saints-cris

Seems a waste of a loan slot & wages when we only play him rarely, and out of position. Love to think it would mean we can bring someone else in, but..

Apparently we are cutting Danso's loan short, according to Twitter..

Not entirely sure how this guy has won the Euro's, and had a spell at Inter, us and now Arsenal. He doesn't have any obvious stand out qualities, as we all know he's weak in the air, not that fast, a bad crosser and doesn't really go past anyone. He's also a defender who turns away when someone shoots. Get our money back, and hope that KWP/Valery do a job for 14 more games. He was going for nothing so may as well take the £ on offer. Be nice to think it would go towards someone late in the window but we all know that won't happen.

Basically we're stalling until the summer, where we'll be left with only Valery. Hope KWP does well, but if he does maybe someone better will take him; and if we have no option then we're powerless, good to see we learned from the Toby saga. If this is our only business then it's a good job we're relatively comfy.

Apologies if mentioned elsewhere, but fair few rumours flying about that Romeu is off to Celta and is nearly done. Seems a strange one in that we don’t seem to have much in midfield if he goes? Would be a shame, always liked him.

Mcarthy Cedric, Bednarak, Stephens, Bertrand JWP, Hoj, Armstrong Djenepo, Ings, Redmond Team picks itself, it's energetic, flexible and ultimately there's some confidence in there. Stick with what's been working. Leicester have only lost to Liverpool (twice), City and Utd, so it's a tall order to expect us to get anything but we've had a weeks rest, they played on Weds. A lot of the other sides around us have tricky games too, so hopefully not too much will happen this weekend.

GFFN linking us, Brighton and Palace to Bordeux full back Youssouf Sabaly.

What a run of results. After the West Ham game, looking a these three fixtures you'd have been hard pushed to see us getting a point, let alone 7. Brilliant from the boys. Yesterday I couldn't believe how much we looked like us of a few years ago. Organised, energetic, and clicking up top. Either Spurs had a real bad off day, or we helped contribute to it, but they were so so poor. I actually felt very comfortable in that I never worried about them equalising, even in the last 5 mins. so much positivity is back, the team and the fans know we can win games, and some of the old habits are falling away. Lovely stuff.

I really was hoping the two wins against Watford and Norwich we’re going to be the catalyst for our season, but it feels harder to ignore now that I’m reality we were outplayed by Watford and were hanging on against Norwich. Same old same old against Newcastle. It actually amazes me how dreadful we are at home. The amount of times we go in at half time, damage already done and haven’t even made their keeper make one save. Was the same against Bournemouth, Everton, Leicester, Watford, West Ham. And we’ve still only scored the first goal once at home. How can we ever expect much when all we do is go in at half time losing everyone game? In the last couple seasons I’ve always thought deep down we can get out of it, but with a combination of the sides that were crap last season being much improved, and the teams promoted showing they have something about them, I do think at this stage this could be the year we finally go. There’s still loads of time to turn it around, but no arguments we are the second/third team in the league at this moment in time.

Played well, yet grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory. Until we have a good enough defence this will just continue happening. Immensely frustrating as once we went ahead I thought at least we wouldn't lose. Going forward we have enough, but we just cannot defend. The only clean sheets we've kept have been against 10 men. We're always going to have to score two. Invest in a RB and a CB and we will see results. Simple as that for me. No knee-jerk reaction, positives are there but won't happen til the glaring holes are fixed.

Everton twice. Bent in 2005, that hurt. Then Tom Davies at Goodison under Hughes 2 season ago. Gut punch, we were so close to safety then we had to go into a do or die against Swansea.

Without him we'd have gone down last year. He got us from relegation certainties to top 8 form. I thought we were in for a steadier year this season but that has not worked out, but anyone thinking we'd be better without him is bordering on insane. Love the guy, he needs support and he needs backing. If we had a chairman who isn't a hologram we'd be doing far better.

Tough one this. Split between thinking it might be easier against a team that will be a lot more open and leave gaps, or struggling against a team that plays attack minded and could test our shakey defence. Think it is so important for us to go into half time having actually played well. Bournemouth, Everton & Watford all in the first half we’ve been lucky to not be 0-3 down each time. The nervousness at the back is so obvious we need to get rid of that tonight. And you know, taking the lead would be nice too. Real shame Armstrong and Boufal wont be playing. Think it’s time Adams get’s another go tonight, this is the type of game I think his physicality and pace could be really effective. McCarthy Cedric – Stephens – Bednerak – Bertrand Djenepo – JWP – Hoijberg – Redmond Adams - Ings

Still so happy to have won that, even more so that we won at home. Was determined just to enjoy the win for the evening and not worry about the fact that it papered over some many cracks. The Everton game was awful, and this was about the same. For 70 minutes. We were lucky Watford are such a mess and their manager just let us go at them without trying to lay a glove on us, as soon as they played with any kind of urgency we were hanging on by a thread. The players are clearly so nervous and on edge at home, and I think the crowd all things considered are pretty good. Considering our dreadful home record and that we’re in December and up until the 83rd minute, had not been in the lead at home all season, the fans do their best to try and not create a negative atmosphere. But the nervousness was clear as day. So many passes going astray and just no idea or identity, it was pretty worrying to be honest how bad it was. Second half was better but Watford let us be better by not trying to do anything. As I say, absolutely delighted with the win and I really hope it just gets that monkey off their back at home and frees them up a bit. A win against Norwich and the season turns on its head. I just want us to play well AND win, as I’m not sure we’ve actually done that this season in the 3 we’ve won.

Actually can’t remember a time I’ve enjoyed going to a game less than that, admittedly I wasn’t at the Leicester game, but still. Woeful from the first to the last. Losing is never a great day out, but how we played was worrying. Toothless, gutless, rubbish in every single way possible. Feels like the fans have been overly good, or tried to be for too long, hasn’t worked and now just resigned to the fact we circling the drain.

Actually can’t remember a time I’ve enjoyed going to a game less than that, admittedly I wasn’t at the Leicester game, but still. Woeful from the first to the last. Losing is never a great day out, but how we played was worrying. Toothless, gutless, rubbish in every single way possible. Feels like the fans have been overly good, or tried to be for too long, hasn’t worked and now just resigned to the fact we circling the drain.

Just don’t think 442 / 4222 works for us. I think were another quality CM, and definitely a quality CB short of being able to play that formation and not be wide open. Seem to be generally more resolute with 5 at the back, so I’d expect to see that again tonight. Gunn Valery – Benerak – Danso – Yoshida – Bertrand Hoijberg – Romeu – Ward Prowse Redmond Ings Would personally like to see JWP taken out and play Boufal instead so we have more of a 3 going forward, but don’t expect to see it happen. 2-1 or 3-1 Leicester is prediction, hope I am wrong.

Can't say I am overly confident of this one. They're bang on form and there's a permanent nervousness with us at home. Not to go off topic, but this will be our 5th home games this season, and we would have had only had 1 game at 3pm on Saturday, which is actually really frustrating, especially for someone who has to travel a couple of hours each way.

Hard to see past a Wolves win, they'll be confident after beating City. Their front 3 of Jota, Jiminez and Traore will cause us all sorts of problems. Our habit of conceding at least two a game will make it rather hard to get anything from. Love to be proved wrong. 2-0 Wolves.

Not going to pretend yesterday, or the first 8 games in general haven't been very disappointing, but I do feel the overreaction has been a little bit over the top. I wasn’t expecting anything from yesterday but it was definitely worse than I feared. Defensively we are shot at the moment, but is it much of a surprise when we seem to have 2 new faces in every week? The only constant has been Bednerak. We’ve had a different right back almost every game, a different other CB almost every game and Bertrand has only just come back in from the cold. Ralph seriously needs to stop tinkering with the back four, or back five, and just pick something and stick to it so some partnerships can develop. I'd personally like to see after the international break Cedric, Danso, Benderak, Bertrand for a few weeks and see how it goes. In terms of the season in general, we’ve played alright in patches, got a couple of big away wins, and it is seriously worth remembering we’ve played 4 of the ‘big 6’ already, half of our games. I doubt any other teams have had that? And our home games, where a lot of the teams around us have got points, 3 of the 4 of them have been big 6. We’ve yet to have a game where I look at, especially at home, and just think ‘that has to be 3 points’. They’re all still yet to come, so unless we go through those games and look dreadful, I will reserve my worries for then. That said, I was still really a bit more hopeful for this season, and one point from these home games just isn’t good enough. At St Marys, we just simply have to make it a tougher place for teams to get points, and we’ve conceded 10 goals in 4 games here already.

Feel like there’s as much chance of us turning up and giving them a good game and stealing a win as there is for us to get battered 0-3. Chelsea are definitely improving, but I still feel over the season they’ll have a few bad results away from home. That said, I still feel like St Marys is a lovely place for the better teams to rock up, play some nice footy on a lovely pitch with no heavy atmosphere, and shoot towards their fans in the second half. I’m going 1-2 loss.

If we’re going to have a chance away at Spurs this is probably it. Personally I think we’ll give a valiant effort but fall just short. We’ve actually won our last 4 away games in a row and haven’t conceded a goal in any of them (though that does include Fulham and Pompey) but still good form. Kane always scores against us and I’m sure he will again. Got a feeling we’ll sneak a goal but reckon they’ll just edge it.

Second half against Bournemouth thought he was brilliant, and again on Tuesday thought he was great. Seems to be right back at it which is great news.

Slightly worried about this one. They always start the season well and have plenty of good options up front. Will definitely be goals in this one. They’ve not won at St Marys yet and I am slightly worried this may be the time they manage it. Not sure we’ve played them here so early in the season before, which is when they’re usually clicking more. Pleased with our start with two great away wins, a win here and we’d be flying! Will be tricky though, they’ve got good pace and movement up front and I still think we’ve been fairly patch despite a good points tally. Gunn Valery Bednerak Yoshi Danso Bertrand Hoijberg Romeu Boufal Djenepo Adams Possibly JWP for one of Boufal/Djenepo as tends to be the way. Also really want to see Bertrand back in now, this whole thing with him is a bit odd.

Redmond out for 2-3 weeks and Djenepo out with a muscle injury. That changes things then..