tajjuk

Well Cardiff have Chelsea at home, so a win would not only put us level with Brighton (albeit they have a game in hand) but also would probably pull us 5 points clear of relegation, giving us a bit of a cushion to absorb the expect loss to Liverpool. (although Cardiff also have Man City when we play Liverpool so are unlikley to pick up points there) Presuming of course Chelsea do their job and beat Cardiff. Burnley have Wolves and Palace have Huddersfield, both at home, so you'd expect them to both probably win, so again a win could be massive for us. Burnley then have Bournemouth away and then Cardiff at home, so you can quite easily see them with Wolves, Bournemouth and Cardiff pulling away from us if we don't get anything from Brighton, leaving it as a very clear two horse race.

IMO whoever loses the Burnley/Cardiff game is going down, neither team has a great run in, not a lot of games you'd expect them to pick up points and today was one for Burnley. Home against 10 men for 86 minutes, against an inconsistent Leicester side, that is going to dent their confidence. 4 lost in a row for them now I think.

IIRC England didn't play 3 at the back for the nations league.

I think Gunn, Wan-Bissaka and JWP can feel themselves hard done by. I mean Butland is playing Championship football for a start, Pickford has been erratic and Heaton is in decent form but is surely not a long term option, Trippier has been in poor form. And then that midfield, Delph, Henderson, Dier, Loftus-Cheek and Barkley, you have to question all of those on form/appearances or both to be honest. But have to say from a selfish point of view its good for us. The more we have here to work with the better over the next 3 weeks and to not get injured.

Their fixtures are horrible, plus with the goal difference they need to get 3 points more than us, so that would mean them getting 10 points from their last 8 if we got to 37. They are IMO going to have to beat, or even probably get 4 points from their 4 games against the top 6, because neither of their 'easier' away games are going to be easy, especially Burnley and especially for a team so poor away. I think they basically screwed up losing those two home games vs Watford and Everton so badly, you have to get points from your winnable home games and they got zero and ruined their goal difference.

No they don't, every game in all forms people will attempt to win in anyway possible and that includes bending the rules. You do realise that defenders 'cheat' in the box ALL the time, pushing, pulling back, holding shirts, little sneaky trips all designed to stop people in the box scoring goals, so how you can put this on just attackers and the awarding of penalties is beyond me. We saw in the World Cup with VAR, especially with certain countries how basically many defenders interpretation of defending is basically foul the man as much as possible but not get noticed by the ref. Columbia v England highlighted it massively, the Columbians were terrible in that game and then protested absurdly at the referee for what they knew were blatant fouls. I don't really see the difference between the two, dive to try to win a penalty, commit an obvious foul to stop someone scoring when you know you have no chance of making a legitimate challenge. VAR will cut down on the number of falsely awarded penalties and also highlight people diving, I agree that there should be more punishment for those diving but changing the penalty rules is not the answer IMO. VAR is, we will get more correct decisions and that is better for the game. Plus the whole 'takes ages' thing is a nonsense argument when we had for example the Man City first goal that took nearly 4 minutes to sort out and the fact that pretty much every important decision made by a referee is argued and protested over by multiple players, which also eats game time.

To be fair on City though, Pep said after the game that they voted for VAR and other clubs didn't, it was a terrible decision yes, but VAR would have cleared it up. According to Pep most of the other big clubs voted against it and to be honest you can see why over a season as they tend to get the calls go in their favour more often than not. Is there also not an argument that Sissoko should have got two yellows AND a straight red, his foul that Redmond reacted to was bad, he raked his studs down his achilles, then he pushes him, and then he attempts to headbutt him. The Armstrong one, I am not so sure what the rules there are, but as he said himself he was in if that ball was played square so surely a goal scoring opportunity being denied?. Also how was the Vertonghen one not a foul at least?

I wonder whether he has just taken this long to get up to speed with Ralfs methods and now is getting his chance. Ralf is demanding of the players physicality and mentally, maybe Sims has only got up to those standards asked of him?

Think on current points per game over a whole season we'd have about 51 - 52 points. Which would have been enough for 8th last year. They also play each other, Cardiff go to Burnley so someone is dropping points that day. We really need to make sure we pick up a couple of wins or more in the next 4 or 5 because Cardiffs next 4 is Chelsea H, Man City A, Burnley A, and Liverpool H, so they should in theory lose all 4 of those or maybe at best get 3 points away to Burnley, so we could like 8 points plus ahead of them by then.

Physio room originally had Ings out until the end of Feb but that has now moved to the 16th March.

lol. I mean personally I was one of the ones that was not really bothered about him going. Aside from the last 5-6 games at the end of season under Hughes he had been poor and ineffective for the last two years. I also doubt he'd fit in with Ralfs playstyle, he's hardly that hard working.

All understandable, loss of earnings due the poor league position, everything down basically because we were crap (match day income, corporate income, prize money, no europa league money or extra games etc, lower prize money) As is all the postponement of works on the training ground and stadium, because we might go down. Shows the club is being run as we know it is, as a sustainable business.

Not really, firstly Ajax are way way way better than us so he has a lot of very good players around him, with a lot of energy and pace. But also he was stale here for the last few years, nowhere near producing his best stuff, so clearly needed a whole change of scenery and club. Sometimes players are a good fit at certain clubs and not others, it happens, even with the big boys for example De Maria at Utd. I'm sure if he was still here he would be contributing, but I doubt he'd be playing as well as he is with Ajax.

He looked angry in the post match interview, he knew they'd mucked up and wasn't towing the party line. Klopp and Henderson came out with all the it's a tough game blah blah blah but Virgil knew they couldn't be dropping points like that. A draw away to Utd is one thing, but Everton, even though its the derby have been poor all year really. Their front three is not in good form, the pressure is clearly getting to them and they have no midfielder to pop up with like a 30 yarder or a clever pass to help them win when not playing that well. They are IMO starting to show they are missing Coutinho.

Considering it was Ramsey who got their breakaway goal and he is not exactly rapid, I think any of our midfielders or attackers would probably be fine.

Their form is scratchy at best, they seem low after the title challenge has slipped away from them, when they were always 4-6 points away from the top there was always hope for them but now that is gone and they seem to have lost a bit of edge. Plus they have to play Dortmund away, though they are 3-0 up and Dortmund are in terrible form, but still this probably the best chance we have of beating them. If Dortmund somehow turn around that tie it would destroy them I reckon. I can't see them resting anyone for that, can you imagine resting people in a Champions league knock out game away to the Bundesliga leaders, if they went out then their fans would go mental. So hopefully a hard game, that Dortmund at least wins on the night, would be great for us. They also struggled against Arsenal's counter attack at the weekend so hopefully Ralf has noticed this. Same team in for us, unless Ings is fit I'd start him over Austin obviously.

Opportunities? Even the very best set piece takers will probably only score like 1 from 4 or 5 and how many direct free kick chances has he had? He's not played all season and aside Redmond our team isn't exactly stacked with tricky attackers getting fouled all the time nor do we dominate possession so we are consistently on the attack playing around the opponents box and drawling fouls. Only 15 direct free kick goals have been scored in the league this year, only two players have scored more than 1 of them this year. We've also actually had two this year, only Arsenal have scored more. No one scored more than two last year either and only Coutinho has scored 3 in a season in the last 5 years in the Premier League. JWP has 3 direct free kick goals in the last 4 years, which actually makes him one of the most consistent scorers of direct free kicks amazingly.

It's next week we need West Ham to do well, if Cardiff don't pick up a win there I struggle to see them picking up a point until they play Fulham at home, as they have Chelsea, Man City, Liverpool and Burnley away.

I think if we play like that we are going to cause Spurs all sorts of troubles, they were pretty awful it seems today against Arsenal and were lucky to draw (goal was offside, saved pen), and they have been in poor form for the last 5-6

MLG can you tell me if you have made any significant player attribute or CA/PA changes to the Saints team for the Winter Update, want to know if its worth starting a new game. Also are we going to be crapper based on the start of the season under hughes or are players going to be more reflective of their performance under Ralf?

I also think long term he'll be a full back in a back 4 not a wing-back and that defensive side of his game will be more important. Both him and Targett have been good this year IMO, but like all young players they are still works in progress and you won't get consistency.

IMO he has beefed up a little, or he has finally grown into his body, he looks more like a man and less like a boy. I also think his increase in strength and power has given him a little bit more burst of acceleration/pace and the confidence to actually compete physically in the tackle. The other thing he seems to be doing under Ralf is making more forward runs and moving the ball more quickly. He's always had the technical ability and has always been an intelligent footballer, aware of the tactical side of the game, and his work rate has always been good. But he's added more in the last 3 months. If he keeps this up then he deserves an England recall, especially as its a weak area, if he keeps progressing he could establish himself there I reckon. But its much like Redmond IMO, we are starting to see the promise that has been talked about for a long time, he needs to keep it up and keep progressing to show this is him maturing into a good player, not just a blip of good form.

Just looked at Cardiff's fixtures and they have given me more hope. Wolves (a) West Ham (h) Chelsea (h) Man City (a) Burnley (a) Liverpool (h) Fulham (a) Palace (h) Man Utd (a) 4 of the top 6 still to play, tough away games at Burnley and Wolves. Meaning you are really looking at the West Ham, Fulham and Palace games for their main source of points. 10 points maybe 11 from those? Would put them on 36, meaning we'd need 10 from ours.

We will probably lose the next two, but Man Utd have injuries so there is a little hope there and Spurs seem to have lost it a bit now they know they have no hope of the title.

Solid and comfortable performance, didn't set the world alight but the players must have been feeling the pressure, they knew this was a must win. Clean sheet was important, hopefully that gives them confidence going forward.