Nordic Saint

A reality check for those who say it's just 3 games: 1 point from 3 games, including two of our easiest home fixtures, means that, in order to stay up we need to average more than a point a game from our remaining 35 fixtures, which include 12 games against the big six. Under Hughes we've picked up just 8 points from 11 league games. We'll go into our next game at St Mary's with just one home league win in 10 months ( a lucky one against the mighty Bournemouth) so unless there is a very drmatic change in our form or Hughes's, there aren't going to be many 3-pointers. It's no wonder that the bookies now have us as one of the relegation favourites. Where did it all go wrong?

Pretty good performance? Unlucky? Get real. When we play our next home game at St Mary's, it will be 10 months since lthe last time we saw our team win a home league game. There's nothing pretty good or unlucky about that. The way our club is being run is disastrous.

He's certainly a threat but so is Ings!

The reason why he'll never make it in the Premier League is his lack of pace. In a slower-paced league he might be OK.

For an 18-year-old, Klarer is an exceptionally mature central defender. He is one of the best prospects I've seen in our U23s in recent years.

Fonte's Ligue 1 debut: https://www.ligue1.com/ligue1/article/falcao-miss-costly-as-monaco-draw-blank-with-lille.htm

If he wasn't one of our most talented players, the club wouldn't have been able to sell him. The ones we are left with are the less talented ones, many of whom no other club would pay a fee for. He was also our joint top goal scorer last season and the club finds buyers for them easily enough too.

One of them being the fact we've won just 1 home league game in the last ten months so a win v Leicester could signal an upturn in our fortunes.

I'm assuming that the mantra that we shouldn't judge a player on the strength of one game also applies to Vestergaard's only league game for us against Burnley's powder-puff attack, arguably the weakest attack in the league? The same would apply to the game in which he was awful against his old club in a pre-season friendly. So, it is clearly far too soon to say wheher he is either the best or the worst of our central defenders. Let's hope for the best if he plays against Leicester. We've seen a lot more of Yoshida and Hoedt and on the evidence so far, I'd prefer to see Yoshida in our team. But, Hughes seems to think otherwise so, again, let's wait and see. It would probably be better to revisit this thread in a month or two, when we'll have seen a bit more of our new players.

Are you saying this man doesn't know what he's talking about? https://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/southampton/news/reed-southampton-have-best-midfield-in-pl_276561.html

To be fair, most bookies already have us at 7/2 to be relegated. If we fail to beat Leicester, those odds are going to shorten further. The range most bookies and pundits expect us to fall into this season is lower mid table to bottom 3. Judging from the posts on here so far this season, it seems that nearly all of us would be pleasantly surprised if we did any better than that. Let's hope that we beat Leicester and have some real cause for optimism.

Obviously, it's too soon to judge the whole season but we looked better in our first two games last season and certainly no worse than we have in the first 2 games this season. We totally dominated Swansea in our opening game, which ended in a scoreless draw, and then we had an entertaining 3-2 win v West Ham. This season, most pundits agree that Burnley and Everton were better than us in our opening games and that they had the majority of play and shots on target. The addition of Ings has given us a much needed goal scorer but we have lost our most creative midfielder, Tadic, who was also our joint top goal scorer last season. Our manager still doesn't seem to be any closer to knowing what his best team is. Let's hope he learns that before the Leicester game and that we actually do look better in that one.

I really rate Ings. He is already our best striker. But, a combination of Ings and Rodriguez could work very well. There is always the January transfer window. And then there is that other Saints/Burnley player, Cork. He has scored 2 winning goals in Europe already. But, there is no way Burnley would sell him.

The 5 points we picked up in our first three games last season proved absolutely crucial. Like last season, we have a relatively easy start to the season, not having to play any of the big 6. Fixtures will get much more difficult than this and points will be harder to come by. So, you are right, a home win v a weakened Leicester team is vital.

Did anybody ask him why he didn't retire when he reached the retirement age of 65? Wether you think what he did in the past was good or bad or a mixture of both, in the last couple of years he has appeared physically and mentally tired and his decison making has been poor. He's not going to get any better in his late 60s. So, why does he keep hanging on to the detriment of the club?

Paul Mitchell to become the new Director of Football at Manchester United? https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/7016606/manchester-united-director-of-football-mitchell-van-der-sar/

Christoph Klarer was our most dominant defender and as he was the youngest player in the team, he looks a very good prospect and I think he's going to make it all the way to the first team. Valery is a decent player but he's a bit error-prone defensively.

Klarer looks a very good prospect. The big Austrian central defender only just turned 18 in June but he is already one of the stars of Saints U23 team so far this season and gave a really dominant display in the Premier League International Cup win v Dinamo Zagreb. It's early days yet but I think he's going to make it all the way to the first team.

It's still a massive improvement on the decades when the league was dominated by just 1 or 2 clubs, Liverpool 70s/80s and Man United 90s, like most European leagues still are. So, can people please stop whingeing about it and celebrate the times when unfashionable clubs like Leicester and Saints upset the big boys.

I try to be at Wembley when Saints players make their England debuts and so was there that night. Before the game, watching all the Scots coming up Wembley Way, it looked like it was going to be like the games in the 70s, but inside, the Scots were confined to one corner so the celebrations from the England crowd when Rickie scored were tremendous. Fans were still singing his name when they poured out of the exits at the end. He was popular with fans of all clubs. This was pretty special too. Channon always turned it on against the Scots:

Everton were one of the 6 teams we beat in the league last season. In fact, we beat them at home and drew at Goodison. Of the other 5 teams we beat, 2, West Brom and Swansea, have been relegated. That leaves only Everton, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and West Ham as teams we managed to beat last season. So, how we perform against Everton might give us some indication of whether we are going to match or even improve on the number of wins we had last season. As we drew up there at the end of last season and were unlucky not to win, and most fans on here feel we have strengthened our squad considerably in the summer, a draw would be reasonable.

Vestergaard looked far better than he's looked in any of the pre-season games, which came as a pleasant surprise. He really was commanding in the air and blocked and tackled well. He still pushed players over on a couple of occasions, conceding free-kicks but apart from that, you really couldn't fault him. However, he was up against one of the slowest and most ineffective attacks in the league. Burnley scored even fewer goals than we did last season, and their big, lumbering forwards, Wood and Vokes, were ideal for someeone like Vestergaard to deal with with. What concerned me during the pre-season games, was that Vestergaard looked unable to cope with fast forwards running into the penalty area. So, let's see how he copes against Everton, who will present much more of a challenge than Burnley did.

I thought the same. Ings made it look like some of our other players were playing in slow motion. Coming on as a sub may have had something to do with that, because Elyounoussi also looked sharp, but Ings appeared to have the quickest feet out there.

An exciting debut by Danny Ings. He looked very sharp and did everything but score. He showed the ability to control the ball at speed and we've lacked someone who could do that since we sold Mane. I look forward to seeing a lot more of him this season.

If he's done the full Liverpool pre-season, he'll be the fittest player we've got.