Nordic Saint

No, it isn't. Espanyol are owned by the Chinese billionaire, Chen Yansheng, alongside whom, Gao is just small fry.

Well, they seem to have been successful as the match is heading for a sell out.

No, it isn't. Gao owns no part of LD Sports.

I agree. The only reason we need a third central defender is to cover for Vestergaard. With two central defenders with pace, we wouldn't need one.

Interesting stats: Vestergaard didn’t complete a single tackle and also made no blocks. https://www.footballfancast.com/premier-league/southampton/southampton-fans-slam-jannik-vestergaard-for-his-performance-against-liverpool

I think you can

I feel more optimistic after our performance yesterday but several bookmakers, including Betway, Bet Victor, Betfair and Betdaq, have now cut our relegation odds to 7/2 so clearly they don't think it's silly to see us as already being in a relegation struggle. They will have based those odds not only on our first two results but also their assessment of the strength of our squad relative to other teams in the league. A lot depends on how much Kevin Danso can transform what is arguably the worst central defence in the league. As yet, that is an unknown factor.

The Liverpool fans' reaction. He wasn't initially going to give it but the reaction of outrage from the Northam end prompted him to.

Our first half performance was very good and we spent most of it camped in the Liverpool half but you just knew we'd concede a goal just before half-time. You also knew that at some point a Liverpool striker would leave Vestergaard sitting on his backside while he ran on to score, as Firmino did for their 2nd. Adrian was clearly struggling to kick properly with his ankle injury and finally Ings took advantage of it but that was a terrible miss from Ings late on. Ultimately, the difference between the teams was that they had Mane while we had Ings. But, overall it was a much better performance than against Burnley.

They are making it difficult to buy tickets, shirts and even programmes.

There were no programmes left for sale either inside or outside the ground, twenty minuted before kick-off. Long queues were turned away. That's more money thrown away by the club.

We need Yoshida's pace. Playing Vestergaard v Liverpool's pacy attack would be suicidal as Mane, Salah et al would run straight past him and score.

We're playing the old game of how many wins can a relegation threatened team hope for and it's not many. We all hoped that we had moved on from that but signing a 20-year-old, bit part Bundesliga player on loan because we couldn't afford a transfer fee for a player who is probably not even Premier League standard suggests that we haven't. We are where you'd expect a poverty-stricken team to be in the Premier League.

Let's hope for a complete turnaround v Liverpool. I'll be there, along with all the other Saints fans at a sold out St Mary's but will the posters who only post on here to criticize Saints fans when we lose be there too? Unlikely.

One major improvement since Reed left is that we no longer get the devious PR 'leaks' designed to turn the fans against players who are about to be sold.

I think it's true that he would have gone to a top six club, although he wasn't forcing the issue, but he didn't really want to leave Saints and certainly not to go to West Ham. If Reed had made any effort to keep him here, he'd have happily stayed. But, instead, Les Reed made it clear to him that he was no longer welcome at the club and got the fan base on his side with his usual PR 'leaks', saying the player was disruptive. The words 'Billy Big Boll--ks" were clearly straight out of Les Reed's mouth and then got repeated on all the Saints fans forums, when, in fact, Fonte is a more modest character than either Reed himself or most top flight footballers. Anyway, it's all worked out well for Fonte, as he has had the best spell of his entire career at Lille, captaining them to the Champions League group stage, with the best defensive record in the French League, and winning another major European trophy with Portugal.

I'd add Vestergaard to that list. We should try to get rid of him in January to free up a place in the squad for a new central defender. But, one wonders about the quality of our scouting and recruitment when they waste so much money on so many players who are obviously not cut out for the Premier League.

Whilst I agree with you that we were aiming high when we sold him, it will be interesting to see how many goals he scores in the Premier League this season. He is a hugely popular player wherever he goes and I wish him well.

To be honest, I really thought we'd do what we usually do against Burnley and get a draw and I think a lot of other fans expected that too.This is our biggest defeat against Burnley since we lost to them by the same scoreline in our 1973/74 relegation season.

I agree to a certain extent but he's not as much of a defensive liability as Vestergaard is.

I hope that's the last we see of Vestergaard and Stephens but unfortunately it won't be. We need to get Yoshida back and buy another experienced central defender to play alongside him in January.

It's already happened. It's called the UEFA Champions League.

I'm very happy with the Che Adams signing because I've seen him play and he's a good player. Apart from his sub appearance in a pre-season friendly, I've not seen Djenepo play and I've never seen Danso (in fact, I'd never even heard of him before) so it's hard to judge either of them yet.

Although Augsburg had the worst defence in the Bundesliga last season, they seemed to do better when Danso didn't play.

This was his best season so far: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/kevin-danso/leistungsdaten/spieler/263236/plus/0?saison=2017