The Kraken

I reckon todays lineup will almost be the starting lineup next week. Pretty confident Bazunu, Ketchup and Aribo will be in. Lavia probably too. New kid Mara got called out by Ralph so possibly will just make the bench.

I’m wondering, if we have a poor start to the season, will we just switch back to 4-2-2-2. I can’t believe Ralph will bin it off entirely. I think we tried it for a half in our second game but aside from that, 3 at the back. Personally I prefer a 4.

Ralph’s comments about him after today. “Sekou, like all the young new players coming to us, they have to get adapted to the intensity of our game so you can see immediately,” Hasenhuttl said. “Last season with Broja it was the same, it took him minimum three/four weeks until he knew what it was about playing up front here. “The game doesn’t start when you get the ball, the game starts when the opponent has it. This is the thing he has to learn but it is also not surprising because this is different.” Hasenhuttl added: “He has some qualities on the ball but it’s not enough, he must work hard for the team and then we will see.”

Pre season wouldn’t be pre season without DT grizzling his way through the entirety of it 👍

Four. Played 1 fa cup game (zero goals) and one League cup game (1 goal against Bournemouth). /endMLG

He came on as sub today. He also started against Monaco.

FT 1-2. Not bad, not great. Think it’s fairly likely that next week we’ll start with the side that started today with the exception of A.Armstrong instead of Mara. Standouts today were Aribo’s goal, Djenepo did well, Bazunu looks quality with the ball at his feet. Lavia was quite tidy but needs to impose himself more, JWP wasn’t quite at it today. The three CBs got undone for both goals, worrying switching off and basic mistakes that we’ve seen time and again. We had some decent chances but don’t look particularly ruthless up front. Mara didn’t get into the game so don’t know what to make of him yet but he’ll need to have more impact than that to get a starting slot. As it stands I think we’ll miss someone like Broja, someone capable of holding the ball up and relieving the pressure. Bring on next week, but it’s gonna be a tough game.

Redmond, what the fuck was that?

First bit of running that pitch invader has done for a while, the fat fuck.

Bednarek ending up sat on his arse, Salisu losing his man. Not a good look at the back.

Absolute class from Aribo!

I like Lavia, he’s tidy, but I think I slightly prefer Romeu. Too early to tell though, and one thing is for sure, Romeu can’t play week after week effectively, he looked shot toward the end of last season.

Ketchup with another decent ping, Djenepo should score.

No, quiet so far.

What a takedown from Joe Aribo. JWP territory….

At Spurs, if we are going with this formation I might prefer to see it with Romeu instead of S. Armstrong, would be a bit more solid.

Ooh, Armstrong has to hit the target there.

That goal is indicative of what I’ve seen through pre season as our biggest vulnerability, on the break up the channels. It obviously didn’t help that all three CBs had a bit of a brain fart.

Interesting line up, you’d think the intent would be for it to be very close to the intended line up next week (Mara needs some game time but looks like a place is there to be won).

Forget Werner, Saints can do better than that, need to aim higher.

Womens games are Sundays, so I wonder what happens if saints are playing at home on a Sunday. Game moved to Totton or game date moved.

Are there figures for this? Seems like it would be hard to ascertain. Certainly there were some as they made the news by clearly not understanding what vote leave actually meant to them. By comparison, Gibraltar came in at 96% remain in the referendum.

And IMO not good enough most of the time. I’ve never rated JS, sometimes he looks good but he’s a ricket waiting to happen.

Well, that’s what forums are for, disagreeing with opinions. I thought he recovered well on occasions, like you say, but I also thought at least some of those recoveries were of his own making, he could have shut down the threat better and earlier. I just don’t think he’s good enough at the level we need him to be at.

I wasn’t too impressed with Valery tonight. He’s in a completely different position to Lyanco so comparisons are difficult, Valery was very much a right sided CB in a 3, whereas Lyanco was almost an old fashioned sweeper. Valery made too many little mistakes and got the wrong side too often. I think he’d be exposed at PL level every week.