qwertyell

Well, Fulham turned down £25m from Spurs in the summer, so a) he'll cost more than we can scrape together and b) he'll know he has much better options than joining us. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

What is most depressing is that we've sold so much talent, with the promise that all the funds will be reinvested, and THIS is the squad we've ended up with after peeing all that money up the wall. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

I can certainly believe some of our tactics have been pulled out of Eric Black's box. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

"Set piece specialist Ward-Prowse"-watch: 71st minute. Men against boys here. Prime steak verses something that probably isn't even food. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

I think it's fair to say Liverpool are a bit better than us. Their attack is Salah, Mane, Firmino and Coutinho. Our is, uh, Shane Long. Both goals pretty soft. Tadic predictably dawdling on the ball, and Forster predictably beaten from outside the area not moving his feet. The second goal was poor from everyone. Coutinho had all day to pick a pass in behind, Van Dijk for some reason was five yards ahead of the defensive line, Hoedt had no idea where Salah was, Bertrand couldn't be bothered tracking the inside run. All very routine for Liverpool, unfortunately. We have no goal threat, the Romeu-Davis midfield axis is continually overrun (as it is every time they're paired) and concede very soft goals. This game's over. By Christmas our Premier League status could be headed the same way. There's no obvious thin sliver of hope to even cling to. Unless Josh Sims is going to come back from injury as Leo Messi. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

**** Advocaat resigns as Holland boss. I wonder if Ronald has played a blinder and gotten a fat pay off to leave a job he never really wanted, only to walk into one of his two stated "dream" appointments a few short weeks later? Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

He looks slow and out of shape. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

I don't see us making 40 points, so survival is going to come down to how poor everyone else is in comparison. I think all three promoted sides will stay up, so there's going to be some "established" names falling through the trapdoor this season - Saints' mixture of self-important prima donnas, arm-waving, shoulder-shrugging lack of fight, and general lethargy is not exactly well suited to a successful relegation battle. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Quite similar in style and build to Gabbiadini - and injury prone to boot. Not sure this story rings true. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

If nothing else, he's certainly prettier than Forster. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Well, we can't change the players for at least another two months, so the only other meaningful change we can make until then is the manager. It's not going to get better. He hasn't shown even the merest inkling of having any answers to our myriad of deficiencies. Another couple of months of this and we'll reach the new year in the bottom five - or worse. Time for the new owner to step up and take charge of the grim direction his investment is headed in. The whole set-up needs a complete overhaul. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

The most predictable h/t 0-0 in history - anti-football Vs timid-ball. Credit to Redmond. Worst player on the pitch for 20 minutes, but at least kept his head up and kept trying - and finished the half looking like our most likely attacking option. Tadic invisible again. Cedric poor. Going to need some Boufal magic or it'll be another blank, I'm afraid. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Yes, most players who do their ACL rarely return at the same physical level. Walcott's game is so one-dimensionally reliant on pace that his game has clearly dropped off since his knee injury. Frankly, I don't see the point in selling Rodriguez because he wasn't the player he was pre-injury and then signing Walcott for more money when he too is a lesser version of himself - for the exact same reason. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

MLT on Sky complaining about how boring Saints were at the weekend, passing side to side instead of attacking. Says Gabbiadini makes amazing runs but it's a total waste of time as no-one will pass the ball forwards. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Another listless performance with no attacking threat, no sense of urgency and no impression that the new manager has the slightest idea how to get the best out of his squad. When is the time to panic? That's all three promoted teams played now and we haven't beaten any of them. Scraping together a minimal amount of points against one of the easiest opening 10 games we'll ever have is going to be put into stark, bleak context by the time all the decent teams have met us, I fear. Forster - 4. Worst keeper in the league on current form. Seven year contract extension incoming... Cedric - 5. Can't help being short, but the frequency with which opponents are standing the ball up to the far post for an easy towering header over Cedric's non-challenge is a serious problem. Bertrand - 5. Phoning it in. Van Dijk - 5. See Bertrand. Hoedt - 5. Knock a point off for whinging about not playing and then being bang average when he does. Romeu - 5. Is he just not good anymore? Davis - 6. Davis-y. Ward-Prowse - 4. Takes a decent set-piece. And there begins and ends all of his attributes of any worth. Anonymous in open play. Boufal - 6. Some flicks, some tricks, some flailing around. Not great. Tadic - 5. Nothing much. Again. Gabbiadini - 4. Might as well have not played a striker if we had no plans to attack. Must've really relished having to contest aimless 70 yards hoofs with two 6' 4" centre backs and no support within the same county. Subs: nothing. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Jesus Christ, Forster is a liability. Has all the agility of a tree. Standing the ball up to the far post for the striker to easily beat Cedric in the air has been a fruitful opposition tactic for too long. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Successfully boring them to death so far. It'd be nice if we could give Gabbiadini some support and try for a second - I think we'll find it hard to get back on the front foot if we keep sitting deep and do concede an equaliser. Come on, Saints, show a bit of intent to take charge of this game. Passive football is rife with pitfalls. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Amazing how much weaker we'll be with just the loss of one midfielder. I think it's time Hojbjerg had another shot, but I suspect we'll get the much tried and failed trio of Romeu, Davis and Ward-Prowse instead. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Perhaps he didn't have any choice but to play "slow tempo" football with a squad full of one-paced sideways passers. It's not as though we've been rattling around at breakneck speed since Puel left - it's been more of the same: slow, ponderous, unimaginative. Good luck to him if he goes to Leicester. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

But a worldie for cement legs. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Yeah, that's the part making me uncomfortable. In theory our squad should be better than three other sides', but we're likely to hit the halfway point right in the mix for the relegation places, and who knows how we'll react to that. Character isn't one of the qualities I'd particularly rate among our team. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Doubt he gives a crap. Gets a fat pay off and can go and manage the Dutch national team now. All in all, a very lucrative 18 months. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

IMHO Forster - 5. Made a decent regulation save from a Chadli shot, but fumbled a couple of crosses badly and looked anything but secure. Cedric - 6. I feel like I've seen Cedric play the exact same game 50 times. Reasonably solid in defence? Check. Get into some good crossing positions? Check. Either shank every cross into the crowd or hit the first man? Check. Speculative 30 yard shot miles wide? Check. Yoshida - 6. Solid, didn't have much to do. Van Dijk - 7. Looked far more engaged today than he has since his reintroduction into civilised society. Bertrand - 7. Made more overlapping runs in one game than he has all season, for club and country combined. Romeu - 6. I don't think he's been particularly great so far this season, and finding himself often having to be the one to try and pick a pass through a packed defence was a bit beyond his limitations. Lemina - 8. Really is a quality all-round midfielder. Even if it is literally impossible to tell him (white hair) apart from Boufal (black hair)... Davis - 6. He is what he is: tidy, diligent, inoffensive and never in any danger of delivering the killer pass that opens up an opponent. Tadic - 6. Was he always this hesitant? Can't remember the last occasion when he actually made a pass or took a shot first time. Too many touches and then the chance is gone. Worked hard, though. Gabbiadini - 6. Great run to set up Long, but another game where he'll be left wondering when his teammates are going to create something for him. Long - 4. Pointless selection. Against a team defending so deep as to leave no space in behind, why would you pick a player down the middle whose only meaningful attribute is running into space behind? It meant he had to try and get involved in the build up play, which his embarrassing lack of technical ability couldn't cope with. Missed his one clear chance, naturally. Subs: Redmond - 7. Thought he did well. Was far more proactive than usual, receiving the ball on the half turn and driving forward. A marked contrast with the timid, buck-passing performances he's been giving for months. Boufal - 8. He's only scored three goals for us, and they've all been top banana. I thought he last few sub appearances had shown promise - and far more hunger than we'd previously seen - and expected him to start. Maybe he'll get a start next week... Austin - 6. Impossible chance at the end there. Beard's coming along well with winter on the horizon. It was a weird performance. Is spite of all the pre-match talk of playing quicker, we were still slow and ponderous in the first half. It was only after the break that we really got on the front foot. Tactically it was a strange set up. All the space was on the wings, but we didn't have any width at all. I'm not sure this match will act as a blueprint for how Pellegrino wants us to play, but a win's a win and very welcome - four points above the relegation zone now. Relief rather than joy. But that's only to be expected having had to endure 95 minutes of depressing Pulis-ball. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Worst keeper in the league. Total liability. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Not working, for me. We haven't got any width and are trying to play through the packed middle with non-creative players like Davis and Romeu, and looking for cute flicks and one-twos with the technical atrocity that is Shane Long. And STILL, in spite of all the pre-match talk of needing to play faster, we're at walking pace. WBA are one set-piece from nicking a 1-0. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk