ScepticalStan

Martina having an absolute stormer. Questionable defender but actually a ****ing great footballer in terms of technique.

Something that should have been sorted out before the game. Unless it was, and Austin basically 'stole' it despite Tadic being designated...in which case Austin is slightly more to blame than Tadic. Daft as anything though.

I think perversely, a large part of the issue has been the fact that the smaller clubs like Leicester (and Saints to a lesser extent) have overachieved and have done well, whilst the likes of United, Chelsea and Liverpool have had some of their worst periods in recent memory to the point that one can't really imagine any of them doing any worse ever again. And despite this being the case, United can effortlessly plonk down £300Mn per transfer season and still attract the superstars as well as the hottest prospects in world football, Liverpool can still poach players from a team that had finished either above them or only one place below with total impunity, and Chelsea can nick the best player from the PL Champions even when they're down in 10th with no CL football on offer. I think most of us realise that when it comes to surprises and football clubs over/underachieving, this is absolutely going to be as good as it gets. The fact, however, that it has now been clearly demonstrated that there is no permanency whatsoever to any of this - and that the big guns overall footballing 'status' will remain the same regardless of what they do, is what people are disappointed by. Bottom line? All the evidence suggests that we have indeed peaked. And that last season really is as good as it gets. Does that make me support Saints less? No. Does it make me less excited by football in general? 'fraid so.

We've played well and the diamond has worked. Decent delivery from Redmond. We really do deserve something today.

**** right off Long

****s sake Tadic just play the pass on the deck. Why float it up in the air for no reason?

But this is the thing; you seem averse to the idea not because there's counter-evidence to suggest that it isn't true, but because it would be unpleasant if it *is* true

Thing is. there may be a bit of truth in the sense that there aren't many black 'tempo' midfielders at all, simply because, from an early age (literally 11 or 12 or so), the main strength of most good black players tends to be their pace and strength - so they get put up front or on the wing, or into an 'enforcer' role in centre-mid or centre-back. Yaya Toure is a great centre-midfielder who can certainly pass well with both feet, but he's just too strong and athletic for that not to be have been wasted throughout his career by restricting him to a 'quarterback role'. Similarly, I'm sure Pirlo and Cazorla wouldn't turn down the chance to be as fast as Usain Bolt and have a Hulk-like physique, but as they don't, they only really have one position they can be good at.

Could you post the extract of that please? Didn't Laurent Blanc or Franc LeBoeuf (or someone like that - definitely French) get in hot water for saying that African players didn't have 'footballing intelligence' or something along those lines? Incidentally, 'footballing intelligence' has always struck me as a bit of a bull**** term. It's essentially having good technique and spacial-awareness which enables you to have a good touch and spot when and where there's a player is in space - there's no 'intellectual' quality in being an 'intelligent midfielder' there. Case in point - Paul Scholes.

Woops, those last two lines should have been the other way round - but yeah - you get the point - I think Smith's chances are higher than 1 in 12 but I struggle to see him attracting any voters other than those who actively want to vote against Corbyn. I'm struggling to imagine anyone who could quite like Corbyn but just be so filled with inspiration by Smith as to be bowled over into voting for him.

Had a little flutter on Smith at 12/1 in the Labour leadership election. Not expecting to win but I think my chances are higher than the 7.7% those odds represent. Aside from the fact that the polls overestimate the left-wing vote, there's also the fact that tonnes of Corbyn supporters and entryists are being ruled out, coupled with the fact that the entire Labour establishment wants him to go. The only trouble is that Smith is just an utterly bland, boring and uninspiring candidate who'd be utterly minced in a GE as much as Corbyn. Plus there should be a fairly strong 'shy Smith-ite' element given the threatening language of the Corbynites.

Micah Richards is the human answer to the theoretical question of "What would happen if you put the footballing ability of literally a bloke in the street in the body of a perfect athlete?"

Jesus christ who gives a hoot? Since Lallana we've bought and sold far better players than him.

The defence is indeed fine. The problem is that conceding a single goal has been enough to at least prevent us winning in all three of our matches so far.

What is the allocation likely to be for our matches? And will anyone who isn't a STH have much of a shout at getting a ticket? ...had a ST for 8 years and then ditched it this season due to work + long-ish distance r/ship commitments

The funniest thing about this thread is that the same people defending homophobic abuse are the same people who were clueless enough to harp on about how we needed more Chaplow-type players who 'put a fackin' tackle in' to get out of the Championship

Quite. I'd imagine 90% of both sets of fans neither intend, nor take any offence whatsoever at both Palace and Saints being utterly bored with one another in cups.

But this is it; we didn't need a Champions League-level centre-forward; just someone who could cover for Pelle when he was bang out of form and undroppable because we had absolutely no-one else to take his place. The likes of Conor Wickham would have probably helped us to a few more points or at least kept us in the hunt when literally all we needed was some form of a target man who didn't miss sitter after sitter game after game looking more and more anxious and embarrassed because he couldn't be dropped and given a break. At the end of January our record was 13-3-6 and we were third in the table. We then went on the following delightful little run throughout February where we only managed to score 1 goal in 5 matches (and against some very ordinary opponents too) which pretty much knifed our Champions League ambitions completely - all because we couldn't score (because - and yes, I was there for all of them), we utterly dominated the matches against Swansea, West Ham and West Brom in particular. Those matches amounted to arguably 8 points dropped and certainly at least 6. 1 Feb 15 Southampton 0 - 1 Swansea City 7 Feb 15 QP Rangers 0 - 1 Southampton 11 Feb 15 Southampton 0 - 0 West Ham Utd 22 Feb 15 Southampton 0 - 2 Liverpool 28 Feb 15 West Bromwich 1 - 0 Southampton Even Elia wasn't a total disaster given his couple of goals against Newcastle. The problem was that we had no proper centre-forward to hold the ball up - so the likes of Elia were receiving the ball with their back to goal every single time they got it.

Roma down to 9 men. They're basically out as even if they miracled an equaliser they'd have to make it through 30 mins ET without conceding.

Was just about to say, they're teetering big time. Bit annoyed I didn't have a stab on HBS to qualify pre-match.

Yeah interesting to hear I'm not the only one to be impressed with Seager's commentary! Very well-spoken and eloquent for a 20-year old footballer!

Davis tries really hard and is British. Can't criticise him or expect better. Ever.

Right you are. Forgot about the rule where we pretend Davis is flawlessly brilliant. Carry on.

It was Davis who stood off Rooney for literally no reason.

I can't see how Clasie is, or should be, anything more than a squad player, but given that the prices we'd get for him are relative peanuts, we may as well keep him here for the added strength in depth. I really don't see what he's particularly good at though. Slow and short, tackling and passing isn't bad but certainly nothing to write home about. Adds nothing going forward and doesn't give us anything from set-pieces. I just can't really see what he's supposed to add to the team. He carries no obvious strengths.