qwertyell

In the know-ers reckoned we were seriously interested but he chose Villarreal over us. Would've been another cracking win for the recruitment team - he's been arrested as many times this season as he has started games (3). The Portuguese Nile Ranger. Dodged a bullet. Probably fired by Semedo. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

A big what? Mac? Can't have been an injury as he's been turning out regularly for the U23s for a while now. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Or realist. The world's full of opinions, isn't it? Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Didn't we put six past this Newcastle rabble earlier in the season? Don't think we're anything special - Sims, Hesketh and Obafemi might make the grade, few others - but Newcastle are hopeless. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Isn't Romeu a booking away from a two match ban? Admittedly, he's been pretty abject all season, but it wouldn't make much sense to risk a suspension in a cup game. Surely the league is our priority. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Ward-Prowse is the best in the league at fiddling with his Tintin hair at every break in play. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

McCarthy: 6 - couldn't do much with the goals. Cedric: 5 - still can't cross. Bertrand: 4 - couldn't cross or pass. Hoedt: 4 - Bambi on ice, with the turning circle of an oil tanker. Stephens: 5 - okay on the ball. Wasn't bullied in the air (by 5' 8" wingers). Romeu: 5 - can't run. Lemina: 6 - our best player even semi-comatose. Hojbjerg: 5 - last season in microcosm: started well and got gradually more awful. Ward-Prowse: 5 - got one cross in. Can't head. Otherwise anonymous. Tadic: 5 - rolled up his sleeves and gave everything for the cause. Said no-one ever. Carrillo: 4 - £20m. What would Paul Rideout cost today? Literally today, aged 53 - couldn't offer less than our club record goal machine. Subs:- Boufal: 1 - a point for every time he didn't lose the ball. Long: 1 - a point for every time he touched the ball. Davis: 0 - pointless. Adios, Premier League. I never loved you anyway... Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Going down with a whimper. This second half has been gutless, guileless, helpless. Obviously Liverpool are a better team than us, but we haven't even given them a game. They've won without breaking a sweat. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Well, at least we're not going to lose Hoedt to Liverpool. Three basic errors by him in that half, punished twice. We've played relatively okay. But this is a hopeless cause. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

He's 6' 1". That's not height deficient for a centre back. Phil Jones is the same height, but forging an okay career for himself. Stephens just lacks upper body strength and isn't aggressive enough in aerial challenges at times. The same is true of Hoedt who, despite being taller, actually wins less headers than Stephens. It's an area they both need to improve in, and you'd like to think having a former international centre back as manager would be a help on the training pitch, but we're just going to have to live with it for the rest of the season because there's no aerially dominant alternative waiting in the squad. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

But he only had 12 months left on his contract. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

If Michael Keane's going for £30m, all bets are off. Prices mean nothing anymore. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

McCarthy: 7 - calm presence. One very decent save from Brunt's free kick. I wonder if he could've come for one or both of the crosses that led to their goals. Maybe that's a Dave Watson thing... Cedric: 6 - worked the line up and down all day long. Can't cross to save his life. Bertrand: 6 - relatively solid, but a bit more petulant an indisciplined than usual. Lucky not to concede a penalty. Stephens: 6 - does some things really well, some adequately, some quite poorly. Easily outfoxed again from a corner to lose his man, who scored, and was possibly fortunate Burke tried to stay on his feet after having his ankle clipped going through on goal. But he defended quite well in general, won a few headers even and, of course, scored a great header. Hoedt: 6 - not dissimilar to Stephens. Mostly good (a cracking surging run leading to the free kick for our third goal), but didn't cover himself in glory on Rondon's headed goal. Neither of our CBs are good in the air (and nor is Yoshida, in reserve). It's an issue. Romeu: 5 - actually got outpaced by Gareth Barry at one point. I didn't think that was even possible. Combative as usual, but he still looks out of sorts to me. Lemina: 9 - a top 4 player in a bottom 4 showdown. He had it all going on: pace, power and drive going in both directions, and the technical ability to twist away from trouble. Foot like a traction engine too. Ward-Prowse: 7 - increasingly not a passenger. High work-rate, used the ball efficiently, a goal and an assist. Promising. Tadic: 7 - I thought he was engaged and proactive all day. Would've preferred to see him down the left and crossing more. Boufal: 6 - tried a lot. And most of it didn't come off. Great feet in tight quarters, but his hot-headedness came to the fore in a kick out at Nyom that thankfully went unpunished, and carried on like a pork chop over the Prowse FK. Carrillo: 6 - he did all right. Not 19 million quid's worth of all right, but when the alternative is non-footballer Shane Long, what can you do? Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Even before we flipped things on their head at the end of the half, I didn't think we were playing horribly. We were just punished for not switching on in the first five minutes, and lacking a bit of quality with the final ball. Lemina is a class apart. He won't last the summer regardless of what division we're in. More goals in this game. We're not solid at all at the back - particularly on set plays. But I don't think WBA are either. Pellegrino's last half time team talk at Saints? Better make it a good one. Next goal is crucial - if we don't go after it and try and hold the fort, we'll go under. Come on, Saints. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Think we'll need some kind of pace on the break, given that Carrillo is slower than coastal erosion, so I'd give Sims a whirl. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Nile Ranger and Mayuka both available. The dream ticket. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Should've sacked this imposter months ago. He hasn't got the slightest idea how to get anything out of an admittedly mediocre squad. Get rid of Les Reed and Ross Wilson while you're at it. What a waste of a beautiful kit. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Well, he still scored a header up against Van Dijk and Hoedt in the reverse fixture, so maybe don't preemptively scapegoat the kid. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Davis and Long? It'd be funny if it wasn't so depressingly predictable. Fun fact: the four most expensive signings in the history of the club can't make the starting XI in a must win match against a glorified Championship club. Tip o' the hat to the recruitment department, there. They haven't peed all that money from selling our best players up the wall in the slightest. Jesus. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Bertrand not in today's released training pics. But McQueen is. So there's probably a good chance of us fielding an actual left back at left back. Not that he's doing anything more than making up the numbers in training because the U23s played last night, also in the pics, the brilliantly named Will Smallbone. Smallbone? It is cold out... Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Word. He's a gem. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

I think I read a similar rumour about Stephens looking to possibly move on a few weeks ago - maybe from the same poster. But the implication wasn't of some Billy Big Potatoes who thought he should be guaranteed to start for Saints every week - more that Stephens just wants to play and is prepared to drop down a division if it means getting his career properly underway. It goes by fast. At the time of the rumour, he'd gone from playing about 20 games in a row to not being in the match squad for three months while we kindly fattened up Van Dijk so he could hit the ground running for Liverpool. I don't think you can blame Stephens for becoming disillusioned - I imagine Les blew plenty of smoke up his arse when he signed a contract extension; to then find himself relegated to the U23s for three months while we indulged a player who didn't even want to be here is not exactly encouraging. I hope he stays. He's got plenty of room for improvement, but there's a good player in there. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

I guess like the Fulham game in the last round, we've managed to scrape a win in too unconvincing a fashion to actually take any confidence from it. And lost our only fit left back into the bargain. So that's super. Nice to be in hat, but midweek against Brighton is the game that really matters. Fail to win that, and the manager must go. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Should've been plan A the day Mane left. It'll be Robert Snodgrass. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Decent going forward, an accident waiting to happen defensively. I guess that's our good half out the way now and we'll just be grimly trying and failing to hang on to what we've got from here. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk