DuncanRG

Bloody hell.

Pretty easy to drop Boufal for me. He was about as good on Saturday, his best performance in ages, as Redmond is every game. Chances are he'll get another chance to prove himself on Friday though, with Redmond coming off the bench if he's in the squad at all.

To be fair, Wilder commended the refereeing decisions on the disallowed goal and red card. One of few managers who is happy to do that.

- Valery - Vokins - McCarthy - Ralph? - Westwood - Glasgow

One of the best games I can remember from Boufal, though he's still got a long way to go. Assume he had a tough international break because he tired quite early. Vestergaard was good on the ball but entirely at fault for McGoldrick going through on goal. Still got mistakes in him. Got to say I was impressed with Sheffield United first half, they knock it around nicely.

I expect there will be more than that at half time.

Normally goes to STH with no aways before any members, but they haven't announced anything beyond ST + 3 aways yet. (He says bitterly, as a member with nine aways)

Any pubs in London that are likely to be Saints heavy?

Worth noting on the pub front that the students aren't back until later in the month. Devonshire Cat for me, hell of a beer list.

Gheerbrant's piece isn't a match report, it's a piece about James. Monday papers don't tend to run straight match reports of Saturday games.

Fair enough, was at the other end so didn't see.

One good thing I did notice about JWP today: as soon as we won the ball he played a lot of early, incisive passes through their midfield to get us running at their back four. With Redmond on the pitch we might have scored one of them. Agree with everyone else's plaudits but also think Ings had a good game linking things up. Shame there was no cutting edge from the other two. Didn't see anything wrong with the refereeing besides the Adams/Maguire collision (which I was miles from) and one offside. Dunno why everyone moaned so much.

Djenepo and Redmond are big misses. United are vulnerable against pace, so much so that I'd even think about playing Long.

This could be a big call for Ralph. If we lose and play badly against United and Redmond's getting back to fitness for Bournemouth, does he rest him so he can play at Pompey?

Hopefully, but he's been that way for a long time.

I assume you mean the Boufal bit. Count how many times he lost the ball! I think fans like him because he's unusual and his tricks are great fun when they work. But compare that to Redmond, whose positioning and ability to run into space are less attractive but infinitely more effective. Boufal had more slips than shots last night (on one of the driest days of the year!) and gave the ball away countless times. I accept that we need these players to take risks but he was doing it on the half way line when a ball wide would have taken out the defender he was trying to nutmeg or whatever.

Can't count how many times he lost the ball in risky areas. Desperate to prove himself by being the hero. He worked hard, sure, but we need more than that.

Danso wasn't tested too much but did alright. Quick and fine in the air against fairly poor opposition but I do remember him getting moved out of the way quite easily in a race for the ball. Djenepo wasn't in the game first half because we could hardly get the ball out to the attackers. Second half he was lively, particularly once he moved to the right. Some lovely touches. Boufal was crap. Lost the ball time and time again by trying something tricky when there was a simple pass on.

Eased off after the red card and rode our luck at times, but the counter-attack worked. Djenepo's clearly got the quality, some lovely touches and movement as well as the goal.

Mine arrived this morning.

That's the same RMC story. The gossip page is just links, no original reporting.

Is this the outfield 10? ----------------Gunn Valery Bednarek Danso Vestergaard Bertrand -----------JWP Romeu Hojbjerg -----------Redmond Adams

What's his dividend? It's not in the accounts, so I'm just wondering. Anyway, that was a bit better than usual. I'd not seen much of Semmens before but he seemed pretty sensible. Interesting mood music from Hojbjerg on his future, though I'm not sure whether I'm reassured or worried by it.

Brand new arts quarter, you'll never have that

City away.