Rasiak-9-

Good grief he really is ****ing terrible isn't he. Utterly dominant and now we're in very real danger of dropping two points against a team we've completely battered.

Curse of the commentator. Although in fairness it was him who won the ball tracking back I guess...

Had quite a positive feeling about this game. Saints have a habit of being outstanding in the most meaningless matches. Still, be nice to win this, beat Spurs and keep the top four show on the road assuming that City are capable of dropping three more points between now and the final day.

Not concerned about Liverpool. We need to win every one of our remaining matches to catch City and there isn't a cat in hell's chance that Liverpool will beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, meaning that should we succeed in attaining the minimum needed to catch City, we'll certainly overtake Liverpool in the process.

I think its pie-in-the-sky to suggest that anything less than 5 out of 5 would be enough to see us going there with a chance on the final day. We aren't realistically going to catch them on GD so we need them to drop three points. So, we need them to either draw against both Spurs and Swansea or lose one of them. I think it'd be nothing short of miraculous if they dropped points at home to the other three. Still, every win keeps the show on the road in the chase for fourth. Win our next four matches and (provided Liverpool don't win their next three matches and then beat Chelsea away) all the talk of the battle for fourth place, even if it ends with City comprehensively destroying Swansea at the Liberty, will be about us (as Liverpool and Spurs will both be mathematically out of it). That would be a delight, regardless of what happens then.

Good to know. I can definitely see a ground share being a handicap on our performances on the pitch. Not a huge one necessarily but a handicap nonetheless. Could easily see us having a ridiculously awkward fixture list as well with the Ropey League games if we have to fit in the fact we've got to rigidly alternate home and away league games with Bournemouth.

The obvious question that I'm rather surprised hasn't been yet covered is whether or not the Premier League can make us ground share with Bournemouth? Even if ground-sharing is necessary, can't we just reject their application and tell them to go and bug Reading or whoever?

Most Bournemouth fans are pretty cool. They readily admit that they know that Saints 'don't give a **** about us' but that it'd be a great feeling to get one over the local neighbours. Honestly? I'd be very surprised if most Bournemouth fans wouldn't much rather see us beat Manchester United than the other way around (and of course, vice-versa. The same couldn't possibly be said for Pompey.

Yup, beat me to it. In a vacuum you'd see an away team that went to a very tough, well-established, Premiership club, played them off the park but just couldn't score. If that was all you saw, you'd be full of praise and encouragement for them and expect their fans to go home disappointed with the result but not with the performance or method behind it. The problem is that we've seen precisely that same result happen repeatedly this season. The fact that we're repeatedly getting what many would consider 'less than we deserve' from matches is the problem, just as pundits and fans often say its the mark of a great team to win despite playing poorly. (...and of course, its really very obvious where to attribute the blame for all of this - we have the best defence in the league but we just can't score. Simples).

Its not just Pelle, its the whole 4-5-1 in general coupled with the fact that we still don't have a winger with real, electric pace to get past the full-back and cross it early (apart from Mane, who we'd rather play in the number 10). This means that whenever the ball moves forward, wingers have to check back, cut inside or twist and turn past their defender in order to get the cross in, rather than just bursting past them and crossing it early. As such, Pelle never gets the chance to run ontoanything, instead he just ends up waiting static in the box for a cross (which is why there are so many that he struggles to get much of a firm contact on or that defenders aren't ready for) *Sigh* I did suggest Aaron Lennon in January. In fact, we've been crying out for a (fairly ordinary if necessary) "bag-'o-pace" for a while now (occasionally had the same problem with Lallana-Lambert-Puncheon).

I'd give Pelle one last chance to score and get his confidence up and if he blows it, seriously think about whether or not its worth persevering with him in the long run. There are no easy games in the Premiership, but there are most certainly easier ones. This is one of them. If he scores a couple I can see him following them up with another few but if he still can't score then you do wonder whether or not we should let him go in the summer. So many of our dropped points have been down to persisting with Pelle and the 4-5-1 in general.

Graziano Pelle equalled Rickie Lambert's goals from open play for all of last season by 20th December. That's a fact.

Typical post-February Saints really. Its not that we don't even look like scoring, because we do. ...but we still don't actually score!

You have to chuckle at the fact that JWP is regarded as a set-piece specialist having never ever scored.

Need to be smart, savvy and play a proper away game for this one. Everton's defence is utterly shocking and slow as **** to boot. For the past two seasons Palace in particular have known exactly what to do up there (winning 3-2 away both times). Sit back, play on the counter and even if you concede once or twice, you can still outgun them with far less possession if you've got pace, trickery and can distribute the ball from the back and get it wide quickly.