The Kraken

Signed. Best wishes fella.

I'm in the official Jack Cork Man Love Club; but I think his performances have tailed off a little in the last few games. Him returning to the side in November was the catalyst to turn our fortunes around and with Morgan he has been consistently superb since coming in. But in the past 2 or 3 games I've felt he's fallen a little short of his high standards. And as has been said, if we're chasing a game and need a change he's a logical choice. But he's still a class act, and I think we'd have to spend an awful lot to get in someone who can do a better job next season.

There was one where he thought he was offside (he wasn't) and didn't bother chasing at all. Another when he was offside but instead of stopping play and letting our players get back he just stood there and let Sunderland hit on the break. Something not quite right, I reckon.

Agreed he should be doing it as part of his game; its just the extent that he does it that I find concerning. His touch and awareness are brilliant, and his crossing typically very good. But he's also a brilliant aerial threat from crosses, yet we never seem to do that with him any more.

A fair point. Cork's performances have certainly dropped off, Davis wasn't great today, and don't get me started on Lallana (although I don't think he can blame tiredness).

Point taken on the Lambert as sub thing. On the flip side though, I think we're seeing now an argument that Lambert is not up to 90 minutes every week. He's looked even slower than normal in the past few games and his movement today was practically non-existent in trying to get beyond the defence. He looked really tired, and I wonder if Adkins having him on the bench was a tactic around that. He certainly looks like in need of a summer rest. The Adkins subs against Man U and Fulham were poor; quite hard to argue against that. But I put those actions and results in the basket of the first ten games when lessons were being learned by the manager but most importantly the whole team. From November onwards we looked a different team IMO, and I credit the ex manager for a lot of that (plus the arrivals of Cork, Shaw and latterly Boruc).

Is it just me that gets a bit frustrated with how much RL drops deeps and pushes out wide; often putting in crosses himself rather than looking to be on the end of them? Now I know that's part of the game for a CF; sometimes drop out wide and let another player move into your space, its all good movement. But it seems as if Rickie has either decided or is being instructed to drop off as opposed to working on the shoulder of the defender and getting in behind them. It kinds of makes us a bit more predictable; and very much limits the amount of clear-cut opportunities that Lambert is going to get in a game. When he is in those positions he has the touch and skill to get a shot off. I just feel as if he's not in the box as much as a striker should be.

Depends who we sign. If we don't sign another striker I can't see JRod displacing him just yet. If we sign a top striker, then yes, his chances will be more limited. Probably for the best at this level, he's looked very tired and slow in the past few games, and his movement was almost non-existent today. The one time he did choose to move himself resulted in a great shot and save from the keeper. I imagine the end of the season can't come soon enough for him.

Just had a kid; but 2 months seems excessive for that.

I'm just surprised that Art has realised we actually changed managers in the first place.

I'd prefer it if Brighton stayed down. Their fans seem like a bunch of choppers. Plus with a 30K stadium now they're less likely to be relegation fodder. Palace up ideally (but it won't happen); so Watford to beat Brighton in the playoffs.

Which is all very well in analysing a full season; but gives no credence at all to the fact that the first ten games were a clusterf*ck for the manager and players, and there were clear signs of improvement from then onwards. As I say, there's no right answer either way, just opinions. Mine is that Adkins would probably have fared about as well as MP. Your's I know is completely different. And as its hypothetical, we'll never know.

There are other games we could compare, I suppose. Such as QPR. Adkins beat them away, MP lost to them at home. Such as Newcastle, who Adkins comfortably beat at home but MP lost to away. Wins against Reading which both managers achieved; draws against Norwich and Swansea, and defeats to WBA for both. What does it tell us? Not a lot. And its all conjecture whether Adkins would have been worse, the same, or better than MP at this stage. There's no right or wrong answer, as its a purely hypothetical question. My personal view is that, now that we've made a switch of manager, it probably for the best. I wasn't particularly best pleased at the time, and I'm with Wes that I think Adkins would have fared as well as Pochettino for the rest of the season, and I'd have liked for him to be given that chance. But that misses the crux of it really; which is are we better set up for future seasons? With MP as opposed to NA I think we are; and we also have a squad who aren't anywhere near as naive as they were to PL football in the first few games of this season, they have a very valuable commodity of a year's worth of top flight experience to call upon. You're aboslutely right though, in that we do lack depth. We have no pacy wide option to call upon (well, we have de Ridder but you get what I mean). And Lambert and JRod looked a bit isolated and out of sorts today, as they have in the past 3 or 4 games. i wouldn't be surprised if a new striker is at the top of the wish list for the committee this summer. Whatever; it sounds as if we're due to be splashing out again so it should be an interesting few months.

Entirely true. We need a really good performance and result against Stoke to tuck this season away. At the start of the season I'd have taken survival by any means if it was offered, so that's a really good achievement. But expectations do change, and our last 4 or 5 games have been below par from what we've been brought to expect since around November time, when we had a real turnaround of fortunes under the former manager, which then led over to the current manager. MP still has lots to prove IMO.

I don't think Sunderland have got Sunderland away on their last game, have they? Only you would go to such efforts of pedantry for that, though.

Yep; safe now. Cannot be relegated.

After a couple of huge steps forwards in his first 9 or 10 games we seem to have regressed.

Just make this end FFS.

This. Our last 4 or 5 games have well below par.

F*ck off Saints. Absolute pile of sh*t.

Lambert is not only slow; he looks like he can't be arsed to break into a run. Everything has to be to his feet, his normally limited movement has reduced down to practically nothing. Sadly JRod isn't offering too much from open play either. Terrible game; if there wasn't so much riding on it I think I'd go and do something different instead. I feel sorry for the poor bastards that have schlepped all the way up there.

Ugly, ugly game. Had the lions share of posession but just so slow to do anything with it going forwards. No real width either, Lallana and Rodriguez are extremely narrow. Puncheon on for Davis for me, and push Lallana in the hole. Its a sad indictment that the only players we have on the pitch who have wanted to get the ball down and attack are our full backs, Clyne is about the only one who has dribbled into the box.

This is an utterly appalling game of football. Saints having most of the play but just so ponderous in posession.

Davis keeps giving the ball away.

Not really. Just a bit of a daft question in the first place. "Would you rather Saints won nothing for your whole life, or won a cup but then got demoted 15 leagues for it?" is the same question, for which I'd say yes. Of course if you asked "Would you rather stay in the PL and win nothing, or win a cup, defraud local business and charities, rip off all and sundry and push the rules to very limit, all the while becoming a national luaghing stock and derided within the world of football and its public", then I think the repsonse might be different.