Match Day Thread Southampton vs Portugal, 12pm Sunday, 14th February (Amazon Prime)

The Dell has been knocked down now

 

Hold on. This starts the moment I finish work in the afternoon and is on a service I actually get here?! Ye Gods. I’ve been so sick of all these late kick offs. We’re going to lose now. I’m sure of it.

 

Playing (Brexit heartland) Wolverhampton's frankly bizarre Portugal side suits us atm, as we know their play-style when clinical - along with Burnley and Leciester's - certainly does not.

Now we're appraching full strenght, after enduring the exposure of our lack of depth due to meagre means/finacial prudence, I would really saviour another win over these hombres.

What a joke they are, a club of their size, with misfiring vanity buys of a £30m full back and an insane £36m for a development player/17th century pretender to the throne of Briganza.

 

This one, if you wanted a fight it never let you down

 

And that one bad mistake was partly because of the waterlogged pitch. I agree, people weren’t calling for Alex to be dropped when we were riding high in the league, so why single him out now? As has been said, our run of poor form was due to quite a few other reasons than Alex suddenly becoming a bad goalkeeper.

I’m sure Ralph has told Fraser he is the Cup keeper up to and including the final, and I bet he’s OK with that.

Personally I’m delighted we have 2 good keepers and that being the case, it means they both put a bit of pressure on each other, which is good for the team.

 

Personally I'm getting a sense of Deja Vu here. With Fraser hitting form toward the final year of his contract (and winning plaudits from a wide cross section of the fane base) it begs the question will a spell of consistency see him get a contract extension given that so many moaned about it last time?

I would argue yes (assuming that consistency continues) but possibly on a lesser wage. For me he lost form partly due to personal issue which were mentioned at the time but partly because of the management we had at the time - particularly MP2. Back then I defended Fraser for not coming off his line because I argued Puel and then MP2 rightly or (more probably) wrongly told him not to. He was the last line of defence and renowned for his shot stopping. Spin forward a couple of years and Ralph uses the goalkeeper as a sweeper in defence and MUST come off his line. He's got new instructions and he's adapting to them really well.

As others have said, we currently have 2 good goalkeepers and I am comfortable with either of them in goal. That's how it should be for a club pushing into the top half of the table.

 

You know what.

It is ok to suggest a player isn't playing up to their usual standard.

There is no way, having conceded as many as he had, that Macca isn't under the microscope.

I'm not fussed who plays out the two, but those saying we've only faced 5 shots with Fraser, he hasn't been tested, I think are somewhat missing the point.

There are likely reasons we haven't faced as many shots, could it be the defense are more comfortable having an alternative keeper they trust right now?

Is Fraser organising them better right now?

It may be as simple as this, but the defence are clearly more at ease, and it would be simply neglectful if Ralph didnt look at the keeper situation, having 1x keeper who has 4 straight clean sheets, and 1x keeper who has just shipped **** knows how many in the same number.

I'm very surprised at the apparent scapegoat derivative for anyone who dares look at alternatives.

Either way, I'm roaring our boys on tomorrow.

 

It may as simple as that indeed. Equally it may be even simpler. We were missing key players in defence. Against Man Utd we were down to 10 men. And Mccarthy played better teams. Not saying you're wrong at all - just that it could pretty much be anything.

The only thing that really matters for me is Ralph's comment that McCarthy is not under the microscope. He said he had looked at the goals conceded carefully and concluded none were his fault.

 

True. But Ralph saying Macca isn’t under the microscope, and Macca being under the microscope are 2 different things, and quite likely imo.

I’m not sure who I’d put in, just saying surely it is a consideration for Ralph.

 

Agreed, and I’m sure it is a consideration. What I see here though is good man-management from Ralph, and not putting unnecessary pressure on a keeper who is probably feeling it right now.

 

Right. First of all, I'll happily accept the manager's decision on this one. I think they are both decent keepers, and he sees them in training.

I didn't take it that Alex had been 'dropped'. I get the rotation system with the goalkeepers and think it's right.

I was simply raising the question as to whether Fraser deserved a run in the team.

This same manager is more astute than I am and if he thinks Alex hasn't been harmed by the 9-0 then that's fine. After all, he's had a precedent!

I've certainly no intention of starting a witch hunt against any player. It's not what I do, and in any case I think Alex is a good keeper who has served the club well. I simply wanted to float a question. I'm sorry for my snapped back response. I heve re-read it and it comes across wrongly. However, I was surprised that it simply seemed to be taken as read that Fraser would go back on the bench until the next Cup game. The clean sheet apart, he seemed to be in control which is something we've not always seen from him. If Alex is going to be fine after the Man Utd trauma then that's good news for all of us.

 

I bet Alex hasn’t had an unbroken night’s sleep since last week. We’ll only know if he’s over it when he plays, but a clean sheet would certainly lay a few ghosts.

 

Too late, we know you’re out for Alex now; we’ll be watching you

He’s probably more traumatised by his error at Wolves.

 

Funny you should mention that. The pass out was probably not his best but Bertie was also slow to react and decision making on that first touch let him down.

 

Fraser Forster Saves. FFS.

 

Happy matchday.

 

Happy Saints Valentine Day

 

Your name Sting by any chance? I'll look out for psychopaths on bikes.

 

Head says Wolves revenge just like Arsenal did. Heart says tight 2.1 win for us with Minamio on the scoresheet.

We can do this!!!

 

I'm the opposite. My head says we'll probably win because while the two sides will be quite evenly matched, they can't score goals, and we can.

It's my heart that's saying, this is Saints mate, you know it'll go wrong...