trousers

In the absence of a match build up thread, I thought I'd post this here.... I'd go for.... McCarthy Valery - Hoedt - Bednarek - McQueen Lemina - Slattery Hesketh - Boufal - Sims Obafemi Subs: Rose, Yoshida, Bertrand, Romeu, Tella, Johnson, Afolabi Fulham 1 Saints 3 (Hoedt, Boufal, Obafemi)

Hi. Any update on when this week this will be announced? Cheers

Looking back at the replay, our defence did rush out but at the last moment Bertrand slowed down just enough to leave Benteke onside. A fraction of a second after the ball is kicked, Benteke is in a much more obvious offside position. Fine margins indeed. That said, given the lino is a human being, I'm still convinced that he should have flagged offside as that's what his brain should have been telling him based on what he would have been able to see (even though it would have been wrong in retrospect!). Given sound travels slower than light, the image below is what he would have had in his mind (albeit from his reverse viewpoint) when the ball was kicked

Bertrand's heel is indeed level with Benteke's when the ball is struck.... although, from the linesman's viewpoint, he wouldn't have been able to see that - all he would have seen is Benteke looking like he was in an offside position. So, it could be argued that the lino got it right by not going with what he would have actually seen...!

Yes, probably the worst I've seen it at St Mary's

At the game. Scrappiest game I've seen at St Mary's for a long while. Both teams sloppy with their passing. Well taken goal from Shane. Bertrand had a few words with the crowd in the Kingsland after they had a go at him for doing a u turn rather than pushing forward. Bertrand does seem reluctant to overlap down the wing more often than not. (Which is why I'd have stuck with McQueen, but hey ho). Need another goal otherwise you know what'll happen...

He looked half fit and/or half arsed at Old Trafford when he came on, so not surprised to see him not warranting a starting place

Happy that he hasn't made wholesale changes. Only oddity for me is that McQuuen had a good game at Old Trafford and doesn't even make the bench tonight.

I'll kick off the selective quoting.... with this one.... DE: Who is responsible when fans are booing on a Saturday night at 5pm? RK: That’s part of the game. 2017 has been a tough year. DE: But after football everything follows. So who is accountable? RK: That’s us. That’s first me. It begins there. So fans bring it on!

Cheers for the insights VFTT - appreciated. Out of curiosity, do you know whether it was a specific "straw that broke the camel's back" event around the time of the Huddersfield game that convinced the board to sell VvD in the January window (rather than wait until the end of the season, for example), or was it something they had been thinking of doing all along and the decision just happened to be rubber stamped around the time of the Huddersfield game? Cheers

Send a PM to one of the mods with your info. They will then be able to validate your info in due course when it comes true, which will then prevent any future 'abuse'. That's the best way of separating the genuine ITKs from those that make stuff up IMO.

Wouldn't surprise me

Nonsense. Your go

Mods - please can we have less of this pragmatism on the SaintWeb forum? I come on here for the knee jerk reactionary stuff and posts like this are most disconcerting. Thanks

I'd stick with McQueen. Thought he had a good game yesterday and had a bit more enthusiasm about him compared to Bertrand in recent times. IMO, we need to create a vibe of having to win back your place in the team rather than players feeling entitled to being first choice. Let's create some healthy competition for places and ramp up the desire to play for the team.

Because he went through a mediocre spell in the autumn?

Just got back to the hotel. Massive improvement in both attitude and performance. We had chances to sneak the win and it wouldn't have been undeserved if we had. Hojbjerg my MotM. The only negative for me was that our subs seemed more off the pace than the players who had been on the pitch all game. Long chases everything whereas Gabbi and Redmond give up the chase most times. And Lemina was sloppy when he came on. And a special shout out to McCarthy who was confident in goal and that seemed to rub off on the defenders. Has to be our first choice now for the foreseeable future IMO. Shame that we probably won't start with the same 11 vs Palace (due to certain players being knackered?), as that line up deserves another crack of the whip. Here's hoping we don't take our foot off the pedal vs Palace.

I didn't mean it as a criticism per se. Was just wondering (out loud on an internet football forum) what would have happened if we'd said to Liverpool: "Ok, go on then, you can have him but the deal happens in the 2nd week of January (for example) to give us time to negotiate deals on a couple of players we're looking at bringing in without alerting their current clubs to us having £75m to play with". I was just speculating that, giving how desperate Liverpool appear to sign him, would they really have turned around and said: "no, bugger off, it's 1st Jan or nothing"? I would venture that would hardly have been the response of a club desperate to sign him. That said, perhaps I'm just being naive (as well as "ridiculous"...). First time for everything

The only blessing is that we don't have anyone with Durham's wind-up abilities on this forum...

You've got to grudgingly admire him though. It sets out to get a reaction and... lo and behold... He gets reactions. Mission accomplished.

Chomp chomp chomp (Me included)

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