Nordic Saint

I was at Maine Road in August 1989 for what may have been his last away game for Saints, which we won 2-1, with Danny Wallace scoring both of our goals and then I was there again a month later when he made his league debut for Manchester United, with United losing 5-1. That kind of summed up how his career soared with us and then nosedived at United. [89/90] Manchester City v Southampton, Aug 23rd 1989 - YouTube [89/90] Man City v Man Utd, Sep 23rd 1989 [Highlights] - YouTube

"I'm not watching us play when he’s starting. I’ve had enough. Worst buy in years." "I fvcking detest this plank. Just the sight of him on the pitch makes me feel sick." I know how Leicester fans feel. I used to dread seeing his name on our team sheet. Vestergaard signs - Page 57 - Leicester City Forum - FoxesTalk

Juanmi scored his 12th league goal of the season tonight to help keep Real Betis in 3rd place, which is not bad for a wide midfield player. Juanmi: Karim Benzema's rival is among the top finishers in Europe | Squawka Tonight's game: Resumen de Real Betis vs Deportivo Alavés (4-0) - YouTube

I hadn't heard the "You're just a small town in...." song for a while, as in last night's "You're just a small town in Reading." But, to be fair, the Brentford fans started it with their gleeful reference to Portsmouth earlier on, and lived to regret it. Maybe we could have had a more unusual twist to it like, "You're just a small team in nylons" But, I doubt that younger fans have even heard of Brentford Nylons, which was about all that Brentord was once famous for. They went into administration in 1976. Brentford Nylons - YouTube

Spot on. He must have had to use two versions of his surname, growing up: the Albanian one with his parents and the Anglicized version at school.

I agree. It reminded me of how games at St Mary's used to be back in 2016. Ward-Prowse, Diallo, Broja etc were outstanding but having Forster back in goal seems to improve the way the whole team plays. It was especially pleasing to see us dominate the second half of a game against a Brentford team that's scored a lot of late goals this season. They were outworked and outclassed and as the 3rd and 4th goals went in looked like they just wanted to go home. An exception to that was their young German midfielder, Janelt, who as well as scoring a very good goal, kept battling away in midfield.

18 of the 26 Premier League goals conceded by Brentford have come in the first half. Brentford have scored 3 winning goals in the final 10 minutes of league games this season, more than any other top-flight side. Saints are a first half team; Brentford are a second half team. I think I can see how this game is going to go. We'll need to score at least 2 goals in the first half.

He's had the service but some of the other players have now stopped bothering playing passes in front of him to run on to because they know he doesn't do it until it's too late, so the ball will just end up with an opposition defender. At Blackburn he played very much the goal hanger/ fox in the box role but in the Premier League players are expected to do much more, including a lot of running off the ball outside the box, which Ings, for example, was very good at. Top Premier League strikers, like Vardy, Son, Salah and Mane, are all masters at it and it's how they get most of their goals.

If only he would do that. I had high hopes for Armstrong against Swansea as I thought against Championship opposition he might rediscover his Blackburn form but, sadly, once again one of his main problems, his lack of anticipation and poor running off the ball, was very much apparent. He stands still and waits for the ball to be played to his feet instead of running to balls played into space front of him. We know he has great pace but because he waits until after the ball has been passed to start his runs, he never makes full use of it. There was one perfect pass played 20 yards in front of him yesterday, which could easily have resulted in a goal, but he just stood and watched it.

I've been impressed by our team spirit and organisation when we've gone down to ten men recently against Spurs and Swansea. It's a very big improvement on what happened against Leicester and Man United. When did we last lose a game with both Forster and Elyounoussi in our team? We always seem to get good results when they both play.

And, even there, he's not exactly setting the world on fire: Alexandre Jankewitz - Stats 21/22 | Transfermarkt

Brentord fans' view of today's events: Rasmus Ankersen Leaves BFC (and buys Southampton) | The Griffin Park Grapevine

Henrik Kraft has a background in sports analytics. He has a 1st from Oxford. His Tonsser company researches ways to develop footballers. Erling Haaland is one of the players they have helped develop. The combination of Kraft and Ankersen should be very good news for us. They are two brilliant men focused on building a top sports organisation.

Rasmus Ankerson coming to Southampton is great news. What he has achieved at Brentford is remarkable. Imagine what he can achieve here.

Results today put into perspective how good our recent results against top six sides, West Ham and Spurs, were. Not many teams will take 4 points off West Ham this season.

Rameau: Suite in E Minor, RCT 2 - V. Le Rappel des oiseaux (Live at Mozart Hall of the Zaragoza... - YouTube

The screaming. It looks like Spurs practise their cheating in training. They are very good at diving, screaming and then mobbing the ref, with Kane constantly in his ear demanding cards for opposition players. The jumping up and backing into the goalkeeper to knock the ball out of his hands was another cheat they'd practised. Since the 1960s it has been 100% a foul to knock the ball out of the goalkeeeper's hands with any part of the body, but usually it's done with boot or head. By smashing into him backwards, they hoped to get away with it.

It's a rugby tactic: kick the ball into touch deep in the opposition's half then it's going to take them a long time to get back up the pitch. When you are down to 10 men and trying to hang on to the end of the game, it makes sense. As we've seen in our last 2 games, Forster is very good at 'game management'.

The whole team played well but Forster, Ward-Prowse and Walker-Peters were really outstanding. We have the makings of a top 8 team there.

I'd prefer to see him celebrating a goal. We are not going to catch Man United but Newcastle just might catch us. Maybe I'm being overly cautious as on the evidence of our last game, we aren't in any real danger of relegation.

Strike One. Now we need an injury to Saint-Maximin and 2 Manchester United goals.

A lot of it is based on prejudice rather than observation of how he played. His chipped pass that started the move for our first goal was superb.

We've won 5 of the last 8 Premier League game Forster has played and we finished 6th and 7th with him in goal. His stats for points won per game and goals conceded per game are miles better than McCarthy's. So, whereas all of the facts show that Forster is much better, and we get much better results with him in goal, you stick to your prejudice.

But, Saints have won 5 of the last 8 Premier League games Fraser Forster has played in so with him in goal you expect us to win.

Billy Beane, the man who invented Moneyball. Now if we could just get Paul Mitchell back what a combination that would be. But for that to happen we'd need Red Ball to merge with Red Bull. Yeh, it's probably going to be DaGrosa, DaFaka or some other chancer, isn't it, and we'll just end up with a Red Bill. Seriously though, I'm feeling optimistic about this takeover, especially as it looks like it's timed to happen just before the January transfer window opens. As for Paul Mitchell, good as he is, he doesn't stick around very long anywhere, does he? I'm not sure why he left Red Bull for Monaco but I guess it was for more money.