qwertyell

Fantastic is pushing it, but Redmond definitely upped his game in the second half, along with the rest of the team. Will he be as proactive and direct at Stoke, or revert back to his usual safety-first, responsibility-shifting self?

Cedric allowing Young to do what he always does and cut into his right foot and cross. Lukaku bullies Hoedt and scores on the rebound. Poor goal all round. Pretty basic. No magic required. Going to be a long afternoon, I think.

The type of man that doesn't voluntarily send himself off when the referee sanctions him with only a booking for a professional foul? What a monster. Surprised he wasn't charged with a war crime.

I think that's a fair summary - we were much better than against Watford, but there was little about the performance to reassure that we're turning things around. We were playing the worst team in the league, who haven't scored a single goal, dominated possession, and STILL looked less threatening than them. The fact is, on clear chances created, Palace should've won 2-1. Forster pulled out two excellent stops to earn us a much needed result. The defence was solid, well shielded by Lemina, who had a great game, and Romeu, who still isn't playing anything like as well as he did last season. Davis did his thing, and generally we were comfortable in the middle of the park, save for about 10 minutes at the start of the second half when Palace upped the intensity and pressed enthusiastically and we - as usual - went into a bit of a flap. But there were no encouraging signs of progress in attack. Long buzzed around - although I didn't feel like he pressed anywhere near as much as usual - and provided zero goal threat. Tadic did well in the build up to Davis' goal, but that was his one positive contribution all afternoon. And Redmond was absolutely dreadful. We had so many chances to counter attack - particularly in the second half as Palace pushed for an equaliser - but were consistently scuppered by Redmond's cowardice, his refusal to take responsibility and attack the wide open spaces in front of him when he could slow down, stop, turn back and pass the ball safely to someone else while he slunk off to hide again like the useless chicken crap he is. I mean, what is the point in him if he's not prepared to run with the ball? He wasn't up against Paulo Maldini - Joel Ward is about as limited a full back as he'll face in the Premier League. Yet he didn't test him once. He didn't do anything aside from ineptly fall over whilst trying to pass backwards instead of driving forwards, yielding the possession that led to Benteke's great chance. We picked Long, presumably for his pace on the counter attack, yet failed to have any counter attacks of note. It was as if everyone immediately lost confidence the second they crossed the halfway line and instead settled for ball retention over trying to score. Perhaps that came from the manager's tactical instructions, in which case we might as well have kept Puel. Anyhow, a win's a win, and beating a team who might turn out to be rival over the course of the season if we don't get our act together is no bad thing. Lemina, Hoedt and Forster did really well. I just don't see how we're going to start scoring again. There's nothing there, no hints of improvement to feel optimistic about, no impression that the manager has a cunning plan up his sleeve that just needs fine tuning - the poor St Mary's punters aren't going to get a whole lot to cheer about anytime soon, in my opinion.

It's coming... We haven't turned up in the second half.

Dominated without looking overly threatening - haven't used Long's pace enough; frankly our counter attacking has been nonexistent. Too many times the likes of Redmond slow the play, turn back on themselves and then pass backwards. We need to turn our possession into another goal - we've got a defensive wobble in us that'll give Palace a chance. Still, we're winning a game of football having scored an actual goal, so be grateful for small mercies. Hoedt's distribution has been superb.

On the bench for a crap Championship club.

Our players literally had to be shown the way to goal. Like, with a map and pointing. I imagine it was some vain attempt at overcoming the psychological hurdle of 9 blanks in 10 home matches (or whatever it is) by scoring for fun at St Mary's against our hopeless keepers. Or maybe Staplewood was being renovated with diamonds and gold and booster seats in preparation for the triumphant return of Glorious Leader Cortese...

Aside from no pace, no strength, an inability to tackle or head or defend in any demonstrable way, he's pretty much the definition of the perfect right back.

I don't think Sakho is expected to be fit for a while yet after his bad knee injury last season. Could be wrong. The rest of your post sounds plausible.

I notice Harrison Reed and Ryan Seager have already been dropped to the bench for their respective lower league loan clubs. Only one academy player called up to the England age groups for the last international period. It seems like decline has set in right through the club on the football side. I'm sure it's not as melodramatic as that, but the sign aren't encouraging.

Did we? The fact our comprehensive, black box-driven manager search seemingly came down to a choice between two managers whose teams have so far failed to score in a combined seven out of eight matches, suggests we've hardly played a blinder. Might've dodged a bullet but slipped off the cliff in the process...

There's not a lot worth choosing from, frankly, and the fact that we're having to pin our hopes on Shane Long somehow being the answer shows how desperate things have become. All the manager can do with the limited tools at his disposal is keep trying to find the right blend. I'm not sure there is one with this squad of players, but here's a few suggestions. 1: We have a chronic lack of pace and physical presence, so let's go with our quickest, most direct attackers, gunk up the middle of the park with some man meat - one of the centre backs can step in there to add another body as and when required. And probably drop Bertrand because we can't carry anyone who doesn't give a crap (it remains to be seen what Van Dijk's demeanor will be), and a converted winger like McQueen would be the more attacking choice at wingback. We might be solid out of possession and decent on the break. Might be... 2: A more traditional "Southampton Way" XI of arguably our best players in their best positions. Simple square pegs in square holes theory. But is it effective? Romeu holds, everyone else bombs forward to support the striker. 3: Once we're relegated by February, we can use the rest of the fixtures to bed in a young XI in preparation for our assault on the Championship with the dregs of whatever's left of the squad. In truth, what we're desperately short of is confidence - and no amount of tactical tinkering can solve that. Just one solid win, with a few goals from open play and some decent chances created would make a huge difference to our play. We're not as atrocious as yesterday's clueless performance. We're just mentally shot to pieces from endless Southampton-nils.

That was absolutely pathetic. Outplayed in every conceivable way. Somehow we've contrived to have no midfield AND no attack - where are the players hiding? Gabbiadini, Ward-Prowse and Boufal must've touched the ball five times between them all game. Chalobah and Doucoure are walking all over us. Quicker, stronger, more purposeful - frankly, better. What happened to the high press? What happened to the industrious hard work? What happened to attacking football? Wasn't that what we were promised when Pellegrino was brought in? Just PR fluff to try and deflect from our failure to get Marco Silva? Who knows, but this is garbage. ZERO shots. At home. Against fricking Watford. We're in big trouble this season, make no mistake.

Watford dominating the midfield. Quicker, stronger, more purpose. They look the most likely. The Romeu Davis axis has never been convincing, and the early signs today aren't promising. Boufal invisible so far.

So are we trying to stockpile left backs for a reason? If this deal had come off we'd have had Bertrand, McQueen, Targett, this fella, Wood, and Vokins off the top of my head.

It's okay, he'll slowly shuffle back and forth three or four times, giving the manager plenty of time to prepare for the onslaught, before meekly delivering less a strop more a whispered grumble, that comes to nothing and will be everyone else's fault.

So, asthmatic walking pace on both wings? How ever will their full backs cope with such thrilling dynamism? Presumably just by standing still. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

An absolute masterclass in choosing exactly the wrong decision every single time. He's richer and has poncier hair and more Instagram followers, but has otherwise not developed one iota in the six years since leaving us as a promising League One player. Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Boufal played a game for the U23s last season and was the worst player on the park. His attitude was terrible - didn't want to be there - he lost the ball every time it came near him, and was in danger of getting himself sent off after getting embroiled in a running feud with some kid or other. The coach dragged him off at halftime, and I don't think he's turned out for them since. And that's the trouble with Boufal. On top of being unable to play for the team, he's temperamentally flawed - I think he got something like four red cards in his last season for Lille. Far from convinced this investment in the new Adel Taarabt is going to pay off.

Lemina seems a good fit in midfield. I've no idea if Hoedt is any good or not. Preventing another mass exodus of our best players has to be considered a positive - tempered by the the fact that our steady downgrading process over the years has left us with very few players these days that are worth coveting. Holding onto Van Dijk might be nothing more than a pyrrhic victory if he sulks all the way to January and leaves for less than we could've gotten this week. In my opinion our weakest area last season was all in the final third. And not only have we done sweet FA to strengthen it, by selling Rodriguez and loaning out Gallagher, allied to a long term injury to Sims, we actually have less options now than we did at the beginning of the window. So I can't say it's been a good transfer window, because I don't see how we're going to score enough goals with the tools at our disposal that proved utterly inadequate last season and have shown no flickers of encouragement that things will be any different in the early stages of this campaign. Generally, I feel like contract extensions for Forster and Yoshida coupled with the refusal to address our attacking impotency seems more like a commitment to mediocrity and standing still than any sense of the club pushing to improve and demonstrate some ambition.

Wouldn't be cheeky so much as pointless, as our window for incoming transfers is closed until January.

It's just going to rumble on all the way through to the January circus when he'll probably pull the same crap to try and escape. Hope I'm wrong, but I think this suffocating cloud of negativity surrounding Van Dijk will hang over the club all season.

Maybe the bellend Twitter warriors who've spent all summer engaging with their Scouse counterparts will be a laughing stock, but I doubt anyone else in the footballing world will care any more than the numerous other times we've caved over transfers. They'll shrug their shoulders, concede that we probably didn't have much choice, and say we got paid well over the odds - and then get on with their lives.

He's totally deluded. He wants to join someone who'll let him play in his self-declared "best position" in central midfield (disregarding the fact that he can't pass, tackle and has no interest in defensive duties). Chelsea want him as a wing back. But he's not going to get in the Liverpool midfield either. The only club gullible enough to give him a regular gig in the middle of the park is the one he's at now. Yet even Arsenal, who play right backs at left back and left backs at centre back and strikers as wingers, think it's a bit risky to play him in midfield. Even Arsenal. If he was serious about his development, he'd lower his sights and join a club more befitting his current ability, where he might be able to develop, but he thought 30 games in League One made him a Champions League player, so I'm not sure humility is his strong suit. Wasting his career. Made some money, got plenty of Instagram followers and sparkly earrings, but has barely made any progress as a player in the six/seven years since he left us.