The9

He's getting paid sh1tloads more by Everton. End of discussion.

Yep, but as long as there are people who aren't...

Funnily enough the opinion of pretty much everyone who I spoke to about travel plans and cost in Arnhem and Herning was that it made a massive difference how soon you booked AND how aware of the various alternatives you were. Same during the Euros...

Depends where we go. And FWIW the best outcome for that in terms of pot location is Pot 3 and drawing Dundalk who played their last CL PlayOff tie at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, even though Pot 3 is overall much more likely to send us to a poky Pot 4 ground.

You mean play last season's formation but without anyone up front to hold it up? It'll be like watching us in 2011 when Lambert was unavailable.

I'm not having all this "the league was awful" rubbish. Leicester won the league because they were the best team and put in the most effort over 38 matches. If the teams who try hardest finish above the ones with more technically talented players that doesn't mean the quality was poor, it means the application was poor. Completely agree that we weren't much better than the season before though, our schedule and lack of Europa League fixtures when most of our top opponents had European games midweek helped us, even though our results weren't THAT much better than average. It's the same thing that'll cost us points this season in games following European matches when we're on the other side of it. I didn't think Norwich away was that bad, considering Wanyama's lack of effort throughout and how the 10 men did, not to mention the run we were on. The others were dire though.

I'd say the players are acutely aware of the formation and what they'd been asked to do from their choices at Old Trafford - they kept it on the deck and tried to play the ball around the back on the ground, rather than standing it up for the tall blokes we don't have to not head it. What we are sorely lacking (aside from height) is a playmaker to pick the passes, and a defence (including DM) that is at full strength and fitness to stop us conceding in every game and putting us in a position where we have to break down established, cautious defences.

I understand your point (that the actual amounts will be more expensive), but not why you think we're looking for players in a particular price bracket, rather than the actual process, of looking at players and then seeing if we can get them, then making a decision on cost. As for "English clubs will see prices go up more rapidly", yes, but only because everyone knows English clubs have more money. That includes Saints. The concern should not be that "prices might go up", it should be that everyone else adopts the same logical and data-driven approach and we get squeezed out of affordable players that we want by more attractive competitors who aren't offering more money.

They're not the same kind of player overall, but they're both the kind of player whose qualities don't fit our current system of playing two strikers out wide to counterattack quickly from through balls and asking them to defend the full backs.

Dodgy penalty for tangle of legs tbf, and until then no tangible difference in success to whatever else it is they've been doing until now. As for "fans demanding change of formation", well if it was anything other than the Mike Bassett Classic "fourfourfckingtwo" they could claim to all be tactical geniuses. But it's not. Hopefully soon they'll also start listening to every fan yelling "get it forward" and "put it out" too?

Absolutely the case that we'd benefit from having a target man on the end of the crosses, but also the case that with a target man who isn't involved in the build-up we'd probably create far fewer opportunities to cross. Personally I think we need a hybrid target man to offer an aerial presence but who can also play in the kind of wide attacking role with the ball on the ground. For me it's worth trying Rodriguez there as I'm not (yet?) convinced he's lost it, unless we have someone specific in mind to do exactly that. I'm more concerned that we don't have a number 10 for a formation that really needs a creative player in the hole/point of the diamond, but those players are generally the really expensive ones and not really the kind of market we've been in. The problem is being unable to unlock established defences, low crosses being the only way we've managed to get the ball in the box at all at the moment. A cynic might suggest Gaston was perfectly suited for that role, of course.

Because we're pretty good at gaming the transfer market and lots of people don't bother to work out the cost of actually running a football club beyond the amount the media says has been paid out in transfers.

He was on his own at that point, maybe he'd just been for a wee.

Given that Les Reed is overseeing all this stuff and they weren't hugely bothered about keeping Koeman, I'm guessing it was a desire to play the formation even when Koeman was here, and the serendipity of a coach with good European experience being available to implement it later.

I'm not sure Benteke is the solution to any question that isn't "who's one of the least mobile strikers in the Premier League who costs over £25m and doesn't suit our new system?".

With about 13 professionals available I'm sure they will want to take anyone who's played over 50 Premier League games and looked decent at any point.

I think I'd go with ---------Forster Cedric-Fonte-Van Dijk-Bertrand/Targett ------Romeu/Hjobjerg Davis------------------Hojbjerg/Tadic -----------Redmond ----Long------------Rodriguez First choices Bertrand, Romeu, Hojbjerg, and yes I'd pick Redmond in the hole ahead of Tadic in the team altogether and get Rodriguez in to give us more of a target man option to at least make defences think we MIGHT put something in the air. Given a few more appearances I might even think Hojbjerg might be an option in the hole, he seems to be the only midfielder we have who can pick a pass. I can't see us losing, but it would be nice for us to score first to see how well the counterattacking configuration works in a situation where a team has to attack us.

They are correct in the sense that you're only allowed to have season long loans now. However, players can also only return to their parent club in a transfer window, which is clearly the intent here. It's still officially a "season long loan" though. Nice of him to pitch up in with the Saints fans at Old Trafford last night, he very definitely walked past me in the concourse at half time.

Stuff like Astana is a bunch of hassle and most people will probably go with the club's option for that anyway (especially if it avoids an 8 hour stopover in an eastern European airport like Kiev or Moscow). I'm happy to go places I haven't been before and have a few beers and a laugh like last year. That isn't going to stop me watching the round before the group stage and the draw intently and posting a load of statty crap on this thread because I know a few people appreciate it and its exactly the right place for this kind of niche stuff. We could probably dredge up my post from last year about European visa requirements too... luckily Brexit hasn't ballsed freedom of movement up for Brits yet.

The Sun's ratings are well into their 4th decade of being comical.

Just got back... The biggest problem we had last night was being a bunch of shortarses. They had 4 very tall players who weren't afraid to get forward in open play and we only had 2 who could compete against them in the air from crosses. Romeu going off early didn't help with that, especially with Clasie being even shorter. The lack of height (especially up front) was the reason we weren't putting crosses in the air and the reason we were overplaying it around the area over and over again. Defensively Zlatan against Cedric at the far post with Valencia steaming into the box was the worst thing I saw all game - they didn't create much more than us even though we looked toothless but looked like they could score from any cross. The narrow midfield letting Shaw advance 50 yards unchallenged on occasion didn't help either. We're too easy to defend against as well, because whilst an excellent left winger, Tadic isn't a number 10 and doesn't get the ball enough in the right areas or use it creatively enough, and defences know we've got no height and can just set up to defend against through balls. Going behind also means we haven't been able to catch teams on the counter either, which is what the current formation and personnel are most set up for. Forster spent the entire first half kicking long and immediately conceding possession as none of our midfield could compete with Fellaini or Pogba in the air - eventually word got out to play it on the deck and we immediately got down the wing and slung a decent low cross into the box. Hjobjerg still looks good though. I think I'd probably put Rodriguez up top to give us some variety in attack as he offers a bit of an aerial threat and so does Long to a lesser extent. Redmond is great on the break but just dribbles sideways when near the area in front of an established defence - in that sense he definitely isn't a Mane replacement.

Man U kicked the ball away on at least two occasions last night (as well as Fellaini preventing a quick free kick by standing over the ball) and no yellow cards. There's no point clamping down on one thing if you just let the rest of it slide. Took the ref a good 5 seconds to give a blatant foul throw too, which he only gave due to Saints players and Puel screaming blue murder about it.

Must be doing something right.

And some sad fcks don't appreciate that other people like different things to them. Well done on your amazingness, hope your travel doesn't cost sh1tloads more than people who've planned.

I'll let him work it out for himself.