M271

Wow 4 league loses in 11 days, has there ever been such a rapid loss of league games for us? It is madness though, over 10% of the league games played in only 11 days.

IIRC he has been coming on as a sub about half way through the 2nd half for their last few matches not sure of he is ready to start a match yet though.

I thought that previously it was seen that a penalty and a yellow card was sufficient for denying a goal scoring opportunity not a red card? And as for slightly brushing the leg of an attacker who hangs out a leg and goes down too easily, it's farcical.

It wasn't 10 or more!!

Can only assume that but seems strange that a week ago Vokins and Valery were OK as stand ins and now both have gone out on loan, after Ralph has assessed them for many months in training. I think that it is a mistake letting them go out on loan when a week ago they were seen as 1st choice replacements. In contradiction to many on here I don't think that we're playing too badly in the last 3 league games IMO we were the equal of Leicester, slightly inferior to Arsenal with 2 (3) replacement defenders and better than Aston Villa, converting chances has been our downfall but that doesn't make all of our play or players rubbish. Players and manager were mostly lauded on here a month or so ago and now most of our players are apparently not good enough, as a ex-manager used to say 'not too high when you win , not too low when you lose'.

I remember them playing We are the champions by Queen in the late 70s, it seemed to be their default record at the time when they didn't have a record requested to be played for some ones birthday etc. I also remember that some records jumped as if a number of them were warped and the crowd cheered when it happened.

When I played for 2nd Southampton Cubs team in the early 70s our formation was: 1 - GK 2- RD, 3 CD, 4 CD, 5 LD 5 - Lone midfielder (I can't remember what we called the position) 7- Right Wing, 8 Inside Right, 9 Centre Forward, 10 Inside Left, 11 Left Wing So a 4, 1, 5 formation and we won the league!

Injury update from Ralph: “Not on Tuesday, definitely not, but maybe on Saturday,” he said of potential return dates. “The earliest return will be Ingsy, then Moussa maybe, with Ori and Reddy also in this group.“Then maybe Jannik, but that can be in February, and Salisu is still longer out with a muscle injury.“We have some problems at the moment with muscle injuries and there are some reasons I think that are responsible for this.“We are in a fantastic building here but we cannot use anything (due to Covid-19). We cannot use our cryo chamber, the sauna, the pool, nothing, and we have still the same games with the same intensity.

Info from Ralph: “It will be a mixed group tomorrow – some guys who have to play, because there are not a lot of alternatives, and some young guys will have to step in and show what they have shown in the sessions: that they are developing their game and deserve to get a chance to play.”

BT Sport 2

Seeing as we will have 8 or 9 games* in the 4 weeks after and including the Leicester game I'm sure that all 3 will get their chance at some stage. I think that the proven partnership of JWP and Romeu will be Ralphs first choice for most matches. Diallo will get his chance when rotation is needed, potential injuries, tiredness or if Ralph feels that he better suits the way of playing against a particular opposition. * Depending on progression in the FA cup

If it does go ahead I hope that social distancing between the teams is enforced. Makes me smile when the teams come out separately and the subs from the same team sit spaced a part but at the end of the match the teams embrace and hug each other! All that running about must have made them immune.

I guess that if the match is postponed then it will be played mid-week next week or on the weekend of the 4th Round in 2 weeks time? Depending upon when the necessary negative tests come back. I think there will be many postponements this weekend.

For once we have 5 days before and a clear week afterwards so should be OK to put out a full strength side, from those that are available. However this is the ideal match to bench some of the high intensity players like KWP, JWP, Bertrand, Walcott, Ings, Armstrong and assess their replacements. On balance though I think that somewhere in between with 3 of those listed will start and 3 on the bench. The crunch comes a week later when we start a period of 7 games (if we progress in the cup) in 3 weeks against teams that will be challenging, this is when management of the team / squad will be vital.

First Man City after playing us and now Fulham 4 days after playing us, are we the super spreaders? Seriously, I hope that our players are OK after playing against 'infected' teams. Hopefully all our tests will be negative over the next days.

The way that he bombs around the pitch he has to be careful in this cold weather not to pull a hammy, reappearance of the long johns I suspect!. Although he does seem to have had more calf muscle issues in the past. Theo Walcott - Injury history | Transfermarkt

West Ham looking very ordinary with little energy and urgency, you just watch them raise their game against us as they always seem to do. I remember Anderson against us a few seasons ago who had a fantastic game but I never saw him play so well again (selective memory?).

And their online shop. We ordered 1 3rd kit shirt but 2 arrived under 2 order numbers and charging us for both. Sent 1 back immediately and they received it back 2 weeks ago today (tracked), still no refund. Have tried to ring them but the online phone option just rings and rings, and the megastore option just bleeps 3 times and cuts off, both of these options have been like this for at least the last week. I used their online contact message email yesterday to chase up the refund and of course no automated email acknowledgement for me to know that they have received the message!!

Covid cases have more than doubled for Southampton in the week up to 17th Dec (209 cases last week up to 433 this), if this speed of increase continues I can see our home game v West Ham being the last with fans for a while. Pity with the Liverpool and Shrewsbury home games soon after that. Next Tier review is due on Wednesday 30th Dec so I guess we will know then, when they look at other factors too in making the judgement.

And especially when looking at the next 5 League fixtures after Fulham against Westham (h), Liverpool (h), Leicester (a), Leeds (a) and Arsenal (h)!

Just signed up for a free month of Amazon Prime, watching Wolves v Chelsea through new Sky Box App.

The word for black in Romanian is negru, so that may be the problem?

With 3 games in 6 days there will be squad management going on, maybe not the Sheff Utd and Man City games but what about the mid-week Arsenal game can all the first pick team play that? If not who to rest?

We got an email Wednesday before last on 25th November saying it was being shipped and still hasn't been received, Ts and Cs says 5 to 7 working days which was up last Friday. Tried to phone them without success to chase it up.

Had a feeling of dread even at 2 - 0 up at half time, wife said to me you should be happy but I said I just know what's going to happen and I was right (not difficult being a long standing Saints fan!). Towards the end I was happy with the draw but the inevitable happened in extra time just to bring true what seems to be a predictable script against Utd). I don't normally criticise RH but bringing Long on at 60 min and what until near the end to replace anyone else when we were obviously being out played way before that was a mistake IMO.