andoru

He's hit all kind of shots and misses -but some instinct to find patterns in everything -the proverbial face of Christ on a slice of toast- now seems he skies everything. From what I remember the ball came out to him quickly and bounced -and he hit it practically on the half-volley. Now simple physics -unless you are a simplistic cretin- tells you that it's very hard to keep those shots down -that he did should be praised, not criticised. Well, there you are. You remember wrongly. The ball was on the ground and not bouncing. I just watched it back. The ball came back off the post, Mane was standing roughly in line with the penalty spot. It was good positioning, and he reacted well to the ball. You can see he was trying to side-foot place it into the bottom corner, but because he's leaning back his foot is under the ball and goes up much higher than is ideal. It clipped in off the bar, which I can't imagine for a second was his intention. I'm not complaining about the goal, just observing that at the time I was a little dubious about him. Not only because of this though, I also thought he went down too easily and holds on to the ball too long. I'm not alone in that assessment I know. I'm not talking about the goal. In fact, the goal is incidental to this conversation. I'm talking about his technique. As many have commented in recent weeks, he gets under the ball too much and doesn't have great control. That was evident even when he scored. It was great that he scored, but people who blindly claimed the coming of the second messiah after it went (and lots of you did) in were as blind as you seem to think I am. I'm not writing Mane off, but I don't think his goal was a stroke of genius. He miss hit, but fortunately miss hit towards the goal. (Last post of the day)

You clearly don't get the point I was trying to make. I'll take any goal, no matter how it goes in, but the signs were there for me then. What I'm saying is no more reactionary than everyone who eagerly described his goal as a stroke of magic, as many did at the time. He showed good reactions, but I honestly think the shot was more erratic than he'd intended. Glad it hit the back of the net, but I'm no blind idiot.

When he scored against Stoke I thought it was a bit of a miss hit (although a good reaction nonetheless). Having seen his shooting in subsequent games I'm even more convinced of it. He was close enough to the goal that it stayed under the bar (just) but I actually think he got under it too much, as he has tended to do since, and was saved by the frame of the goal.

Get in!

I've not seen a refereeing performance this all over the place in ages. Everton have been given free kicks for light shoulder barges; meanwhile, Long gets taken down twice, both time pretty strongly, and nothing is given. His knee was bleeding after the second challenge. How does the ref explain that? Still, instant karma with the goal.

Who is this ref? He's quick to his whistle for the slightest touch on an Everton player, but completely ignores a shove in the back on Long. Inconsistent barely covers it.

Koeman has played strong sides in the cup generally. He has only been forced into changes by injuries and suspensions. Granted, they should still have been strong enough to beat Sheffield United. We had a near full strength team available for the game against Sunderland last year, if memory serves, but Pochettino still made changes.

So after not remotely taking the cups seriously for us, Pochettino is through to a semi-final in the League Cup with Spurs, and likely a trip to Wembley, given they drew Sheffield Utd (yes, I know they beat us, but they're still easier ties on paper than Chelsea or Liverpool, especially over two legs). Cheers Mauricio!

As I said, it's not the league position I have a problem with, it's the repetition of it like a mantra as an automated response to another defeat. I'd rather read/hear something constructive.

Did I say that? Nope. I said I'm bored with people harping back to the league position instead of actually considering our form, which is awful right now. Yes, we're fifth in the league and that's great after such a poor run, but it's the people who keep saying it who are deluded, not me. They repeat it like a mantra, as if saying it enough times will prevent it from changing.

Just out of interest, how long are people going to keep coming out with this? A few weeks back it was "We lost, but we're still second in the league." Then it was, "We lost, but we're still third in the league." Then it was, "We lost, but we're still fourth in the league." and now it's ""We lost, but we're still fifth in the league." What's your cut off? You don't need to be an Oxbridge doctoral candidate in maths to see the pattern. We're on the slide, and our closest rivals are closing the gap. We're fifth on goal difference alone. A month ago people were talking about how we had a 12-point lead over Spurs and Liverpool, which they'd find very hard to close. Well, Spurs are now just two points behind us, and Liverpool are only five, with more than half the season left to play. I'm no doom and gloom merchant – still think Europa League is doable – but this is getting really boring. Am I the only one who thinks so? P.S. Do we have a team for Saturday?

I knew it. I'm never wrong in my penalty predictions.

Oh, Mane gets booked for that one, but Keane (or whatever his name is) gets away clean from the one challenge that has caused a player to go off injured. Right ...

West Ham are losing, so we're back in the top 4. As for us, looking pretty languid so far, although not in any great danger (edit: until just then!). Can't say much for the atmosphere at the stadium either; it sounds like a non-league game.

The thing is, in this day and age a club needs these kind of fans to grow. Man Utd wouldn't be as big as it is financially without its global support. As annoying as plastic Saints fans would be, we need them to if we are ever to compete. We can't rely solely on local supporters anymore.

We won't make the top four, but honestly it's not because we aren't good enough, but because it's just really bloody hard to qualify for it. A team has to go the whole season almost without error, and with plenty of luck. It's not always about ability. We should have got something from both Arsenal and Man Utd, but we didn't. Luck wasn't with us. Meanwhile, the likes of Spurs get two hugely undeserved wins against teams that went down to 10 men, Liverpool only beat QPR thanks to two own goals, etc. The way I see it, pretty much all of our points this season have been points we've won, not been gifted. Some of the results were hard fought – e.g. away to Hull, home to Leicester – but we didn't rely on opposition mistakes or refereeing decisions. Maybe at some point we'll get some of those go our way, but I wouldn't bank on it. Because of this, I don't see us making CL. Bigger clubs do tend to benefit from 'luck' a bit more than the rest of us.

I've always felt Yoshida is one of those players who very quickly gets out of form when he's not playing, and then takes 3 – 4 games to rediscover it when he is. We've seen it in the past, when after a few games he's developed a strong partnership with Fonte, but when he comes in for the odd match here and there he underperforms.

It's all so easy for Stoke. Why couldn't this Arsenal team turn up Wednesday? 4-0.

What result do we want in the late game? A Man City win extends their gap over us, but then realistically, over the seaon, we are more likely to be in competition with Everton, so a City win would help. Draw I suppose.

Arsenal have collapsed. 3-0.

Eh? The 80 million you refer to was from the sales. We spent more than half on players, plus there was outstanding debts from the previous season and the building of Staplewood to pay off. Don't get your hopes up that we've got 30 million sitting around waiting to be spent on players. Naturally, I'm hoping we do, but not expecting it.

If we don't have much of a budget, I'd like to see the Bertrand deal put on hold until the end of the season (by which time the club would surely have earned enough again to afford him) and use the money now for someone else we don't have. Oddly, I'm not sure where needs strengthening the most. We have back up in most places, just not necessarily of the right calibre, or available when we need it. Up front is probably the most urgent, given Pelle's recent drought and Long's inconsistency (although otherwise strong performances). J-Rod won't be back for ages, and we can't guarantee what level he'll be at, or that he'll commit long term. Mayuka is toilet, unfortunately. Not sure who we could get in our price range, other than the likes of Ings, but doubt Burnley would sell unless we offered silly money, which we wouldn't. Another midfielder wouldn't go amiss. It's our strongest area generally, but as we are seeing at the moment, is the most vulnerable to injury and suspension. We've been linked with Clasie of course. I'd take him.

Except it's not just one defeat really. It was preceded by a laboured draw to Aston Villa and a narrow win to Hull, courtesy of a freak once-in-a-season goal from 40 yards by Wanyama. Our form over the past three or so games has been on the slide. Pelle hasn't scored in 5 (?) and we are picking up injuries, illnesses and have several key players one yellow away from a suspension. The momentum is not really with us at the moment. The likes of Man Utd and Liverpool might be struggling to wins, but wins they are, and several of our own wins can be described in similar terms.

Hmm. Happy enough to make it to half-time at 0-0. Man City the stronger team by far, winning every ball in the middle and being more physical. Our players need to muscle up and stop letting themselves get pushed about. Need to up the pace a bit too, and stop waiting for the ball to reach them. One or two look like they think we're playing a bottom-table team who will give time and stand off. City are nicking the ball effortlessly. We've had our moments, but we're relying on errors from City, not forcing the errors ourselves. Koeman needs to give one of his now famous half-time arse rocket speeches.

Danny Ings scores a pen for Burnley after Lukas Jutkiewicz goes down. Two Southampton boys helping Villa throw away their second one goal lead in a row.