VectisSaint

Decided it was best to wait before posting, anger at that performace yesterday has subsided a bit. First time in nearly 50 years that I seriously considered leaving before the end (at 80 minutes-ish), but I stayed. We played well for about 30 minutes, tactics were fine and we should have been at least 2 up. United were awful, and had nothing in an attacking sense and defence was very shaky, Tadic and Pelle, and to some extent Mane were giving themthe complete run around and JWP was being quite creative. Shocked at Koeman playing Yoshi as RB with our fit (presumably) specialist RB sat on the bench, but to be fair there was nothing wrong. Then, for some reason the team as a whole, presumably on instruction for the bench decided we need to sit back. It was suicidal even against an ineefective opposition, eventually as we dropped deeper and deeper (and not just the defence but the whole team) the inevitable goal came. That should have provoked a reaction but it didn't, it was clear then that the players had given up, completely. 25 minutes of inviting United on, giving them the ball, they must have thought it was Christmas the gifts we were giving them. Yoshida's suicidal mistake completely knocked any stuffing remnants from out of the players. Davis came on to replace Romeu and at least tried to pick the pace up, but there were 10 others on the pitch that had already decided they could not be bothered. Ronald should have brought on fresh attacking player at the same time or soon after. Third goal came, and still no fight, it was embarrassing to see a bunch of players who had no fight, total disinterest. Disgusted with Pelle trying to get himself subbed off when we brought Long on, really never want to see one of our players ever do that again. OK, we picked it up with 5 minutes or so to go, which realy made matters worse because we showed that they were easy meat, great goal from Pelle - clearly there was nothing wrong with him, and all of a sudden we could have equalised, which would have been a travesty for what was one of our worst performances ever (and that's based on 49 years of support). The last few minutes probably means that we will gloss over the inept display that preceded it. Not going to blame nay individuals, the whole starting XI together with Ronald are responsible. Clearly some individual mistakes cost us goals, but loads of others went unpunished by a feeble Man United - 3 shots on target. Ronald has to get this sorted out, his tactics and team selections this season have been very odd, though his initial tactics yesterday were working well until the switch. ****ed off with the players who capitulated and gave up, lack of fight was shocking. Special mention yesterday for Man U's 12th man, Clottenburg. What a crap referee he has become. Apparently Rooney was playing yesterday, the only time I noticed him was in Clottenburg's ear. People are complaining about Mike Dean's (?) performance against Arsenal on Saturday, but the FA really need to look at Clot as well. Was looking forward to seeing Morgan play, but he too was anonymous apart from two bad tackles at least one of which warranted a yellow. All the ManU supporters singing about Martial but truth is he was presented with effectively an open goal for the second, and did nothing apart from net 2 easy goals. De Gea two world class saves shows why they wanted to keep hold of him, whether he could have done anything about the three we conceded is of course open to speculation, but I doubt it. Hope there is not too much cracking papering over, because serious questions need to be asked and answered after that, not least of the manager.

Exactly why Kenilworthy said two full seasons...

Possibly the least controversial.

Good to see Gaston is one of our highest rated players. Only Tadic and Fonte are higher. This must be a realistic game Awesome, that will make Alpine happy.

Bit pathetic really, common enough phrase used by the Prem League and UEFA for years now. Strictly speaking it is Matchweek rather than Matchday, because the games for each week are spread over 3 or 4 days nowadays.

So you didn't hear him after Europa exit?

Try telling Bristol Rovers, Macclesfield, Rochdale and Stockport (Rickie), Bournemouth (Lallana), Swindon (Walcott) that not much trickles down to the lower leagues. Bristol Rovers may well have gone out of business if not for the Lambert money when they got relegated from the Football League.

No.

Sven was a little more than 16 when we signed Morgan...

Clasie didn't do anything. A freak accident took Clasie out.

What a total nonsense of a press conference. You can see it ****es Ronald off, why do we have to put up with these total ****s asking all their questions about ManU. Ronald should just say "We are Southampton" and not answer anything that is not on subject.

Thanks, that's the chap.

Burley managed to turn him into the Pillsbury Doughboy if memory serves. It was after our assistant manager (whose name completely escapes me now) left and we began to see that George didn't have a ****ing clue.

Thanks for clearing that up then

Good to see he is still keen to play, sure he could be effective at that level, but whether Blackpool are good enough is another matter. See they are trying to sign Adam Hammill as well, he really did lose his way when/after he was with us, touted as a future England international at one stage with Liverpool, can't even blame Brenda for that one.

Except that it will be forever associated with the Royal Navy and thus (wrongly) the Skates (Ark Royal was based at Devonport not Pompey). Personally don't have a problem with a decent Sutherland Brothers song even if it was subsequently murdered by Rod the Mod.

They were both expected to be out for between 6 and 9 months as well. Best wait and see how long they are actually out before making comparisons, recovery times are not as predictable as some would have you believe.

You're right, it would be terrible to have them in the starting XI together again like we did with Norwich, I mean that was a disaster wasn't it. Must admit though I cannot see any justification for playing JWP when we have Romeu.

Maybe I missed it, but I was struck when watching that SRL failed to get (much of) a mention. He had a bit of a man-love thing for Dean Hammond though, guess he will be at Bramall Lane come January.

Just can't get the staff these days, illiterate economist bloggers. Taunton's has a lot to answer for.

Maybe not a broken leg type injury but 94-95 and 98-99 he missed lots of games trough injury and was plagued by hamstring injuries in the early part of his career. His experience in the latter part of his career probably helped to avoid some of the leg breaker tackles, that and his exceptional pace which left most defenders for dead.

Only if we can have Ronald as his assistant. New trend of brothers working as a team. [Didn't actually realise that Ronald is currently the assistant manager of Ajax Youth Academy. OK, so this is perfect as a succession policy]

Something to do with players that tend to run at defenders and who more often than some others have to be stopped by fair means or foul. It may happen more to younger players due to a relative lack of experience.

tu quoque, fili mi.

Sadly your attempt to link Luke's injury with fate and historical dates is fatally flawed. The Ides of September falls on the 13th, not the 15th, as any classical scholar would know. It is a common misconception that the Ides falls on the 15th of each month, in fact the Ides fall on the 15th only March, May, July and October. For future reference the following needs to be learned by all posters wishing to post accurately about Roman calendars: The Kalends always falls on the first of the month The Nones falls on the fifth, except as described by the following poem: March, July, October, May The Nones are on the seventh day The Ides falls 8 days after the Nones.