mrfahaji

I think he may end up being the odd man out in that midfield competition. In Davis, Hojbjerg, Ward-Prowse and Clasie, we clearly have a midfield that can be improved no matter who is first choice. Davis has the most to offer going forward (despite his woeful finishing), and is club captain. Ward-Prowse and Hojbjerg are both slightly younger than Clasie, and in my view have hinted at having a higher ceiling. Sure, Clasie has had decent games, and going back a few months was probably in the best form of the three. However, I'm yet to see him have anything more than a 'decent' game, and he continues to struggle physically. While JWP and Hojbjerg are yet to convince me they should be first choice, I have at least seen performances from both of them which suggest they can improve into excellent players. I have seen more from Hojbjerg in this regard but accept that JWP has discovered a bit better form of late.

Hopefully JWP will prove to be an excellent crosser of the ball. Until recently one of the things that has surprised me about his game is that given his ability (ok it is overhyped but still good) with a dead ball, he isn't particularly good at striking a moving one, whether it be long passing, crossing or shooting.

I believe the players requested to play in the white strip.

It looks smart but it is just a blank shirt, really not much to it! I'd be happy to have it as our away, but then I've always found it strange when a team has an away kit that is the same colour as at least part of the home strip...

There is a reasonable chance Austin will be. No idea about VVD though.

Generally yellow is good, but I loved our navy muvi kit from a couple of seasons ago.

Fine as an argument for not focusing on one or two mistakes, but my concern about how slow he is remains. Also I was hardly getting on his back, just providing a counter argument for why one or two good games doesn't mean he's suddenly brilliant. I thought he was excellent at home to Inter, for example, but he then put in several terrible performances over the next few weeks.

When I read "EFL rules meant we couldn't have played in all white even if we'd wanted to though." I thought there was some rule about not playing in all white, maybe darren2 did as well. But I'm guessing you mean we couldn't because our white shorts would clash with United's white shorts? Unless we went for the Xerox/Florida style, I don't want us to move away from the stripes. I love them. I'm not a fan of the white bib/bra on this year's kit but I think the stripes look smart. White kit is much better than the black one though.

Possibly, he's definitely played a lot better recently. However I am still a little unsure of his natural attributes - covers the ground so slowly and even mentally seems a bit pedestrian at times. It was his dawdling on the ball when on the attack that eventually lead to their second goal. I also remember him tracking back and making a really good challenge to dispossess a United player, only to play a dreadful ball towards the left which rather than setting up Redmond (or maybe Bertrand) for a run at goal, ended up giving Valencia chance to scamper away on the break.

Probably should have sung "one Markus Liebherr" while doing it, not only would it have made the tribute a bit more complete, and more obvious to those who didn't know, but would also have been another song for the occasion.

I also think that's probably why the United fans mocked it at the end, and weren't they singing something like "what the fking hell is that?" when we (well, not me) did it?

In fairness I think Dusic is right about Romeu. He has been brilliant all season but it was a rash and needless challenge which led to the goal and perhaps more importantly his yellow card meant he had to hold back a little for the rest of the game and wasn't quite his usual combative self. He still played well, but perhaps a little shy of the exceptional performances we have seen so much this campaign.

The irony of one of the kids near me repeatedly singing "stand up if you love the Saints" missing the equaliser because presumably, as much as he loves the Saints, loves a beer or a hot dog a little bit more. He also seemed more interested in taking selfies, posting to facebook and at one point facetiming the game to a mate than watching, yet still had the audacity to make out he was a better supporter than those around him! There were certain points in the game that standing certainly felt like the right thing to do, but to some people it seems like they are hell bent on it purely to antagonise those around them. I was delighted at being surrounded by people singing, can't stand it when it's so quiet at St Mary's, but when the people in front of you stand up with their scarves in the air and you're having to hunch over and peer through a little gap to see what's actually happening on the pitch it's easy to start wanting them to sit down!

Blimey, have I really just read three consecutive alpine posts and agreed with all of them?!

Of all the annoying posters out there he must be the most deserving of the ignore button. Quite clearly not a Saints fan.

That's just the problem, isn't it? You've been having a go at the manager all season and you're not open to the fact that just maybe you might be wrong. As for our route not being emphatic... We played Premier League teams every round: A convincing display against Palace, a competent performance against Sunderland settled by a brilliant goal, playing Arsenal off the park at the Emirates, dominating Liverpool at home and being disappointed with a 1-0 win, and being the better side for an hour at Anfield and not conceding a goal until today. But yeah, underwhelming. Puel out. Can only assume you're missing a U, T & Y from your username.

Feeling gutted and angry that we lost, but only in spite of how we played not because of it. A few observations: 1) Since we have had Gabbiadini in the team our style of play has really come together. Puel has set us up excellently in recent matches (even West Ham wasn't a bad performance). 2) The ball was barely in our half yet we conceded three goals. Ibrahomivic showed his class today and benefitted from Stephens' inexperience. However I'm getting a bit fed up of Forster not pulling out any saves AGAIN. De Gea made a couple of great stops that Forster simply wouldn't have done. Ok, it's de Gea, but Darren Randolph did a similar thing a few weeks ago. 3) People criticising the substitutions - can see the argument for keeping Gabbiadini on but Long's pace also made sense and Gabbiadini was looking pretty knackered. I like Tadic but he struggled to get in the game and from an hour onwards he was a bit half hearted in some of his efforts. 4) It was fun celebrating taking the lead (took me quite a while before I realise it had been ruled out), and then when we got the equaliser. Will try to look back and remember those euphoric emotions rather than the bitterness I felt on 87 minutes. 5) Thought Kenzie Benali's stint before the game made us look a bit small time, like we needed someone to reassure us how well we were all doing. If I had a quid for every time she said "you sound amazing", all a bit patronising. Arguably the phone light thing too, although I appreciate the sentiment of it. Other than that I thought we did a great job as fans. The guy in front of me making a point of singing "stand up if you love the Saints" on numerous occasions obviously didn't love Saints enough to get back to his seat in time for our equaliser though, how ironic. 6) If we can convince van Dijk to stay, as difficult as that might be, upgrade at least one of the central midfield positions and get a new goalkeeper we could have a really strong side next year, and I've seen enough to think we have an astute manager in place too. Top 4 is always going to be a tough ask and probably unrealistic, but not sure a poster should petts should be called a "complete twot" for the suggestion. 7) As much as getting into Europe again would have been nice, it may also help us tremendously next season not to have a game every three days. Puel seems to have made good use of our time off, unlike Koeman who just liked to head off on holiday as often as possible.

Just double checked kick off time as not planning on leaving until about 1pm... (in London already though so not so bad). I'll be in Block 533 singing from the top of my lungs, hope others in the block join me!

Not sure this one would actually work as the song isn't catchy enough for a chant, but it doesn't seem to stop other suggestions so here goes! "Genie in a bottle" Well he came from Napoli He scores goals home and away Gabbiadini* in a bottle, you gotta see Manolo play * (pronounced Gabb-ya-dini to make it fit)

Hmmmm. Don't get me wrong I don't want Rodriguez to be unhappy, but Sims is more of a threat and also played a key role in getting to the final. Also, when a player who isn't playing anyway goes on strike, I'm not sure who loses out other than the player themselves... "Sorry Jay, you haven't made the squad" "Right, that's it! I'm not playing!" "Correct."

Seems odd that Maggie May started a thread on Adrian Caceres yet doesn't remember Gareth Bale. Sarcasm surely.

So you're saying that their best players are better than our worst players? And you'd happily have Newcastle's first XI as our reserve team? Not exactly sticking your neck out with that one! Totally agree on Pied though, that guy has been gash in every match he has played.

I get the impression Les would take MoPo back in a heartbeat too. After we lost Koeman there was a lot of talk about what we want to achieve, and a lot of referencing back to Pochettino's time. He may have left the club in a slightly underhand way which left a bad taste, especially as he went to Tottenham, but he was undoubtedly an excellent (maybe even perfect) fit for the way the club operates.

My uncle wanted to get a ticket, he is a member and has been to several games this year. Unfortunately he doesn't use a computer, either calls or goes to the ticket office. It means that none of his purchases have been linked to his membership (not really sure how this can happen, would have thought they'd need his customer number even if calling?), so will instead have to wait until it goes to members with no purchase history. Unlikely I'd say! Bit of a shame, and shows how for all the convenience the online system brings to most of us, it can leave a few out in the cold somewhat!

I always associated it with Wolves.