VectisSaint

From next season the winners of the Europa League will qualify for the Champions League the following season, so winning the COC this season could be a way (however unlikely) of achieving that aim.

I think he is clearly more talented than Mr Ripley.

His assessment for this season is probably fair. But its a bit odd to say last season this would have been a home banker, when the result was 3-3. So it looks like he may be better at predicting the future than checking on the past. Note in the Hull summary the following "they (Hull) are arguably the most organised team in the Premier League apart from Southampton". Merson seems to be almost a saints fan these days, for an ex-Skate that must be difficult. Wonder if anyone has ever compared merson's predictions with the slug-balancer, to see who is actually best.

Roma are incredible, still only 1 goal conceded with 15 minutes to go in their 10th game of the season (admittedly against bottom club Chievo)

Signs of senility I'm afraid, I knew I'd put the wrong name as soon as I posted it, but last post of the day and no edit facility meant my cringeworthy error was there for all to see :-) Of course I meant Maya Yoshida. I would not be happy seeing Bambi on Ice playing alongside Jos at CB, I'd almost forgotten that Mayuka was still our player.

Where have you been "hounded" for your opinion that Lovren would be the greatest loss? The only replies to your post are that we could not get an emergency loan for a keeper, which is a fact, due to the FA rules. Having had that fact pointed out do you still think Lovren would be the greatest loss? Maybe you do, some others agree with you. Personally I don't think Lovren would be the greatest loss, but that's just my opinion and I'm certainly not hounding you for disagreeing. IMHO Boruc would be the greatest loss. We have adequate backup for Lovren, the partnership of Fonte and Mayuka was quite acceptable last season, but that doesn't mean Lovren is no better than Mayuka, just that we have a reasonably good replacement. For Boruc we have Kelvin, and back to flapping at corners and crosses. I have lots of respect for KD for what he did for us and his loyalty but he is so far behind Boruc. Likewise with Luke Shaw, we have seen on more than one occasion that a combination of Clyne and Chambers is a decent backup plan, without having to use the diabolical Fox.

He even scored a goal for them, which is more than he has ever done for us. Of course both Steve and Kelvin Davis have also played for other teams in the PL, but neither played a part yesterday, although I'm sure Steve would have started if he had not picked up an injury in training.

Why? MP has demonstrated clearly that he will change a team to fit the circumstances. Stoke away are a very different proposition to Fulham at home. I would not be surprised to see Davis back in ahead of JWP although it would be harsh on the lad, may also be in place of J-Rod. Probably not much else changed though.

Great idea, the only stand that contains away supporters and you propose to call it ALL SAINTS Memorial. Move the away supporters and it might make sense.

Decent second half, game turned in the first half when their CB went off injured. Diabolical defending by both teams for the last 2 goals. Probably fair result, but Doddsy will be disappointed not to have won.

Deliberate policy by MP though to play kids in older age group, did the same at Espanyol, helps to bring them on more quickly by giving them tougher competition. Does mean we look a bit out of our depth at times, but in the long run it is a good thing. That said, I don't see too many players today who look that much younger or smaller than their Liverpool counterparts. Sad to see how many foreign players Liverpool are playin at u18 level, even though the Hungarian lad had to go off. They are talking about getting another one's international clearance. Think your "game over" remark may be a bit early (after 14 minutes), we seem to have come back into the game since the CB was injured.

coc?

Strange that 4 of the teams above us are in the defensive "avoiding the issue" quadrant, while 3 of the same 4 are in the Constant threat attacking quadrant. If we are to get to be Top 4 we need to work to get into those quadrants rather than where we are, at least if you believe the stats. Still, from the attacking viewpoint we would only need to average one more shot per game and one more goal scored per shot and we would move into the best quadrant, so we are not too far off despite the perception that we are not as potent up front as we would like.

This would be the same Osvaldo who was glad to be out of Italy because of the attitude of the supporters, how they don't leave players alone and their general lack of respect. I doubt very much that Dani is looking for a move back to Italy, seems like a poorly researched made up story by one of this country's trashy so-called newspapers. Its not like he needs to be in Italy to play for the Azzurri, he has been in the team and scored since he joined Saints. I will file this article along with some of the other trash in the circular file.

Hawkeye was first used at Stamford Bridge, Chelski v Hull on August 18th (Ivanovic header off the line)

Well you would have been better listening to the so-called experts. The boy Lineacre wanted to focus on Manure, but Shearer wouldn't let him and focused on us using footage that was not included in the highlights. Highlights were a joke, but what's new? Sky Match Choice highlights were better (of course they have longer) but missed the Clyne shot and the Schneiderlin run, and also most of our bookings (I think they showed only Vic's). The woman that presents Sky Match Choice is truly appalling, and Butch Wilkins is really not much better, but at least the highlights themselves put MOTD to shame.

3 chances for RvP

Doubt he will play today, given he wasn't involved last match. Does not seem to fit in with MP's plans at the moment and we have better options with Steven Davis at the moment. Still don't know why people need to be so rude about the bloke though, I'm sure he didn't amble back from international duty, as the OP states, due to time zones he is bound to get back later than players on duty in Europe. He is still one of the very few truly creative players we have but I see him being involved less and less and departing next summer.

Miller or Donohue, the origins of football in Brazil began with a departure from Southampton. Southampton truly is the source of football in Brazil. "In May 1894, he [Donohue] set sail from Southampton to Rio, leaving behind his wife and two young sons." It is worth bearing in mind that were it not for Miller or Donohue we would not be blessed with the legend that is Guly.

So he confused us with Arsenal. Not sure that's an insult, and easily done with our current shirt design. "Charlie Wayman" often confuses Saints with Arsenal. Could have been worse, he could have mixed us up with Brizzle City.

Has been on the bench for 5 out of 7 league matches this season and came on in 2. Are you Fraser Nelson in disguise?

Steven Davis equaliser for Norn Iron.

Don't believe that figure for a minute, but I'm sure whatever he is "costing" for is budgeted for by NC. This concern for the cost of wages is a real throw back to the bad old days of Lowe and the plc.

Just for the sake of accuracy, the stats for this season are actually as follows: 4 sub appearances, ave 11.5 passes, 67.4% success rate Admittedly this is the lowest of any of our outfield players, just behind Osvaldo and Lambert. Boruc has a worse pass success rate, perhaps we should ship him out based on that. Incidentally Guly has the top pass success rate, 100%. Data courtesy of whoscored.com

I see WGS was desperately short of cover at LB for their game on Tuesday against Croatia. Called up Steven Hammell of Motherwell. If he plays it will be his first cap since 2004 at the age of 31.