MatthewStiles

Same with me. Tried to get 2, first on seat plan, then on auto select. Downsized to 1 in the end, got a ticket but not enough time to get a second. A bit gutting but I guess the demand was overwhelming

Totally agree. I did notice that Aribo walked off with a bit of a limp and in the post-match celebrations was still limping slightly so maybe took a bit of a knock. I wouldn't have taken him off based on how I saw he was playing though and Stuey did not have a good game.

That’s the point though. We supposedly played to his strengths by firing in loads of crosses but it was ineffective because we don’t seem to have great crossing ability in the team. Therefore, the argument that we should build the team around PO is flawed.

I think you are misremembering. In the home game we had 31 crosses https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1640742/MatchReport/England-Premier-League-2022-2023-Southampton-Brentford

Totally agree. We saw loads of hopeful crosses into the box v Brentford but hardly any resulted in goal attempts. Onuachu is so limited technically it hurts. 36% pass success rate yesterday. To build a team around him would be nuts

I think there are train strikes planned for that day so depending where you are staying you might need to travel by coach eg National Express

Perraud started against Villa (4-0 loss) and Watford (2-1 loss) so his not playing is hardly an adequate explanation for our loss of form

Apologies - and apologies for the tardiness of the apology

Not sold out. I got 2 tickets this morning. You need a buying history though. Seemed to be quite a lot of tickets available

This could be right. I thought he was very decent away at Wolves, and pretty decent at home against Chelsea and Wolves when he was in the front 2. I really hope he can kick on now. He was voted Player of the Season for 2018-19, there is a quality player in there.

Player of the season 2018-19 both in fans and players vote. Very good season in 2019-20 as well.

Redmond played well in the first half. This is from Michael Brown - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/55858904/page/8 - "Redmond has been getting in some great positions, cutting inside and spraying the ball around." Second half we didn't have enough width. Redmond and Bertrand are getting slagged off but there wasn't enough movement around them to create space. Amazed that Lulu came on for Stephens instead of a wide player like Dnjepe

A sports reporter from The Times called Martyn Ziegler has reported on twittter "All those empty seats at Wembley? - bizarrely most of them were in the cheapest £30 category in Southampton end." I wasn't allowed to buy a ticket until towards the end and when I was on the ticket site all the blocks in the upper tier were marked as starting from £45 so I assumed the £30 tickets were sold out. In the block I bought there were tickets at £45 and £60. I didn't see any at £30 even though I did try to find them.

I don't watch a lot of lower league football so difficult to comment but I liked these positive comments from Brendan Rogers on Eddie Howe (after the FA cup game): 'When you have a team that want to play football they are the most courageous players on the field,' said Rodgers. 'It is easy to coach a team to sit back, not want the ball and defend and then just wait for a hump up the pitch. 'The courage that the Bournemouth players showed today was fantastic - they have got better, I have watched them as the season has gone on. 'It is coaches like Eddie Howe who will take the game forward in this country because they believe in a way of working and they have a philosophy. 'Bournemouth are a very good side and I give credit to them first of all. Eddie is similar to myself in terms of the philosophy of football.

I like the manager but this was a terrible team selection from Pochettino - his refusal to do the normal interviews for this game speaks volumes. A great opportunity for Saints to get some silverware and he shrugs his shoulders.

Very good article. As for his playing career, we were massively lucky to have him. That disallowed goal against Man U is one of the best I have ever seen in the flesh, only beaten by Le Tissier (of course) and by Kinkladze (just once)

Well, if you want to give him abuse, feel free but give it a break with the twitching stuff. That came from a horrific car crash in which several people died. What next, songs about Munich next time we play Man U?

MLT is an ex-player who has the right to an opinion just like John Aldridge at Liverpool, Lou Macari at Man U etc. Over the last 10 years since he retired, he has been hugely supportive of Saints. Obviously, he doesn't like Cortese but the evidence would suggest that he is right not to.

The first thread I found there about Pochettino was titled "el espanyol se equivocó destituyendo a mauricio pochettino" in other words Espanyol made a mistake in sacking Mauricio Pochettino. The poster points out that Pochettino took them over when they were near the relegation zone, won 2-1 in Camp Nou and ended 10th etc. The poster emphasises that Pochettino was in charge during tough financial times which meant they had to sell important players but that he created a great team spirit. The reaction on the first page seems to be in agreement or neutral with the neutrals making the point that they have to support the current boss. Later pages are more mixed. In my opinion, he seems pretty good but the timing of this decision to appoint him is extraordinary.

I think it's fair comment from the OP, the vast majority of people criticising the sacking are decent but a few comments have been a bit over the top. There was a thread on here earlier talking about the Malvinas chant ffs though to be fair I think the OP of that thread apologised.

I think it's worth contacting them. Cortese is right but 99% of Saints fans, fans of other clubs, ex-players, the media etc are wrong?

A great comment from the ever-dependable Um Pahars. Good luck to the new manager but don't pretend that Cortese is some kind of genius who has a well-thought out strategy.

Worth reading this letter from a Liverpool fan (in 1998 1 year before the disaster) regarding the 1998 FA cup semi-final at Hillsborough: "I attended the above football match on Saturday April 9th 1988, and write to protest in the strongest terms at the disgraceful overcrowding that was allowed to occur (in an all ticket match) in the Leppings Lane Terrace area. The whole area was packed solid to the point where it was impossible to move and where I, and others around me, felt considerable concern for personal safety (as a result of the crush an umbrella I was holding in my hand was snapped In half against the crush barrier in front of me). I would emphasise that the concern over safety related to the sheer numbers admitted, and not to crowd behaviour which was good. My concern over safety was such (at times it was impossible to breathe), that at half time when there was movement for toilets , refreshments etc. I managed to extricate myself from the terrace , having taken the view that my personal safety was more important than watching the second half."

Alpine Saint is a clueless moron "self-obsession and self-pity is what genuinely f**ks me off about some people from Liverpool" Ah yes, the old victim thing, even now. If the Liverpool fans had listened to prats like Alps then the cover up by the police would never have come out. This is one of the greatest scandals ever, the police lied and lied, the coroner bent justice so as to smear the Liverpool fans and allow the authorities to evade the responsibility themselves. Also, the Hillsborough stadium was unsafe and known to be. From the panel report: “Recommendations to feed fans directly from designated turnstiles into each pen, thus monitoring precisely the distribution of fans between the pens, were not acted on because of anticipated costs to SWFC …The fire service …raised concerns about provision for emergency evacuation of the terraces. .. While modifications were made inside the stadium, the issue of congested access to the turnstiles outside the stadium remained unresolved” Stewarding inside the stadium was also poor. The police were worried about the mass of fans waiting to get through the turnstiles but they should have delayed the kick-off. Even then, inside normal practice would have been for the stewards and police to direct people to the side pens once the central pens had reached capacity. For some reason, they did not do this. Look at the footage, people getting crushed to death in the central pens, people at the sides moving freely. Also, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7992845.stm As for Heysel, yes hooliganism was responsible but what Liverpool fans did was little different to what fans of other teams would do in the 70's/80's if segregation was not in place. Indeed, a visit to The Dell by Liverpool rarely saw much trouble unlike those of Man U, West Ham or Chelsea. The Heysel stadium was also in a shocking condition, Liverpool FC made an official approach to UEFA to get the venue changed over safety fears but UEFA refused to change it.

I'm with Matty Le Tiss. Wasn't Manji (now pro-NC) also very pro our good Lord Lowe? As for contribution to Saints without MLT we would have been relegated by 94 and quite possibly we would still be at The Dell. There are plenty of other CEO's with the talent of NC out there, players like MLT though? Hardly any.