The9

I've been saying they'll be up in three seasons for the best part of two seasons. They keep seeing that they have bigger crowds than the rest of League 2 and signing mediocre and over-priced players because they think bigger wages guarantee better players - whilst at that level coaching, organisation and motivation are the things that get you up, and the ability to get the best out of players with something to prove is what gets the teams working harder than anyone else and getting success. Meanwhile they're signing players who don't have to prove themselves and mostly don't put in the effort. As far as "marginally better than this time last season", they won their last 5 last season. Albeit after hanging around the bottom 5 for months.

Either that or we're the worst of the top 7 elite. The gap in points suggests that's more accurate.

You mean when we were completely skint with a squad full of kids, the corners of the ground closed, and scraping to save money anywhere possible? Hardly a comparable situation.

He's more likely to be right than not...

Surely if he had more than 8 caps he'd have sodded off to join Liverpool or Man U at the first opportunity..?

But they are the same person, so "Batman IS DellDays" is accurate.

That's actually a long running joke on here already. As is "I'm Dan Kerins" in certain circles.

It's not just you, but you were the one that said we had 10 cup finals left, weren't you?

I suspect if he can run and we've got nothing to play for in the last match he'll get 5 minutes in injury time at the Etihad. Of course, Saints being Saints we'll probably have to use the third sub before that, like when Le Tiss didn't get his Premier League goodbye.

You've never thought to allocate the second ticket to another account number?

I can't believe Cabbage is finally out.

Reed isn't suspended, ban takes effect from the 14th of the month for non first team matches.

We lost Lovren and Shaw, and also shipped out the keeper, that's hardly "keeping our key defensive players". I agree with you about the concern that we won't always be as successful in replacing those who leave, however, so there's a first time for everything.

Worst thread ever. Though I do suspect MLG has just discovered alcopops.

I'm assuming the myth is that he was a wonderful manager that dragged us kicking and screaming to 8th with his wily tactics and that without him we'd be Adkinsing around 17th. Though I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone actually say it, and there is certainly an element of "Pochettino's Plan A got us to 8th last season" along with the players improving on the previous season. So it's not really a myth, it actually happened, and he should certainly get some of the credit. The fact we didn't even look like coming top 6 like we have this season is where the discussion about relative success needs to happen...

F'sure.

Leaders in the implementation of pedantic though integrated expenses systems without actual GPS monitoring. Lovely. "After a rigorous search back in early 2012 the club piloted Software Europe’s expenses cloud service, which was rolled out on a group of 50 trainers working for the Saints’ Foundation Trust. " Reading between the lines this comes across as Cortese getting narky that the charity people, who Saints are forced to have by Supporters' Charter dictat (or similar), were claiming whole miles compared to exact distances and draining whole pennies' worth of mileage and working hours. We know there was only room for one dictator in Cortese's business. Presumably the injectable tracking chips weren't available at the time. Did he sign his own expenses, anyone know?

Agreed that we should have had someone coming in onto Bertrand's cross. But maybe Bertrand crossing it is the bit that's wrong, not players not attacking it? We all know slinging something across the edge of the 6 yard box is a good tactic as defenders are facing the wrong way, etc., but what if the stats show we're better off keeping the ball and working it through the middle? It would explain why we don't attack the ball. Barcelona have a lot to answer for - they keep the ball in those situations, but they also have world class players to unlock organised defences. Pelle's had a few headed chances, almost all of which have glanced off his head. The other stuff, good examples. But if that's against what he's been asked to do, or is so unsatisfactory to management, why hasn't Pelle been left out? He's not been so essential to us with his height that he can't be replaced by either Mane or Long up top, and it's not really like we use the early lofted link ball into him as much as earlier in the season. I think part of it is that what we've moved to seems to discourage Clyne to overlap and Pelle comes short and lays off on the deck, but as you say, he doesn't seem to be involved after that. He is still pulling away from his marker into space and linking play on the floor, did he ever then turn and sprint into the box, even when he was scoring?

You were included in the universe of "everyone" there, David. What's the specific Pochettino myth you're referring to?

Ha, you went straight for the Lambert vein. I'm not sure it's a race thing as opposed to a "trying hard" thing though, but maybe I'm giving thickoes too much credit. Personally I think all players with the kind of conditioning this lot have should be flat out moving, creating space and working themselves all over the place to create openings when the ball is within a 40 yard pass of them, but for some reason that's just not what happens any more, and you get players waiting for specific triggers to activate them rather than just taking things into their own hands and making it happen. That isn't be be confused with "just headless running a lot", this is running with the specific purpose of closing down to press the ball, or create space, or make a run that pulls defenders out of position, or whatever other method is needed to get the most effective outcome from the players on the pitch in any given scenario. That stuff also needs skill and execution to make something happen, but it's a lot easier to make a penetrating pass when the defender is 4 yards away from the attacker rather than them being stood on top of a stationary striker.

Oh come on now, this is Pochettino, not Harry Redknapp.

I think it's just the one guy on this occasion.

I say Pelle's "lack of movement" (which I'm still yet to see, and I've spent the last few matches specifically watching his movement) is partially because of coaching, yes. Our lack of goals is a side-effect of that, just as Mane's streak of goals a while back was down to Pelle pulling out of the area where he was easily marked to make space for Mane to run into. I formed my conclusions regarding the levels of coaching based on watching Seager in the U21s doing almost exactly the same things around the area as Pelle, including the goalkeeper lurking thing when the keeper has the ball in his hands which I regard as an absolute waste of time and a very good way to get your striker booked and put him in an offside position when he could be chasing a ball back in on goal. But there's obviously some stat which shows that having a player in keeper's vision but not able to block a clearance is conducive to a worse kick, or something. An absolute pile of the things players do are pure coaching, triggers for movement and unlearning previous behaviours to do things for specific reasons and yes, that probably includes standing on the edge of the box when someone's chucking the ball into the area - or at the very least being over-produced so that you think you're meant to be doing that rather than the obvious stuff. I'll defer to people who are actually involved in coaching this sort of level about whether it happens like this or not, but I've seen enough coaching-based stuff to think it can be the case.

Because troll, that's why. Some positions are indefensible and this is one of them. He's clearly been as good this season as last, we're on the brink of our highest ever Prem finish, he's been one of our most consitently good players. You can't get to the levels Schneiderlin is at by half-ar5ing it, so there's no question at all that he's been completely professional and committed. You'd also have to be a complete mentalist to think we'd have got anyone remotely as good in to replace him in the kind of timescales we were talking about. Even now there's concern that with a year to plan a sale and replacement we might end up significantly worse off when he surely leaves.