Minty

I thought he had some good moments, usually for tackles and blocks, but most certainly some very poor positional play. He needs a leader alongside him to talk him through his game and there wasn't one in the Man Utd defence until Carrick(!) come on and played there, but even then he was on the right of the two.

All the talk about playing the 'big clubs' and judging us after we have done is masking one of the big factors of this season IMO. We might very well lose to the 'big clubs' but (other than Chelsea) they are all dropping points to other lower clubs - some more than others! If we can be more consistent in beating the sides we finished above last season, get just the odd good result against a 'big club', then whilst the likes of Man City can lose to West Ham and Newcastle, we can still be up around the top 4 IMO... It may sound obvious but it seems a lot of pundits and some fans are overlooking the fact that our position does not just depend on our own results, but the results of those around us. If they are dropping points in other games, and we drop points against them, then that cancels it out. Although frankly, I've seen little to worry me from ANY side other than Chelsea so far. The Manc derby yesterday was devoid of any quality and Man City struggled to win even against ten men. We should fear no one and just see what happens.

http://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/ryan-bertrand-dont-call-saints-start-fluke-and-stop-waiting-us-fall-away?

Really good comments on MOTD this evening, highlighting Clyne (who was my MOTM) in depth, both his defending and attacking. His all round game really is superb, great to see some more recognition for him. Wanyama also highlighted in much the same way, for his defensive screening, and of course the goal. The final point they made was that 7 of our 11 have been ever-present in the league this season, strong consistency.

Well, as is often the case, I would be concerned about anyone who is too far to the right, and even those of a central persuasion cause me concern. Far safer to stick to the left.

5 of them or 1 of her? You decide.

Are you coming out too GM? As a homophobe?

Thing is, I actually bought both Lighthouse Family albums when I was younger so I can't really comment. And he worked with Bowie too so that evens things up.

Oh, random fact: I know the Lighthouse Family's producer. Bonus fact: They have a new album coming out.

A picture of my wife will explain my name:

I will admit I never liked him as a comedian, presenter or 'performer'... never thought all that much of his acting roles either. But having listened to him speak more recently, as much as I have struggled to like him in the past, I have grown to respect his opinions and have challenged some of my own beliefs as a result. This being a football forum, perhaps the best analogy I can come up with is to play the ball, not the man. Challenge his statements, challenge his opinions, engage in the debate by all means... that is primarily what he is about after all... but leave the lazy personal judgements to one side. The biggest criticism I have of everything that surrounds Brand at present is actually not a criticism of him personally at all, but of our media in general... it seems the only way to get an audience in our modern society is to be someone that the media wants to give exposure to, or more precisely, thinks they will get viewers/readers from.

Good article that - Brand is asking some good questions IMO.

Interesting article about the possible origins of the outbreak. http://theconversation.com/deforestation-and-the-rise-of-industrial-scale-farming-in-africa-could-lie-behind-ebola-outbreak-33488

Having watched it back a few times, the only thing I can think Crouch was trying to do was to step over the ball and put his body between the ball and Davis, but that he completely misjudged just how quickly Davis would get there (as most people do - he's incredibly quick to close down) and so as he reached out to step over the ball, he just clattered Davis instead. I think it looks far worse than intended, and don't think he intended to stud him as it looked, but the result, a second yellow, was correct. I'd agree that some refs could well have given him a straight red for it, but I think he was just way too slow getting to the ball.

As a young bloke he used to get drunk and make a tit of himself... could be 90% of us. I'm not sure any of us are in any position to judge anyone else for that, unless we've lived squeaky clean lives. My experiences of Beatts were always very positive, his fundraising efforts for Sophie's Appeal were vast, and he was always a nice bloke when I met him and his wife Sarah. Back to the thrust of the thread though, good to see him down here trying to learn more and further his managerial career. Good luck to him.

Indeed, would be nice to know on what this was based... I hope it is recognition of the past year, and not just the past 2.5 months.

Same. And there are some nice community pubs round my way. Closures were more to do with finances than smoking IMO, and many (not all) of those which closed were the worst pubs in an area, with more transient customers... the ones with good community backing tended to survive.

UKIP's rise in popularity is more likely to be those who've *always* been of the opinion to 'get out', but felt that their previous party of choice has not given them sufficient voice to air that opinion. However, UKIP's emergence has polarised the debate somewhat, and those previously in the centre ground have now consciously moved towards 'stay in' as a result. The general increase in awareness about the European issue could well have led to many people who previously weren't sure, or ambivalent about it, to now have looked into it further and decided, perhaps partly due to UKIP, that being in Europe is a good thing.

You lot seem to be stuck in some kind of infinite loop. For your own sake, maybe you should all just quit? Cos if you don't, I ask again: What are you actually trying to achieve? There's far too little respect or genuine debate to reach any worthwhile conclusions, no one seems happy to agree to disagree, and all i see now is endless attempts to discredit individuals rather than the arguments. By all means crack on if you think it's worth it, but think of all the real-world stuff you could actually have achieved if you hadn't wasted so much time on each other.

Genuine question: What are some of you lot trying to achieve with all this?

We could have as-yet unborn (in our time) Saints fans, visiting us from the future to post on the year-of-birth page, with tales of administration number 19...

Anyway, back to Pelle, I love his attitude... both he and Tadic seem incredibly grounded, grateful to be playing at the level they now find themselves, and always striving to do better. Ego seems to be almost completely absent and I'm sure playing for Koeman is a key part of that as he too seems very balanced, always focused on the next game, and similar to one of Adkins' key phrases 'never too high when we win, never too low when we lose'. It's the kind of phils(h)ophy that will take us much further as a team, than if we were just a collection of individual players.

Koeman 'not happy with the first 20 minutes' amongst other comments on Final Score... that's why I think I love him. Always looking to do better... how frightening will it be when we get better?!

I wonder if the True Geordie will mention this is his rant this weekend?!

As I said at 3-0. Anyone reckon 7 is possible?! As I said at 5-0. Anyone reckon 9 is possible?!