CanadaSaint

When dealing with injuries in team selection, I'm not sure we pay enough attention to the theory of double-impact: Be very reluctant to move a key player out of his regular (and best) position to cover an injury, just because you think he might be better there than the natural back-up. By doing so you can adversely impact the team's performance in two areas of the pitch. Examples where we might have done this are playing Ramirez wide on the left when Lallana was first injured, and now playing Corky at RB to cover Clyne's injury. Ramirez looked out-of-place there and we lost the big threat he poses when drifting in behind the striker(s). Corky is too short on pace to play at RB, especially against fast-attacking teams with width like Chelsea (although Arsenal failed to exploit it), and we really miss all his work in the middle; the thing that saved us against Arsenal was that Davis played his best game for us, but he was (I fear) back to his normal standard today - albeit against a real quality midfield. I'm wondering if we'd be better to just play the natural back-up and try to handle the resultant challenges rather than move a key guy and risk adversely impacting two areas. It's not an issue for the big teams with quality-in-depth but it certainly is for us.

Ligament injuries are seldom much less than six weeks.

One of the few positives from today is that most of our rivals in the relegation stakes either have a replay to face or have made it through to Round Four.

We're not an early-ball team and he's an early-ball player.

Exactly. All I wanted was two things - avoiding injuries to key players and avoiding a confidence-sapping tonking. Days don't get much worse.

Just looking back through this thread I'm hoping even more that we sign a quality keeper in the window. If only to save us the complete forum meltdown that will occur if/when a Boruc error causes a loss instead of just heart flutters.

The "stugglers table" approach shows how volatile it all is. We are currently 3.25 points behind Villa (they are -4.50 vs Target and we are -7.75). If we lose at Villa Park the gap increase to 4.00 points. If we draw it shrinks to 1.00 points. If we win, we move ahead of them by 2.00 points. And there are loads of similar situations ahead for all the potential relegation candidates, which now number at least 9 teams IMO. Damn near half of the division.

I agree with all of that but I think the mountain might be too big for them to climb. The good thing is that there's no shortage of relegation candidates this year, and Newcastle are about to move solidly into the mix, especially if/when they lose Ba. I've already restructured the "strugglers table" twice and probably need to do it again.

I'm with Joe Kirkup - and would still have been even if we hadn't scored it.

Benitez is such a c*ck. Fiddle, fiddle, fiddle. "Too smart for his own good" is dead right and always has been. And some people wanted him here.

Over the last two games we've shown a depth of character that I've wondered whether we possessed. In some ways, Guly (of all people) has personified that; he's had a habit of drifting but he's been 100% committed in both games. When you start on the second half of the season in the bottom five, character ends up being as important as skill, and I think we have both.

Seldom have I approached the FA Cup with the kind of "whatever" attitude I have right now. Anything that even "might" cost us key players or, god forbid, our PL place is way the hell down on my priority list I'm afraid. Even if it "might" help us to become a better team.

Yoshida is arguably one of the players we can least afford to lose because that would reunite the problematic Fonte/Jos partnership. Either Jos or Font with Yoshida would work but not, I suspect, Fonte and Jos without Yoshida. And Fonte was superb again today. His game has improved night and day since he was paired with Yoshida.

I think we have little choice but to take a "ballsy" approach from now on because we are well inside the bottom three based on who we've already played. But Stoke (away) and Arsenal (home) were examples of how that can - and will - bring us the "unexpected" points we need. That wasn't a relegation team out there today, not even close, but that's because we refused to be overawed by a powerful opponent, and didn't make any costly individuals errors.

Not quite sure what to make of this, other than severe misuse of a Christmas present. As good as Merson and Lawrenson, I guess, other than the bit about Sagna taking his braids out: http://gingers4limpar.com/?p=2635&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=diary-of-a-season-southampton-1-arsenal-1

His body language suggested to me that he lost it in the lights at the last minute; he did everything right until then. But then, a few minutes later, he came for a cross and caught it, but he took it at chest height rather than going for the high point. He won't get away with that very often at this highly-scouted level, especially now that he's done it once. As I said earlier, there's a laziness about his style that concerns me.

Happy New Year, hypo.

I don't usually whine about bad luck but I don't think we got one break, or even one bounce, the entire game. Even when Arsenal panicked at the back, which was quite often, everything seemed to fall their way.

Completely agree with the first part but I'm still not sure about Boruc. He has a very lazy style that causes him problems but he's also capable of big saves and dominating his box. He's an unabashed whacko, and I suspect that the fan affection will only last until he makes a few errors, which he's certainly capable of doing.

No, it's cretinously stupid to turn one of the most positive afternoons of the entire season into nothing more than a negative. Only you could do that. If you can't enjoy that performance for long enough to resist the urge to post utter sh*t within an hour of the final whistle, you should find another sport. Or another team. Or, better yet, another planet. You ask for all the abuse you get.

What would really, really help is if this also prevented the ignored individual from appearing in quotes as well.

Same for me, and now I've seen the qualities I had hoped we were getting when we signed Steve Davis. The back-heeled pass from Ramirez in the first half was pure genius. Kudos to Cork, Shaw and the wide midfielders for shutting out Arsenal down the flanks. Without Clyne and Lalllana I thought that's where we'd get done. I'm still stunned at Alpine's post, after everyone worked their nuts off to deny space to one of the most potent attacks in the PL. Cretinously stupid even for him, and that's saying something.

He has a very laid-back approach that creates a dangerous laziness in his technique. He'll make mistakes with the simplest of things but he's always likely to make s stunning save.

That's how it goes at the bottom. The one at Stoke goes wide but that one goes in. Great free kick by Theo, though - right into the soft spot between keeper and back row.

I think some of it is down to the fact that almost everyone went for more attack-strengthening than defence-strengthening at the start of the season. It means that pretty much everyone can score goals and pretty much everyone can be vulnerable defensively - even the big boys.