Lee On Solent Saint

Better teams with better squads.

We aren't going to win the competition, let's be realistic. We aren't going to make any real money from a cup run and our current squad is too threadbare to maintain a run in a European competition. I would love us to win it, but my priority would be league points as a higher finish would guarantee extra income.

I think Salisu needs to play in this game. He'll possibly have come up against Willian Jose before in La Liga before. It's a free hit, if we win great, if not, is anyone seriously expecting us to win the cup anyway? In my view ideal opportunity to give him a start.

Would agree with the confidence issue if there was a stadium full of fans berating him. As think we have seen before that has a negative effective on some players.

Not really sure I would class 8 starts and a further 8 as a sub as a fair crack. Like I said, not saying he would be any different but seems too soon to write off a player.

Redmond's been on the slide for far too long now, but still gets further chances. Not saying that Elyounoussi would be any better, but he hasn't really had a fair crack of the whip. We could have tried again with him and not bothered with Walcott, who let's face it hasn't exactly set the world on fire here.

Who do you think are serious buyers?

Get that with Hoedt and Lemina, especially Lemina who just is a waste of space. Always thought that they got rid of Elyounassi too early though. Sure there is a player in there somewhere. Got to be a better bet than Redmond at the moment

I don't think Mitrovic going down the way he did, did him any favours though!

That's what I was getting at, the squad depth. On paper the starting 11 is pretty strong, but beyond that we are struggling. Even the Newcastle bench had a lot more options than we did today. They had a bit of experience, we had the kids. Have we got too many players out on loan?

Let's hope so

That's how I saw it. In terms of squad size, is Ralph going the right way about things? I know we don't have the resources, but to insist on working with a smaller pool of players is really hurting us at the moment. It's obvious that our back up players are nowhere near the level required. I know it's his mantra, but is it a mantra that is forced upon him by the board? Would his squad depth by better at Leipzig?

I guess the question is, how do we get back to that kind of form?

But were we really though? We seemed to benefit more than most from the first Lockdown, which enabled us to reset and recharge our batteries. Before that we were heading down the table at an alarming rate. I think that without the pause we would have been in that relegation fight along with Villa and Bmuff. We were shite before the lockdown. I think because of the short turnaround between the seasons, we still had that momentum from playing over the summer. For whatever reason the break suited us.

How in God's name did that shower of shit get to the top of the table? What's happened to us since the City game? Is it to simplistic to say that the injuries we had over the course of a few months disturbed our momentum so much? Or is it something else? I get that players lose form over the season, but this lot have bombed out so much it's crazy. Firstly, I sympathise with Forster, after the last nine, Gunn was immediately replaced. I'm not saying Forster is any better than McCarthy but after keeping three clean sheets in the three games he played, I think he deserves a run of games. I think if Saliusu is fit, he has to start a few games now. Bedernak is suffering at the moment, I think he needs to come out of the firing line. If Saliusu is the future then he needs games to bed in. Not sure where we are with Betrand. I have always liked him and thought he has been a good player of the years. I think had we got another left back in the window that would have signalled the end of his Saints career. I guess he is on a fair whack for us and the chance to not offer him what he is looking for is too good an opportunity to get his wage off the books. Soon as they went down to ten, Moussa should have been on. He's not much better than Redmond, but at least his direct and has pace. Apart from him and KWP we don't have any. Adams is also going through a rough patch, although I do question if he has what it takes to be a success in the PL. He is so one footed it is almost laughable. Sure, he'll get a few goals a season, but he's not a 10-15 a season player. Ings just doesn't look like the same player and that's one of the biggest worry. He's clearly away in the Summer and looks like he can't be arsed. He must have a move sorted out regardless of form as the way he is playing lately, even Eastleigh wouldn't be interested in him. If Liverpool would have sanctioned it, I would have preferred Origi to have come in.

We've had some great performances with Ralph and a lot of shit ones too. Today was just a complete clusterfuck, how a team cannot pepper another team when they are down to 9 is beyond me. Was he screaming from the touchline to tell them to get it forward? Why was Redmond on the pitch still? Moussa isn't much better but at least he knows how to run and is direct most of the time. Unless we are in serious danger of relegation with about ten games to go, then he stays. That doesn't look like it will be a problem this season, but he really needs to up his game next one. Ultimately it's the finances that decide this. We can't afford to sack Ralph and he won't just walk away. It's laughable to think we were shitting bricks a few weeks ago when Lampard was sacked

How can the same shit happen twice? Once a freak occurence, but twice? It shouldn't happen. We all thought the club was getting back on track,but the events of the past few days have just showed us for what we are. A Micky Mouse club run by an owner who either doesn't care or lacks the basic tools to run a football club. If we didn't know we were skint before the transfer window we do now. Looks like we had to shift three players out on loan just to be able to get a player in, who we just got offered and took as a panic as all our other options weren't available. There is going to be a firesale in the summer,Ralph will walk, then we will back to square one, hiring out of work managers who nobody else wants.

It's next season I really worry about

We just need to be thankful that we got that points total before these injuries. We aren't going to be sucked into any kind of trouble, however it's massively annoying to just throw away that start and then see the season just slide away into nothing.

Amazed by this one. When he went to Liverpool in the first place I was really disappointed as thought he would have been the perfect player for us.

Has anyone thought about recalling Mo from Celtic? Not even sure we can, but surely he can't be any worse than Redmond at the moment

We should see how this season in relative safety, probably finish no higher than 12th or so. What is really concerning is how the squad is going to look next season. It's clear that we have no money and just to keep afloat we are likely to have to sell what's left of the crown jewels. Ings and JWP the first ones to go. Kat sold us down the river when she let Gao buy the club. She surely must have realised that he didn't have a pot to piss in.

Like others have stated, in principle VAR is a decent idea. However, the bias toward the big six still continues and whilst the standard of Premier League officials continues to decline then it will not work. How many decent officials do we think there are in the Premier League? Despite the League Cup Final I always thought Andre Marriner was ok, maybe also Craig Pawson. Michael Oliver seems non fussy, however I can't remember the last time he was in charge of one of our games. Graham Scott maybe too. However there are too many officials just not good enough or just nit brave enough to make decisions.

You have to ask yourself if this shitshow of incompetent decision making would have happened at Old Trafford or Anfield? I would wager that 99 times out 100 penalties for that type of offence would be given for Liverpool, United and City. If Mike Dean is the referee this coming Tuesday we had better not make any tackles anywhere on the pitch.

My first Saints idol too. Wasn't he spotted playing Tyro League? Remember everytime I played thinking that if Steve Moran can get scouted playing Tyro then why can't I?! Obviously never happened!