VectisSaint

This. Well said.

If I am being harsh then I'm afraid its not just me. Professional managers/pundits have the same view, ex Saints managers as well. There is an irrational idea on here (not from you) that any Saints player, and in this case Forster, is above criticism. Like every player he has his strengths and his weaknesses. He is beginning to prove that he is a good shot stopper, his kicking is good, he usually deals well with crosses (certainly better than some of his predecesors). But so many times he is found wanting when it comes to coming out for the ball. But some on here cannot deal with this, usually by saying "he is faultless, he must be because he has conceded the least goals in the league" or words to that effect. The guy is good, but he could be even better, maybe in time he will learn to be better at claiming the ball in some situations.

Really. I think its quite obvious. We should go with the same starting XI as yesterday, make sure we don't give anything away early on, the one thing we cannot let them do is get an early goal. Hopefully we get Elia and Reed on the bench for this one (instead of Gardos and JWP).

Why is it a worry that a footballer sees out his contract? If he plays for us next season and then leaves that would be a good thing would it not? After all we have already paid for the number of years that his contract was for, therefore it means we have got our value for the money we paid and in return the player has provided us with the service we requested. Of course if he were to see out his contract by sulking like a little girl and not playing that might be an issue, but I don't believe that Nathaniel is that sort of bloke.

OK, so finally go to watch the clip. What a brilliant reaction, reminds me of the days of WGS. Doesn't indicate any pressure at all, just indicates what a clueless bunch of tossers we have sometimes asking these questions at press conferences. Pity a few more managers don't respond more honestly when they are asked this sort of drivel. Its not a PR issue either (unless you mean in the medical sense of the abbreviation). Journo acts like an arsehole is treated in the appropriate manner.

Of course the defence was at fault, thats not the issue. But to try to claim that the TV angle foreshortened the distance FF would have needed to come, come on Whitey I expect better of you than that. It was hardly more than a stride for a giant who is on his toes, to punch a floated cross (maybe catching would have been expecting a bit too much). I said it when it happened and was heartened to hear two of our former managers saying exactly the same, and Ronald hinting also that he could have done better. I'm sure that Lloris or even Joe Hart would have punched that away instead of standing rooted watching a soft goal pass them by.

At least Vic and Morgan get their bookings for something tangible, rather than something silly like taking their shirt off during a goal celebration.

Championship

So he might as well have come for it anyway, the result would have been the same. Disagree completely with your assessment that he would not have reached it, he would easily have reached it if he had been positioned better and had anticipated the flight of the ball. He also would not have had a problem physically reaching it, would not have even needed to jump to punch the ball away off Costa's head. Forster had a great second half, but still people will not see that he has significant shortcomings, which have cost us a few times this season.

Did he make a goal line clearance yesterday? Replays on Sky suggested (and pundits said) that it came back off of Ivanovic. Having watched the highlights again today it is very difficult to tell, but my money is still on Ivanovic from what I can see - if it did come back off JWP then fair play, he was on the near post so he was doing that job effectively. I also don't really think he came on yesterday as a "late substitute", he played 24 minutes (came on at 71 and there were 5 minutes extra played. i would call pelle a late sub, but I guess it is a question of semantics.

Still counts as an assist, even though his shot was awful, and that's why whenever people quote stats about assists you should treat them (the stats) with the contempt they deserve.

To be fair he hasn't played for the England u21s since September against Lithuania "when he [Kane] nodded in James Ward-Prowse's sumptuous cross.". Of course he can't feature if there are no games or he is injured, but saying how good he is based on his u21 performances is part of the problem, people are making their judgements based on how he played a long time ago. He certainly does not become a bad player overnight, but in recent games since he came back from injury he has been shown to be slow, unable to tackle, poor at decision making in defensive positions, unable to shoot and his dead ball deliveries which were much lauded (rightly so) at one stage have become average at best or poor if you want to be honest. I think JWP needs another pre-season to get back to full fitness and perhaps to bulk up a bit, the evidence at the moment is that he is not the player he was last season or even the one before. I don't think that is down to the Koeman formation either, it is simply down to him not being able to do the things necessary at the moment to be anything more than an average AM player.

Maybe Boscombe have him lined up for next season along with Adam Lalla.

Only Wanyama is one caution away from a suspension. Morgan must be at least two away otherwise he would be on the official list: http://www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/suspensions

6 way race for 3 cl spots is what was said. Which meant they included us.

I'm puzzled about our stats though. There have been arguments on here one at least one occassion about whether we were playing 3-5-2 or 5-3-2, yet neither appears in the stats as a formation that Ron has used. 3-4-3 and 5-4-1 apparently have been used, I guess one of the ones where we argued about 352/532 must have been one of these according to the stattos.

You're right, must be senility kicking in. He was instrumental in the build up for the first against Arsenal though, with the JWP assist, as well as the assist for the second.

Following a great pass from Steve Davis. Seems like a bit of a theme here.

Have no problem with the kits, but would be a bit surprised if both the home and away shorts are black. I know the rules aren't followed to the letter any more, but i would think we would need a change of shorts colour for some games. I would also think that the backs of the home shirts would need to be modified if we play in Europe.

Pole dancing?

Are there really many on here that think it would be a disaster if we didn't sign him permanently? Agreed it would be great if we did he is clearly a top class player, probably the best player in the club, but how would it be a disaster? Also, he has player 16 out of the 25 Premier league games since he signed, he missed 3 at the start of the season before he signed for us. So 16 out of 25, is not too shabby. Hardly think he can be classed as injury prone, on the basis of having picked up one injury (which recurred suggesting he came back too soon). Agree to some extent about CBs playing alongside Jose, but it is clear that Toby is high class, whereas many could see that Lovren was not after his injury and was often helped out by Jose last season. Yoshida is a class act (sadly some still refer back to the days when he played as RB or LB and had nightmare games, played as left sided CB he is terrific). We also have Turnbull and Stephens coming through. I think we might still need to get another CB if Toby doesn't re-sign, until Stephens/Turnbull are ready to step up, but I really don't see any way it would be a disaster to lose Toby. I fully expect him to be elsewhere next season, most probably at Atletico.

Not unless you want us to drop into the Championship (Football League) first.

The Faroe Islands beckon

"Three little peeps" would scan better. We may have trouble with Pimpers Paradise...

Like it. Should I also point out the post is a bit sexist. I gather the FA want us to stamp out sexism in football. We need to have Bob's song reworded if Shane is going to sing it again, No Person No Cry would be more politically correct.