Nordic Saint

I think you could be right, especially as the average age of the fans who usually attend St Mary's must be among the oldest at any Premier League stadium. I noticed at the pre-season friendlies v Levante and Athletic Bilbao that there were very few old fans present and even at the Man United and West Ham games, there seemed to be fewer than usual. That begs the question, why don't we have as high a percentage of younger fans as other clubs? I think a lot of it is to do with our pricing structure. Less is done to encourage teenagers and fans in their early 20s to come with their mates than at many other clubs, where there are often generous discounts. Also, ironically, because of the stadium's limited capacity, which has meant the ground has nearly always been more than 90% full for PL games, the Club has never felt any real need to encourage new fans. Perhaps they will now.

I think Ward-Prowse offers much more. I understand that Diallo is a defensive midfielder but for any midfield player to fail to score a single goal and to only have one assist (none in England) in his entire career is not what you want to see in a team that already offers few goalscoring options. With Ward-Prowse, you know you are going to get goals and assists every year.

On the evidence so far this season, yes. I know Vestergaard improved a lot and his passing was good but I always felt that he was far too slow and a defensive liability. There is not a lot to choose between Stephens and Bednarek but Jack dominates the opposition's dangermen more. He is our enforcer and gives the team a bit of steel.

He was superb today. He kept us in the game in the first half with a series of outstanding tackles and interceptions. Antonio has never been better contained by Saints' central defence than he was today by Stephens and Salisu. Ralph's faith in that pairing is beginning to pay off.

He's been named in Saints' official Premier League squad squad for this season. Watch out for him, he's one for the future. Southampton's Premier League squad confirmed after summer window with two notable inclusions - HampshireLive

I can remember when fans of teams that were losing heavily sometimes used pitch invasions to try to get games abandoned. The prospect of forcing teams to abandon games when their team is losing heavily would probably encourage some fans to make racist chants. England did the right thing last night although I was concerned that Southgate might take his team off the pitch. The Hungarians would have stayed out there and possibly even been awarded the game. My guess is that if Hungary had been winning 4-0, there wouldn't have been any displays of racism or any objects thrown on the pitch. I was at Wembley the last time we played Hungary, in 2010. That was a much closer game and their fans were very well behaved although most of them were residents here. I'll be there again the next time too and I expect their fans will, once again, mostly be British residents. I like watching the current England team and thought my ticket was reasonably priced at £40 for a World Cup qualifier when compared to ticket prices for Premier League games in London. Anyway, I thought it was an excellent performance by England. I'd hoped we might get seven to equal what Hungary did to us in 1954. That was England's all-time record defeat but what gets rarely mentioned is the fact we also beat them 7-0 and 8-2 in Hungary.

The TV commentator said that Mike Dean had said it was an attempt to play the ball. It sounds like he was trying to influence the ref not to award a penalty. It's the first time I've heard a commentator repeat what the VAR official had said. I didn't know that TV commentators could hear communications between officials.

The bottom four teams have played a total of 10 games and haven't got a single point between them. From the fixtures we've had so far, 2 points is a decent return.

You could say the same about us in the league this season. That was our first clean sheet for 5 months.

Willing? He can't believe his luck. Nobody else would have him. Just look at his career record before he washed up here: 2007–2014 Reading 70 2007 → Woking (loan) 1 2008 → Cambridge United (loan) 1 2008 → Team Bath (loan) 2 2009 → Aldershot Town (loan) 4 2009–2010 → Yeovil Town (loan) 44 2010 → Brentford (loan) 3 2011–2012 → Leeds United (loan) 6 2012 → Ipswich Town (loan) 10 2014–2015 Queens Park Rangers 3 2015–2016 Crystal Palace 7 2016– Southampton 103 I think he found his true level at Yeovil. I'd swap any current PL or Championship goalkeeper for him. The fact he is currently the first choice goalkeeper at a Premier League club is ridiculous and it is costing us so many points.

Fair enough then. The criterion is that the initial shot has to be heading between the posts.

Maybe I didn't get the best of views but does anyone else think Che Adams was unlucky to have his goal called an own goal? Normally, if the intitial shot is on target, no matter how big a deflection it takes, the striker is credited with the goal, and I thought his shot was heading between the posts. Apologies if replays show it wasn't but if it was, that is the first on target deflected shot I can recall being called an own goal, and that includes a lot bigger deflections than that one. The stadium announcer called it an Adams goal so I was shocked to see later that he wasn't credited for it.

It was nice to be in the final quarter of a game against Man United with their fans fallling silent. Admittedly, they made some noise after their goal but apart from that, their silence spoke volumes about our team's performance. And didn't Ward-Prowse look happy when he was applauding the fans after the game? I know there is a lot of cynicism about players but he genuinely appears to love this club. After that performance, our prospects this season look a whole lot better.

A massive loss more like. He's one of those we buy and then have to find clubs to loan him out to until his contract expires.

He's going to be worth watching for his comedy value alone. He's #4 in this video: (34) Torino 0-7 Milan | Milan thumps Torino 7-0! | Serie A TIM - YouTube

He's one they are obviously desperate to get rid of. He must be stinking the place out. We've had a few like that lately.

A selection hint from Ralph? "Ralph Hasenhuttl insisted Saints could “count on” returning Mohamed Elyounoussi and added: “I’m sure that this season he will make a lot of games." Hasenhuttl: Saints 'can count on' Mohamed Elyounoussi | Daily Echo

Judging from these stats, he's never been a regular first teamer anywhere. Maximilian Wöber - Wikipedia Although a lot of that seems to be down to all of his injuries. Poor lad does seem to be very fragile: Maximilian Wöber - Injury history | Transfermarkt Maximilian Wöber - Stats 20/21 | Transfermarkt Maximilian Wöber - Stats 18/19 | Transfermarkt With his poor health, it's a wonder his mum lets him out to play football any more. Hopefully, there is no truth to the rumour.

You seem totally oblivious to reality. It's almost as if you've never seen him play: "Weak shotstopper. Faces many savable shots" EtzmxSOWYAAN3hJ (750×798) (twimg.com)

Anyway, all he had to do was put his arms up to stop the shot, the same as any other Premier League goalkeeper would have done. It was just above his head and it was a toe poke, which wasn't struck particularly hard. One of McCarthy's problems is that his reflexes are far too slow. Look at the view from the camera behind the goal. He had time to put his arms up but you could see he was still thinking about whether to head the ball or not as he leant backwards. He always leans backwards when there are shots from close range. I think he's afraid of the ball hitting his face. Whereas other goalkeepers stand up straight and raise their arms to make themselves big and stop the shot, McCarthy makes himself small to make sure the ball doesn't hit him. Either that or he's practising his limbo dancing.

We already have, on multiple occasions, with McCarthy in goal. Possibly even 9 when Walcott's in the lineup. As long as it has a firm base, it might be worth trying a cardboard cutout instead of McCarthy as it least it wouldn't be able to retreat into the goal and so might stop a few shots. As for Walcott, maybe they could have a lottery before the game to pick some random person from the crowd to take his place or perhaps have another cardboard cutout on wheels that one of the other players could tow behind him. It wouldn't contribute any less.

A lot of it is down to McCarthy's fear of physical contact, especially with big, aggressive strikers like Richarlison. You usually see McCarthy retreating back into his goal in those situations when any other goalkeeper would step or dive forward and claim the ball, even if it did mean they might get clattered.

Whichever one you prefer, the simple facts are that Forster concedes fewer goals than McCarthy, keeps more clean sheets and we win more points in the games he plays. Football is a ruthless business. You can't afford sentiment. If Ralph continues his sentimental attachment to McCarthy, we'll be relegated, for sure. Although, I must admit that in our next game against Man United, the difference between Forster and McCarthy will probably only be a 1-3 defeat as opposed to a 1-6 one. (Armstrong to score).

McCarthy always retreats into his goal when there are crosses or corners, often behind the goal line, where it is impossible to make a save. He is afraid of physical contact as he was when Richarlison approached the goal yesterday. That is responsible for a lot of the goals we concede. His reflexes are far too slow so he starts his dives too late and, as was the case yeterday, is too slow to put his arms up to stop shots. That would have been a fairly straightforward save for other goalkeepers yesterday. They would have just thrust their arms up and made themselves big as Forster always does. You could see McCarthy was still thinking about whether to jump and head the ball or use his arms. In the end, he did neither. He concedes a lot of goals like that, expecially from tight angles at his near post, where other goalkeepers are almost never beaten. Overall his key poblems are nervousness/fear and slow reflexes. He may be a nice person but he shouldn't be a goalkeeper.

McCarthy has let in 41 goals in the 15 games he's played so far this year. When you are letting in 2 or3 or even more goals every game, it's almost impossible to win games, as it was again yesterday.Our only clean sheets in the last year have been when Forster has been in goal. When McCarthy was out with a virus and Forster played in the 1-0 win v Liverpool we were on top of the world. Then Ralph replaced him with McCarthy again and it's been pretty much downhill ever since, apart from when he picked Forster again briefly when we needed to avoid relegation, and we won a few games against Sheffield United, Burnley and Palace, and had our run to the FA Cup Semi-Final with 4 consecutive clean sheets.