my breath away when I think of how the Dell and then St Mary’s used to be veritable fortresses with the fans cheering, singing and really rocking to get behind the players. Now they seem to want instant success and a young player is crucified for a mistake so they try to take the easy option.
I’m fed up with these so called fans saying “I pay my money so I can boo or catcall as I like”. I say “**** off and go support Man U, Arsenal, etc where you’re so far away from the players they can’t hear you”. If you are a true Saints supporter you’ll be behind the team and the manager and supporting the players. After all, can anyone remember how **** Sadio was when he first played? He was trying too hard but he was given time to learn. I think Moussa and Sofi have amazing talent but if all they here is “you’re ****”, “you’re a bell end” etc they’re going to try and do something to attempt to impress and 9 times out of 10 it won’t come off.
Maybe these “fans” would just be happy to get a team of mediocre also rans in, play basically route 1 and attempt to bully other teams (I can’t think of any teams in the premier league who are like that ) so they scrape results. Personally I go for the football and to see the occasional flash of brilliance. I may be disappointed but never enough to boo the players or the manager. I’m secretly hoping that Coronavirus means we may have to play some of our home games behind closed doors. Reckon the players would react brilliantly
(By the way, from what I saw of Ralph’s comments after the game yesterday it seems as if the fans were better - but that was probably cos they were so fed up with VAR and because Alex had a stormer)

 

So is it the fans fault when we win, and not Ralph and the players?

I think the home issues are a mixture of many things, but Dave, you banging on as its only the fans is, in my opinion, part of the story and also not fair.

People are always entitled to a different opinion to you, would you feel the same about those that differ with you on an internet forum

 

I thought it was a good game.

 

I can’t believe you’re blaming the crowd. Shaking my head in disbelief. I’m sure other teams suffer similar & don’t fall to the depths of being bottom of the table. There may be an effect but not to put us bottom. Do we set up much differently? Probably not but what is massive different is how the home teams set up against us & allow our set up to prosper. That said, it means we have to play different at home.

 

Again I think it's because teams away typically set up more defensively than at home where they are expected to be more aggressive, and we are weak against teams that sit back and counter.

 

Of course people are entitled to their opinions, but it’s been noticeable that the games we’ve got the favs behind us are the games we’ve (generally) done well in. It just spoils my enjoyment when you get moronic fans expecting a player to do incredible things immediately or they start having a go at him before he’s kicked the ball.
We’re not physical enough at times and are easily bullied and hopefully something can be done about that, but I believe we have a decent squad and if there was an absolute roar and all the fans lifted the players (like I remember at the Dell) I think that would go a long way towards giving them confidence to go at the opposition.
Maybe I’m expecting too much of the fans but I don’t enjoy hearing all the **** directed at players who are trying their best ......

 

Be interesting to see if they keep the 400 quid ones.

 

I think it's more tactical than anything else. Sounds like the crowd were pretty good yesterday by all accounts.