VectisSaint

Bit surprised at you Whitey, as you always claim to be a former ref. Blowing the whistle is nothing to do with it, blowing the whistle is simply a means to stop (or start) play (ignoring the fact that you cannot tell when a whistle is blown wat hing on TV, speed of light, speed of sound etc., and also allowing for a long reaction time for a ref to actually do such a thing). It's what the referee indicates after he has blown the whistle that is important. He made no attempt to signal that he was playing advantage (though to be fair there was not time to do so) and clearly indicated the foul that he was penalising was a direct free kick outside the area (which it clearly was, I don't think anyone has claimed otherwise). There is no legitimate reason for VAR to have overturned the referee's decision and awarded a pen. None. And as for Carragher's remarks, well they were just borne out of pure ignorance, not for the first time of course. I'm mighty glad they did overrule it though, cos I don't think we would have won it any other way. Makes up for all the times decisions go against us.

So your quote was not a quote and is fundamentally different to what is in the Laws of the Game, which I had read and which you have now pasted. The part about holding is fundamental, there was no 'holding' in the play on Monday that lead to the pen., so this section is not applicable. Simple really.

and two left sided (left footed) CBs.

Advantage wasn't played, the referee blew for the initial foul that was clearly outside the penalty area, that's why his initial decision was a direct free kick outside the area. VAR overruled this, wrongly in my view, either by applying advantage (how can they do that) or more likely for the foul continuing in the area (which is not correct unless it is for holding, which it clearly wasn't) according to Law 12.

Where does that quote come from? I'm not sure that it is accurate, it certainly does not appear in the FA Laws of the Game. The FA Laws of the Game (https://www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/lawsandrules/laws/football-11-11/law-12---fouls-and-misconduct) actually state "If a defender starts holding an attacker outside the penalty area and continues holding inside the penalty area, the referee must award a penalty kick." No other type of foul (other than holding) has this type of clarification. I don't think anyone could say the foul was awarded for holding was it? The initial foul was a shove, and the action in the box was a trip. According to the FA Law 12 I don't think a penalty should have been awarded, the fould was not for March holding Walker-Peters. Still it was given, and I'm happy that we got one for a change. Carragher's assessment was garbage though, he clearly has no idea of the Law, was arguing against it for completely false reasons.

So you want to change our formation. You can't replace Armstrong with Diallo without fundamentally changing the way we play. Anyway, why drop Armstrong, he's had a couple of poor games but he will come good again. Diallo will get his chance eventually, meanwhile he seems a useful sub when we are trying to manage a game.

Hoedt is a very good player. His problems were that he lacked concentration and he was an arrogant tosser, a legend in his own mind. He would be our best central defender if he was able to do something about these two problems, especially the concentration. He will never play for us again, but will probably do very well at Lazio and probably go on to better things in the future. The sooner he is gone the better.

So you would drop Romeo or JWP, two of our best performers this season. Interesting idea. 🤔

Why? He was only 14 when he was playing for them and when we signed him. Probably a good thing, some experience playing with seniors in a competitive environment rather than playing age group football at the Academy, probably "toughened him up".

I disagree. This paragraph is the first time I have read anything that suggests the turnaround wasn't all down to Ralph. "In the immediate aftermath of the Leicester game - both that night and the following morning - Hasenhuttl and Semmens spoke at length. Their discussions were not about the manager's future but were centred around bringing in more support amid a feeling the Austrian was carrying too much responsibility on his own. His thinking had become clouded." Whether this meant new people were brought in (or existing people were given different responsibilities) or even referred to others that had recently joined (Richard Kitzbichler) it is good that someone has finally acknowledged that changes were introduced to help Ralph, and that everything wasn't just changed by Ralph as other commentators like to portray. I'm convinced a lot of credit for the turnaround should go to Kitzbichler, but his influence seems to have gone largely unrecognised.

Personally I have no idea, but this comes up from 2014 when you google: https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/11664945.danny-ings-i-used-to-dream-of-playing-for-saints/ Certainly sounds like he was up to the age of 10, maybe after he was rejected he changed his allegiance. Nevertheless regardless of whether he was a Saints supporter, he has an allegiance to the area if not the team. If he were to leave, and I doubt it very much, I think it would only be to a London team, I thought Spurs were sniffing around a while back.

Wouldn't make a jot of difference. If the bindippers wanted him (and he was willing to go) they would get him, only the price would change.

Looks like a very bad photoshop job, you can still see the outline of the player they have superimposed Danny's image over 😉

Interesting to note that although the figure of 2000 spectators is bandied around (by government, media, club), in fact if you break the figures down, 202 (or ~10%) are not allocated to supporters. Presumably they are to cover the players, staff, press, stewards, WAGs etc. 1798 "spectators" in total. Presumably if Southampton ever got moved to Tier 1, this number (202) would not change much (maybe a few more stewards) and it might allow almost 2000 more real supporters to attend.

Obafemi is Irish (well he was born there), Ireland is in the Common Travel Area, Irish Citizens have different rights to those outside of the CTA.

It won't affect players already here, it won't be applied retrospectively. Not clear if it would be applied to players moving between clubs in the UK, as this is when you traditionally need a new work permit.

Just playing devil's advocate here a bit, but 10 of those 12 were in 3 games (Spurs, Villa and Man U). The Spurs goals were a result of us playing a high line (too high) and very much an aberration at start of the season, Villa was us simply taking our foot off the gas/Bednarek injury and the Man U goals were to a large extent down to some excellent play by them (pains me to say it), especially by Cavani. That leaves 2 2nd half goals conceded in 7 games. Not sure with this evidence that you can blame it on 2nd half fatigue, or even last 10 minutes fatigue. Mind you, I don't pretend to have any answers either, you could [possibly argue that the Bednarek injuries have been significant, but its hard to see that many (or any) of the goals against Manu or Spurs could be attributed to Bednarek's absence or struggling.

True, but the point is that what happened in 2018-19 season is totally irrelevant, what happened in 2019-20 is largely irrelevant (by the way as far as I can tell we were nowhere near the top of this table last season, but can't verify to be sure). Yes, we have now dropped 8 points from winning positions this season (3 each vs Spurs and ManU and 2 vs Wolves?), and that is not good, but just to balance that we are currently 5th in the table of most points gained from a drawing position. All those games where we have lost from a winning position also show that we have been in the lead in 8 out of 10 games so far this season, I would much rather that than we were constantly having to come from behind to get points. Anyway, as i said the point here is that this nonsense stat starting from Dec 2018 is just that, nonsense, completely irrelevant, and says nothing about the resilience of the current team (i.e. this season).

But it is from December 2018, it is meaningless, not even last season, but the season before (I know its basically since Ralph arrived). What the hell has the season before last got to do with anything? What is relevant is this season, possibly this season and last post lockdown, at an absolute stretch during 2020. We've put things in place to improve this already.

Can't see Ings being ready, maybe outside chance for the bench. No reason to change the team (not that we have many options anyway). Hopefully Ralph spends the week drilling into our defensive players about getting the ball away cleanly and not being sloppy. We were awful today at sloppy passes out from the back and giving up possession far too easily (KWP, Romeu, Armstrong, Vestegaard especially).

When would Cedric have shared a club pitch with Ronaldo? He was only 12 when Ronaldo left Sporting, doubt they would have shared a pitch when he between the ages of 7 and 12. Fonte would have shared a pitch with him though.

Congratulations. Your hugely insightful contribution to this discussion after 2 days is much appreciated. All that effort just so that you can deliver an infantile insult. Says it all really. Try contributing to a discussion once in a while, preferably after reading and comprehending the posts that you are responding to. PS, sorry for the long words, I realise they may cause you some difficulty.

Always wary about calling games against lower mid table teams.

Ralph plays piano

Maybe they could play home games on the Isle of Wight.