HarvSFC

Yeah, it's a weird thing. I can't recall the club announcing Stephens' contract extension in 2020 either. It was just an exclusive from The Athletic. https://theathletic.com/news/exclusive-jack-stephens-agrees-new-long-term-southampton-contract/bo8LfBeiblPj/

He's also played in both of our 9-0 defeats, but they weren't lot to do with him, like the three wins this season weren't. Before his suspension, which saw him miss the Leeds win, you could have reeled off the exact same stat for JWP too in that we hadn't won for over two years when he wasn't playing. It's more so that both are/were now in Armstrong's case very reliable and injury free for the previous two years, which saw some victories and a lot of losses too. I'm a big Armstrong fan, but I won't deny that I've been disappointed by his showings this season, which is a shame. Whether it's injury, or something else, nobody actually knows, we just hope he can return to previous form where he did make a difference and cause problems in games. But, this season he hasn't got going yet. The Zaha/Palace and Grealish/Villa stats were relevant at the time because they could carry their respective teams. I don't think Armstrong's that much of a game changer for us. He's solid and dependable.

All this moaning about the fixture list is getting nauseating again. How often do Football League clubs moan about playing Saturday-Tuesday most weeks, a 46 game league season, with fewer squad resources and lower quality facilities? A lot of these sides have had a near two week break also. The want for five subs is coming back again, also. Take Liverpool last night as an example, Klopp got his starting line-up all wrong, 3-1 down at half-time, so he brings on Konate, Jota and Milner at half-time, knowing that he has two more available for the latter stages of the match, making the triple half time sub low risk and extinguishing that tactical element from the game. It's a crap rule that favours the big sides. West Ham only used three subs last night, the ones that weren't used were Noble, Fredericks, Kral, Randolph, Alese and Baptiste, so you can see why. While Spurs brought on Alli, Tanganga, Royal, Winks and Son and saw out the match. Chelsea, the same against Brentford, brought on Jorginho and Pulisic at half-time with the score 0-0, then brought on Mount, James and Kante. Can't compete with that and if it gets voted in, the league has an even greater chasm between the top six and the rest than it does already and you can see why the top clubs want it.

Leicester were 3-1 up and comfortable against Liverpool's second team. Brought Vestergaard and Bertrand on in a double swap, went on to draw the game 3-3 and then Bertrand misses his penalty. I think we actually conned them, almost feel bad.

Leicester have been absolutely blessed with a striker like Vardy for near 10 years now. Very envious. He’ll take some replacing when he eventually does call it a day.

And why couldn't Chelsea play this line-up against us?

I wonder if there will be any problems with the hotel the club are staying at, or the team bus getting into the stadium this time. 🤷‍♂️

Didn't realise West Ham play Tottenham on Wednesday in the League Cup, if not postponed. That could be favourable.

They also need a striker far more than they need a right-back, unfortunately. James being one of their outstanding performers this season, while Lukaku is flopping again.

Definite penalty at Newcastle vs Man City not checked.

I hope it isn't the reality, but those at the top will know there's a chance football goes behind closed doors again, which we couldn't afford last time it happened, needing a loan. The joys of the Gao era.

Leeds definitely needed a COVID postponement. I also noticed that 28/29 FA Trophy matches were played today, all of Scotland’s apart from those abandoned due to the weather and only two women’s matches have been postponed. Compare that to the Premier League, Championship, League One and League Two. I guess the trick is not to test if you want to carry on as normal.

Nice of them to announce it two hours prior to kick off again.

Indeed. Whenever Liverpool suffer a few injuries around this period, he's the most vocal about there being too many fixtures and why the league needs to put in a winter break. Last time the league took a small month break, it didn't come back for another 4 months. Getting the feeling that it's all happening again.

Just think how far we would be into the season if there wasn’t about 50 international breaks in the first few months of the season!

My main gripe now and what is clearly an error by management each game and should be an easy/simple fix is our set-pieces, which is ironic as we scored from one yesterday. Yes, a large proportion of the time at current the subs and tactics are also wrong, but you can put part of the blame on them being match dependant/being dictated by what's happening on the pitch. However, you can't give this excuse to the set-pieces. Now, JWP is the best direct free-kick taker in world football at current, in my personal opinion. However, his indirect free-kicks are more often miss than hit and his corners are just a bit shit, despite each one getting talked up by the commentator prior to his taking. When he was suspended Redmond was really effective with his corners and showed us what a good corner taker is again and why we shouldn't just settle. However, he gets taken off them as soon as JWP comes back in, who is seemingly the automatic choice for all corners/free-kicks because he's top drawer when striking a direct one. They're different skills, obviously and I would have hoped that the analysts/those that review the matches at the club would have picked up on how much more effective we were at corners when Redmond took them and why they're currently not working. Then we have the attacking throw-ins... Even the commentators on BT were able to point out that the Salisu throw-ins weren't very good, as he can't actually throw very far and what he does throw are looped in and easy to defend. They only sat through 90 minutes of that... We see it every game. Surely, it's clear to the management again that for all of Salisu's skills, throw-ins aren't one of them. I know that we've been shit from throw-ins for years, even the short ones, which is weird, but I think we would be better off by just keeping it simple. Please can we get some changes here. It's like when Hodgson put Kane on corners, everybody could see it was wrong, apart from those who make the decision.

Brendan Rodgers yesterday: "Unfortunately we weren't granted dispensation, which is disappointing," said Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers. "As a team and a club, we have always wanted to support all the measures, but when we need a little support with the extreme situation we find ourselves in, we weren't able to get it."There was a big doubt for the game against Newcastle on Sunday, but for the greater good of the game and for the supporters, it went ahead. "But since then, we have picked up more injuries. They are not Covid-related - but they are, because players are picking up injuries because we can't rotate the team and the squad because of the number of players we already have out." Today, it's called off. So yeah, who knows. 🤷‍♂️ Think there needs to be a guideline of six first team players (registered in the 25, rather than starting 11) having proof of a positive test, rather than this current case by case basis and screwing fans over by calling off Burnley vs Watford two hours before kick off.

We need the takeover before Broja’s loan ends.

And Ramsay is now at the bottom of League One, Jankewitz can't get a game in a League One equivalent, despite being a youth legend and the answer to all of our problems and Tchaptchet's professional football career is likely done. All in 10 months.

He was so good when he first joined, a proper striker/finisher. Then he got coached by Pellegrino and Hughes...

Ilias Chair from QPR is the number 10 from the Championship that has impressed me the most this season, although he's on a long term contract, so probably out of our price range. Plays a lot like Tadic, although in some phases at 24 he also reminds of Elyounoussi in that he doesn't have much pace/power.

They’re three points above us…

Jack Cork is/was good mates with Ryan Bertrand at the time of signing Bertrand iirc. But, what's KWP going to say to Alli? Play a good season and Hasenhuttl will shove you out of position for the new toy.

Some think he could’ve seen red after he shoved his hands at Delph’s face in the first half today. Would’ve been nice.

I've been pro-Ralph for the duration too. But, now, we're just too easy to beat... A good defence wins titles. We're not competing for any titles, but when Koeman built a solid base we were really quite good! The defence and goalkeepers are the weakest past of our team, yes, even weaker than the misfiring forwards, and we send them out to slaughter every week, be it the first half, where we look like amateurs today, and against Liverpool, or completely crumble in second halves of 90% of matches. I'm sick of seeing KWP play out of position, while Livramento is struggling at right-back. Last season, it was clear that Hasenhuttl had improved a lot of our squad. But, JWP has reverted, Bednarek has reverted and Adams is still hit and miss. One thing, I don't agree with though is some of the suggestions for replacements still, especially when it's Frank Lampard/John Terry. Norwich and Rangers passed on this duo and we should be looking at better than those two clubs. We need to move away from this ridiculous outdated Les Reed policy of only appointing managers out of work. Yes, we picked up two top class managers for nothing in Pochettino and Koeman, but our recruitment under Mitchell was a lot more secure back then. Now, we're trying to replicate past successes and firing blanks every time. Management is the most important part of football and we're handicapping ourselves by only exploring those who are out of work. The last time we did it was Nigel Adkins and like Pochettino and Koeman, he was also really successful, so get the best candidate. Leicester, Brighton, Villa didn't care that Rodgers, Potter or Gerrard were under contract. They're the clubs we should be competing with and they're all doing better than us and have leapfrogged us. It's like the academy situation, only this summer did the club start focusing on it again after years of neglect. We've been left behind by many at youth level, despite recent good form. We aren't competing against the likes of Brighton, Aston Villa, Leeds, or Man City yet and they've pumped millions into their youth sides. We used to have the best academy in the country, it was part of our identity and now it produces absolutely nothing. Alongside this, we need to stop trying to "breed" coaches, or whatever the hell is going on at the club there. This, again is amateurish and a job for the boys type scenario. Pochettino had Perez, Jimenez and D'Agostino, who are all still with him at PSG. Koeman was able to bring in Lee, E.Koeman, Kluitenberg and Watson, who is now weirdly a first team coach after being appointed as a goalkeeping coach initially. I know Puel, Pellegrino, Hughes and Hasenhuttl have all been able to bring in individuals with them too, but I'm sure Davis, Fleming and Watson, who have outstayed multiple managers now aren't at the top of their wants for part of their coaching staff. Davis and Fleming should still be with the youth team at the most, but it feels like they were in the right place at the right time. They are not Premier League coaches. Taking recent examples, Michael Carrick just stepped down from a much bigger position because the manager he was working with was sacked, Ledley King, who was a much bigger legend at Tottenham, than Davis is here was demoted from their coaching team following the appointment of Espirito Santo. There's no room for sentimentality in football. Late night/early morning rant over.