eddie

heard a cracking joke from a mate a work who's a middlesborough fan: says that sunderland fans are now staying till the end of the game to avoid the halftime traffic.

hahahahahaha incredible prediction @DeludedMosin

18.

Against the defensive threat of sunderland who shipped 6 goals to everton last week , this is a hopeless setup. Why would you even consider playing van dijk in midfield, instead of Davis, With Yoshida at CB ? In any case. I reckon cedric is more of a right back and bertrand a left back

Or just # shots on Targett

Davis has been one of our best players of late. Not a chance he'll be dropped.

sorry - totally right. forgot that red also long is still out.

Mane, Tadic, Pelle, Davis - and back 5 - are all playing so well I'd be tempted not to change it. Only question is therefore Who do we partner in Midfield. Romeu/Clasie? If we don't play Romeu, it'll be Wanyama instead. I'm tempted to take the risk with Romeu starting, even though he's not necessarily had that much gametime over past few weeks, just because I think Vic needs a rest/refresh in midfield, and I really like what I've seen of Romeu thus far. Probably team: --------------Stek--------------- Cedric--Fonte--VVD--Bertrand ---Wanyama (Romeu if not)--- --------Davis-----Clasie-------- --Mane-----Pelle-------Tadic--- P.S. can I just say how satisfying it is to have 7/8 players that are automatic on the teamsheet. Especially back 5. I think quite a few teams (including in the 'big clubs') still are playing around a lot with their best 5 at the back. It's really nice that we've got a pretty much settled and chosen 5 that we don't need to argue about.

agreed he did and on balance of things is more likely. last year I thought he was alright over the season than this. But last season he often played as left sided CB, now he's coming in at RB. it is not exactly the same. though devils advocate - fonte did a howler back pass also, granted that was a blip and not the norm. yoshida's performance against villa was alright. I bet martina was erwin's idea

agreed. think back five against everton. noone saw it coming - not least martinez - and we hit em all over the park. unpredictability can be an asset. besides, I guarantee that had yoshida not had that awful backpass (generally, an awful game against utd), noone would be on his back as much. I think over the summer we all felt he was a strong, third option for our back line. the way people talk about him now is downright disrespectful. one of the best former defenders in the world (RK) who knows him better than me and watches him every day rates him to start/play occassionally. Cedric is a fine player, I imagine his communication/link with fonte will be really important and it helps that they're on the national team together. Toward the end of the summer when he started playing I was gunning for a "first choice" RB to come ahead of cedric in January or next summer. Now, I'd just be looking to grow/develop cedric and basically replace Martina with someone who doesn't have uncontrollable octupus tentacles for legs

strange post. you're assuming people are the same as last year. I would actually say tadic, davis, pelle and mane look better than they did last year. More settled, know their teammates and seem fitter. I think they look different from what they did at the excellent start of last season. We looked very good last season by smashing in the goals, but I think the team looks more settled and better organised than it did same time last year. Towards the end of last year, felt Clyne was much poorer than Cedric has been. Also would say virgil is better than alderweireld. More presence, better passing, little less agile but still very good defender.

maybe fewer viewing restrictions. here in switzerland there are no rules on copyright for people viewing/streaming. So downloading movies/music/games, or streaming matches, is within the law. if you upload anything then you're stuffed.

kelvin davis - BFG (big friendly goalkeeper)

excellent banter

It isn't speculation - He said himself that he wants to rotate the squad. Just have a look on saints media. He put it in a positive light - basically saying that we've got a very strong squad, not just the starting 11, so that fringe players deserve a chance to get a game. He didn't say cup doesn't matter - he was just saying that we have enough quality to give some players a rest and others a chance. I think that's fair enough. I could see someone like caulker and romeu getting in, maybe ramirez also. But since we have some injuries and suspensions, bottom line is certain players (pelle, tadic, etc) will definitely play.

lets hope! more likely, we'll cruise through next round and get drawn against wednesday, and they'll pinch a winner jus' sayin

oh and, Balotelli. that is all

I'm surprised he lasted this long, actually. Either he plays the PR game like a hero, and is completely different behind the scenes, or he really, genuinely is as poor at analyzing his own play/setup as he comes across in interviews. The whole deluded brendan thing is spot on, he sounded like he had no idea what was wrong, no idea what playing well meant, very little criticism of his players even after unacceptable defeats. He gets rid of andy carroll because they play a differnet system (the whole 'we're playing like barcelona now and don't need a target man') and then buys benteke for the exact reason he let carroll go. He buys defender after defender for ridiculous sums of money and seems not to be held to account for them. Don't understand how someone can spend that much on players like lovren, ings, firmino, borini, aspas, markovich etc. and then just fail to alter the team, or instead play them out of position, or else not play them at all. I actually have no opposition to him as a saints fan, I think he is right about saints not being forced to sell. I don't hold a grudge against him for 'taking our players' - we sold him lovren and bought virgil van dijk + still have c 6mill remaining to throw about/reinvest. Is anyone bothered? I think his treatment of players like SRL was fairly poor, but then that's just my wider opposition to him as a coach. He is either a puppet in a terrible system, or he really is that bad at man management and giving people confidence. I think what he has done for players I really like (Ings for goodness sake) is where I have more beef with him. Liverpool for all their annoying fans are a historic english club and I for one (although obviously I want soton to smash them at every opportunity) wouldn't mind them doing a little better. I'd say if anything we are demonstrating we're more astute about sustainably progressing toward champions league than brendan's liverpool are. Obviously they are already a CL club, but in terms of plan and strategy and thinking clearly about how we get (or in their case stay) in, I think we're actually doing pretty well

I do for what it's worth

haha amazing. I wouldn't be surprised if he continues for a while though like this with Leicester having so much momentum did you ever get the job as a bbc pundit, by the way?

Not quite as reliable as Davis, who isn't as reliable as some others. He's decent though, and doesn't make so many mistakes that leave me on the edge of my seat/instill so little confidence every match, like Targett does. Think he's got a lot more than 'set-piece delivery', though I think with an on-form Tadic and with Virgil able to take freekicks, it's not as big requirement. That being said, I do think he's very very good at finding space for the man on the ball, and is fairly reasonable at passing the ball about the park. He's not got an incredible shot, but that's not such a big necessity when he plays deeper and deeper just in front of the back four. Crossing is excellent, and he did a fine job on the right wing against Utd (against, to be fair, Rojo, so not exactly world class but still).

I don't even know why the players will bother playing anymore with this level of predictability

well that's the matter solved

this is...impressive and worringly well thought out

playing rahman for first time in PL? He might come on but not sure if he'll start can you imagine a back line of ivanovich - cahill - terry - azpilicueta? think tadic/mane would run rings around them