goodymatt

No new injury concerns. Martin said Edozie, Bree and Sulemana are all on track for a return at the end of the month. Ross remains out for the season.

https://x.com/southamptonfc/status/1745800465671925788?s=61&t=32j3cg4j7-NzvLD4O818SA

ABK has only played for PSV a handful of times having got himself injured yet again (I think another shoulder dislocation and a shoulder surgery this time to stop it happening again). This is the longest time he has been out injured, 83 days and counting so far. Even if he wanted to stay with us in this league I’m not sure his body could handle it, maybe his surgery will have fixed the problem and we can see him become the player we think he can be. Very frustrating for him as well, I’m sure. We could do with him playing the second half of the season as one of our few assets out on loan that could attract a decent fee and help with FFP. Alternatively, should we go up, he may come back into the fold.

I would be ok with replacing Che with a loan from a bigger PL team, who has a point to prove. I know he is now at Sheffield United but a good example is Cameron Archer last season. Signed on loan in January for Boro and scored 11 in 22 championship games for them. Trouble is not all loans are that successful and can we guarantee starting time to the best available options or will we lose out to other teams like Fabio Carvalho recently. Che doesn’t want to be here and will almost certainly be playing to avoid injury as the season goes on. He’s more than good enough to help us if motivated though. Not an easy call for Saints and not something we have full control over.

Bournemouth are ‘inconclusive’ about whether or not they want to let David Brooks leave on loan this window (Phil Hay, The Athletic). Dirty Leeds also interested.

Listening to the Total Saints pod, their fan suggested they are pressing as a unit and high, just like you’d expect from a Ralph disciple’s team. It will be interesting to see if our playing out from the back is polished enough to take advantage of that or if we might end up giving away a silly goal or two. I’m feeling pretty confident in our possession footy now, despite the Bazunu error vs Plymouth and the chances afforded to Walsall just after half time at the weekend. My expectation is that we will get plenty of chances to score against their leaky defence.

Tella situation is silly. We loan them a player with no option to buy and he becomes their top scorer for the season and helps them get promoted. They took the piss with a £9m bid and the social media ‘Free Tella’ stuff. He went to Leverkusen for £20m. Any club would have done the same, our asset and no obligation to sell to anyone. If anything Burnley should return our favour and help us with our promotion by loaning us a decent player, if they want to be all sentimental. As if!

So having lost out on Carvalho, Alex Crook states we are still in for David Brooks. It’s gone quiet on Benson who was also strongly linked with Hull. Usual transfer window report that Ings doesn’t want to come back, this time due to us not being PL. If Benson does go to Hull, that would be 3 players that chose Hull over us (Philogene, Carvalho and Benson). We also had previous interest in Delap and they have a former Saints academy player at CB. I vote to rename Hull as ‘Nearly Saints Tigers’.

We tried to hijack their Philogene transfer on summer deadline day and now they look to be getting Carvalho ahead of us. I would have expected we had much greater pull? Are we really not able to offer a player of this quality playing time assurances?

Avoid defeat in this match and we will equal our all time undefeated league record. Wednesday are much improved, winning their last 3 in all competitions. Will our former assistant end our run? I still think we will have too much for them. 2-1 Saints. Baz KWP THB Bednarek Manning Smallbone Downes Stu Arma Che Fraser

Not sure what was the nicest surprise, the quality of our youngsters or finding out Che actually does have a left foot… Ryan Fraser, great performance and he has further reassured me that Edozie and Sulemana injuries shouldn’t stop our momentum. He’s been great off the bench but this was a full game performance of high standard. I would like to sign him up permanently please. Also pleasantly surprised by Lumley. Didn’t have much to do but saved well when needed and I thought his distribution and speed of decision with the ball fitted in well to our style. That video of his bloopers was a worry but I think he’s better than we expected.

https://x.com/fabrizioromano/status/1743701920722629090?s=46&t=7raSKCMt6LV8RJ1C2d39WQ Sounds like a decision will be made soon regarding Fabio Carvalho. I’d like to think we would have a more clear starting slot than Leeds. Wolves would be his preference if he has playing time, I’d imagine. Hull could have Benson and Philogene starting, they are building a decent team.

And Fabio Carvalho, sadly.

I hope we still have too much for them but they do seem to have turned a corner. Helped by 2 pen misses and an OG by Cardiff so far today but they seem much more potent all of a sudden. Our former assistant as their manager adds another dimension on his return to St Mary’s. Don’t piss on our chips please Danny.

We were due to play Hull at home on 27/1, not WBA?

Martin saying Edozie back for end of Jan/start of Feb. Sulemana and Bree will be similar timescales too apparently.

I think we will need to better 2ppg in this period to grab second. Harder fixtures follow too. Our last 18 games have been 2.33ppg, I’d be disappointed to drop below 2 during this period. As Saints fans we are conditioned to expect us to mess up. Keep proving us wrong, Saints!

Am I being harsh in thinking this is THE glaring hole in our team? Every opponent targets the space he leaves. He gives the ball away in dangerous areas regularly. He can’t defend. For me Manning is a LWB that suits 5atb but we are playing him at LB and he looks out of his depth. To be fair to him he looks decent going forward, good cross on him and the natural left foot is good for balance going forward. If we were to sign just 1 starter, this is what I would choose (assuming nobody leaves).

It’s actually 13 away games played (6W 5D 2L), 23 points total. 1.77 points per game. I look at Huddersfield (conceding from a cross), Watford (last min goal under the keeper) and Norwich (dominated the game) as 6 dropped points. Not a bad record. We still have the 4 other highest placed teams to play away though.

Please sign a LB, it’s our weakest position by far.

Overall I thought we deserved a win. Stephens unlucky to hit the bar, Fraser pen shout, clear red card missed for Stacey. Total dominance but once again it doesn’t take many shots on target to score against us. Norwich also scored a goal given offside but it looked onside on the replay? xG (forum’s fav stat) was 0.81 to our 2.51. We just weren’t clinical enough and that’s frustrating when chasing down the autos and missing chances to close the gap. 18 games unbeaten is incredible, let’s go and beat that record.

I saw this too, protective boot and on crutches. Probably not a good sign but could just be a precaution. I’m sure we will find out over the weekend.

https://x.com/thesecretscout_/status/1741862484393255138?s=46&t=7raSKCMt6LV8RJ1C2d39WQ Looks like we tried to sign Jalo from Barnsley but he has now signed a new deal.

Hoping his injury isn’t serious, having been in great form for us. If he is out for a period, suddenly we only have Fraser as a proper winger, with SAA in reserve and Arma playing wide at the moment. You can see why we are interested in bringing in a RW player.