Nordic Saint

It was a very good performance - much better than any of us expected. I think most of us would have considered anything better than a 2+ goal defeat a good result, which is what recent performances against the likes of Watford and Wolves Reserves had led us to expect. In Lemina we have at last bought a player who doesn't appear to be a waste of money. It's been a while since our halcyon days in the transfer market when we bought players like Mane and Wanyama. Hoedt looks OK. He can tackle, head the ball, intercept and has good positioning sense but he is slow and can't pass. Stikers have favourite opposition teams who they always score against. After his performance in the EFL Cup Final, Gabbiadini should have started. The rest of the team need to be taught to play the ball through to him at every opportunity. On the one occasion the ball was slipped through to him on the edge of the penalty area he very nearly created a goal. Too often the rest of the players pass the ball sideways, backwards and mostly out to the wings rather than through the middle to Gabbiadini, the one player most likely to score. Overall, United seemed taken aback at what tough opposition we were as they'd obviously been expecting a very easy victory, even more so after scoring fairly early in the game. Credit to our players, especially Lemina and Romeu, for giving them such a tough match. But, we need a goal scorer, as a string of 0-1 defeats and 0-0 draws ultimately won't be good enough. Last January, Gabbiadini was bought to solve our goal scoring problem so the team's tactics need to be built around him, which means more balls played on the ground through the middle, other players combining with him for one-twos, and fewer balls played out to the wings for high crosses or attempts to win corners.

To be fair, it was better than usual yesterday but we were playing Man United, the team played well and we were still in with a chance for the whole game. Even though some 'old skool' fans may not like anything so innovative, the clappers certainly help, and the club know that, which is why they keep dishing them out. If you can make 4 times as much noise with a pair of clappers as with a pair of hands, then why the hell not?

Don't play players who can't score goals as strikers. Some are raving about Long having one of his best games yesterday and he yet he still never looked like scoring, passing the ball to someone who might score or even controlling the ball in the penalty area. As for Redmond, he tries to avoid the penalty area by running away from it when he gets the ball but at least he occasionally passes effectively. Our 'attacking' players generally look like they are terrified of getting into a goal scoring position and actually having to shoot at goal. Of course it was stupid to sell our 2 top goal scorers in the same summer and we have had a goal scoring problem ever since. Pelle and Mane were not afraid to shoot and for the whole game they were looking to create or score goals. Mane would have scored even more for us if Koeman hadn't played him out on the wing most of the time. Pelle and Mane had hard shots which beat goalkeepers. Our current attacking players all seem to have powder puff shots. Why is that? Do they all have weak legs or are they poorly trained? Gabbiadini and Austin have both shown in the past they can score goals so we need to persevere with them until January when we can buy at least one real goal scorer, even though they cost a lot of money. As Gabbiadini and Austin are our only real goal scorers the rest of the team need to be told to pass to them at every possible opportunity. Finally, Ward-Prowse should never be allowed to take set pieces as he is hopeless at them. Nearly all of his crosses and corners go to opposition players and all of his free-kicks miss the target. He should watch Coutinho to see what a real dead ball specialist does. I think Boufal and Gabbiadini would probably be better at taking free-kicks than our other 'attacking' players, as they both seem to have the technique to curl the ball into the top corner. At least they should be given a try. Here's hoping things suddenly click against Stoke and we somehow manage to score a couple of goals.

Great TV spectacle though:

They've got the Chapel end making some noise at last, which is a good thing. Let's hope we hear a lot of noise from them today.

It'a good experience for Seager, as it was for Dele Alli when he playd there. Seager's always looked a more natural goal scorer than Gallagher and it would be great if he could score regularly for our first team when he finishes his loan spell.

It is possible. United will have a proper 'kop' of 3,000+ singing full blast in the Northam, which is, after all, the away end; we won't as we don't have a home 'kop' in the Chapel (the home end), just the 2 groups tucked away in the corners of the away end, where the acoustics are worst and where they'll hardly get noticed. If only they could see sense and join together in one large group like they have to at away games, ouur hme atmosphere would be so much better, and that was what Steven Davis was alluding to.

You are obviously part of the new breed of fans who only started watching Saints during our brief flirtation with the lower leagues. Saints get the 12th biggest crowds in the country and have been in the top flight for 40 of the last 50 years. It's where we belong. Get used to it or go to watch a smalller club like Pompey. I remember watching Saints in the Championship, when there were swathes of empty seats. The atmosphere only seemed better because there were usually far fewer away fans in the Northam so we actually had the semblance of a home kop and a home advantage, and we could go away to half-empty stadiums where our thousand fans could outsing the locals. We were a big fish in a small pond. IF our most vocal fans all moved to centre of the the Chapel end or if away fans were moved lightly to a corner of the Northam, we could still have a home kop capable of outsinging the away fans.

We'll see once again what the real problem is on Saturday when our more vocal supporters, divided into 2 small groups, hidden away in the corners of the away end, will be drowned out by the united away fans, making it seen more like a home game for United than for Saints. Until we have a proper home end in the Chapel, where our most vocal fans are united in one large group, like they are at away games, we'll never have a great home atmosphere. I've heard fans who are regulars in the corners of the away end, say they like to go there to get their atmosphere from the away fans. That's a shocking indictment in their lack of self-belief that they can have a real home kop of their own and produce a hostile home atmosphere.

We've played 21 FA Cup & League Cup games (15 in the FA Cup) v Man Utd, including replays, and won 2 of them. I don't think there can be any other team we've met more in the FA Cup or even in major cup competitions.

You're right. We usually get Man Utd. Does any statistician know which team we've been drawn against most in the FA Cup? Man Utd must be up there. I know that the team we've played most in all competitions is Tottenham.

Yes, that was a great goal.

Wholehearted player is exactly what he isn't. I rarely see him battling for possession or busting a gut to get to the ball. In most 50/50 situations he gives up far too easily. He often feins that he is going to tackle and then doesn't bother, which causes problems for his team mates. Romeu and Lemina are whole hearted players; Ward-Prowse isn't.

Where do you sigh then, you freak? Through your nostrils? Engage your limited brain before you insult people.

And suddenly all is right with the world again We're going to be fine. That was a real confidence boosting win for the fans, the players and the manager. The pairing of Romeu and Lemina means we can comfortably stop the opposition building attacks for the first time since the departure of Wanyama.

I always breathe a sigh of relief when I see he's not in the lineup to sabotage our chances.

Please, not Ward-Prowse. We always play so much better when he's not on the pitch. If he does come on as sub, he'll turn the game in Palace's favour.

It would be interesting to know what percentage of his crosses go to opposition players. It appears that about 90% of them do.

I wonder what Pellegrino makes of Eric Black, who was recruited by Reed mainly because he spoke French and had met Puel before? The players' performances since Black came have generally deteriorated and since Dave Watson was recruited all of the goalkeepers at the club have got a lot worse. Now Watson also seems to be getting involved in coaching the outfield players as he was the one giving instructions to the subs during the Watford match. Does this indicate Pellegrino trusts him more than Black?

Yes, it did. Apparently, the club is not licensed to sell every seat so several hundred seats have to be left empty, which means our real capacity is less than the stadium's official capacity. Add to that the fact that some people who've bought seats can't make it for various reasons, like illness, and you're always going to see some empty seats.

That's not a positive. Our opening five home and away games selling out, in spite of the poor results, is. If we won a major trophy in this century, we'd have 40,000 fans hammering at the doors every home game and 2,000+ every away game. For its size, we are arguably the most underachieving team in the country yet the fans keep turning up. That is totally positive.

We need to replace some of the dead wood. If we're stuck with all of them for another year, we'll be very much a club in decline at every level. Replace them well and we'll be a club on the rise again. I'd start with Wilson, Black, Watson and Jaidi.

The Villa players are running unchallenged straight through the middle of our 2 centre backs and scoring with ease. To be fair, Bednarek and McCarthy look worse than van Dijk.

It looks like our U23s could well be relegated again. The U18s are just as bad. Our Academy teams are terrible nowadays. Poor coaching and poor recruitment.

If we want to solve our goal scoring problem, I really don't see the point of playing Long. We need a finisher, and especially one who can score from all the high crosses we lob in, which was our main tactic under Puel and continues to be so under Pellegrino.