Nordic Saint

Romeu's Girona team drew at Real Madrid today. He seems to be having a great influence there. Real Madrid 1-1 Girona FC: Empate merengue en casa (lamediatitular.com)

You beat me to it.

He was very good today. The last ditch defensive tackle and the assist for the goal were outstanding.

I'd prefer Edozie to Adam Armstrong but maybe he's not quite ready for the full 90 minutes yet. In the short time he was on the pitch, he was our best attacking player. On one occasion in the 2nd half, Adam Armstrong found himself through on goal and you knew it was 100% certain he wouldn't make anything of it. He scuffed the ball to a defender and seemed almost relieved that he didn't have to shoot. His nerves are shot. It's cruel leaving him out there.

You should have watched Torquay v Altrincham on BT Sport. Brillliant game.

Exactly that. We know he has pace - he hit the fastest speed recorded in the Premier League one week - but he has no anticipation and is incredibly slow off the mark.

Interestingly, Diallo, a player I've long been a critic of, came on near the end and showed everyone how it's done with some really clever ball retention. It made those 5 minutes of added time so much more comfortable. Che Adams also did his bit, of course. He was terrific throughout.

He may just be a natural at it. You don't get that many games without scoring by shooting at goal. I thought he might one day be in the Shane Long class for it but now he's even beginning to rival the great Benali. Like all of the great non-goal scorers, he's definitely destined to become a cult hero with our fans.

1 goal in his last 25 games. There isn't much to fade from considering he's supposed to be a striker.

Their average home gate is 4,684. When they were in the third division it was 659. They never managed an average of more than 9,000 in their history.

Let's face it, he's not someone you'd like to see in our team, is he? The other players probably feel the same way.

I can only assume you are not a local fan and don't get the rivalry. I still remember the joy of beating Pompey 7-0 in the FA Youth Cup. It mattered more than a first team match against many other teams. Every game against them matters to fans here and they all get talked about for years afterwards, even friendlies. "Going for Blood" 'Going for blood...Cowley not messing about...strongest line-up ever seen in a Hampshire Cup game?' - Portsmouth fans give verdict on side to face Southampton B for south coast derby | The News

9 of the Pompey starting XI are from their first team squad and they have their first team manager in charge. It's men against boys. No wonder Ralph is swerving it. Couldn't we at least have put out a competitive side?

You should look at other clubs' messageboards. You'll find threads like this on all of them and our fans are more patient than most. Fans at the big London clubs, for example, are utterly ruthless in their criticism of new players. With them it only takes 2 or 3 games for a player to become "a f---ing usless c---t".

Nobody has 'turned on him'. He's got the full support of all Saints fans at every game. He is a very promising young goalkeeper and as you say, he is "good for his age" (in fact, I'd even go so far as to say he is very good for his age) but you can't help questioning whether he has been thrown in to the Premier League too young. It would be more sensible to use him initially as a cup goalkeeper to build his confidence. The problem is we never recruited an experienced goalkeeper to replace Forster. You could say similar about some of the other youngsters we've recruited this year: they are being thrown into the deep end too soon and it's bound to shake their confidence. We may have got the record for the youngest team in the Premier League this season but our record on the pitch is not very good.

Bazunu hasn't kept a clean sheet for 16 matches for Pompey, Saints or Ireland over the last half a year. Obviously, he hasn't kept any yet for us. I wonder what the Saints club and Premier League records are for the number of matches before a goalkeeper keeps his first clean sheet? I guess Bazunu must already have broken the Southampton club record for the Premier League. Fraser Forster went 1 game before his first and kept 3 in his first 5 Premier League games. Alex McCarthy went 7 PL games before his first for Palace but kept one in his first PL game for Saints. Gazzaniga went 6 PL games before his first.

Thia game. What game have you been watching?

Like TAA, he is good going forward, but a weak link defensively, which is why astute opposition managers like Guardiola target him..

I see Wanyama may be returning to Celtic. He's still only 31. I'd prefer him to Diallo. Victor Wanyama available for Celtic transfer as contract 'truth' laid bare | Glasgow Times

Nostalgia's not what it used to be.

No, it's listed as Portsmouth v Southampton B. They will use first team players.

I guarantee you they will. They chose this prime midweek date for the fixture because it has 6 days after it without a first team fixture for them, when there are 2 League One fixtures they need to rearrange which they could have prioritized instead. They know that thrashing any Saints team will be very important for their fans, and. let's face it, even League Two teams can beat our B team, which is just a bunch of teenagers, most of whom will never make the grade at Football League level, plus Ollie Lancashire, easily.

Unless we do what Pompey will do and play at least some first team squad players, we'll lose, probably by a big score. Last night Pompey beat Aston Villa U21s 5-0 while Saints U21s lost 2-1 to Exeter. There is no evidence that our U21s can beat Pompey. Why do we have to play our U21s anyway? It's not a rule, is it? Some of our fringe first team squad players could do with match practice.

True, but I like watching Josh Doig play. He really is a great young player. Larios was good against Everton and is one of the best youngsters we signed this summer, but, like Cedric, he is so short that he encourages the opposition to play high crosses over him.

Arnautović