goodymatt

Good to see Downes back, hope he’s fit and firing. Stephens playing RB again?

We are clearly signing a RW player then, plenty of links: Diallo, Brooks, Benson, Carvalho. In the summer we tried for Roberts and Philogene. I wish Tella had stayed but £20m for the FFP was too good a deal for an academy player.

Is this happening???

We've actually scored 1 more than Leeds so far, due to our recent big wins. Its their defence that is giving them the GD edge.

I think he was out long term with his cancer issue, followed by hamstring and fitness. Likely due to the lack of playing time during his treatment: This season he’s made 11 appearances for Bournemouth with no recorded injuries. Perhaps dropping down a level for game time is just what he needs? We do have reasonable depth in wide areas too, so perhaps less of a risk than Stewart was for example.

Might we play Arma centrally freeing up that RW spot? He has looked more influential as a wide striker though.

Summary of transfer rumours so far, not long now until the window opens… In: Matias Soule (Juventus) Charlie Cresswell (loan from Leeds) Amad Diallo (Loan from United) Ben Johnson (WHU) Bojan Miovski (Aberdeen) Danny Ings (Loan from WHU) Ryan Fraser (reported we might make a permanent but not sure why we wouldn’t wait until the end of the season) David Brooks (loan from Bournemouth) Out: Holgate (loan recall to Everton) KWP (WHU interested) Che Adams (reported we may cash in) Sekou Mara (loan to Lille) I think Philogene and Delap at Hull would have been great signings, shame we missed out on those two previously. Amad Diallo would be a great signing.

https://x.com/alex_crook/status/1740671731252277411?s=46&t=7raSKCMt6LV8RJ1C2d39WQ TalkSport (Alex Crook) saying Saints and Leeds are interested in loaning David Brooks from Bournemouth.

On Martin’s love/passion for our club, he has his sons attending games, who seem excited by our players and asking for shirts for Christmas. Seems to be trying hard like he did at Swansea to build a connection with the fans and everyone involved at the club. Even if it doesn’t work out or he ends up getting a better offer, it’s a positive and welcome approach. His respect towards Swansea this week was nice to see. I like the guy and really want him to succeed.

Fair comment that he did tweak some suicidal tactics like the corner set up you mention. I do think it’s also a result of the positional understanding that’s built up over time which is giving us these excellent passages of play to watch more often.

https://x.com/alfiehouseecho/status/1739903943608762394?s=46&t=7raSKCMt6LV8RJ1C2d39WQ Sounds like Bree needs a second scan next week, ruled out for the festive period at least.

He was clearly chosen for his underlying stats and possession based style. It’s nice to see those underlying stats become points on the board, goals and clean sheets. That 4 game losing streak was unacceptable but he stuck by his principles and now we are seeing a proper team. Feels like it’s just clicked now and the belief is starting to come back into the fanbase, for the first time since the Covid run and Koeman before that. 16 games unbeaten, it’s the second best league run without losing in our entire history and we were in the third tier when we did it last (1921/22). I look forward to watching Saints again, with more expectation/confidence in us than fear. I hope we can keep this going and get that 2nd place spot. Will be very important how we react to a defeat when it comes.

I think Downes is just not 100% fit yet following his illness, so his minutes were being managed on Saturday. We should win this game comfortably, I think 2-0 Saints. Merry Christmas fellow Saints!

Thank you, Sir. Interesting that we are only 2 points behind where we were at this stage last time. Same 2 points behind where Burnley were at this stage last season too. Shows how good a job The top 2 have done so far. I think we can catch Ipswich, just a question of whether we can finish ahead of Leeds too.

I’m interested in comparing how we are doing against our last promotion season. Does anyone know of a particular website that lets you look at how the league table looked after 23 games when we were last in the league?

Surely Ings could get a PL loan to one of the bottom 6? Why would he come back here and drop down a league? That said, I’d be absolutely happy to have him back, he’s a goal machine and if he was fit you’d expect him to score every game at this level.

Manning is so poor, why do we keep playing him?

We started the first 15 with much more zip and directness. Coventry then sat much deeper and we fell into the pass pass pass phase. Towards the end of the half it was very frustrating to watch. Hopefully we start the second half more like the first 15 mins!

Will be a tough test tomorrow, their style is one we could struggle against and they are in very good form. I’m going 1–1 for this one.

Congratulations to you too! 😇

My new son starting off life with a 100% Saints record. Long may that continue!

Sounds like Sulemana injury could be a ‘significant’ one: https://x.com/alfiehouseecho/status/1729994296328110350?s=46&t=7raSKCMt6LV8RJ1C2d39WQ Ross Stewart has a new muscle injury: https://x.com/alfiehouseecho/status/1729991686166646892?s=46&t=7raSKCMt6LV8RJ1C2d39WQ

Now he’s up and running he looks quality

4 more to play plus however long manning is down for here

So so bad.