DRAGONZ_RULE

Needless to say this has taken on the status of Southampton's biggest game of the season to date. Anything but a win would be a minor disaster. -----------McCarthy Cedric Stephens Hoedt Bertrand -------Romeu Hojbjerg -----Boufal Lemina Tadic -----------FK FK is the new striker, "F*ck Knows".

If someone can explain how Hojbjerg hasn't been an automatic starter every game this season, it would be good to hear. Best player on the pitch on either side - at Old Trafford, no less.

I get the feeling VVD might be getting wrapped in cotton wool for a January sale, so I'm assuming he's out ... as well as Cedric (injury). Forster Stephens Hoedt Yoshida Bertrand Hojbjerg Lemina Tadic Davis Boufal Austin

------------- Forster ------ Stephens VVD Hoedt Cedric Hojbjerg Romeu Bertrand ------------- Lemina --------- Redmond Long Redmond and Long up top purely to run around a lot and put some pressure on the Chelsea centre halves and Kante. Austin and Gabbiadini on for them at 65 minutes.

Chelsea wanted to sign him in the summer.... But he's not good enough for Southampton. Go figure.

P.S. Look at Utd's third goal on the weekend as an example of that exact issue... Regulation lost ball 25m from Utd goal, and two simple passes later Utd were suddenly in a 4 on 3 break and Lingard scored. Simple and effective.

PEH put in a man of the match performance vs Everton, played really well for the hour he was on vs City, and was then rested at Bournemouth... I feel like that was in preparation for this game. If Cedric isn't fit then Sanchez and Özil will cause all sorts of problems down the right edge, particularly if Dusan "I never come back behind halfway" Tadic plays on the wing. Forster Pied VVD Hoedt Yoshida Bertrand PEH Lemina Romeu Long Redmond Best way to play Arsenal is on the low block, they thrive when there is space to run into on the counter but struggle when teams set up deep and look to break against them... Particularly because Xhaka, Ramsey, Bellerin, Kolasinac all push high up the pitch leaving them very vulnerable to quick counters. With Mustafi out they will also be slow at the back (Monreal, Mertesacker and Koscielny) ... Opportunity calls if Southampton employ a defensively solid base.

Resting two important players ahead of a tough game against Arsenal next week. PEH has not featured all season and then played a shade under two full games in 4 days. Lemina back from a while out and the full 90 against City. Romeu suspended vs Everton and Davis benched vs City. Would expect next week's midfield to be PEH, Lemina and Romeu.

Another good performance tonight. Romeu and Lemina were also good. What does this mean for games which aren't as difficult as City away? Is it Lemina plus one of Romeu/PEH? Is it all 3? What happens to Davis? One thing which does need to happen is consistency of squad selection outside of multiple games inside a week, otherwise there will be no chemistry in the middle of the park.

Soooooooo ..... PEH. Who would have guessed that playing a guy in CM who can both win the ball AND play the ball forward would be beneficial to the team?!

4-3-1-2 GK: A Traffic Cone .. at least this orange cone won't drop any shots that come straight towards it, unlike the orange cone normally stood in front of the goal RB: Cedric CB: Hoedt CB: Yoshida .. VVD needs to be binned LB: Bertrand .. this guy needs to be binned too, but there's literally no other fit left back available CM: Hojbjerg .. what's the worst that can happen? He'll pass the ball sideways just like Romeu, but probably won't give away free kicks on the edge of the box. CM: Davis CM: JWP .. assuming Lemina is still out, we'll need 3 in the middle against Everton's 25 central midfielders (Gueye, Davies, Schneiderlin, Sigurdsson, maybe they'll chuck Besic and McCarthy in too for the hell of it) CAM: Boufal .. he has at least tried to do positive things occasionally ST: Long .. let him press, let him run around a lot, let him make a nuisance of himself, but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T EVER LET HIM SHOOT!! ST: Gabbiadini .. whoever plays in this position will catch a cold, and at least this guy is accustomed to the cold. I looked him up, he was born in some town called Calcinate in Italy where the maximum temperature is typically about 6 degrees this time of year - sounds well-equipped to deal with the weather, but please give him a mobile phone and a portable telly so that he can see what's going on in the match and speak to Long and Boufal whom, despite being the nearest Saints players to him, will nevertheless be sat in another postcode. 4-0 Southampton.

Why are they so against the north of England? The cold weather and rain, or something else? As a professional sportsman, surely you'd still want to compete at the highest possible level (and coincidentally earn more money for doing so). If he goes to Burnley, he is a week-in, week-out Premier League starter earning probably $40-50k a week. If he goes to Reading, he starts in the second division and probably earns $20k a week if he's lucky. At 30 years old, it's not like he'd have to be up Burnley way for 5 years, he'd be looking at a 2 or 3 year contract maximum and he could stick in a relegation get-out clause anyway.

Why doesn't Monaco count in this discussion? They buy young players on the cheap, develop them into superstars and sell them for tens of millions ... all the while attempting to play attacking, exciting football. Mbappe, Lemar, Bernardo Silva, Fabinho, Mendy, Sidibe, Jemerson etc... And yeah they may not have come through their youth setup, but let's be realistic about how many youth in Monaco play football haha - they're all sipping champagne on their parents yachts!

To be fair he missed quite a few last season, but that is attributed to the fact he had effectively been out injured for the majority of the 2 previous years and was very rusty.

What do you think the strongest lineup will be this upcoming season? Feel free to update as any players are signed or let go! For me, at this stage it's something like: Forster Cedric VVD Yoshida Bertrand Romeu PEH JWP Boufal Gabbi Tadic McCarthy, Targett, McQueen/Pied, Clasie, Davis, Redmond, Austin, Long/Sims Thoughts? Massive season for PEH to kick on in the same way JWP did last season.

That's unfair on JRod ... he looked to be coming into some form and was working hard, scored against Leicester, got injured against Liverpool and then Gabbiadini was signed. I think the Twitter cat fight between his family and some others suggested that Gabbiadini's signing prompted JRod to try and look for another opportunity in the EPL but seemingly it was denied by the club, and it's been pretty clear since then that he's been cutting a frustrated individual ... and has barely had any minutes since that time. That said, I think it's almost certain that Long will start ahead of JRod in this game anyway.

---------------Forster --Cedric Stephens Yoshida Bertrand ----------Romeu Hojbjerg ---Gabbiadini Boufal Redmond -------------Rodriguez Granted, JRod was terrible for the most part against West Ham, but his ball for Barry's goal was a sublime piece of skill that neither Redmond nor Long is capable of. As he's had a run of games he's clearly been improving (last weekend aside), and Long has also shown he is better as an impact sub using his speed to get in behind tired defenders.

To expand on my post above, here is something you might find interesting - a comparison of Pelle and Long's statistical performance this season... Whilst $8m Pelle has been "rubbish" and $12m Long is seen as a candidate for Player of the Season, Pelle has actually outperformed Long in virtually every single statistical metric on a per 90 minute basis (which is the fairest comparison). Per 90 minutes, Pelle scores more goals, has more shots, misses fewer 'big' chances (defined by Opta Stats), creates more 'big' chances, gets more assists, has the same number of assisted shots (key passes), makes more successful passes, has drawn more penalties, wins more tackles, wins more headers and loses fewer headers than Long. In fact, the only metric in the above table where Long is outperforming Pelle is intercepts per 90 mins. It's amazing how perception and reality can be so far apart, isn't it? I'm just a neutral fan watching games on television from overseas, so I'm not at the ground and not emotionally invested in your team so I don't go through the same frustrations and joys that you guys do as fans watching games in the flesh ... however I think the above shows that the perception created by Pelle (who doesn't press and harass and look 'busy') versus Long (who does all of those things) has led to a massive distortion in your fans' minds about how poor Pelle is and how great Long is. One thing I do think the above may highlight, however, is why Pelle is still such a key player in Koeman's mind. Anyway, the overarching point - and it's one I made earlier in the thread - is that Pelle and Long shouldn't be seen as fighting for a position, given that Southampton haven't actually lost a single game when they have started together. They are complimentary players and should be seen as such, and together they make your team stronger!

Excluding penalty goals scored by players, Graziano Pelle is 10th on the list of leading scorers in the EPL this season despite missing essentially 8 weeks due to injury (6 games not in squad, 2 games in the same period off the bench for That output is surely strong, particularly given you guys only had to spend for $8m on him (apologies, down under we don't get Pounds on our keyboard so Dollars will have to do!). Some other strikers with transfer fees of just as much or even more but fewer goals include: - Wilfried Bony - $30m, 4 goals - Joselu - $8m, 4 goals - Connor Wickham - $9m, 5 goals - Jordan Ayew - $8.5m, 5 goals + 1 pen - Christian Benteke - $32.5m, 6 goals + 1 pen - Aleksandar Mitrovic - $12m, 6 goals + 2 pens - Salomon Rondon - $12m, 7 goals - Andy Caroll - $15.5m + $30m in wasted wages, 7 goals And even Shane Long himself, who cost $12m for a return of 8 goals this season. The return on investment with Pelle has surely exceeded expectations significantly - I mean how can you sign a 29 year old striker for $8m and expect 20 goals a season, what Jamie Vardy is doing this season is only seen once in a lifetime which is why Leicester's story is indeed a once in a lifetime story.

The stat given by the commentators on the Australian broadcast of the game is that apparently Southampton have never lost when both Pelle and Long have started up top together. I'm not sure whether they were referring to this season alone, or whether that includes last season too. It seems that there is just something which 'works' when Pelle and Long are played up top together.

New poster here, Leeds fan from Australia. Signed up to this board because I'm interested in Saints - basically adopted both them and Swansea as teams I 'support' in the Prem, have loved the way both teams go about it (although the Swans haven't been great this season). Have a lot of respect for the way Southampton continue performing strongly in the EPL despite consistently losing your best players to the 'big' clubs, all the while trying to play attractive football. This season has probably been the best I've ever watched as a neutral fan - to see clubs like West Ham, Southampton, Bournemouth, Watford and of course Leicester doing so well this season is amazing. Every week there are exciting games, and I really hope Leicester can hold on from here - it would take something huge for them to get run down with this gap! Not going to bother speaking about the Championship, though - another loss for us last night, being a Leeds supporter is the most frustrating thing imaginable!!

hardly, long nicked it from him Haha what are you on about? Pelle played a through ball for Long who then continued his run and scored. The second goal then came about when Long completely miscontrolled the cross from Tadic, and Pelle got up after his slip and finished superbly. This is my first post on this forum after a couple of seasons reading on here, and your continual bashing of Graziano Pelle is beyond ridiculous. As per a post earlier in this thread, he has now scored or assisted 7 goals in the past 4 games (out of 8 goals total). Despite that, the main thing you focus on is how he wasn't as effective once Long went off when the score was 3-0 and the game was already over thanks to Pelle's goal and assist in the first half!!