Stu Man Do

We seemed to give villa a lot of free headers in the peno box by marking areas rather than the man. I'm struggling to remember did we, in others opinion, use zonal marking last year or is this a new fangled idea?

I suspect what he means by that is that Boruc is currently number 3 on merit and will have to prove he is the best keeper here to be our number 1. Hardly good team building to tell the other 2 that they have no chance!

I'm pretty sure I remember reading somewhere ... possibly even on here that we were very interested in Martin Olsson from Blackburn but couldnt get the deal through in time. Couldnt have been any worse than Fox but now BBurn are doing well again you would imagine he might just stick it out with them for the season now!

You'd have to be mad as a prem manager facing us to not just target Danny fox all game long wouldn't you? Stood off Valencia too much and doesn't seem to be very confident attacking either now. Hope SHaw is upto it!

Fox is a liability in this league. WIll cost us plenty more goals. Poor subs this game cost us. Note to Nige please please never take off your three best players again within 5mins! What's everyone's opinion on JROD as well? Seems utterly wasted to me on he left and bit worried to see him failing to win headers against fabio!

Thought much the same in terms of the forward line. Seems stupid to me (perhaps I am being daft) to buy Rodriguez who has played mainly as a central striker out on the left when Lambert is capable of playing in the midfield/striker link up. I also prefer Lallana out on the left as he has cemented himself there over the last two years and IMO is actually rather good at it. He also works fairly well with Fox. I have a sneaking suspicion on 1-0 with Jos scoring from a corner. Failing that RVP could rip Fonte to pieces :-(

Aw Alps you really are comedy gold. I'd like Sharp to stay but over and above two excellent young players? Have you considered a career in stand up? And I see your quote has even made an appearance on twitter #saintswebclassics

http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/sport/football/blackpool-fc/pool-have-no-intention-of-selling-phillips-1-4851014 Hopefully we can convince them still!

As soon as Lambert came on yesterday it looked (IMO!!) that the whole team got a lift. We'd been pegged back for the previous 40 odd minutes before Lambert came on and from that point on we started to play some really good football. On the flip side of this I think you have to give credit to Adkins for making a big call and putting him on at a time he thought he would do the most damage and it oh so nearly worked!

I feel a bit disappointed for Lambo, he deserves to start if as we're told by the experts on here this is a free game what better time for some sentimentality for the bloke who's goals gave gotten us here. Agree with the others who have said seems ridic to have played Jay out left wing for the whole of pre season to now wack him up front against Kompany. That isn't going to do much for his confidence! Hope we can put in a brave performance and we will see what happens! Que Cera Cera!

Bit sickening to hear on the BBC how "pompeys luck is maybe starting to change" and Garth Crooks talking about how the fans have stuck by them blah blah blah I thought their luck changed when they were allowed to get round a transfer embargo oh or perhaps when they wrote off 150 million worth of debt?

Reading that article about Phillips from the gazette, it made me wonder if the player who asked holloway why he hadn't answered his calls was in fact Phillips hoping to move a transfer along? Perhaps the fact he was hearing about ourinterest from the player himself is what led to bitter lil Ian's rant about tapping up the other day?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19234160 Richards out Hart possibly out Only 9 more freak training ground accidents this week and we have a chance!

I quite like the brazil teams line up 4-2-3-1 Davis Clyne - fonte - jos - fox Schneiderlin -Davis Guly- j-rod - lallana Lambert Haven't liked lallana in the hole having proved what a quality left winger he can be over the last 3 seasons. Any ideas on potential attendance tonight as its been a bit cack in an empty stadium!

Love the fact it says they may also take action against philips agent. Says to me he had some hand in us getting involved and secondly can't imagine he'll be staying long at blackpool if they mess his agent about! Only question is what is the punishment for tapping up a player? Fine?

If nothing else Dalek will finally get a prediction right with that finishing position! I would hope we can finish between 12-17th this year just so long as we stay up and earn the mega bucks next year!

Reminds me of connollys pre season last year. Came into the season firing on all cylinders and scored some vital goals in the first 4 games. On form probably a starter against city.

Played and scored for psv against Ajax yesterday so think this one is dead

Seems ridiculous that there is no right of appeal when even the clearly cheating badminton players got that! Big shame for the younger girl though let's hope she gets another chance in Rio.

Am I the only person who would feel a little un-easy if we were to start offering players 100k a week as things are? Not that I think this seriously has any legs though!

Really thanks for this. It's no wonder people get abit funny with you having answered none of the questions I raised ;p

Just had an interesting thought ... Let's say Pompey do make compromises with all their players and are brought and then cannot sign enough players in time for the season, what happens then? What's the lowest number of players you can name in a match day squad? How many players can you start on the pitch with?!

or "5-1 and we still love you , apart from erik, liam, ben, dave, chinny and the trust" as is more accurate! I am also enjoying the fact that 2 saints "lads" are playing for this team that they love so much! haha!

Serious question having gotten this far down the thread ... can you honestly recall one player we have had tied to a 5 year contract who has been so utterly inept? Who will never feature in a first team game and from the sounds of it has never been considered a viable option by any of our management teams. Cheers in advance if you can!!