Bobbyboy

I heard, and one opening in Indianapolis where we used to live. They waited until we moved south. :-( A magical land of wonder and delight, three yes THREE British aisles and an entirely separate Indian section. And the best toilets this side of St Mary's. *sigh*

So, can I give you an order for Jungle Jim's?

Monroe, Louisiana, USA. Everyone else here also supports a football team called the Saints. Except it's the wrong Saints. And the wrong football.

He's going to be 'poised to sign' until the summer? Sounds familiar...

Mark Clattenburg. They should give him a run-out in an England shirt and see if it changes him. Really, anything we can do to change him.

Would love to see Clyne at RB and LB. Shame the LB version may not be fit. Seriously though would be good for Isgrove to get a go. or a decent amount of time for Gallagher, haven't seen enough of him yet.

I *want* to blame Guly, Fox, Jos, Gaston, Jonno Quick and if possible Rupert Lowe. I'm finding it difficult right now, but I'm trying my best. Bleddy Michael Wilde also. And Askham. And Souness. And Branfoot, sheesh we'd have beaten Chelsea with ease if not for his reckless management twenty years ago.

Leeds away?

I guess West Ham don't want Rickie injured then.

One of his issues today was no Morgan. He is more comfortable and composed when he knows he can bomb forward and Morgan is covering behind him, and I thought he was noticeably less willing to do that today. The breathing heavy thing though was a slight concern. Still, I don't know that Fox would have done any better today.

Actually thought he looked a little nervous going forward early on then had one very good run, beat his man and delivered the cross.. it was like a weight lifted from him and he seemed much more willing to try stuff going forward after that.

One of the issues with asking the fullbacks to bomb forward is that typically, in our good run, they would do so often (sometimes for extended periods) and JWP would fill in as acting right back and Morgan the same on the left. Not sure, but possibly having both of those missing now may affect the fullback play a little. Just a thought.

Chambers, Fonte AND Jos on the bench? Plus Cork? Is this the most defensively-minded bench we've put out recently??

All I really got from the press conf is that Cork is out for a little bit, Guly is still recovering and everyone from international duty is ok. Gaston doesn't return to UK until tomorrow lunchtime and will be assessed then. Can the press every ask anything interesting like why Lallana is suddenly clean-shaven?

Stats prove that too, I assume. Paul Sturrock's record at Southampton: Won 5, Drawn 2, Lost 6. Total games: 13, total points: 17. Not saying he was perfect, blameless or whatever but those are the stats, so yes it probably was quite possible to do such a bad job as Sturrock.

Isn't it about time for Luke to withdraw from U21 with injury? Plus since it's a friendly it's about now that Rooney tweaks a knee or something.

1. Griffit was going to be the best bright young thing we'd seen in a long time 2. Getting rid of Paul Rideout was a big mistake. 3. There really, actually, might be something to this Paul Allen rumour. 4. Adam Lallana makes Messi look s***e ... no, hang on... that's actually right 5. We're by far the greatest team the world has ever seen ... no, hang on...

As long as we can figure out what happened with Wanyama on Saturday we should be ok in midfield. Still think they're better than us though. And btw haven't we been lucky with injuries so far this year??

But was it as good as Marsden's?

I wonder if that's it for Gaston?

It's a little scary when you see our (possible) bench has four regular internationals, including two international captains. Doesn't seem two minutes ago we were talking about Hammond, Harding and Wotton.

The key point to me is that Rickie knows he won't be alone in his chasing. One of the most interesting and insightful pieces of commentary from the NBC coverage on Saturday was Alro White and Lee Dixon (no, seriously) talking about what the trigger is for the Saints forwards/midfield to start the pressing - eg is it the first sideways pass by the opposition, or is it that everyone watches Lambert and when he goes, they all go. Dixon talked about how that was George Graham's big thing at Arsenal, getting the defence in particular to stay together like that - everyone knew what the trigger was and they were so well-drilled that it worked. If it doesn't work it's a farce of course, and you end up either with Rickie doing everything on his own Berbatov-style, or with big gaps everywhere. Anyway, it made me think rather more than your average Clive Tiddlesly commentary ever does.

Cortese

Two things I thought of while watching from the comfort of NBC on Saturday: 1. He was much deeper than I expected, really another one alongside Morgan and Wanyama in that line, and covered very frequently for Clyne, esp in second half - he was almost playing right-back at some times. But he was perfectly good there. 2. We don't have anyone else quite like him. He has excellent delivery (yes even better than Fox), doesn't dribble/run too much, really good at short/long passes and always seems to have a lot of space around him (which the best passers often do). There's not really anyone else in the squad like that, or at least as good as that. I'd say fatten him up and turn him into Jan Molby.

Definite gap beginning to open up above Swansea. Only Man Utd trying to define what 'mid table' means.