scorchio21

Although it's obviously been soured by the events of this year, I've still got some good memories from his time at Saints. - I remember being at the Hawthorns for his debut, and even in his first game he looked a class above. I recall commenting on the way home, slightly tongue-in-cheek that he wouldn't be with us in a year's time - so with hindsight maybe it's good he stayed with us long as he did... - His outstanding performance at Stoke two seasons ago when we were clinging on to a 2-1 lead for 40 minutes, I recall he was like a one-man brick wall repelling their attacks, and we hung on for the win. Around that time his form was so good that I remember making comments like "he's the best defender I've ever seen" and "if we had 11 van Dijks on the pitch we'd win every game". Perhaps slight exaggerations but it didn't feel too far from the truth at the time. - Fond memories of his goal against Inter, memorable not least because it's the only time I've ever been in the Chapel Stand. I've always felt he should score more goals than he does, considering his ability to get in good positions from set pieces and how sweetly he can strike the ball as evidenced by his last minute equaliser against Sunderland a couple of seasons ago. 4 goals in 67 league games is a slightly disappointing return, with his ability he should be a 4-5 goals per season defender. Depressingly, it wouldn't surprise me at all to see him become that for Liverpool...

Very funny article in the Guardian about Lovren's performance yesterday: https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2017/oct/22/liverpool-tottenham-dejan-lovren-undefending Some highlights: "Liverpool’s Croatian centre-back produced the worst half-hour on the pitch in recent memory, during which he appeared to have completely forgotten he was actually playing in a football match" "collectively one of the worst displays of elite-club defending the Premier League will see this season; and individually a candidate for worst half-hour on the pitch in recent memory" "this was a horrendous half-hour from Lovren, who appeared at times to have completely forgotten he was actually playing in a football match, startled to find himself in the middle of all that green, so many faces in the crowd" "Exactly why and how Lovren was quite this awful, so bad his awfulness itself feels like an event, a happening with its own sheen of beauty" "it was impossible not to feel the eyes drawn to Lovren who produced a genuinely scene-stealing piece of un-defending" "Lovren did not just lose Kane, he seemed to lose all concept of what it was he was doing here, dressed in these strange red clothes, ambling about like a man recently winched up off the anaesthetist’s table, and watching on with only the vaguest curiosity as the ball floated over his head into Kane’s path" "From a corner Hugo Lloris hurled the ball out to halfway. At which point Lovren felt the music swell, the choir begin to purr and coo and for just one tiny, fatal moment really did seem to believe he could fly" "It was a poor decision. Lovren launched himself. The ball floated in a gentle parabola over halfway. Lovren floated in a gentle parabola under the ball, Kane sped away and offered the perfect pass for Son to finish." "another attack down Lovren’s no-fly channel. The ball floated over Lovren’s head in an eerily familiar echo of what had passed before, a case of Dejan Vu" "white shirts seeming to treat Liverpool’s No6 as a minor piece of street furniture to be swayed around without much thought en route to somewhere else" "With half an hour gone Lovren was euthanised from the pitch, wandering off straight past his manager to sit three rows back, looking utterly stunned, still in his red shirt. Has there been a worse half-hour from an international‑standard Premier League player?"

I don't know why people are thinking this is something new, I've seen crowds do this lots of times before. Obviously it originated with concerts as a modern alternative to the classic 'lighters in the air' thing, hence the Celine Dion reference. But sports fans do it all the time too. I even saw Leicester doing it last night, and they did it for another guy in January. Really I think a handful of Saints fans did it, perhaps to commemorate Markus, everyone else was excited and celebrating while it was 2-2 and thought it looked cool so joined in. Then Man U scored so they did it to celebrate their goal.

What? I would certainly be complaining about that. Why would it not just be allocated 50/50? If Man U have more demand for tickets, that's their problem.

Just the JPT second leg and the Watford semi at Villa Park. I don't recall any others that I could have gone to. I think it's natural to be less up for a match when the team is in a poor run of form. Also, it's not exactly a semi-final tonight, more half of a semi-final, and it feels like the less important half because we know that no matter what happens tonight, it can potentially be undone next week. I personally would feel doubly excited about tonight if it was a one-off match or if it was the second leg after something like a 1-1 in the first leg.

What I really liked was the speed and desire we showed right from the kick-off, even regardless of the goal that came at the end of it. The sharp passing and moving right from kick off was really impressive and even before the goal we worked a couple of good positions and had a good shot from Sims that was blocked. Immediately showed we were well up for it and made Everton look really sluggish, especially Lennon who was still blessing himself(!) as the game was starting, as highlighted on MOTD. Credit to Puel. There aren't that many ways that the manager can have a noticeable direct effect on the performance of the players on the pitch, but the liveliness of the play right from kick off is one of them.

Flying from Stansted to Bergamo tomorrow afternoon (technically now today!). Airbnb'ing it somewhere near Duomo. Then flying back to Stansted Saturday early afternoon.

Only for Kelvin Davis's testimonial as far as I recall. Doesn't really count.

I wonder what the inflammatory comments were. If they were inciting violence, or racist etc I can see how this could be somewhat justified, albeit strange for a football club to be policing this sort of thing. If, as seems more likely, it was just comments expressing anger and negativity at how the club is being run on and off the pitch then it's clearly a shocking clampdown on free speech. I'm guessing from the mild phrase "not particularly constructive" that the comments weren't severe.

Good prediction! It was a fun evening but I'd like to echo what others have said about the PA system, it really is a joke. In the Kingsland the speaker above us in block 33 is literally broken, you can hear a buzzing noise and the volume fluctuates. Just about got the gist of what Kelvin was saying at the end because the whole crowd went quiet and I could hear on other speakers. Really hope they get this sorted by the start of next season. Anyone trying to make any judgments at all on players' abilities based on that match are wasting their time IMO.

I'm amazed Puncheon is going to be involved in this to be honest. Imagine if he picks up a knock and has to miss the final at the weekend. I know it's not exactly going to be full-blooded stuff but players frequently pick up knocks in meaningless international friendlies and all hell breaks loose. Nice gesture though as previously said.

Voted. I was going to make a half-hearted effort at judging impartially by watching all of the goals but couldn't see how to do so on that page. But we all know his goal was the best anyway.

This seems to me to be the most concise way of putting it, and looks accurate. Except I don't know the answer to the question above about whether 8 English teams can be in Europe...

Although it's nice to look at permutations that would result in us finishing 5th, realistically it's quite unlikely that we will manage to even finish 6th, and matters are actually still out of our hands for us to even finish 7th. We still need West Ham or Liverpool to drop points and can't just assume that we will roll over Palace on the last day like some seem to think. So for that reason I'll be supporting Man U tomorrow and (obviously) Chelsea on Wednesday to help us get to the all-important 7th. And then unfortunately have to support Man U in the FA Cup final which isn't much fun.

So how much can we salvage from Boro for him? If we can get £5m that would be an unexpectedly good outcome I think.

Great idea, I also look forward to following this next season.

I don't know why these swap deals continue to be talked about so often when in reality they hardly ever happen. Generates double the amount of interest I suppose.

Met a guy in a pub a few years ago who had the Pompey crest tattooed on his arm. I said, you must be a really big fan, season ticket holder I presume? He said he doesn't actually like football anymore.

Only other one I can think of that you've not mentioned is Gardos. He was playing regularly for Romania before his injury and should have a good chance of at least making the squad. Needs to get some minutes for us if he wants to get much playing time at the Euros though.

Seems like I'm the only one that thought Lallana actually played well yesterday. Most of their more threatening moves particularly in the first half (admittedly there weren't many) seemed to come from his runs and his passes. Usually it ended up with Moreno on the left who was to blame for wasting numerous promising situations. I was quite relieved when Lallana was taken off, although of course part of that is the relief that he's not going to score against us.

Forgive me for being skeptical about Gaston but we always knew he had the ability and skill to play as well as this, when he has the time and space to do it. Problem is, he'll get that extra bit of time in matches against lower-Championship teams and (arguably) in the Italian league, but we know he goes missing against nearly all the teams in the Premier League. I guess all he can do is produce when he gets the opportunity though, so if he keeps doing that then he deserves more game time. Funny how it seems as though he's become a bit of a cult hero with the number of different chants for him, "Gaston Ramirez, he's back from the dead", "If Gaston scores, we're on the pitch" etc. Reminded me of post-promotion Guly. Juanmi was pretty disappointing, he seems reluctant to shoot and tries to walk it into the net instead. The one time he was put through by a superb through ball by Gaston, he made a really inaccurate pass that went to the defender in the goalmouth area when there were strikers available, and the shot could also have been on. It was only sheer luck that their defender cleared it straight into Long's chest! Seems a shame to make a largely negative post about such an excellent performance so I will also mention how insanely good Mane was, only on for about an hour but easily MOTM for me. Fantastic first goal by Rodriguez. And Davis played really well too. What was the chant about the guy with the Mars bar/Snickers on his head all about, is there some sort of joke I'm not in on?!

I remember being at the Cardiff away game when he got a massive cheer and applause when he finally made a save (and eventually a clean sheet). He'd become a bit of a joke from his recent poor performances and either didn't get that the over-the-top cheering was somewhat sarcastic, or just had the spirit to dealt with it admirably. The decision to extend his contract seems baffling on the face of it. People struggle to name any game he's performed well in, but even if you can, that's not the point, because being a goalkeeper is all about being solid and unspectacular over lots of games rather than great for the odd game and poor the rest of the time. He's never shown any sign that he can be a reliable keeper at any level really.

I'm not worried about Mane at all. It's frustrating he missed those two chances, but he did well to even create the chances for himself in the first place. I've seen them described as sitters which they weren't. The first shot was powerful and on target, and was almost definitely on track to beat the keeper, but unfortunately was blocked by a good piece of defending. The second he did well to cut inside and drive at the defence, he got the right shape on the shot to beat the keeper with his weaker left foot but unfortunately just wide.

This is completely different to anything Steven Gerrard or Brendan Rodgers did with regard to our players previously. The SPL is a Mickey Mouse league whose players we can fully expect to want a move to a proper league. Moving from Saints to a team 2-3 places higher in the same league is a very different thing.

They made lots of noise for the first 20 minutes and maybe last 25, in between nothing much at all. They were really passionate for those parts, jumping up and down etc, but in terms of actual time spent making noise during the 90 minutes, there are some English teams' fans that go for longer. I wasn't there during the warm up though so if they were making a noise during that then fair play.