Dark Munster

Yes, but what if someone then gets injured? We'll be down to 10 men. And don't forget it could go to e.t.

I thought this was a new thread about today's f**king line up!

But the owners don't pick the team. Ralph has a good wage, does he also have a bonus for each position in the league? If not, there's nothing stopping him prioritising the Cup. And it's not like our finishing position is going to change much, barring an almighty collapse it's going to be close to where we are now.

Maybe, but $19m for Saints is like $190m for Chelsea!

I reckon FF would've saved one or two of the Liverpool penalties. Yes, many were very good, but some were nothing special. The "specialty penalty saver" keeper moved too soon, especially against the lower order penalty takers. And his penalty was laughable.

Good job, thanks. The H2H is really impressive. It's sobering to think that if we had the same H2H we'd currently be on 19 points, 19th and below Watford on GD!

Good points well made. You've convinced me on no changes from the Norwich starting line up.

Against Villa, for sure. For West Ham, which is an infinitely more important match, the only change I would make is Perraud for Tino, and move KWP to the right. Possibly Stephens for Bednarek if push comes to shove.

Yes, it looks like one of Leeds, Brentford and Everton to join Watford and Norwich. I think Everton will survive because Leeds and Brentford are shittier. Brentford and Leeds are dropping like stones, and meet on the last game of the season, so that could be interesting. I would love it, love it, if Leeds were to go down. It depends how long Bamford and Phillips are out.

Where's @CB Fry?

Umm, that would be Everton vs Boreham Wood. Our match is close to 50-50 I'd say.

I'm not sure it's all luck. A few years ago our injury record was consistently awful, over a long period of time (many seasons). I was bemoaning us being always near the bottom of the physio room rankings, and wondered why we couldn't be like Leicester, who were equally consistently near the top. Then something seemed to have changed, and we now have a very good record (a blip at the end of last season could be explained by Covid and lack of access to facilities at Staplewood). I think the club have employed some excellent therapists and basically followed Leicester's lead. Yes there will always be some unlucky injuries (bad tackles), but minimising "avoidable" injuries is playing a big part in our upturn.

Not really, Poch inherited an excellent squad and won the square root of fuck all. As for Levy, I'm not sure he's one of the worst chairmen from Spurs' point of view, since he's pulled our pants down many times. From Saints' perspective yes, he's terrible!

I heard a story, probably apocryphal, that Clough went to a player and quietly told him that he was the best and most important player in the squad, but the player must swear not tell anyone, and if he did he would deny it. Then he went and told the same thing quietly to a dozen of his other players.

It's not about fatigue, it's about trying to avoid possible injuries. I certainly wouldn't want/expect a Coventry-type crap starting line up against Norwich, but if any key player has the slightest twinge or niggle I'd swap him out with someone expendable (e.g. Walcott).

With a brilliant manager.

One with plenty of head room?

Hi @SaintBobby: Here is an example that perhaps makes it clearer. This'll be my last post on this, I don't want to bore other posters to death (that's MLG's job 😉). Suppose there are 4 teams, A, B, C and D who are the only ones who could get relegated, and all four have equal chance of going down. Then they each have a 3 out of 4 = 75% chance of going down (3 relegation spots for 4 teams). Suppose we all hate teams A, B and C and want all three of them to go down. What are the chances of A, B and C all going down? By your calculation it's 75% X 75% X 75% = 42%. But that's incorrect, the odds of all three going down is the same as the odds of team D surviving, which is 25%.

If they were independent events that's true. But if one team is destined to go down that would affect the odds of survival for the others (they would all improve). For example, Newcastle currently at 36% is calculated based on all other possibilities for who the other 2 relegated teams could be. But, for example, if we have a crystal ball and know Saints are to more or less lose all our remaining matches and go down, then Newcastle would only have to finish above 2 crap teams rather than 3, so their odds of survival would go up. That's a silly extreme example, but hopefully gives an idea of what I'm babbling on about. It reminds me of the 2 goats and car behind 3 doors game: knowing a door where one goat is affects the odds as opposed to not knowing.

Or his contract is soon to expire and he's doing a Saganowski?

Actually probably less than 2% all three will be. Because if one goes down the odds of survival for the other two go up.

Did Bednarek score the first goal?

Speak for yourself, you miserable old git. I'm not!