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Episode 157: Therapy Session Tuesday; Greg seeks hope
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Southampton –Join Greg on a journey as he tries to seek out the hope and optimism in what is more and more proving to be an atrocious season to be a saints fan.
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Transcript
Greg Hosts Solo and Plans a Reflective Session
00:00:09
Global Sports Podcast Network
Hello and welcome back to the Daily Southampton, part of the Global Sports Podcast Network. My name is Greg Elliott and today I am flying solo. Zach and Oscar both unfortunately unavailable, but we'll be back later in the week with some more football action.
Reflecting on a Tough Season as Saints Fan
00:00:26
Global Sports Podcast Network
So i thought today i would try and have just a bit of a bit of a then a bit of a therapy session, a bit of a look forward to what's left of the season, which is which is tough with the position we're in.
00:00:43
Global Sports Podcast Network
And maybe a bit of a reflection on, on why the season's been as painful as it has been as a Saints fan. And, you know, we we talk a lot about what's the point.
00:00:55
Global Sports Podcast Network
We've talked a lot about Juric and whether there's much point keeping him or if there's a point firing him with, as few games to go as we've got left in the season. And it's, it's a tricky one for sure.
00:01:09
Global Sports Podcast Network
Personally, I think, I think just get rid at this point. Uh, I don't see it getting better under him. don't know if it would get better without him, but it's a struggle to, to look forward to go into the games.
Emotional Toll of Attending Games with Kids
00:01:24
Global Sports Podcast Network
As you all know, I go to the games with my, uh, my young kids.
00:01:29
Global Sports Podcast Network
every every home game with season ticket holders. And it's it's hard. It's been really demoralising and demotivating this season. You know, you look at our last nine games and I think it's 31 goals against and six goals scored at home.
00:01:47
Global Sports Podcast Network
And it's is harrowing and it's awful. And, you know, one course to be the worst team in Premier League history with a points tally. And...
Team's Lack of Fight and Urgency
00:01:58
Global Sports Podcast Network
it's, it's hard. I hear a lot of people saying and trying to put the argument forward that we're not playing like the worst team in Premier League history and we're good here and we have promise in spells and, but actually think if I'm trying to reflect on the season as a whole, do I think we deserve to be labeled and and end up on this points tally as the worst team in Premier League history? And I don't know, maybe is is kind of where I'm at. It's not in the ability sense.
00:02:33
Global Sports Podcast Network
We are a team of capable players, I think. But
00:02:38
Global Sports Podcast Network
From a fighting perspective, like the desire and will to get on the ball, be on the ball, drive forward and do something with the ball, That's just seemed to be lacking from the very get-go in the season. I think the amount of times we've criticised the team for slowly passing the ball around the back, not having any sort of seeming sense of urgency, not having any progression, no movement off the ball, very little drive or desire on the ball.
00:03:12
Global Sports Podcast Network
it sir It's upsetting. It's been a really tough season to take, and it's hard to get yourself back into the cycle of optimism we talk about, where you get back and look forward to going to a game.
00:03:27
Global Sports Podcast Network
Because even in the start of the season, when there was still hope and optimism, and obviously we joke that i predicted that Saints would finish 12th this season, I thought things would go a lot better than they have. But...
00:03:41
Global Sports Podcast Network
but it it hasn't clicked. There's been no fight, desire, urgency, and that's really what sets us apart from everybody else, I think. Obviously, there's other things. There's tactical mishaps. There's individual errors. There's formations and play systems that clearly haven't worked and have been stuck to too long. There's questions on recruitment, for sure, and all of the other stuff that goes into it, but the lack of fight and desire is the point that really upsets me and really makes it much harder to swallow. And... Yeah, I don't know. i don't know if we've got what it takes to go on and get the rest of the points to not, you know, be as bad as Derby or worse than Derby.
Preview of Upcoming Matches and Limited Chances
00:04:29
Global Sports Podcast Network
You look at the games we've got coming up, and it's There aren't many opportunities out of the nine games to to really drill home and drive on and get anything out of it is the problem. Time is running incredibly short.
00:04:48
Global Sports Podcast Network
And, you know, don't know if we're going to play a team worse than Wolves were on Saturday. You know, they scored two and one. Sure, they did they did their job.
00:04:59
Global Sports Podcast Network
But they should have been easier to beat. than we... we made it look. We've got Crystal Palace next, who are on a bit of a run of form of their own. They've really sort of hit the ground running and seem to be flying. and Otherwise, you might look at that game and think that was winnable. But again, we're coming up against teams at the wrong time. And if we can't... Wolves were the only team that we could mathematically catch when we took them on.
00:05:29
Global Sports Podcast Network
So... they're the team we needed to be fighting to beat and there was still no fight, no drive. I just don't see where it's coming from.
00:05:41
Global Sports Podcast Network
i guess you could look ahead to Leicester away and speculate that maybe that is the the game that we could win and and put us over that tally, but I don't know if we're going to be able to. I guess it seems at the point in the season that it's more likely that we do something away than at home because our home form is so shocking.
00:06:04
Global Sports Podcast Network
It's going to be a really tough run to the summer. I know a lot of people are mentally checked out already. I know Zach is you know sort of vocally talking about looking forward to next season and actively preparing for the work that goes into that.
00:06:17
Global Sports Podcast Network
But I still think it's important to not completely embarrass ourselves this season in more than we already have, because it's been shambolic. It's been the the worst season as a season tick holder I've experienced. And, you know, the last relegation season was, was bad.
00:06:38
Global Sports Podcast Network
but this has been really on a different level. And, uh, What i'm going
Potential Management Changes and Team's Future
00:06:44
Global Sports Podcast Network
to do after the break is sort of look through our remaining fixtures and really try work out what, if anything, might come from them. And if there's a way that we can sort of get past that all important 11 point total.
00:07:40
Global Sports Podcast Network
Okay. And we are back. so yeah, I'm going to look forward and kind of try and speculate on the the remaining fixtures we've got.
00:07:50
Global Sports Podcast Network
And then, you know, there's a lot of moving parts, obviously going into this, but Juric being one, if Juric stays or Juric doesn't stay, I mean, I saw an interview today that he still seems pretty confident he's going to be our manager next season. And just I just, hope not.
00:08:07
Global Sports Podcast Network
speculation of Danny Roll as we talked about. I don't know if he is going to be the man. and if he is the man, is he the right man? don't know. But we will see.
00:08:16
Global Sports Podcast Network
It's going to be a much more interesting season next year, we can hope. But yeah, as I alluded to, we've got Crystal Palace next on a Wednesday night. If they are sort of hit the ground running recently, their form is is really...
00:08:35
Global Sports Podcast Network
you know, it's much better than ours, so it's, a
00:08:39
Global Sports Podcast Network
it could be an interesting game, whether we can push on and get anything from that, it feels unlikely, doesn't it, and right, a home fixture, it's, it's hard to predict seeing anything coming from that, it, it really is, you know, they've beat Villa, they've beat,
00:09:01
Global Sports Podcast Network
Ipswich, they beat Fulham.
00:09:04
Global Sports Podcast Network
It's hard with them having such a good month to see us stopping them in their tracks. It's not a fixture i think we are going to be able to get anything from. And unfortunately, I just think that story goes on because, you know, after that, we've got a Sunday afternoon game against Spurs at Spurs.
00:09:27
Global Sports Podcast Network
I mean, it's away, so maybe, but there's not it's not a team that going into the season you'd expect to get points against. It's not the sort of team you would target to be where our points are coming from.
00:09:41
Global Sports Podcast Network
Then the following week, we're at home to Aston Villa. You know, Villa are still in the Champions League. they are They are in the knockout stages, flying high. It's...
00:09:54
Global Sports Podcast Network
it Not a game that you look at and expect us to get anything from. And if we're feeling like that, looking at it, you know, even Villa are not on the best run of form.
00:10:06
Global Sports Podcast Network
You know, a couple of losses, a couple of draws in recent memory. But it just feels like they're going to have the ability to run all over us. And that's scary.
00:10:17
Global Sports Podcast Network
West Ham might be a closer game. Up in 16th place. joint on points with that sort of group dangling above the relegation zone just sort of out of reach of the the three in the bottom three. It's... That's a game, I guess, that we should be targeting to get the points.
00:10:36
Global Sports Podcast Network
But it's it's really hard to see... It's really hard to see us getting anything. Like, maybe we get a draw against Palace and a draw against West Ham and then that puts us level on those points and we've got well, after that, Fulham, Leicester, Man City, the last ever league game at Everton, Goodison Park, and then Arsenal at home on the last day of the Premier League.
00:11:02
Global Sports Podcast Network
Could we be in a position where on the last day we have another sort of wild rubber match with nothing real to play for, where we end up with a stupidly high amount of goals and accidental draw like we saw on the last day of our last relegation season when we drew 4-0 with Liverpool.
00:11:19
Global Sports Podcast Network
We have like a 3-0 draw with Arsenal or something. It's definitely on the cards, but like if we're not the worst team in Premier League history by a point and that point is a game like that on the last day of the season, you know, there's an argument to be made that we're still the worst team in Premier League history. is It's really upsetting.
00:11:43
Global Sports Podcast Network
I don't know. I will... but We'll stick with it and we'll see what's the answer. is then Is there anyone that would be able to get more out of the players to get that fight back in at this point in the season when it's so far gone?
00:11:58
Global Sports Podcast Network
You know, the club effectively come out and said they know we're relegated. It just doesn't take a footballing genius to look at the table and know that. But...
00:12:09
Global Sports Podcast Network
you know Despite what's mathematically possible. What's realistic is we've been relegated for. Maybe as many as two months now. It's.
00:12:18
Global Sports Podcast Network
It's a really hard one to take. And I don't. Necessarily see it getting better. But. I'm going to pause there for a quick break. From our partners at Zencaster. And I'm going to.
00:12:30
Global Sports Podcast Network
Wrap up with some closing thoughts. Of if there is anything. good to take from this season, what we can potentially not salvage the season with, but what what glimmers of hope we might have heading into these last nine games. And to to go from there, to try and bring back the optimistic vibe we'd like to bring to the Daily Southampton podcast.
00:12:55
Global Sports Podcast Network
But first, a message from our partners at Zencaster. Here at the Global Sports Podcast Network, we spent a lot of time selecting our delivery platform. Zencaster came out the clear winner. With 4K video recording from your phone and AI editing that automatically removes all those ums and ahs, it's super easy to start a podcast that sounds great and is delivered efficiently.
00:13:15
Global Sports Podcast Network
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Hope and Promising Players
00:13:20
Global Sports Podcast Network
Okay, so I'm back.
00:13:22
Global Sports Podcast Network
Is there hope? That's the big question, right? Is there anything to... to look forward to in these nine games? Yes, there is.
00:13:32
Global Sports Podcast Network
You know, some of our players are still putting a shift in and putting a fight in. Not all of them, and it must be incredibly frustrating for the ones that are to see such a lack of effort from the ones that very evidently aren't.
00:13:46
Global Sports Podcast Network
Matty Fernandez and Tyler Diblin... if we can keep either one of those two heading into next season, it puts us in a very strong position, I think, heading into the championship.
00:13:57
Global Sports Podcast Network
Um, Um, and, you know, we've got Leicester, we've got Everton, we've got Fulham who we, you know, we did get a point against earlier in season. So maybe we do accidentally manage to win one of those games.
00:14:12
Global Sports Podcast Network
Uh, you know, we have been playing all all sort of well. It's hard to tell if it has been playing well or if it's just that our standards have dropped that low, but it felt against Wolves like we played better.
00:14:30
Global Sports Podcast Network
It's, it's hard to know if that was just looking for the positives because, you know, both the goals were shocking. All three of the goals were shocking. I mean,
00:14:42
Global Sports Podcast Network
Paul tripping over the ball and and putting it the net is, is what it is. But
00:14:48
Global Sports Podcast Network
I think that Cameron Archer is a player that I'd like to see more of in these nine games. I don't know if that's a necessarily a popular opinion, but for me, he's, he's a player who needs to be sharp and have those minutes. He's very good at being the player running forward, which is something that we definitely lacked for the entirety of the Wolves game.
00:15:09
Global Sports Podcast Network
Sure, about 50% of the time he finds himself in an offside position, but at least he's moving forward, which is something that the rest of the team seem to struggle with, to move forward with the player who is moving forward with the ball.
00:15:24
Global Sports Podcast Network
The amount of times we've seen Suleymane or Matty Fernandes break through with the ball and just have no options to pass it to, or even the amount of times we saw a ball fizzed out to Yuki for him to look up to whip a ball in, and there was just no one there.
00:15:40
Global Sports Podcast Network
it's It's, you know, sure, the one time there was someone there, Sudamana should have done better and kicked the ball in the net. But it's being in the positions for these chances. You can forgive missing and s slipping up on chances like that easily if there's more of those chances that you do put away.
00:16:01
Global Sports Podcast Network
But we're not doing that. We're not creating enough. to to be able to afford to miss chances like that. Our expected goals for the last three games are upsettingly low. And I know that it's not a real statistic, right?
00:16:22
Global Sports Podcast Network
But, you know, this is the first game, I look at the stats every game in preparation for the
Need for a Balanced Team Strategy
00:16:28
Global Sports Podcast Network
podcast as sort of trying to look back without the emotional glasses at the performance with the stats to see if there's anything I can see. And this is the first game i can remember in recent memory that has had a an expected goal of of more than one for us, which is crazy because we know we're going to concede two three goals.
00:16:54
Global Sports Podcast Network
There has not been a game in recent memory where that hasn't been the case. That's fine if you know we can go on and score three, but this is the first game we've had an expected goal.
00:17:06
Global Sports Podcast Network
And yeah, I don't know if there's a real answer, to be honest.
00:17:13
Global Sports Podcast Network
There are some players who we won't see again at the end of this season. Some of the players, that will be sad for us. And some of them, it won't be at all.
00:17:26
Global Sports Podcast Network
there'll be some players who stay who that will be sad for us too. It's going to be a really tumultuous summer, to be honest. And hopefully we come out better for it and not sort of wallowing around in the middle of the championship because that is not the place we want to be. If we get stuck there and don't immediately bounce straight back up, I think the season after will be even more of a struggle.
00:17:52
Global Sports Podcast Network
And you know There's definitely an argument that if we do come straight back up, it might be too early again and we might just find ourselves in the same position, yo-yoing back and forward. But it it puts us in the best position to do things right that we didn't do this year and try and learn and try and evolve.
00:18:14
Global Sports Podcast Network
It's such a difficult thing to stay ahead of the curve, right? Because we... We were innovators with our black box and our statistical approach of signing good young players as well as some experience. And it worked for a while. And then other teams started to copy and the Brightons and Brentfords started with sort of similar and same approaches. And then once what happens then is because you're not the only club doing that, that makes it much more difficult to do.
00:18:45
Global Sports Podcast Network
There are multiple clubs looking at the same people. It drives the prices of these players up and it makes it different. So we know now that that model probably no longer works for us.
00:18:58
Global Sports Podcast Network
We've tried the exclusively young promising players and some of that has worked. Sure, we have had some good players. Next season, if all of our lone players come back and stay back with us and we manage to keep a couple of our signings, we're going to have a very good championship squad because we'll have a Dozie, we'll have Shea Charles, hopefully we'll have Matty Fernandez, hopefully we'll have Tyler Diblin. Yuki Sugawara should do very well in the championship.
00:19:30
Global Sports Podcast Network
And
00:19:30
Global Sports Podcast Network
and weve we've got a real lineup potential. Adam Armstrong could come back and, you know, you saw what he could do in the championship last year,
00:19:40
Global Sports Podcast Network
And hopefully we can take that and build upon it in a way that is going to work. it It's going to be about balance. It's not going to be about exclusively signing young, promising players.
00:19:54
Global Sports Podcast Network
We need some experience. We need some good experience because we can't rely on the experience that we have in the team. Because at this point, the experience we've had in our team, any Premier League experience they've got,
00:20:08
Global Sports Podcast Network
has been two relegations, one of which being this season, which has been the worst season. If not by the end of it, the worst Premier League season of all time, definitely the worst Premier League season in Saints history.
00:20:19
Global Sports Podcast Network
So we need different experience. We need good players. And that that is going to come at a cost.
00:20:28
Global Sports Podcast Network
So it's about finding that balance. We need some some decent players and some promising youth and mix it together. and come out with that good stuff. Do I think Sports Republic have it in them to do that?
00:20:42
Global Sports Podcast Network
Maybe it's delusional optimism, but yeah, I do. I do you think that.
Optimism for Club's Future and Pragmatic Approach
00:20:47
Global Sports Podcast Network
They haven't shown anything to so far to warrant that opinion, but they have acknowledged the problem.
00:20:53
Global Sports Podcast Network
Bought in Johan Spors, who seems to have a good very good football head. He's very experienced with this sort of group approaches He's lodged himself at Staplewood. He's going to know what he wants and what his vision is.
00:21:09
Global Sports Podcast Network
I just hope that it aligns with what the fans want. I hope that he does enough early on to earn himself the chance to build a longer term project.
00:21:21
Global Sports Podcast Network
I don't want to see this one style of football and this is our style of football. My opinion on that is very well known. i I don't think it works. I think we need something more pragmatic. I don't mind having something as a basis, but we need to be able to be dynamic and shift from it.
00:21:41
Global Sports Podcast Network
And that's going to be very important because the difference between the Premier League and the Championship is is only going to grow. So, yeah, there is hope.
00:21:52
Global Sports Podcast Network
I'm still feeling optimistic. Somehow, after all of it, I feel a lot better. After venting to you guys, Uh, thank you very much for joining me today. for what I but think I'm just going to call football therapy Tuesday.
00:22:07
Global Sports Podcast Network
hope that you'll join us tomorrow as we find some wildcard content to, fill out this international break as we take an opportunity to, uh, maybe look back on some fonder times or have a look at some of the international football that's coming on, uh, before we come back in a couple of weeks, uh,
00:22:25
Global Sports Podcast Network
with the real Saints stuff. We'll, of course, be keeping an eye on all of the club news and any club training. I know that a lot of people are optimistic for a sort of corner flag announcement, but I feel like at this point, if it was going to happen before the next game, it probably would have happened already. So, I'm not holding my breath,
Possibility of Season Redemption and Listener Engagement
00:22:46
Global Sports Podcast Network
unfortunately.
00:22:46
Global Sports Podcast Network
but But, as previously discussed, if there's a financial impact on next season, Maybe it's best to just suffer through these nine games and and take it on the chin.
00:22:58
Global Sports Podcast Network
They're not going to be enjoyable regardless of who's in charge. And it just kind of is what it is. I'm still mentally checked in for this season. I still have hope that we're going to go. And if we can get two wins, it looks so much better as a season. It's still only 15 points, but it's still remarkably better. If we can beat Leicester,
00:23:23
Global Sports Podcast Network
and ruin Everton's last home game at Goodison. It's almost, almost a celebration worthy of the season. But there we go. That's me. We'll be back tomorrow.
00:23:35
Global Sports Podcast Network
Let me know your opinions. Do you think there's anything worth looking forward to for the rest of the season, or are you fully checked into the championship now? Until tomorrow.