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Southampton - Southampton - BBC Sport
Is this a symptom of trying to turn a team who has played keep football for two years into a team focussed on getting the ball forward and into the net? Has Russell taken us so far down a path that we are totally fucked
Usually when a new manager comes in they can make a few tweaks, organise the team differently (usually around the players current strengths and not what they once were) and get an improvement in performance
This feels like we have to completely demolish the house and start again
Do not overlook the fact that against Palace and Brentford we havent had a sensible CM set up.
Not saying Downes is the Messiah but him and Les know Sunday League level of CDM tactics as opposed to Aribo or Fernandes who should always be nearer the opposition box than ours.
From his comments I think Ivan just found that Aribo isn’t the answer and Rasmus left him short of CDM’s in the summer
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Genuinely interested to see where they go from here. The players looks like what little confidence they had / what few fucks they had left to give, have departed the building for good. There’s an ownership and management structure that doesn’t know its arse from its elbow and shows no signs of either fucking off or changing, a new manager who must be thinking, “what the fuck have i come into” and a fanbase saying, bollocks to this, i’d rather do something else on a Saturday afternoon.
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Not saying we are there yet sadly, but when we rock bottom… the only way is up.
… providing there us a plan, leadership, finance and vision to drive it forward. Those that often have this are not stupid enough to invest in football… and those that do rarely see eye to eye with fans…
Man U is another example - totally fucked and needs blowing apart and rebuilding
Ratcliffe is getting pelters because he will do everything that is needed including the unpopular stuff
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The few players I would even consider keeping will very likely be off in the summer (Ramsdale, THB, KWP, Fernandes and Dibling). They will all do better somewhere else with PL standard players or at least 1 good leader around them. Lallana can’t last 15 mins in the PL, he certainly won’t cope in a more ‘tactile’ championship so make him a coach if he wants it.
The rest I will quite happily see the back of, literal clear out and start again, as out of what is left I have no faith in, they are either not good enough, don’t work hard enough or thought we would be a good leg up to something better. Burn it all down and start again with a squad of half decent, hard working players with one set of balls between them will be a big step up from this shower, a team we can identify with and call our own, even if that means bimbling around in the championship for a few seasons.
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TBH the Premier League is no longer the Football I know and love.
The Championship is a little better as it still welcomes the tough honest journeyman footballer that used to be the backbone of the English Football League. I know you can’t wind back the clock but the continental imports brought not only flair but professional dishonesty that has ultimately resulted in the need for VAR to curb the excesses.
Unfortunately VAR is bound to fail whilst it shackled with written rules with no space for common sense.
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Exactly
This is why I enjoyed last season and why this season I go to watch / take an interest in Leatherhead FC - You get proper honest agricultural toil in the Isthmian league
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No just leave as is. The rest of the country will be be happy
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We will do well to hang on to Dibbling. I think KWP will go and possibly THB too.
Ramsdale is worth hanging on to and Downes is fine for the Championship.
Off to the glue factory with the rest of them.
He’ll be off at the end of the season anyway.
I would keep AA for the Championship. On fire last season and all that.
Then ditch him after we go.back up
Quality. 