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Match Day Thread Southampton vs Portugal, 12pm Sunday, 14th February (Amazon Prime)

Discussion in 'Southampton' started by Le Tissier's Laces, Feb 8, 2021.

  1. Saints_Alive

    Saints_Alive Well-Known Member

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    Time for a Schad thread of doom?
     
    #541
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  2. San Tejón

    San Tejón Well-Known Member

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    My issue is our inability to regain control of a game when a team starts beating the high press, which often happens at the start of the second half.
    We need to learn how to break up a team’s momentum and disrupt their flow, even if it means hitting row z to give ourselves to reorganise defensively, until we get the press working.
    Initially in the second half Wolves beat the press by getting the ball to Traore a bit earlier so that he could start on a run before being closed down and by switching him to the left, he was more able to avoid the press because he was cutting inside and wasn’t being squeezed against the touch line.
    There have been games where we have kept it tight and gone on to get more control, but unfortunately today, the penalty decisions had a major impact on that.
     
    #542
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  3. Dark Lord SFC

    Dark Lord SFC Well-Known Member

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    What actually happens in the changing room at half time?
    We looked like Man City in the first half but Sheffield United in the second. This isn’t unusual, quite the opposite it appears to be the norm over the season. The disparity is so huge there must be something going on
     
    #543
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  4. Shandy_top_89

    Shandy_top_89 Well-Known Member

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    Notice the FB bellend sphere is turning on Ralph, hopefully the club don’t start to decide he is no longer the guy, especially as I think there a few more losses to weather before we will turn around.

    If Ralph goes the team collapses and we are back to relegation fodder, there isn’t a single manager out there who could get more out of this team/club.
     
    #544
  5. Osvaldorama

    Osvaldorama Well-Known Member

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    Ralph is the best manager we’ve had for ages. No reason to turn on him now
     
    #545
  6. thereisonlyoneno7

    thereisonlyoneno7 Well-Known Member

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    If Ralph goes. I go. I’m done.
     
    #546
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  7. Saints_Alive

    Saints_Alive Well-Known Member

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    2015/16 under Ron when fans were questioning him.

    https://www.11v11.com/teams/southampton/tab/matches/season/2016/

    Nov 21st to 9th Jan we lost 6 league games punctuated by a draw and a single win against Arsenal, got knocked out of both cups suffering a humiliation against Liverpool.
    Results can change quickly and I think the true Saints are the team that played for much of 2020 rather than our current run although it does need to turn around quite soon.

    The losing league run has been interspersed with 3 cup wins.
     
    #547
  8. LincolnSaint

    LincolnSaint Well-Known Member

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    Difference is (and I promise I'm not being contrary for ****s and giggles) Klopp has won them a title. Ralph hasn't achieved anything bar keeping us up.

    He has however set some appalling records whilst manager. The 2 9-0s and the worst league run we've ever had. If anyone other than Ralph had set these sort of records the fan base would be fuming. What really helps Ralph is his personality. He comes across as a genuinely nice guy and he's clearly very very passionate about the club.

    Its clear we're a club in real trouble financially. He is working with one arm tied behind his back financially. We've also had behaviour from the match officials bordering on a ****ing conspiracy. This I can't, and won't blame him for.

    What I DO blame him for is the mentality amongst the players and not being ruthless enough. He is slow to make substitutions and we have a very one dimensional style of play. The points lost from winning positions illustrate this far better than I could. The players have very little grit, we can play some lovely football, but that only happens if the other team allow us. As soon as anything remotely negative happens their heads drop and they give up. Thats on him to fix and I just don't see any progress

    The fans are (rightly in my opinion) starting to get pissed off. If he is a good a manager as those on here claim then he'll win them back.
     
    #548
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  9. San Tejón

    San Tejón Well-Known Member

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    I’m not sure that we have good enough players, especially once you get past the first 11, to get better results playing in a different style.
    Individually some of the team are mid to low Premier League quality who are made to look better by the way we play.
    The only reason we have so many points on the board, IMO, is because we are, first and foremost, a team that fits Ralph’s way of playing.

    Ducks down behind the parapets
     
    #549
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  10. tomw24

    tomw24 Well-Known Member
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    I haven't been defending the ref? I said he's been ****. But I got shot down for saying we shouldn't blame the officials entirely. We were awful 2nd half. It's obviously not helping that we're getting bad decisions that are costing us almost every game at the moment (the cup game and Newcastle game being the exceptions). And it's not a coincidence that Lee Mason, Mike Dean and Graham Scott have been involved heavily in those games. We have been getting the bad refs appointed to games lately. Mason and Scott are just not at the required standard and never have been. Dean at least has been in the past but he's a prima donna ref. When was the last time we had Michael Oliver or Anthony Taylor appointed to one of our games? We really should be putting pressure on the PGMOL to appoint referees fairly. We've had Scott so many times and he's just crap. The problem is these days it's really tricky to balance refereeing with work. If you're a young referee working up the leagues you can't commit enough time to really climb the ladder and then you're too old to get to the top. They need to speed up the process of getting young talented referees to a level where they earn enough money to cut back on working on their 9-5 job. Michael Oliver reached the PL at 25 so it can be done.
     
    #550

  11. Velcro Roy

    Velcro Roy Well-Known Member

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    So if I've read it correctly,we have a weak manager a weak team and a handful of very weak "supporters".
    I think you're wrong mate.
     
    #551
  12. Le Tissier's Laces

    Le Tissier's Laces Well-Known Member

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    Yeah I don't disagree. But it's not just the financial stuff that's killing him, there are other mitigating circumstances - namely the insanely bad luck we're having and our injuries (up until today). Yes, agreed, the mentality needs addressing, but the mentality is getting killed by the decisions on field as well.

    Sure, Klopp won them a title, but Ralph making us a steady mid-table team from where he took us over from is pretty much an equal achievement to be honest. Their run is equivalent to ours right now, and the people calling for Klopp's head, to me, are as idiotic as the people calling for Ralph's.
     
    #552
  13. st_brendy

    st_brendy Well-Known Member
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    What subs exactly do you want him to be making quicker? I don't remember Messi warming the touchline... An extra 10 minutes of Djenepo coming on to do absolutely nothing?...

    The points lost is nothing new. We were leading the stats in that under Poch, Koeman and Hughes too. We were too poor under Pellegrino to have any points to drop in the first place. Absolutely, it's an issue which Ralph has failed to fix. But it's existence isn't because of him.
     
    #553
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  14. Brinkworth Saint

    Brinkworth Saint Well-Known Member

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    I wonder if that emotion will let fly in the dressing room? Bad decisions do have an impact, but with 6 straight PL defeats, someone needs to get some backbone back into this outfit. I'm struggling to think how this can be done, but we can't go on like this, being blown over by officials decisions or whatever. There is something in the set up which isn't working, resilience comes to mind, and Ralph (our manager and instigator of our best performances for years!), has to get into his players mindset a whole lot more than at present. Yes, we've had injuries, crap decisions, etc etc, but as a unit they have to really take a good look at themselves over 90+ min and face the fact that in the PL games, we're not cutting it. We've been here before, and I can recall that by now, with previous management, there would be calls for a change in that area. That isn't what we need or even want to think about, it's a change in players attitudes, resilience and tactics when we get thrown a curved ball.
     
    #554
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  15. LincolnSaint

    LincolnSaint Well-Known Member

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    When freak results stop being freak and start to become a pattern, something needs to change. Without 11 new players there's only one thing that can change. Should it? Probably not yet, but I think hes on thin ice
     
    #555
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  16. Le Tissier's Laces

    Le Tissier's Laces Well-Known Member

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    People (not on here) keep using the records and stats as some kind of proof. I've got some tit arguing that Ralph should go, because Puel was better as he had better league finishes. Right, so Sven is a better manager than Klopp because he has more trophies in that case.

    Binary thinking really does my nut in.
     
    #556
  17. Archers Road

    Archers Road Urban Spaceman

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    <laugh> That's ****ing told 'em
     
    #557
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  18. tomw24

    tomw24 Well-Known Member
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    You could drive a bus 100 times safely over the ice Ralph is on and it wouldn't come close to cracking.
     
    #558
  19. Mikey

    Mikey Well-Known Member

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    The problem is and always has been the quality of refereeing, and the backed-into-a-corner attitude of PGMOL. Who at this point consider their only duty to protect themselves and their referees. Their product - and thusly football - does not come into the picture.

    In this day and age more than half the players in the 5th Division are full-time professionals. But go down as far as League One and the referees are not. Only PL and Championship referees are salaried, and the drop off afterwards is precipitous. With the amount of money in the modern game it is madness that more money is not being put in to the bottom of the pyramid. More referees who dedicate more time to their craft can only do good things for the game. Consistently when we end up with hapless performances from the likes of Graham Scott we plead to the void that there has to be better refs out there than the same clowns week in week out. And the answer right now is sadly, probably not. But there should be.

    *Disclaimer this is a general statement and not a moan or excuse about our particular misfortune. We have not helped ourselves either.
     
    #559
  20. Saints_Alive

    Saints_Alive Well-Known Member

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    Careful what you wish for, I don't want a return to the dull days of Pellegrino because of a temporary blip. I can't think of a better Manager out there for us at this time.

    The losing run has happened to be all in the PL with good wins in the cup inbetween and it's not that long ago that we beat Liverpool, it just needs a bit less kneejerk and more patience, Ralph has already proved himself here and two freak results and an unlucky run don't change that IMO.
     
    #560

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