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The 2022-2023 Football Thread

Brighton's dropped a couple of real clangers after their matches started piling up, today included.

If Forest can get 3 points today it's really going to get interesting at the bottom of the table, and that would cancel out Everton's progress today.
 
Silencio said:
Brighton's dropped a couple of real clangers after their matches started piling up, today included.

If Forest can get 3 points today it's really going to get interesting at the bottom of the table, and that would cancel out Everton's progress today.
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Yup. Big result for both Liverpool and Everton especially when Everton play Man City next.

Leicester, Leeds and Southampton bottom three if Forest can get a win.
 
Everton have given themselves a life-line, but are by no means safe.

Leicester are now in ever deeper trouble, and Nottingham Forest are currently ahead by two goals to nil against Southampton, who look doomed.

And yes, Leeds are also in a spot of bother.
 
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The fierce - and sometimes extraordinary - form of relegation threatened teams on the pitch at this time of the football season calls to mind Dr Johnson's wonderfully apt observation: “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”
 
Suspense right up to the final whistle.

I feel bad for Saints. They've had a good run in the PL and had a great record of identifying and developing young talent. Someone who knows what they're doing will buy Romeo Lavia from them this summer.
 
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Sal09 said:
I think Saints are done in PL.
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Agreed.
21 goals in three games today. That’s a lot.
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Three from these five for me. And as you say almost impossible for Southampton now. Three wins is a must for them and that’s a very tall order.
 
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Sal09 said:
I think Saints are done in PL.
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Not just done but doomed, unfortunately.
Silencio said:
Suspense right up to the final whistle.

I feel bad for Saints. They've had a good run in the PL and had a great record of identifying and developing young talent. Someone who knows what they're doing will buy Romeo Lavia from them this summer.
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Agreed.
Apple fanboy said:
Agreed.
21 goals in three games today. That’s a lot.
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Three from these five for me. And as you say almost impossible for Southampton now. Three wins is a must for them and that’s a very tall order.
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I will also be sorry to see Saints depart, and I have been impressed by the way they mentored and nurtered young talent, before being obliged to sell these players on, to clubs with deeper pockets.

Mathematically, it is still possible for them secure survival, to salvage their position, but it is vanishingly unlikely.

Given that they have won only six games all season, to ask them to win the next three games - which is the bare minimum they must achieve in order to dare to dream of safety, - strikes me as not just a very tall order, but an order that will be almost impossible to fulfil.
 
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Sal09 said:
I think Saints are done in PL.
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We've been done for a long time.
Lack of signing a striker in summer, 3 managers in a season (unheard of for Saints) and a team bereft of spirit when it counted.
If we keep a few key players, we could do well and stay up in the Championship next year.
Stay the way we are and we're playing League 1 in 2024/5
 
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HandsomeDanNZ said:
We've been done for a long time.
Lack of signing a striker in summer, 3 managers in a season (unheard of for Saints) and a team bereft of spirit when it counted.
If we keep a few key players, we could do well and stay up in the Championship next year.
Stay the way we are and we're playing League 1 in 2024/5
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Perhaps I am of the opinion that clubs are far too fast to fire managers (and yes, I do think this), but, nevertheless, I honestly believe that Saints should have stuck with Ralph Hasenhuttl.

One cannot be wise with hindsight, - and "what if?" is an interesting, sometimes challenging, if ultimately futile, mental exercise - but I doubt that Saints would be rooted to the very bottom of the table had they retained Hasenhuttl's services.

Signing (affordable) strikers - especially identifying strikers who fit into the ambience and ethos and system of a club - are one thing, but - in the absence of identifying and developing such players yourself (something Southampton used to be very good at), or snapping them up on a free transfer, there is always the (intelligent indentifying of an appropriate individual to approach for a) loan option.
 
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Scepticalscribe said:
Perhaps I am of the opinion that clubs are far too fast to fire managers (and yes, I do think this), but, nevertheless, I honestly believe that Saints should have stuck with Ralph Hasenhuttl.

One cannot be wise with hindsight, - and "what if?" is an interesting, sometimes challenging, if ultimately futile, mental exercise - but I doubt that Saints would be rooted to the very bottom of the table had they retained Hasenhuttl's services.
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Yes. Which is one reason I hope Leicester City go down as they got rid of Rodgers. Rodgers is a genuine world class manager so it would be fitting rewards for them. Everybody is generally happy if dirty Leeds go down except their supporters. Getting Big Sam in is an interesting strategy picking up the mantle vacated by Racist Ron.
 
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Scepticalscribe said:
Perhaps I am of the opinion that clubs are far too fast to fire managers (and yes, I do think this), but, nevertheless, I honestly believe that Saints should have stuck with Ralph Hasenhuttl.

One cannot be wise with hindsight, - and "what if?" is an interesting, sometimes challenging, if ultimately futile, mental exercise - but I doubt that Saints would be rooted to the very bottom of the table had they retained Hasenhuttl's services.

Signing (affordable) strikers - especially identifying strikers who fit into the ambience and ethos and system of a club - are one thing, but - in the absence of identifying and developing such players yourself (something Southampton used to be very good at), or snapping them up on a free transfer, there is always the (intelligent indentifying of an appropriate individual to approach for a) loan option.
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I think Ralph was his own worst enemy.
He went from a very positive attacking pressing style, to a more defensive and negative style which won him no fans amongst the Saints faithful. He also lacked the ability to switch it up if things weren't going well.
I agree that we would be better off if we'd stuck with him to the end of the season, but what really killed us was pulling the trigger too late and choosing the wrong guy. Nathan Jones was an utter disaster.
Selles is more like RH, in that he has no plan B. He sticks to his guns no matter what and he's often caught out as a result. Baffling substitutions at times and rigid belief in players who underperform.
 
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But, @HandsomeDanNZ, the problem with wanting your team - or preferring your team, or drilling your team - to play a "positive attacking pressing style" is that you need players who can do that and who are comfortable doing that, and who are capable of doing that. Not all of them are.

Are the players you currently have capable of playing to that style?

A manager has to deal with the players he (or she, as I write in hope for the future) has at their disposal, not the players they would like to be in a position to deploy to advantage on the pitch.

Part of Southampton's tragedy is that they are - and have been, and are seen as - an exceptionally useful nursery for bigger, wealthier, better resourced clubs, and thus, tend to lose their better players on a regular basis to clubs with deeper pockets.
 
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I never thought that I would find myself shouting for - well, okay, not shouting for, but, yes, mutely supporting - Real Madrid (I've read quite a few books on Spanish history, and this week, Simon Kuper's well regarded account of Barcelona awaits my attention) in any clash, anywhere, at any time, but, tonight, I devoutly hope that they defeat Manchester City.
 
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Scepticalscribe said:
I never thought that I would find myself shouting for - well, okay, not shouting for, but, yes, supporting - Real Madrid (I've read quite a few books on Spanish history, and this week, Simon Kuper's well regarded account of Barcelona awaits my attention) in any clash, anywhere, at any time, but, tonight, I devoutly hope that they defeat Manchester City.
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This is one of those occasions when I can only shake my head and walk away from the match. Would it be funny to see Man City get knocked out of Europe again? Absolutely. But Real Madrid are the worst. Terrible club, terrible fans. They only look 'good' to the extent that their form of financial doping is a tiny bit less worse than that of the state clubs. But Real Madrid are one of the reasons finaincial doping took hold of the game in the first place. They are one of the great pioneers of the whole concept.

So yeah. The best outcome for me would be a huge brawl between both teams that sees the match abandoned and all the dressed players and staff from both teams being red-carded and given 10-match FIFA-wide bans.🤣
 
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Lord Blackadder said:
This is one of those occasions when I can only shake my head and walk away from the match. Would it be funny to see Man City get knocked out of Europe again? Absolutely. But Real Madrid are the worst. Terrible club, terrible fans. They only look 'good' to the extent that their form of financial doping is a tiny bit less worse than that of the state clubs. But Real Madrid are one of the reasons finaincial doping took hold of the game in the first place. They are one of the great pioneers of the whole concept.

So yeah. The best outcome for me would be a huge brawl between both teams that sees the match abandoned and all the dressed players and staff from both teams being red-carded and given 10-match FIFA-wide bans.🤣
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Okay.

I must concede that that is a better suggestion - by far - than mine.

Nevertheless, the thought of the existential agony at the Etihad that a defeat would engender does give me a moment of immoderate glee, a sort of savage satisfaction, and yes, it would be very, very, funny.

For now, Real Madrid lead by a goal to nil.
 
Scepticalscribe said:
I never thought that I would find myself shouting for - well, okay, not shouting for, but, yes, supporting - Real Madrid (I've read quite a few books on Spanish history, and this week, Simon Kuper's well regarded account of Barcelona awaits my attention) in any clash, anywhere, at any time, but, tonight, I devoutly hope that they defeat Manchester City.
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I’m in agreement with you. So far so good. But a tight match. Needs a few more goals.
 
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In truth, it is a terrible pity that both teams cannot lose.

However, I would prefer to see some suffering - some existential agony - take place in the Etihad.
 
Even though i'm tired of Madrid dominating the UCL, and can't stand them as a club ethically...i'll never get bored of seeing City humbled.

They didn't care about City's early tiki-taka, and just waited for their chance to strike.

Without Messi's x factor they've figured out Pep's football style.

Still early days though, City can come back.

The ref has been diabolical that you have to wonder if he's on a payroll
 
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