The9

Absolutely completely for it with the agreement of the person (whether at the time or part of an agreed end of life plan). I don't really understand why people wouldn't be, other than some misguided belief that bad legislation might give murderers a get out somehow - unlikely with "malice aforethought" being required.

I think Yoshida is not good enough to be a first team starter, but nothing he did last night made me think he should never play RB again, in fact he did pretty well unless what you wanted was basically Mane playing there.

Or 15th row of the Northam. I don't mind us being so defensive with the full backs when a clean sheet was so vital (not that we got it), and given the problems expected from set-pieces, but that's not really how our system works and it does leave us open to struggling to create. Having said that, we had a heap of chances so I don't think that was a problem, and they had at most, 4.

Fair enough, I only watched the replays in real-time, couldn't really see anything wrong from the angles I saw.

74 mins, big hoof by Stekelenburg, chest down by Pelle on the edge of the centre circle in FCM half, with Mane cutting in behind from the left wing and Rodriguez in the hole about to break past the flick on again. JWP is on the half way line, very central, gets the chest down and plays the ball back to Pelle - this leaves Pelle in the hole (where he went to win the ball from the clearance) and Mane/Rodriguez in advance of him, after running in for potential flick ons. This one ends up with a Mane skill, JWP blocked shot and Targett shooting wide. Pelle's looking knackered behind the runners, Rodriguez immediately substituted about 80 mins. So I can confirm that at no point in this match whilst Rodriguez was on the pitch were we playing with anyone other than Pelle alone up top, albeit with one or (very rarely) two AMs running in behind him for flick-ons or link ups from deep positions. Rodriguez spent the entire game centrally in the hole feeding off Pelle knock-downs and peeling in behind him when he dropped short. In fact, the EXACT same role Mane takes on when he plays as the CAM, and one of the reasons Mane went on a hot streak of scoring when Pelle stopped last season.

Well, his hands were briefly on the guy's chest early without really having any effect, but there's no evidence of a shove, he then steps back a little to jump and the defender doesn't leap because he's under the ball and too late. At the point when he heads it, he's well above the defender, not affecting the bloke at all and his arms are at his side.

Chris Perry "all the success Southampton have had this half has been lofted balls into the chest of Pelle and runners off him". (68 mins) It's also interesting to see that wherever Midtjylland have the ball in the midfield Wanyama is the one who closes down the ball, he's a few yards further forward and to the right, Romeu is behind and to the left most of the time - I'll have to check if that's the same when the ball is on the left side or if they pivot and Wanyama sits deep in that situation or if he's ALWAYS the one to press the ball. 70 mins, quickly taken free kick from the left wing near half way and Rodriguez is well in advance of Pelle again, because Pelle has dropped deep to receive the ball and is the one fouled. Rodriguez makes a run into the CF position from his AM position and knocks down a header for a sprinting Pelle who is catching up with play. That kind of sharpness, pace and sprinting, btw, is why Lambert isn't with us any more.

Oh, and the penalty (right after, 55 mins) comes when *Rodriguez* drops deep for once, the ball instead goes long to Pelle and JWP is running off him and brought down.

Right after the example above, Mane's through ball attempt to Rodriguez is intercepted, they clear it, we immediately get it back, and when the ball comes back into their box Rodriguez and Pelle are still in there. It's broken play and again if anything it shows that when a striker switches off, he doesn't get out of attacking positions as quickly as he might, as opposed to any tactical change (52 mins). On 53 mins, JWP gets the ball between the DM and CB lines on the left, with Targett advanced and overlapping. This time Rodriguez is in the hole (again) and seeing that Targett will run into "his" space out wide, makes a run initially straight up the field alongside Pelle, and then off to the left side of the box to stretch the CB wide. Again it looks like 2 up top, but this time it's because Targett was attacking the space Rodriguez would have gone into on the left. Basically it's the position players adopt when the *opposition* have the ball that defines the formation, and as Midtjylland knock it around their back 4, we're still lining up with Pelle well ahead of the 3 AMs, 2 DMs sitting behind, and a conventional back 4 with the FBs a little further forward than the CBs. When WE have the ball the formation is a little more fluid to create space, but Pelle always starts up top and tries to get back up there after linking the play if we keep possession in the opposition half.

It's very difficult to score goals when you're 40 yards from goal winning the ball in the air/on the deck and laying it off to a teammate all the time. He is absolutely integral to us getting possession in the opposing half and keeping it there. He's basically our Lallana replacement in that sense, Lallana's assist and goal stats weren't all that great, but he was the bloke who got the ball to stick so that the other attacking players could get up to support and threaten the opposing goal before the couple of passes that created the chance.

Mane back on the right for the start of the second half. As an aside, nothing wrong with the disallowed goal, Caulker's hands are waist high and tucked into his sides and the defender just gets under it. 50 minutes pretty much sums up my thinking on this: Clearance from defence, Pelle comes short for a bouncing clearance into his own half. JWP also comes short for the ball as it's in his area (left side) of the pitch. Rodriguez sees Pelle and JWP deep and on the left and stays where he is (and as a result is 10 yards advanced of Pelle, in the opposing half). Mane is upfield off to the right on the edge of the hole Pelle has created by dropping deep. Wanyama gets the ball centrally, 10 yards outside our box, and moves it right to Yoshida who brings it over the halfway line. Meanwhile, Pelle runs forward up the middle, way behind the front line due to having just laid the ball off. JWP is now alongside him whilst Mane has burst backwards towards half way from his slightly more advanced midfield position to link with Yoshida and potentially create an overlap. Rodriguez, having already been 10 yards ahead of play, is already up there on the left wing on the far side from the ball, about 5 yards ahead of Pelle. When Pelle goes forward, his run bypasses Rodriguez so we have players in the left wing and centre forward positions, but as the ball comes to Mane on the far right of midfield (in line with JWP who is left-sided tucked in AM) for this brief moment when Mane is choosing his options it looks like we have 2 up top (Rodriguez and Pelle), with Mane and JWP in supporting AM positions (and Yoshida overlapping on the right, as it happens). This is all because Pelle has dropped deep and Rodriguez didn't come short for the early ball 15 yards in his own half like Pelle did. Mane then cuts inside, Pelle makes a CF run into the box, Rodriguez holds the edge of the box and JWP does too, a few yards less far forward. As Mane goes sideways, Pelle aborts his run, the defence steps out a little, and JWP and Rodriguez are now in line with Pelle inside the box. This is not "three up top", this is two midfielders (JWP and Rodriguez) pushing up to fill the hole created by a centre forward running to the near post. But, in that situation, it looks like Rodriguez has pushed up top to join Pelle. However what actually happened is that Pelle dropped so deep there was no-one up front and Rodriguez having not dropped off sort-of covered the position from the left wing until Pelle got back there. Again, we'll see if that's always the case or whether Rodriguez just stopped coming back because Pelle dropped deep to win headers so much.

Just for the record, I'm currently watching the match back - Pelle up top, Rodriguez in the hole, Mane right and Ward-Prowse left for the first 38 minutes, we then switched JWP and Mane's wings on 38 minutes. So far, Pelle up top alone, the only time Rodriguez comes out of the central "hole" position is when Pelle drops deep to win headers. Once, Pelle dropped deep and Rodriguez and Mane pushed up for the flick on. However, the rest of the time, it is absolutely a bog standard 4-2-3-1, will be interesting to see if that changes when we start hoofing, but I suspect all it will show is that Pelle drops deep for flick-ons more often, and that makes it look like the breaking midfielder(s) is/are playing further forward as they run for the flick on. We are also comfortably the better side.

Midtjylland is going to be bloody great, no matter what the result. Let's just hope we've got the chance for at least another 3 trips like it afterwards!

He'd already said that at least once, I cut and pasted a quote into Facebook yesterday about it.

Typically Long or Mane, I'd say. Doing exactly the same as they are this season. And the year before, Rodriguez and Lallana, doing exactly the same but with more high pressing. We went long ball because they pressed the weaker than usual defence who used it as an outlet (Romeu got tired and stopped showing for the short ball anyway) and partially because Caulker's not yet indoctrinated free spirit was hoofing everything, not because we had 4 up front. People keep saying this, but Pelle at all points of the entire match was still clearly advanced of the entire midfield, even whichever one of the supporting 3 who was showing for the lay-off at that exact moment. I know this because I spent basically the entire match watching precisely this aspect due to this stupid argument that people keep insisting things are hugely different somehow. The only marginal difference is that Rodriguez is more likely to push up with Pelle than the other players who might take on that role. It's not always him either, it's whomever is in the best position to support Pelle at the time.

Meanwhile, I think he did as well as can be expected, and particularly well dealing with the timewasting.

That Malmo score is more in their favour than not... Anyway, so 7 or 8 sides looking like they'd drop in below us, we need 6 of them to do so to get into Pot 3. Still looks more likely than not, and Pot 2 looks as unlikely as it did in the first place. Of course, Saints have to be in it for this to matter!

Was going to ask how the CL qualifiers are going too? Astana Kazakhstan 3.825 v APOEL FC Cyp 35.460 KS Skënderbeu Alb 5.575 v Dinamo Zagreb Cro 24.700 Celtic Sco 39.080 v Malmö FF Swe 12.545 FC BATE Borisov Blr 35.150 v FK Partizan Srb 14.775 Rapid Wien Austria 15.635 v Ukraine Shakhtar Donetsk 86.033

Under the assumption that Cedric is being rested - given that we've got previous for working players very hard to develop their physique and leaving them out of the side for recovery, that just leaves a choice being Martina and Yoshida, which is probably why people are assuming we put the bigger player in there to combat set pieces.

I think Cedric will be every bit as good as Clyne, who himself has had plenty of dodgy defensive moments (including one for England U21s which delayed his international call up for the senior squad by probably a year), and standing on the ball in the 6 yard box last season. Cedric's defensive "deficiencies" so far all seem to have stemmed from a complete lack of support in front of him every time he's played - he's never played in the same team as Wanyama and Romeu which is our current preferred DM pairing. It's not easy to look like a decent defender when you're having to defend all the time, especially when you're up the pitch. You'll note I'm not making the same exceptions for Targett, who looks like a back up left back even with Romeu and Wanyama in the team.

I think there's potentially a lot of mileage in playing him in front of them, though there is a risk our midfield passing will then be too defensive. Not sure on the brief glimpses I've seen so far that Clasie has the physical presence to play DM in the Prem regularly but too soon to judge,. but I have seen him pinging rapid passes through the lines to feet which is a useful skill for a more creative role, and probably explains why a few people see his potential further forward. I'd be reluctant to leave either Romeu or Wanyama out at the moment.

I hope so, he was showing all the signs of a weather-beaten hoof merchant last night and it was that which led to them pressing us high up the pitch more. Though two decent headers in their box.

Completely agree, he's good cover and useful to have when a more physical defensive presence is needed at full back. Which you'd imagine won't be that much this season!

Wanyama was perfectly good last night with the exception of the two long range passes he put off the pitch (which will be all some people remember) and not having ESP to be stood where Fonte's rushed headed clearance landed when Sparv scored. Our DM pairing was pretty good (though it would have been a miracle to replace Schneiderlin) and we still have Clasie to come back in, the focus now is on the defence missing 3 of last season's starters, where Bertrand can't come back soon enough and we're one key CB away from looking solid again. In the meantime, these kind of things are going to happen, and some of the better players will be affected by the mistakes around them. I don't agree that we're "too attacking", there's basically no difference in how we've been playing with the 3 AMs other than that Rodriguez is a more attacking player and naturally will push forward. We've ALWAYS played with one of the 3 AMs pushing on (and even beyond) the "centre forward" position, though it does seem to be the left sider more often now, but I'd rather have any minor over-attacking adjustment happen there than nearer our own goal where it would be more costly.

He's a lot more easily replaced though. Cedric will be fine once he gets up to speed, his main problem at the moment has been us not picking Romeu and Wanyama when he's played. I thought there were a lot of positives last night in amongst Caulker being a complete donkey on the ball. Romeu can shoot a bit as well as being a pretty solid shield, Wanyama's worst performance with the ball for ages but still solid defensively even then, Yoshida's best performance at right back for us by miles, and with the exception of the goal which was a hell of a hit right into the corner and the kind of shot you just deal with (once you agree you're not meant to clear the ball into that area to begin with), we didn't really look like conceding despite their bombardment and Stokesque crowding set-pieces. They showed enough mistakes that we didn't that we should still be the better of the two sides in the away leg, though whether that translates to winning the tie, and how we're going to navigate the tricky task of scoring with the weaknesses we've shown defensively I'm not yet sure. I *think* I want us to stick with the back 6 and assume we'll get one, I'm not sure Midtjylland will be particularly attacking when they know the a goal for us is worth a lot and a goal for them isn't as valuable ( unless we've already scored). We should have won it, we didn't, we played well within ourselves barely pressurising the ball at all and we've left ourselves a difficult task.