CanadaSaint

Thank you. BTW "judging people's entire lives" is another of your straw men. I'm judging their persona on here, and it's all IMO anyway. They could be sneerers on here and dreamers somewhere else, or brave with the keyboard but chicken-sh*t in real life. Or vice versa in both cases. Whatever. I made my point. You disagreed with it. Life goes on.

Line 1 is another of your straw man inventions because I've never seen anything like that on here - just a big bunch of people happy to go along for the ride, and a little group who sneer. Line 2 may well be true, but I reserve that perspective for people like that because it's the only language they understand. Anyway, for me it's onwards and upwards. I choose to believe in "The Plan" and see where it takes us.

Life is full of planners, dreamers and sneerers. Cortese is unquestionably in the first group - with the balls, brains and probably the funding to back it up. I'm happy enough to sit in the second group because we've already come a hell of a long way and, based on that and various signals (such as who we've signed and might be interested in signing), there's nothing wrong with dreaming when it comes to footy. Without dreams, supporting a team is rather pointless, isn't it? I just thank God I'm not in the third group; what a sad and hollow existence that must be.

I thought he'd spent the best part of his life there.

There seems to be a renewed buzz about Ramirez heading back to Italy (Fiorentina or Inter) in the summer, so I'm still not convinced that he's a key figure in Pochettino's plans. MP's starting line-ups from here on will be a good guide. You don't spend that much on a player just to use him as an impact sub.

Telly was crap here last night so I took a lengthy run through the forums of relegation rivals. I was surprised how many thought that Saints wouldn't go down, and that was before the Man City result. Since that we barely get a mention. I still think there's a ton of volatility over the balance of the season and that two bad results would drop us right back in the kaka, but that's not how rival fans are seeing it.

His touch (with head, chest and both feet) and vision are absolutely tremendous, and he has that special ability to make it look as though he has all kinds of time. But we've always known those things. I was really impressed that he was still pushing-hard in the 90th minute against City. Either he's become fitter (and/or better motivated) under Pochettino, or Adkins was arguably taking him off too early on the occasions when he subbed him. The way he plays, and the way he's playing, I can see him still in the PL and still contributing in 6-8 years time.

Not if we have a coach committed to the high-pressing game, surely? Unless we're talking long term "ultimately".

Interesting stuff to hear. I'm sure there are twelve managers trying to figure this out right now - eleven if we discount BFS. I would assume that one way to beat it is to play a quick ball through the press and then try to break past it, but it takes as much fitness to counter the press as it does to play it. And most of the twelve teams we must still play A) can't or won't increase fitness levels that quickly, just for us, and B) don't have anything like a Cork/Schneiderlin duo. Scheiderlin almost saved City's goal on Saturday by (yet again) sprinting 80 yards or so to be in the right place. They will probably respond in much the same way as City did - or didn't. But Pochettino, I'm sure, has seen it before and knows how to respond.

The other intriguing angle is why (assuming it isn't media bullcrap) we would go for Abdelaziz Barrada (and other high-priced playmakers such as Coutinho) when we've already spent a ton on a player to fill a similar role. Ramirez was signed while Nigel was manager and long before Pochettino was even a twinkle in Cortese's eye, while Barrada and the others were supposedly pursued with Pochettino's full involvement and support. I can only think of two rationales for that, assuming that the stories are accurate. The first is that Pochettino himself has significant doubts about how and whether Ramirez can fit into his system. The second reflects a recognition that the demands of the pressing game will take a toll on all our midfielders, and that we need cover in that more creative position, even if it's very expensive. But that implies that we actually have a budget of mind-blowing proportions. Edit: The third option, I guess, is that we're not bothered about re-signing Puncheon, but we're still talking big budget here.

I remember thinking at the time that they were more in the way of normal pre-match platitudes, which - for us - was a good sign; in fact, I said to a friend at the time that I thought we had a really good chance of stuffing City based on how Mancini came across. You could be right about the limited sway but his team had all the hallmarks of a side that encountered something it didn't expect, and then didn't know how to adjust once they saw it. Either way, he needs to take his own responsibility as well as, and not instead of, berating his players in public.

He's made a significant contribution this year, and I really like his partnership with Clyne on the right. He's willing to shoot, which is very valuable in a team that can be shot-shy, and his pass to set up the first on Saturday was great to see because he doesn't always see that pass when it's there. However, he's not the same player, and we're not the same team, when he's played on the other side. My concern relates to the underlined part. He strikes me as the kind of player who can hit ego problems as his stock starts to rise, which it is. At best, we'll re-sign him because "The Sheriff" will be able to handle him. At worst we need to re-sign him to sell him (at some point), or else we'll be waving goodbye to a potentially significant transfer fee.

It's all very well for Mancini to go ballistic on his overpaid superstars but at some point he needs to look in two other places. One is the other dressing room, because he came up against a very good and underrated team on Saturday, and they deservedly kicked his team's ass. He can lament the errors until he goes blue in the face, but his team caved-in under Saints pressure all over the pitch. Barry's O.G. came minutes after a very similar move ended with Puncheon shooting over when he should have scored, so Barry panicked at a key moment. The second place he needs to look is the mirror, because he failed to heed the pointers available from our last 3 games. He took us lightly and paid the price. I hope everyone else does that, but they won't after Saturday.

I think Sheringham was still playing in his late-thirties or perhaps even early-forties. The reading, the touch, the vision are lasting qualities - for those who have them in the first place. It's the legs that go. I don't think Rickie will last as long as Sheringham, different body and all that, but I think there are 6-8 decent years left in him - 3-5 at PL level.

I think you've outdone yourself this time, which is quite an accomplishment.

Everything's relative. I was fairly pleasantly surprised by his work rate when he arrived but it really needs to move up a few notches if it's to integrate well into the way we're playing.

The pressing game we're playing doesn't really allow for a misfiring cylinder in midfield - that just heaps more weight on the others, and I really do worry about attrition caused by the high work rate. I'd love Ramirez to fit into things but he's going to have to work a lot harder to do so, and then there's the chance that he'll lose the creative side that caused us to spend all that money on him. Fitting Ramirez in, for me, is MP's biggest challenge. If he can do it, look out!

I'm inclined to agree with you, but the face-to-face games between the bottom teams are going to decide a lot. In that context, I think Reading have 4H and 1A, Villa have 3H and 3A, QPR have 3H and 4A, Wigan have 2H and 2A, Newcastle have 4H and 2A, and we have 1H and 3A. There's a ton of potential volatility in there.

A win for us up at Newcastle would drag them right back into it again. And, with Villa pulling West Ham well and truly into it today, there are literally 8 or 9 teams with a very realistic chance of going down. I don't remember it being this tight at the bottom.

I have my superstitious moments, and I just want him to keep doing whatever the hell he's doing now, at the same time, and in the same sequence. And if the odd burger and beer are part of his regimen, I hope he keeps doing it. But, seriously, is it my imagination or is he lasting much better - despite the extra effort that Pochettino's style requires?

What is it that Gary Player says? "The more I practice, the luckier I get." I can't wait to see this side after pre-season training under Pochettino.

Super-impressed with him, especially today. However, I'm just going to float the view (not sure I believe it myself) that he wouldn't be the same player without Schneiderlin. And vice versa. I hope for our sake and theirs that we can keep them together. Here.

No, he was never a zero - not even close. IMO he brought a fairly immediate improvement in our defence, and I suspect the stats would confirm that. When he was twinned with Fonte it was (IIRC) because Jos was injured; at that point both Fonte and Jos were struggling, and either could have been dropped to make way for Maya. His problem then became doing two jobs - his own and covering for Fox, who was also a defensive liability. That didn't help him at all. Now he's doing his own job and helping Jos to look better at this level than he probably is. Maya's reading and covering are very good, and he's not short of pace. He's two-footed, which gives him so much more time and helps him to cover his own mis-reads. In a fairly polite kind of way, he doesn't take sh*t from anybody. I'd like to see him improve his defensive heading but, other than that, he's always looked the part to me. Even more so now.

Great post - I couldn't agree more. Nigel will always be special to me and I wish him well wherever he goes. He built much of the basis of this team and - lest it be forgotten - we were playing some tremendous football for the first three months of last season. Damn right I'm thinking of him as well tonight. Having said that, Pocchetino has taken the same players to an entirely new level - and very, very quickly. Based on how we've played, he could actually be sitting on four wins in four games, and three of them were against top 6 sides. It's a hell of a good sign that in each of those games there have been 4-6 (or even more) candidates for Man of the Match. They have embraced his methods wholeheartedly, and the biggest beneficiaries have been Cork and Schneiderlin - and, to a lesser extent, Davis. At times, Lambert looks like he's playing a different game to everyone else - so much time, such great awareness and an unbelievably deft touch (control or pass). God only knows that this team will look like when A) Pocchetino gets them as fit as he will get them, and B) he can communicate more confidently. I'm actually still a little numb. Damn Bacardi.

Clueless, wasn't it. They clearly haven't watched any of the recent games - or even the highlights.