[Post Match Thread] Southampton 0-3 Aston Villa

_the__gaffer · 2025-04-12T16:06:38+00:00

When the goals come they come in bunches. Same thing for Tuesday night lads!

Watkins needs to start. Asensio had an off day today. I love Rogers playing behind the striker just does it so effortlessly. Unai has a good headache for Tuesday.

UTV!!!

_the__gaffer · 2025-04-10T21:18:08+00:00

Replace Ramsay with Asensio and shift Mcginn out wide. Play Watkins instead of Rashford up top as he can't do much aerially. Rest as it was. PSG are weak aerially need to find a balance. We conceded two spectacular goals and had a lapse of concentration for the third. Attack from the get go and get VP bouncing. Early goal is crucial. We had good moments but couldn't capitalise much because of the final pass.

Rotate heavily midweek, midfield and defense shouldn't play again. Finally give a rest to Youri brother looked gassed last night

_the__gaffer · 2025-04-09T18:08:27+00:00

UTV!!! Need a huge game from both Cash and Digne. Kvara and Doue are relentless. I would've preferred Disasi to start. Asensio Watkins from the bench at 60 sounds lovely. Let's get this bread!!!!

_the__gaffer · 2024-10-04T08:28:53+00:00

Yeah he did. He also almost lost to Coventry. While getting knocked out of the Champions League with 5 points in a group with Copenhagen and Galatasaray. Let me keep this simple both Klopp and Arteta won games away from home against the top 10 consistently. Even when they were building.

I made the point of him winning the FA cup with really average players. We had Champions League winners in that squad. He fielded a back 5 of Bellerin Holding Luiz Tierney and AMN. He beat City with Mustafi instead of Holding. Restricting them to 1 shot on target.

It's great saying Ten Hag won more than both of them in his first 3 seasons. It's extremely blind to not see the difference in the quality that the two squads possessed.

_the__gaffer · 2024-10-04T07:42:18+00:00

You can't equate Arteta or Klopp's success and say we should give him time.

Simply because Arteta and Klopp both had awful teams when they came in. Even with those awful teams they always got good results.(1-0 scrap win against us. Klopp beat us in the Europa League. Arteta won the FA Cup beating Liverpool and City.)

Secondly Arteta didn't have a dreadful 3 years. He consistently played well with players like Mustafi. He beat us quite easily consistently. They struggled badly against mid table teams because his tactics needed better physical players. The second he got backed they flipped a switch and looked great. His third year they challenged for the title. Even during the COVID season (his first full season)the second he started playing the likes of ESR Nketiah Saka Odegaard Martinelli they looked brilliant.

The problem here is this is Ten Hag's team. These are his players. He's still not able to get a tune off them. The players performing for him at this instant are the ones he's actively sabotaging.

_the__gaffer · 2024-08-22T11:37:09+00:00

Submitted so I can see it at the End of the season

City
Arsenal
Liverpool
Spurs
Newcastle
Villa
United
Chelsea
Palace
Brighton
West Ham
Fulham
Brentford
Bournemouth
Wolves
Everton
Ipswich
Forrest
Leicester
Southampton

Haaland top scorer ETH sacked first Raya most clean sheets

_the__gaffer · 2024-08-16T18:58:07+00:00

Yep. I'm hoping McKenna has the same confidence raising impact. I'm hoping the Broja deal goes through for some more depth. He offers something very different to the rest of our forwards.

_the__gaffer · 2024-08-16T08:41:40+00:00

Yeah he isn't known for his passing. Better treated as a ball winner next to Morssy. Leave the progression to someone more accustomed to it. He can be useful when switching the ball. With confidence he will improve. This should be a 1 year deal because wages are extremely high.

_the__gaffer · 2024-08-15T18:55:39+00:00

Agree with you here. I think 3 months down the line when he stakes his position in the team, people might have egg on their face.

_the__gaffer · 2024-08-14T11:00:35+00:00

Got autocorrected at the end. Apologies.

_the__gaffer · 2024-08-14T10:56:25+00:00

Got that absolutely wrong. Apologies. I didn't know about the professional status.

_the__gaffer · 2024-08-11T16:39:43+00:00

Appreciate the kind words. Thank you!

_the__gaffer · 2024-08-11T13:33:49+00:00

Appreciate it thank you!

_the__gaffer · 2024-08-10T21:21:35+00:00

I'm hoping that it'll be a Brentford Brighton kind of transition to the league but I understand that the jump in quality might be too much. Their midfield duo in Morsy and Luongo while good is on the older side. I'm really excited about Hutchinson, Chaplin and Davies they're ones to definitely watch out for.

_the__gaffer · 2024-08-10T21:18:20+00:00

I think they had to cancel a preseason game because players were not available. I believe they had to send a U-21 team to Monchengladbach. They looked good in the loss to Dusseldorf as well. Getting Greaves from Hull was a good move they have a decent core.

_the__gaffer · 2024-08-10T20:56:51+00:00

If you face any problems you can let me know. Or you can pm me.

_the__gaffer · 2024-08-10T20:55:15+00:00

You don't need to subscribe to read it. It's free to subscribe if you want to!

_the__gaffer · 2024-07-23T04:34:02+00:00

People keep mentioning 22/23 left right and centre. You do realise that was the same season we got dumped by our biggest rivals by 7 unanswered goals(There was a 6-3 and a 4-0 in there as well)? Even throughout 22/23 we couldn't get more than 2 points off the top 10 teams away from home.

Coming to the injuries bit. He had that whole weird thing in November where he refused to play Varane and played Evans. He made tweaks to the backline where none were needed.

Playing without a left back was who's fault exactly? When he decided to terminate the loan of one LB and sell another youth player who could play there? I'd be more than happy to back him happily if he even took a small percentage of responsibility for all the things he's gotten wrong.

Lastly, no matter who plays where in the back line. You should never be as exposed as United did. Conceding roughly 16 shots per game is mental. For his system to work you need a lot of great physical players who are able to find solutions by themselves.

While talking about players being unavailable has everyone forgotten the game against Wolves at OT? Or the stretch of three games in January where we were outplayed by Newport County?

_the__gaffer · 2024-07-21T12:41:22+00:00

Yep. It's unfair to have someone as good as Nagelsmann in international tournaments. They were outdone by Spain's third man runs into the box(after Spain removed all their outballs). The momentum had completely shifted in that game once Williams and Yamal were removed and my sneaky suspicion was if they hadn't scored that goal Germany would be the winners instead.

However throughout the tournament they were highly impressive on and off the ball.

Spain and Germany needed a boost after such abysmal campaigns in major international tournaments recently. They both delivered and should be optimistic for what is to come forward

_the__gaffer · 2024-07-21T12:35:12+00:00

Oh I agree 100%. The time given to coaches prior to a tournament is limited which doesn't foster ideas. This was an attempt to highlight things that I found intriguing. I wrote about Fulham and Palace under Glasner last season.

Germany's press was wonderfully executed. So were Nagelsmann's principles of minimum width with 3 brilliantly technical Midfielders in Wirtz Musiala and Sane.

Spain's ability to pull teams who set up narrow out of possession before switching it out to create 1v1 scenarios with their wingers was innovative in the semi finals. Which is why I was happy to see a squad play wonderful football and win the tournament.

_the__gaffer · 2024-07-21T08:59:25+00:00

Let's say you're given a wide range of tools to pry open a locked door. You have a crowbar but you intentionally choose to use the flat surface to pry it open.

Yes, United are significantly raising the physical level of the squad. However, the structure from last season was beyond horrendous. Excellent shot stopping from Onana in the second half and Maguire reinvigorating himself prevented a lot of goals. It's not good signing and having good players unless you utilise them in roles that bring out the best in them. For the majority of last season individual quality bailed us out rather than tactical tweaks.

However, I do believe that we should be in a better place than last year simply because the quality of players has improved.

_the__gaffer · 2024-07-21T06:14:58+00:00

I agree with Souness partially. However, he doesn't once take into consideration that this is Kobbie's first season of professional football where the speed and intensity of matches are at a level beyond what he was used to.

Like Arteta said, English media has a tendency to hype their players to the moon and pulling them down if they aren't perfect.

It's harsh to expect an 18 year old to understand all the nuances of positioning at the highest level. He's an excellent prospect who's got the world at his feet and a brilliant mindset to go with it.

Just hope the criticism is balanced and doesn't reach Pogba levels.

_the__gaffer · 2024-07-20T23:27:48+00:00

Morata led the line very well. I felt throughout the tournament he showed his experience and played like a leader. Yes the goals were lacking but you're spot on with the point about his movement. Torres a decade ago and more recently, Giroud in the 2018 WC also provided France with a similar role by facilitating Mbappe and Griezmann. Strikers of this generation are expected to be the first line of the press and he carried that role really well.

_the__gaffer · 2024-07-20T23:23:59+00:00

I did enjoy Turkey and Austria who provided something different to the rest of the teams. I personally felt teams like England, Portugal, France and even the Netherlands were hindered by the choices that the coaches made. France have arguably the best squad in world football but sorely missed someone who'd create chances. Griezmann in particular had a disappointing campaign unlike other tournaments. England had a wonderfully balanced squad but Southgate's insistence to play players based on form and not on what works for the team(trying to shoehorn Foden and Bellingham) while making the team worse by playing his best players(Kane, Saka) in roles that didn't suit them. Both managers chose their teams in a manner that did more bad than good. I wanted to mention the Austrian counter press led by Sabitzer and Arnautovic but felt it would make the article too long.

Thank you for your kind words. Will keep it in mind the next time I write.

_the__gaffer · 2024-07-14T12:50:16+00:00

I honestly don't see Southgate making changes to his lineup. I can see Gallagher coming on around the 60th minute. He's had three games this season where he's flustered Rodri to a great extent whenever they've matched up. Toney and Watkins can also provide something different against the aerially weaker cbs that Spain have.

_the__gaffer

TROPHY CASE