Dannyboy_Saint

Its absolute madness!! Is getting John off the wage bill really gonna help save money in the long run? Sure you wont have to pay him 8k a week but him and a few other players are the only ones who are gonna get people through the gates on match days. Very few people are willing to pay 24 quid to see our reserves try to fill the boots of the players weve got rid of. I was considering coming down for the Coventry game and may still do if we get a result at Swansea but this is just another factor in a long list of disapointements this season.

The obligatory 0-3 Watford win as always :-(

I barely grimaced when i heard the result which is little worrying considering i would have been gutted last year or the year before. Maybe its me accepting unconsiously that we are gonna loose quite often this year or maybe it is me loosing my love for the team ever so slightly. Hopefully its the former.

Hoping for at least a point, would be delighted with a win but not expecting us to win this one. 2-1 Coventry is my prediction, prove me wrong saints!

Thats 2 pens in a row now for us isnt it? (3 if you count Surmans miss) and we could/should have had one against Barnsley. Remember last year we had a couple of pens one game after another.

Take Heinz Muller for Barnsely. Unbeatable against us but let in two howlers against Ipswich the next game.

------------------Davis------------------ James------Perry-------Lancashire-----Mills ------------Cork--------Wotton----------- ------------------Lallana------------------ McGoldrick-------------------------Surman ----------------Robertson----------------- Subs: Forecast, Svennson, White, Pekhart, BWP Would like to have kept the Surman/Cork partnership in midfield going but feel that Wotton will add that bit more steel that we're gonna need playing away from home. Othe than that almost the same team as midweek.

Ref was only gonna give him a yellow but then Stevanovic calls him a c**t or something equally rude and so gets a straight red. If i was Roeder i would be absolutely fuming at such a stupid act.

According to the Sun Richard Beeby said he sent Stevanovic off for "foul and abusive language". I think this is the same referee who failed to send off Scot Flinders in our boxing game against Palace a few years back so we deserved a positive decision from him last night.

He was very poor. Completely flapped at the ball for the first goal, caught off his line for second and caused chaos for the 3rd by rushing out to claim it and then stopping leaving a simple square pass and tap in for the opposition. Not saying its all his fault but he certainly gives the defence no confidence (which is something that Davis is crucified week in week out for allegedly). He's still young but if we have to rely on him anytime soon then we'll be in serious trouble. Loan him out to Watford for some much needed match experience i say. If he plays a blinder then it'll improve his confidence no end and if he's terrible then at least he'll be costing a rival important points.

What about Watford? They're playing just as badly as we are!

I dont want to start an entirely new thread on this so ill tack it onto this one but when did we get solid red socks and shorts for our kit? I thought we had a solid grey 'flint' colour for our away kit. Looks nice though mind, reminds me a little of the home top with red shirts we had for the 6-0 win at wolves.

It said we did on the OS: "Stern John made his first League start since the Birmingham match at St. Mary's with McGoldrick up-front in a 4-4-2 formation."

Probably better to give him a reserve game or two first rather than throwing him to into the deep end. Some players thrive on that pressure of cause but others can freeze up like White did against Blackpool.

As the old saying goes 'never change a winning team' So IMO Jan should play the same starting 11 again baring injuries. John and Spiderman look like they will be out for tuesday so i would have: Davis James, Lancashire, Perry, Mills Lallana, Wotton, Cork, Surman McGoldrick, Pekhart Subs: Forecast, Svennson (if fit), Skacel (if fit), BWP, White Of cause if John or Schniederlin are fit then put them straight back in in place of Pekhart or Wotton respectively.

Ah the old Shearer "Hit as hard as you can and hope it breaks the keepers arms even if he does get a hand to it approach"

It wasnt as if he ballooned it over the bar. The keeper guessed the right way and saved a powerful shot into the bottom corner. Like Surman said on the OS its a game of bluff. "Does he think i'll go the same way again? And if so i should put it in the other corner? Or is that what he expects me to do and so shouldnt i put it into the same corner?" I have no qualms with players missing penalties if the keeper saves it by good luck or judgement, only if they manage to miss the entire goal from 12 yards, which from a proffessional footballer is unforgivable.

Lets give 4-4-2 a try. I would go with: Davis Cork, Svensson, Perry, Mills Lallana, James, Wotton, Surman John, Pekhart Subs: Bart, BWP, DMG, Dyer, Skacel(if fit) Pretty strong spine to the team with the experience of Davis, Svensson, Perry, Wotton and John. James in the holding role where he has played for most of his saints career in youth and reserves and 2 big strikers up front to hold onto the ball and bring others into play. Both Wingers are capable of crossing the ball as well as cutting in to shoot while the 2 central players concentrate on breaking up opposition attacks to feed the wingers and strikers.

Remember that when Dex was let go we had a 1st choice pairing of Rasiak and Fuller with Jones and BWP as back-up. The club wanted to keep him and he refused to sign a new contract sighting the very justified reason that he wanted 1st team football which we couldnt promise due to the arguably better strikers ahead of him in the pecking order.

I would like to see us go back to 4-4-2 as well if only to get another striker in the box when chances come in. Too many times have we seen the one man up front isolated and easily closed down. With John collecting the balls and laying off to either Pekhart or McGoldrick i think we will be alot more potent and this in turn will take the pressure off our already massively overworked defence. It wouldnt be admitting defeat to go back to 4-4-2 and we can still play 'pretty' short passing football. I just believe that a traditional formation will calm down our young players so they focus on the football and not worry about where they should be covering, etc. My team for Saturday would be: Davis Cork, Perry, Svensson, Mills Thomson, Lallana, Schniederlin, Surman John, Pekhart

If anything i think we've got a little better at set-pieces this year. We've already scored from one this season and come close a number of times. 2 of the 3 goals scored in the last reserves game were from corners so we're certainly getting more accurate with them. Defensively we're always gonna be supseptible (spl) from them as the team is quite short on average.

Hopefully your right on the second solution (not Killer's knee but Thomas still being utilised in the first team). It would be criminal to allow another CB to leave with the lack of cover we have at the moment and the fragility of some of our players.

Yeah i was suprised to see no Thomas as well considering he was deemed good enough to play against Birmingham in the cup. Now all of a sudden hes dropped off the radar again. Could be injured (we all now how up to date the OS is) but more likely just being frozen out in favour of the younger players which is a shame IMO as i think he can still offer us the bite and bulk that our other defenders lack at times.

TBH its no worse than some other footie forums out there. A few seem to have about 50 people max posting on them. As soon as the matches restart the threads will pick up.

Bare in mind that the 3 relegated clubs while not spending much have instead invested the money they would have spent on keeping the players they have their on the books for another year on premiership wages.