Alanh

I believe that under the regular Sky/BT deal 5 matches of every round are televised across Friday to Monday. That hasn't changed but the other 5 matches are also on PPV and so are fitted in around the other games. I dont think the slot which is PPV is fixed every week.

Mods - any chance you can get Turkish and MLG to stop the petty bickering? Turkish is all over almost every post MLG makes - it's borderline cyber bullying.

The only bit you have to pay for is the TV license. You can chose not to pay for Sky and BT and PPV. If you do decide to pay for them you do so in the knowledge that not every match played will be broadcast live, so where is the problem? Following your logic of other countries getting what we can not get should their residents be complaining that they don't have the opportunity to buy a ticket and go to a game (when stadiums are open)? Agreed that would be fair, but you aren't subscribing to a fair system, you are dealing with a semi regulated commercial system which will try to sell the most attractive package to get as many subscribers as possible. I think 'fair' is a notional concept when the Premier League strikes TV rights deals.

I don't really buy into the outrage at the PPV concept or cost. If you have already paid for Sky or BT then you know that (in normal times) not every game will be broadcast live so you weren't expecting to see every Saints game as part of your package. The end of last season was an anomoly in that the relevant parties got together and agreed to broadcast every game but there was no agreement that would continue for ever and the clubs had to pay money back to the broadcasters as part of the deal. £15 PPV is not compulsory so like all things if you don't think it's good value don't pay it, just wait for MOTD.

Grealish brings something different to the England team, but its so frustrating seeing him go down every time he is touched as it just slows the pace of the attack down. It's not necessarily his fault he gets foulted so much but I think the team would benefit if he moved the ball on quickly more often. He can play a dangerous pass so it's not about ability. When we are under pressure it's fine to draw a foul to give us time to regroup, but it must be so frustrating for the team when players are making runs and the attack is repeatedly being stopped.

Two reasons. Firstly, matchday revenue for the big 6 is a much smaller percentage of their overall revenue than it is for the rest of the PL. Secondly, they can make up that shortfall by playing more international friendlies, or foreign PL matches (like the NFL and NBA) in the time freed up by the removal of the League Cup, Comm shield and reduced number of PL fixtures.

Based on the recently introduced Salary Cost Management Protocol (SCMP) 60 per cent of a club's turnover in League One can be spent on players' wages. In League Two it is 55 per cent. Club owners can inject equity (not loans) to top up the turnover and be able to increase wages. More analysis here if you are interested.

If I may say so politely, your view seems very narrow and focussed on Saints and your concern over what money we may or may not have to spend. Put yourself in the shoes of fans of lower league clubs who are just as passionate about their teams as you are about Saints. Wouldn't you be desperate to find some help out of the COVID situation with a club to support? Perhaps you might hope that the PL could agree to divert £5M of the £120M it gives to each PL team each season to help support the budgets League 1 and 2 clubs who currently have next to no income.

Some clubs will always occasionally get into financial difficulty becuase of bad management decisions. The situation now is completely different. All lower league teams have lost their main revenue stream due to circumstances outside their control and many (most) are in desperate need of help to prevent them folding. In relative terms the big money in the game is in the PL so asking them to help out in combination with the Govt in these exceptional circumstances seems like a reasonable request. If you can't see incredible wealth in the PL then you are completely out of touch. To illustrate - a typical League 2 club works on an annual budget £2M. The claimed average wage of a PL player is £250K a month.

Only if you chose to think about things in incredibly simplistic terms. The league pyramid in interconnected by promotion relegation and cup competitions which theoretically mean any team has a chance of playing any other. It's absolutly right that clubs which can't have paying customers at the moment are supported in some way and redistribution of the incredible weath of the Premier League is the best way that football can help itself at the moment. Hopefully other initiatives like PPV of lower league matches will also be implemented to help prop up finances until crowds can come back.

Good response to the Spurs game from RH and the team. Got the tactics spot on and thought we were the better team overall (mainly through first half performance). A game against Burnely when they have Chris Wood as their target man is always going to be predictable and never going to be easy so I thought we did well to manage the game out. The fact that OR and JWP didn't get bookings made them much more effective throughout. Off days creatively for Armstrong and Djenepo which stifled the supply to the front two. Hopefully they will not both have bad days too often again.

I don't partucularly disagree other than I think 'leadership' is a character trait which doesn't necessarily rely on age. A 25 year old CB (relatively young for the position) could easily be the leader of the defence. I don't think we have found that character trait with our CB signings and have missed it badly. If Salisu becomes first choice I think he will partner Stephens.

It's not just us. Man U have spent loads on average / poor (for their standard) CBs over the last few years and in that time have never had a settled partnership out of Bailly, Lindelof, Smalling, Jones, Maguire etc. ManC haven't settled on a defence after Company left. It's been a shorter period of time, but they are still going through the process of finding a new partnership . Both teams can have their pick of the world's best, but haven't got it right yet.

duplicate

Palace did to us what we did to Man City after the restart. Score on the break then defend like your life depends on it. Sometimes you get lucky and block every shot that comes in, sometimes you cave and concede a load. We created two excellent chances which their keeper saved. If one of them had gone in the game would have been different as Palace wouldn't have been able to sit back as much and we would have had more confidence. I think that's a good illustration of the fine margins that can make a difference. Overall that type of game is still a problem for RH to solve, just as it has been for his whole time with us. Probably a 5 / 10 performance from the team with few standout performances either good or bad.

Completely agree.

He's a moneyball signing. His stats for defensive work like ball recovery and tackles in opposition half are up there with the best in the league. He's got great credentials in terms of what he does when his side don't have the ball, but we know that he isn't the best in terms of ceativity or using the ball when he has it. If a manager believes that his side needs to improve on the defensive side then PEH is a good option. I think that's why he massively appeals to Everton, who need to be better in that area. I guess for Spurs he is a replacement for the likes of Dier (now that he is a centre back) and Wanyama, although I still think Sissoko does the job better for them than PEH would.

Understandable performance given how many changes were made. Hopefully we can put out full strength teams in the remaining matches. The big learnings are that we have little strength in depth ourside the current first 11. Injuries to Djenepo and Boufal aren't helping and the youth players are still learning - Obafemi, Smallbone and Vokins - so will be inconsistent and may find the game passes them by sometimes, but they will develop with more game time. Obafemi reminds me of Antonio when he was with us - powerful but lacking ball control. If he develops as Antonio has we will have a great player in a few years. Vestergaard and Hoj looked rusty as they have had relatively little game time and Hoj was playing out of position. Perhaps it would have been better to swap him and JWP during the first half. Not surprising that we played like strangers in the first half as there were so many changes. Also Romeu's yellow would have clipped his wings a bit so we weren't as effective in the middle of the field. Excellent turnaround in the second half. Every part of the team seemed to benefit from the changes, not just the positions that the new players took up. Again that shows how important our settled first 11 is.

Decent game of football. Momentum swung from one team to the other throughout. Fair result really. A couple more wins are possible this season. Neville said we could do with a bit more quality in the final third and that was all that we were missing tonight for the win.

Perhaps it's a perk of being a Subscribed user, which both you and Cumbria Saint are, and which neither I nor alehouseboys are.

The new site is great. The instructions above work well on Chrome on my desktop PC. Any idea why the circle or star to the left of the thread heading isn't showing up when I view on the forum on my mobile or tablet - Both using Android Chrome?

The death rate is as low as it is because the lockdown measures have suppressed transmission (the R number) to between 0.5 and 1 so the NHS has capacity to treat the sick who need it. Without lockdown, the transmission rate would have been nearer 2.5 to 3 (according to early estimates) and then the NHS would have been swamped and unable to cope. The point of the lockdown is primarily to protect the NHS so that as many people who need treatment can get it.

I am pretty sure davefoggy is on a wind up. He's deliberately sticking to the simple - let's go back to normal - line without any recognition of any other issues. Either that or he's very simplistic in his outlook on life and incapable of seeing the bigger picture.

If you are missing it, there is an ePL FIFA tournament being broadcast on the BBC and Michael Obafemi is playing Tony Bellew now. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/52504381

Forster - He'd fill a 5 a side goal and has been a decent shot stopper. Fonte - Can play a pass and make a block Lallana - Tricks and flicks JWP - Energy and dead ball stuff Lambert - Great first touch and knows where the goal is.