The9

You're not alone.

My top 3. 1. Bearsy 2. Redslo 3. CB Fry Dishon. mention to Turdish. Obvs I can't vote for myself or I would.

Just for the record, Doncaster's average attendance last season was 6807, they've been around the 9-11k mark in Championship and 7000 in L1. Not really a surprise a team getting 15k for 4 of the last 5 seasons can outbid them. More surprising the likes of Sheff U weren't interested... if he's any good.

If they get their point, it also means Man City are guaranteed second, which is beneficial to Saints.

I bought an F1 car on eBay in February for a quid, I have more chance of seeing that again than you would. I shall be betting on Newport only for relegation when those odds finally come out. Just for the record, the reason the Skate odds are so short is (again) because they're all betting on it - when I went on oddschecker the other day it showed betting activity levels, and there are loads more bets on them than any others (unsurprising given the relative fanbases in League 2), rather than the bookies thinking they're a decent bet.

Anyone else having a train-related nightmare due to the pending strike on the Monday? Cos we sure as hell are. Hotel booked for Sat and Sunday night, train back due to be 2pm on Monday but already no services on Cross-Country from Manchester or on Virgin all day Monday or Tuesday, and despite the tickets now being valid on the Sunday or the Wednesday (and tickets being valid for pretty much any route on the Monday itself), they suggest travelling "the day before at a similar time to that on the ticket" - which of course is slap bang in the middle of the match, not to mention the hotel booking for the Sunday night being non-refundable. We could get the train ticket back and get flights, but that's an extra £120. Which is about twice what we paid in the first place. So... hoping for the strike getting pulled, or we're going to be stuck... somewhere... on Monday. EDIT: Strike Cancelled.

Well this is all well and nice, but I think I'd rather watch Arsenal v Sunderland, at least until it becomes a foregone conclusion.

Their number 5 was better than anyone our academy has put in the first team this season. Might not come through City's team but he'll have a career somewhere.

It is impossible to play football when you are constantly off balance and needing to fight a battle and readjust just to be able to put the ball where you want to, and that's why our mostly slight, short, technical players would struggle in adult football at the moment.

Just a weird way of looking at things. We stuffed a team that was terrible defensively, who offered little threat. That doesn't mean we never need a defensive shield again. As for "readiness to learn", at this point we need to be buying "already knows". Schneiderlin being on the pitch correlates with almost a goal a game more scored than conceded.

Stick white stripes on it before they do the club branding, same kit.

Which imminently departing player will be lying through his teeth this year as he unconvincingly answers questions about representing Saints next season? Worth a watch if only to feed the rumour mill, as Lallana did last season with his remarkably distant answers and occasional accidental use of the past tense.

Correct, not identical. Only 90% of the design is the same. Still a lot more similar than any of Stoke's kits. Same shape, same two colours, same pattern, same *halo* collar, same material. Just missing the stripes and different logos for the different clubs.

Oh, and completely unrelated to football, but does anyone know which of these 3 options were chosen back in October? They're all crap, I was just wondering.

Interesting to see the new Benfica shirt is identical to Saints with the exception of the lack of white stripes (and the location of the adidas logo and different sponsors, obvs). Can't see from this whether the sleeve shapes are the same or not, but the tape around the bottom leads me to believe it's the same template.

It's a week old already. He's a good player and would get the best out of Lovren. So we should re-sign Lovren.

Or Gaston?

Something not far off that got us a point at Chelsea. Though I do have my doubts that anyone apart from Forster could have done what he did in goal that match.

I'd say the struggle in breaking teams down is because of what doesn't happen in front of the defensive players, not because of those defensive players, how quickly THEY move the ball, or the formation. Stick the likes of Coutinho, Aguero or Sanchez up there and we'd be scoring more too. The issue is that we don't have the budget (or possibly the profile) to get that kind of quality in.

If that happens this season, different outcome.

Not to mention that the OP only said "since Le Tiss", so there's Strachan and his cup final team, the JPT winners (who stayed in L1), and, er, Burley's play-off losers that had any kind of claim to being remotely decent for Saints in that entire period that our back-to-back promotion manager has to compete with for this particular definition of top 3 legend status. Oh, and of course depending on Sunday's outcome, potentially Koeman and this lot for getting into Europe after the meltdown. ------------------------ Thanks to Saint-Armstrong for that also.

I watched Swansea v City on Sunday, and Mangala was indeed a liability, they still won 4-2 though.

Seager was poor last night btw. A couple of runs with the ball when a pass would have been a better option, terrible finish in the one effort he had which he should have buried, with time on the edge of the box, didn't even work the keeper. After that, Man City took over and he didn't get much opportunity to do anything much. It did occur to me that if we're playing the same style throughout the club, a 5ft 9(ish) nippy box player isn't really being utilised to his maximum potential trying to pretend to be Graziano Pelle. Though Sam McQueen did a hell of a job of looking like that's what he was trying to do from out wide.

I went too, agree that we started well, dominated possession for the opening period and created a few chances. Seager still hasn't shown me anything, and his finishing yesterday was dubious to say the least. Impressed by McQueen - again - who looks like Pelle in play and mannerisms and runs at people when it makes sense, rather than just because he hasn't seen the pass, which Seager was guilty of a few times. Our finishing yesterday was dismal. Cropper's hands were great and he made two tremendous saves, but one booming kick out of his hands aside, he didn't look very comfortable kicking off the deck - if he can sort that out he could be first team material, and I suspect that's what's holding him back. I don't agree regarding Mugabi - he was excellent in the League Cup Final and looked first team ready - he was withdrawn and tentative against City though, and absolutely got caned over and over again because he was getting no support from the narrow midfield in front of him. City just played it into the 20 yards of space in front of him and then down his flank in a two on one over and over, and at no point did we do anything to help him out. Though the slowness in reacting to the ball into the corner for their first(?) was down to him. Not a patch on his Cup Final performance and made me reevaluate how good I think he can be despite it mostly not being his fault. Which is also why I disagree on Hesketh's performance. He's fine when he has the ball, or if there's an obvious cause to chase, but positionally (and certainly in strength terms) I'm unconvinced. Someone needs to see that the right back is being exposed to a 2-on-1 and help out. Reed did Reed stuff, decent quick low passing, harried a lot. Nevertheless City's number 5 was a class apart, short guy with power who deflected everything to a teammate and took control when the game was close. Their 8 who scored the second, and brought one of the better saves out of Cropper, had a wicked bending shot when given time and played his part along with their compact 10 in running the show going forward. Sims was the sub on the left, I've described him as "Lallana with pace" before, but he hasn't really had much of a chance when I've been watching. I thought Targett had an absolute mare, at least as bad as Mugabi despite not having the attack coming down his side all of the time. Gave the ball away frequently with loose passes and got completely done at one point by a faked pass with the guy just turning him and driving into the box, Targett trying to hack him down and missing. Gallagher looked composed, comfortable on the ball, usually played the right pass and along with McQueen was one of the few bright spots. Not convinced on either Cook or McCarthy's performances at centre back - their 9 pulling to the halfway line from the edge of the box would have confused a lot of more experienced centre backs, but too often they didn't make decisions early enough or clearly enough and there was confusion where there didn't need to be. It was reasonably even until nearly half time after Saints' started on top, but became a no contest after the first goal and I don't think Saints had a shot of note in the second half.

Team confirmed, no Rodriguez.