WBA vs Saints - Match Thread

[SuperSAINT]

Interesting game, this one.  They will probably come out and attack us which might suit us. 

A win would really set us up for the cup match.

Hopefully we can use the preparation time wisely.

Edited 4 April, 2021 by SuperSAINT

[JRM]

WBA have to beat us to have any chance of survival and will be confident after beating Chelsea 5-2. Should help us if that means we can get more space and target their defence. 

Ralph might be tempted to make a couple of changes with the semi final in mind. 

[qwertyell]

Salisu for Bednarek, who has been consistently rubbish since the turn of the year. Lost pretty much every challenge yesterday and, having been at fault for Burnley's second goal, almost cost us the points at the end when, again, losing Wood and then pulling him back by the shirt which should've been a penalty. Time to bench him.

Minamino for Walcott, who got a nice assist but is possibly the worst decision maker in top flight history. His all round performance was poor, like it pretty much always is.

Otherwise, same again.

 

[JustinSFC]

Hard, hard game this one.

Score Draw.

Need to see both teams on the day mind.

[Sheaf Saint]

40 minutes ago, qwertyell said:

Salisu for Bednarek, who has been consistently rubbish since the turn of the year. Lost pretty much every challenge yesterday and, having been at fault for Burnley's second goal, almost cost us the points at the end when, again, losing Wood and then pulling him back by the shirt which should've been a penalty. Time to bench him.

Minamino for Walcott, who got a nice assist but is possibly the worst decision maker in top flight history. His all round performance was poor, like it pretty much always is.

Otherwise, same again.

 

It's a weird one with Walcott. He does make some awful decisions, and the way he wasted that break opportunity yesterday was shocking for a player with his experience. But strangely, despite his obvious shortcomings, we look a much better side overall with him in it. The attack just looks more balanced and coherent. Can't say the same about Minamino.

[nta786]

Final audition for Wembley right.

I think Ralph will definitely start Redmond, Armstrong and Ings on semi-final day. So then the last spot up for grabs is between Adams/Walcott/Djenepo/Tella. 

It feels nice to finally have options off the bench - I'd start Djenepo and Adams though over Redmond/Walcott for this one to give them some minutes, with Ings and Armstrong.

Otherwise, the back 4, goalkeeper and 2 number 6's pick themselves.

[beatlesaint]

15 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

It's a weird one with Walcott. He does make some awful decisions, and the way he wasted that break opportunity yesterday was shocking for a player with his experience. But strangely, despite his obvious shortcomings, we look a much better side overall with him in it. The attack just looks more balanced and coherent. Can't say the same about Minamino.

Yeah I agree, its a weird one with Theo, he still plays like a 17 year old sometimes when it comes to decision making but that was a great little ball to Redmond for the winner and we do look better with him but I dont know why 🤣

[Daft Kerplunk]

The fight will be there from WBA but it would be nice if we can compete like we did yesterday and put a further dent in the reputation of Allardyce and make it harder for them to beat relegation 

[northam soul]

56 minutes ago, beatlesaint said:

Yeah I agree, its a weird one with Theo, he still plays like a 17 year old sometimes when it comes to decision making but that was a great little ball to Redmond for the winner and we do look better with him but I dont know why 🤣

He was trying to pass it back to Forster 😁

[whelk]

Always want to scream at Theo when he is inevitably infuriating at times in game but as said above we are better with him. Still has the electric pace as well.

also would rather be shouting at Theo screwing up chances than watch the Brighton dirge where we create f all

Same side but also wouldn’t mind Salisu for Bednarek. 

Edited 5 April, 2021 by whelk

[VectisSaint]

Would play Walcott every time over Minamino wh has been a total waste of time since his arrival, 2 goals excepted. Walcott makes things happen and is much better defensively , but his decision making (yesterday) was woeful, but it was his first game back. Time to bring Stephens in to replace Bednarek? I get that Salisu may be better but not sure he can partner Vestegaard without moving Vest out of his preferred left side position.

[tajjuk]

Hopefully with a week's rest, full training with the whole squad and the people coming back from injury with a match under their belts we should have a bit of a sharper start. 

If we player like we did for the rest of the game past the first 30 mins we should beat them easily.  Yes they had a good result against a 10 man Chelsea who seemed very complacent, but this is still a team that has only won 4 times this season and only scored 25 even WITH that 5. 

IMO Bednerak out of the firing line, said it another thread but he seems shot from the 9-0 to Utd, he was poor against Burnley and was poor against England, seems to want to wrestle the man he is marking rather than go for the ball and we were lucky he didn't give away a pen, as it was a clear pen. 

Edited 5 April, 2021 by tajjuk

[eelpie]

1 hour ago, JustinSFC said:

Hard, hard game this one.

Score Draw.

Need to see both teams on the day mind.

High Score draw. It's going to be an entertains game. Do not underestimate WBA anymore.

[Teddeer]

17 minutes ago, VectisSaint said:

Would play Walcott every time over Minamino wh has been a total waste of time since his arrival, 2 goals excepted. Walcott makes things happen and is much better defensively , but his decision making (yesterday) was woeful, but it was his first game back. Time to bring Stephens in to replace Bednarek? I get that Salisu may be better but not sure he can partner Vestegaard without moving Vest out of his preferred left side position.

Agree, Minamino is a bit too weak for me and perhaps not suited to the rigours of the Premier League. I'd say he is a better finisher than Walcott but that's not difficult.

[TWar]

6 days before arguably our biggest game of the season, playing one of the worst teams in the league, and are now pretty much completely safe. Controversial but I would rest a bunch of lads

Forster

Stephens bednarek salisu bertrand

Diallo jankewitz

Djenepo minimino

Adams Tella

Give the fringe players a chance in this less important game and don't risk the likes of kwp, ings, vest who have recently come back from injury. Maybe redmond in for Tella to keep confidence rolling. 

Edited 5 April, 2021 by TWar

[BARCELONASAINT]

WBA are playing us at a perfect time for them. They have just had a brilliant result and their confidence will be high. Add into that we have a Wembley semi final the following week and none of the lads will want to risk missing a chance to play at Wembley and apart from the odd position the starting 11 already picks itself. Allardyce will tell his team to be very physical and hope our players won't to risk the 50/50 balls.

With this weekends results almost all favouring us i wouldn't be surprised to see Ralph make wholesale changes and protect certain players.

[Saint Pete]

5 minutes ago, BARCELONASAINT said:

WBA are playing us at a perfect time for them. They have just had a brilliant result and their confidence will be high. Add into that we have a Wembley semi final the following week and none of the lads will want to risk missing a chance to play at Wembley and apart from the odd position the starting 11 already picks itself. Allardyce will tell his team to be very physical and hope our players won't to risk the 50/50 balls.

With this weekends results almost all favouring us i wouldn't be surprised to see Ralph make wholesale changes and protect certain players.

It's going to be interesting to see which way Ralph goes with this. Personally I think he will want to maintain the momentum of the last couple of games and give the likes of Ings & Theo another game to get them fully up to speed before the semi final. So I think it's unlikely he will make changes unless there are particular worries over fitness or knocks.

[S-Clarke]

Could be a bit of an 'after the lord mayor's' show for them, you often see it play out like that.

Would be good to get some momentum again and I think it's fully possible.

[Toadhall Saint]

4 minutes ago, Saint Pete said:

It's going to be interesting to see which way Ralph goes with this. Personally I think he will want to maintain the momentum of the last couple of games and give the likes of Ings & Theo another game to get them fully up to speed before the semi final. So I think it's unlikely he will make changes unless there are particular worries over fitness or knocks.

You can bet your house that whichever way he goes it won’t be the best way. Mind you that’s football fans for you 

Edited 5 April, 2021 by Toadhall Saint

[beatlesaint]

1 hour ago, VectisSaint said:

Time to bring Stephens in to replace Bednarek? 

No thanks, Jack’s best left on the bench or in the stands. 

[CB Fry]

33 minutes ago, TWar said:

6 days before arguably our biggest game of the season, playing one of the worst teams in the league, and are now pretty much completely safe. Controversial but I would rest a bunch of lads

Forster

Stephens bednarek salisu bertrand

Diallo jankewitz

Djenepo minimino

Adams Tella

Give the fringe players a chance in this less important game and don't risk the likes of kwp, ings, vest who have recently come back from injury. Maybe redmond in for Tella to keep confidence rolling. 

I don't think he'll do that. Over the medium term our form is terrible. We need to be going into the Leicester match with a team firing and settled, and winning together. The last thing we need us to just chuck matches away just to avoid injury.

Far too much value has been placed on the concept of bloody "rest" on this forum.

What about the concept of "match fit"? Ings, Walcott etc need to play, not rest. The WBA is a week away, the cup semi 6 days after that. No rest required.

 

 

Edited 5 April, 2021 by CB Fry

[Matthew Le God]

34 minutes ago, TWar said:

Forster

Stephens bednarek salisu bertrand

Diallo jankewitz

Djenepo minimino

Adams Tella

Our pressing system falls apart without attacking fullbacks, take an attacking one like KWP out and put in a defensive one in and it all unravels.

[whelk]

7 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

I don't think he'll do that. Over the medium term our form is terrible. We need to be going into the Leicester match with a team firing and settled, and winning together. The last thing we need us to just chuck matches away just to avoid injury.

Far too much value has been placed on the concept of bloody "rest" on this forum.

What about the concept of "match fit"? Ings, Walcott etc need to play, not rest. The WBA is a week away, the cup semi 6 days after that. No rest required.

 

 

Indeed and not as if the cup game is mid week. Keep momentum 

[S-Clarke]

27 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

I don't think he'll do that. Over the medium term our form is terrible. We need to be going into the Leicester match with a team firing and settled, and winning together. The last thing we need us to just chuck matches away just to avoid injury.

Far too much value has been placed on the concept of bloody "rest" on this forum.

What about the concept of "match fit"? Ings, Walcott etc need to play, not rest. The WBA is a week away, the cup semi 6 days after that. No rest required.

 

 

Agreed, too much is made of 'resting' players. I'd argue that a week is more than enough 'rest' time between matches, and any more time out and you're kinda playing in the realms of losing match fitness.

Keep the same key players, get some momentum, take that into the Leicester game and leave everything on the pitch.

[Toadhall Saint]

Don’t break up a winning team unless forced to do so.

[Roo1976]

1 hour ago, BARCELONASAINT said:

WBA are playing us at a perfect time for them. They have just had a brilliant result and their confidence will be high. Add into that we have a Wembley semi final the following week and none of the lads will want to risk missing a chance to play at Wembley and apart from the odd position the starting 11 already picks itself. Allardyce will tell his team to be very physical and hope our players won't to risk the 50/50 balls.

With this weekends results almost all favouring us i wouldn't be surprised to see Ralph make wholesale changes and protect certain players.

Sadly there are no more 50/50 tackles now a days due to the player breaking down in agony at the slightest hint of have been assaulted,but yes play the fringe players and hope that the regular first teamers arnt required.

[M271]

With a 8 days before and 6 days after this match no need to rest players unless have a niggle.

It's nice to have a nearly injury free squad at the moment, could have done with this a month or so ago when the games were coming thick and fast and some resting and rotation would have been beneficial.

[Pamplemousse]

Absolutely zero need to rest players. 6 days between West Brom and Leicester. The next game after is only 3 days so maybe rotation for the Spurs game

[Badger]

2 hours ago, beatlesaint said:

No thanks, Jack’s best left on the bench or in the stands. 

I suspect Salisu is now the third choice CB (unless Ralph wants to protect him, and go for Stephen's greater experience).

[Avenue_Saint]

Forster

KWP Salisu Vest Bertrand

Diallo JWP

Walcott Armstrong

Ings Redmond
 

 

McCarthy

Stephens

Bednarek

Jankewitz

Djenepo

Minamino

Tella

Adams

Nlundulu

[Avenue_Saint]

7 hours ago, beatlesaint said:

No thanks, Jack’s best left on the bench or in the stands. 

This.

[Dark Munster]

Having key players like Ings and 

8 hours ago, TWar said:

6 days before arguably our biggest game of the season, playing one of the worst teams in the league, and are now pretty much completely safe. Controversial but I would rest a bunch of lads

Forster

Stephens bednarek salisu bertrand

Diallo jankewitz

Djenepo minimino

Adams Tella

Give the fringe players a chance in this less important game and don't risk the likes of kwp, ings, vest who have recently come back from injury. Maybe redmond in for Tella to keep confidence rolling. 

I agree, but the word "rest" is perhaps better replaced by "protected". As others have said, there are 6-7 days between matches, so they don't need resting. But the last thing we want is for Ings, KWP, Vest etc. to do what Romeu did at Leeds. If the match is still tied after about 60 minutes then bring on Ings from the bench.

[Charlie Wayman]

7 hours ago, Toadhall Saint said:

Don’t break up a winning team unless forced to do so.

Automatism is so much part of our game that Ralph will not change a winning team unless forced to do so.

The manager's view of the FA Cup SF will be quite different to a player's. Ralph will want to re-build the momentum and automatism that we had at the start of the season so that he has a good chance of winning and reaching the FACup Final;  individual players to a certain extent will be expendable in pursuit of his aim whereas each individual player will desperately want to start at Wembley and will do his level best to avoid injury against WBA.

For them it's a catch 22, if they play flat out against WBA they could risk injury but if they play half-heartedly to avoid injury they could well be dropped for the SF. AS Ralph said yesterday, he has now for the first time in ages a quite strong bench to call upon. The message from him could not be clearer. 

For these reasons I expect yesterday's team to start again against WBA and Leicester and do well against both. All being well we should coast to a 3-0 victory at the Hawthorns.

 

 

[DT]

They scored 5 against Chelsea with incisive, clinical attacks. Not hopeful on this one defensively but fingers crossed. Salisu in for Bednarek?

[Saint Fan CaM]

Don’t agree Minemino is better than Theo...unlike Theo he wouldn’t have had the vision to have picked a up the loose ball at the back and picked out Redmond for the winner at the weekend. I think this the key with Theo now - he has bags of ability and so he takes defenders away from Redmond, Armstrong and Ings. He stays in for me.

I agree with those saying keep a settled team...there really is no reason to change anything. We should win this...but it will be a nervy tough one...I’m going 2-1 Saints.

[Jeremy]

$10 on a Saints win.  My mate Glasgow said so.

[JRM]

WBA seem like a team we've done well against in recent years, pretty sure we won up there twice last time they were up (including cup game) , they are also the only club to have conceded more goals than us in the league this season, between us it's something like 112 goals conceded so get your money on a 3-3 draw. 

[SKD]

14 minutes ago, Jeremy said:

$10 on a Saints win.  My mate Glasgow said so.

No ‘insurance bet’ on West Brom this time round?

[SKD]

5 minutes ago, JRM said:

WBA seem like a team we've done well against in recent years, pretty sure we won up there twice last time they were up (including cup game) , they are also the only club to have conceded more goals than us in the league this season, between us it's something like 112 goals conceded so get your money on a 3-3 draw. 

Surprising stat, not one you’d expect from a big Sam team. Do you have the break down from before / after Big Sam? I don’t know if that changes the view of that. 
 

Expect this to be a tough game, they’ve got some Half decent attacking players. A good test for us. 

[Nolan]

Allardyce has not beaten us since leaving West Ham.

[Forester]

22 hours ago, Toadhall Saint said:

Don’t break up a winning team unless forced to do so.

This.  I thought Bednarek was very poor against Burnley, but has probably only had two or three bad games this season and doesn’t deserve to be dropped as a knee jerk.  As other have said, great chance for both starters and subs to show why they should play at Wembley.

[Professor]

On 05/04/2021 at 08:02, qwertyell said:

Salisu for Bednarek, who has been consistently rubbish since the turn of the year. Lost pretty much every challenge yesterday and, having been at fault for Burnley's second goal, almost cost us the points at the end when, again, losing Wood and then pulling him back by the shirt which should've been a penalty. Time to bench him.

Minamino for Walcott, who got a nice assist but is possibly the worst decision maker in top flight history. His all round performance was poor, like it pretty much always is.

Otherwise, same again.

 

Interesting how opinions vary despite being based on largely the same information.  On Sunday, while commentating on the Burnley game, Adam Blackmore told Dave Merrington  he thought Bednarek was his Man of the Match. If he's been "consistently rubbish", you have to wonder why the manager keeps picking him and he gets selected to play for Poland.  I suppose its just that some opinions are more valid than others and some are of no value at all.

[Cabrone]

Full strength team and go for it 100%.

Absolutely no 'resting' until we are mathematically safe, until then every game is important.

[Sunglasses Ron]

All of a sudden, we're in a great position.

Most players now back from injury, still need a few more wins to guarantee safety and everyone competing for the cup game.  Seems like a perfect mix to me.

I'm starting to fancy our chances against Leicester 😮

[Colwinston Saints]

On 05/04/2021 at 08:02, qwertyell said:

Salisu for Bednarek, who has been consistently rubbish since the turn of the year. Lost pretty much every challenge yesterday and, having been at fault for Burnley's second goal, almost cost us the points at the end when, again, losing Wood and then pulling him back by the shirt which should've been a penalty. Time to bench him.

Minamino for Walcott, who got a nice assist but is possibly the worst decision maker in top flight history. His all round performance was poor, like it pretty much always is.

Otherwise, same again.

 

Walcott who has been out of the team since Jan, came back and we get our first win in forever.  

The same Theo Walcott who has only been involved in 5 defeats in 20 odd games for Saints. That Theo? 

Bednarek who has the most interceptions in the entire Premier league, more than 300 other players?  That Bednarek?

[Fan The Flames]

4 hours ago, SKD said:

Surprising stat, not one you’d expect from a big Sam team. Do you have the break down from before / after Big Sam? I don’t know if that changes the view of that. 
 

Expect this to be a tough game, they’ve got some Half decent attacking players. A good test for us. 

Goals conceded with Sam is pretty much the same as before, although this is probably down to a number of heavy defeats for the first half of his period in charge. They have been more stingy recently but at the expense of scoring goals, before the Chelsea game they had scored once in 5 games.

The Chelsea game is a real outlier and has improved Fat Sam stats no end, they are still not doing enough to stay up and we should really not lose to them. It remains to be seen if the Chelsea game is the beginning of a higher scoring run or they revert to form, my monies on the latter.

[Toadhall Saint]

Just now, Fan The Flames said:

Goals conceded with Sam is pretty much the same as before, although this is probably down to a number of heavy defeats for the first half of his period in charge. They have been more stingy recently but at the expense of scoring goals, before the Chelsea game they had scored once in 5 games.

The Chelsea game is a real outlier and has improved Fat Sam stats no end, they are still not doing enough to stay up and we should really not lose to them. It remains to be seen if the Chelsea game is the beginning of a higher scoring run or they revert to form, my monies on the latter.

Seemed like one of those days that everything goes in. Most teams get one of those per season no matter the position in the table.

[Toussaint]

2 hours ago, Sunglasses Ron said:

All of a sudden, we're in a great position.

Most players now back from injury, still need a few more wins to guarantee safety and everyone competing for the cup game.  Seems like a perfect mix to me.

I'm starting to fancy our chances against Leicester 😮

Yep, it was a wondrous sight to behold our substitutes on Sunday, Che, Minmouseo and Moussa all warming up, Salissu and Che coming on, we haven't had a bench like that in... forever it seems

Edited 6 April, 2021 by Toussaint

[Whitey Grandad]

1 hour ago, Toadhall Saint said:

Seemed like one of those days that everything goes in. Most teams get one of those per season no matter the position in the table.

We get those days too but normally the goals go in against us. :0

[Chapel End]

Looking forward to a game for a change and confident of a good result