goodymatt

He scares me. Genuinely surprised how poor he is. Hopefully he proves me wrong today! People saying he had a good game at Preston, from where I was standing he looked nervous and on the edge of a mistake all game.

Holgate for Bednarek the only change to the starting 11

Sunderland are dominating Birmingham so far.

Tomorrow’s game is now a battle of 5th vs 6th after Preston’s 90th minute winner at Blackburn.

I really like the bloke and do want him to succeed. I’d say both Saints and Leeds are slightly underperforming against expectation so far (2 points per game is the auto promotion magic number usually, might be even higher this time) but have both turned a corner and look capable of chasing down Ipswich, should they slip up. It is incredibly frustrating to see how weak the bottom of the PL is this time and how strong the top of the Championship is. We could have a great season accumulating normally top 2 points and still have to rely on the playoff lottery. I’m pretty confident we would have survived with our squad last season ahead of the newly promoted sides too. Especially with the right manager in place! One year on from appointing Nathan Jones and it’s nice to have a manager I like, playing decent football. That 4 game losing streak seems a long time ago, I’m actually most annoyed by the Rotherham result, which was unjust.

Bednarek is a big loss for this game, Holgate still worries me. We are more than capable of winning this game though and if we do we will be building up to the best run of fixtures of the season in good shape. Does feel like a big game for our season and momentum. Looking forward to it.

Nominated for manager of the month: https://x.com/southamptonfc/status/1722494728221208632?s=46&t=7raSKCMt6LV8RJ1C2d39WQ

I had concerns before the Leeds and Hull games that we might slip up, same feeling for WBA… hopefully with the same outcome!

We are as close to Watford in 16th as we are Ipswich in 2nd at the moment. We need Ipswich to lose games, they have the least defeats in the division. Couple of draws won’t kill their momentum just yet. Next month they play Leeds (23/12) and Leicester (26/12) back to back, that’s the time we can catch up some ground. I thought autos were out of reach not long ago but if we win at the weekend we are in decent shape to chase.

Tired defending I guess, agree you’d expect to see the lowest of blocks in the 93rd minute. We can’t rely on scoring so late every game, surely that isn’t sustainable. It’s a nice habit at the moment though!

https://x.com/toby28831000/status/1720869243988664649?s=46&t=7raSKCMt6LV8RJ1C2d39WQ Just found this video from behind the goal when we scored, absolute limbs! “F****** come on” 😂

Not a good tackler either. What is he good at?

Ref giving any tackle we make as a foul, meanwhile they can wrestle KWP down and it’s play on.

I think Downes was a better signing than Winks. Question is whether we can get promoted to stand a chance of keeping him. Winks is in the better team at the moment but he’s not the better player. Interestingly transfermrkt have the 3 most valuable players in the division as KDH, THB and KWP. We really should be much closer to the automatics with our squad.

Sounds like we are targeting WBA next weekend for Ross, depending on how training goes over the next week. Let’s hope he has no reaction after today.

https://x.com/southamptonfc/status/1719329545394819308?s=46&t=7raSKCMt6LV8RJ1C2d39WQ

Just seen Stephens back in light training and videos of him kicking the ball. We’ve not even seen anything like this with Ross yet. Is that a sign that he’s not actually close to being available?

https://x.com/southamptonfc/status/1719341955375579238?s=46&t=7raSKCMt6LV8RJ1C2d39WQ Looks like Stephens is now back in light training. Welcome back Captain 🫡 Might be hard for him to get back in at the moment but it’s positive competition for places and hopefully keeps Holgate out the side. Video link of Jack doing light training: https://x.com/southamptonfc/status/1719329545394819308?s=46&t=7raSKCMt6LV8RJ1C2d39WQ

We have a corner, ohhh Gavin Bazunu ringing round the ground. Love it.

Should have had a free kick on KWP but poor mistake from the restart. Why is it never straight forward?!

That was a pen to Brum, got away with one

2-0 Charly!

We concede so many crossing opportunities into our box through corners and fouls.

Offside but not VAR, lovely.

THB! What a start.