Saint86

He looks like he's getting back to his best. When is his contract up?

Agreed. If we do make the final, it would be good to see a list of all the ones who wanted us to bin off the cup.

Is it time to get a list of everyone who wanted us to throw the cup games to stay in the league then?

Pieters is a big player for them. Since he's gone off we're getting in behind a lot more.

4min isn't seems a bit harsh. Was expecting 5min for the number of stoppages in this half. From this I translate you were happy with how we were playing upto 2-0 down?

Yup, looks massively off the pace.

Good response since going 2-0 down. Ings and armstrong both done very well! Redmond having a decent game as well (wont say this very often). But why oh why did we wait until 2-0 down to start playing like this.

I'm not surprised we're losing to Burnley, but I am surprised they've not had to get out of 2nd gear and we're 2-0 down inside 30min. Utterly pathetic.

Going down if we keep playing like this. Pathetic and no urgency.

What happened to Bednarek in their penalty area then, and why was there no replay? All the time focused on Peiters being fouled by his own man and we don't even to see the replay of the challenge on bednarek.

Men against boys in this game.

No point arguing with the modern left wing apologists. Also, merely as an observation, another point to come out of all of this is that the term BAME is now considered to exclusionary and problematic term

Would be good if we could have added this comment to the JWP specific thread. Sadly it was derailed and has now been locked 😕 I am confident he'll appear and make his usual 90min.

I said it at the outset when he took over from Anka (who is sports journalist i rate a lot), Dan just isn't of the same calibre. He posts the odd piece with interviews of former players etc (which are nice to reads), but his analytics of our play style/tactics, or player performances etc are basically non existent. Maybe thats being harsh, but they're certainly not very insightful as a general rule of thumb. I think the only one he did of note was discussing the evolution of McCarthy's positioning to that of a true sweeper keeper - and that is it... As with all things saints, we had someone of quality, they were poached by a top club, and we got was hoped could be the next Mane and turned out to be the Nathan Redmond of sports journalism. Flatters to deceive but rarely delivers quality end product.

Because they are bedwetters?

3-4 members of the Polish squad have tested positive for covid. Including klitch (who is pictured next to and talking to Jan). You know what's going to happen now right? Covid outbreak in the saints team 👍

Honestly think about it. They'll just draw the same lines to determine if there is clear daylight, rather that if there is an armpit hair in front of the other players body 🙈. It will make no difference. Common sense should be applied in that if it is too tight to clearly determine offside, the goal stands etc. And this is what I struggle to understand, penalties, red cards, goals etc. It has to be clear and obvious errors for VAR to correct the decision. But for offside, they'll draw the most arbitrary lines (often with an on screen line weight inaccuracy of a couple of inches) to deem players offside by millimetres - Its nonsense as it stands! The rules shouldn't change to suit VAR, VAR (and its implementation) should be changed to suit the rules.

Just been randomly looking at the leagues defensive stats. https://fbref.com/en/comps/9/defense/Premier-League-Stats Bertrand is 2nd in the league for successful pressures per 90min (43%) and 3rd in the league for tackle success rate (61.9%). He is 13th in the league for total number of tackles 68 vs 97 (PEH). Romeu is joint 13th with Bertrand as an FYI.

You would think that they'd rather risk a spread between the relatively small urban areas of Southampton and Leicester... as opposed to London and Manchester... Anything else would demonstrate an element of bias?

Lovren's been trying to learn some new tricks... https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/56485742

We didn't lose to Leicester 9-0 this season (yet).

We should offer Chelsea a swap of Ings for Werner 🤪.... Don't ask, don't get 😆

Usually there is one team that drops down into the mire.... If saints go into the liverpool game without having won, then its us 🤣 I think we all fear that Fulham are going to get out of it and catch Newcastle as a minimum - I've suspected it ever since they battered Liverpool and were robbed of the 3 points by yet another Liverpool dive, settling for a 1-1 draw. West Brom and Sheffield are down imo

As a theoretical point, what happens re takeovers if we did somehow conspire to get relegated? I'm not at all clear of the financial impacts on teams dropping down from the premier league anymore. Does the championship have a wage cap / spend structure in place and how does that impact saints? And what is the deal with parachute payments these days? I assume it would make the valuation significantly cheaper and also relax (🤣) the premier league's fit and proper person test standards? I.e. if Newcastle go down, would the Saudi's be straight in there? But is it the case that for the first few seasons we could get taken over by a billionaire and be allowed to spend a load of wonga to go straight back up / offset losses etc?

You think? We've ultimately been destined to go the way we have since he left, but the guy was ruthless and would have sacked Ralph after the poor start and the Leicester 9-0 for sure. I'd be very surprised if Ralph was still in charge of the club had he been managing under Cortese 😆