striker

Does Austins goals count only .5 since he's too slow? Now 25 goals in 49 PL matches.

Austin has 24 PL goals in 49 PL games. But he's too slow to play for us.

Lets keep everything exactly the same because its working so well [sarcasm off] We need changes, this way is proven to get us no where. Forster Cedric-Hoedt-VVD-Yoshida-Bertrand Tadic-Boufal-Redmond Austin-Gabbi

I think we should use the same formation with the same players again. Why screw up such a good thing?

The team was noticeably better under Puel, even with all the extra international matches.

Did we go 2 upfront, or did we just reschuffle the deck chairs?

Long working on game 31 in a row without a goal, yet he is our lone striker

Why do we continue to trot out the same formation with the same player makeup? It doesn't work with us. Just continually doing it expecting a different result is madness. Play 2 or 3 upfront, who cares if we get a little weaker in the back maybe we'll actually be on the front foot then. It will also change the way the opponent needs to attack us and defend us. Whats the downside, we lose 2-0 again? At least we tried something different. I'd play Gabbi and Austin upfront, Long offers nothing. If we don't score we can't win.

Don't worry, our vaunted 4-5-1 with goal machine Long upfront will kick in soon.

I like how Hoedt was spending more time waving at the ref than trying to defend. Very nice

Man, why can't we get managers like Koeman or Puel here?

Say what you will but Austin has more PL goals than anyone on our squad currently, its something like 25. Someone would want him, especially if they play 2 or 3 upfront. The end result is that the guy can score in the PL, and score boatloads in the Championship. To ignore this isn't fair.

The fact is we can't score goals. If we don't score we don't win. We have 2 guys on this team who have proven they can score, Gabbi and Austin. They both need to be in the line-up. If this means a formation change then so be it, the current 4-5-1 isn't doing us any good anyway. I also don't understand some people constantly down on Austin. Last year in the first half he had 9 goals (in all leagues), we'd kill for someone with 9 goals right now. Then he got hurt, now he gets 10 minutes per match. You can't judge a player getting 10 minutes per match. What did you all think when he was scoring a goal every 1.5 games last season? The emphasis some here put on pace is over the top, he's fast enough and he makes good runs. If pace is your number one objective you end up with what we have, ball possession without anything coming from it. We have pace where we need it, we need people who are top around the goal to score and create assists (and yes to scramble in some ugly goals too). Finally who cares if it comes from pens? With him in we were attacking the goal more and got pens. We've also seen that scoring on pens isn't a gimme (just ask Tadic), so why slog him about this?

Didn't see it posted, so in case anyone is interested. Says that Austin and Hojbjerg looked good, but obviously the players who are on International squads weren't there. Looks like we could be very competitive if we drop to the Championship https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/news/46899/

I'm not sure MoPe would even want a central striker. IMO he seems to want 10 midfielders running around really fast passing the ball back and forth.

In any sport, I always laugh at managers who think the team is doing well but losing regularly. The goal is to win. It doesn't matter how the squad looks, what formation it plays, etc. Everyone is paid to win. The top managers know this and develop tactics to win with their players. A famous American Football coach named Bill Parcells said, "You are what your record says you are". This is brilliant. It cuts through all the bull. No more of the "well we have no points but we are playing well" crap. It you are winning and compiling points good, if not you are not playing well. Period.

Ok since most people so far are agreeing with you I'll bite here. Why are we better? Because we complete a lot of possession time and passes in a meaningless part of the pitch that Burnley is more than happy to let us play in by ourselves? Why does any of this matter if we never score ( and we don't in many games now)? The fact is that teams let us play with ourselves around midfield all game long, it makes life on the defense easy. We rarely put any pressure on the defenders. The 4-5-1, with our players, just controls possession, we don't have the midfield attackers to bring it forward. We would be better served going 2 or 3 upfront. We have to score. Looking good, getting lots of possession, completing lots of meaningless passes, doesn't mean anything and teams like Burnley are more than happy to let us do it. We need to score period. We need to attack, in a different formation, and put some pressure on the back 4.

I'm shocked MP liked the way we played. Burnley let us do what we did, it was part of their game plan. Why do we think having 65% possession time when its all in the defensive and midfield is good? All it does is make it easy on the opponent. We need to be attacking, even if it means go to an attack which just sends cross after cross into the box. At least the defense will need to be on their toes. Right now it takes us 15 passes to get into the position to maybe shoot.

Even the commentator today said replacing Puel with MP made no sense, might have well have kept Puel. My biggest issue is the stubbornness. Same thing every day. It will work, it will work, its my way it will work. Guess what it doesn't. Good managers adapt and create tactics that fit the squad, not visa versa.

To play a 4-5-1 you need attacking mids, which we don't have. Without that its a very defensive, time wasting formation. We need to go to 2 or 3 upfront. Gabbi, Austin, and if 2 then Long. Boufal needs to be out there also. The rest who cares. We need to score goals, no goals and no wins. It doesn't matter how much pace we have, how much possession we have, etc. If we don't score it doesn't matter. Also this pace issue with Austin is sos overblown on this forum. He makes good runs and puts the ball on net. He was plenty "pacy" enough to score lots of PL goals, including being our top scorer for the 1st half of last season. Doing nothing, which means doing the same, is idiotic. It doesn't work with the current make-up of the squad.

Looking much better in a 4-4-2

Even the commentator is saying we should go 2 upfront.

In fact I may bring long on and try 3 up there.

I'd have left Gabbi on and went 2 upfront.

Something needs to change. The tactics, formations, etc, it just doesn't work with what we have. We are way, way to easy to defend. Every squad does the same thing. Pull back, let us pass it all around far away from the goal, and then make us drive in. They have no fear of crosses because we can't get on the end of them. They have no fear of us beating them 1-on-1, because Boufal is the only one who may be able to do that. We need 15 passes to get around the box to try and score. There really isn't one player who causes the defenders any problems outside of maybe Boufal and Gabbi (throw Austin in there but he's always on the bench).They just wait and then counter at the proper time for a goal or two.