I have wondered why Long has sat on the bench so much in the last few weeks, it`s obvious your recent problem is goals and he can provide them when others are out of form/luck.
I would like to see us go with Long and Mane up front to Harris and Harry Chelsea trying to play out from the back and be on the shoulder of Cart Horse Terry to Nick a goal or two on the break
Hasn't helped Pelle that Tadic has been injured and off form. Tadic was the one to get it to his feet. I think we will see the best of Pelle when Tadic is firing on all cylinders.
We all know Pelle will start, I don't know what he'd have to do for Ron to consider dropping him. I think we'll need him as an "out" anyway today, but we can also do with Long's pace running at their back four if we're to have any chance of nicking this 1-0. So long as we don't concede an early goal, I might actually enjoy this game. Let's face it, 0-0 would be a tremendous victory, so let's just keep it tight, keep our shape, and not make any mistakes. Watching us could be like watching Chelsea in the CL final a couple of years ago - that was quite a compelling drama as I recall.
Yeah, great drama. But let's not concede a late goal and so avoid the need for an even later equaliser - oh, and I'll live without conceding a penalty for the big man to save. Apart from that, a 're-run of that game would be great! I stayed in London last night, so a casual stroll up to the ground followed by a barnstorming display from Saints - a repeat of 67/68 would be good - and I'll be a happy bunny.
That was a result I'll never forget, but I can't see it happening again - we'll never concede 2 goals!
If we lose today I'm still not going to be too worried about making top six/five even four. As long as we bounce back next weekend, which i believe we will, then I think we should be set up nice for the run-in. Should we win however, then the title is ours.
Did he say that? He said he believes we will win next weekend which every Saints fan should think as we're playing the team currently in 18th.
Normally, keeping clean sheets doesn't seem to be a problem for us and that's the standard we'd be adhering to the whole season, so I think we can expect a sturdy, resistant performance defensively. Other than that, I have no idea what to expect today. There's no reason not to play a good match, we're coming to this match at the back of a win against Palace and a team building trip to Switzerland, we're at a near full strength, fit and raring to go. But than again, this kind of reasoning hardly ever proves true in football.
Whilst we are hardly shipping goals, we have let in a couple of critical goals and then been unable to score. Have to get back to a complete lock out today and go for the Mane winner (or from anyone else who cares to give it a go ).
I presume you mean the moral title rather than the actual title We have lost points against the teams we should/could beat...that is what is really annoying. Anything against Chelsea would be great, but even a loss wouldn't be a disaster if we won the winnable games. I note that Koeman seems to think 5 wins is the right target and will get us in the Europa (and he seemed to count the Palace win as one of the five).
Phew...Pelle on bench. When I saw he wasn't playing, I thought he must have died. Interesting...let's hope the change proves positive and that in a strange way it helps Graziano.
