mrfahaji

Including helping knock us out of the Europa League!

Who knew hair could breathe?!

I’m wondering if the issue with Hasenhuttl is that he has a particular style that he is an expert at coaching, but that it also requires a particular set of players to work. We don’t have those players, so he has to look for other ways to get a tune out of the team, and just isn’t that versatile. The thing that perplexed me though is the change from last season. He started making decisions that everyone wanted to see (ie all the weird selections from Hughes stopped), and it seemed like the players were all inside with him. Perhaps the latter is simply down to players losing confidence and ultimately faith in RH with results, but why has Hasenhuttl’s approach with regard to team selection and tactics changed so much? Even things like bringing Boufal back, getting him playing well and looking like a key player, and then stopping playing him. All the time we have JWP contributing very little every week.

Blimey, I had to re read the article to realise it was 1 day not 1 week. That’s possibly worse, at least from one view (obviously for charity any money is better than nothing), because it’s like they are acknowledging they should do something but don’t want it to actually affect them in anyway. They basically want to be SEEN to have done something.

Exactly, and actually the fact that so many of his goals ARE like this suggests it’s not just luck. One of our main strategies is pressing when the opposition are in a tight spot defensively. The whole team press, force them into a mistake and Ings - who is also good at his part in the press - is often the beneficiary. Agree that you can’t rely on mistakes, but you can plan to cause them.

I’d also be tempted to see how he does in there, but he can be a bit careless in possession. For an “intelligent” player he doesn’t seem to know when not to dawdle on the ball or when not to make a hospital pass. He has sometimes impressed me with his directness and pace, but I doubt he’ll be the player we wanted Lemina to be - the latter is a flawed individual but clearly talented, hence why we had such high hopes for him.

Go down, suffer a financial crisis, go down again, don't get saved by someone like Markus, spend years languishing in the third tier or maybe worse, or even go bust. Yep, I think your Brexit analogy could be quite accurate.

I’m not a huge fan of JWP and agree that his set pieces have been a myth for much of his time, BUT in fairness to him he has actually scored a couple of free kicks more recently (I’m including back end of last season) and only a great Lloris save prevented another at Spurs. As I say, I agree that his dead ball skills (and play in general) are overrated but over his entire career with us, he’s probably experiencing his best patch from edge of the box FKs. Even Le Tissier and Lambert didn’t score every time...

Why? Because losing to Brentford is more humiliating than losing to West Ham? Personally I don't see the difference. If anything it's not as bad because smaller clubs have less annoying fans/media to endure. Two reasons I would be bothered by relegation - one is that we could end up in a financial mess and go down again, the other that it's much harder to stream games I'm not attending.

Reminds me of 2005. I was at Uni, and after our relegation a friend commented, somewhat encouragingly, "Brett Ormerod will be amazing in the Championship!" I looked at him, unimpressed, and replied with "Every cloud..." (he wasn't even right)

Not having to break stride (or speed up) when catching the bus/tube/train A breeze on a hot day Tea - the reason to do anything in life is so that after you can go home and put the kettle on

Clyne - would rather give Valery a chance to develop Wanyama - sounds like injuries have taken their toll Cork - average Schneiderlin - on one hand feel like he could still do well here, but at 29 I'm not sure we'd need to take a risk on that. Maybe for a small fee and use him in rotation JRod - he was poor after his injury, maybe a change of scene helped him a little, but still don't think he's great anymore Walcott - wouldn't say no in a cut price deal but doesn't bring enough to the table to warrant a big fee Chambers - still potential to be a decent player but think the fee Arsenal wouldn't be worth it. Maybe £10m - £12m Tadic - miss him but that ship has sailed, he's too good for us now (people still complaining that was ineffective for us...) Pelle - could probably still be useful but not worth a fee. Would be nice to see his handsome face again though, could even be enough to tempt my wife to a game Lallana - if he wasn't so injury prone could still be effective. But he is, so it's a no Lovren - not a chance Chamberlain - obviously unrealistic but he would have been better going to a poorer team and playing more, even if it wasn't us, when he left Arsenal So in summary: Schneiderlin on a cheap deal is the only one I think would be both worth it and possible, but even that is questionable.

Ha, indeed! I did go back to page 1 and didn’t see it on there - at least “should of” was covered - but wasn’t going to check 9 pages... I’d also like to include “with regards to” instead of “with regard to” but fear I’m fighting a losing battle with that one.

People who pronounce the letter H as "haitch" Commuters on the tube/train standing by the doors who don't step off the carriage to make space for disembarking passengers...

You also have more chance of beating the top teams in the earlier rounds than in a final. I know I'm clutching at straws here...!

Yep - I'm really hoping that the team selection vs Bournemouth was actually just a deliberately weakened side to save our strongest for Pompey. But I'm not convinced...!

Maybe, but Marquis was still a long way from goal. If that had crept in the positioning of McCarthy would have been mostly to blame. I thought most players looked shaky early on, and Yoshida was regulalrly in the right place to make important blocks or interceptions later on.

The other defenders seem to play better with him in the side too - perhaps he plays a key role in organising them. That does go against claims that Stephens gets picked because "he is a talker", but it's what I see at least. He is also the only centre back with any hint of pace, so can at least cover his or others mistakes. No chance of that with big Jannik.

Still annoyed about losing the other derby to Bournemouth. LOL. Those first 15/20 minutes were trying to say the least, thank goodness McCarthy & Bednarek were on hand to save our bacon. Thought Cedric was good - his tendency to stand off wingers to the extent they can pick out a cross without pressure annoys me, but he cut out the danger a few times and generally played well. I like that he only scores goals from the left hand side of the penalty box despite being a right back. Yoshida and Bednarek always seem to play well alongside each other, and were always in the right place today. Bertrand did ok but thought he missed having Redmond or Boufal ahead of him, where he has a bit more of an understanding. Romeu and JWP were excellent in the middle. Hojbjerg does some things really well and others poorly. One minute he's making a great interception and bringing the ball out of defence, the next he's underhitting or misplacing a simple pass. Thought Obafemi's pass to Ings was sublime but that aside he was pretty poor - seems to make the wrong decisions about when to pass and when to keep the ball. Control isn't great either. He's basically Shane Long... Adams was poor, was frustrating but also felt for him a bit - even 50/50s didn't fall his way, which is always the way when you're struggling. Felt he went to ground a bit easily at times though, almost out of desperation. Ings was generally pretty good and his touch of class for his finishes meant he deserved MOTM. Funny that today - not for the first time this season - we looked poor and then were clinical when we finally got a chance, yet in games where we have started well we have invariably conceded from nowhere (Liverpool, Man Utd, Bournemouth). 4-0 is such a satisfying result because it is better than they managed against us when the tables were turned, except we at least got to celebrate an equaliser. They got to celebrate NOTHING. My only regret is that I was periodically reading the match thread on here and whenever I did I saw hints that we were about to score... took the edge of it a little bit when it finally played out on my delayed stream!

We saw it with Ings towards the end of last season too. Taking too long to take a shot, or trying to get it onto his favoured foot etc, when a confident player just does it without thinking about it. Given that one of the things that made Adams look great from his time at Birmingham was his tendency to take shots early, you can see why a slight hesitance could be so detrimental.

Can only think he’s hoping Adams will “get in on the act”, because I’m not sure there’s been any reason for keeping him on this far.

We always give it away playing in tight spaces at the back. We’re not good enough to consistently get away with it.

Obafemi really needs to learn when it is and isn’t ok to keep hold of the ball

I check Saintsweb every time we score so the ecstasy is lessened... think I need to stop!

I check Saintsweb every time we score so the ecstasy is lessened... think I need to stop!