Southampton Game

[WTF11]

Seems Phiips is a bit of a sicknote too - how many games has he missed so far this season? 6 or 7? not back yet and seems unlikely for this Saturday against Villa.... getting down to the Bare bones, and these current games we need a few more points before we come up against the big boys towards the end of the season.

Agreed, maybe Phillips is a victim of his own success (being "focussed" on by the opposition) and also doing what he does as central to our success is ok, but it must put extra stress on him?

As to the position we're in, it's interesting that after the Brighton/Palace game, all the talk was of escaping the relegation battle and that 30 points was the magic break point. I know thats stretching things a bit, but I suspect what they mean is that its "do-able" from that point, so with our remaining matches (and recognising that lots of the lower teams are playing each other and taking points of each other), we should be ok.

[Tichi1]

I agree - should be ok, but would like another 5 or 6 points quickly - then Bielsa might be prepared to give a couple of the youngsters a run of games? highly unlikely given his previous stance, but when we are mathematically safe our leader might just feel comfortable bringing a few changes in for once when it isn't through need alone.