Baird of the land

Sad news for Butland and England, though i felt he was being overhyped and Forster should have been number 2 anyway in the short term.

Definitely don't think Vardy should be shoehorned into the team on the wing. That's not his position. He seems the ideal impact sub to me if England need to go for it by changing to 2 up top. Equally neither should Rooney.

I think he's benefitting from the lack of options out wide, which is funny as I think he's less effective out wide in hodgson's preferred formation. Unless they go 2 up top vardy shouldn't start. If they do go 2 up top it'll likely be to accommodate the passenger Rooney.

Thought Isgrove was quite bright on his international debut tonight. Probably needs a couple of injuries to make the 23 though. Davis played well tonight too.

Bad news for Bertrand, hope it doesn't cost him a place in the Euro's. From a selfish point of view the international break might have for once come at a good time for us giving him more time to shake off this (hopefully minor) injury

Yeah i thought it was very quiet. Ideally it would be nice if the crowd raised the team rather than having to wait for the team to score before the noise levels come about.

For me it's got to be a return to 5-3-2 line up and trying to hit Leicester quickly on the counter. -------------------Forster------------------------- Soares----Fonte----Van Dijk----Bertrand----Targett -------Davis----Wanyama----Romeu--------------- -------------Long-------Mane--------------------- Subs, Stek, Martina, Yoshida, JWP, Pelle, Jrod, Clasie Whilst Pelle's done very well of late, i think pace is far more likely to trouble Morgan/Huth, than height and strength, so he should start on the bench if everyone gets back from international duty unscathed. Equally i think Soares has more about him than Martina and unless there's an issue i'd prefer to see him return to the line up. While i would like to see Leicester win the league i would vastly prefer saints to make Europe, so desperately want us to get something there, especially after the limp way we lost to them last time when i made the trip all the way there.

I thought he was decent yesterday despite being played out of position. Set up one and should have had a penalty. We're going to need his pace away to leicester, so hope he's ok. Ideally he'll miss the internationals if he's got a knock.

Yeah surprised Targett was dropped down. Guess they felt they needed the right back cover on the bench more and could spare him. Personally i hope he goes back into the starting xi for the leicester game as a think 5-3-2 will be needed for that game.

Just back from the game. Definitely a strange one. First half was poor including the ref somehow deciding not to give long that penalty. Just didn't seem to want to get to them and instead let them have time and space when they got the ball. Clasie was exceptionally bad today and it was no surprise that Vic who looked back to his best came on. Still not sure i see the logic of giving Mane the penalty to take. I really miss the Le Tiss/Lambert days when you actually felt confident we'd score a penalty. Great to see Mane eventually get back to the penetrating goal threat he was before this dry spell. Really disagree with those who have been questioning his effort, i've always felt the effort was there but he looked bare of any confidence. Hopefully he'll tear Leicester apart next week now. Glad they had Benteke rather than say Firmino today. A good player would have ended the game with the gilt edged chance he had. MOM tied between Mane and Wanyama. I don't think Mane would have had opportunity to turn the game without Wanyama coming on and dominating the midfield.

Draw the ideal result for Saints between West Ham and Chelsea.

Just got called into Welsh squad i see

Personally unsure about notion of playing 5 at the back versus them. Think back 4 may make more sense this game. So for me fonte in for targett & we all know Wanyama will come back in regardless, likely for Romeu.

We overpaid for Long & Hull somewhat underpaid imo. Price is now irrelavent, especially with the crazy TV money. He's a good player, proving to be an important asset once finally played more often in his natural position. If he could hit a streak where his conversion ratio went up he'd be an even better player because let's be honest when Vardy scored 5 goals last season nobody was considering him the worldbeater.

To me the only question with tadic is whether he was going to reach the ball he knocked through. As for the actual contact he does pull his leg back(my guess to protect it) but there's definite contact from the rashly committed butland. Mane red is just more and more absurd, the more I see it. They really need to have technology for at least these incidents. The ref confirming that what he thinks he has seen is actually correct before making red card decisions.

Fantastic result. Looking forward to a huge game against Liverpool now. Great to see Pelle getting rewards, thought last couple of games he'd looked livelier than previously. Seen the Mane sending off and that is nuts, really hope that is overturned. Brave decision by koemnan at the back paid off. Yoshida was restricted to a late cameo. Got to wonder about his long term future at the club though.

For me the problem with Yoshida is a confidence issue. He's a decent premier league 3rd choice centre back having a horrid season, now with zero confidence. Hope he can dig out a bit of his old form over the next couple of games.

Make or break time for this season. This game and Liverpool one will decide if we've got any chance of competing for european places. Can't afford to lose either game. 5-3-2 Forster Soares Yoshida Van Dijk Bertrand Targett Romeu Davis JWP Mane Long

Thought red was harsh, but bad defending from Saints to put themselves in that situation. Yoshida terrible for their goal. Guy has had an awful season by and large. Pretty inspipid display. Think we may end up keepinbg hold of Mane because he's playing so poorly. Pelle thought worked hard with awful service.

Personally i'd get Martina off and get Soares on for starters. Positionally Martina looks all over the place. Too often we seem off the pace. At times we were just passing backwards slowly constantly.

Forster Cedric Fonte VVD Bertrand Romeu Clasie Davis Tadic Long Mane Big Sam's team is going to be set up to deal with long ball's to Pelle so despite the fact he played ok against Bournemouth(a game he probably should have started), i'd start with the more mobile Long instead if he is fit.

Yeah if the opposition treat it as a derby you better get your head right and treat it as one too. Too many times they seem to want it more. Hopefully a rocket at half time will lead to a much better 2nd half display.

Maybe the benefit of seeing that a well run mid sized club can win the premier league. That's a dream i've had for Saints but not had much faith of the possibility outside of football manager. I'd prefer Arsenal to Man City but would easily prefer Leicester.

I would like to see Leicester win the league at expense of the likes of Man City/Spurs/Arsenal etc. That said after a month which has put Saints in with a shot of getting back into europe i very much want Saints to beat Leicester. If we'd been well adrift in midtable but safe from relegation i might have gritted my teeth for the greater good of someone new winning the league.

Utter shame, looks like he was getting good experience and making quite an impression for them. Hopefully he can bounce back from injury. Wonder could we loan Gallagher to them instead?