Graffito

Yeah well we need to try a bit harder.

A winnable game which inevitably Saints lost. Didn’t compete first half. No pressure on the ball in midfield and barely won a header at the back. A better second half but this is both our league games now where the team has gone out onto the pitch and put in a half arsed performance first half. Hughes has to get them up for it from the start.

Hard to know how much of the second half improvement was due to formation and how much to personnel (forthcoming selections may answer that question) but from the moment Ings and Elyanoussi came on their impact and that of the change in formation was instant. Chalk and cheese with what went before. I was impressed with Ings coming deep to link up play. Redmond looked effective playing deeper. The full backs got further up the pitch (we really need Bertrand’s crossing) and the whole team was galvanised. Both Elyanoussi and Armstrong look useful. Mightily ****ed off with how we started and very encouraged by how we finished. Overall a fair result.

In other words, there’s nothing in Warnock’s previous PL record to indicate he can keep a club like Cardiff up.

The contract must be conditional, surely? If I remember correctly there was a balls up over Alderweireld’s contract and someone apparently responsible left the club fairly sharpish afterwards. Since when, we’ve wasted millions on duds. It would be madness to risk millions more with an absolute unconditional obligation to buy, due simply to cash flow, and I can’t believe the club would do it.

What a bullsh1tter.

Charge levelled at Tottenham, they largely wasted the Bale money. Eriksson yes obviously. Lamela maybe. Who else is left?

Not watching the game but it’s often the case that if you can’t get and keep possession in centre mid the wide players are out of the game.

I’m hoping, may be a vain hope, that yoshida’s greater mobility beside him will make up a little for Vestergaard’s immobility.

Saints’ recruitment seems always to have an eye on resale value, which is sensible except where there are weaknesses elsewhere in the squad and limited funds, in which circumstances the recruitment of a good future prospect like Gunn has an opportunity cost to current squad requirements. I’m hoping a few duffers on big money get moved on and a decent forward is brought in (though I have concerns about every part of the team except keeper).

https://www.theguardian.com/football/when-saturday-comes-blog/2018/jul/27/football-fans-internet-club-forums-twitter-youtube-facebook?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other No idea if it’s all it’s cracked up to be as never used it, nor likely to. I guess most forums are not dissimilar to Saintsweb, imperfect. Some good stuff, some not so good.

We don’t have the talent so need to run around a lot therefore Pochettino.

It doesn’t seem to be the way of the modern footballer but I think if I were desperate to play and get back some form I’d consider a wage cut. A temporary step backwards to go forwards.

So cr@p in cr@p out then.

Sue, in the thirty odd years I’ve lived in London I’ve never come across an itinerant knife grinder, of any nationality, though goodness knows there are plenty of knives around. I thought they went the way of gas lighters and town criers.

Comparison with Kane’s stats is quite meaningless. Gallagher simply doesn’t have Kane’s first touch, ability to pass nor, as far as I can tell, his football intelligence. From what little I’ve seen of Gallagher he reminds a bit of James Beattie and that would be no bad thing. Beattie without balls, though I’m sure Hughes would put some aggression into him. Not sure about Ings. Not seen enough of him, who has. Previously called him Nugent with nobs on but that may be unfair.

Think Hughes should file that under experimental, even if it wasn’t. Seems like an odd starting midfield. Know nothing of Derby but you’d expect a Lampard team to be strong in midfield and pass the ball around.

This is what I think too. If the pathway from academy to first team means anything then we have to give the likes of Gallagher the opportunity, now he’s done his loan moves, to show what he can do. And don’t get on his back should it not go perfectly from day one.

I’d be interested to hear why you think Saints would be wasting money in investing in women’s football. From what I read there are significant commercial opportunities in developing women’s football which is one of the reasons why PL clubs have invested. Sponsors see women’s football as a wholesome brand. The more investment going into women’s football the better the standards will be, the more exposure it will get, the greater the sponsorship. Women make up 50% of the world’s population. Seems like a potentially vast largely untapped brand. Not for the first time Saints appear to have been a little slow to recognise commercial opportunities but this appointment may address that.

Are you able to post a link to this piece or source it please?

I think it was the English press that modric alleged was disrespectful. It seems barely credible that Croatia went onto the pitch thinking we’ll show those Sun and Daily Star sports reporters. The prospect of getting to a World Cup final might have been the greater motivator. You might have seen that their press called England “unbelievably inferior” after the match. All hot air and puff.

It’s the players.

Is Redmond a floater? I think he probably is.

Forster should have saved their third. It was hit from almost 30yds to the centre of the goal and into the roof of the net. How tall is Forster for goodness sake? We’re not talking Jordan Pickford. But he was 5yds off his line and didn’t move his feet.

I watched the Columbia match. They weren’t much good. England is perfectly capable of beating them.