Nordic Saint

Although he was only a 2nd half sub, Yoshida was our best player today and is clearly the best central defender in our squad now. Pity we couldn't have got Ben Gibson to partner him. I think a back 2 of Yoshida and Gibson would cover as much ground and be more effective defence than a back 3 of Vestergaard, Hoedt and Bednarek.

Yes, he is and when he came on his pace transformed our defence. Before that, Borussia were outpacing our central defenders with such ease that it must have been embarrassing for whoever persuaded the club to spend so much money on Hoedt, Bednarek and Vestergaard: presumably our head of recruitment, Ross Wilson.

They lost their last game 1-0 to FC Ingolsdadt. They are an average Bundesliga team, no more, no less. They are not rich and have few top class internationals in their squad. A couple of their players today were English youngsters. I must admit though, that although their players didn't cost as much, they were better than ours in nearly every position and, as a team, clearly much better coached. But, although they are by no means superstars, how we could do with players like Jonas Hofmann Patrick Herrmann and Denis Zakaria who together cost lees than we paid for Carrillo or Hoedt or Vestergaard. A back three of Hoedt, Vestergaard and Bednarek has the ability to make any opposition attack look brilliant. It was noticeable that when Yoshida and Stephens came on, we started to look as good as Borussia, although still lacking a goal scorer up front. Perhaps if they had started, we might even have scraped a draw.

Lander Sports Development's share price fell another 4.53 % today. Ir's now fallen from a high of 21.87 yuan 3 years ago to 8.92 yuan 1 year ago to 3.37 yuan today. If it keeps falling like this, it will soon be practically worthless.

Yes, a few of our players looked stronger, more confident and more effective than before, including Ward-Prowse, Stephens and Targett.

Yes, we looked a much better team in the 2nd half. The substitutes certainly made a difference. Good to see Charlie Austin scoring again. Targett was a revelation. His loan spell at Fulham has certainly done him a lot of good. Armstrong looks useful too. Some promising signs there.

We seem to be missing a central defence. Hoedt just wanders around aimlessly and is of little use for anything whilst Vestergaard is a big unit who can knock players over but has little real effect defensively when forwards run into the penalty area, where knocking them over would just give away penalties. On this pre-season evidence, top Premier League teams would just waltz straight through them and score 4-6 goals. Of course, it is just pre-season so maybe they will look better when the league season starts and anyway it's highly unlikely that Hughes would start them both for league games. Yoshida has to be first choice but it's difficult to see who will partner him. And we still need a reliable goal scorer up front.

The theme tune from Steptoe & Son.

Excellent 2nd goal from Obfemi. As the commentator said, "Fine finish there and that may well be Southampton's name on the trophy!" This Saints team really has looked excellent: strong, fast and skilful. In contrast, Marseille have just looked dirty.

Saints looking good. Very impressed by our Austrian central defender, Christoph Klarer. He looks a great prospect.

Yes, it is the same. Lewis Hamlton would still win as he is the best driver, which is why the top teams wanted him. It's the same for the best managers and players in football. Worse ones end up with worse teams.

I remember being at Wembley to see England beat France 2-0 in 2015, when they had Manchester United's Schneiderlin in their team. He was never a top international player and wouldn't have been good enough for their current team, whichever club he played for. If he'd been good enough to keep his place at Manchester United, he might have been good enough to keep his place for France but he wasn't.

He's 34 and been playing professional football for 16 years. It's about the time that many players retire. H's had a successful career, playing more than 500 games in England & Portugal and 35 for his country, as well as winning a European Championship. He might make a good coach. Good luck to him. I remember being sad to see Terry Paine's career ending at Hereford and Cheltenham. At least he didn't go to Portsmouth, like C.B. Fry, Ivan Golac, Bobby Stokes, Mick Channon and Ron Davies did. Although, I was unhappy at the time to see Lambert and Fonte sold, it looks like we sold them at the right time. There's little sentiment shown by clubs to ageing footballers and they know it. I don't understand why some fans expect it back from the players.

Ings had an 18-month purple patch, which ended three and a half years ago in February 2015. Apart from that, he's never been much of a goal scorer throughout his career, either before or after that spell. He might be worth giving a trial on loan but no way should we risk 20 million on him. We need a goal scorer. Just look at his record: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Ings

He's probably been applying for jobs for years and not getting them. That's why I can't see how the club can get rid of him that way. Surely, if they don't have the heart to sack him, he should be encouraged to retire?

Isaac Mbenza?

The negative PR 'leaks' which emanate from the club about a player before he is sold leave a bad taste in the mouth and stir up a lot of bad feeling and even hatred of ex-players who served us well for many years. It would be preferable if there was just a dignified silence. Was the way that Keegan or Channon left really any different to how recent players have left? But, we still have our good memories of them.

We need a striker who is super fit, lightning fast and capable of scoring at least 10 goals a season. They don't come cheap. Probably a relatively unknown youngster from one of Europe's lesser leagues, like Mane was, would be our best way to find one we could actually afford. This is where our head of recruitment, Ross Wilson, and his scouting network need to prove their worth. The fact they couldn't spot that Carrillo was a donkey is a bit of a concern. But, hopefully, they'll get this one right.

I am pleased to see that the club is making a real effort to overhaul a squad which simply wasn't good enough last season, especially through the spine of the team. A real goalscoring striker to replace Carrillo is the priority now. I look forward to seeing the new players in action in the first few games. I hope they bring some pace to our attack and that we can also defend against it because, as we have seen in the World Cup, fast counterattacks are very much in vogue with coaches now and I expect to see a lot of them in the Pemier League this season.

More than anything, we needed Bertrand instead of Young tonight.

If we lose to Belgium again, we'll finish the tournament with 3 defeats. But, you're right, we've done well to reach the semi-finals.

Looking on the bright side, today Saints beat a team from a city which has a population more than twice the size of Croatia's. Bring on Celta Vigo and Borussia Mönchengladbach!

Very good signing. He was excellent for Norwich last season.

It wasn't so long ago that we were being told about Carrillo's brilliant goal scoring stats.

Reading their fan forums, it seems they'd like Benedikt Höwedes brought in as a replacement. He would have been ideal for us too, although at 30, not the sort of player we usually buy. They have some good things to say about Vestergaard. Their forums certainly aren't full of good riddance and laughing all the way to the bank messages like the Celtic forums were when they sold Hooiveld or the Monaco ones when they sold Carrillo. He's a trier, a good offensive header (although not such a good defensive one) and he plays good, long forward passes. From what I've seen of him on videos, his lack of pace is a real cause for concern. Also, perhaps because he is so tall, and doesn't need to, he's not very good at jumping. They say that he is slow off the mark and has poor positional sense but overall they feel he suited their team. But, they also note that they had one of the worst defences in the Bundesliga last season so they can understand why something had to change. Whether such a slow defender can survive in the Premier League will depend on the partnership he forms. Yoshida is the only central defender we've got with enough pace to cover for him so that's probably who he'd play best alongside.