HarvSFC

Struggling to think of a more overrated/overhyped player than Thiago. When he signed he was made out to be the midfield equivalent of Alisson/Van Dijk, but Diallo took him out of the game against us and in every other match he has not done anything, bar a few stepovers in midfield.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/soccertalents/beraterfirma/berater/3381 Would appear that he's the only one who would get this agency any decent money.

Suits the role given to him better at Aston Villa. Seems to have been told to keep it safe and simple, cover Grealish and provide him with more attacking freedom. Grealish isn't going to track back, so Targett needs to stay back and offers next to nothing going forward. Whereas, Ralph wants his full-backs to attack, carry the ball from deep and offer an attacking threat out wide with pace. Still has some defensive frailties, as we found out when we beat them and we seemed to, excuse the pun, target their life hand side of the pitch.

Is there a better free-kick taker in world football than JWP at the moment?

West Ham got £20m for Haller and he scored just 10 goals in two years.

Stephens is better than Yoshida and Gardos, who he has now replaced in the team as the third choice centre-back. Initially, he was brought into the team to replace Van Dijk/Fonte, which has hampered him in the eyes of many for a number of years now, as he's never going to be on their level. However, he has been doing a job when coming into the team for well over a year now and I for one am glad that we have him in the squad. Very few Premier League teams outside of the big six would have kept three consecutive clean sheets, including against the champions with a second choice keeper in goal after losing a first choice centre-back.

Good first half, outdone by a poor decision from the officials. Really poor second half, making it a comfortable win for Leicester. They did bring £75m worth of players off their bench tonight, which helps makes a difference. 10 days until the next league game, hopefully gives the opportunity for some to return.

Diallo does the same... Gets a yellow.

Offside, which won’t be checked due to phases of play, linos don’t put their flag up anymore until the ball goes out of play, so...

Yeah, Shrewsbury could have played their Under-18s. Now, Leeds are likely to have their current injured players back to fitness when we face them.

On that note, I always thought Andrew Surman would have had a better career than he had. Yeah, he had a career, which saw many appearances/seasons in the Premier League. But, he was never the main man again, after departing us. Maybe it's just my memory of him being more favourable and him also being a part of what was a very average to poor Southampton team.

Premier League winner, Nathan Dyer.

Ben White at Brighton seems to be forging a good career now after being released by us and a few loans in the lower leagues. Although, he doesn’t seem to have cemented a position as of yet.

These fixtures seem to suit us better, because as already mentioned, they will attack us. Which, is why I am looking forward to the Leeds fixture that follows too. It is a comparable fixture to the Everton and Aston Villa matches, who were the form teams when we faced them and we made easy work of both, despite a brief stoppage time scare against Villa after going 4-0 up.

Appears we've found another gem from overseas. Unfortunately, with the new rules it looks like he will be the last, unless we can manipulate them with a feeder club abroad.

1-1, Puel masterclass.

Yeah, will hopefully be a bye to the next round, rather than a rearranged fixture like they were doing in the early rounds of the League Cup.

Yep! Lets take emotion out of the game, we need more players and managers to act like robots in post-match interviews, can never get enough of their generic responses. Players and managers should stop celebrating victories, cringey and "noddy club" behaviour. Bring back the Claude Puel days.

Seems more Darren Powell than Vegard Forren (Remember when he signed for Brighton and then went back to Molde for a third spell after making 0 appearances at Brighton as well, weird). Would need a better source than Sport Witness and "Ghana Soccer Net."

Brilliant! Looking at our position in the league again now after what many believed to be and correctly so, poor weeks and we're outside of the Champions League on goal difference. We might actually be a top team again. Give Ralph a lifetime contract, I don't even care, I cannot imagine the team without him leading it now. Forster, not as bad as the West Ham match, where he was flapping at everything and just trying to get a fist to the ball. Reminiscent of that match towards the end where he just took a punch, but he did do his job tonight in that he kept a clean sheet. He wasn't really tested and once again, I think that we can say he definitely won't be our long-term option based on his all round play, but for one game, he did his job. Stephens, faultless. Had a difficult start to the season in the high line and against Villa when playing alongside Vestergaard, but when he's partnered with Bednarek he does very little wrong and puts in some brilliant blocks. Bednarek, again, colossal, so composed and so glad we put him on a new contract. Doesn't get the plaudits from neutrals, a very underrated defender outside of Southampton. Bertrand at his best defensively. Didn't do a lot going forward, but didn't put a foot wrong defensively, which to use a cliché is the priority for a full-back. And then, I cannot praise KWP enough. Brilliant against Mane. I know he wasn't exactly unknown, but still a great find by the recruitment team. Diallo and JWP played the perfect game in the midfield. Thiago has been and pre-match was being lauded as this unbelievable world class talent, but they dealt with him superbly. Diallo winning the ball for Armstrong right before he won the free-kick for the goal and of course alongside his work rate and defensive work, JWP is the set-piece master and got the assist. Also played a lovely ball to set Ings off in the first half. Djenepo was having a good game in that he was winning the ball and causing some issues for the Liverpool backline before his injury, shame to see him go off in tears. Had a poor year off the pitch. Armstrong looked back to his best in the first half, wasn't getting forward as much in the second half, but he was breaking up attacks well. Ings, what a finish! Was noticeably flagging around the 65th minute, but his one moment of quality won us the match, which is all that we needed tonight. Walcott also was flagging late on, not one of his better matches either, but worked well defensively. Good tackle on Milner towards the end of his game. Tella looked ineffectual, barring his first half shot, but strangely did look better when N'Lundulu came on, maybe it's the youth team cohesion. Additionally, when Valery came on to play right-wing I thought it was just going to be a back to the walls job and that none of these three could hold the ball up the field for us, but they surprised me and proved me wrong professionally. Again, surprisingly, we looked more capable at keeping the ball up the pitch with these three and their fresh legs. Valey could have even killed the game off, but was unlucky. All in all, what a night! 2021 going to be better than 2020 for the Saints?

Wow! A special, special player.

Didn’t notice Salisu had dropped back out. Bizarre.

Well, hopefully he’s improved under Sparkes like McCarthy has.

Looked like a prospect at one time and I thought we did have something following the already mentioned Manchester United goal, but then the Leicester match and other isolated poor performances followed. Plenty of question marks hanging over him at this point in his career, whether he would be better as an attacker than a defender, as he has shown to have good technical ability, it's the defensive part and awareness that lets him down and whether he is making the right decisions off the pitch. He's close to Lemina due to the language barrier in his initial months here, which can't be helping as an influence. Either way, it looks as though those questions will be answered somewhere else.

Doesn't help when there's a host of footballers attending parties.