Lazlo78

Hammond, Harding, Lambert, Davis etc were instrumental in reinstating a winning mentality at SFC at a time where we seemed to always buckle under pressure, always throw away a lead, always panic... This change is still the most important in recent times. We may make mistakes but the team always plays with confidence... Good luck Deano!

Car crashes are also bizarre yet people stop and watch them. This is no different...

Wondering if I should copy/paste the rest of the article for The9 - I know he never made it past this: "where previously they would have had to of lived within 90 minutes of the clubs training ground."

VFTT has certain issues with Pompey, so just ignore it...

I'm unsure if others have mentioned this, but Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos ranks amongst the finest sci-fi literature IMHO. Wonderful plot lines, characters with depth, loads of great technology, a spiked creature that impales people on a tree of thorns, and packed with intertextual references to Keats, Shakespeare etc. - what's not to like? I've read loads of sci-fi and these books are simply the best I've come across... Alternatively, his Ilium/Olympos Circle centered around Homer's classic interwoven with Shakespeare, Proust and Robots from the far side of the galaxy (ha! ), is well worth a read. Go for it - you'll thank me later...

Dean Lewington

Ehrm... now? Seriously, a very nice post that deserves better than my stupid remark

Carried away? Yes, where shall we put him

Probably because the interpreter called in sick 15 minutes ago

Unless you have Troels Bech to shake it up a little and start commenting the quality of the questions themselves

Fenerbache have been absolutely atrocious but still Arsenal has shown that you underestimate them at your own peril...

Made me think about SC Freiburg who is now getting a lot of attention for their strikerless tactics: http://bundesligafanatic.com/freiburgs-spinning-top-and-the-brain-behind-it/ "Spain did well to publicize and popularize the strikerless formation this summer at the EUROs and more and more teams are beginning to experiment with formations that exclude traditional strikers. Freiburg may very well be the most bold and interesting in German football in that sense. Over the course of the season Streich moved closer and closer to a system that resembles just that. Out of the four registered strikers in the squad, only Sebastian Freis has featured in the majority of the games so far and most have come as a substitute. Another striker, Garra Dembele, meanwhile was not even included in their trip to the team’s winter training camp Instead, Streich has chosen to line up with essentially a strikerless formation that utilizes two versatile attacking midfielders in Jan Rosenthal and Max Kruse in interchangeable roles up front with two similarly versatile supporting wide players in Daniel Caligiuri and Jonathan Schmid. Rosenthal and one of the great revelations of the season, Kruse, have normally been used in midfield positions, either playing off the striker or out wide. Neither have defined positions under Streich but are encouraged to roam and interchange in and around the box. Freiburg haven’t been the most prolific scoring side as a result but the goals have been spread around pretty evenly which speaks to a well functioning and effective system. 16 of the team’s 24 goals were scored by their four attackers. As explored in this statistical analysis, Freiburg are only behind Bayern, Dortmund and Schalke in chances created this season. They’ve created 10.5 chances a match, well above the league average and another indicator of the team’s growing chemistry. Kruse in particularly has excelled and created more scoring opportunities than any player in the league with 52. The productivity of the team a whole has gone up despite the absence and use of a prototypical striker. Freiburg’s real formula for success on the pitch then lies in the team’s synergy. Kruse, Schmid, Caligiuri and Rosenthal are all comfortable covering for each other. Many times this season, Caligiuri or Schmid came inside while Kruse covered for them and it’s all done seamlessly and disciplined enough not to compromise their shape. If anything, Freiburg hold their shape better than most teams in the league but they enjoy a degree of flexibility and freedom that others simply don’t have. As we’ll see though, that freedom is as much physical as it is mental and that’s due in large part to the great management of the team’s coach. I'm not suggesting that we play without strikers - far from it - but maybe we can draw strength from the flexibility of our offensive players to create a more fluid and unpredictable forward line. I'll concede it's all a bit abstract but it could be an alternative to discussing 4-2-3-1 vs. 4-4-2...

That was refreshing! That particular group of fans seem more knowledgeable about Saints than half our main board... and I'm not even sure which half I'm in

On topic again: the problem with playing Osvaldo as anything but front man is that Pochettino demands a lot of running and defensive work from the three offensive support players (for me the reason why Rodriguez has proven quite effective there - he runs and tackles for 90 minutes) and that could be a bit of a waste of Osvaldo's scoring talents. I'm not sure how useful Osvaldo is in the build-up, but we know Rickie is excellent in setting up others. So for that reason I'd have Osvaldo stay as close to goal as possible and Rickie trying to do what he does best be it in the centre or by drifting wide/tracking back...

I've made a few of these threads myself, and while I readily concede that they probably sank without a trace because I made no attempt so stimulate discussion other than provide data, I too felt puzzled that any random thread involving anything remotely controversial could flag up pages of posts in a few hours. But I guess you answered it yourself; it takes too much effort to post anything in this thread, and there is too little opportunity for point scoring. Personally, I didn't really have anything meaningful to add to your observations (was 1.20am here ) so I kept to a rather bland "very nice compilation" because I thought the thread deserved some more attention. Now if you'll have me excused, I'm off to start a thread titled "will saints be better than chel$ki" and maybe follow it up with a dose of "would Rupert have been able to get osvaldo" - no capital letters just to signal that extra bit of effort...

Very nice compilation

Thanks - absolutely makes sense!

I'm not familiar with that phrase - would someone be kind enough to explain it? Thanks...

I'm finding it hard to believe that this clause really exists. It's a bit too good to be true - for the Saints anyway... Do we have any other sources to back it up?