CheshireSaint

I thought it very odd that before Pompey had made any changes, and we were pretty comfortable first 15 mins of second half, Tonda blinked first in relation to subs. I'd have thought at that point, given we were leading, that any manager would wait for the losing opposition to sub first. Then he can weight that sub / formation change, and react accordingly. Why did Tonda play his hand first? Surely no one was knackered at the 60 min point? That last 20 mins was embarrassing and Tonda should be sacked for that alone. Real Madrid they are not.

I get the combination of Stewart and Fellows in tandem (if indeed TE is thinking along those lines). One would assume they would come on together in the second half against a tiring defence. Fingers crossed the game hasn't gone by then. Matsuki though.....that's a gamble right there. TE has some balls but it could be a defining moment.

If everything black, was navy then were are on a winner.

Just stop going. Easy for someone 220 miles away I know. This has to be stopped somehow. Favourites to go up, going down at this rate. Someone has to be accountable

Get that chancer and SR out this club. The former is a symptom of the latter.

Baz rooted to his line again. Such a sh1t keeper.

Agree with most of this. Tonda needs to be looked at too. Willing to give him a post January grace period but so far, just because he improved results from a spectacularly poor baseline, a Messiah he is not. If he is being told what to play (3 at the back for example), then he is a weak charlatan. If not, he is a nutcase. Either way, not good.

It was. Could only get tickets in the 'away' end. We scored a goal that was ruled offside but too late, i was up celebrating. To be fair, there were pockets of Saints fan all over the away end. All went well in the end. Great day #greatescape

If Tonda doesn't scrap the back 5 now, we have made the wrong appointment.

Danny Wallace's overhead kick v Liverpool Friday 16th March 1984. I was 12. Watching that goal and win on a Friday night, I ran around the our close in celebration. Pretty much every football fan around was Liverpool. After that, Saints related, Rickie Lambert coming off the bench v Scotland on debut in 2013 and scoring that header. That's my favourite Saints (related) memory of my adult life (41). I went mad. JPT Final was a bloody good day out too.

It isn't just opinion though mate. The stats tell us he is pathetically bad. He is just p1ss poor, season in, season out. He's indefensible. Never mind City being investigated for bending transfer rules, they should be investigated for fraud and fined 50 points for pretending this fella can play. He is by far the worst keeper to play for Saints (Forepast included) in my lifetime and possibly the worst in top flight football in my time too. He really is as bad as people make out. He has the positional sense, physical prowess and technique of a Christmas Tree. Only difference, the latter is useful for about 3 weeks a year. Granted, he can pass better then a Christmas Tree but if that is essentially your scouting report, whoever signed off on his signing should be sectioned and all those colluding in this continuing farce, should be critiqued equally. Get rid now. AM to deputise until we can get a young up and coming GK in from the lower divisions if necessary. A bit like a proper plan from a proper club and something that should have happened 3 years ago.

It's beyond debate now. Defenders of Bazunu are officially fooking mad. Get him out. Simples.

No one has said he is the worst and the fact that your only justification seems to be, he has a better record than our other keepers, doesn't make him 'decent' either. We could live with 'decent'. For 'decent', see 'steady'. He is neither. You can't quote data as a defence while ignoring more pertinent data of him being consistently toward the lower performing keepers in whatever division he has been in, since being good on loan at Pompey. I know, discussions about him are everywhere but I would welcome a truly steady keeper alongside a similarly steady 7 / 10 number 9 to be a focal point of our attack, particularly when Scienza goes off or isn't available so we can revert to a plan B that doesn't invite the opposition to our defensive third.

I am sure the medical staff know more than me, but if there is a modicum of doubt, I'd be inclined to rest him. Whilst every game in the Championship is tough, Norwich, even away, should not be one of the tougher ones. I know we are struggling for RB / RWB's at the moment and I am not thrilled at the prospect of playing the wee man. If we were to play Edwards there, we would certainly lose an offensive capability but hopefully, we will still have enough to cope with Norwich, and should be better defensively, you know, for when we inevitably hand the initiative to the opposition for their turn.

Intensity and momentum. We start with intensity and very quickly build momentum. This combination is blowing teams away in the first half. Scienza and Armstrong are key to this and it is up to the opposition has to somehow, resist this momentum and reduce the intensity. Harder said than done. Well, it should be. However, by taking Scienza and Armstrong off, the opposition doesn't need to work out a way, we do it for them. The rest of our team then adopt a more negative demeanour and allow the opposition to build their own intensity and momentum and we in turn struggle to resist them. WBA's better second half performance was nothing to do with the ability of Ryan Mason and all to do with the inability of Tonda. Tonda has done brilliantly so far but that second half was shockingly terrible. I understand anyone would struggle maintaining such high tempo football for 90 mins but Tonda needs to find away of slipping out of top gear, into something more effective than neutral. Sublime to Steady, not Sublime to Ridiculous. If we consider Sublime as the final third, Steady as the middle third and Ridiculous as the defensive third; we need to ensure we go from the attacking third, into the middle third instead of conceding the middle third and allowing the opposition to press us constantly in the defensive third. Hopefully the return of Charles, a fitter Romeu and Bragg over Aribo (why is he insisting on him) will help this. Cramming the defence isn't the answer, as the opposition is already there, thanks for the invite. Replacing Scienza with Robinson doesn't help us maintain the tempo nor does it particularly bolster the midfield. Similarly, replacing Armstrong with Archer has the same effect. It significantly weakens one area but doesn't improve any other. Utterly pointless substitutions. Replacing them in combination just doubles the effect. Take Scienza off and replace with Bragg for instance, weakens the attack but strengthens the midfield which should only aid the defence. Point being, we can consolidate the attack when 3 up, as long as we strengthen in the middle and prevent offering the momentum on a plate to the opposition. If we then take off Armstrong for Archer, the impact is lessened as we don't need Archer to track back as much (he doesn't) as we have an additional midfielder in there. Archer can then concentrate on playing on the shoulder of their last defender, giving them something to consider when thinking of committing players forward, chasing the game.