John Boy Saint

Forgot to add that we have Mr Moss on the whistle for this one.

I would give Long a go behind Gabbi in the middle to give him some scraps to feed off. JWP one side to cover Cedric, Redmond on the other covering Ryan........ Maybe give Sam a run out in front of Ryan and bring Redmond on later in the game. Boufal and Tadic only really defend when they need to.

Saints own Facebook page just posted a video of all Sams goals at Blackburn this season, bit like when they show us a new striker they have bought. I doubt Saints would let him slip through their fingers that easily, having played a tough season of competitive football and found the back of the net a few times. Plus both Coyle and Mowbray having positive things to say about him.

you forgot to add "with more regularity".

And Fonte with all his years of worldly experience never did such a thing?! See plenty of yesterdays decisions waved away especially against us. For those carping on, I actually think he is as good as people are claiming, yes he needs a goal from his journeys into the box for set pieces it took Claus an age to get his first (didn't WGS say Claus should be booked for time wasting when he went up for corners). But if you look at the other English youngster who Everton sold for a Kings ransom to Citeh he isn't the finished article either, and I would say has been seen to be more prone to dropping a clanger than our Jack.

I reckon that Gallagher lad at Blackburn might be worth a look

And we use to play in the blue shorts both Spanish teams still wear, pretty sure I read somewhere that we changed to black because it was less prone to fading in the wash than was found every season with the blue.

Not really, it's more worrying, you are a person who likes Liverpool, yet have no support for the political figure whos face is going be portrayed on a great big bed sheet passing over your head. You are there to support Liverpool playing football not at a political rally. As an aside the FA will do chuff all about it if it happens, as they showed their true colours by suggesting that a wage cap be introduced in women's football....... Really!!!??!!

Blimey going to be a late night up there polishing their Jack boots and practising a good goose-step.......... what the chuff has this got to do with Football.

Which is pretty much what Koeman did last year to stop the rot just after Christmas, slid Bertie back alongside VVD and had Matty Targett and Cucu in the wing back slots. If that were the case play Maya in the middle Jack and Ryan either side and McQueen on the left.

You would hope so, but looking at the body language and endeavour on Saturday you would be forgiven into thinking the new sponsorship partner was Ambre Solaire!! We have good 'ole Bobby Madley on the whistle for this one: not one of our favourites.

[h=1]Andruszewski - just for when the bubbles have been flowing for a while![/h]

Like the wonderous Pep has found at Man City life is is not easy in the premier league as it is elsewhere in Europe, where you have leagues with a couple of dominant forces and the rest are cannon fodder, the "cannon fodder" in the premier league has teeth sharp enough to bite back. If you look at the FA Cup there are teams from the nether regions of the four divisions who can bloody the nose of the big boys through sheer bloody minded endeavor. I doubt you will find any other football pyramid in Europe where the little fish can be so problematic. Leaving the ground on Saturday I felt like I had just watched a Ligue 1 performance, it reminded me of when Chelsea played PSG a few seasons ago in the Champions League, Chelsea played the kind of high tempo game we are use to, and for 90 minutes PSG played the almost laissez faire tempo the French league seems to play at. As a result Chelsea won. PSG played Chelsea again in the CL, possibly the following season, this time they turned up with a bit more gusto and drive and beat Chelsea. Seems like after 30 odd games Claude still wants to play at Ligue 1 pace and does not seem to have learned that the Premier League runs at a high tempo for pretty much 90 minutes (and this tiredness cobblers is also allowing players to hide behind it as an excuse), as we saw on Saturday on the rare occasions when we did put our foot on the gas we were effective. I have watched him on the sidelines a few times doing his nut at players not doing what they should be. Maybe he has lost the dressing room, there was talk at the beginning of the season that he made an impassioned speech to the players before one of the games that cleared the air a little and our performances picked up. But on Saturday there was so much negative conversation between the players, the more you think it could be possible, we have just done the reverse of Leicester who fumbled the league but played like demons in the CL, we have got to the magical 40 points and the Deck Chairs and Flip Flops are out. The next few games will be interesting as aside from Stoke everyone we play has something to play for, just as Hull did. Will we get the return of the rotation, and as we are playing Arsenal and Man U, games we normally get ourselves fired up for, will we see the mindset of the playing staff. I just wonder how much of a negative influence Eric Black has on things................ you never see him come to the touchline.

This just made me think of a friend who I met quite a while after the event, he was the Landlord of the Kestral Pub in Kempshott Basingstoke........ he said that he could not remember a thing between getting home on the Saturday night and sometime on Thursdays afternoon!!! Being a nipper with no one else in the family having any inkling of taking me, we were staying in Southampton with our Granny and Grandad as it was the school holidays, wow the hubbub in the City that week before the game was tangible even to an 11 year old. Watching FA Cup it's a Knockout on Grandstand, think we watched the highlights from the then all powerful Southampton Ladies football team winning their Cup Final yet again. Having lunch quickly to get in front of the box again, most of the game passed as a bit of a blur until that moment! Granny had nodded off and was woken up by my grandad, my sister, and me going absolutely mental in the living room (along with most of Dale Valley Road and the rest of Southampton still at home) Have we won??!! No we scored!!! And so began still the longest 7 minutes of my life!! Seeing Arsenal fans ambling in to the Millenium stadium in 2003 and United fans meandering into Wembley this year, there is no way the majority of their fans can have memories like that................... it would be nice to give Saints fans of today a day like that and memories to keep into the next 41 years.

......what a weekend!!

More fertiliser for my roses.

The rest must be crap at pens if Tadic is the nominated taker! Every man and his dog around me were expecting the worst when he picked up the ball.

Its all a ruse to winkle out Boris.

Fitzhugh will back this up - as it was in one of the Hagiology books about it. Plymouth were our big rivals in the early days of our existence, some loons waited at South Western House station for the team to arrive back in Southampton to give them a hearty welcome after a big win at Plymouth. It was something like midnight - one o'clock: which in those days was generally pretty late for folks to be up.

Mrs JBS got to the ground ahead of me (supping an ale down the road) she made the exact same observation.

Can't argue with that. Over the past few seasons we have bloodied the noses of the big boys, but given the annual summer haemorrhages we have endured, there had to be a transition season sooner or later.

Did seem a bit strange, but not when you saw Long make his first full afterburners on run moments after coming on, he did pull up then feel his hamstring, maybe the bench took the decision out of Longs hands, before we were down to 2 fit strikers.

More fertiliser for my roses

I thought we gave City far too much respect, that said the ref didn't help matters much by booking PEH, Cedric, Davo (ffs what for: being captain and arguing the case of the team) so not only are we faced with players who on paper could make anyone look stupid, but we have a ref who made sure we were nervy on any contact. The non foul on Aguero by Stephens that ultimately resulted in their first, boot on the other foot no foul. Fair play to Claude for holding his hands up on Solent post match, and fair play to Fraser after one of his shocking clearances for not only apologising to his team mates but apologising to the Chapel too

Thought he had a good game, but to expect a 21 year old to be fully at the races when he has been on the bench so much is a lot to ask. His failing is the odd wayward pass but then at his age it's forgivable even if it does gift a goal. The one thing is when you watch him mess up he does beat himself up over it. More game time and this will disappear, I think he does have a bright future.