Saint Fan CaM

Happy to agree on reflection - I think there was a misunderstanding on both sides. To your point, I did say that I expected 2-3 players to be rotated but no more.

Errr, that’s not what I said in the context of the original post. Saintant seemed to suggest that wholesale changes would be made from the players listed. My contention was that Tonda would not make wholesale changes because there’s not the quality there to allow that and thereby risk a bad result.

Get back in your hole. 🙄😉

Mate - you’ve not answered the questions and yes, roll on the January window…we’ll likely need a decent striker (again).

I said pretty much the same thing - my contention was that many of those players are not capable of rotating into the first team as starters en masse. IMO only Welington and Woods - possibly Fellows - are capable of doing that AND getting a result away from home.

Seriously? Let’s explore this… Welington - he has enough quality to be a starter, but he’s literally not getting a start. Why? Wood - was not getting a start for ages, then suddenly he’s starting. Had struck up a decent partnership with Deven but then dropped for Pimpley. Will he be back for Norwich…possibly. Abbott - not started in a first team game - what makes you think he’s good enough now? Roeslev - when did he last start a game? Why now? Jander - will start ahead of Bragg and possibly even JWP - the one player you’d expect to start now. Matsuki - could be a starter if Tonda thought that suited the game plan…not happening much though. Fellows - not starting games presumably because Tonda doesn’t rate him enough to start. Not even getting off the bench much lately. Edozie - hardly ever gets a start, presumably because he offers so little and Tonda doesn’t trust him to deliver. Mubama - how many starts has he had? How many times off the bench? Not good enough, that’s why. Dobbin - how many starts has he had? How many times off the bench? Not good enough, that’s why? Sorry, but when you look at it closely, our squad beyond the obvious starters is not that strong. I reckon there will likely be no more than 3 players rotated on Wednesday…Wood, Jander…possibly Matsuki.

The Pompey game will have taken its toll on player fitness - a lot of energy expended - so wouldn’t be surprised if Tonda makes some changes. The problem he’s got is squad quality beyond the obvious starters is not great and Norwich are a decent team - better than the skates. Difficult one to call - away form not exactly great at the moment, but we’ve hopefully picked up a bit of momentum now. Fingers crossed a 1-2 win to take us into the play-off places.

Not sure - it was retaliatory…he lost his head and that would have been seen as a factor.

Leading foot off the ground - one of those that’s often termed as a ‘leg breaker’. If VAR was involved we’d have gone down to 9 men.

Just a quick shout out to JWP - he’s come into the team and settled really well. Be interesting to see if Tonda keeps him in now Jander is back.

And normality is restored on the South coast. Clean sheet, bragging rights over ‘the visitors’ and one point off the play-offs.

The longer we go with a clean sheet in the second half the better chance we’ll have of a break away, so we need Larin for the hold-up and 1-2 with pace to break. Think Fellows could be a good choice to protect our RB position and carry the ball out of defence.

What a ball…Breeee!

Dunno - Tomorrow McStripe doesn’t roll off the tongue with ease to be fair. 😉

This is a good point, but only if he’s receptive to any coaching given. Usually substantive game time would provide an opportunity to see where he’s struggling to make an impact and allow the coaches to help him. Let’s hope the opportunity is not wasted because there’s every chance he starts on Sunday.

May I take this opportunity to congratulate the Saintsweb community on delivering 302 pages of wonderful speculation and waffle, with special commendation to MB for providing the contents of his fevered imagination. I have nothing more to add, other than to confirm Tonda is a very naughty boy.

Not directly obviously. At the heart of each case is a charge of cheating / bringing the game into disrepute, so there is a connection. Whether one case is more serious than the other is irrelevant unless you are acutely aware of how the FA inner circle operates, but the cases are indirectly related and are being handled at the same time. The charges against City could result in huge sanctions and we are already hearing that City will appeal before even hearing their punishment, plus it’s not clear whether the FA have the balls to face up to City’s lawyers. If you think both cases have not been discussed by the same individuals at the FA I’d say evidence suggests you’re wrong.

My money is on Tonda hearing his punishment first and it will be not too harsh - that way the FA/EPL will be in a better position to hand City a softer than deserved punishment. And let’s face it whatever they get, it’ll be old news 3 days later.

To be fair he didn’t specify which Monday it ‘could’ be. I am confident it could be this week, however could also be next week if it’s not this week. 😉

Will this thread reach 300 pages? Of course it will and then some. Sadly City debate has taken over even thought there’s a thread specific for that subject. Mods?

Or perhaps they support their home team but prefer not to live in a northern shit-hole? Just a thought.

Tell you what, he looked a top player with Ireland last night…probably their best…and that’s before he slotted home his goal. What a shame we couldn’t hold on to him.

Yeah that’s what I thought - it’s been known and expected for such a long time that it’s almost old news. 114/115 charges proved as wrong-doing apparently - under the circumstances expulsion from the EPL is the least they should expect…possibly also -6 points next season too.

If it’s a ban of any kind it’ll be Lallana stepping up for the interim, unless it means Eckhert getting the sack which I’d be very surprised to see happen given the support already shown by the club. Still reckon it’ll be a 3 month touchline ban.

So if the intern had followed Eckhert’s instruction and got up there a day earlier, would that have been outside the 72 hours and therefore NOT breaking rules? Eckhert only needed to know if their key player was fit and likely to play. Is that a valid defence…”the coaching team didn’t follow my instructions due to a cancelled flight and by the time I knew it was too late”?