davayy

Love how they couldn't even be bothered to take another photo, just rehashed this one and 'shopped out the AAP3 branding and advertising hoardings...

Interesting its for 7 years rather than the rumored 5 years. Seems quite a long time.

I'm a fan of Kant's natural law - what do you think of this moral system?

Still wondering why RK swapped Long for JWP. Surely the obvious choice was Long for Rodriguez then Tadic for Romeu? JWP offered nothing, especially given the fact he was playing against Shelvey and Sissokho who are both twice as tall / bigger than him.

It's a real shame he has to sit in the Staplewood Cafe preparing tea for the players instead of training! Bloody Cortese signing! In reality, I don't think he was overrated at all. His goal against Derby was good, and I think I just remember fans being genuinely pleased for him when he scored; however, he also had several contributions later on which were pretty important. Someone mentioned that Barnsley game, another was the Leeds game (1-0) when he assisted Rickie with a lovely cushioned header across goal for Lambert to smash home. He was actually quite a smart player, his runs were normally fast, on-side and direct...we just lacked the final ball to find him. He was also a hard worker. He tracked back alot and did alot of covering for players out of position. Not quite sure why this thread had emerged, but it provided a nice trip down memory lane..

Personally, I like the fact we went local with Veho. I agree that the pay is very low in comparison; we should be getting at least 5M/ Year for a shirt sponsor, if not much more. Whilst it would be a shame to lose the local feel (Veho MD is a Saints fan IIRC?), it is probably a necessary evil. The year we signed on with Veho weren't there also rumours of Lotus sponsoring us? That would be lucrative enough...and not be so budget with the likes of "Bet365" or "WONGA".

Koeman in for a shout for MoTM with a win here?

Cannot see Wenger setting his defense up to allow Long and Mane to cause similar problems as they did in December. His midfield will be much tighter to prevent Davis / JWP / Clasie from getting on the ball as much as allowing to make those passes in behind. Going for a tight game, 2-1 / 1-1 in my prediction. Would love an away win but just cannot see it. Austin to come off the bench and hopefully nick a goal.

Great start from JWP, thought he had one of the best games in a Saint's shirt today and really deserved the plaudits today. Overall, a pretty comfortable win. I must say, I was quite surprised by the lack of threat from West Brom, I don't think they even managed a clear shot on target and a large part of that is due to our solid defense. 2 games, 5 goals and a clean sheet. Fantastic week after last Saturday's doom and gloom. Here's my perspective of JWP's first goal for anyone who cares:

Because the people in the ground and on tv have a higher perspective and from further away. The play looks alot slower from that angle as they are not running to keep up with play like the lino is. It is much easier to make a judgement when standing still vs running and trying to follow the line. Also, bias.

Think it will be interesting with RK's selection this weekend. The obvious decision would be to stick to what has worked so far (and vs. Arsenal) and play an unchanged team; however, I think WBA, with Pulis, will be much more harder to breakdown and getting opportunities will be limited which doesn't play into our hands. For all his critics, Tadic does generally take a chance when he gets it (yesterday, Aresnal home last year, Man Utd away) so I would think he may start. The back and midfield should remain as they were solid; Wanyama on the bench to come on to hold lead. Up front, I would keep with Mane and Long - stretch them then bring on Pelle to hold the ball and play through to Long / Mane.

Typical 'this season' performance so far. Should be at least 2-0 up, if not more. Expect Watford to come at us second half and we will need to score early or we have another WH / Leicester game on our hands yet again..

The worst part is, you're not even joking.

Well if he was injured I don't think Gazza would also be playing tonight. He must be fit and will either be on Bench Wednesday or starting.

Apologies:

Possibly more than just a striker now? He evidently think the formation was wrong, that's why he changed it at HT!

Yes lets completely ignore the fact that Clasie lost the ball and blame Yoshida - seems to be the saintsweb way

I'm not 100% convinced that Mane showing up late to a team meeting (as he's done before, before all this talk of Utd interest) is indicative of him wanting out. Sure, Koeman's comments Re: he commitment to the team, fans, club etc are a little worrying but could just be a reaction to the loss and I'm not reading too much into them. I don't think we'll sell Mane this January. Probably in the summer for £35m+. It would be suicidal to A) let him go now and B) put him with the reserves.

How many times did Wanyama give the ball (and the game) away today? Absolutely shocking performance from him, no bottle and just looked like he didn't want to be on the pitch at all. If Aresnal want him, sell because he's more of a liability than benefit at the moment, and has been for a while.

I guess what I meant was defensively tactically as much as starting XI. Back to basics, simple football and just stick to what we know under Koeman.

Judging by Koeman's and Davis' comments post Liverpool, I suspect we will see a very defensively strong side. Would bloody hope so as well. I can see us not playing Clasie given his lack of anything mid week. Hopefully we'll just completely boss the game (which on paper, we really should) and come out with a clean 3-0 win. Alternatively, we will concede early and heads drop. Let's hope for the former.

Do not understand team selection. And not just Yoshi at RB; more like why do we set up so defensively despite the fact Liverpool ripped City apart last week playing a pressing game? The minute we go 3 up top it actually starts pay off and we look much better. Yoshida is not a right back - Cedric must be injured? Thought second half we were more like it, should have scored through Tadic who I thought was very good. Overall, not a hugely surprising result but just a shame that first half, or rather first 30 minutes, performance put us on a back foot.

Absolutely, I'm not blaming the club for taking it off me - I have no problems with that and completely understand the reasoning. What would have been better (IMO) is they inform us that laptops (specifically, as I was told it was only laptops and not tablets / mobile phones) are no longer permitted in the ground (they were allowed in before) before the day of the game so that people are aware. The policeman told me in fact that it was quite a problem with lack of information as they had a number of Stoke fans who got their laptops confiscated as they didn't know either. Again, not really a problem given circumstance but just a word for future / advice for anyone reading who may be in a similar situation next time. FWIW, I think they got the security, at least where I was in Kingsland, spot on. They were checking all the bags there were and scanning 98% of people. I think they were understaffed though, a steward who was waiting with me said that they really needed an extra 2/3 people to get through the queue of people.

Agreed; unfortunately it is difficult when I have work to complete and come from Bristol every week.

Sadly completely different experience to me then. Got questioned by police and details taken for having my laptop with me. Had to store it in the turnstiles to collect it after the game. Would've been nice if they had detailed exactly what wouldn't have been allowed before the game..