10 Dec 2018 11:28:06
Whilst its always going to be disappointing to lose to a team like Cardiff, we are in a similar position to last season where we cannot simply look at opponents in isolation and say we should or shouldn't beat them. Sport is rarely so predictable.

RH had 24 hours to prepare the team for Cardiff as the team had a rest day on Thursday after the midweek Spurs match. His emphasis in press conferences has been that in the first instance, his focus is on making the team harder to beat. He wants to the team to work together to press the ball and be more proactive but that requires close teamwork and a good understanding to be effective. RH has therefore also underlined that the majority of his work will focus on mental and tactical coaching.

There is no time for fitness coaching now. The games are too thick and fast and if the team are to change their style of play and work cohesively, the focus must be on drilling the players, a la Pep and Sarri et al, where they need to be on the pitch with and without the ball, what their options will be, when to press and when to hold shape. Rehearsing over and over until it becomes instinctual, or automatic as RH says. This will need to be reapplied for each different formation RH wants us to play and with each player.

It is therefore a point of fact that the sharpest players who can adapt and learn quickly and have the highest level of fitness to meet the intensity required will be the ones we see starting. RH has already accepted that the personnel may dictate the formation but until he has worked with the players for several weeks and gauged their abilities and understanding, performances may continue to be inconsistent and the starting 11 likely to chop and change.

The short term goal in terms of the first team then is making us hard to beat. Defensive coaching, teamwork, proactive football, drilling the players. We should expect little more until after Christmas at least. They usually say a head coach requires 6 months to get the team playing their way. Sarri is still working on Chelsea, Pep had a whole season to bring Man City together before their brilliance of last season, Jurgen Klopp too had most of the season in 2015/ 16 finishing 2 places below us in 8th before helping Liverpool kick on. We shouldn't expect a true RH style Saints until next season. This season, its just about working hard to stay up.

As we saw last season, the lower half of the table is tight and it will remain so this time around. So it make little difference where we are come Christmas or the turn of the year. What matters is where we are after 38 games.


1.) 10 Dec 2018
10 Dec 2018 15:30:11
I agree with your words completely . but :-) I am not sure where we go with the problems in defence. Man Marking/ Zonal Marking/ Not losing your man/ positional play can all be coached and coached and coached. BUT the mistakes we are seeing are absolutely the most basic of mistakes that you get coached out of you when you are under 10! like dribbling in your own box, passing across the box, messing around with the ball in dangerous spots . What we have seen Hoedt do regularly and now we can add Vestergaard to that, is to play in a way that is absolutely not to a professional football standard. It is bizarre!

Our new manager is very highly regarded and technically excellent . but all of the good work can be undone in one moment of madness on the pitch, although it's been many moments of madness.

Not tracking your man let's hope is coached out of them. Marking and positional play can be coached . but making defensive mistakes like Saturday and virtually all season .?


2.) 10 Dec 2018
10 Dec 2018 17:50:29
Figo, totally agree that being heard we to beat, tactics are and should be the priority. However the noises I heard are that the players are already having a shock to the system as apparently the warm up is like a month 2 session of insanity and the players feel more tired. Just doing that hasn’t made them more tired and worked out than they have felt in months. Sounds like the fitness aspect has already begun.


3.) 11 Dec 2018
11 Dec 2018 08:48:11
It's disappointing that this has happened, from what you have said Gregg. This really makes the two last appointments to be shocking. I remember Bertrand saying in an interview when MH was first appointed that the efforts in training had gone but for them to go up so much more now just underpins how bad the previous appointments had been.

There's been a lot of problems with our squad. When was the last time we've seen the same team play like 3 games in a row? I think RH needs to decide on the best 11 that will play his style well and stick with those games. Football is a team sport, so all of these fans saying that the we need a new goalscorer a new CB, I believe that the squad will be improved and the style of football and the teamwork this brings into the squad will start to get us results.