James

Was over as soon as he decided on that line up.

Has fallen off a cliff since the start of the season.

This really is going to crush the confidence of our younger defenders and young keeper. Poor decision from Claude here.

Yes and an innocuous incident like the one that did for VVD could put him out for the season. We are playing a very risky game with injuries. It's clearly question of minimum possible investment in the squad until the Chinese come in. Oh, 5-0. Embarrassing.

If we had taken the same attitude in the League Cup we wouldn't be in the final would we? A stronger team could have tested this Arsenal side.

It's already replaced the "we're 9th in the league" and "10th in the league" excuses that seem to have been spent now we're in the bottom half. To be fair, its a monumental achievement for a club like us and so our players and squad do deserve an amount of leeway because of that. The League Cup has, without doubt, saved our season but IMO it shouldn't give us a free pass to play poorly for the rest of the season even if we were to win the cup.

Not really the point I was making though was it? Also, Arsenal also played on Sunday not Saturday.

Exactly. I just cannot get my head around needing to rest high performance athletes constantly. It's not like they've got a team of sports scientists and the very latest equipment to help them prepare and recover...

Clasie really is shocking at shooting. Almost as bad as Hoj.

4-0. Complete and total surrender. Not fair on the young lads on the pitch. Plenty of time for it to get worse as well. Not great management from Puel to play such a weak team against such a threatening attack. Could do more harm than good in the long term morale wise.

Totally agree. We are leaving it very late - surely we will get someone in?

He could get injured in any game at any time. If we are genuinely resting him to prevent an injury (and realistically any keeper injury will be a freak) then we need better depth.

Might have stopped the second goal but I agree, the keeper is basically irrelevant. It's the consistent rotation of Bertrand and Cedric that kills us IMO.

No one is trying to tarnish anything mate. We are just disagreeing with mass rotation of completely untested reserve players.

Well said. No problem with resting a few key players but this mass rotation is not a good thing. Even if the rotated players our 'fresh' it doesn't make them good enough to compete.

Not correct. Other teams manage to not rotate as much as us and play two games a week. No one is disputing or complaining the fact that we've rotated but when you're changing the number of players we are and bringing in players like Isgrove that have barely played then its a bit of a joke. Wouldn't have killed us to put one or two more experienced heads out there would it? We need reinforcements badly if we are having to go this deep into the reserves/youths.

I'm more concerned about the effect that a thumping might have on players like Stephens, McQueen and Sims. Not really fair to field such a weak team. We were not going to get anything other than a hiding with that team out.

I still can't comprehend why other teams don't make so many changes as us. You can't change 4 of your back 5 against an Arsenal team containing Welbeck, AOC and Walcott and expect to get anything other than a hiding. Don't care that we're going out but I do care that we'd just regained some confidence and are now about to get a demoralising thumping. That's not brilliant management in my book. Thrown the youngsters under the bus here.

As I recall, the last time we were at Wembley in the JPT we had the west side and we had the Green Man pub which had a marquee full of Saints fans outside. Was brilliant.

Wasn't a fan of Puel as didn't like his style and I still think he needs to find a way for us to beat teams that sit back and make us break them down (West Brom, Burnley etc.) but those two games v Liverpool were a thing of beauty and the tactics were absolutely spot on with last night especially being one of the most well executed Saints performances I've seen in recent years. Mr Puel, you've brought me back on side.

This is exactly right. There are always going to be disappointed fans for games like this but the fairest way is to reward those who have been to the largest number of games. As others have said, the only odd thing about the criteria is the apparently arbitrary distinction between home and away games for members. Don't really understand why the club have done that but am sure they've got their reasons.

Was nervous when PEH came on last night, would have gone for Clasie if I were manager but, as others have said, what a run to clear the path for Sims. We'll have a player on our hands when he gets a run of games and finds some consistency.

A nice thought but realistically would never happen. When the so called "big clubs" get to finals the tickets barely make it to a members sale.

I guess we need to wait and see how big a stake they take if and when this is announced. At this stage, the structure of the board and who controls it is completely up in the air. Remember that we don't know what valuation has been put on the club so also wouldn't be able to assess the relative size of the Chinese interest even if we knew the headline cash value.

Sounds like a co-investment not a takeover. Increased geographical exposure and a cash injection can only be good I think. Good to hear Kat is in it for the future too.