mitch01

Great turnaround. Even though things weren’t coming off before RH came in, he was still our best player in the first half of the season. Remember watching the Newcastle home game and thinking he looked electric, but nobody finishing things off for him. Not sure he’ll ever have a totally brilliant relationship with the fans - anyone else think he shirks the Northam (even in the lap of appreciation the other week he seemed reluctant to acknowledge them). If so it would be fair enough IMO, treated horribly and there are still hangovers of that now in people’s reactions when he makes an error.

It's clearly been a few years of hard work to get himself to the place he is now physically, not just since RH came in. He's bulked up and become more dynamic. This was actually in evidence during the Puel season, where people forget he was playing really well for the most part, and he was showing he could compete in CM. I've always liked the idea of playing him in there, because he has such a good range of passing that it helps us break out of our own half and get on the attack. That's why the double sub worked so beautifully yesterday: pace to get in behind, and someone in CM more able to quickly get the ball wide to Bertrand and Valery as they bombed forward. Always defended JWP on the basis of his technical ability (too easily out of favour for someone who 'gets their foot in' IMO) but even I was wondering if it wouldn't end up happening for him here just 4 months ago. Delighted he's found a manager to who gets it and suddenly those FKs start dipping inside rather than agonisingly wide of the post, as seemed to happen for ages.

Not sure if was a view shared by many, but I remember thinking that JWP had been generally playing well in CM during the Puel season. The all-important 'end product' still wasn't quite there (skied that chance at the San Siro, I also remember a shocking miss at home to Swansea in a crucial game under Koeman), but I thought there were signs that good things were to come. Essentially the arguments on here would always come down to whether you thought those signs were there or not, or whether he would continue to 'flatter to deceive' (to use an uncharitable interpretation of his last 4 years or so). Those arguments can't really be 'won', they're about how you view the evidence you already have (are the signs of 'playing well' likely to lead to actually proving himself as a player?), and so it basically comes down to your intuition on the game. For me, the range of passing, glaringly obvious quality of delivery (both from open play and set pieces) and improving physicality (which really started in the Puel season, though its becoming more salient now with game time and new regime) were more than enough for me. He is and was never going to be an incredibly dynamic CM like Hojberg or Lemina (when he gets his act together), because those aren't gifts he was given, but I always like to see him on the pitch because he has a superb right foot and can find players in wide areas with a long pass and work in tight spaces in the centre. Those skills are ones our other CMs do not have (Lemina probably the closest). The battle obviously isn't won but glad to see he's impressed the manager - an unexpected positive from PEH's suspension. He still has work to do (he's so reluctant to use his left foot, even though it's not weak when he's forced to do so) and this limits him, but if he can step up a level or two under Ralph and keep affecting games then we have another great CM options for years to come.

JWP and Yoshida were very good indeed. Great point.

Infuriating, athough I thought there were mostly OK performances with the exceptions of Austin, Bertrand, Romeu and Mo. Hughes made big errors not starting JWP and Long / Gabbiadini. JWP isn't a dynamic player, but he is a lot more creative and likely to create an opening than Romeu. And elsewhere we decided to lump balls down the channel for Austin, which is hardly his game. Poor gameplan, and worrying times.

Affects the atmosphere as well. Loads of people head downstairs on 38 minutes and the noise noticeaby drops. A bit annoying that, you know, the actual football match isn't people's top priority but at the same time they should be able to head down on the whistle and get a pint.

Really hopeful that this is a big year for Hesketh. He's got loads of ability.

Electric in the first half, best I've seen from him. Bodes well.

Chris Makin was better when covering at CB than VVD

A really classy player, but still not operating on quite the same level he was. Really hope he gets it back, he was a joy to watch.

Real progress being made this season. Ability was always there, now he's starting to apply it and affect games. He seems stronger and faster, he threatens to win the ball back in dangerous areas. Some way to go before he should really be commanding a place in the England squad but there have definitely been some good signs in the last 3/4 months. In what has been a bit of an underwhelming season, the progress of our young English talent (JWP and Redmond) are a real high point.

Resting Yoshida for the big games. Strange times

Abondoned my train to Soton from London after 3.5 to watch the game at my relatives' house. Pleased with the points, shame to have to watch on telly after a 7am start! Cedric v good

Thanks. Put like that it does seem like we must have an incoming transfer, and we usually do this kind of thing very well. That said, it wouldn't surprise me that much if the message changed to 'We have Yoshida to come into the team and Jack Stephens is a great young player who can back up the first choice CBs.' Let's wait and see.

Does anyone have a link to this?

I choose to be pleased with the result

Amazing that someone who has delivered us nothing but success is so widely criticised. 2017 will likely be the first year since 2009 that we haven't finished in a higher position than the year before.

Makes it all the more ridiculous that the JWP bashing started when he was about 19

Catchy new version of the song

He's been great so far this season, but I think Forster could be our number one for a good few years (providing his recovery goes well) and he's also an excellent keeper.

Targett looked good whenever he played last season (one slip vs Liverpool aside). This season his two worst games have come at wing back, both in shocking team performances at Watford and in Denmark. I hardly see grounds to write him off (especially with the kind of vitriol on display here), given that he's still young and relatively inexperienced at this level. Recently we've been lucky enough to see Shaw, Chambers and Chamberlain seamlessly fit into the side as if they'd been there for years, whereas in the current squad we have Reed, Ward-Prowse and Targett, none of whom have nailed down first team places and excelled week on week. Now this might seem a ridiculous notion, but I tend to think that just because our youth team players (seen as full of potential by the likes of Koeman and Hodgson) aren't immediately amongst our best performers in the first team that doesn't mean they can't be valuable players for us in the future. They might even have outright bad games now and again. Young academy players, Southampton supporters. They're what you say you want aren't they, but when Targett looked every bit a downgrade on our £12m first choice LB vs Watford the other week the reaction from 'supporters' behind me was shocking. For what it's worth, I still think JWP will be a really excellent CM for us. He has so much technical ability and I think he'll get better and better at applying it in the PL. Targett also looks a great option at backup to me and could well make the place his own in 2 or 3 years.

Very much hope we close this one out - they seem to think we'd be getting ourselves an absolute diamond.

Came out of nowhere

Thought Pelle was great yesterday even when the team was struggling in the first half. Linking play, winning headers, and finally the goal came. Good on him. When he plays well, and even through this run he's only had a few bad days, he's definitely our best option at centre forward. Probably suffered a bit being pretty much our only player who didn't get a rest through the middle part of the season - would be great to see him end the season strongly.

*Elia, obviously