Lord Duckhunter

I thought this was the England - Chile thread, so surely any discussion is around englands tactics in that particularly match. Clearly the manager asked our 2 guys to hold their position, unless you're suggesting that JRod was told "play as you do for Southampton " but decided , no" , I'll play strictly up and down the left flank as I did for Nigel". Its also telling that Townsend was equally inflexible with his positioning when he came on. I dont give a flying **** about Moldova, Poland, outer Mongolia or Scotland, in yesterdays game we played in stright lines right through the side. That is woy's fault, he was tactically inept.

Spot on. Had Rickie been playing they still would not have played like they do for Saints because Woy will have detailed them to hold their position. It would have been straight lines, Rickie down the middle, Adam on the right and JRod down the left. The two things that make our system so successful are the fluidity going forward , but also the pressing which is done in a controlled and coached manner. Rooney was just tearing around with no discipline, Lampard and Wilshire seemed incapable of performing the Victor/MS roles. The Victor/Morgan roles are "unsung" type of roles, lots of hard work and lots of giving the ball to the front 3 to produce the magic. People like Wilshire and Lampard want to be the hero, want to play the superstar. The only guy in that England regular midfield (and I include Steve G) who could play in our side is Milner. He has the work rate and the tactical ability to do his job. He gets a lot of clog on here, but he will do as much of the water carrying as the Manager asks of him. Blokes like Lampard and Steve G want to spray Hollywood balls around all the time. I lost count of the number of times we won the ball back last night only for Wilshire , Lampard or one of the back 4 to give it straight back to them. Woy needs to be true to himself, he is a dour defensive coach who is trying to reinvent himself and is caught between 2 stools and doesn't understand the nuances of the game he's trying to play. The media are swaying him away from what he's good at . Personally I don't like his style, but had he sat with 2 banks of 4, played someone just behind Rooney who dropped into a 5 in midfield when they had the ball, Chile wouldn't have been able to pass through us. It would have been boring and he would have got some stick in the press (which he got anyway) , but we had a chance of a 0-0 or pinching a 1-0. One thing for sure is we were always going to get beat trying to out Chile (or out Saints) Chile. If we want to play an open and expansive game, then we've got the wrong coach. Keegan said if you need a 0-0 in Kiev then I'm not the man, if we want Saints like breath of fresh air football, then Woy's not the man.

Last night was a good one for Rickie to miss. Think he's a 80/20 to go, but it depends on Carroll. If he comes back rested and raring to go, knocks a few , then my gut feeling is woy prefers him. Adam 60/40 against, but depends how he was at training and around the camp. One thing Rickie armed to do was be a breath of fresh air, with Woy enthusing over his attitude and manner. If Adam was the same, he'll have more of a chance. Keep playing like he did last months, and he'll be hard to leave out. Jrod- no chance. Shaw- I think in a funny way Baines dreadful defending tonight cost luke any chance. Will nit leave cole out now. There were some in media hinting that cole could miss out, no chance now. Clyne- Should do, but I reckon it'll need both Johnson and walker to be injured. Lose one and he'll switch Smalling as cover.

I have a mate who works for the gutter press, he claims that they are only taking forward cases where the perpetrator was sexually attracted to the victim because they were under age. They have had a lot of victims coming forward saying "such and such gave me one and I was only 14,15 ECT" , but they are not taking these forward because they were not attracted to them on the basis of their age , and it would be hard to prove they didn't think they were old enough. The ones they're after are the ones that damn well knew they were underage and that was the attraction. Don't know if its true, but it makes sense of the lack of certain rock stars.

Expecting England to play a saints like high pressing game is unrealistic. It takes hours on the training ground and players used to the system and playing it week in week out. You just can not impose it on players when you've got 10 days with them and they then go back to their clubs. Look at the difference a preseason and familiarity made to us. You are never going to be able to play it with lampard or Stevie G in there,we paid big money for victor with that system in mind. Rooney was closing down like a school boy tearing around, Adam and jrod seemed to be caught in 2 minds , and lampard, Milner and Wilshire just did not press as a back up or as a unit. It meant chile were able to easily pass round Rooney or any effort our 2 made. We saw this a couple of games last season.Sven and Capello would of had us sitting, and I suspect woy would of 6 months ago, he's been blinded by a couple of decent performances. We were just too easy to play against tonight.Tonight also showed how good Fonte and Lovren are on the ball, Cahill and Jones were shocking and tonight showed all the experts that Ashley cole is in a different class to Baines. If Clyne isn't better than one of Johnson or Walker, then my cocks a carrot.And wtf is Wilshire on, does he have to dribble every single time be gets the ball. Pass the ****ing thing. As for the debuts,because of Lambert and Townsend people are forgetting how tough it is to step into playing for your country. Mick C always said it took him a dozen games to feel like an international player. JRod certainly looked overawed, but that's quite normal particularly in a poor performance. Adam looked better, some good touches , control and simple passes. A lot of its down to luck . Rickie got a free header 10 yards out within minutes of appearing and that has to help. I got the feeling that Rickie thought "**** it, even if I only play once, its once more than I ever thought possible" and just went out to enjoy it. He played like he had nothing to lose, JRod played like he didn't want to screw up, Adam appeared a bit more relaxed, but needed some luck.

The bloke that cost WBA 2 points wasn't the ref, but their chump who did a Peter Crouch instead of running it into the corner. 4 mins into injury time and with a break on, he went for glory and had a shot. Had he gone into the corner ,fannyed about a bit, the ball wouldn't have been in the WBA box fir Mariner to bottle the decision and award a pen

Hoddle is a grade A pillock and a big head, however he did a pretty good job at Saints and tactically he was on the ball. He also did an ok job for England, in fact the performance away in Italy was one of the best tactical displays I've seen in 40 years of watching England. If he hadn't been such a plum, he could of been a pretty decent international manager. As a player he was class, and should have won a load more caps. Which leads on to the MLT debate. The man who should be in the dock over Matt is not Hoddle, but Terry Venables. It was Venables who was in charge of England when Matt was at his peak,not Hoddle. Hoddle actually brought him back into the fold, when his club form wasn't that great. Hoddle gave him a chance in an important qualifier, Venables didn't. In hindsight im sure Hoddle would admit it was a mistake to give Matt a run in the B team,.as he clearly was never going to take him no matter what he did, and his form was not great that season. Venables kept him out when he was the best damn player in the league. One question I would throw in is this; had Matt worked as hard as SRL and Adam, had he a lifestyle like that pair, would he have won more caps? Ricky appears to have had similar refuelling methods as Matt in the past and seemed to carry a bit of timber, Matt seemed to have the attitude "this is who I am" whereas Ricky appears to have knuckled down and become more professional, and is now reaping the rewards.Could Matt of achieved more had he looked after himself better.

On 5live Monday night club Skate Claridge, Motty and McGarry were discussing him. One of them (I cant recall which one, but I think it was Skate Claridge) said he met him at an airport and said "he speaks good English".

Thanks to hutch I now know what the boxes are , tooltips. Unfortunately when I Google the issue there appears to be no answer. I've also noticed when I right click anything as soon as I run the mouse over the words they highlight grey as if copying. Eg, if I right click the box I'm writing in now, undo, cut, copy, paste, delete & select all, comes up. As soon as I point to a command the ones above it get highlighted in grey as soon as the mouse travels over it. It's not that big deal, but it's ****ing annoying. The spell check is a pain, because my spelling is so bad. As for Aero, I'm afraid I haven't got a clue. I'm just using the normal classic desk top.

Unfortunetly not. I don't know what the "boxes" are called, which means I'm struggling to Google it. If you hold your mouse over something, what is the little information box called? It's those words that are greyed out.

Wondering if anybody could help me with an issue. I normally Google these sort of things, but it's really hard to get the words right in this instance. Basically, when I point my mouse at an icon ie the little computer screen which should tell me which Broadband connection I have, the writing is blocked grey so I cant read it. Same thing happens in Google and on this Website. Previously if I put my mouse over SaintsWeb whilst reading the forum it would show http// etc., now it just shows a box with the words blocked in grey. Same if I point the mouse at the Home page House sign, instead of a description all I see is a grey block. Hopefully my basic description of the fault makes sense and was hoping that somebody has a solution. Ps, it's just happened when I was spell checking my post. I right clicked the underlined words and the suggested words come up in a grey block, as if they've been copied ready to paste. Previously they would show as black on a white background.

I loved all of the old grounds, the atmosphere was so much better. Even places like Anfield aren't the same anymore, and dont get me started about The Emirates. Night games were seemed so much better in those days, the taste, the smell, the atmosphere, even the walk to the ground seemed more memorable. Personally, I thought The Dell didn't cut it as an all seated, so I had no real sense of loss when we moved. The place had its day and it really was time to move on. The thing I miss most is the banter and wit of the crowd, both collectively and individuals, although curbing some of the excesses, all seaters do seem to have rid football of the genuine wit and eccentric, to be replaced by numptys just wanting to get a screenshot on sky ir match of the day. I just loved the amateurism of the game back then, blokes like Cloughie, Shanks, Bestie, the GBH like tackling, the half time band and the "scoreboards" with their letters and numbers hanging down. But most of all the pointless way my Granddad and Dad would mark every line up change on their programme. Crossing out the listed player and writting in his replacement, I mean WTF, they must have spent hours of their life changing names, for what? They've never looked at the programmes to check since.......

People used to regret following up their hi or hello greeting to my nan with "how are you" Because she would proceed to tell them. In the end my mum (her daughter in law) upset her by basically telling her that people weren't really interested how she was, it was just a greeting, so she should stfu about her various ailments and problems with the women next door. Needless to say it went down like a jimmy savillie impression on children in need.

I thought ours was a soft peno first day of the season Bazza. Lets just hope that the wba players don't "really want to beat" us come the return fixture.

The media will obviously be expecting 2 defeats and if this happens we will get the "reality check" headlines. The fact is that these are 2 of the toughest games we'll face all season. Even Man C could conceivably lose both those fixtures, nobody would be questioning their quality if they did. Last season Aresnal picked up something like 2 points from the 6 games against the other top 4 sides and still finished 4th. Two defeats will not be a wake up call, a realiality check or any other such cliche , it'll be 2 understandable defeats made to look worse because they're back to back. As for the games, all things considered and all fit , I would predict 1 point. 5 points from Stoke away, Hull home and those two is a pretty decent return. This will sound stupid , but winning one and losing won, although giving us 3 points , would not be as amazing as 2 draws. Get 2 draws and the media and others will really sit up and notice. One off results happen, so win one lose one, could be considered one of those. 2 draws means we have gone to Old Trafford, Arsenal,Chelsea and Anfield and not been beat.****ing hell going into Dec having only lost one, with back to back home games coming up, its Roy of the Rovers stuff. Two draws and people will really start believing we're for real.

Its a bit of a generalisation to say that because people were wrong about Adam, they are the same people who write off others. Surely everybody has different opinions about every player, I have certainly never written off MS or JRod as premiership players. If anything i would say the majority of our fan base are too forgiving and too one eyed on the whole. Gaston, Puncheon, Sharpe, Cork, even go back to Benali, seem to achieve reviews that their performances just do not merit. Personally I rate SD and think he does a great job (good goal today) the guy next to me moans like hell about him, its just different opinions. Even top flight managers have different opinions over players, so surely supporters are allowed to disagree on players without being accused of being "same old, same old"

I posted on a thread earlier in the season that he was "five a side" player, who flattered to deceive. I genuinely wanted him to come good, but just didn't think he would.I still stand by my opinions at the time, as I do feel he was off the pace, where I was 100% wrong was in the assesment that he couldn't do it. Wow, the past half a dozen games really have shown me to be a chump. This needs to be the start, if he can build on it and maintain these levels for a few seasons we'll be in legend territory.

I seem to be turning into a ****ing leftie, my welfare policies are The Greens. ****ing Greens ,a load of Greenham Common wimmin and Amish penny farthing owners. FFS..... I would have guessed i would have been a Fafarge Kipper before hand, but the only section they topped my poll was democracy. The rest was Tory with one Labour (the economy FFS, I wouldn't trust that lot to run a bath, let alone the economy). Doing it after half a dozen Tanglefoots may have skewed the result slightly, but Greens on welfare and Balls running the economy, I need a long hard look in the mirror.

What a load of ****. Meant to be meeting an evertonian mate who emigrated and is back for Xmas, and now this has really ****ed it up, im on call the Sunday night, so need to be back in area, sober for 8pm. ****ing great reunion, 15 mins before ko and stright back or drive and 2 pints. Just glad I didn't get my act together and book train tickets. Seriously the league should do something about this. Everybody understands that fixtures change for tv, but once the tv games are announced they should stick to ko times except in exceptional circumstances. These are not exceptional circumstances, the gap between the Cardiff game and this was clear the day the fixtures were released . They should have done it then, not ****ing now.

I've spent nearly 35 years visiting boozers and I can honestly say it is in the top 10 of worst dives I've ever been in. The ale is awful and the only reason I was sad it shut was it meant other pubs got busier. For a city the size of Southampton, the prematch choice of boozers is pretty poor. I used to like the red lion, but **** knows what they did to that.

Gaston once missed the first man with a set piece.

I played local football until I was 48, and at one time many moons ago played with some decent ex pro's and some good ex Southern League players. In that time I never ever heard anybody ever have a go at one of their own players for diving, the only thing I ever heard these decent players bollock someone for was trying to stay on their feet and not scoring "you should have gone down there" being the general call. In fact, I was managed by a guy who was an apprentice at Man C in Joe Mercer's day, and he used to call it "helping the Ref" when a guy went down easily. "Buying a foul" has always been around in the game, but in the older days the game was more physical, therefore Refs would not give fouls for anything other than full on hack. Players stayed on their feet because they would not get a foul, with the change in rules meaning that slight contact results in fouls as well as the more liberal use of yellow and red cards means they go down nowadays. Nobody should kid themselves that older players would not bend the rules if given the chance. Feigning injury is one thing that has fundamentally changed however. Previously showing that you weren't hurt was a sign of strength. Had I started rolling about, some grizzly centre half from my side would have picked me up pretty quickly. I played with a full back who had been around a bit. He kicked every winger that went anywhere near me. When they started jumping around or needing the "magic sponge" he would know he had him in his pocket. The ones he didn't like were the ones he kicked lumps out of and they just picked themselves up, took the free kick and played as if nothing had happened. He then had to concentrate on defending properly and was in for a tough game. Look at Joe Jordan when he was head butted by that Italian, just stood there. Had it been the other way round a modern player would make a right meal of it.

People who are trying to compare Gaston's situation with Bale, Ramsey or even Walcott are living in cloud cuckoo land. Ramsey was returning from a horrific injury which will have affected him mentally as well as physically. Bale and Walcott (like it or not) were signed from a smaller club that were a division lower. Gaston was signed from a top flight club in a top flight footballing country. The other big difference is Walcot and Bale got slowly better and better, Gaston is standing still at best. If Redknapp or Fat Sam signed Gaston and he'd performed like he has, what would this board say , "he'll come good", "give him time", "he's young and in a foregin Country", "he doesn't suit their system". I doubt it, it would be more evidence of how dodgey or what mugs of Managers they are. Tim Vickery said all along he had concerns about him in the Premiership and of course there was the cumtomery thread questioning Vickery's knowledge, but listen to this at 5.30 (after the annoying advert). He's got it pretty much spot on, and that's before the Olympics, so he wasn't being wise after the event. Interesting that he says despite being rated by his Country, he "hasn't quite cut it". That sums up his time at Saints perfectly. http://talksport.com/radio/hawksbee-and-jacobs/120607/vickery-why-ramirez-would-not-be-good-signing-spurs-173873

The only way we'll get decent money for him is by sending a brown paper bag full of cash via sandbanks. No proper football manager is going to pay anything like 10mil for him. He's been a huge disappointment and is actually getting worse.

And their retail energy prices are much higher than the UK's.