There's little to choose between any of them imo. I had to watch via an - alternative source, shall we say - and the commentators spent the first 10-15 minutes of the second half discussing Southampton's recent past and where they go from here. There wasn't too much action going on, but what there was they just ignored, talking amongst themselves. I think all co-commentators should be ditched, then the main one would have nobody to talk to and would have to actually pay attention to the bloody game.
Hooper is the next pgmol scandal. People need to start talking about it and putting pressure on pgmol to clean up their act. He was giving mad.frees against us for nothing and cards while letting some Southampton really poor challenges go.
Very important. Alisson rested Trent used minimally Robertson rested and tsimikas brought back Vvd rested Gravenberch rested Macallister was rested last week Szoboszlai rested Salah rested Jota worked on fitness Diaz rested. Next match Fred please. This comp is now going to be an issue for us. No resting in January so it's in the way unless we can win all league games.
It's a maximum of two more games isn't it? I get what you're saying, and winning the league would be so much better than winning the league cup, but win two games to get a cup and for Slot to get that important first trophy with us in the bag sounds like a good thing. The FA Cup could be a bigger issue if we go deep in that.
Was a decent cup tie in the end. Felt like we gave you far too much respect in the first half and could see we're clearly a team lacking in confidence. Heads dropped massively after the opener where I thought our keeper ****ed up by not committing and I feared for us a bit. Second half we were much better though and got in your faces more. Made much more of a game of it and for ten minutes or so after the goal really had you rattled before you regained your composure and then I didn't see us getting another goal though the Onuachu miss was dreadful. Definitely should have been a foul and a red card at the end but wouldn't have made a difference that point ultimately. The second half shows how poorly we've been managed this season imo. While we clearly lack quality there's enough there to be much more competitive than we have been if we play to the players strength. Endo is a wonderful footballer. MOTM for me.
No minimum of 2 and max of 3. The point being first leg is week of the 6th January and second leg is week of 3rd February So if we look at our fixtures West ham 29th dec man utd, 5th jan semi first leg Fa cup (second string) Forest away Brentford away Losc Ipswich Psv Bournemouth Semi finals second leg Fa cup 4th round Wolves Man city (might be pp for the final) 4th March = cl last 16 tie leg 1 Now that's 2 months with only breaks being rotation for 1 fa cup game. All weekend/midweek Then straight into cl knockouts. I'd personally rather a 100% league record than winning this cup but we have to try now. We can't afford any dropped points in those league fixtures and yeah before anyone says it those are easy cl games but slot won't rotate in them either
Was a good cup tie in the end and fair play to your players for not just caving in given the circumstances and shipping 5 at the weekend. Definitely showed that using common sense (when to play out, when to go longer) you’ll cause teams problems as your keeper can actually pick a pass doing it. Appreciate the Endo comments too - I thought he read the game really well and was very tidy. Good luck for the rest of the season
I think we have to avoid Newcastle in the Carabao Cup semis. Arsenal might be tougher but at least they'd be in the same boat as us to a degree. I'd bite your hand off for Utd or Spurs. Unlike the other two, which will almost certainly be 2 difficult tight legs, literally anything could happen against Spurs or Utd.
I don't really care. They will be full strength teams no matter what. Newcastle are the weakest team in the comp but it could be down to the ref they have for the semi at St James. If someone is allowed to kick 7 shades out of us and let away with it then we will struggle.
I think at 2-0 down you had zero to lose, especially after we made the subs and only had 2 defenders, no point sitting back and seeing game out. Not sure can compare it an awful lot to prem games but were lot more balanced about taking risks at the back compared to previous. The funny thing is, don’t even have to go long to be seen as a negative. We do it a lot where keeper will chip it 40-50 yards out to Salah to hold it up. The big guy up top looks interesting. Think he played well in the league game as well, looks really unorthodox but causes a threat, holds it well and has decent feet. Seems the type could do that to where use him as a focal point when do need to go a bit longer and play off him. Think your first person ever heard call Endo a wonderful footballer! Technically not brilliant but can’t fault his effort and commitment - even taking one full in the face for your goal where game should have been stopped
Considering how much would guys disliked him after he joined us, how have Saints fans taken to Lallana's return to the club?
I agree martin was a ****ing tool. It can't always be short short short. Thr whole point of drawing teams.into a press is to beat that press and get into the sapce vacated. Our system is simple. The keeper has two cbs short plus two full backs realities narrow and 2 cms so at any time if someone pressed with 4 then the cbs have to be free or at least 1 cm. If they push right on and commit to closing the players down or do a narrow 442 and let our cbs have it then there's acres wide to play a controlled pass to salah or gakpo. Martin seemed to not understand why he was passing it short around the back at all. Our team obviously has two passing keepers and vvd especially who can hit a pass 40 yards onto a sixpence. Thst quality is not easy to find but we should have masses of options to play to once thr players are moving (5 to 10 yards movements is all it needs to be available for a pass)
