OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint

For two usually top six teams, they don't half carry some rubbish. Havertz is a liability. Nunez is awful... and our CBs are arguably better than these two teams (though VVD isn't playing).

This is what concerns me too. Yes, beating Walsall to get promoted out of League One was a memorable moment, but the uncertainty before Marcus Liebherr came along was very real. Getting relegated will be a real headache. With the money we've spent on crap, I can't see how we're anywhere near financially breaking even this year. If relegated, we'll flog our better players for a song and be left with a load of overpaid, uncaring tw*ts. And there are also plenty of other clubs in the Championship and below that represent a better 'deal' for some wealthy investor, so yes, there could well be trouble ahead.

Understand the idea of managing the game in sections, but like having a flutter on the horses, the one that starts last never seems to get to the finishing post first. Surely you go at a team from the start and hope for an early goal. Also the mindset is different is you start closing down and forcing errors from the beginning. It all becomes much more positive. Look at how we played against Man U. And when players tire, you bring on others and hope you hold out. Setting up for a draw and hoping to sneak a goal does not work.

On balance, today's results were good to us. Thought Bournemouth beating Liverpool was an aberration, but now they need to take it easy on those aberrations! Leicester losing was good and the Forest/Wolves draw was a good one. Combine that with Leeds not pulling off a shock and we should be relatively happy.

Read somewhere that Lavia & Diallo are out with concussion after a training ground accident....then checked the date!

At the start of the season, people were singing Moyes' praises and saying how good West Ham are. No, they're shit. Apart from the occasional win, they're on a downward trend and we need to be positive from the start and go after them. Some games are for the taking and this is one......but I had high expectations before the last Brentford game too. Depends what Saints team turns up.

Problem with that logic is we'd then have kept Jones and by now been truly f**ked. See Palace are keeping up their crap form. Didn't see their game today but by all accounts they were useless - though their next six games are all against relegation rivals.

The logic is good. It all depends on mindset. Against Brentford we could have played all day and not scored and with Spurs in the first half we never looked like scoring, yet it the second half there was a complete change in attitude. Similarly, against Man U, we went after them from the start. While I appreciate you can't bomb around for 50 minutes (that's about the average the ball is in play nowadays!), surely you can have that positive attacking mindset for 50 minutes.

The bookmakers have us at 3/10 and Notts For & Bournemouth as prime relegation candidates. We're playing both of these two. Not going to put the house on it but worth a 'lay' punt. Certainly, from how the team has played over the last month compared to the three months previous, I'm remaining hopeful of escaping relegation.....at least until the Palace game.

What was pleasing about yesterday was that when Spurs tried to park the bus, we still went at them rather than the usual passing sideways. Liked Sulemana's forward charges, Mara is growing in stature. Theo gets in to the right places. Keep AA and Ely out the squad and we're a solid mid table side. There's a lot of crap at bottom of the table.

4 wins from the 5 W.Ham, Palace, Bournemouth, Forest & Fulham games could well be enough - this team is more than capable. They need self-belief, they need to be direct against the teams that will be set up to defend against us. W.Ham in a fortnight should go after us which will create opportunities. Still hopeful, though last Wednesday was a real setback. Someone needs to have a word with RB and his obsession with playing Ely. It is so wrong on so many levels. Today things changed when he came off - well, there's a surprise.

I also agree. He's already shown he has potential. There's an obsession with speed nowadays but most the speed merchants have zero ball control (with Lavia the ball is practically stuck to his feet). Sule's control is very average but he can get past people. His assists/shots need practice...keep on saying, can't the players take a football to the training ground??

It's frustrating because there's so many options to sort this nonsense out: Get the player off the pitch and do treatment off the pitch and let play continue; for every minute treated on the pitch, the player has to spend the corresponding time standing on the byeline before coming back on; like rugby, get treatment on the pitch but let play continue... It's the way players lie dead for 5 minutes, then hobble off aided and then sprint back on faster than Usain Bolt that is really galling. I blame De Canio.

The other problem is presuming we go up the football league. This team probably has more chance of staying in the premiership than being promoted back up again next year.

Spurs are all over the place. Fans don't like the manager, the manager doesn't want to be there, the players don't seem to care - nothing would be a surprise. My guess is we win 1-0, get our hopes raised and then make a pig's ear of W.Ham.

This is my hope. Win those four and there's still a chance of picking up a couple of points elsewhere. Just rather miffed that we failed to have more than a shot on target yesterday. The lack of invention is so frustrating. Occasionally yesterday Ely ran in to space but you could practically see the player on the ball look up, see it was Ely and think "He's useless, not passing to him" and look for other tighter options. Just have to be more positive....what don't the players get?

Reason 2 needs to be addressed at FIFA level. This is killing the game more than VAR. All teams do it. We did it at Chelsea. Refs need to show yellow cards and give world cup style extra time Reason 1 - that said, we probably wouldn't have scored with 20 min extra time. Ely was predictably shit. Only Alcaraz seemed to know which way the goal was. Better teams leave space as they attack us, but we have no idea how to break teams set up to defend. Run at them. Draw free kicks. We've got the best free kick specialist in the business. Only thing slower than our play was getting to the M3 post game.

Thought there was some potential in the way Che and Sulemana linked up, more so than Tall Paul and Sulemana. In fact, just getting the impression that Tall Paul isn't really a fit for the current set up, so not sure how much game time he'll get tomorrow.

Yes, I wonder if he realises what ringing that bell means...heard even the portsmouth fans are sick to death of it.

Looks like we need to change the words of our chant!

Tend to agree. Thought all the back four were excellent today with Perraud & KWP making great runs. Midfield is looking solid. Liked the way Alcaraz seemed to spearhead the press. Sulemana is starting to look dangerous. Che can lay off a pass. Main issue is subs. Never ever want to see AA coming on again.

As soon as these two came on, our attacking threat died away. Not sure the Theo experiment has run its course but surely we can't keep giving AA a chance. Played so well. Good confidence boost. Still need 5 wins....starting with Brentford on Wednesday 😀

Thought he was ok under Ralph but nothing special. Got pushed far too easily off the ball. Hopefully, this stint with Burnley has added a little more steel, and what games I've seen of Burnley, he does look a much better player. Whether he wants to come back to us is a different matter. He seemed to look out for his mates and give them a wave most games so maybe he's got a solid base down here.

Perhaps stating the obvious but this is a winnable game for us. Brentford's position in the League flatters them. They've shown against Everton they're toothless up front. All bets on Toney scoring are off 😉

Blimey, didn't realise the score was going to be 2-3 😀. All these stats are interesting but ultimately there to be broken. Always hopeful...will take a point from this one