nathan jone's flock of rather nervous hampshire sheep v eddie howe's brokendollless swashbuckling semi-finalists.

[Alex 34719]

I wasn’t glued to every single second of the match cheering on Southampton but if I had been…..

[Dougle 3287]

1 hour ago, trophyshy said:

He was phenomenal in the run up to the WC (despite illness issues). He was desperate to be a part of it. Is that what’s going on?  

 

Maybe but,  a 30 odd year old stroller is keeping a lean, keen, intelligent footballer, ten years younger than him on the bench.  

And add into that the petulant attitude when he was (eventually) subbed.

Wilson is a great player with a great record, but at the moment he is doing fuck all.

[strawb 4169]

Comfortable win, should have been 2. Goalinton, coming up trumps.

 

Best get on the internet and second guess Eddie Howe 

[toonotl 2916]

In the past week, we've had these lot trying to make fun of us for not being able to win the league and only winning 1-0. They've reached peak desperation, and we haven't even accomplished anything yet.

[Tom 14011]

I watched it in a bar in CLS & it was probably about 80% NUFC fans, the 20% “others” went absolutely mental for Midget Judas’ goal that was chalked off.

 

We should have won 3 or 4 nil but out finishing let us down again & our desire to get the result ended up letting them in behind a couple of times. 
 

Ultimately had Joe’s goal stood it would have been a different game but the officiating was absolutely abysmal. The referee stopped nothing short of being an antagonist towards the players & the game got out of control. 
 

Is shirt pulling not a foul any more btw? I bet it is next week…..

[OTF 7214]

40 minutes ago, Renton said:

Keith didn't watch the game. Again

 

What a tosser. Anyway, you'll need a log in to read the insanity already because the admin are embarrassed again. Every time on there their match threads get more unhinged.

 

 

 

"Didn't watch the game but it was a clear handball by Joelinton, Pope should have been sent off and Southhampton were robbed"

 

Yeah, we're clearly in denial.

 

It's mental that we're disappointed with a 0-1 win away from home in the first leg of a cup semi-final, but that's where we are.

[Renton 21042]

Oh Keith....

 

 

[Tom 14011]

Damn lies and statistics!  

 

 

Meanwhile in the 2nd division….THE BEST TEAM IN ENGLISH FOOTBALL  

[Howay 12496]

5 hours ago, ewerk said:

Scoring goals is the hardest thing to do in football. Look at our midfield and attack tonight and Bruno is the only player added since the takeover and he’s playing fairly deep.

 

Eddie Howe has completely remodelled the defence and turned it into the best in the Premier League.

 

He has done wonders with our midfield and the best he can with our attack where we’re dominating and creating chances but they aren’t good enough or we aren’t finishing them.

 

He has reached the limit of what he can do at this level. When you see Willlock, Longstaff and Joelinton all blazing chances over and compare it with the professionalism of the rest of the team then you realise that some turds can’t be turned into diamonds.

 

They're getting into the right positions but they aren’t instinctive finishers.

 

So the personnel has to change. We need more goals regularly from the forwards and midfielders and we’re going to have to spend money to do so.

 

You can train most players to graft and to run and to get into the right positions but if they don’t have natural finishing then they don’t have it.

 

Willock and Longstaff need to be off the team sheet next year and we need competition for Almiron and someone for LW to allow Joelinton back into midfield.

 

There are huge changes needed to get our squad into shape and Howe has worked miracles to get us where we are but to even maintain this position will need big investment in the summer.

Brilliant post. Some of the misses tonight were appalling in a performance I am buzzing about, I thought we went away to a resurgent side and were comfortably the better side but some of the chances missed were staggering - mostly by Joe, Willock, and Longstaff. All extremely hard working and put in good performances but as you point out that type of finishing is now a regular issue and Howe simply needs investment to raise the quality of finish, to be fair to Joelinton he had two goals (absolutely fucking nowt wrong with the one ruled off) but there was also a number of brutal misses. 
 

Longstaff is the most interesting one for me as I think it’s really exciting to see how many really good shooting chances he gets, while he has been missing a lot the exciting bit is whenever we do get a higher quality striker of the ball in that role they’re going to score some amount of goals. 
 

Isak looks magic btw, he cut them to bits as if they were nowt. Pope is simply a brick wall, genuinely staggered at how good a keeper he is. 
 

The comments from the mackems are hilarious btw, fucking no idea how they can all watch that and say we parked the bus and got lucky  

[Toonpack 9107]

7 hours ago, Renton said:

 

Hmm, something like:

• Southampton were shit.
• We were boring and parked the bus.
• Joelinton's goal rightfully chalked off.
• Pope should have been sent off.
• Joelinton's goal was jammy.
• Armstongs goal should have stood.
• We're a lucky shithouse team.
• Eddie Howe has a face you wouldn't get tired of punching.
• Hope Guimares does his cruciate.
• Sunderland would have beaten Southampton by at least 3.
• Our songs are shit and we don't sing anyway.

 

What else? Oh yeah, we fuck and kill children (not necessarily in that order)

 

FYP

[Kevin Carr's Gloves 3788]

We gave the ball away far too many times under no real pressure. If we had cut that out Southampton would have been lucky to get 10% possession 

[The Fish 10663]

16 hours ago, Alex said:

A low block isn’t anything new though. It’s just a trendy hipster term for a team that sits deep to soak up the pressure 

 

That seems needlessly wordy, when "Low Block" describes it well and more succinctly. 

 

And when I say something is too wordy, you can take that to the fucking bank.

[Dr Gloom 21759]

1 hour ago, Kevin Carr's Gloves said:

We gave the ball away far too many times under no real pressure. If we had cut that out Southampton would have been lucky to get 10% possession 

Yes. We were unusually sloppy on the ball last night and still dominated possession and had all the best chances 

[The Fish 10663]

5 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:

Yes. We were unusually sloppy on the ball last night and still dominated possession and had all the best chances 

 

Everyone just looked a little jaded. They need a break, a little competition for their place. Honestly think we need another midfielder or two just to give Bruno a break.

[Alex 34719]

25 minutes ago, The Fish said:

 

That seems needlessly wordy, when "Low Block" describes it well and more succinctly. 

 

And when I say something is too wordy, you can take that to the fucking bank.

Tbf ‘needlessly wordy’ is going on your headstone 

[The Fish 10663]

1 minute ago, Alex said:

Tbf ‘needlessly wordy’ is going on your headstone 

 

Nah, mine's going to be QLED screen scrolling through my final words. 

 

When the sun dies, it will be the only thing on Earth still going. 

Edited January 25, 2023 by The Fish

[Meenzer 15347]

"Needlessly sesquipedalian to the point of obscurantis- ohbollocksranoutofspace"

 

[Toonpack 9107]

31 minutes ago, The Fish said:

 

That seems needlessly wordy, when "Low Block" describes it well and more succinctly. 

 

And when I say something is too wordy, you can take that to the fucking bank.

 

Drivel.

 

When has any area of the game been described as "Low"? Never is the answer, there's "high" up the pitch and "deep" which were perfectly adequate descriptors. Someone thought "ooh need to invent something to re-brand "deep" so that the hipsters will think it's "new" and trendy baby !!!!

 

We'll be having tertiary block and altitude block next.

[The Fish 10663]

4 minutes ago, Toonpack said:

 

Drivel.

 

When has any area of the game been described as "Low"? Never is the answer, there's "high" up the pitch and "deep" which were perfectly adequate descriptors. Someone thought "ooh need to invent something to re-brand "deep" so that the hipsters will think it's "new" and trendy baby !!!!

 

We'll be having tertiary block and altitude block next.

 

Hey, Toonpack, what's the opposite of "high"? 

 

gtfooh

[wykikitoon 19804]

 

 

 

[Alex 34719]

Deep is the opposite of high in terms of long established football terminology regrading the area of the pitch relative to your opponent’s goal. That’s his point. 

[thebrokendoll 9033]

3 minutes ago, Toonpack said:

 

Drivel.

 

When has any area of the game been described as "Low"? Never is the answer, there's "high" up the pitch and "deep" which were perfectly adequate descriptors. Someone thought "ooh need to invent something to re-brand "deep" so that the hipsters will think it's "new" and trendy baby !!!!

 

We'll be having tertiary block and altitude block next.

 

i still happily live in an era where we looked like we could score every time we attacked or fucking hell we defended well today.

no graphs, no heat charts, no algebra.

i'm content here.

[Alex 34719]

Just now, thebrokendoll said:

 

i still happily live in an era where we looked like we could score every time we attacked or fucking hell we defended well today.

no graphs, no heat charts, no algebra.

i'm content here.

Deep heat > low heat 

[thebrokendoll 9033]

2 minutes ago, Alex said:

Deep heat > low heat 

 

sounds like an advert for ralgex.

Edited January 25, 2023 by thebrokendoll

[The Fish 10663]

1 minute ago, Alex said:

Deep is the opposite of high in terms of long established football terminology regrading the area of the pitch relative to your opponent’s goal. That’s his point. 

 

And the point I'm making is, Low Block is a perfectly good way to describe an entrenched defensive shape low down the pitch. I can kind of understand why grumpy old men resist Mezzala and Trequartista, but Low Block? Howay man, that's just being obstinate.