The Cat

Looking forward to seeing De Ridder start a game. I'm going to the Emirates tomorrow with my mate who supports Shrews. Good opportunity to see the stadium I thought. This means it's nailed on both us and Arsenal will win this week and we'll draw them away in the last 16.

Finally people are understanding the game we are trying to play. Just look how frustrated Wood was getting in the second half when Davis delayed taking the goal kick because Fonte and Hooiveld were marked on the edge of our area by their strikers, only for him to side foot it straight down the middle of the pitch to an unmarked Cork or Hammond dropping back. This then gives us space and time with the ball near the halfway line, something you rarely get when just whacking the ball to Lambert and hoping it sticks or is layed off while he's getting tightly marked by one or 2 players. I was most heartened that at one point in the first half the crowd clapped when we passed the ball BACKWARDS to the defence to keep possession. Also yesterday I noticed that Davis was much more accurate with his kicks. I could be wrong but he seemed to have changed his technique to more of a chip than a straightforward wallop in an attempt to put the ball into the area it's needed.

No. But here's some post match footage.

Sheer quality today and a far better team performance than the Forest game. Everyone played their part. Fox and Hooiveld seemed more comfortable, Richardson was excellent and the midfield bolstered by the return of Cork who I will just carry on lauding on a weekly basis for the rest of his Saints career. He is that good. I feel very privileged to be watching this team develop. Some of our players are fantastic, Lallana ridiculously so for this league. He's exactly the sort of player I'd love whatever team he plays for, and best of all it's ours. Adkins interview was funny. He loves the club so much he's even praising our concourses.

The stuff about Tyro leagues is pretty true in my experience. I've done some holiday time coaching for kids in that age group and from what some of them have told me some of the managers play the kids who can kick it the furthest in defence regardless of their ability. We had one who was excellent in front of goal and scored bucketloads on our course but was a defender in his team because he was good at clearing the ball a long way. Fortunately with the amount of European football on tv now a lot of kids are trying to emulate Messi. I'd rather see a youngster who is too greedy but loves dribbling than one content to spend all day hoofing the ball in the air. Mind you I'm the one in the crowd laughing rather than berating them when Guly or Lallana try an outrageous flick or attempt to beat one man too many and lose the ball.

I completely agree. Does my head in when people shout out stuff like that, and with us now being in a position where we are often leading games coming towards the end it will only happen more often. Was the same at Swindon when we were 2-1 up. People imploring the defence to hoof it when we only had Forte up front. To be fair to him he's not really a striker and struggled all evening to hold the ball up, so what use is it just lumping it in the air? All it achieves is giving them possession. As I said on a thread after the Forest game, do these people not remember Crouch against Everton at St Mary's??? From my point of view it just goes to show how little knowledge of the game and our tactics some people have. Probably the same people who shout "keep it on the deck" when we start hoofing it.

Great news. I remember sneakily reading one at work ages ago and involuntarily laughing out loud. My boss asked me what I was chuckling about so I owned up. Within 5 minutes everyone in the office was laughing along too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOrKYQb9mOo&feature=player_embedded Here he is, drunk on the pitch offering out a fan. Classy.

We are very good at closing out games now. Makes me laugh that people want us to whack it in the box when we have possession in their half and are clearly running the clock down. Do they not remember Crouch against Everton?

He was ok. It's hard for a CB to come into a defence which has another debutant and a player out of position. We did look nervy at the back, Fox seemed to give their players too much space down the flanks and hardly ever blocked a cross. They were good going forwards (second half especially) and players like Reid and Greening will always pick out the runners with good passes. Thought we missed Cork in the midfield. We lost too much possession there which put extra pressure on the defence.

I hate Queen too, other than Oasis they are the most overrated band ever. ELO are just funny, Horace Wimp is a classic that always makes me chuckle.

You can, I bought Torquay cup tickets in there.

Love both of them. Seeing Wilco next month at the Roundhouse. Cliff Richard is pretty crap and he's made a hell of a lot of music.

More than Pompey

I agree it's a valid discussion but some people go about it in such a ranty shout down any other opinions way that the discussion just ends up as a mess. Reading Turkish's posts on this thread is like sitting near a bloke at St Mary's who has had a couple too many and keeps shouting out his inane opinions on the game in the mistaken belief that he is right. None of us know the exact reasosn why we didn't sign a permanent CB or striker. Plenty of other clubs would have been after players and not signed them either. I'd have liked a striker to come in but it's hardly worth getting that bothered about when we already have decent players. As I said before we have signed 20 players and built a whole new squad since Cortese came in. IF we were that hard to deal with that wouldn't have happened.

If are that hard to deal with, how have we signed 20 odd players since Cortese came in?

I seem to remember us signing 3 decent players during the transfer window. So what if we didn't sign more? Judging from what I've seen so far (and unlike some of the moaners around here, I've been to every game this season) we are a good enough team to easily finish in the top half with what we have. Turkish is surely on a wind up on this thread.

Comfortable win. They only had us under any pressure for 15 minutes of the whole game. The rest of the time we were in control, albeit with varying degrees of success. First half was pretty much a stroll in the park. We coasted the second, but got a bit ragged when they upped their game. The problem when Swindon started coming on strong was that every time we cleared the ball we lost it up front and gave possession back. Maybe Lambert should have been on 5 or 10 mins earlier to address this. They made it niggly too, their bloke that scored should definitely been sent off on the stroke of half time. Lallana's penalty shout was nailed on too, dunno what the ref was up to there. Oh and fair play to whoever handed my mates ticket in at the ground after he dropped it on the way from the pub.

Saw him play twice this pre-season. He looks very strong, definitely bulked out since I saw him play in midfield in the last pre-season. Main problem I see with him is a lack of pace. Decent player, good tackler, strong in the air. He was one of the CB's who allowed Eastleigh to score 4 past us though!!

The more Cortese aoys agents the more I like him. They are leeches on the game of football who have driven wages and signing on fees through the roof. Probably a bit rose-tinted, but I want players to sign for Saints because they want to play for us - not because we're offering them £2k more a week than another team.

Personally I don't mind him taking more touches and trying to beat a player an extra time. If he was slightly more direct, had a touch extra pace and could shoot better he'd already be in the Premiership and not playing for us! I agree with VFTT about his touch, he hardly ever miscontrols a pass and has that sublime ability to bring a spinning ball down out of the air with ease which even lots of top level players struggle to do. As for becoming as good as Matty, well it's hard to say right now. Obviously Lallana does a lot more work on the pitch than MLT ever did and their touch and skill levels are pretty similar. However he doesn't have the same ability to strike powerful shots into the top corner or ping in crazily accurate passes and crosses from distance as Matty did. Whatever the comparisons, I just feel blessed to have been able to watch both of them play week in week out for the team I support.

Samuel Eto' is getting a decent wage from his new Russian employers. £36.16 a minute so I heard on SSN. http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Inter-Milan-Samuel-Eto-o-set-300-000-per-week-move-Anzhi-Makhachkala-making-him-worlds-best-paid-player-article783604.html

All this talk of Blue Lines reminds me of Massive Attack. Maybe Nige is a big fan? To be fair it's a classic album, he probably plays the cd on the bus. In that respect we could just sing One Love: "It's you I love and not another And I know our love will last forever It's you I love and not another And I always know we'll be together"

This sort of thread is exactly why I read the forum.