Ex Lion Tamer

Come on you're smarter than that. The point is it's easy to take your off the ball before a big cup game, and then put in a much improved performance. I'll admit it's said more in hope than expectation though

In 2003 we lost 6-1 to arsenal in the game before the cup final, before losing 1-0 in the actual final. We can only hope that a similar effect was at play today

Imagine having an addiction problem that is destroying your life and you are trying give up gambling, but every time you turn on the TV you are bombarded with gambling advertising. It's not going to help is it. Yet banning it will have no impact on the rest of us, so why not just do it to help other people.

I think people are underrating Bertrand. He may not be able to get up and down enough for our system but against Liverpool, KWP got all the plaudits for scrapping with Mane when on the other side, Bertrand didn't give Salah an inch

If we can improve the squad and push him down to third choice striker then that's all good but I don't see the point in getting rid

MLG is making a very narrow point about what is best for Saints' chances of moving up the league and being "best of the rest", when actually as football fans more broadly many of us would just like a bit more variation at the top rather than the same old monopoly of the top six

The two fullbacks had to go out on loan to release funds to bring in a new full back. Then we didn't manage to get one so we got Minamino instead. I'm not sure about this, but regardless, I wonder if the plan was for JWP/Diallo to cover at fullback, only for that option to be kiboshed by Romeu getting injured

Interesting method. Transfermarkt seems to store historic values and had Pelle's at just £5.8m at the time, though I guess you're right that it would be higher now

It could happen once a season for the next five years and it wouldn't be sufficient reason on its own to sack Ralph, as long as other results are much better

The reason why people like Martin Semmens are good at their jobs is they base decisions on the long term rather than one-off events

Last season we played badly until Ralph realised 3 at the back wasn't working. Then we played amazing. This season we played amazing until the hectic fixture list affected the players' ability to press and caused an injury crisis which exposed our lack of cover at full back. There's every reason to hope that next season will be different and we can be playing amazing again

We've signed several players for around the £20m mark in the past. The worry is whether we can get someone of Ings' quality even for that amount. There should be bargains about at least given every clubs' financial problems

You need a Roy Keane type to watch the game with you

I'd say that Saints losing 9-0 to Man Utd having had a player sent off in the 2nd minute is about equivalent to Chelsea losing 5-2 to West Brom after having a player sent off in the 29th minute, given the relative quality of the teams. I also think the Chelsea game is further proof that teams which rely on a pressing game seem unable to function when they go down to 10 men

We had a terrible injury crisis and we didn't recruit properly at full back. But that doesn't change the fact that football is a team game and you need the right personalities. How many times have we seen teams with talented players underperforming because they don't have a team ethic? Our best hope of surviving and prospering in this league is by making the team greater than the sum of its parts

We know that if a player's attitude isn't right then Ralph will go hard on them, regardless of ability. One of his first tasks was to change the team culture and get rid of the bad eggs. Wasn't there a story about Cedric getting roasted for looking at his phone in the treatment room instead of talking to? We've also seen rumours about Hoedt, Slattery, Obafemi, Lemina etc, all of whom are now out of the picture. It's confusing for us as fans because we don't see what's going on in the dressing room but Ralph may well have his reasons for not picking Jankewitz

Branfoot points per game: 1.13 Ralph points per game: 1.35 Puel: 1.37

So now you want a striker who doesn't ever make mistakes? You probably ought to go support Man City because your expectations are ridiculous

Great finish for the disallowed goal

So you want our two wingers to be scoring 10 each, and then presumably the strikers even more, perhaps 20 each? Is there any team in the league that has that sort of output across the front four?

I hope he does well but I couldn't find much evidence on their forum beyond him being "half decent" against Stanley. Seems like a bit of a non story

You have to go beyond stats though and look at pace, because slow players can easily hit a ceiling when they move up a level, whereas faster players can learn and adapt

Who is better: Adams or Ormerod? I think Adams, which means he can do a job for us

I don't think many people are saying he should be our lead striker next season. Just that he is a decent support striker for a club at our level

Indeed, he came back into the team after 10 months out and we suddenly kept 6 clean sheets in a row. People said it was luck then as well. https://www.southamptonfc.com/news/2016-02-28/forster-sets-new-southampton-record The problems came later when he lost his confidence