Graffito

That's called being damned with faint praise. You might have said he wastes his intelligence on kn@b jokes.

This is what I'm struggling to understand. What's the strategy. What's the objective? Beats me.

Assuming the club continues on its current path of continuos improvement, I believe that neither of today's CBs will be at the club next season.

It will be interesting to see what response to this you get from the 800 plus that made the journey up there.

Shades of Saints/Sunderland about our recent encounters with West Ham. Happy to be coming out of Upton Park with 3 points next week but it will need some leadership from the Manager and a reaction from the players.

If the Manager doesn't rate the FA Cup and doesn't like the Europa League, what are we aiming for?

I think you may have misunderstood the purpose of message boards.

You are missing the point.

Please. It's because the Manager doesn't give the cup the same importance as the league. He sets the tone and it was the to see what that was. Take another example. He doesn't do the media for cup matches. That sends a powerful signal to everyone from the players down.

Totally agree.

Sorry but that argument just doesn't stand up. The FA Cup is an end in itself which we the fans want to win. Play a weakened side in Europe if it bothers Pochettino so much.

Get fined then.

That's what I think. No idea why this match wasn't given top priority.

It's not generational. It's incomprehensible.

Pochettino doesn't rate the competition. The performance reflects that. This one's down to the manager. Very, very angry with that.

Should have enough to beat them.

Such wit. You sound like you are down to your last marble. Is Global Warming getting to you?

Your comment made me laugh. Sadly I think you may be serious.

I would describe the method as their being democratically elected as MPs to represent their constituents and then being selected as Cabinet Ministers by the Prime Minsiter.

At risk of appearing pedantic but they weren't democratically elected as Ministers nor were they democratically elected to the Cabinet.

We are a little dark horse.

Even if they are, no matter. Sunderland have a tough fixture away to City on Wednesday night and therefore less recovery time. It's all relative.

Agree. The fullbacks are so important to how we play. Tie them down with improved contracts as we'd struggle to replace them no matter what price they might go for. Plus, they are young and there's more to come from all three.

Out of interest which right footers have done well at left back? It's something I don't like. Whereas there are positives in right sided forwards playing on the left and vice versa, I see only negatives with full backs playing on the opposite side. They can't all be Philip Lahm.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/feb/09/southampton-mauricio-pochettino-stoke-city "Southampton must aim for the World Cup not Europe says Pochettino", and by implication, not the FA Cup.