Whitey Grandad

Another clean sheet. For the opposition.

But then their second string will be playing for a place in the final.

We used to be known as a side that played attractive attacking football. Nobody would pay to watch us these days except for the chronically dedicated.

In other words 'throw money down the drain'.

There was a reference to a Pep Guardiola quote last night during the Man City game. Something along the lines of 'The object of the game is to get the ball into the other team's net. How you do it is not important [so let me do it my way, or something]' I came upon this exhaustive exhamination of Bielsa'sfootballing philosophy: http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/share-download-fm-17-tactics/363445-revolutionary-marcelo-el-loco-bielsas-3-3-3-1-a.html

It takes a lot of practice to get that wrong.

No, he had plenty of opportunities to change his style and philosophy. When you realise you’re heading in the wrong direction the first thing you do is change course.

Me too.

From The Times this morning: "Josh Sims, making his first league start since November 2016, was right when he said that this squad were too talented to go down, but that only makes their malaise under Mauricio Pellegrino all the more perplexing. They were beyond awful in the first half on Saturday. Too many players are underperforming but the biggest issue is the game plan, or lack of it. Why are a team containing sprightly, attack-minded players such as Nathan Redmond and Dusan Tadic making a concerted effort to build up slowly? Pellegrino has made them ponderous. Too often the holding midfielders, Mario Lemina and Oriol Romeu, are playing the ball backwards and sideways rather than advancing. There was a drastic improvement in the second half, as if the players’ leash had been taken off. Pellegrino said that his players “must use the second half as a reference for the future” but it is hard to imagine that happening when they have not put together a consistently good 90 minutes since defeating Everton 4-1 in November."

You don’t buy a Premier League club in order to make money. You buy it for prestige.

At least Long has pace.

Tidy, has the basic skills, always willing, never looks like scoring. Basically, not what we needed.

This is my view too. This is obviously MP’s style and his playing philosophy and would have been evident to anybody who was prepared to spend the time investigating. Just asking the interview question “Are you prepared to play high speed attacking” football is only going to get one answer.

To be fair to him I noticed that he did a lot of defensive work, getting back and covering and occasionally making tackles. Not really what you would expect or want of him though.

There was the famous incident of Clive Thomas blowing for full time during a corner kick by Brazil. They took so long faffing about over taking it that I have no sympathy but after that the guidance to referees was to wait until the movement had broken down, that is to allow the corner to be ‘completed’. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/26252832 A referee has to be fair to both teams of course but I thought that 2 minutes was a bit light yesterday and was expecting 3 or 4. I always have a stopwatch running and yesterday was 2 minutes in the dot. The players must have been aware of the time because the PA announcer couldn’t believe it was only 2 minutes either. You can only allow added time for stoppages in play such as substitutions, goal celebrations (if only) or injuries and does not include time taken to set up a free kick, retrieving the ball, that sort of thing. Yes, it was bizarre as was the way that Diouf took so long to hobble off with a hand injury. I suspect that he was under instructions to take his time so that a substitute could get prepared, old cynic that I am. We had 90 minutes to get a goal and we all know that we wouldn’t have scored with another 90 let alone 1 or 2.

That’s not true. They had plenty of good chances in the first half when we only had one up front.

Better on the right on his natural foot.

They took the money off you under false pretences. Besides, if your ticket wasn’t used the credit will happen automatically. It would cost them more than £30 just for the administration if you insist on changing it.

I would describe that as 'unable to make it'

Very creditable of them.

We're sitting in Bitterne in our regular parking slot having got here over an hour early. We were going to get the 13:14 from Chandlers Ford into town but that was cancelled. Website says 14:14 is running on time but that would mean getting to our seats at kickoff, all being well. Roads were much quieter than usual but all ok with just a little slush lying around and melting steadily. Even local roads are clear. We'll give it a few minutes and then walk in.

Yep. The road needs work. Let’s just shut it for a month to make our job easier. It’s the British way. http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/15989863.Drivers_left_in_gridlock_after_Bassett_Avenue_closure/

Yes, remember it well. I was thirteen at the time and living by the sea near Harwich. Our school played football in the winter term and we played no games at all that year. There were lumps of ice floating in the open sea. League games were cancelled but no schools were ever closed.

I only remember this because I was in Barbados at the time and I’d walked up to the bar at the other end of the beach to watch it. Bleeding waste of time that was

Clattenburg saw as much as the video ref did. As did I. Slow motion tells you nothing.