S-Clarke

He doesn't score when he starts or when he's a sub, so no real surprise. He just doesn't score goals and never really has. He runs a lot though.

McCarthy - 7 - Seemed like he wanted to give them a goal, but for his saves alone I have to give him a 7. KWP - 5 - Thought he was poor today. Too loose in possession and didn't offer enough threat. Bednarek - 7 - ok, nothing special - gets a 7 for the goal. Vestergaard - 6 - Seems to be getting cocky again with the ball. He simplified his game, now he's complicating it again. Bertrand - 6 - Better than KWP. More sound in defence. Romeo- 5 - Had a poor one, he was picked off too often in midfield and got bullied on multiple occasions. JWP - 8 - Can't fault his contribution, but he can't do it all on his own. Armstrong - 4 - Thought he was rubbish today. Didn't keep the ball well enough, didn't make the right decisions when he had the ball, got bullied off the ball. Generally rubbish. Djenepo - 7 - Our most dangerous attacking player. Walcott - 5 - Pretty poor. Ran into players, ran into blind ally's, didn't pass when he needed to. Typical Theo really. Adams - 6 - Bit too loose, didn't stick with him and Utd had him for dinner really.

Nah, don't think we did. We were poor for the majority of the game and we gave Utd the handle multiple times. I don't think we ever had any control over that game, mainly because we were so flaming loose in possession. Armstrong in particular had a shocker in that sense.

Utd deserved that, we were pretty awful today in most parts. Got a lead totally against the run of play, had a couple of near chances (and a 2nd) but Utd were always a threat, we kept giving them space and they kept picking us off in midfield. Eventually their pressure told and that was that. Felt like our worst performance since Spurs 2nd half, they played around us and found space too easily. We were weak on the 2nd balls and poor in retaining possession. Adams didn't have a great game today as our focal point and it wasn't sticking well enough. Moussa was our biggest attacking threat imo, bringing Long on just kind of kills the game from our point of view. Is he really as good as we can do? Obafami or Dan L'dunlunlu should be before him now days. The subs tell you all you need to know really - they bring on Cavani, we bring on Long. Never mind, we were going to lose eventually. I felt we saw quite a few weaknesses in our game today though, we need to be a lot tighter in the coming weeks or we will slide down the league quicker than a hooker on a pole.

There has always been too much chat from DaGrossa and about DaGrossa, and absolutely no action. Usually the hallmarks of total charlatans.

West Brom somehow won that one, but christ, two utterly diabolical teams who are already all but gone.

I think Wilder is a bit of a c**t.

He's trying to find another angle to cover up their awful form and obvious decline. They have been nothing but average since February really, scuffing the odd win here and there to get them over the line at the back end of the season. They are no where near their heights of 2019, they've lost that.

Leeds were all over Everton. I thought Everton looked very flat and one dimensional. It does go to show though - how quickly things can swing around in this league. They were untouchable at the end of October, now they look awful. Less said about Burnley the better, they do not belong in this league. The next game should be a humdinger..

Nah, can't see that ever happening. He's no where near the thoughts of the national team. In front of him you've got Saul, Koke, Lorente, Merino, Rodri, Thiago, Busquets, Pajerjo, Fabien, Ceballos - and some others! So much quality in their midfield, probably the place they've got the most. Romeu is a decent player for us and fits the system we play perfectly, but he's not anywhere near the level of some of those above.

If the international break had any benefit to us, it's this - and the fact he won't have missed as many games.

I think there are times you need to credit the opposition for stopping us. They closed all the avenues, condensed the middle of the pitch and were on us as quick as we are on teams....not many teams will execute such a tight game through the middle, it stopped our ways out really. We tried to move it quickly, but they were on it. So credit to Wolves, the fact we still came away with a win is a good sign for me.

They made the game very compact from the off. They shut down the channels that Vestergaard has been using to pass forward, he had no where to go. It was a very tough game in that sense. Not much space and a very intense central midfield area.

It was a good point in a very tight game. Two very similar sides in terms of quality, no reasons why we both shouldn't be there or there around each other come the end of the season. We look very evenly matched. We had our chances, they had their chances, although I think their chances were better and our GK was worked much more - so for that reason alone, I'll take the point. Fair result.

We had a dreadful run of form through November and Dec if i remember rightly, there was a post on here after we lost to Burnley (I think?) with people worried we were going to get relegated - we were being dragged down the table. 2nd half we turned it on though and Mane and co found their mojo, and because Man Utd, Liverpool etc had 'poor' years we managed to Gatecrash that top 6 a little easier than usual. It was the year Leicester won the league as well, so very strange all in all.

We're after more options at fullback though, given our link to Brandon Williams - so we obviously feel we need a bit more (probably down to the lack of confidence in Valery etc)

We've finally given up with Valery then. Wonder where he'll end up.

Has anyone seen the other clubs they've tried to adjust? https://sportslens.com/premier-league-club-crests-2020/317874/ They need to leave well alone! Imagine the uproar at the Palace one in particular! wtf is that!

Looks to be back in training

Looks like a logo for Lego or something, dreadful. Let's hope we don't go near that.

Defensively we are dreadful. Gomez is our 'best' CB. Maguire is a mid-table PL CB at best, the other options are lower PL/Champ players. Gone are the days of Rio, who was a proper Rolls Royce CB in his prime. None of our current options can hold a torch to him. I still stand by the fact that a decent coach could get a song out of them though.

Why are the media/England players using the angle that we 'played well'? We were taken to the cleaners really, passed it nice and sideways for a good period of the 2nd half, but that was it. A lot of these players would be good players if they were coached correctly in this team. They're not though, they are thrown together and told to 'play'. Southgate is still living on the Semi Final glory, which to be fair was a fluky tournament, as we only had to win 3 games to get there. Not entirely sure why the FA think he is an elite coach - he's not.

The bonus is that our Wolves game is now Monday night @ 8, so we should be fine.

To be fair it gives us the same advantage, although they have a few more players away! I think Ralph was worried about Jan, as he only comes back on Friday - so it gives us much more time to play with. And I'm glad everyone has finally seen sense and scrapped that bonkers PPV idea. Lots and lots of football to look forward to over the crammed festive period! Not sure how they're going to schedule that, but it'll be fun!

To be fair, I think a lot of people backed Ralph - even after that 9-0. We were all beaten at that point I think, but given that we had (prior to that) 3 and a bit appalling seasons under Puel, Pellegrino and Hugues it just felt there was more wrong than 'just the manager'. I still believe as i did then that he was as good as we could have ever recruited and he was a coup for us. One thing that has surprised me more than anything is how he's turned around some of these players, after that 9-0 (sorry, i said it again) Vestergaard, JWP, Redmond etc could have done one, the morale between fans and players was at an all time low (it was 3 years of shit from them, after all). So what he's achieved is even more remarkable really as he's got players that had 'lost it' back to a professional level. With someone like Ralph I guess it's a long-term approach rather than a short-term fix it all, yes, we had a bounce, but he still had to totally change the mentality and approach of our entire team (and coaches). That took some time but we finally got there, and I think he's humble enough to admit that he's also learnt valuable lessons along the way from certain mistakes he's made. This entire 18 months has been a 'growth' period for everyone at Southampton and long may it continue.