verlaine1979

The only error for the goal was Davis dithering in possession and then passing the ball to a City player. Everything else was just other players failing to dig the team out of that situation. Hardly a surprise though that only about three people watching seemed to notice who was at fault, and everyone else is busy apportioning blame elsewhere.

Yup, we had a great break brewing down the left just before their disallowed equaliser. If I'm not mistaken, the usual suspect was responsible for the decision to pick a high percentage ball into midfield rather than the riskier ball down the line, and as a result we handed possession back and almost gave up the lead. It doesn't even make a lot of sense - I'd much rather lose the ball near city's corner flag than on the centre circle.

I agree - based purely on our attacking so far this season, City have no reason to play this one particularly conservatively, especially when most of the talent in their squad is up front.

Pep not exactly showing our attack a lot of respect by only picking three defenders.

Only saw one replay of the JRod header, but it definitely sounded like the whistle went so early it was for something happening elsewhere in the box. Pretty dispiriting result - played well without really carving them open and then got suckered by an irritatingly good finish that put the technique of our strikers into sharp relief. In a way it felt like Inter were England and we were the Eastern European minnow that plays well for 90 minutes of a Wembley qualifier and then gets done by one moment of quality.

Great finish - what JWP should have done in the first half.

Apparently it is the sum of assists + key passes (that's passes/crosses/mi**** shots that lead to a shot being taken). As far as I'm aware, the key passes stat has no control for quality. If you take 10 ill-advised shots from distance that go nowhere near the goal, you'd still be said to have created ten chances. Still, heady company, though if you compare chances to goals, our conversion rate is 9% while the others are between 15-16.5%. Better players obviously convert a higher % into goals, but there's almost certainly a different in chance quality buried in there too.

He's been in superb form the last handful of games. Puel seems to have given him a bit more freedom to play what I presume is his natural game, bringing the ball forward whenever he spots a gap, and playing a lot of through-balls in to the forwards. I don't think either Poch or Koeman wanted the defensive lynchpin taking those kinds of risks, and maybe he'll get caught out a few times this season turning over possession, but there's a definite increase in the speed with which we move the ball through midfield compared to previous years, and I'd say it was almost entirely down to Romeu at the moment.

And if that's enough to earn a rave review from you, I can only assume you watch every game in rapt amazement at the wonders being wrought before your very eyes.

He was okay - his usual 6 out of 10 performance. But really, even JWP managed to test the keeper yesterday. Davis is an even worse finisher than Long.

Looked at Burnley's team sheet before the game and thought we should hammer them, and we pretty much did. Romeu imperious in the middle, though also thought Clasie was better than usual, moving the ball with more pace and accuracy than he has so far this season. Tadic and Redmond both took advantage of the space they were given to create problems - Redmond's finish was struck very sweetly. McQueen also did well - not tested much at the back, but a couple of lovely crosses. Nobody else really had enough to do for them stand out, though I'm sure despite failing to hit the target for the billionth time, a certain hard-working midfielder will be hailed by some as having had a storming game

I don't think this often, but we really should hammer them.

I wonder how many of those were regulation blocks from the CB, FB or DM? I see us snatch at a lot of shots around the edge of the box, but we're definitely not creating and wasting 15 clear-cut chances per game. In fact, isn't this the kind of stat you'd expect to see when you're struggling to create lots of out-and-out chances? A high number of shots, most of which don't trouble the keeper because they're from too far out or are too easily blocked.

Where did I dispute that Fonte occasionally opened his mouth or waved his hands while on the pitch? All I said is that to make him the primary defensive organiser behind Portugal's victory is moronic bearing in mind who he was playing alongside (especially in the final - Pepe pretty much dragged that team to victory by himself after Ronaldo went off). However, bearing in mind that Steven Davis is now being acclaimed as one of Saints' finest players in forty years of football, this lack of perspective over Fonte is pretty minor.

Not at all, it's just the question of whether he played well or not has no bearing on the question of whether he took over from Pepe in being the leader of the Portugal back four.

We aren't talking about whether he did a good job or not.

Of course, of course - the CB who wasn't even a guaranteed starter until halfway through the tournament took over responsibility for organising the back line from the CB who starts every single game when fit...

Fonte organising the Portugal back line? You must be mistaking him for Pepe, who is the unquestioned senior member of the Portugal back four.

Wonder how many pundits would pick Fonte above Stones now? The latter's stock has certainly risen since his move to Man City. Both are prone to the occasional lapse in concentration, so I'd probably take Stones now based on his speed. He's also a better passer of the ball than JF, which would probably help consolidate our new building-from-the-back tactics. Would also take Rashford over Redmond and Long as a better finisher than either.

Dude, just scroll up thread. In case you can't be bothered... "One of the best signings the past 40 years", "as important a player as Morgan was for SFC", "8 of 10 performance most games", "if he could score 10+ a season he'd be up there with Gerrard and Lampard". This kind of nonsense gets spouted constantly, and every week at least a handful of people claim that he's had a great game, even if he's been abject. In all the years I've wasted on this site, I can't remember another player so immune to criticism.

Why so uptight? All I ever say about him is that he's an average, 6 out of 10 player who has been elevated by members of this forum into something special for reasons that probably don't bear very close scrutiny. By and large, every other player in our squad is viewed with a reasonable degree of perspective. Opinions differ, but usually within a margin of difference that bears scrutiny. Davis is really the only player where that isn't the case, hence the fact that I keep banging on about it. For the last four years I've seen a player who tries hard, does simple things as well as you'd expect simple things to be done, and maybe two or three times a season he'll come up with a goal or a game-changing pass. However, on here, he's gone from being the most underrated player in the league, to one of our best players of the last forty years. Quite an elevation for someone who rarely scores, rarely assists and who can't seem to run more than about five yards without instinctively wanting to turn back and offload to a defender. I have a few theories as to why that is, but if you're this angry simply at the fact that I disagree with you about his qualities, I can't imagine how incandescent with rage you'd be if you knew *why* I suspect you think that way...

Listen, if this forum didn't produce an ocean of jizz every time Davis completes a five yard no pressure pass back into defence, I'd be happy to let the matter rest. As it is, someone has to speak out against the madness.

I've always said he's a consistent 6/10 performer who does lots of things reasonably well and nothing very well - however, he's probably the squad member most easily identified with by the average fan, so I can almost understand why he's put on a pedestal as allegedly one of our best players in four decades, despite the utter mediocrity of his record.

I'm sure the performance he put in against a team of amateurs ranked 201st in world football was worthy of all this rhapsodizing, but sadly I didn't see the game.