Chez

balls

is he playing up front? Listening on the radio its hard to tell.

players will get tired. subs will be required.

I reckon their bench would give us a decent game.

Good question. Is he injured?

Wellington got nutmegged once against Brighton and as a result Juric seems to have totally lost faith in him.

Fernandes and Ramsdale look like they are giving their all to me.

The shirt and performance in it, pretty crap, the actual trip to Bucharest, legendary. I guess that's one good thing about this load of old bollocks kit rerelease is that it has just brought back some great memories.

Not sure why you don't have any affinity with Ramsdale and Ferndandes. Firstly they are good players, but secondly they seem to give their absolute maximum. Both are very easy to like, especially with the rest of the team making them stand out every week. It will be very dissapointing to see them depart in the summer.

That shirt would suit the current side. It's fucking shit.

Do you know if they both finish the game MLG unscathed? They both may never play for the first team again, who knows? But if they are fit, there is at least an opportunity to loan or sell them.

He's got another year left on his contract, but no one is buying him this summer. Maybe these PL games will be enough to entice someone to loan him next season, perhaps with us paying some of his wages? I am guessing no one was interested last summer, but who knows. You'd of thought Thomas Reis, his manager at Vfl Bochum, who became manager of top flight Turkish side Samsunspor that summer might have made an enquiry, but perhaps ABK wasn't interested in playing in Turkey?

Do Liverpool get fined for putting out their reserves if they still win?

I can't argue with that, but posts like "the players are unfit" or "the players don't care" only seem to appear when we are losing. Defeats sure do hone the fitness detection eye.

Whenever we are going through a shit patch "fitness" is blamed and all kinds of experts with amazing eyes for player fitness emerge. Could it be that the players are fit, and they are trying too, but they are just not playing well, good enough, confident, winning etc...

It was about £2m and £7m I think. £7m was sizeable back then. Fulham's biggest signing that summer was Berbatov for just €5m, Swansea's was Hernandes €7m, Newcastle's was Anita (who?) €8.5m, WBA was Ben Foster €5m, Arsenal's Cazorla €19m, Villa's Benteke €8m... Imagine how much you'd need to spend now to buy the best (and young) right back in the championship (Archie Grey went for £30m) and a 22 year old championship goalscorer (he got about 15 goals for Burnley) now (Rutter went from leeds to Brighton for €46m). Instead we got Taylor on a free and Archer for about £15m.

The pass that gave the goal away was really poor. It was a bad decision and poor execution. It typified the many terrible `shoot yourself in the foot' moments we have witnessed this season, especially under RM, where players are trying to retain posession, play through the lines but fuck it up. He wont have made any new friends on here after that, but to his credit he did do everything he could to recover the situation, to no avail though. However, I read this week that `trying to recover personal errors seems to be the only time Saints players bust a gut'. And there might be something in that. The urgency when trying to regain posession is missing from the whole side. There is no hussle, not enough physicality and too many players that are nowhere near their opposite number. I didn't think Downes went through the motions, I just think he played like he has done all season - a failure to dominate or impact the game.

If we hand out the award now can announce the season to be over? #stopthecount

I can understand him playing a full back in one of the CB roles, but only having one natural CB seems like madness to me. Just the basic requirement to win headers at set pieces creates a need for a couple of big guys - goal conceded from a corner last night is a good example. When Koeman used five, we had Bertrand and that extra pace was very useful, but you also need guys that understand the position and the different movement opponents make. Aribo, bless him, tries hard, but he gets dragged all over the place and then the ball behind him is easy. Forwards feint to go short then actually go long and he is immediately done. One of the biggest issues is the amount of space opponents have. Three CBs should fill gaps, but ours seem bigger than ever. It wasn't exposed as much last night - Palmer made a few runs through the middle that were a massive problem. Was the man to man knocked on the head last night? It's hard to tell, we are that bad at it. I can't stand 5 at the back, so would welcome a change, but your 4-4-2 could easily be 4-2-4 with those players - which seems bold for such as shit defensive side. Fernandes as one of the two CMs wont work as he drives forward and leaves huge holes behind him. Dibling and Sulemena defensively are a concern. I worry about us getting out if we are playing a short game. For me you need extra men in CM to enabke you to beat a high press. Having no one to recev the ball in midfield was a massive problem against Brighton. The question I would also have is how are we getting the ball to Onuachu. Are we going more direct and will he and Archer work as a pair? The big man small man used to work, but does it now? I'd perhaps look to flood the central area. Maybe Aribo in there too as Dibling is struggling to see enouhg ball to make an impact. Ramsdale KWP THB ABK Wellington Les Fernandes Downes Dibling Sulemena Onuachu

He was poor in the 2022/23 relgation season, excellent last season against lessor oponents and OK this. He's still very good on the ball, but he's not quick enough to cope with some of fastest wingers' acceleration. He's still a lot better than all the other options we have, on both sides...which explains why we are struggling. I don't think he is going through the motions, he's just less impactful going forward at this level and has more to do defensively, so we see less of his attacking stuff. Don't get me wrong, I am not happy with the performances of the team and individuals, but playing badly isn't always down to poor attitutude, not trying etc. Often it's just that they aint very good, lacking confidence and unsure what they ought to be doing. The collective shitness prevents them excelling. The days of being able to smash into someone to show you care are gone, which often makes them look like they are not committed. A good example of that was Les on Saturday. He got an early booking and from then on he hardly made a tackle. If you had missed the card, then you'd of thought he just didnt give a fuck, but he had to be really cautious - which aint what you want from you holding defensive midfielder. His game was fucked from minute 2 on.

That's a pretty big positive. Going up means we have another two chances (proper parachute payments) to get a decent side together.

Believe it or not, there was a bit more fight and effort tonight than there was Saturday. Not saying much I know, but it was the errors that really hurt us tonight. We are so naive and so stuck in our ways. I actually see very little difference between Juric and Martin's side other than Sulemana and Onuachu playing.

Aribo tries, but he's not a defender. In Juric's defence, players like THB and Wellington jut haven't been very good. You'd still have to start THB ahead or Aribo.

Better than Saturday. Just. The errors were worse, but at least we got out of our own half a few times. Perhaps that was down to Chelsea being less organised than Brighton. I expected defeat, but when we start brightly it gets your hopes up. I should have learned by now.

he needs the ball. He's not much of a player without it.