SaintTex

Doh! Indeed. Seems like a reasonable request. Other Leagues seem to bend over backwards to accommodate their teams involved in other competitions. I mean this is the CL semi-finals! You think it would be in the leagues interest to help City out. Doesn't adversely affect us one way or the other either. What gives? I am sure the extra day of rest would be helpful to Man City (after getting smashed by us).

Well, for CL qualification, the better bet is League, but they are 2 games/wins away from being CL winners/Champions. You go for that!!! ..and let the chips fall where they may for League. You rest players on Saturday. As other said, especially if you are MP, heading out the door. You work toward a rested, full strength squad/players on the Semi second leg. Everything else doesn't matter.

Leicester is going to get two cracks at the 3 points to clinch it, before we play Spurs on Sunday (8/5). ManU Everton

Spurs are closer to 4th place than they are 1st place. 7 points from Leicester 5 points from Arsenal

it's interesting to compare the last three seasons 2013-2014 : 15W 11D 12L | 54 46 +8 --- 56 points -- 8th place 2014-2015 : 18W 06D 14L | 54 33 +21 -- 60 points -- 7th place 2015-2016 : 15W 09D 11L | 49 37 +12 -- 54 points -- 8th place (thru 35 games) very little drop off, even if we go out with a whimper in our last three matches. pretty remarkable considering the turnover in the squad.

take the 3 points and then quickly forget about it. no clean sheets in 8 matches is troubling. I expect Koeman to set up much more defensively next week. Maybe a Wanyama/Romeu pairing. Mane, with fresh legs off the bench halfway through a 2nd half, would scare the hell out of most defenses. Hope Real Madrid give Man City a rough and tumble game on Tuesday (wish they were playing Wed) with a 0-0 draw. City destroyed Stoke today, but Stoke is folding like a cheap suit at this point.

a match and a half.. 2 goals and 4 off the woodwork.

From the article: Don't you just love the lens that filters these stories. but the takeaway in regards to 8th place is: I literally could not take the slobbering and fawning that would occur if Liverpool wins the Europa League and qualifies for CL.

Europa was frustrating, but understandable. The team was so unsettled during that period, especially defensively. No Van Dijk yet, Wanyama's head turned by Arse/Spurs, Caulker was our 2nd best CB!!, etc. Plus, Clasie, Bertrand, and Forster were out injured. Summer transfer period needs to end before the season starts. ugh, I went back and looked at our Starting XI for that second Midtjylland match. Stek Martina Fonte Caulker Yoshida Targett JWP Romeu Davis JRod Pelle no wonder we didn't advance to the group stages.

Kind of a big night, no? Three matches - pretty cut and dry - root for the away team! WHam v. Watford Liverpool v. Everton Manu v. Palace I would kill for a clean sweep.

pretty much sums up my feelings. Plus: 01) Frustrating game to be sure. However, I am liking the Long-Pelle-Mane-Tadic offense front to be honest though. That game could have easily been 1-3. 02) Martina had a good game. Was active. 03) We have to get our corners figured out. Wasted so many chances. Can anyone on the squad other than JWP deliver on a set piece? 04) After Wanyama went off, we lost control of the midfield. There was a good 10 to 15 minutes stretch, after we scored, were we could not get possession to make that final push for the second goal. 05) JRod on the pitch is encouraging and individually he looks fine, but with such a long absence from real playing time, he isn't really clicking with his teammates - understandably. With time (next season) things hopefully will improve in that respect. 06) VvD seemed frustrated for sure out there. 07) I thought Koeman got the lineups and substitutions right. It was a gamble taking Wanyama off, but I like that he was going for the 3 points. 08) Long again was lively, I thought for sure it would bear fruit. Gibson's take down of Long should have been a red! 09) Saints - Two balls off the woodwork | Everton - 2 shots on target, 1 of them a deflected shot for goal. 10) Europa probably gone. Top 8 finish still likely.

You got to believe City's win yesterday is going to helps us as far as the schedule goes. They are going to have the Champions League Semi matches before and after our match at St. Mary's. Let's hope the first leg is a hard fought draw. City's Schedule 26/27-04-2016 CL Semis (1st leg) 01-05-2016 Southampton 03/04-05-2016 CL Semis (2nd leg)

Exactly.. Martinez is going to have to do some pretty serious player management and prioritize effort. Sat 9/4 - Watford D (1-1) Wed 13/4 - Palace Sat 16/4 - Saints Wed 20/4 - Merseyside Derby Sat 23/4 - FA Cup Semis that is packed! If they win on Wednesday and are on 42 points, do they rest players against us in preparation for the Derby and the FA Cup?

looks like we need 61 points for a 50-50 chance for 6th place, which would just happen to also best last season in place and points. so... Everton W Villa W City D Spurs D Palace W why not dream, right?

so um yeah, the next points came from Stoke, Liverpool and Newcastle. 9 points out of 12. Saints sitting at 50 points with 5 matches to go. Go back and read page 1 for laughs.

not surprising at all. His new club is getting relegated. His old club just beat Chelsea and secured 40 points. Not to mention hard to get call ups when you are languishing in the championship. His international career is suddenly looking very short.

I am often worried he will swallow his gum during the match. but again, what Chez said. He's young, don't cut bait yet.

Champions League? Of course there is a chance, but it is very slim. Bare minimum would be 6 wins in our final 7... and likely the other non-win is a draw. - 66 points. and even if we reach 66 points, it's iffy. If we win our last 7 games, I'd feel confident we would place 4th. So considering the inconsistency we have shown this season, finishing out by winning our last 9 matches seems highly unlikely. We'll likely finish 3-2-2 with 58 points and 8th place. (nice, albeit a frustrating, season) Leicester (a) - L Newcastle (h) - W Everton (a) - D Villa (a) - W Man City (h) - D Spurs (h) - L Palace (h) - W That being said, I hope I am completely wrong and hope we win them all!

interestingly, we are 6 points off last years points total after 31 matches 2014/2015 - 53 points | 2015-2016 - 47 points Liverpool is 10 points of their point total of last year after 29 matches 2014/2015 - 54 points | 2015-2016 - 44 points

from Stoke and Liverpool I'll take the six points.

I like this mindset. I would like to see a Clasie, Wanyama, Romeu midfield as well. With possibly Clasie playing a bit more forward feeding precision passes to Long's runs. The question become who best fits for the remaining two forwards if you have Long up front. There are plenty to choose from: Tadic, Mane, JWP, Pelle, Davis, Austin, JRod -------------Forster-------------- Cedric---Fonte---VvD---Betrand ---Romeu--Clasie--Wanyama--- -------Pelle---------Tadic-------- --------------Long---------------- Possibly Mane in for Pelle in this formation, if available.

I think at this point if you are going to have Pelle on the pitch, you also need Tadic on the pitch. both are less effective without each other. Pelle more so than Tadic.

Is that all? Unfortunately, your list could be attributed to the wants of every club in the League.

I don't think we stick with the 3 CB formation considering we are losing one of our starting CBs. Back to basics. --------------------------------Forster------------------------------------- Cedric-------------VVD----------------Bertrand------------------Targett -------------------Romeu---------------Clasie---------------------------- ---------Mane----------------Davis-----------------Tadic---------------- -------------------------------Long----------------------------------------

maybe something like this? ------------------Forster-------------------- Cedric– Fonte – VvD – Bertrand – Targett ----Clasie ------Romeu ------Tadic ------- ----------Long---------Austin---------------