melmacian_saint

I thought he did well for us. I remember he participated a lot through the Strachan era despite what people say. He was a really good player, but I think his reputation in Sweden made him look better than what he actually was, hence why most at SMS (and maybe English football) always found his performances underwhelming. Good on the ball but certainly not pacey to top world rankings (or European ones). Attacking midfielders need speed with the ball, and while he was a neat dribbler he wasn't too fast at it. Maybe why WGS decided to focus more on the wings. IMHO his career has been successful though, and I rate him for his time with us. He was also a hard-worker, don't know why people suggest otherwise.

Surely that is Stoneham?

Should we just agree then that Gazza can never become our no.1 and in fact must flop it's footballing career altogether? If so then in full spirit of what this forum's all about we should open a thread every other 3 days about how not good enough he is, how bad he looks or even the fact he's a south-american time waster. He shall not start a game for us ever again (yes, because the true, correct starting 11s come from this forum, not from the manager and his team)!

If we're on two figures by Christmas something will have been achieved.

Zaha, Neymar... Here comes the floppy generation! Where big time Charlies talk and act like stars regardless of what they are or will be. Overrated. Players whose reputation grow in the big lights for not actually being there. Of course we all know how it ends for those players (a la Robinho, Drenthe...) True stars of CCTV (Guly prefers speed cameras though I'm sure).

This. He deserves some confidence. Having said this, he will make at least another mistake or 2. Learning curves for keepers are longer than for other field players. I don't expect him to be an established starter at any club until at least 23-24.

Also not sure I appreciate all the Gaston Ramirez chants that happen during the game. It's almost like he's been everywhere with us. The last thing we want is a 12M south american youngster feeling like he's the best.

Right guys, quick analysis on something I was thinking walking back after the game. Aren't we regularly fielding the youngest (and certainly most inexperienced) team in the league? Looking at yesterday: Gazzaniga (age 20) Shaw (age 17) Fonte (age 27) Yoshida (age 24) Clyne (age 21) Schneiderlin (age 23) Cork (age 23), usually Davis (age 27) Ramirez (age 21) Lallana (age 24) Puncheon (age 26), quite often Rodriguez (age 23) Lambert (age 30) Don't even know if the average age of the Olympic squad wasn't higher...and even by introducing other players, apart from GK players (Boruc 32, Davis 36) it won't really increase its value. And more importantly, almost no PL minutes between most of them, yet trying to play a very risky style of football, at every position. I know it's been mostly down to individual situations, but aren't they really down to this? If the trend is the usual for these infant teams, then I suppose to this near-horror start a string of fine results and performances will follow and we will avoid relegation. But who knows...

Precisley. In fact Yoshida already new their front 3 were coming up quickly and still made himself available and waited for the ball to reach him. Also don't know if anyone else on the Itchen/Chapel area noticed in the first half that, whenever Gazza had the ball and hoofed it up, one member of the back 4 (except Shaw) would tell him off or be annoyed by him doing so. Being 1-0 and the whole team not looking very composed or calm, I think he was just trying to do as told, even if it wasn't the best option then. Glad he wasn't slated on MOTD and both Shearer and Keown understood his position.

Ready to sing this fellow fans?

I'm in Southampton, just trolling around after a night out. Be in SMS tomorrow as well, so better get some sleep!

Lawro speaks from a textbook perspective about any club outside the top 4. If we had the best defensive record in the league, yet lost 0-1 in the game he had a look at, he would say our defense needed more signings, not giving a **** about how we played in the majority of games. Living from the income his historical expert position provides. Nothing else.

Eddie and Steve were career-long Bournemouth players who are in charge of a squad that has clearly been underachieving this season but includes several players that got promotion under them and they themselves enjoy a status at the (considerably smaller) club that means that players react differently. It's the typical situation in football where people only work in certain places and conditions. Eddie did not get on as well at Burnley as clearly never looked comfortable. I think neither of our relatively successful ex-managers would fit the current situation.

We need a win. That is what I get from some of the posts that have been flourishing in this place.

Tactically, I actually think Davis (and to a lesser extent Schneiderlin) misses Hammond more than the team itself, especially with Cork out. I don't think Davis is a bad player at all, just think that he's often left too exposed and is unnecessarily forced to risk a pass. This happens because our so called wingers are in fact positioning themselves as 3rd and 4th strikers respectively, way too deep. That I think is key in our game. In the Prem, you need mobility, especially of our attacking players. It's about defending and attacking with the 10 players, sometimes even the keeper. We play "by the book" positioning, and that only gets you through in the lower leagues with comparably better squads like we had.

Yeah sure, don't point out the fact that Lambert had our only chance in his single useful touch of the ball. Or that Lallana wastes time whenever he's in possession and does not understand the concept of tracking back. Or that Ramirez has played more than his fitness allows at this stage, with Mayuka in the bench. Or that from having the ball in MIDFIELD we quickly had 3 players for 4 WBA men. Again, it's the tactics. The players are good enough. Don't expect much more mercy from Cortese.

This really isn't our year. After getting some decency back to our defense, now our midfield has disappeared. And what's worse, even our strikers look harmless...

It's been happening for the whole game. We lose the ball early in their midfield, and are often found to be outnumbered in our own half, at 0-0!!! Also too slow closing him down. Lack of support for Fox down there too.

Not surprised. Balkan states apart from Croatia are a joke.

People shouldn't forget that WGS came from not being able to successfully renew a Coventry side heading for PL decay. Of course he learned from the experience and when faced with a similar challenge here and nailed it (I still think we would've made it to Europe had he remained in charge). And whichever way you look at it, apart from maybe Beattie, perhaps Niemi and very unlikely but possibly Killer there was not a single player of our usual starting 11 back then that was/is individually better than most if not all of the one we have today. However things were different back then. We were an established PL club, and that changes the mood of things however you look at it. Really not sure, rather stick with Adkins and keep WGS and a great person that will always be remembered in our club and city.

To me on tv and from my view at the Chapel/Itchen corner (so right in front) the ball passed just behind him first, it was when he tried to change his direction that he slipped and lost that precious fraction. Unlucky in an otherwise fine game by both him and Yoshida who I think get their game together much better than Hooiveld and Jose did anytime until now.

Felt that we woke up too late and were unlucky not to have any real creativity in the bench to replace Steven Davis with (we would not have lost this game with Ramirez and maybe Cork distributing the ball to attack from the midfield instead of hoofing it hoping for something from the 77th minute onwards). Thought our defense was much better overall, wouldn't even say it was bad today and even Fox had a good game! The only "but" of today down there comes from Clyne, great from Bale for the 1st goal but he should've been all over the ball from the moment that cross comes in. For the 2nd goal I don't understand why Boruc took so long to get back to his line nor why our whole team didn't run to the rescue as soon as Fonte managed to keep it out like Bale and Dempsey did. Boruc also looked to have been too soft on Defoe for a 1-on-1. The rest of the first half was poor and nothing really happened. Thought we were great in the second half, and hating Sandro right now for getting his face on Schneiderlin's shot. Thought the subs were ok but maybe we missed Fox for some of the free-kicks we had until the end and as I said above if we had got Ramirez or Cork in instead of Guly then we would've equalized, we got no return from all those hoofs into the box. So in the end, another moral victory, but the points keep slipping.

Whey it's 1.14 again

The concept of paying to participate freely in an internet forum is beyond me.

It's like it's on the TV right now. 93rd minute, Fratton Park, 46th game of the season. Pompey Trust get a penalty. They'll win the league if they score, otherwise it's Loan Shark Rovers who keep the silverware. Up step the property developer, PST's top scorer and star player, talk of the town. Referee Trevor Birch from London blows the whistle. It's a good strike on 0.4% of the ball. Looks like it's going in. But the palm of the Portpin glove of Hong Kong international goalkeeper Balu Chanrai keeps it out. The ball trickles over the line (put forward about 5 times during the match) and out of play. The few cry. It's glory for Balu, who takes off his top and shows to the crowd his 10m pound shirt with a picture of FP. Beautiful.