Chez

Weakened, but we can still win. West Ham were lucky to get through the last round, but its disappointing we have not gone with our full strength side. We are on such a fine run and in the form we are in, I think winning the thing is not beyond us. I fancied us against anyone. I don't fancy this side, but maybe come the later rounds, resting a few players now will pay off. Is Salisu injured or completely rested?

Spurs out. Lovely. One less Prem side to stop us winning the FA cup this year. Boro looked decent mind you.

I can't see anyone paying £60m for Tino this summer...even if we reach the FA Cup final where he has a blinder. But we can live in hope.

Just a perfect Che Plays football in the park And then later, when he's unmarked He slots home Oh, he's such a perfect Che We're glad we spent it with you Oh, such a perfect Che You just keep on scoring goals You just keep on scoring goals

Perfect description of what Broja does for us. I'm amazed you don't see that. Game is about opinions though I suppose.

What are you on about? His hold up play is superb. He has lots of strength and great touch to go with it. The ball sticks more often than not.

Romeu has been a very good player for Saints almost since day one. Love that he is getting the recognition he deserves. When he got injured last season it left a huge hole that we never filled. What a brilliant goal yesterday. Would love it if it inspired him to take a few more shots going forward. KWP is just quality. Not sure why he didn't start in the early games, but he is flying right now. He just seems to get better with every game.

I'm not sure we won those games in 2020 simply because of an element of surprise. We won them because we were on fire, playing tremendous free flowing football. We looked faster, fitter (than our opponents) and like a well oiled machine. Confidence was sky high...and we certainly looked like we knew what we were doing. I still don't really know how we fell off that train. Injuries paid a heavy toll I guess. Sure there are difference this time round, especially our ability to change shape and willingness to be more pragmatic (adding a CB last night to sure things up being a good example), agree with you there, but you haven't answered my question S-C - are we playing better?

Do you think are we playing better than the 1 defeat in 9 run in games to the restarted 2019/20 season? We took teams apart during that period and where absolutely flying. Personally I thought many of those opponents in 2020 were on the beach, while we looked like we had a brilliant `mid season preseason' so had an advantage. Can't say that now and we are on a similar roll. Not sure we are `flying', but we certainly seem to know what we are doing, individually and collectively... ...boy its strange (and lovely) describing how good we are.

yeah, I saw a couple on here that weren't impressed. I thought he looked confident, and seems to be an integral part of our game now, and he was the one of the key players in the first half in terms of our build up play, and the stuff he and KWP did created a huge amount of space for Livramento. I didn't think Eli was given that space, but he continually looked to thread balls through to Che and make runs himself. Not everything came off, but we seem to have found a solution where the likes of Djenepo have failed. Maybe he should have scored all three goals. Two straight at the keeper and the other wide of the past. Decent strikes. On another day... Broja wasn't on the same wavelength with anyone, especially Eli. One Eli flick that Broja didn't read had them at loggerheads. Nothing major.

thats a very harsh assessment and I am not sure I agree that he doesn't care about the team winning and losing, but based on the last couple of games you have half an argument there. Hope you are well off the mark. Have to say he looked the odd one out last night. We looked a well oiled machine, all part from Broja, who just didn't get with the programme. However, on another day, we will be begging for a player like him that can make things happen all on his own against top class defenders. We are talking about a guy with pace, power, arial threat, skills and first touch...a lack of vision (rather than not caring about winning or losing) is a small price to pay if you ask me.

Williams looked very average. Championship level.

Very enjoyable evening at SMS. No idea what Norwich thought they were doing. They have some very average players at the back with the ball, know we press, yet continued to play it short from the keeper which eventually lead to a hoof to an isolated Pukki. The played completely into our hands. The only issue we had was finding a way past 10 men in their box. Once we scored it was game over. Norwich did up their game after the double substitution and Hanley perhaps should have scored with the headed chance. It would have been a total injustice though. They are doomed. We are on roll. This is THE year for us in the cup. Playing like this and with the threat we have up front. I'm excited again. Very few negatives. Broja seemed slightly out of step with the rest. Part of the issue was a lack of space and also the slowish building up. Ask him to lead the line and make things happen when we are up against it and he's your man. But when its all tight and you are watching the play all night (a la Lakaku), and he struggled. Bednerek made some poor choices (which went unpunished, but Salisu pointed out the error of his ways) and Pukki made him look like a carthorse in the first half when burning past him. Forster struggled to get air with his long kicks...boy I'm scraping the barrel now to find a negative. We were that dominant. I guess you could say we got a little casual in the second half, but there was just no opposition. I thought Eli had a good game. He could have scored hattrick with a little more luck/better finishing, but he was heavily involved and made a lot of very good runs, Gave us nice balance. KWP and Livramento were bloody great. Romeu. He's some player. Happy days.

nice one. Henri Camera is one of my all time favourite Saints - shame it didn't work out better. What a noise when he scored that goal. Possibly the loudest goal celebration ever at SMS? I'll take a 4-3 88th minute winner tonight. Taking the 8 year old nephew. Could do with a goal fest to wean him away from Man City glory hunting.

DT's value of McCathy is 0, not mine. I'd agree with you except McCarthy was given a contract, so that is the `style' of keeper Ralph wanted. I don't buy this idea that McCarthy has been signed as a #2. He's been signed as a #1 on a number 1 contract. Hopefully the `new' keeper in will be brilliant. More than happy to see Forster in goal for the rest of the season. After that he is gone. He didn't sign a new deal and he will walk IMO. Never say never though.

boy do Wolves know how to waste time. I have a feeling one or two Arsenal fans might self combust by the end of the game if they don't get an equaliser.

by my maths 3x0=0 😉

Depends on the extent of the injury. Speaking from experience, tear a muscle and it can be months.

Yep, it's too late by the sounds of things and I think you have described his likely contract perfectly. Three years at £75k a week. He was first choice at the time he was given a new contract. He wasn't given a new contract to be second choice keeper. The wage will reflect that. So £75k would be a fair guess.

he is a quality footballer. Slightly surprised no one big has trued to sign him. Maybe they have and failed. Maybe its that lack of outstanding pace, which you perhaps want of a player who plays wide left midfield.

I take comments like that with a pinch of salt. A £70m debt that will grow to over £100m by the time the first contractual payment is required will have a bearing on transfer funds. We either start paying this debt down now or later. Whatever decision is made, the budget is smaller. By how much though.

I am certainly pro-McCarthy compared to you, but you will find that I have always posted that I don't rate either keeper highly and that I wanted to see us sign two new keepers. I doubt I'd bother to support McCarthy on here if it wasn't to counter some of the posters like you that seem to go way over the top with the vitriol and criticism.

Dan Sheldon reconfirmed (on the Norwich build up thread) that McCarthy had indeed signed a new contract last summer. Didn't say the length of contract, but said McCarthy had done the media work and couldn't explain why the club's announcement was then pulled.

What a great game that was. One of many in 89/90. Great team and season as a whole. Loved watching the games from the back of the Milton End. We took teams apart You forget just how lively Le Tiss was in his younger years. Obviously not super quick like Rodney, but quick enough and with fantastic dribbling skills.

With Forster likely to play until the end of the season, and looking very solid, it's going to look very strange when he walks on a free and the club announces that McCarthy stays. A discussion for another day...