Match Day Thread Sat 15 Feb. 15.00 - Plucky Little Southampton vs. A “Big” Club from Liverpool - no, not that one!

Ha! Even all the results went our way. Oh and a shout out for the bloke sitting next to me who said when Long came on: "We may as well be playing with 10 men now".

 

The 'Grand old team' forum is in bits, and unlike the Spurs Not 606 forum, not that many that want to acknowledge we are decent. Lots of self pity. Mind you, supporting Everton must be hard work.

 

The xG from that match: 2.73 to 0.20. Our best xG against all year, and our second-best xG for.

 

Have to give credit to Andy Madley for a job well done. Marriner didn't have much to do. No yellows and a clean sheet what is not to like?

 

Stu was easy man of the match for me. It was nice to feel relaxed come the end of the game

 

I look forward to taking a look later

 

Now I've got back I can summarise my thoughts properly. Aside from the first 10-15 mins, that is one of our most accomplished home performances in a long time. Literally the only negative was not putting the game to bed sooner. Everyone gets 8 out of 10 expect for Fraser, who gets a 6 only because he had nothing to do, Che and Romeu get a 9 and Armstrong gets a 9.5. Romeu was an absolute beast in the middle of the park. And he crunched Richarlison in the first half which is always a bonus. I thought Che was outstanding with his hold up play and work rate today. And Armstrong was simply the star of the show today. He was sensational. Everton could not get near him. Delighted he was the one to open the scoring.

 

Wow, wow, ****ing wow! The most complete performance I’ve seen from Saints for many a year. Having a few celebratory sherbets now. And my nipper has just saiid, zero shots on target (edit; EFC obviously).

 

He was brilliant but I don’t know about ‘easy’. Romeu is an absolute monster these days. Like Wanyama and Schneiderlin combined.

 

The odd thing is a lot said a point would be a good result for them before the game! They acknowledged it would be a tough game.

 

This. 100% this. Romeu pushed him close for me but I have to go with Armstrong.

 

Fair play. Was one of those games in which 5 or 6 had a fair shout for MotM. KWP was my second choice after Romeu because not only does he cut through the opposition with ease, but he is solid at the back too. I really thought Beddie had a cracker today too, which was important because first half Salisu looked like he might be having one or his iffy days.

 

Glad for a win because I had the ick about this one. New manager bounce and all that **** but they were ****ing awful. Must be horrible having to watch all that potential and money be chundered away on that disorderly, dysfunctional, disjointed bollocks. What a disaster they’ve been under Moshiri.

They’ll go down easy. Burnley and Newcastle survive.

Oh and while I do love to make fun of all the Ely hating bastards on here who were so over the top about him being ****, I have to admit this. Every year I think, “this must be Romeu’s last run” but goddamn it he’s ****ing phenomenal. Rarely a bad game. He feels like he’s getting even better this year.

 

We're so lucky to have KWP, he changes position and plays just as well, knowing Southgate's fetish for RBs I see an England call up incoming...

 

Wanyaderlin? Or Schneidyama?

 

We’ve hit from but equally important is the starting 11 almost picks itself, with a couple in close contention. For a long time it seemed Ralph didn’t know his best 11, now I believe it’s clearer.

Very happy.

 

Why would it be his last year? He turned 30 this season

 

Because I think that for most of his career with us he’s had a lot of competition for his position in the team. He’s been able to outlast and outperform others for a lot longer than I, and others have expected. Actually they were talking about that on the Tifo podcast this week I think. That he continues to be “surprisingly amazing”. Long live our Chelsea pipeline!

 

Ten minutes to go, Long on for Broja…are you sure Ralph? Are you ****ing sure…Shane Long for Broja? Shane Looooooooonggg La lalala La La lala la La Shane Loooooongggg!!!

 

All he's done so far is to be beat Brentford and Leeds. Just like every practically every other manager has also managed to do in recent times. They were horrific against Newcastle, and not much better today.

I sort of compared our performance today to when we played Leeds at home. Took us about 20 mins to realise just how bad our opponents are, but once we did realise that we were utterly dominant. 4-0 would have been a fairer reflection than 2-0. And that was even without any wonder individual performances I thought (I had everyone as a really solid 7 or 8 out of 10).