Charlie Wayman

A little circumspection might be in order bearing in mind Salisu has only 1 FA Cup and 1 Premier League appearance to his name.

So how will we fit him in? Bednarek & Vestergaard are not going to give up their places easily and probably won't be happy with rotation.

Nothing wrong with Theo, certainly better than Redmond. I don't understand why so many people on this forum still imagine that there will be wholesale changes in the summer when recent history has shown the exact opposite. The odd one in, the odd one out is about as good as it is likely to be on our budget and bear in mind many other mid-table clubs are in a similar situation. We may lose Ings which will be a blow. Liverpool has insisted that Minamino is not for sale. I agree the need for a new keeper to freshen things up at the back.

This one will not live long in the memory that's for sure. Film editors will have struggled to make any highlights from that. A moment of magic and a moment of madness from the Saints pretty much sums it up. Like most I am grateful for a point from a match we looked odds on to lose. There still needs to be more directness in our play as well as the familiar intricate inter-passing build-up that allows the opposition too much time to reorganise. Our goal came from a superb direct through ball from Redmond that split the Chelsea defence apart and left Minamino in the clear with time and space. Feeling slightly more confident about Leeds this morning.

...and you really believe that do you? Which planet did you say you came from?

Ralph starting to make excuses in his press conference today, injuries, refs decisions. That's trend I don't like to see.

Tosh! Things weren't the same at all. We had a bucket full of injuries to our best players and we had to field half a team of inexperienced and largely ineffective B team players. Even now we are not fully up to strength - Diallo, Walcott, Walker Peters. This led to a collapse of our automatism on which Ralph's tactics depend.

Of course they are. Not sure what was running through eelpie's head when he wrote that, it has not the slightest connection to PFC

You of all people clutching at straws. You are usually very logical so what caused this flip?

Isn't that Everton away? Maybe the one after that then..... ? More seriously, how many defeats in a row before the noose is finally tightened around Hasenhüttl's neck. Can't be far away. Bet we're casting our net around already to see who's available.

No. Hasn't Ralph said several times that he isn't interested in leaders on the pitch or in the dressing room, his players are fully briefed to work to the plan in the playbook and that's all that they should concentrate on. Leadership isn't the issue at all. Players being pushed too hard for too long is the problem, they are all mentally and physically knackered.

Didn't I read somewhere that Salisu can play at RB? Realistically, what can we do to change things around before the weekend? Morale will be shot to pieces and there is every danger that we will try too hard to get things right and screw it up completely as a result. No doubt we'll come out all gung-ho and at 'em then concede early on and collapse like a pricked balloon. This one worries me, a Chelseas side bolstered by a new dynamic manager versus a fragile Saints side at rock bottom physically and mentally. 0-5 is niggling.

We may have to face up to reality after yet another disappointing display and outcome. Exciting as it is to watch, Ralph's method of playing football just isn't working In the Premier League simply because (in my view) the intensity of play is just far too great for even very fit players to sustain for much longer than 50/60 minutes. Once energy levels dip then understandably concentration falls off a cliff as well; Ralph's method requires vey high levels of concentration as well as fitness so as tiredness sets in so we see our patterns of play start to breakdown and the cohesion comes unstuck. This can explain why opponents who play at a steady pace throughout always come back at us in the second halves to the extent that we have this unenviable reputation for dropping points from winning positions. It's wrong to blame the players for this, they are only mortal after all. More to the point is can Ralph's playbook work at a lower intensity and slower pace? If it can then surely he would have understood by now that he is asking too much of his players and adapted his methods to ensure his team is able to last the full 90 minutes. If not then we may have seen the limitations of what he can do, not just Saints but for any team. I hope he can adapt his methods and still create exciting dynamic football otherwise calls for a parting of the ways may become irresistible not least from a spooked owner concerned at the diminishing possibility of recouping his investment.

If Walker-Peters & Armstrong find their best form today we will win comfortably. They are the key to our success and especially if the big man is fully fit and firing on all guns in defence then 3-0 should be attainable. Just time those runs behind the lines better lads.

He does't seem to be an improvement on Boufal that's for sure. Having potential is one thing but after two years, injuries or not, he should have shown his class by now if he has any. Diallo for example, after a couple of games everyone realised we have a player on our hands.

Yes but if you shop regularly on Amazon, the next day free delivery service - worth about £4.95 for each purchase - you only need to make a couple of purchases each month to save more than the monthly fee. Thank about that before you cancel.

Quite so and bear in mind he had to keep a weather eye on Salisu for most of the evening as well. It was noticeable that as his confidence in the debutant increased so he was able to get forward more and more in the second half. That is part of his game that many do not acknowledge and of course our central defenders have not been that dependable of late which has limited the freedom that Bertie has had to go roaming down the wing.

Ha!, thanks for the tip-off. Couldn't risk that. 👍 😇

I thought we played quite well and thoroughly deserved to win. Still need to sharpen up our finishing. Despite the hollow threat of Wolves bringing on their 'big players' later in the match when we were expected to tire (and they would run rings around us in Extra Time), it never came to that. None of their subs made much impact simply because we managed each new threat as it arose. Salisu played well enough but needs match time to speed up and sharpen up, understandably he is very rusty and the pace may have surprised him. He'll learn but Bednarek & Vestergaard remain first choice for a while yet.

Maybe it doesn't seem so long ago that you were a youngster?

Given a choice... neither!

All our good times seem to be in the past in a foreign land.

Probably thinking of taking Bednarek out of the firing line for a couple of matches?

It looks like trolling but actually wasn't. Right now we don't seem to know how to win. Of course as players return from injury things might improve but bear in mind that we had a pretty strong side out on paper on Saturday and couldn't fashion a point against 9 men. It's not all about individual self confidence either, if players stop believing that Ralph's methods can deliver success that's the hidden danger. Setting aside this last disastrous week isn't it only 1 win from the last 10 PL games? Rather worrying I wold have thought.

It's all academic as we don't have a snowball's chance of winning anything at the moment.