Tommy Mulgrew

West Ham women v Saints women 2nd half just starting 20.02 watch here:

bbc coverage of our problem: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cz0xjdn5zz0o no new insights.

Malak and Yildiz.

Another good game from him today but without a goal or an assist. He is at present by far our best attacker and looks as though he could score, with either foot, from almost anywhere in the final third of the pitch. He usually looks to go forwards, which makes him almost unique in our team, and does so with real pace. He is direct and runs at defenders and knows how to support others who have the ball: just watch his positioning in support of AA for the third goal; not many of our players would have moved so intelligently and offered another outlet if Arma had not fancied a shot himself. I hope he gets through the season uninjured - his legs and ankles take a battering every game. His corners are pretty good. And I like his can-do attitude. Two things he could do better imo: not go down almost every time someone makes contact (he’ll get a reputation for diving) and insisting that he should take some (if not all) of our scoreable free kicks instead of Manning. I hope we can keep him beyond the end of this season.

One has scored two in three minutes. 🤫

A perfect fit, @Doctoroncall. Well researched.

Contrast SFC with Athletic Bilbao: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cwyne3dnld2o Amazing that, in this day and age, a policy like that can be so successful. Some lessons in it for those who think player trading and recruiting from the lower reaches of the German leagues is the way forward.

Well spotted. My mistake; I thought they overlapped one season but they did not. So, nothing at all useful from Ratty yet in the last two years. Btw, although he did not get one with us, Romeu did get a red while playing in Spain, if I remember right.

I’m far from his biggest fan but I would not be surprised if Ratty had something to do with getting Romeu here and convincing him to re-join us. If he did, that would be the first decent thing he has done for us since several weeks before he left for Liverhampton.

Harry Lewis played for Carlisle yesterday in a 3:2 win at Reading. He made a couple of useful saves but what was more notable was the grit that Carlisle showed to score twice in normal extra time to force proper extra time and score the winner. Sub striker scored a hat-trick. Properly demonstrated what we’re missing. Highlights in the bbc report of the game, for those interested.

0.16xG from open play. At home. Against a team that is hardly in a run of away form. Absolutely pathetic from one of then best-resourced teams (us) in the league. Manager’s fault for setting us up so negatively and overloading us at the back and lacking in midfield and persisting with a non-CF at CF. Coaching staff’s fault for our shapeless, pressless and slow build-up play, our inability to break teams down and prevent them from pressing us into mistakes and breaking us down almost at will. Why do we persist with Manning taking free-kicks and corners instead of Scienza? Why do all our throw-ins give the ball to the opposition? Why do all of our opponents look better coached and better prepared than us? Players’ fault for playing without guile, passion and skill ( one or two honourable exceptions). Except for Leo and Jander we never looked like scoring. SR’s fault for lack of a decent CF, CDM and GK, appointing a DOF who thinks DD is the solution to our striker problem and appointing a manager who is patently not what we need atm. All this on top of the clusterfuck of the past few years is enough to try the patience of a Saint. I’m out. Hopefully not for ever. But certainly for as long as SR and Still and the present coaches are stinking the place out. Hasta la vista, baby.

http://www.fawanews.sc/

Scored 90+4 minute. 1:1 final score.

And, if he did, probably nicely tucked in the corner of the net by Macca’s near post. Same result but an OG.

Been looking at the free agent list and ignoring the small, the old and the completely unknown, these three strikers and one DM caught my eye. On has played in this country before but does anyone know anything about the others? All in all, I reckon I prefer Aribo; at least he is a known quantity. Our squad is too big anyway; I don’t know why I bothered! https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/dembo-darboe/profil/spieler/699182 https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/gerard-deulofeu/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/129476 https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/george-puscas/profil/spieler/208690 https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/idrissa-doumbia/profil/spieler/430579

Why on earth have you asked this question: Perhaps you are a masochist for whom SM just isn’t quite enough.

Hmmmmm. Now let me see. I think you might be behind the times, S-Clarke. SR is ahead of the curve: we’ve been recruiting (with some notable exceptions) for league 1 for a few years now. Such foresight.

Two solutions: or http://www.fawanews.sc/ Tough choice,

Playing at Brighton without a recognised attacker in the squad, let alone the starting eleven. 0:0 at half-time. Defender at CF. If it’s good enough for the women, why not let the men try it? The chances of scoring could not be much worse than they were yesterday. Aribo and Stephens to vie for the starting spot, the other coming on off the bench. You read it here first. 🤩

Will Ferry captained Dundee Utd to draw at Rangers, 2:2; even without Martin, Rangers still cannot buy a win.

Merde! 😩 What are your thoughts on that performance, Fred? 💩

He looks about 8 years old but I see he is 16. The latest in a long line of Saints attacking midgets. Let’s hope he grows quickly from now on.

If we’re looking for a goalie, we could do worse than 29 year-old Henri Avagyan, who kept Ireland at bay for most of the match and, importantly, made several good saves. Market value 200,000 peanuts. Spertsyan was at the hub of most Armenia’s play but wasted his opps to score; an intelligent and industrious player. Azaz and Smallbone distinctly average. Manning took some good corners and got forward well but did little else but get a yellow, which rules him out of the game against Portugal.

Are you sure you were watching Saints women?

1:0 to Saints McAlonie scored after 19 minutes. Couldn’t get another. Pompey offered little.