mrfahaji

You're probably right, but sometimes teams click in certain competitions. I certainly hope they don't, but I won't be celebrating their lack of trophies until it's a definite.

They're still in the Champions League, let's not count our chickens...

Thanks for the report. I think with such an important match in 4 days time you can cut the manager a bit more slack as well (e.g. the Boufal comment). I think team selection today was a case of "damned if you do, damned if you don't", because Wednesday is the most important match but it's also good to win whatever the competition. I guess one of the problems with Long is that his workrate ultimately leads to more chances coming our way, but then he also needs more chances to score. Hard to know if he's the best option for Brighton, I'd say not.

I'm not going to give an opinion on today's game because I couldn't even listen to it on the radio (ridiculous). Perhaps someone at the game good answer something - when he made the subs in the second half, when we in the ascendency or had Watford started to come back into it? The reason I ask, is that if things are going well, you don't need to change it. If things aren't going so well, or the other team changes things and starts having more of the game, you make the change quickly. It feels like Pellegrino generally does the opposite - when the other team swap things round, he doesn't know how to counter it. But when things are looking quite good, he goes defensive and surrenders the initiative. You don't have to use Plan B if Plan A is working!

I tried to get Solent online but no luck, guessing it's because I'm in London and therefore not able to get it. Seems ridiculous that in this day and age it's not even possible to find RADIO coverage of a match. The BBC World Service says they are covering our game, but they are actually covering Nott County-Swansea. (official site just gives me silence too, what a joke)

Wasn’t that our promotion season? Glory hunter.

Interesting post. I like the theory, but a smart 'thinking' manager should also excel in the tactical side of the game, surely? It's all very well being analytical and thoughtful after a game (it is a good trait, no doubt), but what really counts is how quickly you can think and make important decisions DURING the game. And more often than not he has looked like a deer in the headlights.

Although I am generally more of a fan of getting to the byline for crosses - mainly because it makes defenders face their own goal - there's nothing wrong with having a mixture, but particularly if you have a target man on the pitch. Recently I have been a strong advocate of getting behind the full backs and whipping low crosses in because I think that's the only/main way that Gabbiadini and Austin can thrive. When we had Pelle, putting a ball in from deep wasn't such a terrible idea, and maybe Carrillo will now give us that option too.

Phew that's a relief, we don't look shaky at the back at all

I think his name is pronounced "ka-ree-zhoh"... or at the very least the standard spanish way of "ka-ree-yoh" Shame because it would otherwise be crying out for the Amarillo song!

Haha, reminds me a bit of Conte's "unfortunately we only had Barkley on the bench" comment

All fair points - I certainly haven't written him off, it was more a facetious (but true) comment in response to tajjuk's overtly pro-JWP post which Mosin would be proud of. I don't think fans should get on the back of a player at all, but especially a young one who has come through the academy and seems to have some sort of affinity with the club. It might even be justification to cut him extra slack, give more opportunities and be more patient with his development. But I don't think it's reason to stick on the rose-tinted glasses and pretend he is already showing signs of being a superstar in the making.

I don't think Carrillo's (presumably pronounced Car-ree-zhoh) stats can tell us a great deal. He's only scored in 2 separate league matches all season. But his time on this pitch in each match is (in ascending order): 0, 2, 5, 6, 10, 12, 13, 18, 28, 36, 45, 45, 45*, 61, 90*. * matches he scored (2) in. You'd hope he might have found the scoresheet a bit more in the cameo appearances but it's not really a lot to judge on, for better or worse.

Haha, I can totally imagine that - streams have a habit of freezing just when there seems to be a chance on... Must've been a little bit annoying at the same time not seeing it in real time though. I had a similar feeling receiving messages from friends (not even Saints fans) who were a few seconds ahead of me. As much as it was great, it would have been better without a spoiler!

Went to the home leg but had to make do with watching the away leg on my Sky Mobile app. IIRC, because the video is a bit delayed, I remember seeing a couple of whatsapp messages show up at the top of the screen which hinted we might have scored. That obviously took the edge off the surprise, but when it went in and had I seen it with my own eyes I'm pretty sure I did a mixture of skipping and leaping around with some hysterical shouts. Then my joy turned to worry as I realised I was going to have to try and change my flights and cut a holiday short - firstly, whether it was possible, and secondly whether the missus would be ok with it. It was (at a price), and she was (after a few months of apologising...) :-)

Indeed. If JWP ends up being our all time record goalscorer like Lampard has at Chelsea, then I admit he would have exceeded my expectations.

Carrillo has managed a return of at least 1 in 4 in 5 of his last 6 seasons. That's not too bad. But this season he's only scored in 2 league matches. He got a brace in a 6-0 win and a 3-2 win. Would want him to score in more than 2 games till the end of the season... although if he scores two against Liverpool to give us a 3-2 win he could be forgiven.

On one hand it saddens me that this is clearly a Pellegrino signing (and will be our record signing to boot) because it means he isn't going anywhere. BUT, if he isn't going anywhere, then maybe we are at least better off having a player he might know how to utilise. Can't believe it's got to the point where we have to be so short-termist in our approach though.

I know signing a striker isn't the most efficient way of solving defensive frailties, but it might also be useful to have someone else who can reach/head the ball when defending corners...

We don't appear to be very good at scoring more than once, that's the trouble...

True, although I do wonder quite how much the "playing for the manager" thing is a myth. I think "looking like they're trying" tends to coincide with how well the team are doing (not always, admittedly), which is a product of tactics and preparation for the match. Of course, there is also the mental side that players are generally more likely to be up for a match vs Spurs than Huddersfield. Someone posted on here a while ago about James Scowcroft talking on the radio saying that players would nearly always get up for a big game because they didn't want to be thrashed & embarrassed. Nothing wrong with being a nice chap, in fact I think it's sad that so many people seem to admire people who act like sh1ts in the name of business/results, but if the players like Pellegrino because he goes easy on them in training and let's them have a bit of a free reign, then that's a problem.

Unfortunately that is lost on me, although I have just looked up an image to see what you're referencing. Haha, yes, hence my penultimate sentence about not really sure what to make out of it. But some people, myself included, like looking at stats and data, even if in this case it's more about looking at the background/bigger picture than drawing any reliable conclusions. I probably could have written less and just posted the picture but I wrote it all under the assumption the image wouldn't work, and then it did!

Giroud is a handsome chap, no doubt, but that's going too far.

Yeah that's one of things I find strange, surely his "technical supremacy" [sic] would also be reflected in his ability with a moving ball as well.

I've been looking back at the bottom half of previous few seasons at this stage and at the end of the season. It hasn't been anywhere near as tight as this before. In 2014/15 there were 3pts between 15th & 18th, and that's the closest anyone in the relegation zone has been to teams much further up. Reason for hope? In the last three seasons, the team in 20th have been relegated twice, the team in 19th once, and the team in 18th all three seasons. Yikes. Admittedly, that doesn't mean anything really, at least one of the bottom three after 24 games has escaped by the end in each of those seasons! Only four sides have more than doubled their points tally from now until the end of the sesaon (Leicester 14/15: 17 + 24, Sunderland 15/16 19 + 20, Palace 16/17 19 + 22, Leicester 16/17 21 + 23). Interestingly, the three teams to escape relegation in the previous three years were these teams (Leicester 16/17 being the anomaly who were 16th). In order to reach 40 points, we need 82% of our current points tally. This has only been achieved by 7 teams in the last three seasons. The four mentioned above, plus Palace 14/15 (26+22), WBA 14/15 (23+21) & Swansea 16/17 (21+20). Taking out the outliers (2 highest & 2 lowest) of the bottom 13 clubs, the average points tally in the remaining 14 games of the season was 14/15 68%, 15/16 57%, 16/17 57%. An overall average of 60%, that would take our current points total to 35. A figure that would have been enough to stay up last season and probably (with a decent GD) in 14/15, but not in 15/16. Last season the bottom 6 were separated by 2 points. Palace, Swansea and Leicester have already been mentioned above as putting in a stellar final few months, while Middlesbrough and Sunderland tanked and only took 12 points BETWEEN them to the end of the season. Hull had a decent return, 70% (20+14), but it wasn't good enough, especially due to the impressive performance of a few others. I'm not really sure what to take from or make out of any of this really, each season is different so you can't draw any conclusions from statistics. But it was interesting to look at anyway, maybe others might find it so too. Never uploaded a picture before (successfully anyway), let's hope this works...