Graffito

In the words of the great Howard Jones - What is love anyway? Does anybody love anybody anyway?

Reads like newspaper speculation to me. They list a number of available players. The piece on Caceres makes no mention of Southampton. La incógnita es saber si está completamente recuperado de su lesion - the unknown is knowing if he is completely recovered from his injury - suggests that the journalist doesn't know that he's about to sign for Saints or that would surely be another uncertainty they would mention.

Man Utd haven't lost in the league since a 4-0 loss to Chelsea in late October. But since then they have lost to Fenerbahce, and to Hull City (EFL second leg). We were bigger underdogs in '76. Being underdogs this time will help us. A repeat 1-0 win counter attacking style would do.

It's a 9 minute train journey from London Marylebone Station, nearby Baker St, to Wembley Stadium station, located very close to the stadium. There were hundreds of Saints fans in the pubs around Baker St before the JPT final.

Whereas you can make a case for and against for homes, aways, previous purchase history, or whatever criteria, the club giving supporters the option of buying a membership and jumping the queue is the one thing I think is just plain wrong. Why would anybody have bought a membership at the start of the season, except in expectation that should we reach a final they would have a reasonable chance of securing a ticket? It doesn't affect me personally but I think it's very unfair of the club to have done this. They should ditch the membership scheme from next season (won't be many takers anyway) and implement the points system they initiated a few seasons ago.

Irrelevant. The point is we didn't or weren't able to play our strongest team in any of the rounds yet we won and fully deserve to be at Wembley. (As an aside I believe he knows his strongest team and did so from early on. His comment about not knowing his best side was, I believe, to encourage the lesser members of the squad to play with confidence. I mean, you know our strongest side, why wouldn't an experienced coach like Puel?)

Did we play or were we able to play our strongest team in any round of the EFL Cup? We did not. For the sake of balance I think that should be acknowledged.

I think the sale of Fonte is the issue. He should not have been sold without a replacement having been secured. Unless, for reasons of which I'm unaware, Fonte's position at the club became untenable, then it should not have been beyond the wit of LR and the coaching staff to have managed Fonte's situation. A few extra months on his contract and Puel could have had him onside as his captain. I doubt we'd have lost to West Ham had he been on our side rather than their's. Weakening our team and strengthening a rival's is absurd and we got the inevitable outcome on Saturday.

You stress the syllables which have accents. So, second syllable of Martin and first syllable of Cáceres. Second "c" in Caceres would be a soft "c" in Latin American Spanish.

Take into account plenty of travel time to Wembley. Around Ealing is the slowest section of the North Circular at the best of times.

"No matter what division in" - they would say that wouldn't they? This is Sunderland making contingency for the possibility of next year in the Championship.

Thanks for the nice photos. He's looking very well for 73 isn't he?

Constructive criticism is fair enough but I find unnecessary the constant scapegoating that goes on. I have an image of such posters; either scrawny sparrows legs or chubby little nazis who were always last to get picked for the kick abouts at school. None of our players is without shortcomings but for goodness sake have you never heard of form and confidence?

Rodrigues had a poor first half but, and it's a big but, he played Gabbiadini in for his goal. It was the kind of ball our midfield failed to play all match yet which Gabbiadini and Long were looking for. Oh and comparing JR's performance to Ali Dia is just plain ridiculous.

We lost that in midfield, not agressive enough, neither in tactics nor in play. In fact, there was a lack of aggression in all departments. An extra 5% might have won us the match. Sitting back and ceding midfield, incomprehensible to me, meant we didn't get the ball wide enough, quickly enough, to attack their dodgy full backs. Gabbiadini took his goal brilliantly. Great power in the shot. He was looking for the early ball but rarely got it. Don't know if anyone remembers a newspaper interview with Romeu of a couple of months ago. He was saying what he'd learnt from Guardiola. He mentioned a piece of advice which was always to look for the long pass. If you look for the long pass you'll see both the long and short pass. If the long pass isn't on you have the short option. If look only for the short pass that's all you'll see and the long pass goes begging. How often this season have we looked long.

Whatever happened to the points system Saints introduced?

No intention to build up West Ham more than they warrant here, after all they were dire on Wednesday, but given our CB issues it's worth remembering that their aerial threat is not only Carroll but also Antonio who has scored a lot of headed goals this season. Expect they might try to isolate our full backs aerially. What we might lose in height by moving Bertrand to CB we would gain in height at full back with McQueen. Nevertheless, My gut feeling is to leave Bertrand at fullback and play Yoshida and one of the other two CB's and concentrate on winning midfield and cutting out the supply.

I think the CB situation is a worry but agree completely about DM. Some of us, you may have been one, recognised this a while ago. If anyone was left in any doubt about the our reliance on OR this would have been dispelled by the debacle against Arsenal when we had no ball winner in midfield. West Ham struggled in that department against City last night. I expect they'll put that right on Saturday and expect Kouyate to play.

As long as he doesn't play like Sid the Sloth.....

For those that were saying the Fonte sale was good business, now you know why you can't make such judgements without having seen the quality of the replacement. So, the way it's turned out, we've sold our captain and a lynchpin of the team, to a rival, mid-season, with a rare cup final coming up, failed to replace him, and all for the sake of a few months on a contract and a bit of careful ego management. I hope Reed provides the fans with an explanation and doesn't leave it to Puel to face the music.

This, more or less, sadly. I learned a lot from that performance, as I suspect Puel did. I could explain what I learned but I can't be arsed. I will just say this, it's late in the window, we don't know where we stand in negotiations but presumably Puel does, consider what would have happened if any of what remains of the spine of our team had played and had got injured in that match. We could have been left with some or all of what was out there today for forthcoming fixtures including potentially a cup final.

Football must be very confusing in China with everyone wearing red shirts.

I don't recall too much about matches way back but I do remember there was a great atmosphere in the Dell that night. 3,500 should be able to make enough noise for us tomorrow night.

In real time all I saw was Vardy pushing over VVD. I'm told by someone watching on Sky that Vardy deliberately stamped on him. Anyone come across footage?

If you want to see a very (Hasidic) Jewish area, visit Stamford Hill just south of Tottenham High Rd.