Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan

It does seem so without an injury to another defender. Selles seems to be picking one full-back and one centre back on the bench, so whoever out of KWP, Perraud and AMN isn't starting I would expect to see on the bench, and not Bree

Most commonly the vertical spaces along the pitch between an outside and inside defender, so between the full back and centre back in a back 4, and the wide and middle centre back in a back 3. Think where Long used to make most of his runs (although yes he was mostly offside) and Broja last season. A ball into the channels is quite a common term for a through ball into that space, where a striker is making their run.

People can analyse football if they particularly want to, you can just not engage with that side of things. Nothing wrong with turning a game on, watching it and then turning it off, or arriving at the stadium, having a drink and then watching the game before heading home. Same with this site, if you don't want to discuss statistics or trends then stick to the posts and threads about the elements of the sport you do like. Football is too large a sport for this approach at the level you're wanting to watch. Teams results can dictate where millions of pounds go, and managers can be out of a job and unemployed for a string of bad results. There is too much riding on the matches now to just not consider the consequences of playing a certain way. I suggest you find a non-league team to watch on the side, yes there is going to be stats and analysis, but it might be closer to what you want than Saints can provide at this point, so maybe follow them alongside that.

We could do with JWP being back to his dark arts, someone needs to tell him Fernandes is best mates with Zaha and that might do the trick Was it Stephens last season that wound him up? Can we have him back for one game to do that, doesn't seem to be ABK or Bednarek's style. Perhaps Perraud would wind him up?

He was out of full training yesterday, working on stretching and moving rather than running etc, I've heard the same that they'll find out more today and go from there

I think if Iheanacho scores when he played it straight to him to equalise, and then Souttar scores the winner when he doesn't get to the cross then he is out of the side in a lot of people's minds because his mistakes led to goals, but we were just immensely lucky in reality. For me, we aren't getting any benefit from Bazunu (his kicking and playing out from the back in a high line isn't helping us) so why not start with the best shot stopper of the three keepers we have, most likely McCarthy.

I don't think I hate football, but I am struggling with the first team. The players don't seem to be likeable, neither do the staff, and we're playing crap football constantly at the moment. I don't get to many games, maybe 4 or 5 a season, but I haven't seen the first team win a league game at home since December 2018, which is just deeply wrong. I'm finding the enjoyment this season in the women's team and their continued success and rise (their squad and ambition reminds me of the men's team when we were in league 1, winning trophies that in the grand scheme of thing aren't a big deal, but they clearly mean a lot to the players). I also seem to find more enjoyment in the players on loan, Tella at Burnley this season has been a triumph and I look out for the results for the teams in the lower leagues with a Saints player in the squad. We need to find a way to re-shape the squad with players who actually seem to care (and not in a ridiculous narcissistic way like Lyanco), who can actually play football that is even just occasionally enjoyable to watch, and aren't going to go missing when things get hard.

Never thought I'd be relieved to see Mccarthy's name so much! You'd hope that back 4 with Lavia in front should be keeping a clean sheet! Will be interesting to see what Orsic can do. Really glad to see Doyle and Ballard on the bench, both thoroughly deserved after the season's they've had

The correlation between us releasing that poster, and people googling "what channel number is itv4" must be pretty high now!

What gets me about our spending is that we seem to buy at the same level we have before. We struggle so much to buy players who are an obvious upgrade on what we already have. We've had so much turnover at centre back the last few years and yet we're still playing Bednarek. We've bought countless wingers but Elyounoussi and Armstrong are still starting. We bought Sulemana, an obvious upgrade on the wing, but we don't play him there, meaning so far is output is the same as we could expect from Adam Armstrong. Looking at that initial list, how many of those players have actually improved the starting 11 compared to last season. I'd say Lavia, and ABK at times. Some it is too early to tell, but we still can't seem to find any gems.

Larios is a bit of an odd one this season. I've heard rumours he's not very settled. Prefers speaking Spanish and has struggled with not playing consistently (partly due to injury). Hopefully we can find a way to keep him happy as with Livramento still out for a while it is good to have another option at full back. I never want to be in a position where JWP is filling in at full back ever again

Yes this is peak Saints for me recently. The Adidas one to me just looked like a Stoke shirt

He did play well, but one performance doesn't make him better than KWP so if fully fit, KWP comes back into the side for me. AMN has never looked good in midfield, it just doesn't suit him in our setup.

Admittedly this is about this season's kit not next years, but I really loved us having the white shorts and black socks against Chelsea compared to vice versa. Reminded me a lot of the sash kit from league one and looked the most "Saints" we have pretty much all season. Maybe we could wear that as the home kit for the rest of the year.

I think Sulemana will be key, he's clearly a quality ball carrier. Thought Enzo did well against him for chelsea because he didn't let him turn him and had the ability to push him towards the channels, but not sure the Leeds midfield and defence has the same quality. Would like to see what big Paul can do in the box, seems to be a good fit so far in hold up play.

It must help having a defence in front of you who seemed to want to help out (lots of blocks and last ditch tackles) rather than one where they just blame each other constantly). Some good saves, not the best keeping display we've seen but a much deserved clean sheet

Stuart's also been struggling with a groin/hip issue for a while as far as I've heard. Had surgery in Spain earlier in the year and it was seen as a success so may be back to a bit more of what we saw before, now.

At least they don't have Werner now so he can't have his one good game a season making Bednarek look silly

He does seem to be back down south so at least geographically in the area. Queued for a table in West Quay behind Telfer about a month ago so he must be down this way too. It is all set up and ready to go! Lundekvam as player liason?

A few of the usual media suspects were on a "twitter spaces" chat yesterday, essentially a live podcast, discussing Jones' continued appointment, and one of the people listening at one point was Romeo Lavia...

Having seen all 3 have individually good performances I feel like Tuesday wasn't their fault really. The ideal for me is Lavia sat centrally, JWP to his right and Alcaraz to his left. If Alcaraz pushes up, JWP drops and Lavia slides over, and vice versa. This didn't seem to work on Tuesday because of the system around them. There wasn't much support from players ahead of them, and they should have been able to trust the 5 defenders to help them. Instead the runners were being lost, the midfield didn't seem to know where it was meant to be, and we really struggled for meaningful possession until we changed formation.

Ched Evans has had a career so seemingly clubs will bend their morals to whatever extent they see fit if someone can kick a ball well... Its a tricky case, Greenwood's, because there was a lot of audio evidence which really did make him out to be a coercive and abusive individual, but as you say a lack of evidence was clearly the clinching factor. He's technically not been found guilty or convicted of anything but that doesn't make him innocent as far as I can tell.

I think this would work nicely with Mara too, instead of Adams. Both seem to recently have taken to dropping a little deeper to pick the ball up so would enjoy playing off Onuachu as a focal point. You then let Sulemana push forward on the left, and on the right you have Alcaraz tuck in, to let KWP bomb past him. JWP can also advance a little knowing he'd have Lavia sat behind him, and Alcaraz for support.

`Think Crouch and Camara/Philips in 2005 might be closer. Lets just hope Paul doesn't get sent off in a crucial match and fail to hold the ball up in the corner in another... Will be interested to see if we try and play him with Adams at all, might be an option if we need a goal towards the end of a game

Welcome Paul…