poitier

Typical Trez performance, lots of headless running about and some nearly moments, but all a bit wasteful really.

It is very strange, he got injured as part of a good bit of play from himself, he had put in a good couple of crosses just before that, so it isn't like he was getting no joy or being booted about. He hasn't been afraid to take a whack in the head on a few occasions when he has been trying to get on the end of a cross, so I don't agree that he is just a bottler. The thing with rolling onto the pitch and Mings/Grealish being unhappy was also odd. Perhaps after the start we had made, he thought breaking up the play might disrupt Southampton's momentum, I don't know, but the apparent lack of team unity was concerning.

I like Fred but he has been in a bad run of form. I don't think the switch to wing back has helped him that much, he is decent as a full back and likes putting in a tackle, unlike Targett who is better in the opponents half.

He looked disinterested second half. Worrying.

Run like the wind, Bjorn.

Very good, if we can get him in the game enough then we will have a chance.

I've said it before, but I just don't know what actual defending he does, no matter how much pressure we are under it always seems to be someone else doing the work.

He started poorly but grew into it, did some useful mopping up but ran out of steam pretty quickly which led to him looking very poor in the second half.

I thought his passing was a lot better today, certainly for the first two thirds of the game.

Absolute comedy defending from the whole team today, but Engels was probably the worst culprit. When you have such a lack of pace you need to have a far better positional sense - how he can be stood 5 yards inside spurs half for the penalty incident one of many examples.

I would have expected him to rip out his tonsils with his bare hands and shout get me on the pitch, I'm fine. Footballers have gone soft.

I would agree that Mings needs to be central to organise everything. If Engels comes back in I would rather it be for Konsa. It is clear to see what Hause brings to the defence (both good and bad), but Konsa not so much.

It makes you wonder why, as a team, we are so willing to keep giving him the ball to pass out rather than somebody else doing it. And it isn't a case of the others are being marked so he is the only option, there were plenty of instances where it just gets played from Konsa to Mings to Hause to nobody.

He will obviously find it easier to score in the Prem than the Championship, cos the Championship is so fast and so physical (so people kept saying last season...) I'm ok with him as a cheap back up option, hopefully only to be used in an emergency, if he never plays for us I'll be happy.

I'm not sure what you mean by going all in early. Some people were saying on here two years ago that he should be playing for England, but he simply wasn't good enough at that point. He has improved a lot this season, and Southgate had previously mentioned that he needed to be playing at the top level to really be able to judge his ability, which is fair enough. Jack has proved himself and I really don't think Southgate is going to omit him if fit.

No, but the point being that Lambert didn't say let him go I don't want him - according to Lambert, anyway.

Lambert wanted to keep Albrighton, and was surprised when that didn't happen.

I think he is still in Shane Long’s pocket.

He works hard, he's pretty quick and on occasion he does show great skill on the ball, so he should be a lot better than he is.

Nothing particularly today, he didn’t have much defending to do. My view that he isn’t a good defender is based on the season so far rather than one game. The less defending he has to do the better he looks.

He is a real battler, shows great character. It wasn’t so evident tonight, but he does a lot to drive us on - seems to link up better with Anwar than Trez.

He is useful going forward, still think he is a bit of a comedy defender but wing back suits him.

I don't disagree with that, but it is more a sleight on the others than Hause.

Well you are the one talking in broad terms now. I'm saying I think he has done ok given his experience, cost, and how the team has been performing in general. Do you expect him to be Maldini?

Not really sure what you are saying. Is it that he has not done well overall?