saintwbu

I like all three of our main strikers, for different reasons. But this lad is a player, there’s no doubt about it. Has always made me think of him as a bit of a poor man’s Haaland, has lots of similar attributes which not many others have.

Caballero is fucking terrible, always has been

People genuinely think Caballero is better than Forster and McCarthy 😂😂😂😂😂 Hopefully this will make people realise it could be a lot, lot worse. Probably not though.

I’m pretty happy with a point, I don’t think it was a game where we were great and just wasted the points - I thought we had spells, but definitely not as good as we have been at times this season. Think he could’ve done better with the first goal possibly, although slightly unsighted and unlucky, but thought McCarthy had a good game - world class save from Barnes’ chance. Redmond was great first half. To me the problem is, and always has been, lack of chance creation from midfield. As much as our forwards seem to lack goals, they really don’t get many clear chances. There was a great opportunity to slide Adams through quickly in the second half but Romeu hesitated and played it out wide instead - someone like Maddison just slips that through and we’re in. Obviously they’re completely different players, but for me we don’t have a Maddison in the whole squad and probably haven’t since Tadic left. It’s why we never saw the best of Gabbiadini (i know him and Tadic overlapped briefly), no one reading the movement early enough. Overall, a decent result.

Please, no more Bednarek.

It feels like we’ve battered Dean Smith’s Villa every time we’ve played them, footballing wise - Even the 1-0 defeat last year we were robbed and we dominated the game. Not sure Smith had learned anything from playing Ralph in the past…

Watkins is no better a finisher than Adams, he just gets a hell of a lot more chances. It’s why Watkins got shifted out wide as soon as Ings arrived, because Ings is a far superior striker to him. Wonder if Che’s eventual move one day would be up to Celtic, he seems to be becoming very popular in Scotland. Really pleased for him.

JWP pulled out the squad ill

You don’t think that when one player goes for a ridiculously inflated fee, it sets the tone for what other clubs demand for their players down the line? You don’t think John Stones going for £50mil meant any price for VVD was always going to be well in excess of £50mil because he was quite obviously head and shoulders above him in the same position? Okay.

John Stones and Paul Pogba both went for ridiculous money much later in the window in which Mane left. If they’d gone earlier in the window, absolutely no doubt that Mane, Salah and also Kante who went for 32mil, would’ve been way higher. But timing is everything, and these sales were done early when they were acceptable fees.

Hopefully Broja plays for Albania against England Friday, would be good to see how he gets on.

On the highlights video of his goal the other night you can hear him screaming for the ball he eventually gets back, when he’s first released it much earlier in the clip, so not surprising to hear he was bossing the back line all night. He really celebrates all his goals too from what i’ve seen, which I love, he seems really happy even playing at that level even though he’s already had a taste of top level football previously. I’m excited for him to eventually step up, I get the impression it won’t phase him, his initial interview suggested a very confident character.

He should have, it was clear how good he was, but to be fair Salah cost about the same in the same window and I seem to remember there was a transfer maybe even later in that window which set the precedent for inflated fees. Maybe Stones? I can’t remember. But had it been the following summer I agree it would’ve been £50mil+. Maybe today he’d have left us for £70mil+, given Grealish’s fee last summer.

Exactly, and today you wouldn’t be able to. Parson Daka is probably the best comparison in that he is a similar age to what Mane was, and has joined Leicester from RB Salzburg also. He cost £23mil - more than our record signing. If Mane was sold from us to Liverpool today he would go for £50mil+.

Lol Koeman was buying 12-15mil players at a time when Sadio Mane cost £35mil. Ralph is buying 12-15mil players when £35mil doesn’t even get you Joelinton.

What a great night at St Mary’s. Cannot get behind anyone saying certain players were poor, that first half was as good as i’ve seen us for years, we absolutely played them off the park. Elyounoussi was fantastic first half, as were Che, Arma, Romeu and KWP particularly. I thought our tackling last night was absolutely superb, won the ball back so easily at times when it looked like we may be in trouble. I didn’t think Tino was poor at all, first half I thought some of his touches and composure on the ball really showed his class - every time he was about to get away they just fouled him. The second half was always going to be different and it was, they went for broke after half time but still didn’t create any chances where i’d say they should have scored. The only keeper who made saves all night was Martinez. Good subs from Ralph, i’ve always been Ralph In but my one criticism has been his subs and the timing - well he clearly has much more trust in his bench this season and rightly so, we have some genuinely good options now. Valery and Smallbone both didn’t make the bench yesterday, whereas last season they may have been starting, that shows the depth we have now. I said in the summer teams like us don’t need a 20 goal striker, almost no team outside the top 4 ever has one. If we stopped conceding silly amounts of goals then we’d be fine. Well, so far, so good. We’ve really tightened up. Great atmosphere, great goal, great night. Shite referee though, jesus christ he was bad.

He would’ve left for free a year later so they only had so much input. The Athletic or Telegraph, can’t remember which, detailed the release clause being £50mil but essentially £38mil to us because Chelsea get a % of that £50mil back in sell-on. Doesn’t become active until 2023.

Targett was very good for Fulham, but also as it happens played with Sessegnon in front of him, which was his best period too. Seems like he doubles up well as a foil/support for a good winger, but struggles without that connection.

I also think his showing in the West Ham game also further strengthen his reputation for being the most lethal. He had two sights of goal in that cameo (not even chances really) and he managed to hit the post and have one cleared off the line. Plus anyone who’s watched his recent goals for Albania can see similarities to that goal vs Burnley and the post hit vs West Ham. He really does seem to know where the goal is.

Pretty much everything decent on a weekend on Sky is biting the dust now. Sunday Supplement and Goals on Sunday both changed presenters and were gone within a season, now Jeff leaving Soccer Saturday is the nail for that too - although it’s been dire since the rest of the gang left, so was inevitable.

For me Van Dijk was the best CB in the world when he played for us too, it’s just nobody outside of St Mary’s gave him attention until he’d played about 30 minutes for Liverpool.

I guess some will be dictated by how fit some of the guys who did well on Tuesday are. Lyanco and Stu both haven’t played much football this season, and put in a real shift Tuesday night, so maybe not 100% on Saturday.

Agree on all of the above. I always thought the reason Lovren looked okay for us was that he had a calm, composed Fonte alongside him. Last night gives me great hope for a Salisu/Lyanco combo, and you’ve described them perfectly.

I would probably go for this but with Romeu in for Diallo (or JWP, as I know Diallo has been good in his absence). To me we don’t look as good without Romeu in the middle.

Absolutely superb last night I thought, I don’t remember enjoying a Saints CB performance like last night for a long time, all 3 were great. Lyanco was rapid across the ground a couple of times, strong in the air, got really stuck into Havertz all game but not sure he gave away a single foul? Some great footwork to get out of danger, and he really got the fans going too. If that header had gone in (absolutely brilliant header by the way), he’d have reached cult status instantly. Best player on the pitch last night imo.