Lallana's Left Peg

He was jogging backwards as he was waiting for the free kick to be taken and the Aston Villa defender saw him coming and barged him in the back - very cowardly. Osvaldo reacted which I assume resulted in his yellow. The Villa defender deserved one as well for his role.

He was neat and tidy but it wasn't anything more than you should expect as standard as someone who plays in his position. I was really disappointed with his mistake for the goal - its a lack of concentration and composure in an important part of the field and it isn't the first time he's done it this season as he made the same sort of mistake at Sunderland. Maybe it is because he is rusty, but I don't think that is the sort of mistake a rusty player makes.

I think we all knew that heading into the season, but the moment it happens people are acting a little shocked. If we won in the manner Villa did we'd admit we were incredibly lucky. We had an ok performance unfortunately punctuated by mistakes made by players who are rusty and do not play at the level of the players they replaced. We cannot get too disheartened by this and hopefully neither will the team. That is not to absolve them all of criticism - they have set some high standards and the club talks of ambition and Top 6 finishes so they must bear the burden of that as well. I am frustrated more than worried, if that makes sense.

The performance was decent, even if we did lack a little imagination in the final third against a deep defence. Against teams who sit back sometimes I feel like our best chances of scoring are just when we win the ball back or when we just lump it in the box. However, there were many issues tonight: 1. We knew the squad was a little thin on quality and we saw that tonight - the selection of Yoshida couldn't be justified whatsoever and that is a mistake from Pochettino. 2. Wanyama needs to be dropped - he was growing on me but tonight he was awful. How can he keep on making the same mistakes? I don't mind mistakes but I hate when players do not learn. He is young and relatively inexperienced but he comes with a price tag. 3. Why is Chambers on the bench if when Clyne gets injured we put on a centre-half in his place?

Players are not playing with confidence or crispness. It can come but we need to be careful on the break.

For me this is one of our biggest tests as a team this season. A couple of defeats, a couple of injuries, and now a winnable game. We'll find out how strong we are as a group in this situation - both with respect to the quality of the team and belief we have in the system. Ever since the League 1 days I've always thought we've been a confidence team built on momentum. Without that momentum I've always thought we can be a bit soft at times. Tonight is a game where we need to show we can bounce back and deal with a bit more adversity than we've had at any point this season. I'll be looking at the general body language of the players and how expressive they are with the ball - you can always tell when professionals play with a bit of fear and trepidation. I hope we've got enough but it feels like one of those games where if we do go a goal behind the team may take a while to pick itself up during the game and by then it may be too late. I hope to be proved wrong!

I'd have him back. I can only assume its peoples pride that is saying they wouldn't have him? He's one of our own products and would fit in nicely. I don't think he'll come back though, I don't think he'd leave Arsenal.

January is shaping up to be another quiet one I think. By and large the club has adopted the policy of finding internal solutions for depth, and buying players better than we already have to improve the team and not to pad the squad. Fonte's form has been outstanding but at a stretch I could see us buying another centre-half as whilst in other parts of the pitch we can do some shuffling about to maintain a decent quality in the team if Fonte or Lovren got injured I would be very worried about our ability to maintain a level of performance in the team. However, you don't hear of many good centre-halves joining clubs in January, and I am not sure just buying a new player and kicking Fonte out is the right thing to do either. But then if we're in a half decent position come February and then injuries or loss of form hits we'll be pointing fingers at the squad depth and opportunity missed in January. Damned if you do, damned if you don't in this case I think.

The delusion. They were probably laughing because they scored their fourth goal after their own keeper was doing kick-ups in his own box then when he aimlessly hoofed it forward it ended up with their striker clean through on goal

http://www.football-italia.net/41809/osvaldo-had-allergy-attack Hopefully not too serious.

Will the book only be available through the website or will it also be available from other shops (even if they have to order it in)?

I don't think it is - whenever the interpreter says something Pochettino wants re-framed he interrupts. He understands English well enough to do that so I don't think much is getting lost in translation at all.

An interesting question. In the grand scheme of things I don't think it matters, and that if there was to be genuine reasons for doing so (say, an increase in revenue which allowed us to further invest in the team) then I can see how from a business perspective (and FFP) it could be justified. However, from a tribal football perspective it matters as it would feel like it would be a bit more of our identity stripped away and that doesn't feel too nice. Overall, I think we know now in Premier League football that the business comes before the tradition. But that still wouldn't make it feel right.

Just seen this:

Oh dear, the fun police will be out soon condemning the chant. Remember kids, you are only allowed to chant things other people like you chanting. If they do not like it then it isn't allowed.

Wow, 18 year old Sam Gallagher preferred on the bench ahead of Gaston Ramirez. Unless Ramirez got injured between yesterday morning and today.

The 'wheels falling off' scenario for me is our owners walking away and some sort of financial issues if we were to have a lot of debt. As much as I am optimistic about the future of our club Premier League football and continuing to give youth players a chance is all I want from Saints. Anything else is a bonus for me.

I haven't seen the goals back on TV so I will need to check who was marking who from the free kick. Whomever was marking Wes Brown is at fault for that, as they completely lost him. Just because Wes Brown headed it back across the box from the far post doesn't mean Fox is at fault for that one (unless he was of course marking him). The second goal came after an awful pass from Cork made us lose possession as we were chasing the equaliser. It was an awful shunt forward that was devoid of ideas or technique (it looked a very tired pass to me).

Just back from the game. I am quite surprised by the 'win a cup' notion on here tonight. I didn't get the feeling it existed in the two earlier rounds so not sure why it exists now? If it is because the second team should have been good enough to win in those rounds then the same excuse should be used tonight - this team was good enough to win if they performed well enough - and they didn't. We had lots of first team experience in the second string, it isn't like Pochettino left them hanging out to dry. Too much focus is given to the 'rest players' reason as to why the second string played. Whilst that is a part of the reason it isn't the only one. The Manager also values giving opportunities to other players and also giving youngsters a chance to impress. A big squad on paper doesn't mean much if there isn't viable competition for the first team and the best thing the players could do tonight is play well and give the Manager selection issues. Davis has done it this season (perform well enough in the cup to earn a recall to the first team) so the Manager has proved he will change things up based on performances in this competition. It isn't an empty gesture. As it goes, not many come out of tonight with any credit. K Davis, Yoshida, Hooiveld, Cork, Ramirez, and Lee all poor. S Davis, Fox and Jay-Rod ok. Chambers and Reed the better players for me. No-one else really made a case for themselves, though Gallagher had more impact on the game in 10mins than Lee did in 60. So this weekend when Pochettino selects the same 11 that started against Stoke no-one on that bench can feel aggrieved. No-one can say they don't get an opportunity, and no-one can start moaning about stuff. Whilst I appreciate some will say it is hard to impress in a team full of second string players where they are not match sharp I will argue it didn't stop some in the previous rounds nor tonight (Chambers and Reed). As a fan I would love a proper run at a cup and a Europa League run. I can understand why the club thinks otherwise though, and I'm not fussed that they don't fancy it themselves - certainly not to do so with any negative impact on the league form. All that money on those new signings comes from our status as a Premier League team, it doesn't come from nice little cup runs or even Europa League runs (in fact don't some teams lose money playing in that competition?). I just see the pragmatic view that puts the League Cup as an opportunity to do other things rather than a competition where you play the first team and try to win it.

As I understand it the club were GIVEN the money to aid our away support. They appear to have spent it in a way to try and improve the opposition away support at St Marys which they directly benefit from. Poor form.

So rather than use the money to help the supporters who follow the team away they are investing it in the stadium in a way that only helps* away supporters? *That is if away supporters care about the general state of the away concourse at St Marys anyway. That is pretty pathetic. The Hull away game on a Tuesday was crying out for free travel and subsidised tickets.

Back from the game. We did well today. Stoke are very much a team stuck in transition and they will be up and down for the rest of the season. The conditions didn't make for anything hit over 15 yards to be accurate, which given the workrate of both teams meant the game got very congested and messy at times. I felt we were the more refined team, we worked the ball well but the final pass was lacking at times - as it has been at several times this season. I was interested to see the impact Ramirez would make when he came on but his presence just disrupted stuff. We're a powerful team these days and he was not powerful enough in possession and considering the amount of men we commit forward it created a few counters for Stoke at times which felt risky. A decent point away from home and we move onto the next game. Very encouraged by our resiliency and quality, I think we've got a good season ahead of ourselves.

Ramirez wanted by Galatasaray according to this: http://www.turkish-football.com/news_read.php?id=5348 If he is going to leave then it wouldn't be a bad destination as Galatasaray pay well for players and the tax breaks footballers have over there mean Ramirez would still earn a very good wage as well.

I don't understand the question, as if Rickie Lambert can be physically trained to fulfil the role then I would say just about any striker can as long as they have the appetite and desire.

Lots of people saying he has talent but the original question I posed was not questioning his quality it was what position will he settle on when he is a fixture in the team? Is he one of the two ahead of the defence or is he one of the three behind the striker? Or doesn't it matter?