egg

Minamino passing is poor again. There's a great player in there, but he gives it away too much.

Jeez, we're awful. Those passes from Salisu and Minamino were shite.

Harsh on Tella. Our best player first half.

BBC site take on it: "The incident was really bizarre. Andre Mariner was looking at James Ward-Prowse standing on the free-kick. Mariner turned away then put his whistle to his lips and seemed to blow just as Ward-Prowse played the ball through to Che Adams. Leeds were static, were not ready for the kick to be taken but for some reason Mariner decided that he had actually NOT blown the whistle and asks Southampton to retake it".

Yep. And it's no surprise. Old Boys club.

Tella makes some decent runs. He's better than I appreciated.

Yep. Never a pen. We'd be screaming if that was given against us.

His profile has gone, he's not showing in the u18 staff list, and his LinkedIn shows him as being at Pompey. I'd guess he's gone.

Beach

Back to the Leeds game. I fancy us to win this. No idea of the score, but a scrappy win.

Yep, pretty much as I saw it. For the first 20 mins or so I had no idea where Djenepo was playing, and I don't think he was too sure either. He didn't play as one of our normal 10's would play, but he wasn't a wing back either. Once we settled, Bednarek mostly covered the RB position, but stayed back and went central when needed. He got help at RB from Djenepo who carried the ball forward from that side and tried to be an outlet for balls out from the back. Whatever it was, or it worked.

With a fit KWP I reckon that's the way we may go. McCarthy Bednarek Vestergaard Salisu KWP JWP Diallo Bertrand Armstrong Redmond Ings It gets the wing backs high up the pitch, keeps the usual 2 in the middle and 2 number 10' who can get closer to Ings as the wing backs give more width.

Well that's the Dukes of Hazard fucked now then.

Quite a few where we stayed but they kept themselves to themselves. Out and about we didn't see many. It was a nice place, we'd go back.

Tart

We enjoyed Agadir. Nice place, although we didn't venture out of town. Hadn't thought of it as a spring option but it's a good shout 👍

Alcohol is crazy expensive, and eating out can be as expensive or reasonable as you want - afternoon tea £20 at somewhere reasonable, but north of £100 I think at the Palm. Transport was cheap. Excursions not so. On the whole we found it more reasonably priced than we expected. We did Reykjavik a couple of years before and found that to be more expensive on the whole. Now that is a place I do recommend.

Tin

Money doesn't buy class. There a plenty of chavs with money out there.

That was certainly my experience. It's glitzy as hell, very futuristic, all super slick, but when you see the people on the plane, the people at "ladies nights", the number of people chucking as much booze down them as possible at a "brunch", the sports bars in the hotels, etc, its clear that its not a classy place. The only thing vaguely close to culture were the souks and the little boat in the old quarter but the rest of it you could experience anywhere else. The cars parading around the beach at Jumeirah were a bit of a sight though.

Yep. I had the misfortune of going there with my wife a couple of years ago. High rises, malls, sunshine, chavs, flash cars. Not much else. Sure, it's shiny and lovely, but you get as much culture in Benidorm.

I got into the Redmond thing yesterday as just after the goal someone posted that they were just about to post that Redmond was a "waste of the shirt" or similar. That's beyond an opinion of his performance, but, not even remotely reflective of his performance (and others) to that point. That poster, and many others, were singling out Redmond based on preconceptions not that game. Until that point, and after, Ings offered much less, ditto Minamino although his goal was great. Singling out Redmond could only have been for the hell of it, or from a lack of football knowledge which I have to say seems quite common amongst a lot of posters who fail to see why Ralph plays Redmond.

Yep, the next couple of games for a few clubs will be interesting but it all depends on what Fulham do. Get beat by Palace and Spurs, and the others above them pick up points, then the fun is over I think. I'd like to see Newcastle dragged into it as i like Fulham, proper little club. Personally, I think we'll beat Leeds, get some belief back and finish mid table, but any version of Saints or Leeds could turn up.

Of course. If we're on 30, and Fulham are on 25 and Palace on 29 after they've played each other, then any team who haven't moved above us will also be looking nervously at Fulham. Our Leeds game is massive, ditto Fulham vs Palace.

Yep. Fulham have the belief, and look far more likely to pick up points at the moment than us. If Fulham beat Palace and get to 25 points, everyone up to Palace on 29 points are in a fight. If we're still on 30 points, we're no safer. The Leeds game is vital, win that and I say close this thread. If we lose it, and Fulham beat Palace, all of a sudden we've got more than the cup to play for this season.