Midfield_General

Which is mystifying, given that - as also discussed on another thread - AMN isn’t a defensive midfielder, never has been, and sees himself as a winger. When we’re signing wingers to do the dirty work at defensive mid it’s no wonder our midfield is in the shitter. Might as give Theo a go there, why not, let’s try and get our money’s worth for that seventy grand a week or whatever ridiculous deal it was that he was given.

Gosh, that's a surprise

Nicky Banger. Hat trick on his debut in the league cup. Fair to say that was the highlight of his career.

Serious question. Ralph’s under a lot of pressure at the moment for our poor form, but if you were him, what would you change to try and save your job? Has to be within the confines of what is actually possible given the players we have in the squad, Livramento and Lavia being out injured, the fact that the window is closed, etc. What do you think he could realistically do with the resources available to him that might help us get results against West Ham and Bournemouth? (And ‘resign’ doesn’t count!)

Preferring 6 points to 3 - it’s innovative thinking but it might just work (Just joking 😉 - I know what you meant)

The problem there though is that AMN isn’t an out and out defensive midfielder and never has been. He’s certainly not a specialist like Romeu was. AMN has said that he considers his best position to be as a winger. So when Lavia is out, because JWP or Diallo aren’t that player either despite how much we seem to want to pretend they are, we have no other proper ‘destroyer’ type defensive midfielders at all. AMN won’t solve that. And that’s one of the reasons our midfield is so ineffective at the moment - the balance is all wrong. Plus, Romeu could receive the ball, protect it and play out successfully from tight situations, which none of the others can do as well as he did. So we’ve lost that element of ball retention too. Our midfield and attack are just a mess at the moment, which is why we’re so poor.

We’ve got a goalkeeping coach. Andrew Sparkes.

This is bullshit. No attacking intent whatsoever. (I'm joking of course. If we can shithouse and timewaste our way to a 0-3 or 0-4 I'll be absolutely delighted).

Lopetegui now available - sacked last night by Sevilla

New young keeper has signed on a free: https://www.hampshirelive.news/sport/football/football-news/southampton-transfer-everton-manchester-city-7633316?int_source=nba

Bella-Kotchap on the bench for Germany. Nice. Who’s the last German full international we had?

Rangers

I know… it’s very misleading, but “Ancient_Unused_Keeper” just didn’t have the same ring to it

Ancient, unused 3rd keeper. The Willy Caballero/ Stuart Taylor/ Kevin Miller role. Basically just there for moral support and praying that The Cat and/or Cloggy don't get injured.

Nice! I don’t remember it, but that’s great. Just a shame we couldn’t get it out of him a bit more often.

Nearly, but not quite - Anders Svensson got 148 caps for Sweden and Shilton got 125 caps for England. There might be a couple of others who got 100+ too. Bale's also had 100 caps for Wales and will get a few more at the WC, so will also shortly join that club!

He was a funny one. Most capped player of all time for Sweden playing 148 international games, many as captain, and often brilliant for them, yet routinely bang average or anonymous for us. There was a proper player in there, but we just didn’t seem to be able to work out how to get it out of him. I remember him being a fixture in the team for quite a while, but off the top of my head can’t remember a single significant contribution. I’m sure he did some good things for us, I just can’t remember any - all his moments of brilliance were for Sweden.

John ‘Budgie’ Burridge. Massive show-off, very average goalkeeper.

Literally the worst first-team goalkeeper we've ever had in my lifetime. Though run close by Chris Woods. Both made Dave Beasant look like Peter Schmeichel.

Neil Shipperley Jan Bednarek

Nathan Redmond, Alex McCarthy, Jack Stephens, Brett Ormerod, Chris Marsden, Paul Jones, Guly, Rory Delap, Simon Charlton, Micky Adams

In fact let's enjoy that goal again from the Skate end, shall we? Turn up the volume for the full effect. Clearly heard on 0.27: "This is a lesson". Yeah, it is. Nice one Redders.

The one he ripped in to deliver the final KO at Fratton is one of my favourite Saints goals. He’s been with us through some tricky times and made some important contributions. All the best of luck to him, hope he does well in Turkey.

Really nasty challenge. Because it’s Van Dijk though it can only be a yellow, because he can’t possibly have meant it when he went over the ball with his studs up at ankle height. And Peter Walton - what a craven, snivelling toad that man is.

My god, we've actually got a proper Premier League football team and bench!