saintwbu

Surprised to see he doesn’t have his own thread on the first few pages. Think he really deserves his own. Useless.

Within 5 minutes the whole stadium felt in agreement that Ralph completely ****ed it tonight. Felt sorry for Danso, absolutely shafted by the manager and can only assume it was his disagreement with Ralph on the touchline that meant he was hooked and not the awful Vestergaard. Very worrying that Ralph would pick Vest against a team that literally live for the counter attack at pace, very naive. I’m one of Cedric’s biggest critics too but even I felt sorry for him also, again completely stitched up by the manager, Danso had done a decent job at LB, why put two players out of position when one has already shown he can play there? And to be fair to Cedric, I thought he really put a shift in after half time and was one of our better performers. What a difference Bertrand made, never has a substitution been so obvious so early on, seriously worrying that Ralph doesn’t want to play him, and you could see Bertie whispering to Stephens/Yoshida/Long whilst warming up, i’ll be shocked if he wasn’t criticising Ralph and the decision to leave him on the bench whilst our makeshift back 4 was getting pulled all over the place. Romeu was superb, absolutely all over the pitch winning the ball back, mopping up, even tidying up after himself if he gave the ball away. I’ve been baffled by the love for Hojbjerg for a long time, tonight just proved yet again that he does not have the quality we need in CM. Romeu is the destroyer, JWP is the recycler, what is Hojbjerg? He’s not a box to box midfielder, he’s not a playmaker, he’s not a ball winner, he does nothing. I would say he runs around a lot, but even then I don’t actually think he does, and he has an awful habit of making a lazy tackle and completely giving up and letting runners go, his tracking at times is appalling, but nothing is quite as appalling as his passing. I reckon if you cut Prowsey’s legs off, he’d still pass the ball better than Hojbjerg. When he gestured to the Itchen to lift the noise in the second half I felt like running down to the pitch to tell him i’ll sing louder when you manage to pick out a single pass to a ****ing teammate, really wound me up. Bet he did a great interview after the game though. But I don’t wish to blame the players tonight, and I feel like the crowd actually were fairly positive overall tonight and the noise was pretty good considering the first half performance. Tonight all falls at Ralph’s feet. He hasn’t done much wrong since he got here, tonight he well and truly ****ed it up.

Absolutely head and shoulders above everyone tonight, possibly out of both teams. He plays CM on his own, Hoj is the biggest myth in history, he is nothing without Romeu, and not much with him either. Would love to see his stats tonight, between him and Bednarek the interception stats must’ve been huge.

I always wanted VAR. So far, it's doing its job well. Anyone who complains about its use only has to look at the two incidents we have benefitted from, the goal at Brighton and the goal yesterday, the fact that a highly paid professional linesman cannot see those offences without the help of VAR is a real worry and as clear justification as any that it absolutely is required!

Mane also has an incredible change of direction and ability to beat a play from a standing start, amazing footballer. Djenepo is going to be a lot of fun, glad he’s made a quick start because we all know these types of player don’t tend to get much patience round here!

Similar happened in the Nations League - Switzerland v Portugal. Ronaldo penalty appeal, not given, Switzerland go up the other end and get a stonewall penalty. VAR reviews the Ronaldo penalty appeal and give that one instead.

Having re-watched the highlights, it reminded me of more good work that Boufal did. Early shot which came close, he won the corner that led to the goal, and he set up Adams’ great chance. A good shift from him against one of the best defenders in the league.

The only derbies that come above or alongside ours in the UK are Celtic/Rangers, West Ham/Millwall, Villa/Birmingham. I know everyone thinks their derby is the best but none of the other ‘big ones’ come anywhere close to ours, Spurs v Arsenal is a tea party compared to this, United v Liverpool is only a big derby for Sky these days, nothing else comes close. We better ****ing win comfortably.

That Young free kick was also seconds before Danso’s red card, so had we got that free kick it would never have come to Danso hacking down McTominay as they broke. Another absolute **** show from a highly paid referee.

The corner he gave in the first half when Rashford had so clearly kicked it out, to the extent that Cedric walked alongside the ball as it went out, was a decision worth demoting to the lower divisions alone.

a CB at full back a long throw expert, Ralph's been watching Pulis

Important to point out that Boufal was up against Wan Bissaka too, for me the best defence full back in the league. Really wished he'd been switched out to the right hand side to face Young. Thought he did well, worked hard, they were definitely worried about him as he always seemed to have 3 players in front of him.

I like Adams, he’s strong and holds it up quite nicely, he just needs a goal for his confidence. His first two games he was getting into good positions, narrowly missing chance against both Burnley and Liverpool. Since then, he’s getting less chances and being quieter in games. To me that suggests a confidence issue. For me, as mentioned above, Ings’ ineffectiveness is much of a worry. Che will come good.

Yeah forgot to mention Romeu. What a performance, Hoj didn’t turn up at all so he basically ran CM on his own.

Silly from Danso but I really like him so far, will be great at CB I think. Very pleased for Vest, been criticised by all, including me, and I always say he should be more dangerous from set pieces. Well today he was a monster, and got an important goal too, great stuff.

Should’ve been our free kick for obstruction before the red card

Feel for Adams having to adjust to the Premier League whilst playing alongside Ings. Hoj absolutely stinking the place out as usual. Please get Boufal over to Young’s side, turn him inside out. Get Armstrong on for Ings.

Not his biggest fan but glad we’ll have Hojbjerg for a game like this. At least he gives a **** so will hopefully get into a few of our lot to tell them how important this is. If you saw their game against Sunderland in the play-off second leg last year, they came purely to fight and completely forgot they were there to play football, if they try and do that to us we’ll absolutely destroy them.

He did really well last night, and just think how much better he would’ve done had he not been scythed down by Fulham players at every opportunity. That tackle from Johanssen when Boufal was through on goal was an absolute shocker, should’ve gone for that I think.

Thank god we’ve got Ings to hit everything straight at the keeper instead

I had Redmond, but annoyingly had Che as my first sub coming in for Bertrand, with Cantwell the second On a separate note, I think that Locadia chance would've been ruled out for offside by VAR if it had gone it. However, Goals on Sunday have showed the handball shout against Bednarek, which MOTD didn't. I'd be very disappointed to not get that if I was a Brighton fan.

His instagram story yesterday showed him watching our game with caption something like 'come on boys' - I don't think he's played his last game in a Saints shirt, I think he'll be reintegrated into the team personally, and we could probably do with it. Lemina at 100% is a great asset to a team of our ability, just that we haven't seen it enough.

Really liked Adams' performance. Romeu's ridiculous yellow completely stifled his game. A great first half, out of it completely second half but finished bright. But we've been here many times before, Brighton is the acid test.

Think Djenepo could be a lot of fun

Of all the terrible signings we've made, and the money we've wasted, Danny Ings surely well up there, mainly for the fact that we had him for a season to see what he could do but then HAD to buy him whether he was good or not. Insane.