Sour Mash

You think that is bad. I had to get the train back to London full of Spurs in full voice

It can't be too hard to scout a half decent keeper from somewhere across the footballing world, that is better than a 38 year old Kelvin Davis and is happy to be on the periphery of a top PL side whilst earning £10-20k a week; that's got to appeal to plenty. Only thing I sometimes think is that Davis is a big personality in the squad, if we bring in another keeper he'll have zero meaningful involvement; might be a difficult move for Koeman to manage from that point of view.

How new, would define as "fairly new"?

I'm sure we've played up there before in our regular home kit. Surprised they're not sticking it on sale.

Bit out of the blue, but a decent kit. ALways like the "Yellows", guarantees to make some noise.

Yeah, you'd think Palace would easily take 4k+, they've got loads of support in Surrey, West Sussex etc, if Ipswich can take 5k on a Sunday, Palace could match that on a Saturday. Hopefully someone hasn't ballsed up here!

Restricted view does cover a good few hundred tickets in that away end though. Will sell out quick enough, as they've been available for nearly a week now.

That's what I'd have thought, but he was sat on the bench for most of the 2nd half and strolled off at the end looking fairly comfortable, but then Koeman has said 4-5 weeks?

Scrapy game, Ipswich were poor, but overall I thought it was another excellent defensive performance from us, pretty much in control at all times. Few slight negatives; Bertrand looked a bit out of place understandably; I didn't think Targett had a great game; Tadic was wasteful when often in a good position. Fonte and Long were good, did exactly what was asked of them.

Koeman himself said there had been a set-back didn't he?

Schneiderlin? Major or minor injury? Could be why he looked p****d off post match.

But if that's the case, surely he'd jump at a new bumper contract offered by us? Unless that's not on the table anymore?

It's a strange situation. At absolute best, how much football is Rodriquez going to play this season? It would be a great achievement if he's even on the bench by the end of Feb at this rate. Will he have played enough football come the summer to justify another side paying £20m for him? But alternatively, if he doesn't sign a new contract, we need to sell. Strange situation really.

Load of s***e that, we weren't particularly dour, played some decent passing football and defended well. Just sounds bitter to me.

Rodriquez and his advisors must be pretty confident in his ability to return to full form and fitness pretty quickly. I still find it surprising if teams are willing to sink £20m without seeing him play regularly for 6 months plus.

5th place side are currently 3 points (and goal difference) behind us, 6th place are 5 points (and goal difference behind us. That doesn't require a catastrophic drop in form over 17 games to change.

It would take an "absolutely cataclysmic downturn in form" for what to happen?

I thought he couldn't play as wasn't part of the squad for the first game?

Can Long not play as a lone forward? Obviously a different style of player to Pelle, but it is one change I would personally make.

Seems like a load of waffle just based on us having a scout at a game, but anyway http://www.eatsleepsport.com/southampton/saints-eye-two-portuguese-midfielders-1871700.html#.VLPHlnpFCMY

Stephens and Turnbull are out on loan to Swindon. McCarthy is a CB for the Under 21s, but he's played 10 mins in total for the 1st team, Ipswich away would still be a big jump for him.

But as stated at the time, what external communication could the club have put out that would have made a difference to anyone?

I'd have laughed. No-way did I thin we'd be in with such a chance.

I don't think it did make sense. No-one is suggesting that MP wasn't a good coach and defensively good, but there is a whole host of people you could pick out for praise one way or another, MP was just another part of the process. We've gone up a gear defensively since last season. Fonte improving even further. 3 of our back 5 personnel changing. Significant change in pressing in my eyes. We seem quite happy to concede possession, soak up pressure, enough of a change from last season to be relevant.

Agreed. Pelle must need a break. And our situation isn't comparable to last year's.