Sheaf Saint

Clasie misses out on the matchday 18 again.

Please don't make me click on a Daily Heil link. What does the story say?

I seem to remember everybody on here writing off our chances of getting a result up there at the tail end of last season, only for Davis to pop up with two goals and prove everybody wrong. Granted, that was later in the season when Spurs were in the full swing of their end-of-season burnout that is typical of Pochettino's management. At the moment we look capable of scoring 2-3 goals per game no matter who we are playing. The big question is... will that be enough to secure us some points?

Tell me about it! Whilst watching the second leg of the EFL semi-final at Anfield recently my stream was very unstable, stuttering and buffering loads. Into stoppage time and Liverpool get a corner, and as their man is walking over to take it the stream froze for what seemed like an eternity. I also had Bet365 open in another tab following the game, and while staring at the frozen image, I heard the sound effect it plays whenever a goal is scored in the game you are following. My heart sank! I clicked on the Bet365 tab to have a look and it took me a few seconds to register that it was us who had scored and not Liverpool. Then my stream decided to unfreeze just as Shlong was being swamped by his team-mates. I still couldn't quite believe what had just happened - it was surreal.

And who can forget that disastrous 3-4-3 he started us with at Bournemouth!

I watched the whole game on a stream, and while I agree that he had little to no chance of saving any of the shots, I do feel he should have come and claimed the FK that was put into his 6-yard box in the run up to the 3rd. For him to continually stay rooted to his line like he does at free kicks and corners is a massive concern for us defensively, as it means we frequently get put under sustained pressure when the first ball in isn't claimed.

Their 3rd looked an obvious offside to me, but still an awful goal to give away. Good job our forward players did the business today, because our defence is badly out of sorts and let in 3 yet again.

Get in there Redmond! Although I'm still at a loss to understand how he managed to squeeze it in. If Forster had let that in he would be getting an absolute roasting on here.

I hope VVD will be fit again soon. We can't keep gifting goals like we are at the moment. Okaka was left to waltz into our box completely unchallenged, and with Forster not saving anything on target at the moment (not blaming this one on him btw) it's dead cert they will score. And as I type - Gabby scores to restore the lead

One goal and one assist for Tadic. Not bad for an anonymous player

Ha. I'll have a long way to go before I'm at your level though, after your 0-0 comment in that Sunderland game

We're looking too sloppy in key areas so far. Too many defensive headers landing at the feet of Watford players and leaving us exposed. Our attacking play has been generally good, but I wonder how much longer we can go on carrying Tadic who has so far, as usual, been anonymous.

Goal shouldn't have stood. Was a foul throw watching the replay.

Watching back on the highlights, he raised his flag pretty much as soon as the ball was played forward. He didn't even wait to see who/if anybody made any contact with it. Even if, on watching back himself, he feels justified in the decision because of the argument about Bertrand being active, he should recognise the need for patience to see if the attacking team gain any advantage before stopping the game. Poor show all round really.

Interesting. That's contrary to what I heard, but that was from a very angry, sweary bloke sat next to me at Wembley so I can't vouch for the reliability of the source.

Clearly not. Does anybody know why it was then?

I seem to remember a certain England captain who couldn't beat a man with pace or trickery, was very lightweight, and couldn't tackle either, but he still managed to carve out a very successful career for himself by having the ability to ping in excellent crosses from the right wing. Just saying

I still struggle to get the logic behind making us wear a 3rd kit that was essentially the same colours as Utd but in reverse. I understand that the black socks of our away kit would have clashed with the black socks of Utd, but why couldn't we have worn the shirt and shorts of the away kit, with the red socks of the home kit? From where we were sat up in tier 3, it would have been much easier to tell the teams apart. It seemed to me that having both sets of fans in red and white took something away from the occasion. I didn't go to Cardiff in 03, but watching it on TV and seeing half the ground swathed in yellow was amazing. For any neutral watching on sunday, it would have been difficult to tell which were the Utd fans and which were the Saints fans. And why is it that Utd got to wear their home kit when we were the first team to qualify for the final?

Well something clearly isn't right with him. He could, and should have done better with all of their goals yesterday. The first one - everybody watching knew where that ball was going, except Fraser it seems. Poor positioning and very slow reactions. The ball was at the right height for him and about 2 foot inside the post, but still he couldn't get a hand to it. The second one - OK the defenders were at fault for leaving Lindgard the time and space to shoot, but again it wasn't unstoppable. It was side-footed, at least a foot inside the post and bobbled a couple of times before crossing the line, which shows how little pace the shot had. As for the 3rd, the ball seemed to go right through his hand and head on the way in. Now I get that the defensive outfield players made the errors that lead to each of those chances. But when the defence is breached, as it will inevitably be from time to time, at this level there is simply no excuse for the keeper never bailing them out. When De Gea made that save from JWP in the first half, everyone around me in the ground agreed that it was a straightforward save for any half decent PL keeper, but that Forster would not have got to it. Any news on McCarthy's injury yet? Because IMO Forster needs to be dropped ASAP.

It's worth pointing out that after the 2012 election, Trump himself complained on Twitter about the unfair and undemocratic system... https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/266038556504494082?lang=en Funny how he isn't making any noise about it after it went in his favour this time round eh? Edit: In fact, his sheer hypocrisy about it is summed up much better here... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/11/15/trumps-flip-flop-on-the-electoral-college-from-disaster-to-genius/?utm_term=.3233dc77c2bf From "disaster" when he didn't like the result, to "genius" when he does.

I find it amusing that he and his ilk like to use the term to describe lefties, ignoring the fact that Trump himself is the whiniest little cry-baby you could ever imagine possible. Every time he lashes out at something he doesn't like because his ego has taken a bruising, he epitomises the term 'snowflake'.

Sunderland for sure. At last the turd that won't flush is finally going round the U-bend. Palace are woeful and will probably join them. Would be fun to see Leicester go down and be crippled by Vardy's ridiculous wages.

I live in Sheffield and most of my mates are Wednesday fans, so I would like to see them come up. The last time I went to see Saints play at Hillsborough we got dlcked 5-0 and I've never heard the end of it, so I would very much like to avenge that.

Very rarely watch any TV these days, but I have just finished binge-watching The Expanse on Netflix on a recommendation from a friend. For those that aren't familiar it is set about 200 years in the future where humans have colonised the solar system, and the core theme of the series is the political tensions between the governments of Earth, the Mars colony, and the 'Belters' - who inhabit the mining colonies in the asteroid belt. It's a very well-paced program without being too over the top or corny with the action sequences, and they have obviously researched the science side of things very well to make it believable. I have to say it's probably the best sci-fi series in many, many years, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing the second series which is currently being aired in the US and will be available on Netflix in the next couple of months. As is often the case with such things, I gather that the budget has increased massively after the success of the first series. I just hope the producers haven't used this as an excuse to rely more heavily on effects and ridiculous set-pieces to generate appeal, as is the case with a lot of sci-fi these days.

Just about the only positive I can take from that is that Gabbiadini had a good debut and showed that he will get us goals if we create the chances for him. Other than that, f*cking dreadful - again! 6 defeats in 7 in the league, and the 3rd time in recent weeks that we have lost from a leading position at home. Absolutely not good enough. My biggest concern is Forster. He had no chance with the first goal, which was all down to us leaving their midfielder the freedom of St Marys to pick the ball through to Carroll without getting anywhere near him. But how did he not save a 30 yard shot that was so weak it bounced 4 times before it went in? Then he failed to set the defensive wall up properly and basically invited Noble to hit it, knowing full well that it only needed the slightest deflection to score. He never makes any saves that you don't expect him to make, and more worryingly he does the opposite quite frequently - doesn't make saves that you do expect him to. I appreciate that our back four is a little patched up at the moment with Fonte not replaced and VVD out for a while, but overall they did a decent enough job today to limit West Ham's chances (except for the first goal) and they are being let down time and time again by a keeper who, on this season's form, is not good enough for a mid-table PL club like us.