The9

It won't be. (Odds are comfortably in my favour here).

Eastleigh are actually the lowest ranked team definitely through, though Salford and Whitehawk could yet make it too. Any of this lot at home should be comfortable. Would rather avoid Salford City or Hartlepool in case the BBC decide to show it and move it to a Friday night. 45 Bradford City 46 Newport County 47 Peterborough United 48 Portsmouth 49 Eastleigh 50 Northampton Town 51 Exeter City 52 Doncaster Rovers 53 Grimsby Town or Shrewsbury Town 54 Yeovil Town 55 Bury 56 Carlisle United 57 Leyton Orient or Scun thorpe United 58 Wycombe Wanderers 59 Colchester United 60 Chesterfield or Walsall 61 Sheffield United 62 Salford City or Hartlepool United 63 Dagenham & Redbridge or Whitehawk 64 Oxford United Bradford, Doncaster, Scun thorpe, Chesterfield (or Rotherham) away would be good for my assault on the 92 - assuming Newport don't get someone more interesting.

Strangely though, Palace are also a very ordinary side (albeit with two tricky wingers who don't always play out wide). I think it'll be 1-1 tbh.

It was indeed Monday lunchtime in 2003 as I watched it on tv in the bar at work, they've moved it all over the place before and since when various different tv companies got the rights. ITV managing to balls the draw up two rounds in a row last year was a highlight. I want Saints to draw either the Skates, Eastleigh, Cardiff or maybe Newport, though I'm not sure I could quite handle that.

Thoughts remain that we don't play 4-3-3 and never have in the Premier League since we were promoted into it. Others will argue this.

So of your list, precisely one (1) is unimprovable. Lack of pace. That's alright then.

There's nothing to suggest they're living beyond their means at the moment.

Looking at the video and seeing the kit, it's from Newport's first season up, which was 2013/14. Skates actually won this one 2-1 (Newport beat them in the other 2, inc 3-0 in the JPT). It also helps explain why the match at Fratton last season saw a pile of punch-ups before kick off (which I have video of somewhere). Oh and whilst I'm here I'd like to point out that there are 5 teams in the 3rd Round draw I'm interested in the fate of: Newport, Saints, Eastleigh, Skates and Cardiff. Any combination of that lot playing any of the others will be fun for me in some way.

We didn't learn anything from wasting Alderweireld in DM for about 10 games at the end of last season then as the defence AND midfield was weakened?

Fairly sure Schneiderlin wasn't much of a defender for the first 4 years either. It's ridiculous to suggest we can replace a £25m DM with someone at the same level - it's fairly obvious at the moment that Romeu has the defensive side and the physical strength and Clasie the creative side, we can't play 12 players though and Koeman has to pick which of those skills we need more - unless he gets fed up with Wanyama and tries the pair of them together, but that's still 2 players to give us what Schneiderlin does. It's no coincidence Man U look far more solid defensively with him in the side.

I've watched the first half back and Caulker was only personally to blame for the first one, but his insistence on running with the breaking man rather than holding or stepping up to play him offside was doing my head in in the second half - but that's another thing you'd put down to there not being any midfield pressure on the ball, when there is, and when the defence is facing upfield and organised, it's easy to see the line and step up. When you're waiting for a pass to time an offside trap and it's not obvious when that pass HAS to be played it's far more difficult to time the step up and less risky to track the runner. Having said all that, f'ck knows what he's doing in the picture above.

I hate to tell you this, but that was our defensive formation and back 3 for the entire second half.

I don't actually agree with any of those apart from maybe a bit of number 5, and only then because the players able to provide impact should already be on the pitch until the point where we've got money to burn.

Except I'm fairly sure no-one, including Koeman, thinks there's any need for the Board to say anything. Most of the things he said are accurate anyway, we spend less than we sell for seemed to be the gist of it. Well... duh. Now if you want to know about Mary's Meals...

What I'm saying is having been given the time to make the shots they wanted to, Liverpool finished well, which numerous other sides haven't done in similar situations in other games. Mistakes by strikers in finishing, rather than goalkeepers making amazing saves, will cost teams goals more often than not. Goalkeepers can only do so much to affect situations, and their effect on the outcome will be far less significant when unmarked players have time to pick their finish.

Except actually, the only one which might have hit a shopping trolley was also the only one Stekelenburg got anything on, which was also one of the two taken first time from close range, which proves that the problem was that for the other goals, the shooting players had too much time and space to choose where they were putting the ball for the keeper to do anything about it. Forster MIGHT have done better with the second just due to his pure bulk, but he'd also have had more problems with some of the dodgy backpasses from Caulker and Wanyama at the start of the second half.

One of the last ones was in the middle of the goal but basically went in off the bar and was absolutely hammered at him, so difficult to get to anyway. The second went under his body but he had no time to react to it as Sturridge took it first time on the half volley from about 7 or 8 yards and like most of the others, it was past him before he could move (and Sturridge probably would have scored the rebound off Stek's body anyway).

4th was unmarked and he had all the time he needed to put it out of the keeper's reach, 5th (not 6th) was smashed from about 12 yards at a slight angle and went in off the underside of the bar/roof of the net and again no pressure on the ball. I understand taking off Cedric as he was replaced by JWP at right wing back/right midfield - but then Davis played there and JWP was played inside, which made no sense at all. Can't defend the 3 at the back including Wanyama nor staying with it when it was obviously not working from the first time Wanyama touched the ball and didn't have a pass on. In fact Stekelenburg's willingness to show for even dubious backpasses and deal with all but one kick perfectly was testament to his ability - no other keeper on Saints' books kicks anywhere near as well or as confidently, though Forster has more range.

I "only notice a keeper when he makes good saves" like I "only notice a striker scoring goals". You need to watch for all the other stuff. Especially with Saints, where our success last season was built on stopping stuff happening before it became a threat - Forster had to deal with far fewer of the kind of easy chances Stekelenburg has faced because we mostly only allowed shots from longer range last season. We need to get back to being effective defensively in midfield first, then there's an even playing field to judge the keepers.

Speak for yourself, I'm going to Barnet v Newport tomorrow (a decision made weeks before Wednesday's effort). Can't even get anyone to take the STs for the match despite a likely Saints win!

Having watched some of the highlights, I'm fairly sure Wanyama gave up in midfield before their 2nd, and was as responsible for it by not tracking back, as Clasie who was closing Can down and got done by a nice heel chop. So that explains all the space in the middle first half - and the weird formation explains the lack of pressure on the ball in the middle second half - no-one can tell me Bertrand knows what to do from a narrow midfield position with Tadic in the hole he'd usually attack, and all it did was provide space out wide for them to pin us back with outlet balls, or go through the middle where the players didn't seem to know who was meant to be closing the ball down once it got past Davis.

Funnily enough I'm sick of us lining up so gung-ho at home when throttling the opposition has worked for us a lot more often than trying to play 1 DM and a ball carrier, but agree that Villa at home is not the game to use two DMs even so.

Davis was doing his bit well, it was what happened when the ball got past him that was the problem. And then we stuck him out on the right where he wasn't able to influence the game and everything came down the other side.

Funnily enough having watched it back, Wanyama was frequently more of a problem than Caulker (who was only really at fault for not closing down the first, and wasn't to blame for the second as much as the time Can had in midfield), and also explains why I thought there was no pressure on the ball for the goals. Davis was probably our best player alongside Mane on Wednesday.

If we picked Wanyama and Romeu in front of the back 4 (like we did against Villa in the League Cup) it probably wouldn't matter who was in the back 4. But Wanyama has been dodgy probably since half time against Bournemouth. This team was good enough to beat Villa comfortably in the Cup a few weeks back and had Targett, Yoshida AND Caulker in it behind Wanyama and Romeu: M Stekelenburg (G) 22 M Yoshida (D) 3 V van Dijk (D) 17 S Caulker (D) 26 M Targett (D) 33 V Wanyama (M) 12 O Romeu (M) 14 J Ward-Prowse (M) 16 (68 ) G Ramirez (M) 23 G Pelle (F) 19 (69) Juanmi (F) 20 Personally I'd pick Romeu and Clasie in the DM positions because I think Wanyama needs a kick up the backside after Wednesday, and this is the safest time to do it, and the rest pretty much picks itself... Stekelenburg; Cedric, Fonte/Caulker, Van Dijk, Bertrand; Romeu, Clasie; Tadic, Mane, Davis; Pelle. Subs: GK, Yoshida, Caulker/Martina, Juanmi, Ward-Prowse, Wanyama, Long