Wes Tender

Trolling

We were totally sh*t. Why couldn't we field a stronger team that would stand a chance of getting us into the last eight of the FA Cup? It appeared as if we weren't that interested in winning the match, second to most of the 50/50 balls, lacking intent in most areas. Cork instead of Wanyama would have been good for a start and probably Chambers for Clyne, Rodriguez for Guly, Boruc for Davis, Fonte for Hooiveld, unless Fonte is injured. Clyne's cutting in instead of going for the line is becoming an annoyance. This second string we fielded don't appear to know how to play the high pressing game, or to close down the space as effectively as the first choice players. All in all it was a limp-wristed, half-hearted effort and we got everything we deserved from the game, which was nothing. We had two really clear chances to have scored and fluffed both. We on the other hand we lucky that apart from their goal, they failed to punish us with two or three clear cut chances they had to put the match beyond us. Pochettino got this one completely wrong and must take the blame for his tactics and team selection. Perhaps the commentators were right in their assumption that the FA Cup doesn't mean the same to the foreign managers.

As he says; easy to see where Hampshire's loyalty and passion are found. It's at St Mary's where at a match featuring one of the season's lowest attendances, nevertheless there were nearly 75% more fans watching that match than the average at Fratton Park, even though ticket prices are significantly more expensive. Well done Saints fans!

A hard ground out win. Hull had a go at us and closed us down, but our quality in midfield told. For all of our possession, Hull equalled us pretty well in the shots department. Shame that Cork didn't score. With all the extra time it seemed a very long game, but we saw it out well. Only our second back to back win in how many years? The defence was generally solid and the midfield dominant, but we lacked the cutting edge up front again. But the match will give us a confidence boost ahead of the Sunderland game and we are applying pressure on Newcastle and Man Utd. It would be great if we could finish above them both, especially last season's champions.

Currently there are 10 Premiership clubs in this round and 6 lower division sides will remain. After that round is played, there will be 6 Premiership clubs and 2 lower division teams. The top four clubs remaining are Man City, Chelsea who play each other and Arsenal and Liverpool, who also play each other. So two of them will be out. Everton playing Swansea will take another PL club out. If we beat Sunderland, we will be the 4th seed effectively. There is the possibility that the victors of the matches between those top teams might be drawn to play each other and that we avoid the victor between Everton and Swansea. Would we fear any of the other clubs? Being the FA Cup though, it is feasible that any team left can beat any other team. The only team that I would greet with some trepidation at the moment is Chelsea.

And the reason that you felt the need to start another thread almost identical to another current one is.......?

Hughes had the audacity to claim post match that they had the better of the first half. The man is a delusional fantasist. The match stats clearly show that apart from the scoreline, they didn't match us in any department, let alone shade us.

http://www.caughtoffside.com/2014/02/08/video-southampton-2-2-stoke-city-premier-league-highlights/ Match highlights

Steve Davis man of the match with another good performance from Cork and other stand out contributions from Shaw, Schneiderlin, Yoshida and Fonte. Lallana, Rodriguez, and Clyne below par today, as was Lambert after his goal. Our midfield won a majority of the duels and supplied the balls into the last third, but we lacked the killer touches today to turn that advantage in our favour. Credit must be given to Stoke's defence however. We needed to shake things up to gain the three points towards the end of the match and didn't really have the players to do something different. With Ramirez out and Osvaldo gone, there was just Guly, but he might have made a difference with fresh legs and him being tricky in the box might have produced something. Substituting Clyne for Chambers was like for like, although for me, Clyne was frustrating today. He never once took the ball to the line, instead always cutting inside and running into traffic. Shaw on the other hand was adept at going for the line and put in a succession of good balls into the box Lambert's free kick goal was sublime and unstoppable by any keeper. Other than that, we had a flukey goal and so did they. But our defence was left standing by their through ball from Adam to Odemwingie, who has a habit of scoring against us. I should have put money on it. Stoke are a niggly physical team and generally we handled them well, as did the referee.They tried to con him several times with dives, but he saw through them. Crouch was guilty of it more than once. Stoke's game plan neutralised our preferred style of play and once they were on level terms each time, they stifled us and went for the draw. Summed up by Pochettino and then by Merrington who I heard summarising on the radio back in the car as being a frustrating game. That's exactly what it was. We didn't play badly generally, but neither did we do enough to deserve the win.

That's a lot of generalisation there, Frank. There were a lot who despised Lowe for the way that he came to be at the Club and they accepted that it wasn't that he lacked ambition, but moreover the financial clout to finance it, or the seeming inability to attract investment. As for what he achieved, that has to be balanced against the damage he caused. As yet, I don't see much in the way of damage caused by Cortese, but there is much to credit him for. Most were happy at the arrival of Wilde because he deposed the Lowe regime, which is understandable. Yes, it turned out badly, but it was another step on the path towards the club being rid of all that dross and being taken over by the Liebherrs, just a footnote in our history. You have your suspicions that now Cortese has gone, the Club will not be as ambitious for the success he craved. To the extent that he laid out a clear path towards achieving that ambition, I see no reason why it should be discontinued, provided that the component parts are not disassembled. They comprise the manager and his style of play, the players themselves, (a great mix of youth and experience), the financial outlay on the infrastructure and players to strengthen the squad, and the new board that will take over the responsibility of running the Club from Cortese. Cortese was only one cog in the wheel and perhaps it credits him too much to conclude that because of the departure of one man, the whole edifice will be significantly weakened. KL losing interest, or Pochettino and key players leaving would probably have far more impact. All of these things hinge on Katharina Liebherr's desire to continue "the project." As it stands in the short time since Cortese's departure, there is no concrete evidence that she does not wish to continue with it and indeed there have been several positive signs that she wants business as usual. When it is time to start the dialogue with Pochettino regarding the renewal of his contract that will be the time for furrowed brows. But again, there is little to suggest that he is unhappy here, or losing his drive and ambition. He is raising his profile as a really competent manager, so that he is attracting attention at higher levels. But he must realise that expectations will be considerably higher at the top clubs and that it will probably do his career much more good to stay here for a year or two longer, advancing his reputation further before the next step.

Last night, out of sheer boredom at the lack of quality googlebox programmes, I looked at our match against Everton, the first after Adkins' dpearture. Gaston did some quite goods things in that game and I was impressed with him. What was also noticeable, was that so soon after Pochettino's arrival, we were playing Everton off the park with the high pressing game already. Or was a lot of it how we used to play for Adkins? During the first quarter, we had about 70% possession and during the second quarter, it was still at 60%

I've amended it for you

This exactly. For such a big lump, it was incredible how easy it was for smaller players to knock him over. Mind you, his recovery rate as soon as he had won the free kick is amazing. Much as I hate the amateur theatricals from players such as Flores, Carroll has been guilty of the same type of cheating himself, so he has no excuses and him protesting about it makes him look like a hypocrite. But at least with him out of our match, West Ham will not be benefitting from the soft free kicks he earns them, or the big target man he represents and which which is one of his few attributes. I'm happy to call him a cart horse.

This being on the basis that you return to the Premiership of course. I wouldn't wish us to be playing you otherwise.

Signed. We have been most fortunate to dodge having SISU take us down the path that Coventry suffered and are extremely lucky with the Liebherrs. I was at the Ricoh Stadium a couple of weeks ago for the Trade Only show and we had a conference room overlooking the pitch at Corporate Box level. It is a magnificent stadium and a crying shame that Coventry don't get to play there.

A bit disconcerting watching The Musketeers again tonight. Last week I was flabbergasted to see Cortese playing King Louis. This week we had the unnerving spectacle of Osvaldo playing Emile Bonnaire. Osvaldo James Callis

What is interesting is the fact that James only mentions his former club Liverpool, ignores us and even then I doubt that he is right. First he talks about the number of under 20 year old players and in the same breath he is talking about the number of starts during the season. So which statistic is he using to make his point rather badly? He is talking about the number of starts made by under 20 year old players and picks out Raheem Sterling with 18. Who are these other under 20 players that played for them in the the Premiership and how many matches did they feature in? Shaw played in 25 last season and James Ward-Prowse in 15.

Oh, it is worth mentioning that we have not beaten Fulham away since before I was born, in 1947. A bogey fixture bites the dust at last.

The archetypal game of two halves. First half pretty dire, second half inspirational. The improvement must have been down to a mix of Pochettino's half time dressing down and the introduction of Cork for Wanyama. After Cork's superb form in the past 3 matches, it was unfair to drop him for Wanyama the minute that he became fit enough to play. Last season, Cork had forged a fantastic partnership with Schneiderlin which seemed to be reignited these past few games since Wanyama has been absent and indeed the improvement in Schneiderlin's play in this second half points to them currently being the midfield pairing that gives teams problems. We have Boruc to thank for three fantastic saves which kept us in the match until we could attain the upper hand and ease the pressure on our defence. Yushida did well alongside Fonte, Shaw and Chambers were solid, with Clyne adding some extra pace to the right when he came on for Chambers. We are lucky to have two such strong right fullbacks. But who needs Osvaldo when we have Lambert, Lallana and Rodriguez up front? What would he have contributed today that the other three could not? Lambert gets my MOTM because he had a part in all three goals, scoring one and assisting the other two and congratulations Ricky for your 100th goal for us. Do I understand that the three of them have already surpassed the total they scored in the whole of last season? Lallana in particular is having a real purple patch of form and Hodgson must have been impressed with him, but also all three of them can't have harmed their chances of being on the plane to Brazil and surely one or more of Clyne, Shaw, Chambers and Cork might also find themselves in contention too. First half best forgotten, second half sublime, picked up points against Man Utd, Newcastle and Spurs, whilst putting more clear water between us and Villa below us and the Skates beaten by Torquay. All in all, a lot to be pleased with.

Get Wanyama off. We can't afford to lose possession so frequently from his misplaced passes. Get Cork on and re-establish the Cork Schneiderlin partnership which is far more effective.

It's funny how most read Chambers' remarks and conclude that he is making comparisons based on a substantial crop of players coming through from the club's academy and proving to be very capable of playing together in the first team and not only holding their own, but some of them being seen as good enough to play for the top four teams. Barry for some reason best known to himself, wishes instead to add caveats to Chambers' opinion, wondering whether we can keep them together playing for us in the future and whether they can take us to the top of the division or the European Championship.

:lol:

I've put this in Google translate, but it can't fathom out what it is supposed to mean.

The hard of thinking expression is a modern satirical idiomatic version in common usage. I'm surprised that you especially haven't heard of it. Regarding the thread, this is your usual deliberately obtuse and idiotic comparison. Nobody said that this crop of youngsters could win the league or the European Cup. In any event the class of 92 didn't get a run out until 95. And then that team included the World's greatest goalkeeper, Schmeichel, a defence including Irwin, Bruce and Pallister, a midfield including Sharpe and Keane and strikers including Cantona, Cole and McClair. So no doubt that was helpful to the young Beckham, Giggs, Butt, Nevilles and Scholes to have such quality around them. Although the whole thing is hypothetical anyway and we are talking about the quite different footballing era almost 20 years ago, I would have no qualms in expecting that our current crop could achieve what they did, if we had the other senior players around them to equal those that United had.

Quite. I recall Bazza telling us what a brilliant and ambitious signing for Norwich Wolf's Winky was. He really strengthened their team and set the World alight with his goal-scoring prowess.