OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint

Not too sure about the pace of Saint Keef's experienced team up front, but that defence is letting no-one through! That said, with the current squad I really want RM to go out and field his best team. If he rests players, then rest all of them. Don't do a half-way house.

So here's what we do. We do a Millwall. Jack knobbles any of their strikers in the first five minutes to let them know we're there. Then we put everyone behind the ball except Sulemana and Edozie/Sam AA. Then, when they attack and lose the ball, Baz (not Lumley) hoofs it to our super fast forwards to score on the break. Can only get 40/1 on Betfair for 2-3 to us. They know it makes sense. 😉

I'm guessing Norwich will creep in to the play offs at the expense of West Brom, which is a shame because we did the double over W.Brom. They treat us with respect and hold off which plays in to our hands. The other inconsiderate sods go at us, so I think we'll struggle to get past Hull or Ipswich to even get to the final. The squad needs to swallow a gallon of positivity pills and get out there and play like they were doing a couple of months ago and avoid these play offs altogether.

Certainly give Sulemana a start on Wednesday against Liverpool given the way he played against them last time. Yesterday's match had all the hallmarks of last year. Passing sideways, down the wings then back again. You'd think by now we'd have a plan to get through teams that set up to park the proverbial bus.

Some say look at the opposition team before deciding your own line up. I say put out your strongest team every game. A player gets replaced when either crocked or suspended. Matchday programmes used to have a double page spread where you could easily see who had played every game and who was coming in from time to time. Without doing the analysis and my memory is short, I bet during Oct/Nov/Dec, we were often playing an unchanged team which builds understanding, confidence and a winning mentality. With cup games, additional players in the transfer window and Jack S being shoehorned in to the matchday team, RM is now constantly tinkering with the team. Stop it.

An alternative view is to say Klopp will put out a team that will keep some of his heavyweights on the bench, so here's our chance. Many think automatic promotion is now not realistic and barring a catastrophe, we'll be in the play-offs, so why not put out our strongest team. RM can show some respect to the 5,400 travelling fans and really go for it. A few strong tackles early on (aka Millwall on Fraser), they'll lose heart and we spring a surprise which will do wonders for players' confidence.

Did you get on the platform? Seemed like half Hampshire's constabulary was heading that way when we left the ground. Can't think of anyone who had a good game today. As some have said, the transfer window doesn't seem to have done us any favours. Even Brooks was largely anonymous. That ball needs to go in to the penalty area and there needs to be our players in there to do something with it.

Fucking hate that team. Ok, maybe judgement if coloured by the time in the late 1970's when my mate bet if I would wear my red & white scarf walking down Elland Road and that didn't end well, but fucking hate them. Their fans weren't altogether or whatever that crap is they sing until the 80th minute. Before that all I could hear on TV were Leicester. Really annoyed with Leicester throwing that away. Leeds looked very ordinary for a lot of that game. Hull would have buried them. Feels like a loss. Now, as S-Clarke has said, we've got 4 very winnable games starting today, so let's see how the land lies after them.

And tonight's game will see hope levels shift dramatically one way or the other. C'mon Leicester.

Everything about him says 'I don't care about this club'. While I don't necessarily want players thumping the badge, you see Fraser playing with real passion, you see Edozie trying his best, SAA really going for it and yet Sule gives an air of can't be arsed. Combine that with someone who's got no end product and he's got something to prove. He's not anywhere near as good as he thinks he is.

I remember this time last year after Stamford Bridge thinking if we win this/that match, we can still avoid relegation. The hope's back again but this time it's if we win this/that game, we can still get automatically promoted. It's not an irrational hope. We've still got to play the top three (the proverbial six pointers) so it's in our hands. RM needs to pick the best team, stop the tinkering and there's no reason why we can't do it. Certainly this year's hope is more realistic than last year.

Well, we've slipped up but I'm still hopeful. Many are singing Leeds' praises but contrary to popular predictions, they'll get thumped against Leicester and that'll knock the stuffing out of them 😉

Also prefer Mara to Che and like someone said, AA has been pretty poor recently, so I'd like one of the Sams to take his place but accept that won't happen.

You're right, this is a real concern. No Downes and the others in midfield look rushed. Better when Aribo and Brooks were on but Hull looked good, pressed hard, created a lot of chances and to be fair to them, they didn't go out of their way to waste time at the end of the game. Can't complain about the result. Annoyed with RM's starting line-up, especially Rothwell, but I'm still expecting Leeds to blow up on a couple of games (starting with Leicester on Friday) and we'll be back in it.

Is Brooks ready for a start? I also thought Mara did more than enough on Friday to justify another start ahead of Che. The one thing Che does ok is hold the ball up, but Mara did a good job of that on Friday despite being closely marked and he's got an eye on goal.

Agreed. His attitude, outwardly at least, seems to have changed. He injected more tenacity in to the team when he came on on Friday and filled the midfield.

He was but it's good he recognises his mistakes and addresses them.

But that tackle today was 😀. So glad to have got rid of him. It's not just the signings Wilcox has done well, he's also been good at offloading our dross.

Leicester missed a lot of chances yesterday but the good news is Iheanacho is back, so we have a chance of catching them!

I know a lot of posters say Charles is a kid, it's not his fault he cost so much and we should give him some slack and while I'm not denying there's potentially a great player there, he does need to work on his fitness/change of speed. As a 20 year old, I'd expect him to run all day, but in the second half we was ambling the whole time. There was no change of gear, no real intent to get back. Compare to Stuey's chase back and SC has a lot to learn.

Subs were brilliant. Was starting to get pissed off with Charles ambling back, and Aribo made a big difference. Edozie and Brooks also came on just at the right time and added intent. Well done RM. We might have a fantastic bench but he manages them well. Just the one, just the one undefeated...

Serves him right for getting rid of Holgate! 😀 That said, he's raided the Man City academy but now our contacts are established there, maybe it's not such a disaster if he's poached from us.

There seems to be a new legion of fans that have come out of the woodwork. Don't know where they're coming from or if there's any truth in the rumour that season ticket holders can buy double using the same numbers, but us SaintsPlus members are finding it harder to get away tickets. One person I spoke to at Sheffield earlier in the season said he hadn't missed a game home or away since 1980...and it sounded very creditable. Meeoww!

Charles looked cumbersome and only seemed to do the short pass but he was ok at the start of the season. Problem is, being out the team seems to have slowed him and reactions up even more. Like S-Clarke said, he was often out of position or when he got the ball, he gave it away and deserved to be yanked off at half time. And I'm not usually a Baz critic but couldn't he have anticipated and dived out to cut out the cross for the first?

You're right and I think half way through the second half he switched with KWP and Bristol switched their attacking side. Think more clubs will be doing the same.