S-Clarke

I don't think it's a case of coaching it out of him, I just think he needs to be coached to calm down a little bit in those situations. His power and pace gets him into great situations and at times he gets a little over excited at that point for me, a little bit more composure and calmness once he gets into that situation and he'll be in a similar realm to some of the best strikers in Europe. It must be exciting for the coaches to work with someone who has so much raw potential.

In that case, I imagine we'll hear about our re-arranged game once he is available again.

I think that's incredibly harsh on us, I feel we have top class coaching here. Would you say the coaching is better at Man Utd or Arsenal? I wouldn't. This is the best place for him to develop without an enormous spotlight on him, whilst surrounded by good coaches and good players. The worst thing for him right now is to be plonked on the bench at a 'big club' and be restricted to sub appearances when they're chasing games. He will get game time here and an environment to allow him to make mistakes and then learn from them.

Feels like Vestergaard is being a bit scapegoated by the Leicester fans on this result, he didn't actually cause their equaliser to be honest. He's made that bed though as generally he has been lower-league standard for them, and bar a purple patch in 2020 he wasn't ever much better than that for us.

West Ham have handled the entire situation disgracefully. Should fine that club as well.

Burnley well adrift now, they're all but gone in my eyes. Games in hand or not, they're absolute garbage and this is the season it finally comes to roost I think. If anything that Bottom 3 looks the bottom 3 to me, I'd be surprised if it changes apart from the order.

Certainly improved, looked a better player than I remember him most of this season. The Celtic move done him the world of good. He's being really well coached though, that much is clear. I think it's the first time Ralph has really had to work on him as he's been out on loan all of his time here. He's not the quickest, but he has a good brain and ability to find space in between the lines.

We've got several ways of playing, we switch systems a couple of times in games. We also have the ability to play certain systems to play certain games, against City on paper it was a 4-4-2 with two banks of 4 in a low block. That restricted city to playing in front of us and restricted the space in behind, which is the way to do it against them. Against Brentford at home we exploited the way Brentford played by matching up with their 3-5-2. That allowed us to overload their full back areas and given we were dominant on the ball they struggled to get out. We're incredibly flexible tactically and that is because of the squad we have, we have options to fit into these different ways of playing if required. It's amazing what happens when your bench isn't filled up with L'lundulu, Ramsay, Watts, Jankewitz etc. This is the first season Ralph has had what I'd call his own squad, he's not having to shoehorn Vestergaard or Bertrand into the side, or fill the squad with young players who will quite frankly never make it. We've been able to get talented young players which is right up his street. What this season has demonstrated to me more than anything is how good a coach he is when the players he has have the correct tools in the first place.

He's super talented, but he is still a little raw around the edges. Just saying that's why I think he's best placed here for at least another year as this is a great environment for him to realise his potential.

Happy for Everton to get their win and goals out of the way this week to be honest.

Such sad news. Condolences to you and the family. RIP Minsk

He's done great, but I still believe this summer is the opportunity to change up our goalkeeping situation a little bit. It has got a bit stale over the last 4 or so years. If anything his contract situation is probably seeing his level lift as he's playing for a club really, so if that benefits us between now and the end of the season - win win. I still expect him to leave and a new keeper to come in to freshen that area of the pitch up.

I love Broja, but today you saw the good and bad of him and why he's no where near the finished product just yet (Similar to Wednesday). Physically immense, so much pace and power, but his finishing is erratic and he needs to calm that down. I have no doubt he will but being at a club like Southampton allows him the opportunity to be erratic and grow as we don't expect to win every game, at Chelsea he'd struggle to get a run of games without shouts for him to be dropped if he kept missing chances like that. Different world at the big clubs. Definitely think his best option is to grow and develop his game here and then leave as a complete player to a top club a few years down the line.

Filled the spot really well, great 45 from him. Won so much that was put into the box.

What a great performance, we weren't hugely different from the Spurs performance in terms of our approach, I felt Utd had more of a threat though. First half we struggled to start with, Utd were moving it very quickly and we struggled to get near them. We were off it by a yard or so. For some reason, not complaining, Utd just stopped with the quick play and went a bit more passive - similar to how Spurs played against us, and it played into our hands really. All of a sudden we started finding time on the ball, space was popping up in between the lines etc. 2nd half went the same way, great start with the early goal but that was produced through Moi picking up space in between the lines and leaving their centre backs caught in between two minds. I thought we had the better chances in the second half, although Utd were always a threat on the break as they had pace - that was the main difference between today and Wednesday I felt, the pace they had in the attack always kept them in the game but we stuck at it ourselves. Tactically spot on, the mentality and application of the 11 absolutely spot on. There are partnerships all over the pitch. Special mention to Forster who is currently in his best form since 2016 without question. If he doesn't stay here he is playing himself into a decent contract elsewhere, that's for sure.

Still well in the game. Utd started at a much faster pace than us and it took us a while to get into it as we couldn't get near them. Utd have dropped off a little though, certainly after 30 mins, which allowed us to get more of a foothold as the pace slowed down. Certainly still in for a chance of something, we looked the most likely in the final 10 mins.

To be fair Theo's contribution on Wednesday was terrible. He didn't run for the ball or get anywhere near it and they made it 3-3 on the back of that bit of shit play, luckily overturned - but he's a risk when he plays as we have to carry him. Since he scored at Arsenal last season in that 1-1, he got an injury and since then he's looked done as a footballer. I think he needs to admit it!

The as expected media coverage really, we're irrelevant and they're all desperate for Man Utd to start being good again. Boosts their coffers at the end of the day, we're just seen as a mild irritant at this moment in time.

Certainly a long way to go, but home draws can't be sniffed at as it gives us a great chance to get to the last 8. From there anything can happen to be honest. We've put ourselves in a great position whereby we can go a bit stronger in these games if we wanted to as well.

Ballard is certainly an exciting one isn't he. Seems like a scoring machine at every level he's put into.

Do you think Kane will leave? I think his chance was last summer and I don't think he'll get another opportunity for a 'big' move. This summer has the likes of Mbappe and Halland floating around to be nabbed and I'm sure City will be aiming for one of those as opposed to Kane.

Agreed mate. I was going for a point from these two as a good outcome, but 3 already is more than I imagined. Puts us in such a good position as the games after this are comparatively better. Although this is Southampton and we know how that works...

I think it'll be between Norwich, Newcastle, Watford, Everton and Burnley. Brentford have possibly done enough in the first half of the season to afford the run they've having now, they're good enough to get back on it in the coming weeks and pickup the handful of wins they need. I'm pleasantly surprised by where we are at this stage and hats off to Ralph and the club for putting us in such a good position. From here, given our remaining fixtures, I don't think we'll be looking over our shoulders at any point.

Thank you for continuing the good work Minsk has put in, would have been a shame to see it wasted. It's so positive looking at this though, the head to head comparison is kind of suggestive that we may end up in the 50's points wise this year. I didn't see that and I thought we'd struggle without Ings goals, but credit to the scouting as we've filled the hole better than I could have imagined.

Why are West Ham being so anal about this? I noticed Zouma played the race card as well, which is ridiculous. Both separate 'crimes' and both equally deplorable in their own right.