saintwbu

It’s very likely that Tella will be in the Championship team of the year. It’s possible he’ll even be player of the season but i’d expect that’s unlikely. Either way, with some of the prices people have paid for Championship players in recent years, particularly English ones, there is absolutely no way we should be accepting £10mil ffs.

The talk of Redmond changing his game and the ‘Pep’ talk was actually a game under Pellegrino, rather than Ralph. Redmond was already a frustrating player before Ralph arrived, it was Ralph that got a tune out of him for a bit.

I completely agree it’s unlikely at the moment we will stay up. But people saying we won’t get 12/15 points or whatever they’re deciding is enough - we’re currently 4 points off Crystal Palace, who have won 1 game since the first week of November in all competitions, and that was against Bournemouth. What do you think the odds are of them getting 10 points or so to stay ahead of us? I guarantee fans of every team above us up to Palace are worried we can catch them, and mathematically we can. But it’ll take beating teams around us, and at the very least not losing to them, to give ourselves any chance.

Fraser Forster has got into the England squad because Nick Pope has pulled out injured. Dean Henderson is also currently out injured, but would normally make the squad. That makes Fraser Forster the 5th choice England goalkeeper. I’m struggling to think of another English goalkeeper in the Premier League who plays even remotely regularly, so he’s essentially in there on the basis of there being nobody else to choose. As someone pointed out on Saturday, he’s the first goalkeeper to concede three goals to us for more than a year - and yet people are clamouring for him back.

Agree on the impact of the Forest game - the only reason they’re not bottom of the league was because they beat us and then Leicester straight after - had they lost to us who knows if they’d have had the confidence to beat Leicester. They’re crap, have been crap all season, they don’t show any signs of gelling like people said they would. It should be Forest and Bournemouth bottom 2 with us trying to catch the teams outside, but we killed ourselves with that game.

I guess I would just like to see Onuachu relieved of his hold up responsibilities and able to be more of a presence in the box, as his goal record suggests he’d be a problem in there but so far he’s not really had the chance to be in there.

Personally think Adams showed yesterday again why he is still so good for us in terms of his all round game - his touch, hold up play, passing is brilliant. Would be interesting to see either Mara or Paul up top with him to work off his link up play.

Are they going to defend deep at home when their fans will see it as a must win?

Great awareness to nod down for Theo’s goal, could’ve easily wasted it with a soft header at goal. Add that to his assist against Leeds and his goal against City, and we’ve seen some glimpses of an intelligent forward. The way he created space for a shot after our second yesterday was great play too. Personally, I like the look of him.

Everything positive we did in the first half came through Elyounoussi, often he’s the one that receives it from JWP/Lavia then moves it on to Perrraud/KWP or another attacker to deliver the final ball. He was popping up in good positions, he was moving the ball well, keeping possession well. Anyone watching him today, and slating him, had made their mind up before kick off.

You can tell who wasn’t at the game and was watching off a dodgy stream because they’re slating Moi, who was probably our best player in the first half, and was still decent in the second. Theo was brilliant, great movement and always a threat. AMN did well dropping into unfamiliar territory, albeit sounds like he wasn’t great for the goal. The fight back is more important than the point, 3 goals in one game is a big moment for us potentially. Also people saying ‘this is why Sulemana should start’ are probably the same ones slating the kid after the Brentford game, today he had his best appearance for us imo and it was off the bench - having genuine quality on the bench made a big difference to us. Very pleased with the result after losing both CB’s in the first half against Kane/Son/Kulusevski. JWP’s balls are the size of Hampshire, what a man.

Exactly - the youngsters aren’t the problem at this club it’s the experienced players who everyone tells me are good by default, that have not delivered

That’s not the rule though. There has been numerous goals given when a through ball to an offside player has been diverted by a deliberate touch from a defending player, which then created a new phase of play. The referee tonight (via VAR) must have determined that the plays of the ball by Forest players were not deliberate/in control of the ball - which seems pretty mental to me.

Two Forest players kicked the ball deliberately before it got to Longstaff, i’m not sure in what sport he can be considered offside because it isn’t football.

A 0-0 draw away at 10 men United had everyone expecting 6 points from this week. A narrow defeat (the second was in the 97th minute so i’d count it as narrow) to a very well drilled Brentford team who are flying and people are talking about how they can’t bare watching anymore haha. How do some people get through the day with such highs and lows! No one surely expected us to not lose another game this season, even if we did stay up - i’ve seen that Brentford game 100 times as a Saints fan, even when we were good! Saints at home struggling to break down a tough defensive unit, it’s a tale as old as time itself. Tomorrow is a different game, who knows what’s to come.

Personally i’ve always fancied us more in this game than the Brentford game. Spurs are absolutely wedded to the 5 at the back they use, so much so that they took off an attacker in order to bring a fifth defender back on when Romero got sent off against Milan despite trailing. They have to beat us, so they won’t be sitting back, I think it suits us far more.

Think it actually hit Che who was offside

I’m not sure many were bemoaning Tella’s loan in the summer. It’s likely that without this spell of regular game time in a dominant team full of confidence, Tella would be looking like most of our other attacking players. I’ve mentioned it before that whilst a lot of people talk about Tella like he’s a youngster just breaking through, he’s almost exactly 1 year younger than Moussa Djenepo who has been written off as useless about 3/4 seasons ago. He’s also nearly 3 and 4 years older than Sulemana and Edozie respectively, who are also being written off as a waste of money. I’ve no doubt there’s several of our current attacking options that would look transformed with a year playing for by far the best team in the Championship. Whilst it’s understandable people will be asking why a player so prolific is not playing for us given our attacking struggles, it’s probably better to accept it was a sensible loan move that achieved its intended goal - it’s allowed the player to develop in a way he wouldn’t have been able to with us, where the expectation is lower and the feeling around the club is more positive, and it’s given us either a great option for next season in the Championship or a good transfer fee. People are quick to criticise our recruitment of attacking players, but perhaps should consider how hard it must be for a player (particularly a young one) to move into a team lacking in confidence, belief, and often quality, and suddenly lift it on their own. The last attacking player we signed that could be deemed an undoubted success in my opinion was Danny Ings, and prior to that it was probably Sadio Mane! Not all of that can be solely down to poor scouting and recruitment. We’re a graveyard for attacking players in the last 5/6 seasons.

There definitely seems to be a rise in fake head injuries, and players going down acting like they’ve been ko’d whilst defending corners. To me if a player goes down holding his head then he should have to leave the field whilst play continues in order to have a thorough assessment by a neutral doctor. I’m sure this would stop faking of head injuries in order to get the game stopped, but i’d imagine the increased focus on how football deals with head injuries already would make them reluctant to discourage genuine ones from going down.

You can’t blame Brentford (and others) for time wasting, it’s weak refs not taking control of it. I can’t recall a player against us being booked all season for time wasting, and yet I can think of at least two that we’ve had - KWP taking a first half throw in was a particularly bizarre one. Considering how few times we’ve been in a position to time waste this season, given how shit we’ve been, that’s pretty bewildering. Michael Salisbury is weak as they come, proven by the lino flagging (correctly) for a Brentford throw, only for JWP to pick the ball up and take the throw in and Salisbury just allowing him to do so.

Who would people have played in CM with Lavia not fully fit, AMN injured and Stu presumably not fit either? Diallo was okay the other night but looks like another player completely crippled by nerves and lack of confidence whenever he gets the ball.

That’s pretty much the only ball into him in the box in all the games he’s played, so no surprise there. Also the thing that i’m sure caught most people’s eyes in the Chelsea game was how good he was with his feet, and his passing.

People calling the Chelsea and Leicester games lucky are not giving a fair picture imo, we took the lead in the first half of both games, we clearly retreated to defend those leads and as such gave up chances which we always would - but we also had good chances in both games (particularly Chelsea) despite being 1-0 up. Whereas in the United game where we were never in the lead, we remained in control most of the game and created chances until the end. Equally, you could say if we hadn’t conceded a really stupid goal against Leeds then we’d have a point more right now, so it goes both ways. Ultimately, all that matters at this stage is results, and so far under Selles we have been getting them - but this week is massive.

He was brilliant against Chelsea, i’d still like to see him and Adams up top together at some point to see if Che doing all the hold up/back to goal work allows Paul to get in the box more.

I’m just glad we’ve finally been able to put to bed any idea that 3 CB’s makes us better defensively. 1 goal conceded in 4 games is pretty remarkable for this team.