The9

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19319574 From Derby to Bristol City. That's Steven DaviEs And this is why spelling is important. Oops, best move it from the Main Forum.

I see we're using Ben Reeves "the Slicemaster" as a defensive midfielder now ? That kid has played EVERYWHERE for Saints. Makes sense seeing as he cuts through every pass as if it's a 40 yard through ball, he can pretend to be Beckham in the quarterback role.

All decent clubs force the kids to play the same system as the first team, it just helps them know what their positioning should be if they're ever called upon and helps build the appropriate decision-making early on.

"Right hand on the brown circle"

The trade off between having Rodriguez on the pitch and not was fairly evident from the scorelines. Rodriguez on, 0-1 in 60 minutes. Lambert on, 2-2 in 30 minutes. Rodriguez was used to keep the match close. That wouldn't have been the case without Rodriguez back there. Lambert didn't actually do a great deal when he was on the pitch - 16 short passes, won one header and scored (after bouncing his original pass off Lescott). He linked play in the centre circle on 2 occasions for us, one being his goal and the other Puncheon's chance later on but they were simple short passes followed by Lallana dribbling 20 yards up the pitch ! If anything having Lallana suddenly freed to go forward was the difference in our performance, which suggests it was a tactical change around Lambert's substitution, rather than his presence itself that made the difference. As I was there though I'll have to watch the whole 90 not just MotD to see what Lallana was doing until Lambert came on - I remember he was a strong defensive presence, but will have to see.

Lallana was doing a hell of a lot of defending yesterday, far more than he was doing on the ball.

We had people in the box every time we went forward, we just never got the ball into the box from the wing. You can't blame the person in the middle for a failure to cross the ball unless they're not moving and are easy to mark. We also never tried to "hit a target" or hold up the ball, we always broke with the ball in numbers and tried to catch them on the counter. If Lambert can't run for 90 minutes I would suggest you look at his age and ability and previous capabilities. Why do you think we've signed someone with a similar build and more agility who is 9 years younger than him ?

No they're not. The Mike Bassetts are saying "4-4-2" because they don't understand tactics.

They also described our formation as 4-1-4-1 with Guly up front and Schneiderlin sitting...

From "WhoScored" Southampton Character + Strengths Coming back from losing positions - Strong - Weaknesses Keeping possession of the ball - Weak Defending through ball situations - Weak Not giving away scoring chances - Weak Protecting the lead - Very Weak Southampton Style Attacking down the left side Short passing Non-aggressive A lot of that has to do with playing against Man City of course...

Excluding players who didn't score or save penalties, Lallana (who assisted one) was top, then Fonte. Guly, Sharp, Hooiveld and Fox were our bottom 4, despite Sharp having a 100% pass completion rate.

It did. Also, we are bottom of the entire table for "long passes" with 36 (Arsenal had 40), which is interesting. West Ham were 8th, Newcastle top, which was no surprise as they went long almost every time to turn Spurs.

Now we're back in the big time, there will be loads more apps and stats available for looking at the details of matches. I'm aware of the FourFourTwo statzone iPhone app and the guardian chalkboard - which got pulled in April annoyingly. Are there any other online / app-based match analysis and stat tools out there so we can look at where we are successful with passes, types of passes, areas goals are scored and conceded, etc. ? I know about Man City releasing last season's player stats too, with the intent of someone creating a sabermetrics system like in baseball. There's this too : http://www.whoscored.com/ And Rickie Lambert's goalscoring tips : http://performance.fourfourtwo.com/pro-tips/rickie-lambert-how-to-hit-the-back-of-the-net

They've already announced the priority rules for Arsenal, so it won't affect it unless they retract the earlier decision. Stevenage will probably use the same loyalty points, so anyone who went to City will get priority, but that's purely speculation on my part.

Ignoring the dodgy header for their winner, I was very interested to see the change in Fox's choices with the ball and positionally. Last season you could rely on him for a good 5 or 6 crossfield balls to the right wing every match, he never brought the ball forward and rarely overlapped, but still got caught upfield with teams getting in behind him. I first noticed it against Arsenal but yesterday he overlapped, played simple short passes on almost every occasion, and resisted the temptation to Hollywood it. He also didn't get caught upfield much with the focus on defensive responsibilities. It was a pointer at the way our coaching of Fox has changed to accommodate the importance of possession against high risk passing, and a sign of just how things will be different in our style this season. Anyone else notice any significant changes in players' choices since last season ? I thought Lallana was less showbiz as well.

Lallana was very effectively defensively yesterday. However, he wan't his usual influential self and barely threw in a stepover in the entire match, which suggested a little bit too much respect for the opposition. He did try one flick through the legs against his marker in the second half, but it was whipped off him and City got the ball. I suspect he'll be back to his creative self on Saturday.

Yeah, but there were also some booing when he was carried past us on a stretcher. Duhhhhhhhh.

We were "shhhhhhhhhhh"ing from kick off until they scored. We were even singing "sing when you're winning" before they were winning.

There were a few nobheads booing him for "feigning injury" whilst he was being carried past the away fans on a stretcher, yes. You do have to wonder how stupid some people are. He was rightfully booed whilst limping off the pitch having faffed about for 4 minutes because everyone assumed he'd been putting it on. To carry it on when he's actually back on the stretcher and clearly IS injured just proves how many sheep-like simpletons there are around.

To use a throwaway line "I've seen them given". Didn't think anything of it at the match, but it was at the other end and I was in the 3rd row. Looked at least reckless, potentially dangerous and in the box when I watched MotD2 when I got home. Might have got it if it was at the other end.

No, which one did you think we did ? Stevenage is next week.

43 and 44 are already open for Saints fans as of last week.

They're not so desperate that their Chairman hasn't tried to renegotiate upwards from an agreed 15m Euros...

That's my assumption as well. My other assumption is that its for £2.5bn.

I think he got it absolutely right, but against Wigan at home is a different prospect and we'll see different tactics.