Charlie Wayman

Newcastle effectively stifled the Scousers attack last night and it was interesting to see the league leaders resorting to long speculative balls over to the wings in order to try and breakdown the Geordies defence..... but without success. Not only that but in the early part of the game Newcastle looked the better side and should have gone ahead from at least one of the chances they created. The Liverpool defence looked all over the place at times and their much lauded full backs looked anything but the world class players that many hold them to be. This should give us real encouragement as we comprehensively outclassed Newcastle in all departments and won convincingly when they came to St Mary's earlier in the season. That doesn't mean that there are grounds for complacency, far from it but it could mean that Liverpool can be beaten especially when they are on the road. This just might be one of the big upsets of the weekend fixtures. I can see the copy lines now after Danny Ings grabs a hat-trick against his old muckers!

Hope he is not beginning to complain about his lot here, after all he knew what he was taking on.

You are right of course but it is ironic that we let the lad go and brought in another untested youngster who is seemingly no better to replace him. Perhaps the lesson to be learned is that Boufal's occasional bursts of brilliance which Djenepo hasn't matched yet was about as good as it gets for Saints.

Far too slow and far too unimaginative. I think we have been found out and can no longer break the lines as we did earlier in the season. WHU defended well in depth, not only could we not get through them but we didn't win many balls in their box either. The whole team was mediocre at best and seemingly out-of-sorts. Persisted too long with Djenepo when it was obvious he was having a mare. Bit concerned about this lad in fact. Felt sorry for Bertrand who had no outlet as a result and became largely ineffective as an attacking force. The game is all about partnerships and Redmond seems to be Bertie's natural partner. Once again we descended into our frustrating square and back passing game when we couldn't work out how to deal with their packed defence. It sometimes took two, three or even four safe intermediate passes before the ball found its way from the CBs to either KWP or Bertie on the wing when a single pass would have done the trick. Aargh! We seem terrified to lose the ball since RH announced that we are now a possession based team. I screamed at the Telly when Long replaced Adams and true to form he did his one run con trick and then disappeared from the game. Danny was well and truly shackled all evening and really didn't get a sniff after his early offside (Adams) foray. What is becoming self evident is that although we are hard to beat we are nowhere near creative or fast thinking enough to score many goals especially now in this league where everyone seems intent on keeping clean sheets. Of course we are not the only culprits but we need to up our game if we do not want to end up in mid-table mediocrity.

If ever there was a meaningless statement this is it! How many of 'our fans" do you actually know? Reminder for you; Fans watch = passive Players play = active Managers manage = active

The problem is that Ralph is risk averse and so very unlikely to start Salisu against this dogged and skilful WestHam side. We saw on Saturday how Diallo struggled on his first start with the pace of the modern PL game especially in the first half and a similar shock-wave would engulf Salisu. He wouldn't have time to settle in and then speed up. Last thing we need is to go one down early on. Stephens will get the nod again for that reason, we don't have anybody else!

Quite interesting stat that 8 of the top 10 have drawn their last match, suggesting that most of the teams are much of a muchness, hard to break down in defence but also finding it increasingly difficult to score. Is this a sign of clubs adopting ever more defensive tactics following the maxim that if they keep a clean sheet they will get something from the game? Or could it be that strikers with notoriously fragile confidence are finding it increasingly difficult to raise their game without crowds singing their names and pushing them on? What it does mean is that a win by any of the clubs gives them a chance of moving quickly up the table. Despite our recent run of indifferent form we find ourselves in just this position, win tonight and conceivably we could be in the top 4 whether we deserve to be or not is a mute question. It is going to be a miserable day today, rain, sleet and temps just above Zero, not ideal for football and certainly not designed to bring the best out of players born in hotter climes. I fear a dour, rugged and mistake strewn game in which one goal will win it. It will come down to who makes that vital error leading to the goal and my money is on Stephens who is reliably error prone, like passing to the oppo's when clearing the lines or falling asleep on the job. I fear a typical Saints missed opportunity with the chance to go 4th. For me Hammers will snatch it 1-0.

It's getting a bit depressing at the moment, every time you look at the table we seem to have drifted a place or two lower. Even Everton & Villa are above us now, clubs that we beat comfortably a few weeks ago. If the Hammers do their usual rug pulling trick on us tomorrow followed by the inevitable loss to the Scousers, much of the excitement and anticipation of the new 'Southampton way' will have evaporated and current media intrigue will wane. Weirdly we do not seem to be playing badly yet we are no longer scoring for fun and the results are not coming quite as freely as a month ago. Ralph said he was comfortable with the draw at Fulham. I hope he was biting his lip when he said that. We've not had a win in three and soon it could be no wins in five. This is not the time for complacency otherwise what looked like being a very good season for us might suddenly take on a whole new complexion.

Don't let's go down the boring old conspiracy theory route again. We do not operate like that any more. We are not a selling club. Ralph said Vestergaard had a knee problem.

Totally agree with you on this although Ralph seems to prefer Theo in the No 10 position but as we saw yesterday Theo can be a goal poacher par excellence as a striker. The key in Ralph's mind must be Theo's work-rate against the ball and his ability to track back into defence and be all over the pitch helping out. With Theo up top all of that extra stuff would be lost. With Theo at 10 though it creates a problem up top as we saw yesterday, we have no decent strikers to replace Ings. I dread he selects Long again. No idea where we are with Redmond, if he's even half fit he would be a better bet up top than Long, Obafemi or Tella and N'lundulu isn't ready for first team duties yet. I just wonder too if he might be tempted to put Diallo in as a No 10 in place of Armstrong and give himself the option of going 4-3-3

He moved his arm towards the ball and made contact. What else can it be other than a penalty. Clear cut!

The match and result I expected so no surprises there. Not one VAR call in our favour today, bad luck or what? Only KWP and Walcott showed any real enterprise while JWP was a stalwart in the middle. Diallo has a lot to learn, the pace took him by surprise and he was caught in possession more than once and early on the game passed him by. The fact that RH started Long and made no serious subs in what was a winnable match must be a morale sapper for the young lads on the bench. KWP our MotM Mods. Why can't we vote for MotM when we draw or lose? Let's have a bit of consistency please.

The player we will miss most today is Romeu who has become a formidable box-to-box player and amongst the best in the league. Games these days are won and lost in midfield and his commanding presence and reading of the game will leave gaps in defending and attack and have a severe impact on our automatism. Diallo will have huge boots to fill, some ask for a debutant starter at this level despite the very reassuring comments from Ralph about the new lad's abilities. Ralph is too much Mr Safety First to risk two new starters in one match which is why Stephens will start over Salisu. The enforced absences of Vestergaard, Romeu and Ings means we are unlikely to perform at our best and it could descend into a bit of a scrappy match with little rhythm from either side. The whole thing may become niggly and foul ridden and rely on moments of individual brilliance or stupid individual errors to break the deadlock. In these respects we have potential match winners in JWP and Walcott and a match loser in Stephens who seems often prone to watching the game rather than participating in it. It won't help if Bednarek has to move to the left to accommodate Stephens. I am not expecting a great game and a 0-0 draw looks most likely. If anybody breaks the deadlock it will likely be through an error by either defence, a free kick on the edge for JWP or an "after you Claude" moment by our CB's in our own box. The latter is more likely. If anybody sneaks it, expect a Fulham win 1-0.

It seems pretty obvious to me that we will not be bringing in any new players in January. Ralph was fairly upfront about that as (a) any player that would improve us is beyond our financial means and (b) any young promising player would have to prove themselves at this level as a loanee before we brought them in permanently e.g. KWP but as Ralph explained KWP was already playing at a higher level so there was little risk involved.

Ralph has had ample opportunity to watch and coach Sims, if he had a future here he would still be here. The facts that he is on loan at 24 and we no longer see any value in loaning out players to other clubs simply because they do not play the way Ralph likes to play means in effect he is finished here and we will be looking to offload him as quickly as possible. The gulf between L1 and the PL is huge, impressing in the former means nothing to us.

I agree with you. If it doesn't work just switch Theo and Redmond.

What a load of garbage. Glad you don't post very often.

Not a fanboy then.

Not sure anybody is seriously suggesting that Theo should be dropped for the trip to Craven Cottage. He is undroppable at the moment, the only spark of real quality in our attacking options.

Not on this website it isn't.

We were even runners up to the effing bindippers in 1983/84, our best season ever!

Don't be such a pedant, anything is worth trying when all else is obviously failing. We're not talking about lumping it in the first ten minutes just in the last five when "searching for openings" isn't working and wasting what little time is left. Not everything about lumping is bad!

A simple question. With ten minutes to go why can't we just lump it route 1 into their box and see how the pieces fall rather than tippy tappy square and back "looking for openings'' in a dam that never showed any signs of cracking? Just asking.

A poor first sub was one of the keys to this result. Had we moved Walcott to the No 9 position and brought on Redmond or Armstrong instead of Tella things might have turned out differently. As it was an outstanding performance by Theo achieved little more perhaps than show up the inadequacies of our attacking options. He is the one piece of real attacking quality that we have in the side other than Ings and his off the ball chasing and recovery puts many others to shame. Had we won he would have been MotM but we lost so it had to be a defender. That's taking nothing away from the Big V who once again played a blinder. I get the impression that RH is in awe of the top six clubs and is half beaten before we start. Hard to change that mindset. To win everyone has to be 100% positive.

The limitations of our attacking creativity were cruelly exposed on Wednesday, what had looked so easy against Sheff U just did not work against Arsenal's better organised and better quality defence. While much of our defensive work against the ball kept their talented players quiet as we tired gaps began to appear and bingo they scored a superb equaliser. Had they not gone down ten men the outcome might have been very different. The pattern could be much the same tomorrow coupled with which we have had less recovery time than them so we could struggle after the break. I have a bad feeling about this and fear we will not compete as well as recently. Nor can we rely on reproducing a defensive display par excellence similar to last season's. Factor in also that Guardiola is very familiar with Ralph's methods of play from Bundesliga days as well as in the PL last season so it is unlikely we can surprise them We should start with an unchanged team but even so for me this will end up in a 1-4 defeat.