Useful Idiot

Redmond isn't that fast, I'd say he was about average for a premier league footballer, but he has a great change of pace. It's one of the reasons that he stands defenders up then bursts past them, he hasn't got the raw pace to take them on in a sprint.

Stupid to vacate the midfield and give Everton the early advantage. Austin offers nothing as a starter away from home. Ings looked good. Shane Long has no technical ability. I lost count of how many times both Stephens and Hoedt were facing away from our goal and caught by a ball over the top instead of being on the half turn. Going 4 up top completely wrecked the balance of the team. Overall, we need to play 3 in central midfield to get a toehold in games instead of gifting the opposition a head start. 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1, 5-3-2 or 3-4-1-1. I don't care, anything to get some kind of control in the centre of the park. We can't expect to get any sort of control in a match until we try to win the midfield. both 4-4-2 and 3-4-3 leave us too open.

Brilliant by Hughes to vacate the midfield 2 weeks in a row! I think 2 central midfielders is certainly the way forward. This 4 at the back looks so much better than the 3 did last week! Nothing to do with the midfield being outnumbered in both games at all.

Nice to see this 4-4-2 formation working well!

The Real Madrid youngster wasn't able to sign yet due to not being old enough yet. I assume this is a similar case

This. The other two ways to get it to work are to have a midfield box or a diamond. Wales used to play a 3-6-1/5-4-1 with four narrow midfielders who allowed the ball to be played out wide as they were confident in their ability to deal with crosses. With Vestergaard in the team we could probably do something similar. ----------------GK---------------- ------CB-------CB-------CB------- WB-------DM-------DM--------WB --------AM------------AM-------- ---------------ST---------------- Wing backs drop in when defending. We played a flat 4 in midfield when out of possession which allowed us to be outnumbered in central midfield. We needed one of Redmond or Armstrong to stay narrow then the ball was on the other side of the pitch to keep the numbers through the middle. As they were covering wide it meant that A) we couldn't press effectively as it left too many gaps and B) we couldn't cut passing lines as we only had Lemina and Romeu covering them. This gave Burnley the freedom of the pitch. Our system basically had all of the negatives of a 4-4-2 but without an additional striker to put pressure on their defence. It's not the back 3 that was the issue, it was the way the midfield operated.

I think the problem was more in the midfield sytem in front of the back 5 rather than the defence. I think we can play 3 CBs, I just don't think we can play with two CMs when we do. We need 3 in there, maybe Hoj, Rom, Lemina or something, otherwise we leave too many gaps and can't put pressure on the ball, either.

I hate Burnley. Every time I watch them, I dislike them more. Dirty bunch of diving, fouling cheats. Barnes is loathsome and a blight on football. Vokes should have been sent off for intentionally elbowing Vestergard. Ings should have had a penalty, also there should possibly have been another for Austin from Mee trying to pull his shirt off during a corner. I really hope VAR gets introduced soon so their cheap, disgraceful antics can be stamped out. Disgusting team. After switching to get more players central I think we played pretty well and looked dangerous as we were better able to put pressure on the ball. When we played 5-4-1 we didn't have the players in the right place to do that and we were too easy to play against. Ings looked lively and was denied a clear penalty. Gabbi looked pretty sharp, Lemina, Vestergard, Redmond, Armstrong, Moi and Bertrand were all good, too. Stephens looked OK at right back, Hoedt made three very bad mistakes, Cedric and Austin completely anonymous. Romeu not quite at his best. McCarthy was probably our best player and made some excellent saves. Overall, on the balance of the match, a draw was probably a pretty fair result, although we should have had at least one penalty. I still hate Burnley.

Lemina has been pretty good. Arguably our best player at passing the ball forward. I'm not keen on the 5-4-1/3-4-3 formation, though. I'd prefer to see a diamond midfield or two strikers with an attacking midfielder behind them. I think either of the two would give Burnley more to worry about and allow us some control in the centre. I think we can afford to sacrifice a bit of wide cover when we have a 6'7" defender to nod the ball away.

That midfield looks like it is missing someone who will stick their foot in to win the ball. Slattery and Smallbone have both looked more like forward thinking CMs than holding midfielders when I've watched them play before.

I probably worded that wrong. What i meant was this: --------CB----CB----CB------- WB---------Romeu-----------WB -----Hoj/Lem-----Armstrong----- ---------Redmond/Moi---------- --------Austin/Gabbi-----------

I don't think we have the right CB or midfield options to play 4 at the back. Hoj + Lemina is not a good midfield base, neither are naturally defensive enough. That's the main reason why we were comfortably beaten today. Romeu has to be in there to sit, probably with Armstrong and one of the one of the other two playing as box to box central midfielders. I'd prefer that we played one of Gabbi and Austin from the start of a match, then go for either Redmond or Elyounoussi off the main striker in a similar fashion to the way England employed Sterling at the world cup. We need to be able to control the midfield much better than we have managed up until now.

Keystone cops at the back again!

I don't think Cedric will be ready to start, maybe Targett could instead? I'm not sure Yoshida will be match sharp, either... we could see Bednarek or Stephens in instead. I'd also have Hoedt on the other side of the back 3, but apart from that I think the lineup looks quite likely.

Don't be silly, getting more games for your players just means that they understand each other's game better. Squad rotation is for the weak!

All we need to do then is sign Messi, Kane, Godin, Modric and Kante to go along with Lucas. They're about as realistic as far as options go.

Good finish that.

The outcome was pretty good, especially the feeling I had after we beat Swansea. The performances were, in the most part, pretty dire. Especially during the first half of the season. It's a bit of a different situation though, really. Staying up after getting promoted twice consecutively while the squad still retains players that were with us in the Championship and League 1 and generally playing good stuff while we did it = good. Almost falling out the league with players who have cost ridiculous sums of money and playing like a toothless pub side for over half a season= not good.

We didn't get relegated, I think that was doing quite well!

When Fulham went down, their squad was aging dross. Spending time clearing out the rubbish and then buying quality when promoted back into the Premier League is pretty much what we did, too. They also have a good manager and play nice football. I expect they'll do quite well this year.

Depends upon how you interpret quantum theory, really. I mean, if each action could possibly spring a new universe into being with equal probability, then the version of your consciousness that exists in the universe where Southampton win the league every year is probably pretty lucky in comparison to those versions of you that exist reading this message.

It's a pre-season game, so I expect a certain degree of crapness but we are managing to make Derby look like Barca.

I wouldn't bother. We are utter turd.

I doubt it's 4 at the back. More likely a back 3 of Stephens, Hoedt, Bertrand and JWP and Targett as wing backs. 2 CM Redmond and Moi as inside forwards and Austin up top with those two joining him. Could possibly be Austing and Redmond up top, and Moi in behind them, though. Could even defend as a 5-4-1 and attack as a 3-5-2/3-4-3 depending on how the front three exchange positions.