v Southampton (h) - 25/10/25

[BRFC.]

29 minutes ago, Ossydave said:

These scenes simply cannot be serious surely? 😂

A half empty stadium will never be able to create ‘scenes’

The ‘scenes’ and the stadium and attendances will be much better with an actual good ownership who care 

[Tomphil2]

Are they now not giving out the attendance as well ?

[Mike Graham]

16 minutes ago, Tomphil2 said:

Are they now not giving out the attendance as well ?

The ‘proper’ attendance for Tuesday was 9,002.

[Tomphil2]

10 minutes ago, Mike Graham said:

The ‘proper’ attendance for Tuesday was 9,002.

Absolutely shocking and can't have been much more yesterday.

Loads of ST holders aren't even bothering on a Saturday afternoon now.

Edited 16 hours ago by Tomphil2

[chaddyrovers]

 

 

[chaddyrovers]

11 minutes ago, Tomphil2 said:

Absolutely shocking and can't have been much more yesterday.

Loads of ST holders aren't even bothering on a Saturday afternoon now.

given its half term for parents with children so some might be away but some STH probably gave yesterday for various reasons 

[chaddyrovers]

1 hour ago, roversfan99 said:

I dont think that Gudjohnsen was good for all of the second half. He definitely seemed boosted for the remaining minutes after his goal and did a couple of good things after that, but up until then, it was his usual performance of not really putting his body in, struggling to hold the ball up, half arsing battles with defenders etc. 

Well well, 

1 hour ago, roversfan99 said:

The squad is lacking in a number of areas because recruitment was so poor in the summer. We shouldnt need wholesale changes but we do because a number of the summer signings have failed to meet the standards. Dont let one win fool you after a few days unable to post, we are still bang in trouble, 4th bottom and with lots of issues.

Who says one win has change my view, that what you assume again RF99. 

1 hour ago, roversfan99 said:

Merely bringing back a young lad on loan in League 1 will not suffice in fixing our defensive issues. We are lacking in both quality and quantity there. 

young lad, he is 22 years old FFS, So you are writing him already then. 

[M_B]

26 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

 

 

Not as eye catching, but the one against the post was the best, fantastic match winning save. 

[Ossydave]

2 hours ago, BRFC. said:

The ‘scenes’ and the stadium and attendances will be much better with an actual good ownership who care 

Yes that’s not exactly groundbreaking news like, would be nice to see our version of Sheff Weds yesterday it looked absolutely pumping

[davulsukur]

As expected, the club are milking this for everything they can. 

[RTM08]

On 25/10/2025 at 15:24, RTM08 said:

No point watching the rest, zero fight in this squad.

For once, glad to be proved wrong. Still don't think it's a "turning point" though, I've never seen a team more open to the counter attack in my entire life, and the goals both required incredible chunks of luck. 

I'm really, really hopeful I am proved wrong again.

[davulsukur]

Rudy will be proud. Top of the xG table for the weekend. 

[47er]

4 hours ago, RoverLad04 said:

Venkys aren’t great at all

Quite the reverse in fact.

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

Well well, 

Who says one win has change my view, that what you assume again RF99. 

young lad, he is 22 years old FFS, So you are writing him already then. 

No, I am clearly not writing him off.

Our defence is massively worse than it was last season, obviously with the losses in the summer especially flogging Hyam without replacing him.

Merely recalling someone who was nowhere near the first team from a loan in League 1 will not rectify those defensive issues.

I think we are 2 short, especially if we play a back 5. We need proper Championship quality defenders. We are struggling to keep clean sheets with our current sub par, IMO imbalanced back line.

Do you think the current squad is of a quality that should be higher than 21st?

[chaddyrovers]

18 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

No, I am clearly not writing him off.

sounds like it to me

18 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Our defence is massively worse than it was last season, obviously with the losses in the summer especially flogging Hyam without replacing him.

well given we loss Brittain, Hyam and Batth did you expect it to be the same as last season, cos 

18 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Merely recalling someone who was nowhere near the first team from a loan in League 1 will not rectify those defensive issues.

O'Riordan has been good for Doncaster so why not recall him and use our own player 

18 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

I think we are 2 short, especially if we play a back 5. We need proper Championship quality defenders. We are struggling to keep clean sheets with our current sub par,

I think we short by one and having 5 centre backs is right amount of players. I think signing a right wing back would be area I would be looking at as more important than signing another centre back signing

18 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

IMO imbalanced back line.

what imbalanced? 

18 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Do you think the current squad is of a quality that should be higher than 21st?

YES!

[Tomphil2]

2 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

given its half term for parents with children so some might be away but some STH probably gave yesterday for various reasons 

You know what the reasons are, there must have been around 2 thousand season ticket holders swerving the last 2 games and its never been that sparse before.

The last 2 league games have looked like league cup games inside the ground.

[roversfan99]

21 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

sounds like it to me

well given we loss Brittain, Hyam and Batth did you expect it to be the same as last season, cos 

O'Riordan has been good for Doncaster so why not recall him and use our own player 

I think we short by one and having 5 centre backs is right amount of players. I think signing a right wing back would be area I would be looking at as more important than signing another centre back signing

what imbalanced? 

YES!

Im specifically telling you that I am not writing him off. He wasnt close to the first team before he went out, hes getting experience as a younger player at a lower league club, might be good for the future, not the answer to essentially replace Hyam now. Even you were fuming when Hyam was sold without replacement, now you are advocating O'Riordan as his replacement. Talk about standards.

You clearly have a far greater opinion of the squad Gestede has built compared to everyone else. Yet, dont seem to think that Ismael needs to go for underachieving.

[ageoftherover]

7 hours ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

...of the Burnley or Preston variety?

The kind that doesnt need all 6 of their fingers.

[joey_big_nose]

A few positives on reflection...

1) Toth is very very good. 

2) Really liked the look of Montgomery. A bit confused why we havent used him more tbh. Has the energy the team needs and a bit of quality. We are flogging Tronstad and TGH senseless, so very welcome to have someone who looks like they can play a part (unlike Tavares or Baradji)

3) Henrickson is physically imposing, and I can see him giving us legs and restoring the press in the final third of games. This is a big issue due to how we fatigued. He and Montgomery made a big difference to our energy levels.

4) I know they have had their cards marked by many, but De Neve and then Hedges coming on both look like they will generate a lot of opportunities down the left. Alebiouso we know will do that down the right. Also De Neve and Alebiouso have real recovery pace, which massively helps our 3 quite slow cbs. Both can catch wingers 5 yards behind them.

That said a few major areas of concern

1) Strikers are really blunt. Ive no issue with Ohashi whose work rate is stunning and makes some great runs. But his partner needs to offer more whoever it is. Glad Andri got a goal and hope he kicks on. But as it stands I dont think we have a striker on our books who any defender would really worry about.

2) Because our threat and finishing up top is so poor we commit more and more players forward to get a goal and leave ourselves very exposed. We were lucky Armstrong couldn't finish as we would have been dead and buried at 2-0 imo.

3) Defensively we look like we have loads of individual errors in us. Eustace ironed that out of us, but its come back massively. I guess losing Baath and Hyam has had a big impact. Individually I like Miller, Wharton, McCloughlin - all physical, committed, can come out of defence into midfield reasonably well. But as a unit its hard to imagine them not making three or four mistakes a game between them. And to compound that they lack the pace to recover from mistakes.

Ultimately if we had one genuinely good striker at this level we would be in a much better position imo as we wouldnt commit so much forward. But we dont...

Edited 3 hours ago by joey_big_nose

[chaddyrovers]

10 hours ago, Tomphil2 said:

You know what the reasons are, there must have been around 2 thousand season ticket holders swerving the last 2 games and its never been that sparse before.

The last 2 league games have looked like league cup games inside the ground.

Some will be down to results, some down to people going on Holiday given its half term for alot of Parents with children. Some other reasons. 

 

[Mattyblue]

Main reason being we’ve sold fewer STs to start with, thousands of the Holders we have left aren’t bothering and we are selling fewer walk-ons due to poor results and expensive pricing… ergo it leads to the depressing sight that was the Blackburn End on Saturday (a lower tier of which, by the way, that had been pretty full for a good number of years pre this season).

[roversfan99]

The crowds have been terrible because its half term is a new one.

[chaddyrovers]

10 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Im specifically telling you that I am not writing him off. He wasnt close to the first team before he went out, hes getting experience as a younger player at a lower league club, might be good for the future, not the answer to essentially replace Hyam now. Even you were fuming when Hyam was sold without replacement, now you are advocating O'Riordan as his replacement. Talk about standards.

He is playing well at Doncaster and I did mention when Hyam was off about recalling O'Riordan. 

We can either recall him or sign another centre back in January. Happy with either option. 

10 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

You clearly have a far greater opinion of the squad Gestede has built compared to everyone else. Yet, dont seem to think that Ismael needs to go for underachieving.

Back to this crap about Ismael. I have given my opinion more than once yet you constantly continue this crap game after game, week after week. If you dont like my answer that's your problem RF99. Maybe Stop asking the same question when I specifically told you more than once I will posted my opinion on Ismael post Derby game and whether we should stick or twist during that international break 

[chaddyrovers]

3 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

The crowds have been terrible because its half term is a new one.

I didnt say it was only reason crowd was down did I? 

But its only like yourself blaming crowd being down to 12.30 kick off cos kids are playing football on Saturday morning. 

Oh wait but its ok cos it yourself mentioning it. 

[TimmyJimmy]

53 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

A few positives on reflection...

1) Toth is very very good. 

2) Really liked the look of Montgomery. A bit confused why we havent used him more tbh. Has the energy the team needs and a bit of quality. We are flogging Tronstad and TGH senseless, so very welcome to have someone who looks like they can play a part (unlike Tavares or Baradji)

3) Henrickson is physically imposing, and I can see him giving us legs and restoring the press in the final third of games. This is a big issue due to how we fatigued. He and Montgomery made a big difference to our energy levels.

4) I know they have had their cards marked by many, but De Neve and then Hedges coming on both look like they will generate a lot of opportunities down the left. Alebiouso we know will do that down the right. Also De Neve and Alebiouso have real recovery pace, which massively helps our 3 quite slow cbs. Both can catch wingers 5 yards behind them.

That said a few major areas of concern

1) Strikers are really blunt. Ive no issue with Ohashi whose work rate is stunning and makes some great runs. But his partner needs to offer more whoever it is. Glad Andri got a goal and hope he kicks on. But as it stands I dont think we have a striker on our books who any defender would really worry about.

2) Because our threat and finishing up top is so poor we commit more and more players forward to get a goal and leave ourselves very exposed. We were lucky Armstrong couldn't finish as we would have been dead and buried at 2-0 imo.

3) Defensively we look like we have loads of individual errors in us. Eustace ironed that out of us, but its come back massively. I guess losing Baath and Hyam has had a big impact. Individually I like Miller, Wharton, McCloughlin - all physical, committed, can come out of defence into midfield reasonably well. But as a unit its hard to imagine them not making three or four mistakes a game between them. And to compound that they lack the pace to recover from mistakes.

Ultimately if we had one genuinely good striker at this level we would be in a much better position imo as we wouldnt commit so much forward. But we dont...

100% agree sir, a great summary and you've nailed all the main points for me. I'd add that I'm still not sure about this overloading on the right wing tactic. Not having a great striker would be helped if we had more bodies in the middle.