Midfield_General

As a kid I used to play in the Sotonia Cup tournament each summer. I remember some teammates and I were having a kickabout off to the side in between matches, when Chris Nicholl and Dennis Rofe wandered up and asked if they could join in. As a Saints-mad kid goalkeeper I was so starstruck that I went to pieces at that point and promptly had the worst game of my life. But I remember to this day what a lovely fella he was, and it meant I got to tell everyone I knew that I’d played against the manager of Southampton, which was a big deal in the backwaters of the New Forest. He made a young lad’s day that day!

If... > Leeds win their two remaining games 3-0 each > Burnley get two wins and a draw > Everton get a win and two draws > Saints lose 9-0 to Liverpool then 4-0 to Leicester ...then we'd go down. And yet people are still so complacent. Unbelievable.

Oh come on, it's not like Leicester would ever give us a thrashing by an implausible number

Christ you can actually buy it

Has that been randomly generated?

This deserves an instant ban.

How do you define 'better' though? Natural ability is obviously a major component, but it's still only part of how a player performs, and by extension, how a team performs. There are loads of other factors that can make one player look 'better' than another - i.e. better coached, better tactically deployed, better motivated, better fitness levels, better utilised to play to their strengths, etc - and that's all down to how the manager and his support staff work with them, not just the natural talent or attributes that player was born with.

Apols - you are right of course. Have edited.

It's basically the same set of resources as we had when we were playing well around Christmas/ Jan/ Feb, give or take a few injuries here and there, but all clubs have those. Our last ten games are LLLLDLWLDL, and in that time we've conceded 25 and scored 8. In that time we've lost to Watford, Burnley, Villa and Palace, and couldn't beat Leeds or Brighton. Even if you make the argument about quality of resources, it's not like he's getting much out of them any more either. We were half decent around the turn of the year, and now, without much having obviously changed, we've been terrible for months. You have to question why that is.

Yes, it was the one to the left I was talking about, not the one that hit him in the face. Anyway, it's a game of opinions. I think having two such average goalkeepers has normalised situations like that where a better keeper makes that save, but ours don't, so some people have got so used to watching it that they think those are acceptable for a professional keeper to concede on a fairly regular basis and make excuses for it. But I'm not here for a row, and you always seem like a nice fella on here, so you have your opinion and I'll have mine, and let's leave it there. Enjoy your bank holiday

I suggest you don’t watch Pickford in the Everton game mate, it will blow your mind.

£60m would be criminal. He’s £100m+ in this market, to those clubs, and with his contract status.

You honestly think that no keeper would have stopped that? Seriously?

Absolutely appalling from Fraser for the goal.

Married to R&B star Erykah Badu. Fred Flintstone speaks very highly of him.

Judging from the first 20 minutes - yes, yes he is.

For me, that’s very much a positive.

They do a score predictor game on one of their forums - seems they are almost entirely united in thinking they're going to win this one. Pretty optimistic for a side without a manager who's only won 4 all season (or maybe they just all watched our game against Chelsea): https://www.uptheclarets.com/messageboard/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=61427&sid=836b098243eaa7435a7fa330c49a4aa0

Tim Krul at his peak was significantly better than McCarthy has ever been. I've never seen AM have a game like this, for example: He's played for the Netherlands at every level including 15 full caps. Also a penalty-saving specialist. Don't know whether he's in decline now, but peak Krul was a level above.

😧

This is working for me: http://www.eplsite.uk/stream16.html

It didn’t help that Grobbelaar was literally diving past or out of the way of every shot that came in. (Legal note: Just in my personal opinion of course)

STOP THE PRESS

I’m still not convinced we were ever really his first choice

#IStandWithMickyFialka Someone tweet it to Sir Rickie, let's get this trending