trousers

And we're just 4 points behind Watford (with a game in hand) who only lost one of their first 8 league games. A stat for every occasion....

I've just had a look back through the journo's (Colin Mafham's) previous articles, going back several months, and he doesn't seem to have a track record of 'wild speculation' articles. He's certainly not in the same league as Mr Crook in that department, for example. So maybe, just maybe, there's something in this....

Post #111111 is only 33 posts away. That's gotta be worth some bunting and a few party poppers, surely?

Not much chortle mileage in a 5 year old 3rd tier mid-table football club to be fair

3 points please. I'd start Austin despite the "can't play 2+ games in one week" tag that he's often labelled with. Let's get another 50 - 60 minutes out of him and take it from there. And Lemina has to start (surely?) Forster Stephens* - VvD - Hoedt - Bertrand Hojbjerg - Romeu - Lemina Boufal - Tadic Austin Subs: McCarthy, Yoshida, JWP, Davis, Redmond, Gabbi, Long *assuming Cedric is still injured. Don't think we should have a back 5 at home to Leicester but given Stephen's excellent showing again yesterday I think he can do a job at right back

Yep, my MotM

Under what circumstances do you think Pellegrino would have resorted to bringing on Lemina today, other than to help shore up our midfield when 1-0 ahead vs Arsenal with 15 minutes to go? If it's highly unlikely that Pellegrino was going to risk him then why have him on the bench in the first place? (Not directing that question at you personally per se, just a general think out loud question)

Must be my old age kicking in. Could've sworn JWP played a more advanced position in the first half and Stephens more of a right back. Maybe it was too fluid a set up for me to notice in the first half. Perhaps because we sat back more in the second half it was more obvious we had five at the back second half. Or, as I say, could just be me losing my marbles

We played 4 at the back first half (Bertrand - VvD - Yoshida - Stephens) and 5 in the second half (Bertrand - VvD - Yoshida - Stephens - JWP)

Just back from the game. Was annoyed that we set ourselves up so defensively at the start of the 2nd half. Was convinced we wouldn't be able to see the game out for another 45 minutes but when we got to 75 minutes still 1-0 up I started to eat my own words... that was until we brought on Boufal and Gabbi at precisely the time of the game we should have been bringing on Lemina to shore things up even more (IMO). It baffles me how Lemina didn't get on in that game. Most of us would have been happy with a point before the game but still feel gutted we didn't win. Austin had a great game - he offers so much more than just goal scoring - his presence seems to galvanise the whole team and encourages other players to be more attacking. Special mentions too to Hojbjerg, Romeu, Bertrand, Yoshida and Forster all of whom had good games IMO. But my man of the match goes to Jack Stephens. He had Sanchez in his pocket for most of the game and looks so assured and confident on the ball. Shame that his opportunities are limited given the number of players we have in his position. Another game we can come away with in a positive frame of mind. Bring on Leicester!

...

Great first half from Saints. Only gripe is the usual dead-end football from JWP and Redmond when they receive the ball out wide in advance positions. DT - are you still angry about the starting line up?

I'm as perplexed as the next man re: the starting line up, but I'll reserve judgement until I know the outcome. Call me old fashioned....

Why not wait until after the game before getting angry? At least then your observation would be based on reality rather than a possible reality.... Unless you've got your "told you so" and "glad I was proven wrong" cards lined up to play later on....?

Greetings from St Mary's Has to be said, that's a fairly perplexing line up. Either Pied is Cedric's understudy or he isn't. Why shuffle he defence more than you need to just because one player is injured? And the absence of Lemina is a bit of a mystery. The only logical explanation is that he's still not 100% fit after his injury so we're eating him back into the squad....? Oh well, it's 11 v 11 so you never know....

I knew it was a Sunday match but hadn't noticed that it was such an early kick off! Any recommendations for breakfast venues in or around the city centre? Cheers!

This

Away to Fulham

I'd go with with 3 CBs for this one.... ---------------------- Forster ----------------------- ------ Yoshida -------- VvD --------- Hoedt ------- Cedric ------------------------------------ Bertrand --------------Romeu ------- Lemina --------------- ------- Tadic ---------------------- Boufal --------- ---------------------- Austin ----------------------- Subs: McCarthy, Hojbjerg, Davis, JWP, Redmond, Gabbiadini, Long (yes, I know I've not put any defenders on the bench..... but with 5 defenders in the starting 11 it's difficult to sacrifice one of Hojbjerg, Davis or JWP to accommodate a 6th defender in the match day squad. If one of our defenders were to get injured we can always revert to a back 4 or JWP could fill in)

We will get an uninspiring game vs a mid-table premier league or mid-table championship team.

And the Group G runners up (aka England) then meet Germany in the QF....

A quarter final vs Germany beckons if we qualify from the group as runners up. That'll be that then....

Forster Cedric/Pied - VvD - Hoedt - Bertrand Romeu - Lemina - Hojbjerg Boufal - Tadic Austin Subs: McCarthy, Yoshida, Davis, JWP, Redmond, Long, Gabbiadini

I don't think its unreasonable to surmise that Redmond would become an improved player if he was being managed by someone of Guardiola's calibre. You only have to look at what he's achieved with Stirling to come to that conclusion.

The pundits on MotD2 were guessing that Redmond was saying back: "yeah, but I've been told to play this way" Is the there a chance that people might be over criticising Redmond's play? Remember how Pep seemed to get the best out of Sterling when he joined City... gave him more freedom to express himself. Perhaps Redmond is the kind of player that needs to be given the same kind of freedom rather than pigeon holed into a rigid formation. If Pep can see something in Redmond perhaps it's more about man management than the player himself per se. Just thinking out loud.