Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan

The close-up of Beattie celebrating then seemingly shouting "no" at himself for celebrating against us, like it was instinct to celebrate but not what we actually wanted to do

Interestingly announced on the website as "Men's First Team" rather than U21s. As with a few signings this year, looks to be one brought in ready for next season or to go to Turkey next season, rather than to help us stay up

There seems to have been an awful lot of player turnover the last year or two, looking at the squad list for the most recent match I'm not really sure who a lot of them are! Seems we've loaned out a few who were regulars in favour of WSL academy players, assumedly to help the books balance a little more.

Ben Brown named as red-ball captain. He has experience and will play every game barring injury so makes sense.

Can we make Lallana watch this on repeat this week in the vague hope he remembers how good he used to be and turns it on again just for one game

I think Armstrong did a good job there when asked last season but basically because he just ran up and down a lot. Not sure anyone we have is technically or physically good enough to be in midfield

I imagine it's also to do with staffing. If you're only opening 3 stands, and you know you're going to need the Itchen open anyway because it houses all the hospitality etc then it makes sense to close the stand that no-one needs to go into anyway.

Will be interesting to see once we are mathematically down if any of the u21s get moved up for some experience in the dead rubber games. Dipepa scored 2 last night and has senior experience from Port Vale so may leapfrog Ballard in terms of who is next in line

That is very sad news, Vince is a very important part of the club, would be sad not to have him as captain for a year. Baker and Turner are down under at the moment on a Lions tour and seem to be doing ok, will be interesting to see how often they bowl in tandem for us in the championship

Can't say I'd mind being pulled in front of the head of HR there...

Agreed, you look at the stand-out back 3/5's over the years and a lot of them play with one more dynamic player in the back line to account for it having 5 defenders. Bertrand did it for us, you look at Chelsea under Conte and they had Moses as one wing-back so played with Azpilicueta as the wide CB so they still had the defensive strength to cover it. Even back in 2002 in the world cup, Brazil played with 4 traditional defenders, and moved a midfielder into the back 3 to allow Carlos and Cafu to move further forward. We seem to be stuck playing 5 traditional defenders with their skill sets not really being optimised. I think a better balance would be to have a more attacking wing-back option. So something like a back 3 of Taylor, THB and Wood. Taylor has the experience to be a leader, you optimise THB's on ball ability as the middle pendulum, and Wood can cover the right space well. You then play KWP as a Wing back, and someone like Fraser on the other side, so it isn't just 5 defenders who don't have the cutting edge we need from the wide positions.

Seemingly it'll be a defender who suits his style of play but isn't actually an upgrade on what we have to slot in with James Bree and Nathan Wood

He took over as Chris Hughton's number 2 at Brighton back in 2016 when a certain Nathan Jones left to try his hand at managing

Bravery and risk seem to be separated by a very fine line. I'd like us to be brave, Russ wants us to be risky. The best Saints teams I've seen haven't been risky, but build on better fitness and solid foundations. Under WGS, Poch and Koeman we had a dependable back 4 which didn't change unless necessary, and two solid midfielders in front of them, generally a defensive minded player, and a better passer both who could run all day. The brave players were the front 4 or so, or those bombing beyond them who could make runs in behind or take on a man, knowing the foundation was behind them. It is a simple tactical suggestion that we don't have. Bridge used to bomb on, knowing Marsden would be there if needed to hold back. In the same way Lallana could take a man on, knowing that if he lost the ball, Schneiderlin would get it back for him. We don't have that now, we just play risky football in our own half, there is no foundation of defensive ability or numbers behind the ball to help. KWP should be able to make runs like he did against Chelsea, but there should be someone covering so situations like Chelsea's second don't happen where we lose the ball and instantly give them a 3 on 2 in our defensive third. We should take care of the ball in our half, then take the risks further up the pitch. Against Spurs, we really need to try and start with some basic foundational play. Play an actual midfield, in front of a back 4, they will have Kulusevski running from deep so we need someone who can run with him and stop him cutting in, rather than a back 5 split wide inviting him in. Use the full backs to progress the ball to the wide players, and move the ball inside further up the pitch.

Not really the match to take anything away from other than a good experience for the youngsters. We have three games this week and this is the least important, so the team was basically the normal bench and u21s, the captain brown doesn't even usually start for us. Against a WSL team, that was just about experience more than anything