Chez

Manning and Stewart were both 27 when they signed for us. Other players 27 and over that we have signed them on permanent deals include Lallana, Taylor, Fraser, Lumley, Onuachu, Orsic, Caballero, Pied, Pelle, Long. Not that many, but in the PL we were losing £30m a year before player sales. Unless the club sells players it goes broke very quickly. Hence signing younger players with resale potential.

i wonder if we will fall short when playing sides like coventry and wrexham away. We aren't terrible, but the league doesn't lie...we aren't top drawer either. I was rather hoping the run of wins would just snowball, but saturday undermined that a little.

Still all to play for, but if we want to make the play offs we need a result. Could be 6 or even 7 points adrift, which feels like a lot.

I reckon he will stay injury free now this season. Picking up injuries doesn't have to go on forever We have Larin to come on to share the load and the club has to have learned from the mistake they made last time about playing him in three full games in a week after only previously playing for 15 minutes.

Edozie tends to play on the left. No reason he can't play on the right I suppose or come on to replace Scienza if he is isn't pulling up and trees. He's a good option off the bench - someone that will attempt to take the fullback on almost every chance he gets.

Surprisingly no. Not quite. "Well, [there will] definitely be structural things to learn, but also, you know, [a] few other things as well…”

The onus is on him to play games and score goals to get that extension or a new contract elsewhere. In simple terms, the more and better he plays the bigger the next contract (I'd assume an extension with us will more lucrative than a deal elsewhere). From what I have seen of him since he came back, he chucks himself into the game fully, going into tackles, the works. There is nothing half hearted about his play. He isn't going to hold back.

bollocks. Was hoping for an evening game, maybe a beer or two beforehand. Always better under lights.

Thanks for posting. So it looks like any Saints fan can apply to be on the FAB. And the decision as to who gets on the FAB will be done democratically going forward - thanks to your enquiry. Will you be applying EssEffCee?

If he plays the rest of the season without injury, plays entire 90+ minutes and performs well/scores goals, then it will be hard to release him for free. It may be harder for us to ignore his previous injury problems than a new suitor, which means he may get a better offer elsewhere, but if he's scored vital goals for us in the run in, then we'll no doubt have recency bias and want to keep him.

They don't tend to lose to lower league teams in the fa cup very often. Oldham about 7 years ago stands out.

Cov in front. proper game this. Electric atmosphere. Feels almost like a play off semi.

Fulham away in the FA cup. Lovely. Big away crowd, half a chance of an upset. Look forward to it.

Good choice. We need them to do just enough to send the skates down.

Matsuki lacks a yard of pace, so he is never going to go outside of the fullback, but he retains the ball well and makes good runs without the ball. So you win and lose with him. I'd go Fellows every time, but having someone you can trust to come off the bench and continue the momentum is no bad thing. I say 'continue', as I am not sure Matsuki brings an injection of anything. I think on the other wing, Edozie also brings more of the same attacking intent that we expect from Scienza, so we maybe have got some depth on the wing at last. I'd take Charles over Bragg. I was so impressed with him in the last league game. We have some good competition for places. Everything looks rosey in the garden when you are winning games. I hope the wheels don't fall off. potentially losing a keeper and two defenders to injury is a little concerning.

I enjoyed the game. It wasn't the highest quality and there was very little goalmouth action, but it was great to see the wider squad and young guys coming through. The tickets were cheap, so had no issues with effectively watching the reserves. I'd of put out a side like that if I was Tonda, although I thought he might gives Charles some more playing time as he has been coming back from injury. There were some negatives. Archer looked poor. His first touch is just not good enough when space is tight. He looks like a league 1 player to me. I thought Jelert looked lightweight. He was extremely passive and nowhere near strong enough for the championship. He improved in the second half, and to be fair Mavadidi didn't expose him, but I've no idea who thought he was a better option than Bree. I wasn't impressed by Romeu. He looked slow and can see why he isn't making match day squads. The same can be said of Long. He isn't good enough for the Championship. The positives though outweighed the negatives. The two centre backs looked pretty solid. Bragg looked at home at this level. I was disappointed when Edozie went off. He was exciting and a handful. Azaz continue to show his quality and Larin did some good things before fading. I really liked O'Brien-Whitmarsh when he came on. I liked Aluko for them. Not sure how strong he is defensively, but he's a very talented player with the ball.

i agree and think that will be the side. unfortunately, when you chuck 11 players together like this for the first time, they tend to look like they have never played together before. leicester will probably be the same. it could be a really poor quality game.

As Sunderland (and Forest beforehand) have shown, you can be miles off the pace in the league, go up via the play offs and then survive in the PL. Obviously we were utter shit last time, but I'd certainly like another go at it. Don't get promoted and you have one season left with parachute payments before things get very tough. As we are likely to play our reserves again (as we did against Donny), the FA cup isn't going to impact our league form other than interrupting our good run of form. A week off for the first team shouldn't hurt too much. It's been a slog of games recently, so a break is propably handy.

Winning the FA cup as a non PL team feels impossible these days. If you have a middling championship team like ours, it is maybe almost futile? If there are no shocks and the higher placed team wins the fourth round tie, this would be who is left: Arsenal Man City Chelsea Liverpool Aston Villa Sunderland Brentford Fulham West Ham Leeds Burnley Wolves Ipswich Bristol City Southampton Norwich A lot of decent PL sides there. We'd then have a one in five chance of getting a Championship side in the next round. Obviously there could be a host of shocks and the picture would be different. Not sure why I posted this, but I guess I was trying to see just how difficult it is for a lower league side to avoid a PL team and sneak through to the later rounds. Despite this, I've got a ticket and hope we can win.

fuck me, why does every football authority do its utter best to fuck up football just for the sake of a few more quid? When will these cunts realise that their job is to preserve the qualities of the game not maximise revenue?

Taking chances is crucial. You can play like shit, but if your goal scorers are red hot, they can get you out of jail. I think having some fullbacks fit allowing us to play four at the back is really important. I really have no faith in five at the back. It worked for Koeman and RM to stop the rot, and I can understand using it against someone like City, but we should not be playing it when we have midfielders better than our opponents. Having a target man up front also key. We have made it far too easy for opposing CBs. We have very few injuries now (assuming Peretz can play), we are on a wining run, confidence should be pretty high and a come back win should really bring the team together. There are no excuses now. The head coach and players have to make 6th place happen.

Nice analysis. I was away watching the Ashes so missed that period of games. I put our defeats down to my lack of attention 😉 I wonder now that we have a settled side and formation opponents might work us out again? Is there enough variety in our game? The subs during the week improved us in terms of individual performances but also changed our patterns of play a little too which flummuxed Leicester. Keeping a settled side is usually a good thing, but it may be no bad thing for us to keep the back four but change the players further forward every now and then. I am sure injuries and tiredness will force that anyway.

Did we ever work out why things went from ripping teams apart under Tonda to no wins in seven?

Or some other random keeper!

That's a vertical stripes elongation myth buster of a video if there ever was one.