What a truly awful Southampton performance against Nottingham Forest. I’ve been watching Saints since 1974 and it’s as bad as anything I’ve ever seen from us. To be fair, Forest are very very average side who just worked so much harder than us today. I’m normally the one who is very positive, but apart from a nice cameo performance from Tyler Dibling, there was little on view today to suggest that things are going to improve.
Very obvious we need a change at GK immediately. The potential transfer of Bijlow may solve that problem. Personally, I’d have rather seen Ramsdale come into the club because he’s been tried and tested in the PL.
An average Forest side could have scored 3 or 4 today against our defence. KWP and Sugawara did not play well today, but I believe they’re capable of much more. THB had an off day today, Bednarek was passable. Stephens just isn’t PL standard. I love how committed he is to us but he gets into very bad positions due his misreading of the game and every pass is a lazy pass that just about reaches his intended target which puts pressure on the next ball. ABK is probably the best defender we have but has never really been given a chance under RM.
The midfield area was very disappointing today. Flynn Downes had a poor day today. Will Smallbone was OK but he’s not going to unlock a PL defence. Aribo’s habit of trying to protect the ball with his body instead of actually taking control of it lead to the goal today. Again, no end product to unlock a PL defence. Tyler Dibling was outstanding in his 15 minute cameo and it’s too early to make a judgement on Mateus Fernandes. I’d like to see Sam Amo-Ameyaw get more opportunities ahead of Edozie to see if he has what it takes.
Up front we were abject today. As I said in a previous post, AA is not going to be prolific in the PL but he will be a good squad player similar to Smallbone. Brereton-Diaz (£7M) and Archer (£15M) are in the early stages of their Saints career but it’s a lot of money spent on players unproven at this level.
I really admire the style of football that RM is attempting to play with us. Unfortunately, I also think it’s very naïve. Our recent transfer strategy has been to acquire a large number of players cheaply in the hope that they MIGHT turn out to be a special young player that goes on to have a big career OR we hope to acquire a seasoned veteran that MIGHT have one last big year in them.
IMO this strategy is flawed beyond belief. Instead of buying 10/12 unproven or veteran players, we’d be much better off purchasing 4-5 quality players for the same money. To be fair, it’s not entirely clear that this strategy is coming from the manager or the board or both, but ultimately. I fear that this strategy, coupled with our style of play using unproven PL standard players will result in our demise unless one or other changes.
It is easy to criticise, I know, but just a little more belief in what we have produced in the club (Dibling, Amo-Ameyaw etc.) and the addition of 4-5 quality players would fit better to our manager’s style of play. Notable examples of what we could have got this year would be:
RAMSDALE (Loan with obligation to buy for £25M);
DIER Free Transfer
THB £20M;
DOWNES £15M;
CARVALHO £20M;
SMITH-ROWE £27M
FULLKRUG £20
This would leave room also for the acquisition of 1/2 ‘punts’ instead of the 10/12 that we are currently taking. The outlay in this strategy is similar and while the wages would have to be somewhat higher than we currently are paying, the fact that we are paying less players should offset that number. It’s the only way we will attract some of the players mentioned above.
In any case, it will take a braver transfer strategy to keep us in the PL, otherwise we will have to change our style of play or ultimately our Manager if we are going to keep using the budget transfers.
I really hope RM can turn it around like last year, but this is a higher league and we have yet to show that the majority of our players have the ability to step up to this level. Hopefully, this is just teething issues adapting to the new levels expected, but it’s starting to feel like 2 years ago already. Anyway, rant over and things will pick up soon. COYS.
Written by St. Marty August 25 2024 20:55:35
