CanadaSaint

Watching it a second time, it struck me how much more Adams and Broja are involved in our "out of possession" package than Kane and Son were for Spurs. For the most part they were waiting for the others to win back possession, while we passed-and-moved, recycled, and switched the point of attack. I was also struck by how much the Spurs players were gesticulating and moaning at eachother. It was like watching "The Culture of the Entitled" vs "The Culture of the Committed", and it was a fricking joy to see.

It was exhilarating to watch our football last night, and at times we were almost unplayable. One guy on the Fighting Cock said "I'd give my right nut for us to play the kind of football they play". Spurs were chasing shadows for much of the game, and there's a delicious irony in us doing that to them of all teams (from Wiki):

For years we’ve been forced to lament the players we’ve lost, but now it’s turning into an advantage. We couldn’t have played like that in a million years with Vestergaard, Bertrand and - especially - Hojberg in our line up. In fact, it really helped us tonight that Hojberg was in THEIR lineup. 😂 The squad improvement is quite stunning.

Finally the Spurs fans see the football they’ve been yearning for since the Sixties. Tis but a passing detail that we were the team playing it. 😂

It is now 😂

As much as I like him, Ralph dropped a lot of notches with me today. This competition is our only hope this year, and the formula has been known for 100+ years: Complacency + Arrogance = Upset He really needs to reign it in before people run out of patience with it.

Lost my stream. Anyone got one going?

Ralph's achilles heel has always been his arrogance and obstinacy. To do this in a "must win" game (if we have any aspirations at all for this season) is sickening.

All we can do in this life, Minsk, is care for our families and try to touch those around us in positive ways. That's how our lives are judged - and that's how we judge our own lives - because we can't control the other stuff. Based on how you've always come across on here, I have no doubt that you have much joy to reflect on. I send some brotherly love to you, and an electronic hug to your family.

I don’t think we want to sell Bednarek but if Newcastle struggle to strengthen their CD positions - one of their weakest areas - they could well panic as the window starts to close and offer crazy money. If so, I’m sure we’ll seriously consider taking it. That might be one of the contingency plans we’re working on, now that we have really smart leadership at the club.

We’re going to face some challenges based on the justified perception that we’re a selling club. It will take time to shift that perception but it helps that three of our most coveted players (JWP, Salisu and KWP) are locked up until the end of 2023-24 or beyond. It would also help if our new owners refused outright to entertain offers, with a “things have changed here” public statement. The wild card is KWP. For me he’s our best defensive RB with the ability to be very effective going forward, as he proved on Saturday. However, Ralph doesn’t seem to see him as the RB starter, and I don’t think we’re as balanced defensively (or KWP’s as happy) when he’s playing on the left. Over there we’ve got the adequate Perraud and the highly regarded Small. For a club of our stature to have two starting RBs of that quality is like being a middle class family with two BMWs in the driveway. At some point we have to decide whether we can afford to keep both of them, or would be better to sell one to fund improvements in other dimensions in our life. Our operating model is to have a quality starter with a talented, young backup. I really, really hope KWP doesn’t go anywhere but it wouldn’t surprise me if he was a Summer departure, but we’d need to bring in someone much better than Valery.

Leaving aside the ridiculous unpredictability of VAR, chatting about it on here requires a pretty simple test. What would we be saying if one of theirs did that to one of ours?

Significantly higher wages are possible in our business model for the kind of player - and character - you build a squad around. The key prerequisite is that we don't squander a big chunk of the wage budget on dross, or sign marginal players to long term contracts. And we don't pee big transfer budget money away on risky gambles. The biggest takeaways of of the last five years. I don't think that any of this is lost on the new ownership group. Salisu's decision to not join the Ghana squad was quite telling, with regard to his character and comfort level at the club.

What an arrogant, self-entitled collection of fuckwits. God forbid that I ever watch my team through eyes like those.

My immediate reaction when Armstrong ‘tackled’ Laporte was that a red was inevitable, such is the game today. I still feel it should have been. Then I remember Dennis Hollywood launching Mike Summerbee into the crowd under the West Stand at The Dell, and think Armstrong’s tackle wasn’t so bad after all. 😂

Having a natural left footer who’s pretty solid defensively really helps Salisu because he can concentrate on his CD role without having to worry too much about covering the LB area. I love KWP but having Perraud there gives us more balance.

Superb performance all around, with - unbelievably - chances to win it. Salisu was imperious throughout, but tremendous character and endeavour all around him. I feared red right away on the Armstrong tackle and I think we dodged a bullet there. I never have been, and never will be, comfortable with Ralph's high line. It counts on three things - a poor delivery (10% chance with DeBruyne standing over the ball), an offside call (50%), and a keeper intervention (20% with Forster or McCarthy). I'd much rather take our chances with a deeper line and reliance on Salisu, Bednarek, Broja and Adams. With another keeper we could have won the last two, and yes, I did see Forster's knee save from Sterling. We had five players today who would not have looked out of place in a Top 6 side. I don't care if we don't splash big money on incoming players, as long as we make a solid effort to keep the ones we've got.

Nine passes between our penalty area and the back of City’s net. Orgasmic goal. 😂

So what’s the back story on this? I’m now getting the annoying banner on my iPad and Macbook Pro. Is it a revenue generative initiative of Saintsweb, even for subscribed users?

If they’re keeping an eye on Saintsweb they’ll know we’re keeping an eye on them - and fix the typo on the second line of their About Us page. 😂

I have no idea what he did but that ball had almost zero spin on it. He didn’t quite catch his earlier free kick - the shot that nobody was expecting. If he had we’d have been talking about two absolute stunners.

At some point in the past few weeks I think Ralph sat on a rock for a while and reflected. The outcome is that he has tempered the tactical obstinacy that was either extremely good or extremely bad for us - there wasn’t much middle ground. In its place is a tactical flexibility that I feared he didn’t possess, and we (and he) discovered that we are a much better team for it. Whether it was deliberate or accidental, I really hope he sticks with it. Playing like that, there won’t be many automatic losses or under-achieving draws between now and the end of the season.

Tonight puts some “welcome to Southampton” pressure on Dragan and the ownership group. Great performance, great result, fans buzzing - and the first thing they hear is about the manager and key players needing to go to bigger clubs, including the talismanic JWP. He really looked like he was enjoying himself tonight, and he doesn’t have his feeder-club structure built yet, so It will be interesting to see how he reacts.

You have to wonder about the coddling that players get when JWP covered every blade of grass twice in four days and was still running at the end. It’s inspirational for everyone around him. As someone else saiid, what an engine he’s got.