saintwbu

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.

I thought he played really well, really strong in the challenge and read danger well. Played a big part in the equaliser too. Pleased for him.

Was he out wide or up top tonight? Ralph seems to normally see him as a forward which is why he’s not seen much game time yet this season, as Adams/Armstrong/Broja are the competition.

The last player we had written off after a difficult first game away at Sheffield United in the league cup didn’t turn out too bad…

People writing off Armstrong and saying he’s not as good as Ings, clearly have erased how bad Ings was when he first arrived. I remember both Brighton away at the start of 2018/19 and home to Bournemouth at the end of the season saying to mates I was with that he was finished, ran like an old man etc. Ings after those two games would’ve made Armstrong look like Mbappe. Give him a chance, aye.

Whole back 5 were brilliant today, but first time i’ve seen Perraud play and thought he was brilliant. Got up and back really well but was also good on his one on one defending, recovered brilliantly a couple of times too when West Ham broke. Tino broke out well so many times but no one came up with him and he’d be forced inside or would end up giving the ball away, what a talent though. Broja’s first touch to push it past Ogbonna just breathed life into the stadium, he looks really exciting. A good result, could’ve probably been 3 points but we showed a different side to us today. Stephens was top drawer, Antonio has tormented him in previous games and Stephens completely shackled him from the start and ultimately got him sent off by making him lose his head for the first yellow card. Salisu also great, passing out let him down a few times but defensively he got everything spot on.

Argentina have always struggled with goalkeepers, and mostly they’re not playing regular club football. Sergio Romero has more caps for Argentina than he has club appearances for any club in his career. He really isn’t the world beater that people on here think he is.

Sander Berge would really top this window off. Watched him again the other night and he was absolutely head and shoulders above everyone on the pitch. Would really add legs to our centre midfield, drives forward really well and a big lad too.

It’ll be a set fee that Chelsea can pay us to buy him back, and there’ll be nothing we can do to stop it. He can turn down Chelsea if he wanted. Normally there’s a time period attached - i.e. not before 1 year has passed, or it expires after a couple of years. We can sell him to other clubs at any price we want, but presumably Chelsea will have to be notified before we do it, so they can choose whether to buy him first or not.

People citing Neves going down and using it to justify it not being a foul is why players dive around so much. Neves knew he wasn’t getting a free kick without going down, but he left it too late. It was a foul, a bad tackle, and had he gone down immediately he’d have got it. Poor refereeing but not a surprise. I look forward to every manager in the league being asked about it this week, and Sky replaying it five times per hour every day.

He wasn’t even bad yesterday, he also made a great tackle on Saint-Maximin seconds before the goal that stopped him getting through. Whether it was his job to have picked him up later on in the play i’m not sure. He’s a decent CB, we play a very kamikaze game that is going to inevitably leave our CB’s exposed - he’s probably not built for it, but he does well enough for me.