Midfield_General

We signed Schlotterbeck after THB left

Scored 10 last year as a second striker in a two. Can’t lead the line though. And he was £9m not £10.5m

Scored 10 last year playing ‘senior football’ at this level in a much poorer side than we are

Wolves, West Ham and Boro all dropping points - massive opportunity missed over the last two games to make up ground

To get within touching distance of the top two and then lose to rock bottom is absolutely classic Saints behaviour

If this prick on commentary says ‘perfect goal’ one more time I swear to god I’ll do time

Might be time to start looking at a 4-3-3 so we can get an extra man in midfield, because we’re getting overrun in there for the second game running and this lot are meant to be crap

“CEO Phil Parsons, with the backing of Saints owners Sport Republic, is exploring the redevelopment of the area surrounding St Mary's Stadium.” Well that’s that fucked then

A pensioner in goal. Three at the back, with two of those three Edwards and Wood, and our best defender THB played out of position on the left of the three. Roerslev as a wing back. Azaz wasted playing too wide. A dwarf at centre forward. Damion Downs as our option to come off the bench and add more of an attacking threat. God, Still was shit. It's absolutely incredible how far we've come in a year under Tonda, especially given all the other distractions.

Yeah that was a beautiful goal. That turn and volley against Bournemouth on 5 mins in that video is a bit special as well. For the Chelsea away game where he scored after 13 seconds the team was: Boruc, Shaw, Lovren, Fonte, Clyne, Schneiderlin, Wanyama, Rodriguez, Lallana, JWP and Osvaldo, with Lambert and Davis coming off the bench. That was such an exciting side, especially the way Poch had us playing. Square pegs in square holes, brilliantly managed and quality all the way through. Good times.

It was a bit more than 'green shoots' under Hasenhuttl. He took us over when we were in the relegation zone and kept us up in his first season. In his second season he had us finishing 11th in the PL on 52 points. In his third season he had us top of the Premier League at the end of November, and we finished 15 points clear of relegation. We had the two 9-0s in there too of course but overall, until it went south at the end, Ralph was an excellent manager for us. Until Tonda came along no other manager we've had since has touched Ralph’s record, and no-one knows yet whether Tonda could make us as competitive as that in the PL.

Do him and Archer both have recall clauses?

How would that work, when Archer’s on a season-long loan? Surely they’d have to want to send him back, which seems unlikely when he’s scored 6 in 7 for them? Robinson is on a season’s loan too so is the suggestion that they’ll send him back? Or do we have recall clauses for both?

Ligue 1 is poor quality. He’s had two years to prove himself for us and hasn’t been able to. I’m glad his loan’s working out as hopefully it means they’ll buy him at the end of the season and we can reinvest.

It does indeed

I would love it - love it - if they choked again and we played them in the play-off final. I honestly think that's probably their worst nightmare. I wouldn't rule it out. It's got a feeling of destiny about it.

Did make me smile last night when Fellows came on for his four minutes at the end. The first (only?) thing he did was that 'head down > run down the outside > one stepover to put the ball onto his right foot > stand up a floaty one to the back post' sequence that he does pretty much every single time, and which presumably every single one of his former WBA teammates who trained with him week-in week-out would have known was exactly what he was going to do, because it's basically the only move he's got. They gave him a nice clap when he came on though, which was sweet.

True, but the Larin/ Stewart rotation worked because both could hold the ball up, meaning we didn't need to completely change our style of play when one went off and the other came on. At the moment, if Larin's not playing, we've got nobody who can do that and we look a bit lost up front without a physical presence as it's so central to how we play. Dobbin's a different type of player, and Mubama just doesn't look up to it. Same as when we had Archer standing in - he's clearly a half decent striker, he just didn't fit that approach. Azaz looked the most capable when he moved into that role after the red against Pompey, which surprised me. Which shows they don't necessarily need to be an exact clone/ lump but we do need an attacking focal point who is strong and knows how to use their body properly to put themselves about a bit if Larin's not there.

They really are a special bunch. I thought northerners were meant to pride themselves on being rough and tough but they appear to be the wettest, most pathetic bunch of fannies it's possible to imagine. Do they ever stop crying and running to teacher? It's embarrassing.

Do we know if there's a reason why Dobbin didn't start? He was just finding his feet at centre forward in Larin's absence, the team looked like they were working out how to use him effectively, and it's not like he'd played a huge amount of football this season and needed a rest. It's becoming obvious that he's significantly more of a threat than Mubama, and Mubama doesn't offer more of a physical presence, so it seems odd that Dobbin started on the bench when he was fit to play. Can't see Mubama's loan lasting beyond January, and to be honest I hope it doesn't. He's been given a fair number of chances now and beyond the goal at the beginning of the season, hasn't really made any sort of impact at all. I hope we are making an upgrade on him our priority for January. Also - those who were advocating for Tonda to drop Leo even when he's fit, in favour of Edozie, any thoughts?

Peretz made some big saves and as an all-round keeper for this level I think he’s outstanding, but just in the interests of balance his kicking isn’t the best. Must have put it straight out play 3 or 4 times yesterday and he also sliced a couple of others. But if he was perfect we wouldn’t have got a sniff of him at championship level, and we are lucky to have him. He’s won us a lot of points this season and has been one of our most important signings.

Good to see some fight and character after half time but the state of that first half, jesus. Second half better. Dobbin has to score that 1 on 1 and I wish Downes had put his foot through the one that their keeper messed up, but a draw away at WBA is a perfectly decent result and sometimes you just have to take the point and get the hell out of there.

That is a very charitable reading of the situation Although Edozie has been appalling too, don’t get me wrong

Manning is doing my fucking head in Where is he playing??

He’s been shit as well