I really don't care whether you have a black/white opinion. When you said Cork hadn't played in an age before his poor game it appeared to me that you were suggesting Cork had an excuse/reason for his poor performance but Wanyama didn't. Wanyama's had 45 minutes in the last couple of months while Cork had played the full 90 minutes in a couple of League Cup games in the same period before his poor game. That's nitpicking though. I think we basically agree - both are good players, both have their own strengths and weaknesses and both seem to have played below par against Sunderland when short of match practice.
Wanyama wasn't even the issue today. We failed to create over 90 minutes. We were so poor because the team had been tinkered with, and the responsibility lays with Mauricio Pochettino. BUT I will come out and say Wanyama isn't a very good player.
***Tinfoil Hat Time*** Today has made me even more suspicious that deals are made behind closed doors over the strength of teams played in cup competitions. A bit along the lines of..."If you don't play x then I won't play y." Am I being overly paranoid?
Yes. Its just teams priorities have changed. Fans as well. Just look at the crowds. Seasons past a 5th round cup tie would have been a sell out.
Thought we played like a team told to throw the match but don't make it too obvious. Silly idea but it still popped into my head on the bus home.
I just don't believe that Poyet would have put out that the team he did without knowing that we were going to field a weakened team ourselves. Teams always seem to roughly match each other in terms of strength of squads fielded in cup competitions.
Sunderland have much more important games coming up, can't blame Poyet for resting players, or their fans for saving their money for a cup final.
James Ward-Prowse may be white, but he also has a double-barrel surname. So he's posh. Or a chav. Or both. Either way, we should send him back to Bongo-Bongo-Harrington-Smythe Land!!
Poyet made it very clear that he was going to play the squad players after the Man City game was postponed, but why did Pochettino also field a weakened team? I've watched a lot of your games this season and that was the worst I have seen you play. We didn't play that well either but at least the Sunderland players were putting in the effort and closing people down. How the hell did Lambert miss that chance?
Lff, to make the comment about Vic above in his first game full game for 2 months is odd. Corkie is fab, I live him as a player, but in his first 4 or 5 games back in the team we had bad results and we missed Vic. If we are going to make statements and compare players, then at least lets be fair about it. Corkie had been brilliant for the last few games, but prior to that was ok in a team that wasn't winning. Why is it wrong to have them both as important to saints, but in different ways. Lets play Vic for 6 games and then see? It is just so harsh to make the comparison in the way you have.
"Southampton out! No game midweek , great position in the league, why oh why would pochettino not play his strongest team .. Ridiculous! - Robbie Savage. "Totally agree. Disrespectful of the competition, Saints supporters, especially those that travelled, and the game." - Gary Lineker
There is a little evil part of me that wants bad things to happen to Sunderland Tomorrow nice Fran will wish them well and good luck
The thing is that if we'd won, no-one would be complaining about it. Even if Rickie had put away that chance, and it ended 1-1, I don't think there would be as much criticism. Unfortunately, MP didn't know we were going to lose, and the team we put out should have been good enough to win. Sunderland made 9 changes, so showed just as much disrespect to the competition.
There was me thinking we had a tough game against Hull in midweek too!............ Not trying to make excuses but the lads that played on Tuesday may have been a bit tired. Bad decision perhaps to play a weaker team in my view...it does show a disrespect for the FA cup. However we do have a squad of players to do just that....just shows our back up is not up to standard.
Jesus has said that they picked the strongest team that they could because of illness, lack of fitness and need for recovery from Tuesday. Think what happened is we took no chances...sometimes in life you have to take risks. He also said that we should praise Sunderland who prevented us playing the way we wanted...he may have a point, there must be a reason why Sunderland have the Indian sign over us when they are generally poor in the League. They have also got to the League Cup final...so they must have something about them.
Had time to calm down now. Still furious. It's not good knowing you'll have poor game before the ball is kicked because of team selection and that's the man on the terrace, I don't dislike any players personally and have no vendetta but 3 of the players today should not be starting games for a premier league team. Kelvin as 3rd choice keeper makes sense but guly and jos never cut it. Jos puts in some good headers but all guly has done in the prem is miss open goals and slow down play whilst being in poor positions. That being said you can get away with playing 1 or 2 in a settled team and do well (Swansea with jos and fox), not shred the continuity of a team then just hope the other team is poor enough to let you off the hook.
