BARCELONASAINT

I am SO HAPPY to admit i got this wrong today. I really did think our players would have their minds on Wembley and not turn up today. First 20 minutes i thought we were awful but after that we grew into the game and once the first goal went in their confidence drained whereas ours grew. What a difference it is to have a striker with natural striker movement and finishing. Thankyou thankyou Saints for lifting my spirits. Now for a repeat of "76" C'mon you Saints!!!

Tadic needs to show today he is worthy of his Cup final place, he has been poor of late but so capable of providing Gabbiadini with the killer passes

I just cannot see anything but a Sunderland win. They have nothing to play for other than their Premiership survival, which is everything. They will know our players will not want to get injured and risk missing the Cup final. They had a brilliant result against Palace last week and will be flying. We are on a really poor run, we have a very soft centre, we cannot score goals and our players have only one thing on their minds...the Cup final. I so hope i'm wrong....we need a confidence boosting win and no injuries. C'mon Saints!

The side for the final apart from any injuries picked up between now and then will be Forster, Bertrand, Yoshida, Stephens, Cedric (Careres wont play if he signs) Romeu, Stephen Davis, Boufal, Gabbiadini, Ward Prowse, Redmond......I accept you could swap Ward Prowse for either Hojberg or Classie but I think Ward Prowse is the managers preferred player. I think Tadic has possibly fallen out of favour and will not start. Think Redmond will get the nod over Jayrod and Long for a starting berth. I could be wrong CB but I suspect this will be the side.

Does anyone really expect our players to be up for this game?? I certainly don't, not in our last game before Wembley....no one will want to risk an injury and miss out on the biggest game of their domestic careers. If WE had a manager like Sir Alex Ferguson then you could use the argument that the players will have to play for their cup final spot....we don't and they won't....the starting 11 for the cup final pretty much now picks itself. I really really hope i'm wrong but I can see nothing but a loss, 2-0 Sunderland.

I had this discussion with mates at work this morning after telling them after the Liverpool semi final win that we would not win another game before Wembley. I was convinced then and i've seen nothing since to convince me that the players care nothing for the club but only care about their own glory.....I'm realistic to know a Cup final rarely comes round for most players and there is not a single player that wants to risk not seeing their chance to play on the day. I hate all this kissing the badge stuff, there are not many players in the modern game where the club is what matters most to them. From our current crop the only one that comes even close to being a club man is Ward Prowse (now that Fonte has gone). I get more and more disillusioned with football by the day, they are all just mercenaries. With Wembley just around the corner i look back and compare our 76 F A Cup side to our current crop.....maybe it's just nostalgia but i don't feel as excited about this final as i remember being in 76....i just don't feel the same connection with this current team! Don't get me wrong, come the 26th i will be roaring our boys on!!

The Southampton Way...I know what i think it should be and what i believe the club strive to achieve...and in the main i think they have been very good at it in recent years. The main aim of every club should be :-- 1/ to stay in the Premiership every season 2/balance the books at least and if possible make profit 3/ develop your own player to prevent having to spend millions on potentially risky transfers 4/ If they do buy then buy cheap and sell high 5/ Hope to have the occasional good cup run 6/ hope the fans will accept all the above and if they dont....the board won't worry because football fans are exactly that ...football fans and will keep coming I want us to challenge for everything, i want us to be Champions and masters of Europe.....but i'm realistic enough to know having supported Saints for 47 year that "The Southampton Way" is items 1-6, plus maybe a few others.

I always try to remain optimistic but there is always one club that after Xmas suddenly falls down the table and gets sucked into the relegation scrap. No one will want to get injured before the Cup Final so I cant see us picking up wins in either of our next two games. West Ham are cloggers and Andy Carroll will have a field day. We are up against it without a shadow of doubt in my opinion. We are one injury away from utter disaster in our back four!

I already feel sorry for this lad, he arrives and we should be really pleased to have someone that potentially could be an improvement on what we have up front.....but instead most of us are really P***ed off that VVD is out long term and no CB have been brought in....welcome to the club MG!!!

which is it guys, the bad news I can cope with....it's the hope that is killing me!!!

The positive part in me says that the club are not too worried about securing a another full back because the injury to VVD is not as bad as first thought and he will be back very soon....the pessimistic part of me is saying oh my god have we royally screwed this up and are risking everything on a centre back pairing of Yoshida/stephens or Yoshida/Gardos.....normally i don't worry about the January transfer window but this one has me really concerned....however 6 hours still to go....anything can happen he says praying for good news

As much as we could do with a new striker i'm more concerned that we might not get a new defender in which i believe will seriously cost us given VVD is now confirmed as out for several weeks (which could be 3/4 weeks but easily could be 10/12 weeks!

I suppose it's possible he's being allowed to say goodbye and might come on in the final minute or so.....however i must admit i find it strange as well that he is featuring tonight.

some of you really make me laugh.....I had no doubts that virtually the whole first team would be rested after Wednesdays brilliant result and effort by the players. We do not have the squad depth and hopefully in the next 72 hours we will see some incomings. We were always going to lose today after Wednesday night and i personally dont want to risk anymore first teamers being injured when we are already going to Wembley

it's going to be a long evening.....i've taken the attitude that i really dont care about this game....just as well now...lol

must admit that this is the first time i can remember not really being bothered if we go out of the cup this afternoon. Yes i would love us to beat Arsenal but i will still be happy if we have lost at full time in the knowledge we are already going to Wembley. In my mind the most important thing now for us is to avoid any more serious injuries and to pick up form in the league so we go to the cup final on a rich vein of form.

On such a high right now not sure i'm going to be able to sleep!.......got to go into work tomorrow and beg someone to work my duty weekend on the 26th Feb now:uhoh:

gutted beyond belief that VVD is missing tonight.....trying not to be pessimistic but its bloody hard

Thanks for posting these articles. I confess i have never seen this lad play but i do like what i've read about him.

I honestly think so much depends on VVD being able to play

I find Fontes instagram message interesting because there is no hint of any falling out with other players or the manager......it really does suggest he believed rightly or wrongly that he deserved a better deal in light of his summer success and the board were not prepared to give him what he wanted. I can understand that he then felt very aggrieved after his long and loyal service to the club and thought enough is enough i can get the deal i want elsewhere. Personally i dont think he got that deal....i think pride has played a huge part in him accepting West Ham. Huge respect to him for his parting words to Saints fans.

I do wonder how many on here actually go to or watch Saints games that are available online. Yoshi has taken his chance this season and deservedly is playing alongside VVD. Yoshi has the perfect temperament, he has been a model professional and his performances have been good this season. I except he has has made the odd error.....so what so has VVD and he is our outstanding player this season. I'm sorry Fonte is going and the way he appears to be leaving.....if he was going to a bigger club i would have wished him well but he's going to West Ham who are most definitely not a step up.....they are the best of what was on offer and Fonte has cut his nose off to spite his face. I hope we do sign another quality defender....but i'm happy we have Yoshi

Deulofeu from Everton is available and only 22years old, great pedigree having come from Barcelona. When Everton signed him Barcelona inserted a buy back clause should he turn out to be what they had hoped! Is there a good player there to be had, right age for us and a career that has not quite manifested itself to the potential that was expected. Personally i always liked what i saw of him....and he has an eye for goal.

I will refrain from being argumentative and expressing my thought about JWP ability or lack off and instead ask one very serious question.......why have all the previous managers and the present one continued to play him???....what is it that they see that so many on here do not??....It is genuinely interesting to see how many on hear think he is absolute garbage but manager after manager have picked him.

Wow is how I feel this morning. I went to the game last night fully expecting us to get turned over and we go and produce a complete TEAM performance. Everyone battled out there last night closing down and rarely letting any Liverpool player have too much time on the ball.It is difficult to single out individual performances because this was a team performance....however our man mountain Captain VVD was immense and a complete leader of men out there last night. He was brilliantly assisted by Romeu who has emerged out of the shadow of Wanyama to show what a top player he is.Redmond gets a lot of criticism on here but last night he was a royal pain in the arse for the Liverpool defence....and stood in the Northam his goal was a joy to watch!Must say I thought our fans totally got behind the team tonight and the atmosphere in the Northam end was great with some funny chanting, I particularly liked "we won a free kick, we won a free kick, we are Southampton we won a free kick"....yes that ref really does need his bank account investigating today to see how many deposits from Liverpool he got!!Can we reach our first League Cup Final in almost 40 years.....YES WE CAN, WE ARE SOUTHAMPTON, WE MARCH ON!!