Chez

I am not a fan of his, and I have stated he was 'weak', but plenty of keepers in the Premier League have had issues at set pieces this season with opposing teams packing the six yard box and making it very difficult for the keeper to move around/command the six yard box. For the second goal there was a WBA backing into him making it almost impossible to get to the cross. That tactic is problem for lots of keepers, not just Baz.

i wondered about that, we drop off and its easy for them to get into our third of the pitch quickly, but not sure we want to withdraw a CB when they are hoofing it into the box.

hope you are wrong.

if it keeps Sienza fit then it might be a price worth paying?

where the fuck was Quarshie? I want to see him in that six yard box winning absolutely everything like Jaidi used to do.

Pretty happy, but ever so slightly annoyed as I had us wining 3-1. Great to smash teams in the first half of games. I wonder if we have it in us to bounce back in a game if we go behind?

three centre backs and we we still look weak as piss at corners. Not helped by Baz being easily manhandled (no var to protect him from fouls) and unable to command his six yard box. Opposing teams may have spotted a weakness in our game.

Can we sack the set piece coach. Waste of fucking time. Spend the money on pies for fans or something less pointless.

Block 29 has been sold out pretty much every week since we opened the stadium. Now its pretty much empty as there is little desire from those Kingsland regulars to sit next to the away fans and the Itchen block 1-3 folks simply have not moved over there. Bit of a shame. I've considered sitting in the Chapel next to the aways but its pretty empty. Is there much banter between the fans over there?

a Saturday 3pm game would be nice. Can't imagine TV will be interested in us, so a distinct possibility.

I wouldn't be against it, but from Tonda's point of view, has Baz made mistakes that would have him pressing the board for a replacement? He made a couple of tremendous saves on Saturday. I'd of thought Tonda would be pretty happy with him to be honest. Give it time and that may change.

for the midlands clubs, we are effectively their longest (least attractive) away trip. They are 'spoiled' in that regard. Lots of closer decent away games. hard core away fans only then. Fair play to anyone who travels midweek.

Donny. Excellent. It's been a while since we've been to the Keepmoat. Preferred going to Belle Vue, but it will be great to play up there again. How many tickets will we get?

I wonder which gooner they will wank over this time?

I think the promotion places are still wide open. Cov might be too far clear, even if they have a dip, but Boro are nothing special and could easily go on a bad run. Win the next two, which will be hard and suddenly, like Cov, we might haver the air of invincibility to us. Bloody hell its nice to feel really positive for once, even if only lasts a few days!

It's perhaps down to tiredness and a natural instinct to protect the goal by being close to it. I guess it better they are goal side, but if you don't get close to your opposing midfielder then he's free on the edge of the box to shoot and that was the case two or three times on Saturday. Fortiunately Gray shot at Baz and just over on wo of those occasions. As much as the football was great on Saturday, the formation etc. does ask a lot of some players in terms of the amount of hard running. Scienza cheats a little defensively too, which means Jander and Downs and Aziz have to cover a bit more ground tyhan they should. The wing backs are making a lot of lung busting runs too. If you want to break at pace, you obviously need to run at pace , so players are working really hard and that does have a toll. It's clear the subs have to be better otherwise we are just begging to concede when we retreat into the box.

McArthy has always been chastised for failing to protect his near post and now Bazunu for the far post. If we could merge them together might have the perfect keeper...or the shittest.

Practice makes perfect, but some of positioning is perhaps instinctual (and at times you can get a little lost as to where your posts are), but that's what being a top class keeper is all about: having great positioning, anticipation, speed/athleticism and decision making.

oof. You would expect to see him a little bit to the left at this point. Not a huge amount, but a little.

You seriously thought we might sign a keeper in January? I'd be amazed if we did. Put bluntly, we have already got 3 keepers and we ain't adding another to the considerable keeper wage bill. If one was injured for the rest of the season, then they'd act, but as much as you and a lot of Saints fans want it, the club isn't going to bring in a fourth keeper in January. Come the summer, McCarthy will be out of contract, Long's loan will end and Ramsdale will return, allbeit probably temporarily. This is when the club can and will consider its keeping options. Right now, their hands are pretty tied. We might want better, but we have what we have and we have to make do.

When teams are chasing we need to kill them off when we hit them on the break. We need to be a little more clinical. IMO we have been one of the worst "breaking" teams in the league for years. But possibly Leo has changed that (and we certainly were good on the break on Saturday), but the Armstrong hatrick chance and Archer clean through chance are the sort that need to be taken when opportunities are at more of a premium. We perhaps now have the quality (at this level) of player to be extremely dangerous on the break. There is a bit more pace, and also proper dribblers now. Azaz making good decisions and then its about composure and finishing.

Aribo and Romeu just don't close players down quickly. They don't have the legs. The players they replace, Downes and Jander, are usually knackered by that point, so keeping them on doesn't help. I've not really seen Bragg, so don't know if he would offer more energy/hussle. Also, before Downes went off on Saturday, he was dropping so deep. He effectively was stood next to the centre backs. He needs to trust the CBs to do their jobs and push out a little bit. It's natural to drop deep, but you have to hold your position and fill that space. A minor thing, but I thought we wasted a couple of great opportunities to waste a couple of minutes. A thrown in down in the right corner to Aribo going straight out of play for a goal kick. And on the other side, a corner late in the match which we put into the box and the keeper claimed it, I think. Why are we not playing it short gets bodies around the area and fuck around with it for a minute?

I hope they don't have video of Saturdays game, which I felt was different to a lot of previous games in the way Fellow got the ball with his back to goal and look to immediately come inside, leaving the full back for dead and causing havoc as he opened up the entire pitch. Time after time he relieved pressure AND got us on the attack. Hopefully they haven't seen this and he can continue to do it. It made a huge difference to our game.

I think "routine comfortable win" predictions are reserved for league 1 promotion winning sides containing the likes of Fonte, Lambert et al. It's literally one game ago that we we putting in a woeful display at Millwall and even Saturdays terrific display didn't lead to a "comfortable" win.

Did you think it was a red? I was right behind it, so not the best view, but looked like it might have been dangerous/reckless.