Saint Pete

How has Downes faired as a Premier League player in his career to date?

My guess is he didn’t want to move abroad at this stage due to family situation (second child) and no suitable Prem loan came up in the summer. So plan will probably be to try again for a Prem loan in January unless his attitude to a move overseas has changed.

That's a very good point, he may not be as obviously combative as Downes, but I think his positional sense and experience/know how is already proving invaluable to us and as you say can be considered a contributor to our much improved solidity in recent weeks. On the debate over which 2 of our CMs will be first choice in big games when all our 100% fit, only time will tell and it's a nice problem to have. But JWP has something that the other 2 contenders don't have at this point in their careers and that's the experience of over 400 games at the very top level, which I think gives the best managers a high level of trust in him. So my gut feel is it will be JWP plus one of the other 2 for the biggest games depending on Tonda's tactical plan, if he wants to be more on the front foot and pressing high Jander, if he wants to be more protective of our defence then Downes.

Disagree with Gary Neville whining on about players having to go off and wait on touchline after going down with a head injury. He's obviously forgotten about how teams were regularly using the head injury rule as a means of disrupting the flow of the game. I remember a number of Saints game where it became almost farcical with the opposition clearly using it as a tactic to go down clutching heads after almost every aerial challenge, knowing that would mean the ref had to stop the game. At least the current rule now gives some form of deterrent for teams doing that while also protecting those players who might genuinely be hurt.

It sounded more likely we will see Larin back first rather than Jander to me.

If they think he's so rubbish, perhaps they shouldn't have spunked £25m on him?! Not that I think they do, sure he will get his chance. If it doesn't work out, would take him back in a heartbeat (at a knockdown price)!

This sounds like utter b/s to me, sorry. Emery is known for taking time to introduce players to 1st team so don't think it is any more than that at this stage. Crazy (and a shame) though really that a player like him is not playing football, but that is modern English top level game I guess and the impact of Champions League. He ihas now been added to Champs League squad at least (he's on their bench tonight), sure he will get more chances eventually.

Some unbelievable passing from Kane in the Bayern-Arsenal game. Great assist for the goal but several others too, including one from one end to the other from a goal kick!

Well, there is reason to think he would have been "kicking bricks" in U21s as you put it as that is exactly what he was doing for the majority of the part of last season that Tonda was in charge. Tonda made the call to bring Edozie back into the fold when previously he was out in the cold under Still. So clearly he felt Edozie was the right choice as backup rather than Robinson and has continued with that view into this season. Like I hinted in my post, I don't really agree with Tonda's (and/or Spors') choice but once they had made it, there's little point in Robinson staying to be 3rd choice and that's not realistic to have 3 choices for 1 position? We are not Chelsea. I hope Saints are not lining him up for a move as I think he can be useful for us, hopefully in the Prem.

I get that there was a plan behind what Tonda did, but I think a lot of what you say above could have been achieved without moving so many of our key players out of their normal natural areas of the pitch. It seems like we totally uprouted most of what we do so well at home to counteract how the opposition play, which as some others have said is giving too much respect to a middling Championship opponent. We should be largely letting them worry about our many dangerous attacking weapons when we are at home. The same kind of thing was evident with the starting of 3 CMs in the Pompey game, which wasn't needed in my opinion vs a very average side. That said, I agree we had the chances to have won the game, but I still think it would have been a performance that could have been much better even if we had converted one of those opportunities and got the win.

I guess Tonda & Spors made a call that Edozie was going to be the backup for Scienza in the squad this season. There's definitely an argument whether that was the wrong call and Jay should have been the backup with Edozie going out on loan or sold instead. But having made the call, it's much better Jay is out getting 1st team experience at a good level rather than waiting around in our U21s, which is what would have happened. Monza looks a good fit for him so far and it will be a great life experience for him in Italy too.

Perhaps it would have been better to start him in his natural position on the right though rather than playing all 3 attacking mids out of position from the start? Just a thought.

Not a complete disaster after the wins earlier in the week. But definitely a missed opportunity to close/keep up with the top 2 and the kind of game we should be winning. Tonda needs to stop pissing about with formations and playing people out of position and keep it simple from the start of games. We got away with it vs Pompey, but dropped 2 points today that we might not have done if we had started players in their natural positions. If the starting team doesn't work, then is the time to try different things later in game, not from start vs a team we should beat.

Because Tonda is determined to play all of our attacking players out of their normal positions by the end of the match?

Haven't been watching the game, but feel a little sorry for Fellows if he's been given a start but played out on the left. Don't understand the logic from Tonda. I'm a big fan of his, but think he is starting to try to be too clever with formations rather than keeping it simple. Which is all we need to do when our players are significantly better than the opposition.