Baird of the land

Forster Martina VVD Yoshi Mcqueen Romeu JWP Hojberg Tadic Jrod Boufal

Is Rodriguez still out injured?

One of those frustrating games where you wonder how things would have panned out of they hadn't of got the early goal. Hopefully the team can bounce back and get revenge against inter midweek.

Gritty performance enlivened by a spectacular goal by Boufal. My other favourite moment was in the 2nd half when Reed was put in a bad position back to goal, trapping, swivelling and playing a sublime cross field pass whilst under pressure. Great to see likes of Stephens, Mcqueen, Reed, Olomola getting the valuable experience whilst saints still got a result out of it. Only real shame was Jrod picking another injury in a game that would have been ideal in helping him get match sharp.

I was pretty pessimistic beforehand, so delighted the team bounced back from the unfortunate midweek defeat with a fantastic point at City.

I was pretty pessimistic beforehand, so delighted the team bounced back from the unfortunate midweek defeat with a fantastic point at City.

It'll be very interesting to see who plays in both fullback positions for us midweek.

Good professional result in the end. Too many missed opportunities in first half and slightly fortunate with Burnley penalty appeal against van dijk. Once we got the scrappy first goal we kicked on and put game to bed. could have got 5 or 6 in the end. Mcqueen looked good but better teams will test his defensive abilities and he needs to learn how to go down. 9/10 out of ten he'd get a booking for that superman dive. Their penalty was equally soft. Only downside was targett injury, i did worry about rushing him back for this game considering he wasn't fit enough for england. Hope we rest bertrand midweek and don't repeat the injury setback. The real test for this team is getting points from the games against the big teams.

The first jury thought beyond a reasonable doubt that there was a crime. Now even if a second jury has decided that there is enough doubt to acquit him that by no means makes it wrong for the police and CPS to try the evidence before a court.

Interesting read, wasn't aware of the situation regarding drunk consent. Case is a murky gray mess. Personally don't think Evans as a person comes out particularly well, nor do i like those using the result as some kind of proof that the girl was lying when she says she can't remember what happened.

Hope they can hold on. Personally I think efl was a decent compromise, helping academy players get a bit more real experience whilst not interfering with league. Sadly seems highly likely it'll only be a one year thing.

Decent result away against Leicester. Frustrating in some ways though as i thought we were the better team in possession. Ward Prowse failing to hit the target was a big moment but to be fair so were the Van Dijk/Romeu mess ups that we got away with. Thought Davis was excellent on the ball today. Romeu excluding his dreadful pass back was excellent too. Cedric was a loss and hopefully its something minor as while Martina is decent i think Cedric is a more well rounded player. Long looked dangerous once he was put up front. Should have come on earlier and for Austin rather than Tadic in my eyes.

Personally i think rotating during the group stages is completely the right call. We've already got 4 points via rotating and can't see a reason why we won't qualify from the group using this approach. Once we get to the knock out stages that is the time to start making the call as to whether we want to priortise it or our league position or trying to win the european competition.

Easiest selection decision ever imo, the team that played well and beat West Ham away. Hopefully they can repeat the trick and beat Leicester.

On the positive front we got the result we needed, an away draw. Utterly abject display though, could have conceded a number in the 2nd half. Feel sorry for Hesketh, didn't deserve to be hooked after 30 mins, especially when you consider how abject others were and how poor the the 2nd half display was and no changes were made till literally the last minutes. Man of the match Van Dijk, because he was solid defensively as usual though that header miss early on was bad.

I struggle to see why we'd sell van dijk's this summer unless there's a release clause in his bumper new contract. Surely part of the reason to hand out these new long term contracts was to avoid mane/clyne/wanyama situation & retain players marginally longer at least.

Listening to talk sport describe it as a problem with modern football. No it's a problem with dodgy old English managers. Had to go for such greedy stupidity. You'd expect it to be Southgate. Young, no baggage, has done well with u21's.

Things starting to come together under Puel. Great finish by Austin to get us the lead and barring a dangerous spell at 2-0 we were much the better team in the 2nd half. Really impressed by the midfield, Davis and Hojberg in particular were excellent.

Not surprised really. There seemed to be pretty strict restrictions even for academy players such as reed who trained with first team. Also found it interesting that the league cup match the lack of academy players in their lineup despite him making a number of changes. Holgate who had already started several league games seemed the only one. Towards the back end of last season Martinez had the bench loaded with their youngsters and they were being talked up. Clearly he's a very good manager but it is an issue and it did bug me. Hopefully Puel will prove to be good too and with more openness to academy progression to the first team.

Great to see he sketch playing so well, every time I have seen u23's he's looked quality. Has he signed a new contract yet. From memory thought he was one of players who's contract's expire this summer.

I'd like to see at least one of Reed/Stephens get a chance. Mccarthy Martina Stephens Van Dijk Targett JWP Hojberg Reed Tadic Long Austin

Vital win got. Feeling of relief, hopefully we can push on and go on a bit of a run. We were the better team but still lots of room for improvement from us. At one point felt like the ball just wasn't going to go in the net, thankfully Austin solved that. Thought Romeu was man of the match, very good all over the pitch and covering on their dangerous counter.

As well as Martina played, i'd start Cedric on sunday. He'll be fresher and that was purely the logic of rotating as they did yesterday(which i hoped they would do). I assume we'll stick to the diamond so i think it'll probably be something like: Forster Cedric Van Dijk Fonte Bertrand Clasie Hojberg Davis Tadic Austin Redmond Subs, Mccarthy, Yoshida, Romeu, JWP, Long, Jrod, Martina

It's pretty vital that we win this to Get the season going. Afterwards we've got 2 away so we want already be on 5 points. It won't be easy, as Swansea whilst erratic aren't that bad a side. I'd start long and hojberg and use Jrod as an impact sub otherwise sat team. I don't manager abandoning the formation yet sadly.

Disagree, think complete opposite. Group stage is the time to rotate a handful of players out so they'll be fresh for the Sunday. If we make the knockout then we can decide if we want to priortise it over whatever league position we are in. I'm also hoping at some point in this european experience there will be opportunity given for likes of Reed to get opportunity to impress.