DO OR DIE!

Happy to keep Lodi if it keeps Danilo happy. Skateboard has said he is here for new adventures and the other Brazilians have to find their own way. Danilo could go all the way to Champions League football - for a guy who was meant to be a DM he's a pretty consequential player for creating and scoring goals. Danilo + MGW + Brennan + Awoniyi on their day would cost a lot of money in the market today.

This season we have just about created our strongest first choice 11. Next season if we stay up we can have players to either upgrade this first 11 or have a stronger squad. Some we can finally let go (Arter, Cafu, Taylor), others we may be paying to not play very much (Wood? Shelvey?)

I imagine we could still spend a bit as we would have two years of EPL money minus our £170m(?) spend this year for FFP. Checks notes £105 million permitted losses over three years. Yeah i think Marinakis can still throw a few more darts if he feels like it.

Re Lodi.. didn’t we sign Richards to be our left back, and then when he was broken we signed Toffo, and then when he looked a bit too far short of the level, we signed Lodi (who was gash for a while too.. but has ended up being a great loan)

Toffo has looked better as the season has gone on… he’s progressed from ‘liability’ to ‘solid backup’.. which is great. Richards we still don’t know.. but I wouldn’t have Lodi on my list of options if the price is £26m.

Lets not take the Atmosphere for granted just because it's become our 'thing'. 4 sides of the ground all driving the atmosphere, or all regularly singing in unison is pretty unique. You might be bored of hearing about it but it's pretty special. We'll miss it when Coopers gone, enjoy it while you can.

We we noticeably sitting a bit more last night compared with Brighton, which looked like an instruction to give us space to run into, rather than swarm a tired team. We looked good for it and if it stayed 5-2 Southampton wouldn't have felt hard done to. Chelsea next is huge.

As regular readers of this colunm know I am occasionally prone to a bit of hero worship. Well, you will be pleased to know I have a new hero, and his name is Feilpe. The king is dead, long live the king.

I know what you mean but I don't agree.

There were one or two moments when we misplaced a pass and the crowd gave an audible groan. Otherwise, almost 100% positive - and constant attempts to "make something happen" by starting supportive songs.

It still all feels a world away from the days of Danny Fox shanking a clearance and the whole stadium jeering, or of Leeds or Leicester fans' "you're not fit to wear the shirt".

Re: Navas. I am grateful that we've had him, and he has been far from gash... but I am not convinced that he is cut out for the Premier League at this stage of his career. Yes, I know that in his day he was regarded as one of the best keepers on the planet, but he is small for a keeper (and that matters in our football, where physicality in crowded 6-yard boxes is definitely a thing).

At the time of Henderson's injury (14 January) we were flying and he / our defence had kept 5 clean sheets in 8 games (Brighton a, Liverpool h, Palace h, Saints a, Borg h). Navas kept a clean sheet in his first game (Leeds h), but hasn't managed another one in 14 games since.

Not just the keeper, though. Yates was injured (at Bournemouth) the game after Henderson, and McKenna / Boly a week after that. Things started to unravel defensively within a match or two, so it would be harsh to pin the blame on Navas. Probably true to say that without him & Felipe arriving in January we'd be bottom of the table, dead and buried by now (worth remembering when people start the ritual lambasting of our rubbish January business - it definitely wasn't all bad, what with Navas, Felipe & Danilo to counter-balance Shelvey, Ayew & Wood).

I don't see Navas as being worth the vast wages as a longer-term thing - though to illustrate that it's not my money I'd sign Henderson (also not exactly cheap on the wage front) like a shot assuming we stay up. Serge yes, Lodi probably.

Navas is officially listed as 6 ft 1 in but there's no way he's over 6 foot.

Forgot to mention that when Worrall came on to play right back there was a fair amount of trepidation around me but he was fine and it's probably not a disaster if he has to play there again in the last 3. (Albeit not as a wing-back, please.) Interesting that Cooper said they were expecting Aurier to come off and had trained with Worrall there.

When it comes to Navas everyone knows he last inclination is to catch so the game becomes land balls around him and see who gets the rebound. T'other than that, give or take the odd dodgy goal-kick he's excellent.

Yeah, sorry - I meant how every match report mentions how the City Ground was bouncing, so loud etc. but I just didn't feel that last night. Wasn't referring to the fickle booboys of yesteryear.

And that is clearly something other teams have identified are playing upon.
Liverpool - we were vulnerable from set pieces.
Southampton - every corner, they packed the six-yard box and whipped the ball in (helps when you've got someone of Ward-Prowse's quality to deliver set pieces)
He still made some amazing saves and got something on a lot of their corners.

Thought we did well not to give any free-kicks away just outside the box though - obviously something the players were warned about, particularly after Brentford.

If we stayed up, would you take Ward-Prowse?

Not sure he'd be on the radar of a top half team (28 in May) but, for me, he'd fit into our team and, obviously, his set-pieces would add something we simply don't have (and he doesn't miss games). Given his age, I wouldn't be paying fortunes but clearly worth something in the £20millions. (Now watch ManU pay £50million for him.)

Pickford is a better shot-stopper than Navas (demonstrated on two or three occasions yesterday) and his distribution is a different class entirely. Shilton wasn't particularly small for his time maybe an inch shorter than Clemence and a 2 or 3 less than Corrigan - Paul Cooper was a contemporary and about 3 inches shorter.

I find this sort of comment weird (it's not just you). How do you do this in practice? Does Cooper say "Guys, just for today, try to win the ball cleanly around our area". What are his instructions for other games if so? Feel free to foul when they get near our box!? It just doesn't really make sense. The other alternative is he tells them to stand off the Soton players when they are near our goal? That doesn't sound like a winning formula to me either ....