RK was voted as manager of the season on Monday night football, where we were praised for our defence and attacking.
Now I agree about the defence and apart from Saturday and the 8-1 at home to Sunderland, we have not been on fire in front of goal. The last 3 months have been tough going until Saturday!
Oh and we currently have the joint best defence in the premier league again. Could we end the season with the best defence?
I think most of us would have been happy to see Koeman come in and steady the ship. He’d only really had success in the Dutch leagues as a manager, and something of a question mark over his failure to do anything in Spain with Valencia.
“Please don’t let him be shit” was all that was going through my head, especially after all the player departures.
What we’ve just had was one of the most exciting teams I’ve seen at Saints. We’ve very rarely been dogshite; many of the games we’ve failed to pick up maximum points from have been decided on reasonably slender margins.
Quite a season though. From relegation candidates to breaking our own records, and having the Premier League manager of the year. How’s that pie taste, pundits? Humble enough for ya?
I’ve gotta agree, I think this team is one of the best I’ve seen (albeit via shitey Al Jazeera streams). Some teams have found us out, but the only time I thought we were out classed was City at home. Pelle’s drought put some negative focus on the attacking play, but it’s been clear for a while that we’ve got goal scorers all over the pitch and just about enough flair to breakdown most teams. Even through his drought, Pelle’s hold up play and delivery has been good enough and if half of his woodwork kissing attempts went in, he’d have been one of our highest scorers ever. Can’t wait to see what he does with Long, Jay Rod and Mane screaming past him.
Koeman’s had a great season, absolutely loved the way he set us up to play United away after losing at home, he handled the difficult games over Xmas with aplomb and got the team working hard after the defeats against the top four. It’s fucking crazy that I’m disappointed that we missed out on an champions league place.
I love how this club is projecting itself now. Yeah, the social media stuff is a bit cheesey, but fuck me Saints are actually trying to sell themselves, make themselves attractive to younger players, confident enough to tell the world about how they work, what they invest in, and what they believe in, and for once it’s tied into good performances on the pitch. Look around the rest of the prem and it’s hard to see which of the clubs traditionally outside of the top 6 can say the same.
For me Koeman’s passed this season with flying colours. If he keeps us in the top 10 with Europa league football next season, then we’ll be lucky to keep him past the end of his contract. He’s writing his CV.
Largely agree.
Though must say, I think our media department are streets ahead of anyone else. The videos building up to the kit launch were great.
a lot of what Koeman has said makes it sound like he will do his 3 years then leave. Carry on as he has and there’s a good chance that’ll either be the Dutch national job or Barcelona. Wouldn’t really begrudge him a move to either of those posts.