WALK DMC

I think that this rumour may have legs. Tom Fellows didn't fully impress last year, so right wing is a position that I can see us recruiting for. This guy is experienced, he has played around 60 games in La Liga. However his best stats were in 23-24 when Espanyol were in the Segunda division, so perhaps the step up has proven difficult for him, which could be why they are willing to let him go. He is a good age (25 this month), but Youtube highlights are very limited. Of what there is, he looks like a classic winger (reminds me a little of Ton Fellows!). Might be a Twitter rumour worth watching.

Dragon's repeated references to building a team for next season sounds as though the season ticket renewal letters are about to be sent out.

In the article in today's Guardian, it stated that any penalty points deduction could be applied in either the Premier league or Championship. I don't know if they are right, merely that they they stated it with certainty. Middlesbrough to train for playoff final in case Southampton are expelled over spygate | Middlesbrough | The Guardian

What I really like about Larin is when we get the ball out wide, his first instinct is to make a run into the 6 yard box. His goals against both Oxford and Blackburn demonstrated that, and he makes many similar runs every game which aren't always picked out by our crossers. Now that they are getting used to him, they'll know exactly where he is and the type of ball (low, hard) that he likes.

Last month they drew at both Coventry and Middlesbrough both 0-0 scores. They will not be push-overs. For both games, they only had 25% possession, so unlike Norwich I expect that we'll see a low block (for those of you of a certain age, read "park the bus")

I assume he has been rested. Charles is also not in the squad.

Interesting stat ? We've kept more clean sheets (3) in the handful of games that we've played 4 at the back than the 2 (Swansea/Millwall) clean sheets achieved with 5 at the back over nearly 25 games. The clean sheets with 4 at the back are the the two recent games v Stoke & Sheff U and the home game in September against Pompey. It does make you wonder why both Will & Tonda were so stubborn in giving it an extended go. Of course, it may be absolutely nothing to do with formation, just the fact that Mssrs Manning, Bazunu and Wood have been removed from the team ............

On the basis that they're unlikely to risk starting Stewart in quick succession, I'd assume that Cyle will start all our evening games and FA cup ties. So in the next 6 weeks, that would mean 3 evening games and 1 (or two if we get through) FA Cup matches. And as you say, he'll probably start coming on for Stewart after the hour in other games. That's a load more playing time than he has been getting in Holland. Let's just hope that he can make a decent contribution in all of those games. Plus of course, if Stewart picks up an injury the playing time could be significantly more.

Stewart is out of contract in the summer, so with his injury record there is a chance that we won't offer a new contract.

Don't forget the 3 play-off games 🙂

My favourite is when Stephens wins a header, but it goes straight into the air rather than away from goal. According to Opta, the percentage of ariel duels that our centre halves win are: Quarshie - 59% THB - 56% Wood - 46% Stephens - 43% A "very good " percentage in the Championship is around 70%+ won, good is around 60%+ won. As always, stats need to be used carefully, but these do seem to back up my own impression of our defence's ability to defend crosses. Strangely though, I'd probably prefer Jack to Quarshie for Sunday's game. I think even with his obvious limitations, some games call for experience and this is probably one of those matches.

Shame that this game isn't an evening kick off. This season, Saints have a points per game (PPG) of 2.3 for games played in the evening (w5, d1, l1), but have less than 1 PPG for those games played in the day (w4, d8, l9). If our evening matches form was across the season, we'd be 7 points clear at the top of the Championship ! Alternatively, we'd be in the bottom 3, if our day form was across the season. I think that this anomaly, is because we had quite a few evening games during Tonda's hot period when he first took over. Not sure that it means much, but I thought that it made a nice change to discussing XG.

I agree, however the team were clearly lacking in confidence, so if we can get a run going then I think further improvements will be seen. We've missed Charles so it will be a big plus to get him back. He has more height and physicality than our other midfield players and can even held to defend set pieces. I'm not blindly optimistic, but i thought that the performance yesterday was an improvement and if we'd taken one of our other chances it could have been relatively comfortable.

Robinson is still only 18 years old. And even when things aren't quite coming off, he still has a touch of class about him. Give him another year or two and he'll get more consistency.

This is a difficult window. We're probably going to be playing Championship football next season, although there is a chance that we could make the playoffs, but alternatively we could still get sucked into a relegation battle. Not knowing what league we'll definitely be playing in next season adds a further complexity to buys in January. Shopping in January means that the pool of available talent is small, the price a premium and what is the purpose of buying now ? Why spend on a forward that will cost more than in the summer, when we'll probably still be stuck in the Championship anyway ? We clearly need a physical forward who can hold the ball up and knock in a few goals. However, would it be better to wait until summer before finding a permanent solution, or alternatively bring someone in using the loan market which would be a low risk e.g. a young gun from a Premier reserve side, or (my preferred option) an experienced forward who isn't getting any younger but has seen it, done it and can lead a line for the next 4 months ? It is a difficult decision and as SR have demonstrated time and time again, their decision making in the transfer market has been found wanting time after time over the last few years. I'm not confident that we'll get a suitable replacement this January.