Chez

fair point and I think you are right. I am guessing you'd pick Gabi and Sims, as a three up front?

cant argue with Dyche doing well with his limited squad, but on this single occasion he failed. If the roles were reversed we would moan that MP did not react to the changes and maybe bring an extra centre back on Or fresh legs for the last five minutes.

I actually thought that 15 minute period of 70% possession was with saints, but just shows how my memory os going as Saints age me. Surprised at the 50:50 stat I have to say.

you don't pick Tadic to protect a game, but in JWP perhaps you do. Would you go 442 or stick with the formation but go for Sims, Tadic and Boufal

I doubt Burnley fans are giving Dyche any stick, and after getting that squad to 7th you'd have to be mad to do so, but his side played the same formation as us, hardly touched the ball in the second half, got a fortunate goal but failed to hang on. MP changed it, we started to cause a few problems, added an extra striker and yet Dyche did nothing. Didn't change their shape, didn't bring on fresh legs or an extra defender. Poor management, Clueless perhaps? Because that's what MP would have been called if the shoe had been on the other foot yesterday. Again, I'm not trying to say MP is a good manager or Dyche a bad one, thei records speak for themselves, just trying to show how game management and substitutions are not easy decisions or things done particularly well by good managers all the time.

he played 3 of those five players from the start and brought the other two on? Is it the lateness of the substitutions that are the problem? Because He's played them all over this season. They have all failed by and large (sims apaet). The only thing he hasn't done is go 442. I can't argue with people that post that, because it might work, it might not, but I struggle when fans moan at MP because the players first touch is poor, they can't cross, they don't create or take chances.

very good post, although I'd argue Cedric has been average at best this season, making it even tougher for us. Having disected the problem, can you offer a possible solution that might improve results fractionally in the short term?

The highlights offered a fair reflection then, McCarthy handball aside, I don't know what Bunley were complaining about. I thought their goal was handball at the time and Barnes, although perhaps fouled on the odd other occasion outside the box, does go to ground a tad easy in the box. One thing the highlight won't have showed was that Ben Mee looks a cracking CB at this level, whilst our two are better on the. Ball, they look nervy.

is the specific incident you refer to the mangers fault? It's not FIFA with MP holding the controller. Managers might stand by the touchline seemingly directing traffic, but it's our players that don't have the ideas. Yes tactics and formations have a bearing, but not everything is MPs fault. The players need to do far more.

I honestly don't know how they won 11 games last season and 9 to date in this. They have nothing apart from a very solid defence. Strikers are average and attacking midfielders seem to be non existent.

what are you talking about?

and maybe a problem of not having very good attacking midfielders to supply him?

at the start of the season he was first choice, had chances, but didn't take them. He has looked a shadow of the sharp player after the injury. Would you have carried on playing him? Austin had to be given a chance and equally Long. You make a good point about the service. Terrible. You make a good point about being isolated. The 4-4-2 formation is one we might have tried or 3-5-2.

Apart from them playing in different positions, Redmond played pretty well last week and thus kept the shirt. Hardly waltzing back in. He has been out of the side a while and now given another go.

cant argue with you. That record is not good enough. But in this specific game it could be argued that MP helped with his subs, thats all I was saying. My judgement was that MP made the right decisions this week. Doesn't mean he's suddenly become a great manager. Doesnt mean he hasnt made poor decisions before and during other games. I have to say that we looked doomed. Stevens and Hoedt are not good enough. Cedric underperforming, and Ive said it all year that our attacking 3 or 4 is extremely average.

Gabiadini has been absolutely useless. He is just the kind if forward I like. All movement and runs between defenders, but his confidence has been shot, and that was down to him not MP. People moaning about him not starting are just ignoring how poor he has been. Now if you can get his confidence back to when he signed, then he should start every week. Sims has only just got back fit, so the pace in which MP is getting him into the side is about right. Even I, as a massive fan of Boufal, have to admit that he has been a little up and down, so although I have said in the past he should play every week, thats a hard thing for a manager to do. I have disagreed with substitutions Saints managers have made pretty much my whole football watching life. Koeman was ****ing woeful at it IMO. That is not what defines a good and bad manager.

I thought a point was fair myself. I thought their goal was handball, although I might be wrong. We got lucky with the handball by McCarthy and the ref getting in the way in the build up to our goal, but it was a decent finish. I suspect everyone is moaning about MP, but his subs turned the game round for us. No? Of course not. You have already made your mind up, so you cant credit the guy. I'm not convinced by him, but equally I prefer to judge him, players and the team on a game by game basis. Burnley are pretty ****. I don't know how they win so many games. They are so limited with the ball and have next to no talent up front. They are extremely solid defensively, but basically they just boot it long to Barnes and live off scraps. It feels prehistoric to me. That said it must be effective. Certainly our two centre halves struggled more than I've seen all season to cope with the physical battle. Our other problem is that we simply do not have enough quality to break down these bang average teams. Tadic and Redmond were terribly ineffective and Carrillo struggled against Mee, who is decent. I thought JWP offered little. He is so slow its not true. Again Cedric was poor. The lack of competition in that position is telling.

which means it's costing the Chinese club £10m, before wages, as they have to pay a 100% tax on foreign signings now.

So...game is Saturday then, but the exact time is up in the air because it may be a BBC game (so at x time) or it maybe a BT game (so at y time)?

Matt Clarke looked decent on my most recent trip to **** park

Neuer Cafu Baresi Desaily Maldini Matteus Zidane Messi Platini Maradona Ronaldo (br) Subs: Southall, Figo, Baggio, Ronaldo, van Basten How do I squeeze Gullit, Gazza and del Piero in? Costacurta and Lahm too maybe. Blimey this is hard.

I was going to say the same thing about Shilton. Just how good was he at Forest? I watched him for Saints, but cant remember just how good he was. can't get the 1990 world cup penalty shoot-out out of my head, where he looked old. Also how good was Keegan whilst winning European player of the year twice at Hamburg?

Cup win all day long...or does relegation effectively mean we go into financial meltdown because we have no way of funding our £104m wage bill?

What a terrific question. I'd love to see Svensson next to Toby or Mane and Camara in the same side, but I find it hard not to select Bale, Toby, Shearer and Le Tiss if you can have them at their absolute best (i.e. after they left us). If that is not the case then the additions of Le Tiss, BT, Camara and Toby might see us survive.

wigan played well, but absolutely no reason why we can't win if we play our best. I was at bramell lane in 2014, so know only too well how to **** up a great opportunity in the cup, but right now prefer to think positively. We have a better chance of winning the cup now than we did before tonight. Happy days.