Rasiak-9-

Don't forget that in the past two matches where he's been fairly underwhelming, he's had to do a lot defensively in order to cover Yoshida, who's been playing out of position at left-back. Granted, Yoshida's done very well, but Elia's clearly been instructed to give him a lot of protection (which he's done so quite well, marked by the fact that Yoshida hasn't had to face a winger running at him one-on-one or have his lack of pace exposed.) He's only played four other games. One in which he did well and scored twice, another which was against Manchester United away, and the other two where the whole team did pretty poorly overall. Getting Schneiderlin into the team will make a big difference as well. One of the main reasons that we scored as many goals at the start of the season as we did was because we got the ball forward and wide very quickly after winning it (something that Schneiderlin does brilliantly). This enabled us to get Tadic and Mane in positions one-on-one with their full-backs and further giving Clyne and Bertrand the chance to fly past them on the overlap; something that the defending full-backs weren't ready for given how quickly Toby/Morgan are able to distribute the ball from deep. That's the main thing that we've been missing recently. Its why Tadic looked so good at the start of the season and why Elia has had a tougher time joining when he did.

Utterly disgraceful comment. The right thing to do is accept that it was worse than the Bradford City fire, the Munich air disaster, Heysel, 9/11, The Holocaust, the slave trade and both world wars put together.

Yeah, this is what I've said throughout the season. If you offered me the chance to go into the final day with it in our hands, even if the task was to have to beat City away, then I'd take it. I hate to say it but if there's a mathematical chance of the top four by the final day fixture I'd be quite surprised.

Mmmhm. And pre-kick off there were plenty of Saints fans surrounding me who told me I was clueless because I didn't agree that Hammond should have started ahead of him. Make of that what you will.

The good, honest, English player trope is very strong with us it seems. The adulation of Lambert, Davis, JWP and Kelvin back when he was around has confirmed this. Hell I remember people around me saying Dean Hammond was better than Schneiderlin at Upton Park in frickin' February 2012 in our promotion season.

I remember back in our first victory in the Premiership watching him up against Benteke and putting on an absolute textbook performance as a centre-back for how to deal with a striker who's bigger than you. He's always been far better than a lot of people realise. A good squad player to have around with the added bonus that he doesn't seem to mind his role as a deputy to Fonte and Toby.

The big factor that hasn't been mentioned is the loss of Bertrand. Having him on the overlap going forward stretches defences hugely who have to deal with the threat of the overload from both sides. When its only ever going to come from one side (Clyne), its much easier to deal with. In addition, it meant that Elia was forced to hold back and help shield Yoshida who had to play out of position at left-back, (although both did their defensive duties admirably). Urgh. Feel positively sick after that. I think that more-or-less kills it. We now have to beat Liverpool to realistically keep the show on the road.

This would literally give me an erection.

*sigh* Alright man. Hope you're right. Little world of advice my friend; when people disagree with you, always try and avoid the temptation to dismiss the fact that you disagree with them as being down to them 'just not listening'. It entails the presumption that you're invariably right and you'll learn a lot more in life if you can successfully battle again that. Best of luck fella.

I'll be the first to say that whilst I'm critical of him and don't think he'll make it, I'm happy to defer to the opinions of messrs Adkins, Pochettino and Koeman; all three of whom are very qualified football men from very different backgrounds who nevertheless all clearly saw something impressive in JWP. I just haven't heard an argument against any of the points I've made. Don't get me wrong I think he's a good technical player, just not good enough of a technical player to overcome his physical handicaps (weak/slow etc.) enough to be effective.

Y'know funnily enough, we actually played far more effectively against West Ham at Upton Park earlier this season by completely circumventing their physical game and simply out-passing them. If you remember, we actually left Wanyama on the bench and played both Davis and JWP. At half-time I must admit, I was bemoaning the fact that we were getting bullied, but (partly thanks to Koeman's team-talk I'd imagine) in that second-half (probably the best half of football we've played this season) we were just dancing around them. Their big players just couldn't get anywhere near us or the ball as we played them off the park. You don't beat a bullying, physical team by playing them at their own game, you beat them by outplaying them, outpassing them, taking the **** out of them wherever you can and making them look stupid chasing the ball around. I've been one of JWP's harshest critics but even I'd be the first to say I feel a bit guilty laying into him. Its basically d) He's perfectly talented and technically skillful, but the issue is that because of the (mainly physical) handicaps that he's always going to have (very slightly built, no real pace, short, no natural toughness in the tackle) he'd need to be absolutely outstandingly brilliant from a technical point of view to really be effective. So I suppose you could maybe consider that a reluctant 'a' from me. Measure him up against Ross Barkley for instance. I actually think its arguable that JWP has more footballing talent than Barkley, but I'd swap him for RB in a second as Barkley's pace and physical strength will always make him more effective. Like it or lump it football is a physical game and strength, pace and athleticism are all vital aspects of being 'good'. Find me a central-midfielder these days who gets away with not being a fantastic all-round athlete. Modric, Rosicky, Iniesta, Pirlo, Xavi? There's a few here and there, but you really do have to be absolutely outstandingly, top-level brilliant to offset any element athletic ability nowadays, and I'm very confident in saying that JWP will never be at the level of the players I've just described. Part of the problem with English football is that we've always been so desperate for that kind of technical player that we've massively clutched at straws and I'm afraid JWP is a part of that phenomenon; not just from us, but from the media. Tom Cleverly is probably the biggest example. Tom Carroll as well has been mentioned. Josh McEachran is the most analogous player to JWP though. (Remember him?) Probably the biggest example of a technically gifted English player that everyone in the media couldn't help but jizz themselves about as soon as he was kicking a ball for Chelsea in the odd Carling Cup match or pre-season friendly. Five loans, four years and and precisely 0 goals later, it looks like he's been found out as yet another kid who's just never going to make it.

Very 'meh' today from both JWP as well as Davis. The FK in the first half was nowhere near and he put in several poor crosses. The ability to bend the ball doth not necessarily a good delivery make. Still adds very little defensively either. Not good enough for me.

He's always struck me as a player with terrific potential. The pace coupled with him being able to control the ball at speed as well as the fact he's two-footed means that he's a player who'll always have the ability to pull something special off. We'll just have to accept that for now he's one of those lads who every now and then, will have the odd game where he just doesn't turn up.

Not the worst goal in the world. Arsenal win is the worst result for us and that's now eliminated. Certainly wouldn't mind an Arsenal equaliser.

To be fair I've noticed this as well! No foreign manager seems to grasp either the fact that its 'at the moment', or use the word 'now' literally ever.

Do we know if MS and VW are back for sure yet? They're absolutely vital.

This is exactly what happened with Lambert last season when it was obvious to everyone looking at the matches with their head and not their heart that his legs and strength had long gone, that he wasn't scoring enough goals and that he was becoming a massive weakness. Every time JWP has a bad game (which naturally tends to coincide with the overall team playing poorly) people jump on the total non-sequitur that there were other, worse players on the pitch that day. I mean, I do feel a little cruel spelling out the footballing weaknesses of a 20-year-old but I'm just really struggling to see what people anticipate him developing into. A Pirlo/Xavi-type player I assume? Because he's evidently never going to be a Lampard/Scholes/Gerrard who can chip in with double-figures worth of goals every season, or a tough-tackling Makelele/Schneiderlin/Matic protecting the back four, or a Cazorla/Silva picking the ball up, beating players and dancing his way into the box to create chances. I'm just bemused as to what kind of player he's supposed to eventually become, because he has enough inherent weaknesses (physically weak, flimsy tackler, no pace) which just aren't ever going to go away.

Oh no. Oh no no no. The proper fans on here told me that singing is for gospel choirs, not football matches! You pay for you seat, you can do what you like. Remember? We hate all these self-proclaimed 'superfans' that moan on a forum! What on Earth is there to complain about?

I AM MAKING THIS STATEMENT OF MY OWN FREE WILL JAMES WARD-PROWSE IS NOT THE MOST HIDEOUSLY OVERRATED FOOTBALLER WE'VE HAD IN THE PAST DECADE. JAMES WARD-PROWSE HAS ONLY FAILED TO SCORE BECAUSE HE'S UNLUCKY. JAMES WARD-PROWSE WOULD BE RATED JUST AS HIGHLY IF HE WERE BLACK OR FOREIGN JAMES WARD-PROWSE HAS THE BEST DELIVERY IN THE PREMIERSHIP SINCE DAVID BECKHAM JAMES WARD-PROWSE IS A GOOD PLAYER AND A YOUNG ENGLISH PLAYER FROM OUR ACADEMY. THIS HAS NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO WITH THE FACT THAT HE'S RATED SO HIGHLY ...all joking aside. Three very decent managers in Adkins, Pochettino and Koeman have obviously seen something in him as they've all had faith in him, and I'm more than willing to defer to the fact that they're infinitely more qualified than I am to make that call, but honestly I just don't see it. The guy has absolutely nothing whatsoever in terms of... 1) strength and physicality 2) defensive positioning 3) tackling, competitiveness and bite in central-midfield 4) carrying the ball and driving at defences from midfield 5) finding a killer pass 6) beating a player 7) pace winning aerial battles 9) having a left foot Now don't get me wrong, those things are all completely and utterly unimportant in football. Of course. But, with those aspects of his game well and truly out of the equation, the boy better have the most flawless touch in the league, the best set-piece delivery you can imagine and the kind of range of Pirlo-esque range of passing that can single-handedly dominate football matches to even be close to the level he's rated at IMO. But he doesn't. He's just vaguely capable at those aspects of the game but nothing remotely special. He's basically another Tom Cleverly.

If there was ever a game where the first goal could make all the difference, this is it. Swansea score and all of a sudden we're panicking and their tails are up. We score first and everything calms down + (touch wood), they roll over and fall into the temptation of dossing around (now that they've got nothing to play for this season). I'll say this much, I don't see a team coming from behind to win this game.

I don't always agree with Turkish but he's bang on here. Gary Neville is a good pundit but JFC the complete lack of anyone decent doesn't half help him.

Its very difficult to compare anyone with Boruc, who's eccentricity and ill-discipline made him a very unique case. I sincerely rank him as one of football's biggest ever underachievers, literally up there with the likes of Adriano. If you look past his moments of madness, he really did have the talent as a goalkeeper to be playing for the likes of Barcelona/Bayern/Man United.

What is everyone complaining about!? Football matches aren't for singing! If you want to sing, join a gospel choir! The last thing we need is a bit of noise in the ground!

This. It wasn't the fans who've lost interest in the FA Cup who are responsible for its demise, they're simply reacting to: 1) Revenue from European football and the Premier League meaning that those two competitions command priority 2) The knock-on effect being that the biggest clubs throw out their second string players 3) The knock-on effect of that being that anyone who does win the cup tends to be thought of as only having done so because the bigger clubs weren't trying 4) The fact that four teams qualify for the Champions League, meaning that as many as 6 or 7 clubs at the top all have bigger fish to fry. 5) The aforementioned precedent set by Manchester United who clearly prioritised building their global fanbase above respecting the FA Cup. A precedent that made the cup's lost glory and mystique pretty irretrievable

Hope you're right and I'm wrong my friend, but I'm still gutted after that result. I must admit, I'm slightly worried that the players will be too, so at least we've got two weeks to get over it before our next Premiership match. Hopefully by then the guttedness will have morphed into the snarling backs-to-the-wall mentality that has seen us through this season. COYS!