I don't rate this Southampton side at all. JWP being available is a farce. The League Cup is for reserves, so I don't understand why a suspension in an elite competition carries over into the Carabao. Him and Livramento are the only players with star quality. I'm sure our players know that this is a huge chance to get points before November - and better still push Soton into the battle instead of us.
Reserves play in the competition but it’s still a first team competition. Chelsea had a very strong side out for example. We probably thought the same about Newcastle,Wolves and Leeds… A performance like v Everton will give us great chance but only need be be off our game again to not get the result we hope for .
Tbh to win a game in the P.L. you have to be very much on your game, performances like last week we will be safe, performances like the previous away game (Leeds) we will be down! Last week gives us HOPE!
Even last week won’t guarantee us safety, as we still let 2 goals in. That isn’t sustainable, you’re not going to score 3+ every game, more often than not we won’t even score 2.
I don't think last night's Southampton result will have any bearing on the weekend. They may be feeling a bit down for a day or so and then its back to business.
Both Everton's goals on Saturday were good ones from their point of view, but pretty poor defensively from ours. But it was as if Everton thought 'Well, Sarr has gone off, we needn't bother to defend any more'. I really don't blame the Everton fans for going spare, their teams defending was appalling; it made even our's look decent. Of course, great for us, and full marks for our team's attacking intentions and application, but we will be lucky beyond measure to meet that level of incompetence every week. I warmed to Ranieri even more when I heard his calm, measured and sane summary after the game. He knows that defensively we need badly to improve. Let us hope that he will soon have the personnel to accomplish that. A bit like Everton, Southampton strike me as a team that have a quite capable attack, but look a bit frail in defence. Good news: No Ings. Probable bad news: Ward-Prowse. And quite possibly Livramento.
Someone on WD 18 twitter saying we are monitoring Trevor Chalobah availability in Jan, presumably a loan.
No chance at all this happens. Signing a new long term deal, Tuchel talking him up and he’s getting 1st team game time.
Before last weekend it seemed like we might be in for a really unpleasant period during this eight-game run where it took quite a long time to see much of anything and have any real hope of a result - particularly taking the deficiencies in defence through injury and various players' timescales for return into account. Suddenly, an incredibly valuable and historically-unprecedented three points are in our pocket, as well as something of a nice little recovery in goal difference. As a result, out of the blue, as the thread monitoring it demonstrates, we're suddenly in with a solid shout of keeping to that 11 point in 10 game marker that makes it statistically likely we will stay up. On top of that, if we do manage to get another incredibly valuable three points, presumably underpinned by some kind of increase in defensive organisation/concentration/application, even without at least one of our first choice centre backs, then despite the basket-case first quarter of a season we've undergone, we'd have to look at it as though we're actually building something and can be assessed as a real contender for having a decent season and staying up. If that ends up being the case, it will essentially be down to the impact Claudio has managed to have in such a short time, and it will be funny to see how pundits are forced to react just a few short weeks after ignorantly filling their nappies about a sacking without even bothering with any attempt to understand the context behind it once again. Would love to see Nkoulou start, if he's even 50% ready.
Also the highlight video the club just put out on Twitter from Huddersfield has made me realise that Masina is currently in his fourth season with us - how on earth did that happen?! Outside of the geriatrics he's genuinely one of the longest-serving players at the club, which is quite a strange thought.
if it’s of any consolation, I met Sierralta on the Liverpool match day. He was waiting by the SEJ stand. I asked when he would be back and he said 2 weeks, which would coincide nicely with this game. Haven’t seen any training pictures though mind you!
Obviously we can't read too much into the victory over Everton on Saturday, it doesn't make us world beaters all of a sudden particularly as Everton did implode, however that wouldn't have happened without us pressing them. Southampton are the sort of team we need to get points against to enable us to stay up, however they are no mugs, I expect them to be a lot tighter at the back than Everton were so I think it will be a very close game.
Claudio said at the start of the international break Nkoulou was 3 weeks away, so I'm expecting him to start.
Still being without a clean sheet after nine games is pretty bad, even during those doomed seasons under GT and Aidy, at the same point we had three clean sheets in the first season and two in the second despite being yet to win. I think we all agree that based on the last game it's worse than the one we had during QSF's first spell, but even with declining Foster and Cathcart, WTE, Masina, Ngakia is it really worse than Chamberlain/Gibbs/Page/Williams/Robinson or Foster Mk I/Doyley/DeMerit/Shittu/Stewart? We have to hope the two goals conceded Saturday were a Xisco legacy rather than due to inherent weaknesses Ranieri can't improve with better organization, awareness and tactics drilled into them.
I don’t think Southampton will completely sit back but I’d imagine we’ll have some fairly large sections of possession, so we’ll need someone with a bit of creativity. So I’d go with Pedro as he linked up play pretty well when he came on. If you have to miss Dennis for a game, this may not be the worst one if they do sit back a little.
Gerry Queen, the ex Crystal Palace player, was involved in a fight in one match. The headline the next day was: Queen in rumpus at Palace.
Thanks for the Yeah doesnt seem to likely seeing as hes getting game time because Tuchel rotates so often. We can live in hope though.
Great preview @Klein Lust and sorry to hear about the issues you’ve had. Not that far from you currently, Trefor, on the Llyn Peninsula. Weather is currently a little bit breezy! Certainly last week has improved everybody’s mood but Southampton don’t win or lose many so I can see a draw unless they attack us in which case I reckon we will win it. Gutted I can’t make it.
Wow, look how slowly our players move when they train. No wonder Kucka look's tanked after 60 minutes.
American football is the absolute pits. Granted it’s not quite as bad as baseball and miles better than basketball, but it’s still awful. Why would any sane lover of real football be in the slightest bit bothered by it?
I love the schemes and tactics in NFL. Up until the recent awful rule changes I loved the competitiveness too. Rule changes are killing the sport though.
No fear. We will put up 123 videos of the fan cams so you can feel like you were there. We know you love those….
Baseball is a fine sport once you invest the time to get into it and understand its subtleties. Much like cricket. It seems strange that so many Americans seem prepared to do this, given the others sports they like.
Without being facetious, is there any difference between baseball and rounders? My mate (also a hornet and huge cricket fan) moved to New York and went to a baseball game. Said it was the most boring thing he'd ever done.
For a start, you're allowed to use two hands in baseball... I also went with some friends to Yankee Stadium to watch a game, which started (thanks to a train mishap) with five middle class kids from the home counties wandering around The Bronx with multiple passers-by asking us if we 'needed help', etc, before we managed to flag a taxi down, and ended halfway through the match, two hours in, when we got so bored we left. One of the problems is that in the stadium, so little happens the vast majority of the time that when they finally hit a home run, you're not paying any attention because the past 25 minutes has been full of single base runs and strike-outs, interspersed with spasmodic, seizure-inducing player introduction videos bursting into life on the big screens: 'IT'S ROBBIE CANO, DON'TCHA KNOW?! I do appreciate and watch NFL, though. I support the 49ers, because as a child I was given a 49ers branded funsize ball and a Minnesota Vikings jersey from respective parental business trips - when I got into actually watching the game at university, I had to choose, and went with the one that was situated in a globally-famous cultural hotspot on the west coast, rather than a snowscape up towards the great white north - to hedge against the rare eventuality I ever manage to catch a game live.
