The9

He was comically ineffective in the Premier League. You know when you're about 6 and you try to do a skill trick to beat your dad and he just laughs and takes the ball away? Like that. He once did a shimmy against Stephane Henchoz on the wing and Henchoz literally waited for him to finish sodding about and then just ran off up the pitch with the ball.

I doubt Leicester are any more advances on sports science than most other Prem clubs, it's been widespread for a long time, even things like cryo chambers - they've just had the fortune not to get injuries or suspensions to key players at key times. The exception being the impact of losing Simpson for half an hour against Arsenal and Wasilewski coming on instead, which shows what would most likely happen if a "normal" level of injury/suspension affected them. I'm not buying that they've got a sports science setup that makes enough of a difference until they get through another couple of seasons with far fewer injuries than most others. Of course the recent "blood doping" allegations were vague enough to raise some eyebrows too, not that I'm suggesting for a second that's what's going on there.

"Better than a player of the month nominee". So Long's been nominated as well then?

He's not going to get any better without first team matches either, so it's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Compare that to the times Ward-Prowse got shoe-horned in at the start of the season when we lost matches due to not having a DM pairing and leaving the defence exposed. Then again, Clasie's been dropped in there for a few of those too.

Only at new grounds - and not during the actual match. What would be the point of taking one at St Mary's anyway, which I've been to somewhere in the vicinity of 250 times?

"At one point". As opposed to "for the entire match".

Strange that, because of all things, having a go at Lowe for being critical of Wilde seems the least sound thing to criticise him for.

Yeah, if you just ignore the overseeing of us replacing 17 players immediately when he took over (presumably all his choices for replacements even if he had nothing to do with the players leaving) and then the season after some daft spending for the Championship under Wilde, and a team which included Gareth Bale running matches from left back and scoring with every other free-kick for the first month or so, which should have got us FAR better than a play-off defeat eventually forced us into administration a couple of years later, he was "unlucky".

I'm fairly sure by the end of last season Koeman had established that he'd rather have Reed in midfield than Alderweireld given the impact it had on our defensive record. But it also probably made his mind up that we needed two players in when Schneiderlin went rather than just one, and the reality is that Reed is one player further away from the side than last season and isn't getting a chance to prove he's good enough - and his route being blocked seems to be affecting his application for the U21s too. The question is why we've stopped him being loaned out, and given Wanyama's lengthy bans, how he still hasn't featured more in that scenario. We'll have to make an early decision on him next season as well, as short-term emergency loans to the FL are now finished, so only half or full-season loans will be permitted (unless FIFA cave in again) and he'd have to go out for at least half a season at a time with no recall option

In light of having actually read the article, it says nothing whatsoever about the "release clause" you initially mooted. Glad you put "I think" in front of it. You think wrong. Davis may choose to return to Rangers, but there's nothing at all been mentioned in that article, or anywhere else, about his contract saying either that he has to go back there or that we have to sell him, both of which would be outcomes of a release clause - that clearly doesn't exist. As for the article, the most it commits to is Davis "going back as a fan first, then POSSIBLY as a player later". If they knew of a clause they wouldn't be faffing about saying "possibly".

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/10155134/premier-league-injury-table-man-city-have-suffered-the-most-watford-the-fewest That was in February. We're near the bottom, but Rodriguez probably only counts as one and he's been out almost all season. Meanwhile so has Gardos, but I doubt he'd impact on our results much over 40 matches. Ditto Bournemouth seem to only have had 5 more than us to that point, but they lost nearly half a team to 6 month plus injuries. Leicester have barely had an injury since, notable that Man City, Man Utd and Liverpool, who are all underperforming against expectations, are top of this. But even these stats don't really reflect the significance of the injuries or suspensions, as teams have varying levels of cover, so it's a difficult point to prove.

I'm comfortable that the side we picked in the following match was appropriate for the gameplan and executed it very well. We were the better side against Leicester for almost the entire game but they defended slightly better than we did at a key moment. In the context of that, picking Romeu is a "what if"?

Shows that our squad depth is better than ever before That we have a manager who carefully considers the team and opposition's merits before every match That we signed some key players after the season had started That we used rotation when still in Europa League That we've developed younger players through the season and are trying to get them game time That we are flexible with formations That we have a lot of similar quality players with dips and peaks in form That we have had a lot of suspensions to key players

I'll just gloss over the impact of Tadic's goals compared to Gaston's for your sake, but last season, his 5 goals were against Man U (A), Arsenal (H and A), Chelsea (A) and in the 8-0 against Sunderland. We won 4 of those matches, and drew the other away to the team that won the title. Every one of the six times he's scored this season we've won and not conceded a goal. In contrast, Gaston scored his goals in two defeats, two home draws and a win at home to Newcastle. The season after, one league goal in a defeat at Everton. Tadic played in a side which qualified for Europe, Gaston one which finished in the bottom half. Not REALLY a comparable level of success. Plus as you've said, Tadic had more than twice as many assists.

Gaston's done nothing remotely comparable to Tadic in their respective time here.

Wasn't convinced at the start of the season and he's by no means the best left back we've got, but he's done really well out wide in the 3-5-2 on a few occasions, more than enough to justify being involved in the squad regularly in matches where we need a more defensively-minded wide midfielder to counter a threatening opposition right midfielder. His crossing has improved hugely in the past 18 months too.

I'd say the criticism of his workrate is probably the most misguided one there is. He does work hard, if not quite as hard as others who have less creativity. The problem is his inability to use the ball effectively in the time available in the Premier League, how predictable his movement is on the ball, and how easily he loses it. Also, when it comes down to it, he compares poorly to Mane in terms of impact, and poorly compared to Davis in terms of effectiveness and you can make similar comparisons with the rest of our midfield.

Wibble.

Kyle Lafferty's going to be tearing up the Euros in the summer, you won't see Gaston doing THAT.

As opposed to "not finished above bottom of League One nor beaten Newport County at home in their entire existence".

I think Scotland's top division would love him. Not sure whether he'd adapt to rugby's version though? Anyone who thinks we should give him a new contract is mental.

That's certainly an opinion that doesn't stand up to any scrutiny based on the usual level of Saints fan engagement at matches, and of course is a hypothetical that isn't likely to be tested. The Kingsland and Itchen centres don't make any noise at any point in any match. Leicester's entire ground was engaged almost the whole time.

Don't pretend you didn't love my live Facebooking as the teams came out on Sunday...

Maybe - our first half tactics were pretty decent, but we seemed to be switching from 3/4/5 at the back depending on the position of the ball, one of those split-second things. Cedric having to close down the opposing left back or two players sometimes seems to be a side effect of our defensive tactics at the moment (which mullered us for the whole match against Bournemouth), but aside from the goal we pretty much neutralised them.

Not sure how the left back Fuchs in a left midfield position is his man when there's a right midfielder in our team?