Southampton (H) Pre-match Thread - Sunday 22nd May 4PM

[Shane]

1 hour ago, Ric Flair said:

Any inkling he might be involved? It appeared he travelled with the squad to the game yesterday, as did Braybrooke.

Gerrim in!!! Imagine Alves and Braybrooke surrounded by the quality of our first team 

[TonyN11]

must win!

[Matt_Lcfc]

9 hours ago, Dan LCFC said:

It's a piss poor league this year. Brilliance at the top but beyond that, yikes.

I disagree with this, it is still by far the strongest division in the world. There is a strong case to suggest that teams like Brighton and Palace would finish in the top six in other leagues, the evidence is surely in the fact that us (9th) and West Ham (7th) both reached European semi-finals this season. Look at previous seasons also, 17-18 is a prime example. Burnley finished 7th and we finished 9th, our squad was terrible that season - the PL has been as strong as it ever has this season. It is very easy to dismiss a competitive league as a poor one.

Edited 20 May 2022 by Matt_Lcfc

[Matt_Lcfc]

12 hours ago, BenTheFox said:

Imagine if we actually finish 8th after the season we've had. Honestly, I can't get my head around us being in this position, we've been woeful for most of the season. 

If this does not reflect how strong our squad is and how we have the players to qualify for Europe again, then I am not sure what will tbh.

[dormelcfc]

Quite poignant for me that after nearly a decade of being a season ticket holder that my last game before moving down to Southampton is against the Saints 😂

 

Having said that, would love for another 9-0 pasting 

[StanSP]

Only gone and got Jon Moss' final game haven't we

 

 

[oadby.fox]

13 hours ago, BenTheFox said:

Imagine if we actually finish 8th after the season we've had. Honestly, I can't get my head around us being in this position, we've been woeful for most of the season. 

Exactly. This is why so many of us have had our frustrations with Rodgers. A little bit more street wise and we could’ve gone for 7th or 6th despite the injuries, so many poor sides in and around us. 

[Gravel]

1 hour ago, dormelcfc said:

Quite poignant for me that after nearly a decade of being a season ticket holder that my last game before moving down to Southampton is against the Saints 😂

 

Having said that, would love for another 9-0 pasting 

Giving up your ST just cos you're moving to Southampton

 

Plastic

 

😉

[Spudulike]

Just heard that Southampton will be on the beach. Hasn't that always been the case? 

[Sharpe's Fox]

9 (nine)-0. Vardy to bag them all and win the Golden Boot. Remember this post.

[Sampson]

2 hours ago, dormelcfc said:

Quite poignant for me that after nearly a decade of being a season ticket holder that my last game before moving down to Southampton is against the Saints 😂

 

Having said that, would love for another 9-0 pasting 

Joining the Hampshire expats! Hope you enjoy Southampton.

 

Hate to say it, but I definitely don’t regret leaving the Midlands for the south coast!

[Dorkingfox]

1 hour ago, Sampson said:

Joining the Hampshire expats! Hope you enjoy Southampton.

 

Hate to say it, but I definitely don’t regret leaving the Midlands for the south coast!

I work in Southampton, like anywhere it has its grim bits, grass is not always greener, but the Hampshire and Dorset coastline is nice, even some parts of the Solent.

[Sampson]

2 minutes ago, Dorkingfox said:

I work in Southampton, like anywhere it has its grim bits, grass is not always greener, but the Hampshire and Dorset coastline is nice, even some parts of the Solent.

Sure, like everywhere there's nice and grim parts. But you can't really beat walking down to the seafront on a lazy summer's day and having a coffee or a few drinks. I really miss being by the sea whenever I go back to the Midlands.

Edited 20 May 2022 by Sampson

[FosseSpark]

Schmeichel

Castagne Fofana Evans Justin

Mendy

Maddison KDH

Barnes Iheanacho Vardy (play where they want)

 

get into em. 

[HighPeakFox]

6 hours ago, An Away Move said:

I appear to have gone full on rabid anti-Rodgers, which is remarkable considering we might finish 8th. It’s his ego and self-regard that trigger me I think. Not to mention his tactical stupidity at times like putting Pereira on Abraham at corners, etc.,

Absolutely not saying this to you, fella, you just happened to have said the golden sentence - this also triggers me too, but it tends to be us that's guilty of it in the way we post and project.

 

BR is no saint, I'll grant you, but the repeated crap about his arrogance, ego, self-promotion & talking the club down is pure repeated cliche & confirmation bias.

[Foxaholic ME]

4 hours ago, Matt_Lcfc said:

I disagree with this, it is still by far the strongest division in the world. There is a strong case to suggest that teams like Brighton and Palace would finish in the top six in other leagues, the evidence is surely in the fact that us (9th) and West Ham (7th) both reached European semi-finals this season. Look at previous seasons also, 17-18 is a prime example. Burnley finished 7th and we finished 9th, our squad was terrible that season - the PL has been as strong as it ever has this season. It is very easy to dismiss a competitive league as a poor one.

 

[Foxaholic ME]

17 minutes ago, Foxaholic ME said:

 

 

17 minutes ago, Foxaholic ME said:

It is the weakest premier for years  most teams were more than inconsistent we topped the list  I think by being the only team to get more points against Liverpool than Everton  We cost Liverpool the league and kept  Everton up 

 

[MalletFox]

5 hours ago, Matt_Lcfc said:

I disagree with this, it is still by far the strongest division in the world. There is a strong case to suggest that teams like Brighton and Palace would finish in the top six in other leagues, the evidence is surely in the fact that us (9th) and West Ham (7th) both reached European semi-finals this season. Look at previous seasons also, 17-18 is a prime example. Burnley finished 7th and we finished 9th, our squad was terrible that season - the PL has been as strong as it ever has this season. It is very easy to dismiss a competitive league as a poor one.

The contrary to that view is that we went out to 6th in Serie A, and West Ham went out to 11th in Bundesliga.

[Matt_Lcfc]

6 minutes ago, MalletFox said:

The contrary to that view is that we went out to 6th in Serie A, and West Ham went out to 11th in Bundesliga.

It’s a fair point and I didn’t really look at it from this angle. I still think that you have to look at the distribution of teams though. Look at the semi-finals from all three European cups, four teams from a possible twelve. 
 

Given that we have seven possible places and one (Spurs) basically knocked themselves out, I think you have to admit that number is pretty impressive.

Edited 20 May 2022 by Matt_Lcfc

[Free Falling Foxes]

1 hour ago, HighPeakFox said:

BR is no saint, I'll grant you, but the repeated crap about his arrogance, ego, self-promotion & talking the club down is pure repeated cliche & confirmation bias.

Bloody hope not, we play them on Sunday!

[MalletFox]

3 minutes ago, Matt_Lcfc said:

It’s a fair point and I didn’t really look at it from this angle. I still think that you have to look at the distribution of teams though. Look at the semi-finals from all three European cups, four teams from a possible twelve. 
 

Given that we have seven possible places and one (Spurs) basically knocked themselves out, I think you have to admit that number is pretty impressive.

Yeah I agree the Prem has the most strength in depth, but not sure the likes of Palace or Brighton would come top 6 in the other big European leagues.

[Matt_Lcfc]

5 minutes ago, MalletFox said:

Yeah I agree the Prem has the most strength in depth, but not sure the likes of Palace or Brighton would come top 6 in the other big European leagues.

I guess there is no real metric to actually study this. But, I do somewhat agree with the belief that we overrate our teams / PL players at times. Look at Rennes and PSV, whilst both sides are good examples of their domestic leagues, many are quick to dismiss Ligue 1 and the Eredivisie as ‘farmers league.’ 
 

I didn’t see that at all when we played them. Both sides were well organised and had some very good technical footballers and would probably be competitive in the PL.

 

Having said that, the bottom sides in this leagues are very poor. The bottom half of the Eredvisie and *probably* Ligue 1 will be lower Championship standard, at least.

Edited 20 May 2022 by Matt_Lcfc

[l444ry]

8 hours ago, Foxes96 said:

Don’t want to drag up the UECL loss again… but out of interest who would you have put on Abraham? 
 

We had: Fofana and Evans as decent headers of the ball, then followed by Justin and then Ricardo…. 

 

Whereas they had 3 tall CB’s to our 2 and Abraham. So if one of our CB’s had marked Abraham we would have left one of their CB’s free. We were always going to be out numbered at set pieces by their bigger players

The thing is that Rodgers has virtually reverted back to total zonal marking again (thankfully, in my opinion). He's simply packed the six yard box with almost every player and denied the type of space Abrahams got in Rome. There were similar type crosses at Chelsea which were dealt with in the main at Chelsea.  

[An Away Move]

1 hour ago, HighPeakFox said:

Absolutely not saying this to you, fella, you just happened to have said the golden sentence - this also triggers me too, but it tends to be us that's guilty of it in the way we post and project.

 

BR is no saint, I'll grant you, but the repeated crap about his arrogance, ego, self-promotion & talking the club down is pure repeated cliche & confirmation bias.

But, I’m afraid to say, I think you could be wrong about this. One can say and quite objectively speaking he has put the club down, is arrogant and does self-promote. The evidence is in the transcript of his interviews. Leicester being happy to survive in the premier league before the messiah came to change the mentality being just one such example. 

[HighPeakFox]

31 minutes ago, An Away Move said:

But, I’m afraid to say, I think you could be wrong about this. One can say and quite objectively speaking he has put the club down, is arrogant and does self-promote. The evidence is in the transcript of his interviews. Leicester being happy to survive in the premier league before the messiah came to change the mentality being just one such example. 

And I would say that that's down to opinion and how touchy one chooses to be. And you might not fit that description, but it fits plenty of others.