FriendlySaint

RIP

Most post and come to this section only. It's in the right place. RIP

They have twice as many points as us and are top. They deserve some respect..

Ward-Prowse has been good this season. He must be ill or being rested for the Europa League game.

I think he looked as sharp as ever against Inter in terms of his fitness.

Inter parked the bus against us with a deep line. Liverpool will most likely play a very high line.

I'm not suggesting sitting back. Liverpool are relentless. We are probably going to be on the back foot because of how they play. Only slightly though and I reckon we will have a chance to counter in an open game. I'm not suggesting sitting back on purpose. I'm talking about giving ourselves the best chance of hitting them on the counter constantly in an open game.

He was dangerous from minute one against Inter on the left.

Different sort of chances he creates from the right in my view. The trajectory of the ball, whip, angle .. makes them harder to convert. He creates more clear cut chances from the left that are easier to convert because of the ball flight, curves/spin and different pace of the ball in (being a left footed player). That's how I feel. When I picture him creating from the left they are inviting and clear cut chances. Chances created, or goal scoring opportunities created, is very vague in my view.

I think this in essence highlights a problem. Our fan base understand where the front three should be playing, Puel doesn't. We all have Redmond on the right and Tadic on the left (Austin central ) for 433. If Boufal plays it should be left, so once again agreed. And if Rodriguez plays it should be on the left. The main one for me is Tadic. He is so much more effective on the left than the right. I laughed that a couple of posters have put a template for a diamond 442 (which we certainly aren't playing). It's a 4321/433 no doubt. My team is ---------Forster Cedric Fonte VVD Bertrand ----------Romeu -----Clasie------Davis --Redmond-Austin-Rodriguez My game plan is to try to hit Liverpool on the counter. Liverpool are going to be pressing high, looking to be on the front foot. I think Rodriguez in particular might get space to get in behind. Palace looked extremely dangerous on the break against them.

Re: goals The way we play the front three have a lot of freedom and are expected to contribute the goals. They are being fed constantly. Whilst I do think the midfield three, whoever they may be, ought to chip in occasionally..the main place we are looking for goals is from the front three. It would also be nice if the defence, or a play from midfield, could chip in occasionally from set pieces at least. Right now Austin and Redmond have 8 of our 12 goals in the league. This brings me to the next point. Tadic. People can whine all they want about if Austin is a replacement for Pelle or not. If Redmond is a replacement for Mane or not. End of the day Austin and Redmond have contributed 8 goals between them in the league. Austin has 8 goals in 9 starts this season in all comps! That's a great return. I wonder how often a player has 8 goals in all comps for us by this stage of the season. Very rare. I'm not particularly happy with Redmond. But it's the manager who chooses his position and at least he has 3 goals so far. He's also working hard defensively. The front three do interchange (particularly Austin and Redmond). Tadic on the other hand has 1 goal and no assists in 863 mins according to the stats. Bring the Europa into the equation and it's 1138 mins for 1 goal, no assists. That's surely not anywhere close to good enough. If one player gets stick it should be Tadic for his lack of goals and end product. Austin is playing great (hope he can keep it up), Redmond I'd like an improvement from, Tadic a big improvement from. Another thing I want to say is concerning Rodriguez. He has played 250 mins in PL+Europa combined and 2 goals. I personally think he looks a real danger with his movement when he plays. He has potential to bag 10+ goals this season if he gets game time and stays injury free. I'd like to see him get more game time over Tadic (if Puel is insistent in only playing Tadic on the right). This gives the option of moving Redmond to the right, Rodriguez on the left, Austin central. They can interchange however much they like too. I reckon having Rodriguez and Austin in the same side for a few games could be interesting. Our best two finishers and natural goal scorers in the squad in my view. Both good in the air too. Boufal we can see his goal scoring record isn't fantastic from his stats. Bar the wonder goal..he's a good dribbler and likes to take a man on. But I'd like to see him playing closer to the striker, instead of so wide. Then he'd get more opportunities to score. Right now I'd rather see Rodriguez in the side over him, just for the goal threat. The worry with Tadic is he keeps playing on the right. Under all our managers he's struggled on the right. Almost all his end product for us has been from the left side. Even in the Europa game the cross he put in that led to the pen was from the left. If I'm manager if Tadic plays it's always on the left. He's so much better on the left. The answer to our woes could literally just be moving Redmond right, Tadic left and playing Austin central (occasionally interchanging with whoever he wants) if he wants to stick with the same front three. This will automatically mean more chances to Austin. Tadic is much more creative from the left, and Redmond will be from the right.

Pelle threw his toys out the pram after being subbed off. The manager said he wouldn't pick Pelle again after that. Pelle has played very well for Italy and would be in the team otherwise.

Bore off

Big reason for the own goal too in my view. He knew Austin was near him and almost certain to convert, panicked and put it in his own net. Inter panicked as a team when Austin came on and Saints had a lot more confidence.

50+ No CB is better than Van Dijk.

I seriously think there is a case that McQueen is a better option than Bertrand on current form.

Just got back from the game. The goal we conceded was unlucky and a great strike. Forster might be a little disappointed, but no doubt it was a great strike and understandable that he didn't keep it out. Ward-Prowse's positivity on the ball and wanting to get the ball forwards to feet was good to see. Then you get his set pieces. He's a must start for me in important games because of the set pieces. Van Dijk had a stormer and I felt he could have had at least three penalties. The referee bottled it all game, as did the assistants. The penalty we got looked like it was given for nothing, for what was ball to arm (yet to see a replay). But the aftermath was appalling. The referee failed to control Inter and they delayed the penalty being taken for ages. He should have given them about 3 yellows during the squabbling and red card for the elbow. I really liked the look of McQueen again. Good performance from him. Yoshida was surprisingly good and positive in possession, I actually thought Yoshida was great today. No one had a bad game, I thought everyone that played had a good game. The stats show quite clearly how dominant we were. I want to add again... Tadic much more dangerous today when he found himself on the left. I wish that's where he played, rather than the right. Although he shouldn't be taking any penalties for us from now on in my opinion. EDIT: VVD MOTM. 10/10 from him. And I almost forgot. Thought VVD was fouled in the build up to their goal One more thing. I love Fonte and what he's done for us. But it's clear now VVD steps it up another notch when he has the captains armband. I think he's the best CB in the world right now after tonight's performance, the complete CB.

If I was going to spend money it would be at right back. We need a top class right back. I think it's the only position we don't have at least a decent player in. Martina and Cedric are quite average (not bad, but need improved on) in my opinion. Top right and left backs are like gold dust though (ones that are good going forward and at defending) and I really don't know which one I would bid for. I would be looking for an improvement at left and right back going forward to be honest if I could plus central midfield. In an ideal world it's at least the new right back plus a top quality central midfielder that can run the game and passes forward more and quicker than our current players. Our current team isn't bad though and showing a lot of potential

Could have made a difference today if Ward-Prowse played instead. We would have have Ward-Prowse taking the set pieces too..

You do realise this is real life and not a video game? Forster was not to blame for their goals..

2 of them were away games in Europe...one was away at Man City..and one was away at Leicester and today at home vs Chelsea ....so that's five of the last seven that aren't exactly easy games... We've still won 3 of our last 6 in the league. One loss in 6 in the league. That's not bad. 9th in the league and 2nd in our Europa league group. Were you expecting us to place top four and win the Europa league this season?

Both their goals were great strikes. On another today neither of them go in anyway. We could have had one or two ourselves. You are negative. None of our players are terrible.

Just back from the game. Disappointing game against a side that parked the bus (did it very well mind) and only looked to hit us on the counter (did that very well too). It was a real shame we conceded the early goal, as they were always just going to sit deep with the back five (I refuse to call it a three). Despite all our possession we did too little with it. Not enough forward passes, not enough crosses from deep (not sure why we were scared to cross from deep today? One of the few times we tried Davis had a header deflected onto the bar..). Mostly importantly at times Chelsea were perfectly happy for us to have the ball and we were simply not moving the ball fast enough. It's a shame we don't have another capable aerial threat on the bench. And I think it's times like that when a manager should think about thinking outside the box. Perhaps sending VVD up top next to Austin, axing an attacker/midfielder for Yoshida to do it and being more direct (long balls, crosses etc)..because Chelsea were so deep. I thought Austin worked harder than anyone else today (and won almost everything in the air). And I really do think the whole team bar Austin had given up at 2-0. McQueen brought some life back into us and it's a shame that borderline offside call went against us. Because it would have given us a sniff, it was also a goal Austin deserved for his hard-work. Just before he scored the disallowed goal he was chasing the ball everywhere and getting little help. He made a brilliant covering tackle late in the game too when we had 4-5 players caught upfield, he stopped Hazard near out penalty box once or twice and just generally pressed hard whenever he could. Think he was brilliant today and deserved a goal (shame it was disallowed). But apart from the two moments (bar, offside goal) we struggled. That being said Chelsea defended brilliantly as a team, particularly the wide players and wing backs. It made it very difficult to get the ball into the box..and then they had quality in the middle of the park too and the three cb's (obviously Azpilicueta is a full back, but was playing right centre back). The most frustrating thing was the 2nd goal probably where he was given too much space and time, but a brilliant finish. Both their goals were brilliant finishes, we hit the bar, scored a borderline offside goal..against a decent side. It was just one of those games and one to forget I reckon. No point dwelling on it. Didn't think anyone really had a stinker. But no one was better than average today for me apart from Austin. But that was a lot to do with how good Chelsea were. I think McQueen starting over Bertrand could have made a difference today, he looked good when he came on. Bertrand is obviously the main man and we were on the front foot a lot more than expected. We were missing that wide man. This was also probably a game where Tadic should have been on the left wing all game trying to get crosses in I reckon, but he was on the right. Oh well. I thought Hazard was brilliant for them and Kante was excellent on the ball in tight areas. 92% passing completion for Kante is very good going considering how deep and defensive they were much of the game. Moses also a pest on the break and worked hard. It was just a tough game , we didn't have the rub of the green at all and they scored two brilliantly executed goals..one to forget..

Maybe Adkins is the reason they developed so well, you can't prove otherwise.

Austin Sturridge Tadic Henderson Dier Hojbjerg Bertrand Van Dijk Stones Walker Forster That's what I'm going with. The assumption is Puel is still the manager with the same system.