saintwbu

That game was flat and a real slog, so one manager made a tactical change at half time and changed the game, the other didn’t do anything. Guess which one won!

I also thought JWP had a good game, he reads the game well so seemed to be filling in at RB quite often when we were caught out. He's not got any outstanding attributes that are going to make his standout other than arguably set pieces, but for me he is never a weakness on the pitch. The criticism he gets on here often seems to be a 'told you he was crap' type thing whereas I still maintain we are quite often better when he plays.

Spot on. A much more competitive performance than against any of the big sides pre-Ralph. Two sloppy goals before half time killed us but we tried and we had a game plan. These aren’t the games that will keep us up or send us down, but it was good to see a few fringe players.

If only his passing and judgement matched his interviewing skills

Bet he’ll give a great interview after that. Absolute ****ing idiot. Completely unnecessary tackle against Huddersfield to miss West Ham. Game’s over and he makes a stupid tackle like that to miss 4 massive games, Captain my arse, give it to Romeu.

https://twitter.com/moshirisboys/status/1078576188958916608?s=21

Does anyone genuinely think that wouldn’t be given if it was Aguero going down in our box?

Much more packed in midfield to compensate for reverting to a back 4. Obviously going to be more conservative with a lot of firepower to bring off the bench if we’re still in the game at a late stage. Could go really wrong, but i’m quite excited for this, will be interesting to see Moi start too, clearly he’s in Ralph’s plans for the future after coming on the other night too.

A lineup so random that it’s exciting! COYR!!

Didn’t McQueen make his debut out of position at left back away at City? I’m sure the lad will handle it, it’s not like he’s been plucked out the Sunday league he’s been in our squad the last two games so clearly Ralph rates him. Good luck to him, it’s got me excited for a game I was a bit ambivalent about.

Hopefully VAR will eventually replace referees rather than assist them

Anyone see that video of Peter Walton (**** ref) in the BT studio the other day talking about Salah's dive against Newcastle? 'Would you have given it Peter?' 'At Anfield I would have' [cue roars of laughter throughout the studio]. Not even subtle anymore, pathetic.

Hasn't this Ramsey got quite a lot of goals and assists at the youth levels for a RB? Valery has looked knackered a couple of times recently so maybe Ralph feels this is the game to get him a rest when we are the big underdogs and get him fit for the big games coming up after. No one had heard of Aaron Wan-Bissaka at Palace before Hodgson gave him his debut and he's since been one of the top 3 RB's in the league, I bet a lot of Palace fans were sceptical about his initial inclusion too. As mentioned, we don't know how these lads will do once they play at this level, some will rise and some won't. But not getting in the team under Hughes/Pellegrino shouldn't mean they are instantly written off. Puel gave game time to youngsters, he's doing it at Leicester too, most of the time the youngsters he played for us did just fine.

I’d much rather our defenders focused on blocking the shots rather than pussying out, then maybe our keepers wouldn’t have to worry. McCarthy has been brilliant for us, I feel calm with him between the sticks, unbelievable that people want him replaced.

Good article with PEH in The Times this morning - just a throw away comment or does this really mean Kayne Ramsey will be starting at RWB vs City? link to article: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/pierre-emile-hojbjerg-interview-pep-guardiola-is-the-most-demanding-person-ive-met-qq237mzg8 “On Thursday evening, after Southampton’s defeat by West Ham, Hojbjerg, even though he was suspended, stayed beyond the end of the game and checked with Kayne Ramsay, a young unused substitute, whether he needed a lift home. Tomorrow, as captain, he will have to check that the 18-year-old full back can cope, on his debut, with the pressure of facing Kevin De Bruyne. We have had a couple of debuts this year and I always tell them you are here because you are good enough, the reason you get this chance is because you have the quality and don’t forget that now, or in a year. Kayne is a good guy and it will be an amazing opportunity, it will be his way into the world of men. From boy to a man in one night.”

I’d imagine most would point to the fact that he would have used his foot to score if he hadn’t been bundled over by the defender and goalkeeer, to be fair.

If you compared it to the throw-in Valery was booked for against Huddersfield, Fabianski was taking an eternity

As long as we bring in a half decent replacement, there aren’t many i’d be more pleased to see the back of than Cedric

West Ham just did a job on us. Happened under Poch, happened under Koeman. Sometimes, no matter how effective your game plan may be against most teams, some managers are just good enough to stifle it. From the off you could see we were slower moving the ball, McCarthy’s distribution much slower, because West Ham knew exactly what we wanted to do and stopped it. Ref was shambolic, allowed them to waste time from the first minute so they could slow us down and break up play, anyone who was at Huddersfield on Saturday saw Valery (?) get booked for one throw in that wasn’t even that slow, and yet West Ham got away with absolutely everything last night. As for Carroll, ****ing hell im glad we don’t have him in our team, would find it extremely difficult to enjoy watching us if we did. An absolute thug of the highest order and astonishing that he wasn’t booked, I still can’t believe it now - I had to go home and rewatch all the incidents after the game and they were actually even worse than I thought in the ground!!

People can think what they want about Charlie Austin, but you’ll notice he’s the first one with his arm around the youngsters every single game. Even back when Sims made his debut I remember Chaz posting about him on social media. That sort of leadership and encouragement for the youngsters can be invaluable.

Great! Thanks for that

There was a song going round today to the tune of the ‘ohhhh Balotelli, he’s a striker, he’s good at darts, an allergy to grass but when he plays he ****in class’ one from his City days. Ended with something about Pompey and I think I heard Germany mentioned. But I couldn’t for the life of me work out what it was. Sounded really good though.

“What worries me is a player who reported serious depression and addictions to this man a few years ago was seen as weak and a liability. No support given. But hey... another day, another obvious decision. Morality stays away.” The quote of a former footballer on Twitter. Player referenced was a Saints player at the time apparently. Not a Reed hater by any means, but find that very sad to read if true.

Was Jermaine Wright black?! I was quite young when he was in his prime killing it for us but never realised that! Mane was bloody lazy too, apparently.

Was Jermaine Wright black?! I was quite young when he was in his prime killing it for us but never realised that! Mane was bloody lazy too, apparently.