Match Day Thread Southampton v Aston Villa, Fri 5th Nov, 8pm

I can't see the disadvantage to have one up as it gives a decent opportunity of a break for what seems little risk (Early on Villa had 2 up)

You don't want these to be good defenders, good in the air etc but you want them to have strength to hold up the ball, good decision making, speed - so Adam A seems ideal

If it was Broja, they might feel the need to keep 3 back just for him

 

Back in the day, we always left Mick Channon up.
It was a win - win scenario because we had someone with pace to clear long balls to, and Channon would stand near the touch line and get racing results from the crowd.

 

Two wrongs don't make a right, but we possibly got away with that Romeu shirt tweak, looks like Mings' honesty saved him ("I felt it, but he let go quick and I didn't go down" was his response on Sky). VAR missed it apparently. Not long ago with our luck (and Dean?) it would have been given.

 

Who says good sportsmanship is dead? Here's a photo of Romeu shaking hands with Buendia after the game;

 

Just been looking at the PL table. After 11 games, Saints have lost fewer games than any of the teams below us, which is reasonable. However, only 6 of the teams above us have lost fewer games. We are only 3 points behind 5th place, and 6 points above 18th.

 

There’s a job going at Norwich, although he might want to leave it until after the Saints have played them.

 

It would be quite something for us to get the same manager sacked from two different clubs in consecutive matches!

 

Telegraph reporting that Villa are considering an approach for Ralph.

 

followed by the headline ward prowse to follow Ralph to villa

 

"Thank God We Don't Have A Knee-Jerk Board", someone posted this on SW as a response to the Dean Smith sacking, I replied...



Exactly this, I stated a couple of weeks ago that things can change quickly at this stage of the season (we were then 6 points from the top ten and 4 from the bottom 3 and now we are just 3 points from the top 5) and more should be taken from performances rather than league position.

The team are now showing the form of this time last season and hopefully this time we have the strength in depth to not be as adversely affected by a similar injury crisis after Xmas. We have also had a full pre-season and covid restriction are not affecting player's recovery time and the fixtures are more spread out this season too so fatigue and having to rely on inexperienced kids from the bench should not be a factor also.

It is now Ralph's squad and he should be judged by results this season but it was only fair to give him a chance to play all of the teams at least once before any action was taken.

 

Are Villa the new Scousers?...

 

Waste of time.

 

He won't turn down such a big prestigious club, especially one challenging for the champions league.

 

I wonder what Mr. D Ings is thinking of his move now?

 

Not disagreeing with you at all (and I know exactly what you mean) but I was impressed with Ralph's answer to this specific question at the press conference Thursday. He was asked by Adam Blackmore - 'Have you now got the sort of squad you wanted?' After a brief pause to get the right words, he said 'It's not my sort of squad, it's the sort of squad that fits Southampton Football Club and this is what I've been working toward'.

It's why so many of us like Ralph and want to stick with him. He genuinely bought into the Southampton Way and I don't think we've ever had a manager so committed to that vision before.

 

He's probably wiping away his tears with £50 notes...

 

I am prepared to admit that Saints have exceeded my expectations so far this season. We look reasonably compact in defence and hopefully better luck will improve our attack.

 

Feel like that’s a ridiculously harsh sacking.

After all he’s done for them, they’ve got a lot of players to bed in after losing their talisman. He’s bringing through youth and is a villa fan.

They were really poor first half, but come out fighting second half. Very sad to see him sacked to be honest. But thanks for the three points

 

ftfy