Chez

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.

The incident is at 6:01. It's one of those that you can argue either way. He was clearly grabbed by Azaz, he stumbled, got his feet back, then having done so he had to bring the ball back into his stride as it had gone slightly behind him (whilst he was finding his feet) and that touch allowed Downes to close the space and make the tackle. The ref had signalled play on, because Azaz was no longer a factor and Roberts had found his feet, but he immediately lost the ball after he had made the signal. If he has signalled play on, does that prevent him calling it back (I'm never up to speed on the laws of the game)? If not, I don't think Saints fans would have gone mental if he had called it back for the foul. You win some, you lose some. I'm sure we will have one go against us at their place.

He dives. Sometimes it gets us out of jail and we are thankful, but every now and then the ref is not conned and we are trouble. Its cheating and I hate seeing our players do it. I guess thats the game these days.

Spot on. All championship keepers make mistakes. We don't tend to worry about those made by opposing keepers. Their keeper also made two absolutely terrific saves (the one tipping it around the post was top class) not to mention preventing Archer score on the one on one.

Robinson was decent, and Archer worked his socks off, but Aribo and Romeu weakened us. To help keep things tight, you want midfielders with fresh energy that hussle and close down opponents and then dont panic when they get the ball. no point taking a tied CM off only to bring slow or lazy CMs on. Got to say I thought Romeu looked off the pace again. I've always been a fan, and he has never been quick, but he looked vey slow.

We bought Wellington. Is he better? I think the jury is out on that.

Fellows had a brilliant game yesterday. My motm, but he didn't really stop Gray crossing the ball in. He did has absolute best to stop him mind. Gray was just sharper. Manning isn't super quick either. Its a bit like the old Danny Fox days. He doesnt want to get too close as he knows the winger can run past him. So he doesnt get beat but the cross just comes in. I'm talking about Ashley Cole/Bertrand type electric acceleration. With the ball, Fellows is quick enough. Him and Scienza were too quick for Brum anyway. They are great to watch with the ball.

They are better at home. They are a decent side, but the two central midfielders are ball players and lack a bit of bite and don't cover the ground well. Ducksch and Stanfield have been playing well together but the former was woeful yesterday. Roberts was poor too. I think Davies was out coached. They never got to grips with our formation or our tactics. Like some many teams they just continued to play the one way they know. It was a terrific game to watch. We carved them open time after time. We should have scored 5 and had opportunities for more. That said, on another day they could easily have scored 4 or 5 goals themselves. Gray not scoring the header at 1-0 was a key moment.

Three centre backs allows the full backs to hug the touchline. Our play yesterday almost entirely consisted of center backs passing to wing backs and then hitting down the line. Not much went through the middle. At times it was predictable and painful to watch, but it was pretty damn effective. We have a pattern of play. To be honest that's what we have done all season but now we have Fellows receiving the ball and he has the ability to get out of tight spots and put opponents on the back foot.

Neither wing back has electric pace which is part of the reason why they don't stop crosses going in. This is why three centre backs are needed to prevent these crosses becoming goals.

I liked the look of Maja in the Sunderland documentary from a few years back, but I think he is very reliant on chances being laid on a plate for him as his scoring record goes from great to terrible to great back to terrible. He's scored 1 goal in 16 games for WBA so far this season. He scored 12 in 26 last season for WBA. The season before that, 1 goal in 12 championship games for WBA. The season before 16 in 38 ligue 2 games for Bordeaux. The season before 1 in 15 games for Stoke in the championship. Almost all his goals last year are from inside the six yard box. That's not a bad thing as Armstrong continually fails to get in where it matters. Goals are not everything, but I am not sure he is a genuine target man. WBA fans can see he has quality but suggest he's injury prone.

I agree about the luck aspect. Getting those first two wins boosted confidence helping get the third win...which then helped get the fourth. There's a couple great chances for QPR that were not taken. Things could easily have gone a different way, but a little bit of luck is essential. That said, even with those two wins boosting confidence, the application in the last two games has been good and needed to be. The head coach can't perform miracles, but he seems to have created an environment from which the team can prosper. Can it be retained and can we bounce back from a defeat?

I was very excited by his signing in the summer as his YouTube video looked great. I love a cm that wants to get on the ball and is able to hold to it that little longer than normal to allow others to move into space. In general though, I've been a bit disappointed with him in the first part of the season. He's been a bit passive and looked a little lightweight too. I don't think he made much of an impression on games. The last few games he seems to have had his plaudits. Is that just because he has been involved in goals and chances or has he just been better?

I was going to comment on that Fellows byline cross last night. Armstrong simply doesn't get into box enough. He never has. As a result, he doesn't get those lineker-esque type goals. He doesn't have that instinct and probably never will. Doesn't mean he isn't a handy forward, but I think there's two or three goals a season he's missing out on by not making those runs.