qwertyell

If he needs minutes, he should play for the U23s. It's arrogant to think we're good enough to win games carrying an absolute passenger, which, sadly, Rodriguez is. It's been two and a half years since his knee injury - at what point do the club accept that he's just not able to play at anywhere near the required standard anymore, and merely blocking the path into the squad of a young up-and-comer? I'm gutted for him, but football isn't sentimental - the attacking options in our squad have been compromised by the club's misplaced faith in a player who is barely fit for purpose. We're a forward short. In my humble opinion.

Far better second half once the boys got a little fire in their bellies due to a criminally inept referee. Van Dijk was immense, good performances from McQueen, Ward-Prowse, Romeu, Yoshida. Think we're particularly light up front - sadly, Rodriguez is miles short of his pre-injury level; Redmond and Tadic blow very hot and cold. But a win's a win - and it's always a pleasure to watch the classless Italians go home empty handed in a flurry of pouty lips and flappy hands.

Pathetically weak referee. Won't do anything about the wrestling in the box during corners, completely bottled a clear sending off and lost control of Inter's blatant gamesmanship in holding up the penalty as long as possible. And on top of that, it was never a penalty in the first place. Tadic has always been an iffy penalty taker - no idea how he still gets the responsibility. Oh well, hopefully the end of the half will light a fire under the boys and make this a battle.

Romeu's having to shoulder the burden of the entire midfield, in defence and going forward, all on his own. Clasie looks miles out of his depth, Davis is off the pace. We've had a lot of possession, but moved the ball so slowly and predictably, Chelsea have barely broken sweat to deal with us. Whereas, they look faster, sharper and quite likely to score another couple on the break. Not many options on the bench - Puel's got his work cut out turning this around.

Clasie is so poor.

Terrible from Davis and Forster...

The result is all that matters - keeps our decent run of form ticking over. Great goal from Boufal, and although I'm sure he wasn't supposed to play 90 minutes, provided there's no reaction, it should do him good. We're picking up too many injuries at the moment and starting to look very thin. Isgrove isn't even a Championship player, and although Olomola was a willing worker, he didn't look full of quality. Stephens did all right, even if he seemed a bit casual and disengaged at times. Anyway, we're in the hat... Sent from my VF-895N using Tapatalk

Three blanks in our last four games, in spite of creating the majority of chances. The lack of real quality up front is hurting us. Long has reverted to the garbage level he's played most of his career at. Rodriguez is a sad shadow of the player he was two years ago. Austin's not fit enough to complete one let alone three games in a week. It's a shame. Our general play is pretty good. Nice to see Boufal get on. He looked miles off the pace, but at least he's an option now. Hey ho... Sent from my VF-895N using Tapatalk

You could well be right. In which case he missed the dive and therefore must've been a pretty dodgy ref...

Except he let play go on, and West Ham went close from the resulting cross that Forster badly flapped at. Only then did he go back and book Zaza. If the referee saw the dive (as he must've to have booked him), why didn't he whistle then and there, and instead allow West Ham an advantage? Very curious... Along with calling a foul on Fonte for the most obvious block tackle you could ever see, and twice stopping Saints' counter attacks for "head injuries" only after play had gone on for several seconds, I though the referee was pretty average to say the least.

It isn't. Kicking someone in the head whilst executing it, however, is. It wasn't like the defender was ducking down into his foot. On the halfway line, if Naughton went up for a header and Costa challenged with his feet, it'd be a free kick all day long - with potentially further sanction to come (Bruno Alves got a straight red for a head-high challenge on Harry Kane in a recent England game; the referee yesterday even booked a Swansea guy for an accidental clash of heads).

The dreaded combination of porous in defence and anaemic in attack. It's not panic stations yet, but if Long's going to revert to type, then we're depending on two Championship forwards and the ghost of Jay Rodriguez to score our goals.

He also said Diego Costa kicking Kyle Naughton's face off with his acrobatic equaliser for Chelsea shouldn't have been penalised as dangerous play because "you carnt take take away from 'im". He's basically a sub-Robbie Savage drooling moron who "tells it like it is" in the same way as tramps bark at traffic after their first Special Brew of the day.

Had a bad knee injury but is back in training now, I believe.

Like Lallana's five year contract that made no difference whatsoever when he decided to move? We'll sell again next summer. I guarantee it.

Far from the disaster some would have you believe, but ultimately we haven't strengthened the team, at best we've been happy to pretty much stand still (and get overtaken); realistically, we're weaker today than we were when the season ended in May. It's hard to feel too chipper about that outcome. Especially when people were so affronted at Koeman's exit for more "ambitious" climes. Regardless of Everton's laughable attempts to appeal to quality players with odes to dugouts, Saints' limited ambition has been somewhat borne out in this window. The signings of Boufal, Hojbjerg and Redmond are decent business, in my opinion. Whether they're sufficient to replace the departed quality from the first XI remains to be seen. But even if they were to seamlessly pick up where the splitters left off, the team had shortcomings in defence and midfield last season that have remained unaddressed. And I can't see - no matter how hard I try - Charlie Austin, who wasn't good enough to play ahead of Pelle last season and looks out of shape and lost thus far, being anything other than a big downgrade in a key position. I doubt Italy would pick him to clean the bins let alone lead the line. I worry that we're going to be short on goals. As always, I'd be more than happy to be proven wrong, but I think we're in for a bumpy season and with unused money in the bank for strengthening, that seems like a self inflicted state of affairs, unfortunately.

Don't see many goals there. Sent from my VF-895N using Tapatalk

Yes, I'm far from convinced Austin isn't another Michael Ricketts: a lower league quality striker who had one freak season in the top flight. I'd love to be proven wrong, but he looks unfit, slow, and his all round general play is pretty shabby, to say the least. But like all strikers, maybe he just needs a goal or two to spark him into life.

Four points then. Doesn't exactly alter the crux of the post, but I'd hate for anyone's OCD to get triggered by my cavalier attitude to pedantry.

Although not to the extreme some have expressed their concerns, I don't think it's unreasonable for fans to feel a little deflated at the way the off-season/transfer window has panned out (so far). After finishing in their highest ever (Premier) league position - three points off a Champions League place - qualifying for the Europa Cup group stage, signing the most lucrative kit manufacturing and shirt sponsorship deals in the club's history, on top of the financial windfall of the biggest ever broadcasting contract kicking in, Saints have never been in a stronger position to build on their progress. And yet, far from strengthening the team and looking to push on, we've contrived to start the season in a weaker state. All the optimism built up over our storming second half of last season (second only to Leicester in points gained in 2016) has ebbed away, along with the manager, coaching staff, best attackers and midfield man mountain. I've no doubt the club know what they're doing and we'll possibly have a half decent season after everything has settled down again, but the dreamers among us had probably hoped we'd aspire to more.

Born in Paris, I think. Has a French passport anyhow. So, no.

So that's Rodriguez, Forster, Flanagan (twice), Clinton, Seager, Gardos, Slattery, Barnes, Pied in the last couple of years. Bad luck? Something wrong with the training/conditioning/pitches/boots/medical team? Seems an awful lot of major knee injuries in a short space of time.

Too injury prone. That's been the biggest stumbling block to his progression.

I think we've filled our quota of ex-Burnley strikers with dodgy knees. Ings hasn't proven he's fully back up to speed after his serious ACL injury. We'd be pretty desperate to be throwing money at him, IMHO.

Might not be the worst idea in the world (if - big if - Saints are recruiting more attacking talent). Rodriguez needs to play games and prove that he can still cut it at this level. The signs so far haven't been promising - his pace and mobility seem seriously compromised. At the moment he's at the back of the queue of our forward options.