melmacian_saint

We're fizzing out fast here again. The gap between our attacking and defensive midfield is bigger than Watford's.

Also just how awful is this pitch?

People attack Fonte, but Lovren's reckless challenges are dismissed as "do-or-die". SWF standards...

I see Fonte is being attacked again despite a whole good season. Of course, he does not tweet, which is clearly annoying our fans.

Shame for Cork. Our midfield were pushing forward and we looked in control. Let's hope Victor picks up from him.

Cork not looking good. Maybe not that bad.

Very recently a Mozambique airplane flying across Southern Africa also came out of the sky (33,000 ft if I'm not wrong) and into the ground. Most thought it was a similar accident to the AF plane (structural failure/terribly wrong execution of normal flight procedure) until they found the black boxes and realized that the pilot had committed a murder-suicide. Checked the records and the man had lost his child and was going through a damaging divorce process. Apparently locked himself in the cockpit. I'm sure there will be authorities looking into these options. 40 minutes into a 6-hour flight is not a long time, it's possibly not an AF situation but a B777 needs more crew than an Embraer so I don't think it's the Mozambique situation either. Either way I pray for them and the families. What a horrible situation.

That reminds me of the Air France plane. Terrible.

Flight MH370 from Kuala Lampur to Beijing. Should've landed in China 3 hours ago. Boeing 777 (possibly the most comfortable plane I've been on) carrying 239 people. Not looking good

What makes you think Benfica have the money to hire him?? They are running into serious trouble and need to sell players.

Wanyama has time to develop. Some of the mistakes he has committed in the past, such as losing possession cheaply, will hopefully disappear as he gains maturity and experience.

That was Hooiveld when he joined us. Terrible at Celtic. Instant impact here.

Lallana won't leave. However, our midfield is a big question mark. Schneiderlin has leveled off this year after constantly progressing since the Liebherr takeover. Maybe it's time to move him on before it becomes harder to command a good fee? Cork has offered a steady, very good level, but we won't be offered a massive amount of money for him. For this reason, I don't think selling him on will bring much benefit to the club. But with Wanyama and Ward-Prowse (but needs to up his game?) as the main bets for the future, one of them will have to go (Davis was brought as a rotational player and I expect will see out his contract in this condition). In this sense, I can see Cork settling for a rotational role, much like Davis, but Morgan will want to play every week. For this reason I think it will be him. My main bets are therefore Schneiderlin and Clyne, somewhere around the 10-12 million mark for the RB and hopefully into the 18-20s for the CM.

I have a feeling that we might have sold Clyne. Yes Chambers is playing well and he was injured for a while, but earlier in the season Chambers played well and yet Clyne was always back in the squad asap. We're also not in a great run so you'd expect MP to try different things more often. He decided to come here to get game time and develop. Maybe it's make or break time and he's decided that make is elsewhere (and the club agrees?). I genuinely think that he is a top side full-back in the making. Exceptionally versatile as well. And more importantly, the sort of player that will have increased his price tag.

Jos comes across as a great character, but a part of me thinks that he is also quite fast in passing on the blame, or finding something else to do so (like the press)? When we conceded goals he always seemed to look around for someone to point his arm towards, and sometimes it would be his fault (or no one's fault for that matter). Of course recently there hasn't been a place to hide. Last year when Fonte got injured and he came back to the side, he was also very fast to come and say he had proven "critics" wrong... Good luck if he does leave, but I'd expect a slash in terms of his future wages.

Except we have continued to loan them players. Loan him to Eastleigh then, aren't they professional these days? Would help them get up and he would hopefully be a hit at Conference level. Could also come to Staplewood once a week or something.

Funny that, at least at some stage in their Saints career, all of our recent CBs seem to play well with one partner. Of course, they get all the praise and that partner is constantly on the "easy replacement" list.

I think we will struggle to beat anyone who is still fighting for something, be it CL or relegation. From yesterday one can realize that the players have understood that those above them in the European fight are better teams and that anything better than finishing in the top half is unattainable. I'm happy with this, it's been a good season, we played some wonderful football at home and away and considering last season's messy first half this season has been much more consistent and a good show of the quality and weaknesses of our current squad. We've certainly not gone backwards. If we took 2 wins from our first few months and put them in 2014, our season would've looked much better that it does in our current form. Having said this, looking forward, I believe that we shouldn't be very far from the point where we need to spend another 45 million, but possibly on more than 3 players. Or at least getting more than 1 out of 3 right (regardless of what Ramirez's future here may bring). But to be honest, I'm happy with being in mid-table for a couple of seasons.

If we don't get a rash from sending a player in development out on loan to Bournemouth or Yeovil maybe we should consider it. Maybe the Cherries would be a better option as they are looking at a rather tranquil end to their season and it would be good for him to flourish and give them some energy.

I remember when he turned up in Portugal at the time. Made headlines during weeks in the summer, cover photos on Pele's lap included. Was a flop through and through. Not that magical a touch, and certainly not that dazzling a pace. Hadn't realized he only got off Benfica's books in 2011.

Given a number of the fans in here seem to think they're too good and important for what the club has achieved so far and expected us to be fighting it out with Europe's finest, players like Davis will be considered peasants. Same goes for people like Fonte or his midfield partners Schneiderlin and Cork, or the harsh and temperamental judgements about Boruc. They can be the best but they have this glass ceiling in their price tag.

What schoolboy mistakes? Those that led to a penalty that really wasn't? What about Lovren's attempt at kicking the air that let Sturridge through and almost led to a goal? I see we're back to the blueprint comments whenever we concede goals. The same comments that made Hooiveld look the 2010s version of Michael Svensson when he was really a terrible defender who just happened to be taller than everyone else in a league where half the play came from direct sources.

I insist that it's only going to work if it's Davis in front of Schneiderlin and Cork. This pairing of three CMs where two seem to drift into wide positions is not working. Pochettino played them as I described during last season, and it worked wonders. This season however, maybe because Puncheon left and we didn't really find a replacement we seem to want to get Lallana and Rodriguez into wide positions at the expense of getting more numbers in the final third. I notice Davis spends more time helping out Chambers than bombing forward. Same with Morgan and Shaw. If the only central option is Cork and is backwards, then we don't have a chance other than hoofing or hoping the (off-form) strikers get a worldy touch that sets them up.

Fairly mainstream topping IMO (not particularly appreciated personally).

I like Clyne and I think he should be our starter, but Chambers has been worth the bet and is improving every game despite the bad form of the team!