The9

Rochdale on April 12th as expected (and the best scenario for Saints). http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2299378,00.html

Which is fine if there's any chance the season won't be completed with all teams playing the same number of matches...

Brighton are nothing special, I watched them get stuffed on Saturday by a mediocre but big Stoke team and their weaknesses at set pieces and down their left flank were all too obvious. "More relaxed" ? Let's hope so, they could just as easily get overconfident as play more effectively. The long and short of it is they have the same number of games to play as Saints but you don't seem to think they'll drop any points because of it, whilst you DO think Saints will. It's a ridiculous double standard whether you think the 8 point gap is too much or not.

Scott Parker's one for Charlton that went right in the top corner and Niemi didn't bother to move.

Before my time but 4-2-4 was also popular (though even though Brazil won in 1970 with it I'd be very surprised if Ramsey's wingless success didn't spawn 4-4-2s everywhere in England overnight, we're still fighting the legacy even now).

Your claims of Gabriel wearing 6 and your use of W formation don't tally. The left half was number 6, Gabriel was a right half (according to Wikipedia). Mind you he could have been a 6-wearing right half in a WM alongside a number 4 at left half. Or a number 5 and 6 Centre Back partnership in a 4 man defence.

This is exactly the kind of thinking I'm referring to with "Prutton Theory". Martin has had far fewer games to be shown to be making mistakes in than Seaborne, that doesn't necessarily mean he'll be better at dealing with them when they do come his way. It only means we don't know - and as it's in the manager's interests to pick the best side for the situation, I'd imagine that Adkins has seen both of them in a lot more situations and knows where their strengths and weaknesses are far better than us - and Martin's not even getting a look in on a 7 man bench most games. His TOTAL appearances for Saints are as follows : Football League One Sa 01May 2010 Gillingham 2 - 1 Southampton Football League One Sa 08May 2010 Southampton 3 - 1 Southend Carling Cup Tu 24Aug 2010 Southampton 0 - 1 Bolton Football League One Sa 28Aug 2010 Bristol R 0 - 4 Southampton Football League One Sa 04Sep 2010 Southampton 0 - 2 Rochdale Football League One Sa 11Sep 2010 Swindon 1 - 0 Southampton English FA Cup Sa 08Jan 2011 Southampton 2 - 0 Blackpool And of those I've only missed Bristol Rovers away and Swindon away... so how anyone else is building a finite decision on him is beyond me. I've only got a picture of a reasonably strong, solid defender who is decent in the air, isn't slow, can pass when he has time, but has a tendency to industrial clearance into the stand or up the pitch. Beyond that he could be brilliant or garbage. I've seen Seaborne loads, I've seen him concede two silly penalties and get done for pace against one of the division's top scorers but also pass the ball very well, win plenty in the air and look very solid alongside Fonte, and I'm still not sure where all the hate is coming from.

I think you're probably right, Jaidi will get another year due to his Championship experience and we might want to see if he's still got the legs. I wouldn't be surprised if we did that AND signed another Championship-level centre back in the summer though.

One other thing, Jaidi is on a downward career slope and may not be up to it if we get to the npC next season - how are we meant to assess if Seaborne or Martin, (who clearly has shown some potential well above the Conference South level we signed him from in his occasional performances) has the quality to replace him if they never get a game ?

He's one of the best outside the Prem, I'd say.

I didn't say anything of the sort. I don't think I even implied it. I also wouldn't be in the mindset of suggesting the defence played well when we conceded 4 goals. Fonte did ok when individually called upon to challenge, but no-one is going to look good at the back for a team conceding 4 goals even if there's nothing they can do about it. We were overrun from midfield and a lack of pressure on the ball due to Peterborough moving it quickly, us getting caught in behind a few times and sometimes just not getting there quick enough. With Jaidi we'd have just not got there even more slowly.

In future, every time I slag off Cortese for springing the Season Tickets on us last summer, can someone please remind me that whilst he's around we won't have to listen to Mike Osman ? I've decided it's a fair trade. I'd also like to point out that this thread has set a new Internet Record for illiteracy. Well done, everyone.

Ah Prutton Theory. Aka "absence makes the heart grow fonder". He's not shown anything more than Seaborne in the opportunities he has had.

Actually the side Seaborne was playing against played well. Fonte wasn't exactly glorious there either, though he didn't get exposed - but that could be down to the roles they were taking on and who they were meant to be marking.

We'd have conceded about 8 if Jaidi had played at Peterborough. Seaborne got done for pace chasing Mackail-Smith, Jaidi wouldn't even have been near enough after the first two steps to be considered "defending". He's much better against immobile lumps of target men.

I'd say the coverage depends on whether you're listening on FM, MW or DAB... and they're all better than the internet radio stream ! Can't say it bothers me except if we're away and I'm not going.

He's on Facebook...

Hm, good point. I had heard we weren't reducing them. Fair enough the charity element, but this is the kind of weird "business interests are behind everything, but secondary when it suits him" thing that I can't reconcile with Cortese. Wring every penny out of everything, except give a load of kit you could sell at half price to fans away for free... And yes, I am aware this isn't remotely close to being anything other than you making a suggestion at this point !

Whilst Alpine has decided that no-one will be catching Brighton, and that Saints' run-in will be adversely affected by having to play more games than other sides, he doesn't seem to think it'll have the same effect on Brighton, who have played the same number of games as Saints. Fancy. In fact, due to the snow and frost in December, and in Brighton's case a run to the FA Cup 5th Round, EVERYONE has a fixture pile-up. Our squad (2 players for nearly every position, see above) leaves us better placed to challenge than anyone.

Probably the same reason as me, when we were flogging them off at the end of the season in the Prem and CCC, they were only £10 and it was worth splashing out for the hell of it. I have 4 or 5 of the sky blue Prem/CCC away shirts, various long and short sleeved, number and numberless combinations. It also happened to be our Saints Internet FC team kit for a while so I bought some backups just in case.

I'm not starting an argument with anyone who has an Ollie Lancashire match worn Grimsby shirt !

...if still worse teams.

The flipside being the injuries we've already had have already caused players to miss fewer games than they might have. Something else I've just noticed, in 4 of the 5 available Tuesdays we've got a home game on the following Saturday (and an away game the weekend before).

Any of them sound just great... are you interested in selling ?

Just so we're actually arguing about the facts, the dashes indicate free midweek slots (one of which will be Rochdale Away) : Tu 22Feb 2011 Hartlepool A Sa 26Feb 2011 Swindon H Tu 01Mar 2011 Walsall A Sa 05Mar 2011 Colchester A Tu 08Mar 2011 Yeovil H Sa 12Mar 2011 Bournem'th A Tu 15Mar 2011 - Sa 19Mar 2011 Sheff Wed H Tu 22Mar 2011 Charlton A Sa 26Mar 2011 Plymouth A Tu 29Mar 2011 - Sa 02Apr 2011 MK Dons H Tu 05Apr 2011 Charlton H Sa 09Apr 2011 L Orient A Tu 12Apr 2011 - Sa 16Apr 2011 Bristol R H Tu 19 Apr 2011 - Sa 23Apr 2011 Brighton A Mo 25Apr 2011 Hartlepool H Sa 30Apr 2011 Brentford A Tu 03May 2011 - Sa 07May 2011 Walsall H As there's no "good" time to go to Rochdale away, personally I'd be angling for April 12th, sandwiched between a not-so-far trip to Orient and lowly Bristol Rovers at home... And far from "every" midweek, we've got 4 free midweek slots left even after Rochdale's rearranged.