HarvSFC

Where was Gunn?

Not sure what’s happened, but at Fulham and in his first few Liverpool appearances I thought he was very good and gutted we missed out on him at first. If he can recapture that he would be the best player in the Championship. Would be a real coup, similar to Harwood-Bellis. Only downside would be no chance of making the loan a permanent. Can’t believe Premier League sides are going to ignore him, though. A Luton, Sheffield United, or Burnley would definitely take him. Perhaps this story was fed to Romano from his agent to alert clubs to the fact that Carvalho is available this window.

On the topic of Burnley players, I forgot Obafemi was still there too. Barring 21-22 at Swansea, he hasn't really done anything.

Exciting player is Benson. Would certainly get fans off their seat. Was often Burnley’s wildcard last season to cause chaos off the bench. Forgot he existed. Free Manuel Benson?

Love Harwood-Bellis. A real coup for this level in the summer. Hopefully no chance of an Alderweireld situation repeating itself should we win promotion.

Also, shout out to Edozie. His first half performance was everything we wished Sulemana was. Kept beating their full-back for fun and put in a very good cross across goal which could have gone anywhere. Tracked back a few times too to win the ball back and an assist on the board for Alcaraz’ goal. Long may these performances from him continue. Nice to see Jos Hooiveld at half time also. Didn’t know he played with Martin at Norwich.

Plymouth came for the point and got nothing, happy days. I thought the refs were meant to be clamping down on time wasting this season, their goalkeeper spent an age on every goal kick and then you have just two minutes added on at the end of the first half and no booking for the goalkeeper. Was up there with Newcastle's gamesmanship. Feared it was going to be another Rotherham, we were dominant for the first half hour, playing some lovely football and they couldn't get the ball off us. Unfortunately, the tempo did drop after that and it went a bit slower and a bit easier for the Plymouth defence, but a bit of Premier League quality from Alcaraz unlocked them. Now we have to see what SR are made of in the transfer window in regards to KWP. He's too good for this level, but we shouldn't be selling him at any price next month and should we get promoted he should be the priority for a new contract. Will be far more expensive to replace his quality in the side. Bednarek and THB once again imperious at the back, dominated the Plymouth attack and shut down pretty much everything. The redemption of Bednarek is wonderful to continue viewing. Only complaints really are, I don't get the Stephens sub. Tonight and against Blackburn, we're bringing an attacker off for Stephens and playing three at the back. I would rather that sub went to either Dibling or Amo-Ameyaw for one of our attackers with us winning comfortably, which we were at the time and hopefully keeping the momentum on our side. A. Armstrong off for Stephens makes us a bit more cautious when, as I say we were comfortable. Feels like Neil Warnock's appearance bonus move. Also, Bazunu's monthly error. Didn't cost us tonight and hopefully that's that out of the way for a few more games. Much easier than the away game even if it was the same score line. We can't stop winning while Ipswich are drawing and Leeds are losing at the time of posting this. Up the Saints.

Downes is that colleague who phones in sick once a month.

The way we walked through Leeds in the first half at home is giving me plenty of confidence too. Will probably come back to bite me firmly on the arse, but we’re a different team to the one that lost against Leicester and Ipswich earlier in the season.

Feared after the Leeds loss earlier that things were being set up for us to drop points too. How wrong was I. Up the Saints. Automatic promotion is well in sight now.

Leicester have a few big names, if they’re going to suffer a drop in form it’ll be then. Iheanacho, Ndidi, Fatawu and Daka all going. Ipswich captain Morsy plays for Egypt. Leeds don’t have any. West Brom lose Ajayi at the back and their best player Diangana, so hopefully the divide gets a bit bigger.

The wise Nathan Jones once said that playing with 10 men helps.

Once again we’ve reverted to slow, walking football away from home after the positives of last week. Chair’s had the running of Bree so far, so could be a better matchup with KWP on that side now.

What a tragic waste of money and once again a lack of care/due diligence by those in charge of the money. The medical team who gave the green light in the summer don’t come out of this looking too great either. Three year deal, too. Pretty much two years out of the game by the time he returns. Can reword Martin’s quote to say it will be a huge bonus if he returns at a good level for us.

I'm always surprised that Adams and A. Armstrong have never clicked up top, albeit they haven't had a prolonged run up top together, but when they do play it just doesn't seem to work, like it did with Ings. On paper, you have Armstrong, a runner off the ball and a goal poacher and then Adams, whose strengths are holding the ball up and bringing others into play. Should work, but that's what has been missing from Adams' game this season, really. In the Premier League he was slightly underrated in his passing ability, but we haven't really seen it this season, possibly because he's playing the lone forward in these tactics, I don't know. Either way, I think his time at the club is nearing it's end, shame he never got that league title.

Record Championship signing is £15m, Ruben Neves, who was the Porto first team captain, a Champions League player and Portugal international and had Jorge Mendes puppeteering.

Horseman sacked by Forest Green Rovers, replaced by Troy Deeney.

Unfortunately, Birmingham don't have a defence or a goalkeeper. (Ruddy has one cap for England, amazingly)

Good game this, Birmingham had a few chances before their goal.

We aren't getting any better than Ings in January in the Championship. A six month loan sounds good to me. Last time he was here he was hungry to get back into the England setup and prove himself after his Liverpool career was destroyed by injuries. He has probably lost that now, but he'd be better than another January striker gamble. Not many clubs will sell a goal scorer in January and not many goal scorers will make moves to a Championship club in January. If we get to the Premier League in the summer then we can reassess and hopefully have more options to fill the void upfront.

Seems to be leaving: https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/23995177.southampton-coach-andreas-georgson-set-leave-club/

I miss the one touch, one twos, quick tempo we were playing against Cardiff, which their defence couldn't deal with. We've reverted back to the slow, laborious, predictable play.

When Calderwood was appointed, we had one of the worst goals against tally in the league with 24 goals conceded in the opening 14 games. At one point we had the worst. Since his appointment we’ve conceded twice in five, keeping three clean sheets. Three of our four clean sheets this season. I know we don’t ever truly know how good a coach is, but can’t be a coincidence given his reputation.

Watched the highlights and saw the Hoedt we all know for the Hull goal.

Best we’ve played this season. For a lot of this season our passing has lowered the tempo to walking football, becoming slow and ponderous. Today, for the first 30 minutes especially the tempo was excellent. Nobody was admiring their passes, as soon as they released the ball, they were on the move, creating some lovely one twos to get around the Cardiff defence. Manning, who I was critical of before the match had his best game for us. Perhaps the Swansea links were motivation. But, then even Mara looked good when he came on. Shame to still be so far away from the automatics on this run, needs to be near perfect every week.