The Kraken

He didn't make many, but the ones he did make were unnecessary. Tried to nutmeg someone in our own half and gave it away, and a couple of other needless errors. First half we were sublime and played through our midfield brilliantly. Second half, Kelvin seemed to love a lump upfield and we stopped doing that and the game passed us by a bit. I think JC is a great player, and vital to us; but I wouldn't put his performance yesterday up there with his best others from this season.

Yep; the second half today from Saints was an object lesson in playing football on the deck. He wasn't used as a target man at all.

Is he? Rickie Lambert also played as a striker today. That being so, who played wide left for us? JRod is playing a fairly similar position to that he started the season in. We didn't play 4-4-2 today.

Probably not. I don't know why some other people on here get so wound up by Lawro. He's clearly a goon in the first place, but this is just a little feature akin to someone popping down the bookies to put an accumulator on. Yet any time he tips us to lose there's some faux outrage from at least 2 or 3; every single time. When I put bets on for an accy, there's not a lot of thought goes in to it. If a team in the bottom 5 or 6 is playing away from home against a higher placed team, then I'll typically pick the lower side for a defeat. Or if a side in third is playing a side in 16th, I'd probably tip the 3rd placed team. Given we've barely been out of the bottom 5 or 6 all season, that's exactly what Lawro does. All the gnashin and wailing about how he hates Saints is just so preciously humourous.

Dan Seaborne is the only man for that particular role. But with him out on loan I guess Frazer CDAJFU there too.

Just got subbed; his side 2-1 down with 20 minutes to go.

That article made reference to it. With Cork unavailable due to injury for the first 10 games of the season, Schneiderlin was left swamped in the centre and Saints proceeded to lose eight of those games. Since the pair have been reunited in tandem, they have lost just five of the next 20 matches.

Yes Davey; he has. Seven times this season. Which, conincidentally, is the exact amount of games we've actually won.

From the Sky Sports article linked above: As a protégé of Athletic Bilbao coach Marcelo Bielsa, intense pressing is a feature of Pochettino's tactical approach. "I like football to be played well from the back, to have movement both in and out of possession, to pressure high up the pitch, and to be attacking," explains the Argentine. And for that to succeed, Schneiderlin's midfield partnership with Jack Cork is key. Although Schneiderlin is seen as the enforcer, Cork often sits as the deeper of the two men while his team-mate hunts in search of the ball - on the press, trying to break-up play high up the field. With both players justifiably regarded as good all-rounders it provides flexibility to the Saints midfield and allows them to adapt easily when in and out of possession. It would be great if Cork could add goalscoring to his all-round ability, but even when he does rarely get into goal scoring positions he doesn't seem the most composed of finishers. And with a 4-5-1 formation that relies on wingers playing quite attacking and with Morgan getting forward a fair bit, I have no problem with Cork playing the defensive role.

Maybe you could give him a break and stop stamping over his dreams so often.

I don't. And to be fair it takes very little to prove that Jimmy D is wrong, he's really not the brightest of sparks.

As for your comment "I wouldn't swap our midfield pairing of Cork and Schneidelin for any other pair in the division", I'm not sure if I would either. I've always really rated Jack Cork, and while Morgan has always had talent, before this season I thought he let himself down too often by being too sloppy and casual. His goal scoring ability was pretty appalling too. But this season he has stepped up and the partnership the two of them have has been utterly sublime at times. I always had a bit of man-love for Cork and always rated him above Morgan, but I couldn't possibly separate them now (and would cencede that given his goals Morgan would likely get more votes in a poll). Getting back to the Ramirez thing; I wonder if him being here has in some small way meant that Lallana hasn't made the step up as semlessly as we expected. Lallana scored loads of goals at lower league level, and was being primed for a new number 10 role before we brought in Ramirez to do that.

Yep. Gary is on Sky, and its him that is proving perhaps the best pundit there has been on TV for many a year. Gary is also Roy Hodgson's assistant for England; Phil is getting involved with Stuart Pearce and the U21s for their tournament this summer.

Are you thinking of Phil's brother, Gary? Can't say I've ever seen Phil as a pundit. His brother is excellent, though.

I know 2 people in that last picture....

Damn straight. I went to far more games per season than I previously did (and have this year) in the PL. Even our disastrous last season that saw us relegated from the Champ to L1 had me at St. Mary's more than I'll go this season. And some brilliant away trips too; Leyton Orient in particular was superb. I used to fear relegation from the top flight as an utter tragedy; I now know it is anything but, even when we had seasons when we weren't winning more than we lost. Survival day against Sheffiel United remains my top day ever at St. Mary's.

Photos in the Echo of him turning up to sign his contract were perhaps one of the most bizarre things I've seen for such an event.

So they do; even better :lol:

I was there for that one. My lasting memory of the day is their 3rd goal, where Franny just turned around and ran away from Gullit instead of shutting him down.

Unsurprising. No-one from London can.

If you have to ask, then you probably are, yes.

Well that's them definitely relegated with the minus ten. Worthy of a small 5 games left to play, and 6 points off safety. Oldham also 5 points above them but with 2 games in hand, so that gap could yet increase. Pompey's remaining fixtures: Tranmere (6th) H Stevenage (15th) H Brentford (3rd) A Sheff Utd (5th) H Shrewsbury (18th) A Not the easiest of run-ins by any stretch.

He's playing with a broken foot? Wow; that's impressive committment.

It was a heavy night last night Just started on my first beer for some hair of the dog. Thanks Spuddy, you've made a happy Kraken

Just 1 more, Spuddo. 7 reputations points, 8 'fractions.