Two matches in....

[lake district canary 4,545]

....and we look well up for the challenge this season. Desire and spirit showed in both games - and we look potent and a threat from all parts of the pitch. New players Stacey/Duffy/Barnes/Fassnacht a big influence on the games and players already here looking at their best. Stirrings of optimism returning for me - enjoyed these two games more than anything since Farke left.....and a shout out for the recruitment team getting the right kind of players in.

[crispeduk 282]

Not expecting a goalfest every week, watching on the radio I suspect the dugout decided to fight fire with fire against a side which started very well on the opening weekend. On other days the approach will surely be more attritional but it feels like the strength of mind in the group to get the job done whatever the demands is back, although supporters who made the trip (well done all), will always be better placed to judge these things.

[cambridgeshire canary 6,793]

Knowing our luck we will go from the 4-4 to draw 0-0 against millwall

[crispeduk 282]

Btw Lakey, not disagreeing with your take, just intending to add to it. OTBC

[Samwam27 532]

Two games in, two games we've gone behind, and come back to score and take the lead.

Last year we'd have folded and given up in both. Shows much better fight and spirit

[cambridgeshire canary 6,793]

2 minutes ago, Samwam27 said:

Two games in, two games we've gone behind, and come back to score and take the lead.

Last year we'd have folded and given up in both. Shows much better fight and spirit

Does show that regardless of who we bring in defence we still are weak at the back mind. Some things never changed.

Think we are cursed. Could have Bobby Moore and Maldini in defence and we would still find new silly ways to let goals go in against us

[BroadstairsR 2,202]

"We are a good side, and will be about the top six this season." Saints forum.

Squad depth is vital, and I feel we are reasonable in that area, but far from perfect.

Stricter reffing = more yellow cards = more suspensions. 

100 minute games = more fatigue, more subs allowed. = more injuries though.

Long season takes its toll. Injuries will pile up.

The game seems to have changed overnight strength in depth will count for more. 

This is the reason that Webber needs to spend the new dosh from Max wisely. This is the reason I have always professed the need for that extra decent striker. This is the reason we need some defensive midfield muscle and perhaps central defensive re-enforcement. 

Edited August 13, 2023 by BroadstairsR

[Danke bitte 967]

4 minutes ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

Does show that regardless of who we bring in defence we still are weak at the back mind. Some things never changed.

Think we are cursed. Could have Bobby Moore and Maldini in defence and we would still find new silly ways to let goals go in against us

I can’t help but feel you’re right. There’s shades of the 18/19 Farke season yesterday where if the opponent scored against us we’d just score one more than them. But we can’t expect play offs being leaky. Top 2 whilst letting 4 in (pens, ref decisions aside) is not possible 

[Ken Hairy 3,781]

It's clear to see we have much more fight and spirit than last season, so I'll take that for now but still a lot of work to be made on ball retention and cutting out silly mistakes. 

[Capt. Pants 4,276]

Squad depth will be important for all teams and this is where we need to be better than our rivals. I believe we need 2 possibly 3 more additions. 

Aaron's and Rashica money should allow that, even if loanees?

Absolutely have to hang on to Omo and Sara.

 

[Robert N. LiM 4,479]

Well, it's certainly been exciting: yesterday's game was nuts. And great to see us going to places like Southampton and taking these teams on. Trying to work out whether we're being too gung-ho - is playing two up front and two out-and-out wingers just asking for trouble? Would quite like to find a way to get Gibbs into this team to help out Kenny and Sara. Hopefully Fassnacht will eventually replace Onel and give us a bit more nous.

But in a way, these are all trifling concerns. It looks as though it's going to be fun again.

[ZLF 274]

Dangerous going forward and sainz should improve that further and with enough depth in the squad. Resolve looks good.

Same defensive frailties as last year.   Once high press negated the cdm cb situation looks quite slow, porous and remains error prone.  Cant keep allowing so many good chances against us, eg gunns save at hull due to soft centre.  Both areas in need of improvement.

 

[Number9 272]

Letting in four goals doesn't appear to be progress for tactics which are supposed to make us tighter at the back.

 

[hogesar 9,736]

2 minutes ago, Number9 said:

Letting in four goals doesn't appear to be progress for tactics which are supposed to make us tighter at the back.

 

When two of them are penalties and one of them is a foul on our right back I don't think it's worth reading into.

[Bigbrenn 61]

I think that Duffy, Stacey and others are new to the club and this style of play. Also, the games are now longer so a lot to assimilate. 

It will be interesting to see where we are after 10 games.

One thing that will not change and that is the standard of refereeing.

[Number9 272]

3 minutes ago, hogesar said:

When two of them are penalties and one of them is a foul on our right back I don't think it's worth reading into.

It's ok conceding penalties and goals where we feel our players have been fouled but the ref doesn't pick it up?

The league table doesn't deal in excuses, just the facts.

We shipped four goals.

[hogesar 9,736]

1 minute ago, Number9 said:

It's ok conceding penalties and goals where we feel our players have been fouled but the ref doesn't pick it up?

The league table doesn't deal in excuses, just the facts.

We shipped four goals.

It is when both sets of fans tend to agree because you know it won't be the case in every game moving forwards. When discussing conceding 4 goals it's pretty relevant to include that two were penalties that are very regularly not given and one in play goal involved a direct foul. Sorry if you don't like that.

[Mason 47 1,396]

4 minutes ago, hogesar said:

When two of them are penalties and one of them is a foul on our right back I don't think it's worth reading into.

I thought this when I saw someone talking about Soton having had the better xG. Penalties are likely to do that.

Aside from that, I'm quite happily positive. Hulls goal was an individual error and Southampton, who should really be top 3 this year, got 2 of their goals (and one more for us chalked off) through wonky circumstances. I believe we will iron out those mistakes.

On reflection, 4 points from the first two is also pretty fair. 

[pete 320]

The positivity on here is baffling.  We needed to score 4 to make up for the paucity of this defence.  Duffy handball, Gunn failing to hold onto a shot, Gibson gifting Adams and Giannoulus barging over their FB.  And the CB's combining to allow Delap to score too easily.  And 2 weeks into the season and 4 major defensive errors, with in all probability more to come.  Yes going forward looking much better.  But we have a £20m CB warming the bench who needs to be playing because of today he hasn't proved to be as inept as Gibson.  He may be on his way and if he departs the defence will not improve.

Wagner like Farke before him and Smith do not do defence, bring back Dave Stringer, forlorn hope.  

[canarybubbles 1,941]

Very early days, but I've been very pleasantly surprised by what I've seen so far. I was expecting a dreary season of attritional football with midtable at best. I certainly didn't dream of six goals in two games and more entertainment in those two games than the whole of last season. Plus, as everyone is saying, the spirit in the team feels so much better. Let's just hope it's not a false dawn.

EDIT: My biggest worry is how dependent we seem on Sara to glue this team together going forward. We've definitely been much better in attack since he came back from his operation.

Edited August 13, 2023 by canarybubbles

[Trevor Hockey's Beard 528]

12 minutes ago, canarybubbles said:

Very early days, but I've been very pleasantly surprised by what I've seen so far. I was expecting a dreary season of attritional football with midtable at best. I certainly didn't dream of six goals in two games and more entertainment in those two games than the whole of last season. Plus, as everyone is saying, the spirit in the team feels so much better. Let's just hope it's not a false dawn.

EDIT: My biggest worry is how dependent we seem on Sara to glue this team together going forward. We've definitely been much better in attack since he came back from his operation.

Surely it was the same with Buendia, and we talked about enjoying him while he was with us, rather than worrying too much about how dependent we were on him... or maybe time has eroded my memory.

[Danke bitte 967]

3 hours ago, pete said:

The positivity on here is baffling.  We needed to score 4 to make up for the paucity of this defence.  Duffy handball, Gunn failing to hold onto a shot, Gibson gifting Adams and Giannoulus barging over their FB.  And the CB's combining to allow Delap to score too easily.  And 2 weeks into the season and 4 major defensive errors, with in all probability more to come.  Yes going forward looking much better.  But we have a £20m CB warming the bench who needs to be playing because of today he hasn't proved to be as inept as Gibson.  He may be on his way and if he departs the defence will not improve.

Wagner like Farke before him and Smith do not do defence, bring back Dave Stringer, forlorn hope.  

You could argue the best form of defence is attack... when we tried the more balanced approach in the Prem under Farke he got the sack and thusly Smith failed to implement a more pragmatic system.

So the more I think about it, the more I feel we were unlucky yesterday. As others have said 10 games in and we’re still porous then yeah I’d probably raise my concerns. Not after 2

[Nuff Said 5,176]

3 hours ago, pete said:

The positivity on here is baffling. 

But negativity from you isn’t. Cheer up pete!

[yellowrider120 783]

4 hours ago, hogesar said:

When two of them are penalties and one of them is a foul on our right back I don't think it's worth reading into.

OK but what about the KeyStone Cops goal we conceded last week or doesn't that count?? 

[Danke bitte 967]

7 minutes ago, Nuff Said said:

But negativity from you isn’t. Cheer up pete!

Pfft no chance of that! 

[Nuff Said 5,176]

1 hour ago, Danke bitte said:

Pfft no chance of that! 

It’s like having our very our Marvin the Paranoid Android. “Here we are, squad supposed to be capable of being competitive in the Premier League, and we let in four goals”.

[Essjayess 307]

Agree with Lakey about the enjoyment aspect..enjoying the entertainment of games, seeing your side with desire and spirit as Lakey also mentioned...going forward, scoring goals...this above all is for me the over riding factor and after least season  a breath of fresh air.

Crazy and fun game, thought  a draw was the fair result, so much for both sets of fans to enjoy.  Not  really bothered to much with all the assesments about our defence right now, its only been 2 games, but if it means in the long term of this season that we will win more games than last season by having the ability to score  more than our opponents in many  games, plus  keeping  the fun and entertainment value, i will take that with open hand.

Way to early to assess who will be top 6 material, but think City have enough  to be top half at the very least..but a good  and fun start from the  boys. OTBC.

[Petriix 2,853]

Two games in is far too early to make much of a judgement but it does give us an insight into what we're trying to do and which players are likely to feature. With that in mind, here are some observations:

Two up front is brave and perhaps a little naive but it comes with pros as well as cons. Barnes and Sargent are working well together but you really need four or five strikers in the squad if you're going to play two for the whole season. 

The press is looking very effective, vulnerable too but it's a huge improvement. We are creating high quality chances from winning the ball in the opposition half. Hernandez continues to infuriate by getting into some great positions then making poor decisions. Rowe, on the other hand, is showing some genuine class that few of us expected.

There won't be many tougher games than Southampton away so scoring 4 is pretty incredible. We're far more vulnerable at the back than we should be, but that's largely a function of the midfield system we're choosing to play. We've already seen that we can score goals so maybe we will be able to outscore most Championship teams.

I'm not sure we've got much depth in the squad so I'm not hopeful that we could sustain even the typical level of injuries a season brings and I'm particularly worried about the midfield two. In many ways I think we'd be better balanced with a vertical midfield trio of a dedicated 6 with Kenny at 8 and Sara at 10 (at the expense of a striker). 

I expected us to line up far more defensive. I'm pleasantly surprised with the attacking intent but also concerned about the midfield's resilience when out of possession: the third Southampton goal was a bad one to concede when you look at how many bodies we had back.

The main area for improvement is in the officiating. Oh the joys of Championship refereeing! 

Edited August 13, 2023 by Petriix

[Robert N. LiM 4,479]

8 minutes ago, Petriix said:

Two games in is far too early to make much of a judgement but it does give us an insight into what we're trying to do and which players are likely to feature. With that in mind, here are some observations

Good post. Agree with almost all of that. 

Good luck finding the dedicated 6!

[vos 155]

Early days but what is clearly missing is a defensive midfielder. An Oliver Skipp style player would be perfect i.e. athletic, powerful, covers a lot of ground and supports the last line of defence as required. Sara has great potential as an attacking midfielder but needs support as outlined above. Yesterday time and again the Saints strolled up to our penalty area and we were bombarded with crosses and corners in to our 6 yard box which to be fair our under pressure defence generally dealt with very well. On the other side of the coin our occasional breakaway attacks always looked dangerous against a far from convincing defence.