Lighthouse

I'd say this is pretty much the excuse Tan needs to sack MM. I'm a little disappointed hearing Saints fans singing, "sacked in the morning," personally I think he deserves the support of fans across the country for what he has had to put up with.

61% possession. Cardiff can deliver a decent ball with Noone and Wittingham but we look much better in possession.

Wow! Wish I'd gone to this

JRod for England!!!!

JRod!!!! :D

Good build up by Lallana, JRod couldn't quite get on the end of a through ball.

Huge let off.

Saints line up with Gazza, Chambers, Fonte, Yoshida, Shaw, Cork, Morgan, Davis, Lallana, JRod and Lambert COYR!!

No.

Well, he has played one game and made a mistake so your logic is faultless. However, I think most statisticians would take issue with the sample size of your data.

In 2004 we had all our strikers and all our 'keepers injured for a brief period. Ended up with Best and Blackstock up front and Keller on loan in goal.

If Gazza looks more capable in training, what makes you think Cropper will be better in a first team game? We shouldn't compromise a young lad's career by chucking him in when he isn't ready in some wild attempt to appease a short term injury crisis. We shouldn't have given Davis a new contract and should have signed someone better in summer. It's done now though so no point in moaning about it.

It does put the calls to start Cropper into perspective though. The professional coaches who train them every day have clearly decided Gazza > Unfit Kelvin > Cropper. Clearly Gazza is the best we have at the moment. He may be a liability but there isn't much we can do until the January sales start. I believe Debenhams' are doing 40% keepers.

Nobody at the club has said Clyne and Davis were back, it was just media speculation. Lovren isn't injured he has a bug. Possibly the same one Shaw had. Let's be positive, the back for are all decent players, it's just Gazza I'm worried about.

Team sheets are in: Shaw is back but Lovren out. Oh s**t! Yoshida in

Do you believe: a) We have good depth in our squad and injuries to first team players wont affect the team's performance. b) The majority of our strongest 11 are fit enough to start 45 games a season c) We should rest our best players for half a dozen League games and the points lost in doing so aren't important.

Just over a week until the January sales open. I think recent results have shown up a few holes in our squad. Hopefully the powers that be have some ideas lined up already. I think we need to look at 'keeper - Boruc is the only one I regard as being Prem quality. I'd get someone else in and loan Gazza out. LB - Not just cover, someone good. We can't expect a teenager to play 38 games a season. AM - Our bench is lacking someone to come on and change the game. Having said that we should be looking at players better than we have. The CB situation I think can wait till summer. Personally I still think Yoshi is a decent player, just lacking match practice. Begin suggesting random Slovenian teenagers who are good on FM13.

If Hooiveld isn't Prem quality, Martin certainly isn't. The latter was a bit part player in our promotion who made the occasional appearance due to injuries, whilst the former was arguably our player of the season.

Correct.

Creative, but at no point did I say every League game. Even 5 games with the reserves is too many with such a tight and competitive League.

So which League games do we play a weakened side in? The game before? After? Both? Or do we just play our strongest 11 in every game and replace them as they get injured.

I'm guessing you're including the win over Spurs on New Years Day, before the FA Cup started. After the 3rd round game, when the fixtures started to pile up we managed 17 points from 16 games. Less than 41 points extrapolated over 38 games. West Ham were relegated with 42 points. Just to clear this up: My argument - We can't play the same team in every league and cup match. Playing a weakened side in the League could get us relegated. The Turkish/Fry Strawman - Everyone who wins a cup gets relegated. Wigan FFS! FFS! Wigan Wigan FFS! FFS! FFS! etc.

Ah, the Lord of the Strawmen has returned! Between the 3rd round win over Spurs and the end of the season, we managed relegation form in the League in 2003. It was our form between October and December which kept us up (we may have finished 8th but we were closer to 18th than 5th).

Exactly, so why not try and win a cup that does not require the depth of squad that a challenge for the top 6 does? Because playing our reserves in the League will probably get us relegated and we will need a decent League finish to attract better players. I doubt Wanyama, Lovren and Osvaldo were our first choice transfer targets in summer. I suspect there were others who weren't interested in a team 14th in the League.

That would involve resting key players in the League so they are fit for cup games. Not a strategy I think Cortese would approve of. The League has to be a priority and at the moment we don't have the depth to even maintain a challenge in that.