| Are things really that bad? 22:31 - Feb 3 with 3386 views | radiogaga |
I know that Southampton was bitterly disappointing, and among many it seems to have now turned the narrative considerably in terms of our chances of staying up and also how good/ bad the recruitment has been. There’s no hiding/ dismissing how poor Saturday was in terms of the result and second half.
We have beaten teams such as Chelsea and Spurs when they have been at their relative strength in terms of available players, and against Villa/ Fulham (twice)/ United/ Leicester we would very much have been good value for wins in those games. We were also agonisingly close to a good away point at Brentford. We have dropped 17 points from winning positions, 5 1 goal losses. Against Bournemouth one moment of madness that sent us spiralling at the end cost us another really good result. We have not been a complete and utter car crash. You have to take the wallopings by Newcastle, City and Liverpool with a pinch of salt as they are in another league entirely, but the point I am making is that we have generally been really competitive for large spells. If Palmer can be an error free no frills GK between now and May, even that will potentially save us some points. Clearly we have been a nearly team at times, but we certainly haven’t given an awful account of ourselves in what has been one of the strongest recent time premier leagues, with us very much finding our feet within this cluster of teams. There is room for improvement obviously, but also a lot of encouraging things.
Staying up will now be a massive ask in the current position and with Wolves seemingly now on the rise. I think we can be sure that the group will give every game their best between now and the end, & we need to back them as best we can. I have no doubt that we will continue to be competitive, even if we do need a lot of things to go our way to get results which is what we are ultimately up against as a ‘new’ club at this level.
Factoring in relegation if it happens, and taking most likely departures (Leif, O Shea, Delap) out of the equation along with the loanees, we would have a great platform to work with, assisted by parachute payments & transfer fees
GK:
Palmer, Muric, Walton, Slicker
DF:
Townsend, Greaves, Woolfy, Burgess, H Clarke, Johnson, Baggott
MF:
Morsy, Luongo, Taylor, Humphreys
(CLEARLY the area that needs most addressing)
Attacking positions:
Chaplin, Broadhead, Omari, J Clarke, Burns, Ogbene, Philogene
Hirst, Szmodics, Al Hamadi
We have undoubtedly improved the calibre of players, albeit clearly I think there needs to be more of an effort to have a settled team and system which I trust McKenna has a good plan for, in terms of how to play Clarke/ Omari/ Philogene in particular. [Post edited 3 Feb 22:33]
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| Are things really that bad? on 22:44 - Feb 3 with 3235 views | BlueBadger |
Put it this way. I can live with losing by 6 to Man City - they're backed by an entire country, their leading goalscorer only needs to see the white sticks and he scores, etc, etc.Don't get me wrong, losing by 6 is horrible, but there it is.
But Southampton? They're so bad they've managed to look WORSE since they sacked Lambert-esque fraud Russell Martin. That's what REALLY hurts.
That said, I think we'll be putting up a fight to the end but am sadly coming to the conclusion that this season was a step too far and a 7th place finish last season would have been our best possible outcome, long term. |  |
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| Are things really that bad? on 22:48 - Feb 3 with 3166 views | positivity |
| Are things really that bad? on 22:44 - Feb 3 by BlueBadger |
Put it this way. I can live with losing by 6 to Man City - they're backed by an entire country, their leading goalscorer only needs to see the white sticks and he scores, etc, etc.Don't get me wrong, losing by 6 is horrible, but there it is.
But Southampton? They're so bad they've managed to look WORSE since they sacked Lambert-esque fraud Russell Martin. That's what REALLY hurts.
That said, I think we'll be putting up a fight to the end but am sadly coming to the conclusion that this season was a step too far and a 7th place finish last season would have been our best possible outcome, long term. |
can't agree with that, if we finish 7th we lose mckenna and davis at the very minimum, no parachute payments and probably finish mid table.
if the worst comes to the worst, we have a decent chance of going up with the parachute payments |  |
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| Are things really that bad? on 22:49 - Feb 3 with 3135 views | FrimleyBlue |
Obv I couldn't share my southampton thoughts but I actually thought we played really well but we just didn't finish them off.
Broady imo should have had 3
Delap plays across for philogene that's another
Julio connects better with his efforts that's maybe 1 or 2
Obviously all ifs etc. But that was better than many other games where we weren't getting shots off or even having half chances.
If that performance can be replicated across the rest of the season it does bode well as it wasn't in anyway a bad performance. Imo. |  |
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| Are things really that bad? on 22:55 - Feb 3 with 3083 views | NeedhamChris |
| Are things really that bad? on 22:49 - Feb 3 by FrimleyBlue |
Obv I couldn't share my southampton thoughts but I actually thought we played really well but we just didn't finish them off.
Broady imo should have had 3
Delap plays across for philogene that's another
Julio connects better with his efforts that's maybe 1 or 2
Obviously all ifs etc. But that was better than many other games where we weren't getting shots off or even having half chances.
If that performance can be replicated across the rest of the season it does bode well as it wasn't in anyway a bad performance. Imo. |
It would help if all the other teams we had to play were as bad as Southampton though, sadly they aren't. | |
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| Are things really that bad? on 22:59 - Feb 3 with 3015 views | Marshalls_Mullet |
| Are things really that bad? on 22:49 - Feb 3 by FrimleyBlue |
Obv I couldn't share my southampton thoughts but I actually thought we played really well but we just didn't finish them off.
Broady imo should have had 3
Delap plays across for philogene that's another
Julio connects better with his efforts that's maybe 1 or 2
Obviously all ifs etc. But that was better than many other games where we weren't getting shots off or even having half chances.
If that performance can be replicated across the rest of the season it does bode well as it wasn't in anyway a bad performance. Imo. |
So many poor defeats have been explained away like thst this season.
But nothing changes. |  |
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| Are things really that bad? on 23:14 - Feb 3 with 2886 views | FrimleyBlue |
| Are things really that bad? on 22:59 - Feb 3 by Marshalls_Mullet |
So many poor defeats have been explained away like thst this season.
But nothing changes. |
That is true.
But when you look at it from kms view on comparing game v game. We got the wrong result which sucked but when you look at sats game compared to our previous ones v them we were definitely better across the game In this one and that's a sign of growth.
Not it may not be enough to keep us up.. but for me it's a sign we've built a squad which is at least on par with them which Is great when we're effectively about 4 seasons behind them as a club and playing catchup.
Hope that makes sense. | |
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| Are things really that bad? on 23:20 - Feb 3 with 2840 views | reusersfreekicks |
| Are things really that bad? on 23:14 - Feb 3 by FrimleyBlue |
That is true.
But when you look at it from kms view on comparing game v game. We got the wrong result which sucked but when you look at sats game compared to our previous ones v them we were definitely better across the game In this one and that's a sign of growth.
Not it may not be enough to keep us up.. but for me it's a sign we've built a squad which is at least on par with them which Is great when we're effectively about 4 seasons behind them as a club and playing catchup.
Hope that makes sense. |
Someone's changed their tune |  | | |
| Are things really that bad? on 23:26 - Feb 3 with 2778 views | Marshalls_Mullet |
| Are things really that bad? on 23:14 - Feb 3 by FrimleyBlue |
That is true.
But when you look at it from kms view on comparing game v game. We got the wrong result which sucked but when you look at sats game compared to our previous ones v them we were definitely better across the game In this one and that's a sign of growth.
Not it may not be enough to keep us up.. but for me it's a sign we've built a squad which is at least on par with them which Is great when we're effectively about 4 seasons behind them as a club and playing catchup.
Hope that makes sense. |
Its a tricky barometer though.
We were playing a team that was on track to challenge for the lowest ever points total, at home. | |
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| Are things really that bad? on 23:27 - Feb 3 with 2776 views | Nutkins_Return |
No.
It's still really unbelievable we are fighting for our place in the Prem. Club is moving forward (even if relegated). I said this the other day. Our squad is significantly better than the one that went up so we just keep moving forward even if that does take a step backwards to push of forward again. | |
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| Are things really that bad? on 23:35 - Feb 3 with 2690 views | TRUE_BLUE123 |
NO !
As you say, come out on the wrong side of a lot of fine margin games which can happen. But we are exactly where we would most likely be this season.
The way some people have been going on, on here recently you would think the world is ending. Really not sure what people thought was going to happen this season. [Post edited 3 Feb 23:37]
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| Are things really that bad? on 07:45 - Feb 4 with 2252 views | Steve_M |
| Are things really that bad? on 22:44 - Feb 3 by BlueBadger |
Put it this way. I can live with losing by 6 to Man City - they're backed by an entire country, their leading goalscorer only needs to see the white sticks and he scores, etc, etc.Don't get me wrong, losing by 6 is horrible, but there it is.
But Southampton? They're so bad they've managed to look WORSE since they sacked Lambert-esque fraud Russell Martin. That's what REALLY hurts.
That said, I think we'll be putting up a fight to the end but am sadly coming to the conclusion that this season was a step too far and a 7th place finish last season would have been our best possible outcome, long term. |
"But Southampton? They're so bad they've managed to look WORSE since they sacked Lambert-esque fraud Russell Martin. That's what REALLY hurts."
Before you bore everyone to tears by repeating this constantly, do bear in mind then that the one crucial difference with Southampton is that they were prepared to pragmatic and ugly in the second half and sh1thouse their way through the game.
We had a dreadful game and should still have beaten them but they are not actually worse than under Martin, |  |
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| Are things really that bad? on 07:54 - Feb 4 with 2209 views | Bluespeed225 |
Did Bournemouth and Fulham face this meltdown among the fan base when they were relegated, fairly recently? All seems to have been forgotten! Watching Boro’ V Sunderland last night, we will have fun in that division again! | | | |
| Are things really that bad? on 08:05 - Feb 4 with 2164 views | RobTheMonk |
Small margins for quite a few games led to losses or draws.
- Put a goalkeeper that's not got the yips in and then there's at least 6 points.
- Leicester could have been 3 points but for a woeful refereeing decision.
- The Fulham game, where we looked good, but got undone by a complete brainfart challenge from Morsy and then a sliding doors moment with Jack Clarke's shot hitting the post.
We're still well in the fight, we've just been knocked down a few times. |  | | |
| Are things really that bad? on 08:13 - Feb 4 with 2103 views | TheBoyBlue |
The Southampton defeat was so much worse precisely because of this. We know we are going to need so much to go out way to get results against most teams this season and you are absolutely right, we have done so well.
Which is why it is so frustrating that we couldn't take advantage of a really beatable team, low on confidence and struggling in front of of a supportive stadium. I think with that backdrop a lot of people - myself included - are now wondering where on earth we're going to get the points we need and that has triggered this reaction, which as you rightly point out is a bit out of proportion in places.
Even if we go down, things aren't that bad. Most of us surely accepted that relegation was likely at the start of the season. | |
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| Are things really that bad? on 08:35 - Feb 4 with 1997 views | ArchiRob |
| Are things really that bad? on 22:44 - Feb 3 by BlueBadger |
Put it this way. I can live with losing by 6 to Man City - they're backed by an entire country, their leading goalscorer only needs to see the white sticks and he scores, etc, etc.Don't get me wrong, losing by 6 is horrible, but there it is.
But Southampton? They're so bad they've managed to look WORSE since they sacked Lambert-esque fraud Russell Martin. That's what REALLY hurts.
That said, I think we'll be putting up a fight to the end but am sadly coming to the conclusion that this season was a step too far and a 7th place finish last season would have been our best possible outcome, long term. |
The differential between Prem and Championship is only going to get bigger each year and hence harder for newly promoted teams i.e. It's gonna get harder and harder each year. With the 3 promoted teams being relegated at the end of the season- How long before the amount of teams promoted gets reduced? |  |
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| Are things really that bad? on 08:38 - Feb 4 with 1969 views | IPSWICHFANITFC |
As long as Wolves don't pull away, then it'll remain a 4 team battle at the bottom.
We've not got the results in games against teams around us. That will most likely be very costly at the end of the season, but there's a long way to go. IF we can put back to back wins together somewhere, the picture changes. But, if Wolves or Leicester put back to back wins together, our chances of staying up will slim down quick. It's tight, but we need to fall on the right side of results and do our own job. |  |
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| Are things really that bad? on 09:04 - Feb 4 with 1823 views | mrshallisfit |
| Are things really that bad? on 22:49 - Feb 3 by FrimleyBlue |
Obv I couldn't share my southampton thoughts but I actually thought we played really well but we just didn't finish them off.
Broady imo should have had 3
Delap plays across for philogene that's another
Julio connects better with his efforts that's maybe 1 or 2
Obviously all ifs etc. But that was better than many other games where we weren't getting shots off or even having half chances.
If that performance can be replicated across the rest of the season it does bode well as it wasn't in anyway a bad performance. Imo. |
We played really well but didn't finish them off - that's what Southampton have been doing all season. That's a really important part of winning games - particularly in the Premiership. If you look at our forward line it is arguably one of the worst in the Premiership. Delap - at times world beating but still raw and and doesn't always do the right thing at the right time. Of course, when he does, he will be International class and playing at the very top. But that is largely it for our forward line. Broadhead, injured and then under used. Sam S very useful and chips in with some good goals. Chaplin slowly got going but now injured. Hutch - flatters to deceive. | | | |
| Are things really that bad? on 09:16 - Feb 4 with 1749 views | mrshallisfit |
| Are things really that bad? on 09:04 - Feb 4 by mrshallisfit |
We played really well but didn't finish them off - that's what Southampton have been doing all season. That's a really important part of winning games - particularly in the Premiership. If you look at our forward line it is arguably one of the worst in the Premiership. Delap - at times world beating but still raw and and doesn't always do the right thing at the right time. Of course, when he does, he will be International class and playing at the very top. But that is largely it for our forward line. Broadhead, injured and then under used. Sam S very useful and chips in with some good goals. Chaplin slowly got going but now injured. Hutch - flatters to deceive. |
Oh.... and I forgot to add - J Clarke....cuts in on his right foot and..........that's it. | | | |
| Are things really that bad? on 09:52 - Feb 4 with 1634 views | SaffronWaldenBlues |
While I appreciate that we were ahead of schedule, the idea that a collective of extremely successful business leaders, a CEO (and now Chair) with decades worth of experience in football, and a manager who worked at arguably the biggest club in the world couldn't adapt that plan to change, given how quickly and successfully they turned the post-Evans Cook appointment disaster (and disaster window) around, is incorrect in my view. They simply got the recruitment aspect wrong in the summer, and that probably wasn't helped by McKenna looking at his options too, which might I add I don't blame him for at all.
Changing the narrative from we were building to finish 17th using the best Championship talent to using this season to be promoted next year anyway is simply self-soothing. If we fail to go up next season, there will be big questions asked, so that has to be addressed now rather than later.
That aside you can recruit well, but if you can't build the belief in those players that they can make it at this level, you are wasting your time anyway, and frankly, we have not. We walked out Saturday looking beat, and played to patterns with little imagination or inspiration. We looked accepting of the defeat at the end. The fight has gone, the heads have gone, and that's why we're going down. Against City and Liverpool, we were overawed by them, it's like we're enjoying the occasion but not believing we should be here—that's why we are down. |  |
| An East Anglian Town overtaken by Londoners |
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| Are things really that bad? on 14:58 - Feb 4 with 1408 views | BlueForYou |
Was speaking with some Saints supporting friends of mine yesterday. They said out of all the games they've had so far, Ipswich put less pressure on them than any of the others. I can see that. Without having access to stats etc, aren't our goals mostly from breakouts or corners? We dont score much from sustained periods of possesion, rather our midfield is allowing the opposition freedom of the park too much & were bogged down in our own third. Obviously having a very shaky Goalkeeper has not helped either. I think we need to be far more aggrressive in our marking all across the pitch & tackle like rabid terriers for the rest of the season. Do that & we have a small chance of surviving. We are far too passive in everything we do. Time has come to get the sleeves rolled up & give it everything. If our team of the day does that & honestly puts in 120% commitment for 90 mins, then we can be nothing but proud of them whatever the result. |  | | |
| Are things really that bad? on 15:37 - Feb 4 with 1329 views | Blueschev |
| Are things really that bad? on 22:59 - Feb 3 by Marshalls_Mullet |
So many poor defeats have been explained away like thst this season.
But nothing changes. |
That's because despite not being far off, we're not quite good enough for this level, which is not surprising considering how far we've in such a short space of time. Should we manage to stay up we will have to have more than our fair share of luck in most games. And if we go back down, we'll have a very strong squad for the championship and be stronger for the experience.
The club is in a great place, but we're not yet where we need to be. |  | | |
| Are things really that bad? on 15:42 - Feb 4 with 1300 views | sjg |
| Are things really that bad? on 22:44 - Feb 3 by BlueBadger |
Put it this way. I can live with losing by 6 to Man City - they're backed by an entire country, their leading goalscorer only needs to see the white sticks and he scores, etc, etc.Don't get me wrong, losing by 6 is horrible, but there it is.
But Southampton? They're so bad they've managed to look WORSE since they sacked Lambert-esque fraud Russell Martin. That's what REALLY hurts.
That said, I think we'll be putting up a fight to the end but am sadly coming to the conclusion that this season was a step too far and a 7th place finish last season would have been our best possible outcome, long term. |
Definitely better off going up regardless of what happens this season.
We can pretty much consider a yo-yo period an inevitability regardless, and you're massively rolling the dice that you will ever get up if you turn it down last season.
I don't think the club has got everything right this season but we are definitely in a better position being 19th in the Prem than being 1st in the Championship at this point, given all the unknowns about the period between now and the end of the season | | | |
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