Baird of the land

Forster Cedric Fonte Van Dijk Bertrand Hojberg Clasie Davis Boufal Long Jrod

Beforehand a point would have been an ok result. After Arnautovic went loony and put them down to 10 men for the bulk of the game we were just dire in an attacking sense. - Bad decision making. Boufal not shooting, davis not pulling the ball back to Tadic when he would have had time and space in box to shoot. - A pathalogical timidity in our attacking play. No one wants to take a man on, no one wants to play a quick ball through the middle. Few people want to shoot. This means we end up slow shifting the ball backwards and widewards. I think Austin would have done nothing with that service today. - Cowardly management. Why take off an attacker Long when opposition are sitting in for a point. Why not play Long and Jrod, are we not allowed to have more than one man in the box(as it seemed) at any point in the night. Mom Bertrand, the one player who made runs, took men on, took responsibility to have a shot.

Without Austin's injury it would be obvious to leave him where he is. However if we think we need more options up front in Jan it would make more sense to bring him back rather than buy someone likely overpriced in January who would just be an obstacle to his first team opportunities anyway.

I'd love to have Morgan back but i'm realistic enough to realise that we are unlikely to be able to match his wages at united.

might make sense to bring Gallagher back(if that's possible) as Jan is pretty terrible and expensive time to be trying to purchase a first team player.

Carry on the rotation Forster, cedric, fonte, van dijk, Bertrand Romeu hojberg Davis Redmond long tadic

Very important to bounce back with a win.

Not overly confident. Really need to bounce back with a win. It'll be interesting to see who comes into the team after 2 disappointing displays in a row. I'd love to see Long get a goal as we really need him to rediscover his form especially now Austin is out.

Hardly, there was no rotation last night and we did nothing. We rotated in league cup and are in the semi. The problem is just like the league we have been utterly horrendous away from home. I'm not convinced the supposed first xi would have done any better in Prague, Israel or Milan. All in all this year's european campaign has been much more enjoyable than last year's but still galling not to make it out the group.

Hmm well that went well tire out first xi, injure Austin and still go out. Well I guess the no rotation crowd can't complain about this result. My feelings, it was annoying and typical of our complete lack of cutting edge this season. Worried about how we'll not end up mucking up much needed win at weekend too. This season may fast become about concentrating on trying to beat Liverpool in league cup.

Why, Yoshida's been excellent this season.

I will be embarassed if Saints were so incompetent to put such a low release clause into Van Dijk's contract.

Not a great draw imo. Was hoping for home draw against lower leagues rather than away against a good championship team.

Forster Martina Yoshi Van Dijk Mcqueen Davis Romeu Clasie Sims Long Tadic Long to score the winner and get his season motoring.

Odd i didn't think he was terrible today. Now Hojberg was bad today. I'd suggest the management agree as he was the one hooked.

Well that was terrible. Not terrible as in completely terrible football but just too toothless and switched off defensively. Forster with a comedy error to give them a boost when their crowd was nervy as anything. Then refuse to defend either of their corners properly. That made it even more annoying that we only had one decent chance from a set piece despite having multiple more than them. Outside of that shambles we really missed some good opportunities to get back into the game, Hojberg's on the stroke of halftime, Boufal's just after halftime and Fonte's with about 10 minutes to go. There seems to be a group on Redmond's back but i thought he was ok, especially in 2nd half.Thought austin was awful today, don't know why we waited till 75 minute to replace him with long who looked good in his cameo. I'd have had him on at ht or at latest 60 mins. Boufal flattered to deceive. Some wonderful skill first half but second half he was really poor. Sims when he came on gave the ball away and fluffed a half decent chance. It was really annoying as palace were there for the taking if Saints could actually he ruthless and clinical. Only bright spark is i thought this might happen and brought benteke into my fantasy side.

Annoying thing is you could sense the goal coming. We started well and boufal looked dangerous and then we just dropped off. Both goals just terrible. Don't have a clue why Forster didn't hit it with his right but not sure we should be passing back to him in that situation either. Then conceding a trundily corner was equally bad. We need to come out of the blocks quickly and get a goal back. You feel palace's confidence is vulnerable.

Watched it in arsenal end which involved much sitting on hands. Was pretty happy when I saw teams announced. Very good display by saints. they couldn't deal with boufal. The midfield 3 worked well together. Long was good but boy does he need a goal.

Yeah unless there's a release clause in his contract i'd be very disappointed if we didn't keep him for an additional year. The notion of him going to Everton is laughable no matter how much he respects Koeman.

I'd like to see van dijk start personally either alongside yoshi or Jose. Expect the fullbacks to rotate. Hopefully Martina will play like he did in early part of season and late last rather than last couple of outings. People are far too quick to write players off imo. Expect Davis and clasie to come in hopefully alongside Romeu. Reed off the bench if needed. Up front you'd think long would start, with hopefully boufal and redmond if tadic is still out. It's a very tough game but I'd guess arsenal will be rotating too.

Yeah i sort of feel if we concede first i'm not confident we'll break down teams who sit deep.

Well that was very satisfying. Very good display, still need more clinical edge in the final third as we shouldn't have made it such a nervy finish. It was good to see JWp putting in a good display and having some shots, even if his miss was horrendous. Been surprised by Sims, the couple of times i'd seen u23 games he hadn't particularly impressed me. Today he was amazing, apart from some final ball decisions. Thought Long should have been on much earlier though. Back in the top half, closed the gap on Koeman's Everton. Blooded another youngster. Even happier after Koeman's comments last season on academy. Happy days

I think it is going to be close. We desperately need to be a bit more clinical though.

Everton(really don't want Koeman and Everton to get one over us or finish above us) Torn between either of Cup games. Normally it would be the european one nailed on but we could go through with a 0-0 so maybe i'd be greedy and go for the arsenal game and hope for a 0-0 like Liverpool.

Don't agree, think rotation is pretty much essential given the number of games we have. It's worked well earlier in the season. It's still very much in our hands to qualify in europe with one home game to go. I personally have more problems with the one dimensional way we are playing than the personnel we are playing.