Ex Lion Tamer

Our 12-game form is now better than Leeds and Ipswich. We've scored nearly as many goals as the others and no one has conceded fewer than us

I think he was lucky to play under Ralph who favoured two strikers. He's best as a second striker and there's not many teams that do that

Makes sense for Che to stay till the summer now. He'll get a good contract somewhere as a free agent. Whether the club will let him is another matter

We supposedly offered £30m+ for Gakpo, so a statement signing isn't totally out of the question. But I'd agree it's highly unlikely

When I remember how Ralph's teams used to run out of gas for long spells of a season, I wonder if we might see a fitness dividend towards the end of this season from our possession game. It's possibly already there given how consistent our team selection has been able to be

It's all ifs and buts, but he could easily reject Premier League interest because he doesn't fancy a relegation scrap and his family wants to come back to Winchester

There's a deal to be done that suits everyone. West Ham gets a portion of his wages off the wage bill We get a great player for a wage we can afford Ings gets to earn the same wage as before and play in an exciting playoff final

Given that we'll need West Ham to subsidise his wages, there will be every incentive for them to drag it out and sweat a bigger % from us

There's never a risk-free appointment but he seems like he's doing a good job at Ipswich and would be a good shout for us. I thought Nathan Jones had a promising track record though

A bit of movement like this would do the trick for us https://x.com/saints_analysis/status/1736361305076904391?s=20

Does he have more zip than Rasiak had at this level? I expect so

He wears his heart on his sleeve. He's passionate, loyal, a top lad

You're just remembering all the times these things haven't worked and not the many more times they have. Because it looks silly when it doesn't come off it sticks in the mind

Once again people complain about our boring, low risk football but don't like it when people try things

Exactly. It looks stupid when it goes wrong but a player can just as easily miss a conventional penalty. Fair play to him for expressing himself and trying something

I think this is persuasive. It's also worth saying that we started the season conceding lots of goals. We've tightened up now and people are saying it's boring but it's better than conceding five to Sunderland

Anyone still think Gerrard or Lampard would be doing a better job?

Leeds drawing at home to Coventry today puts our midweek performance into some perspective

We're level on points with Leeds, why would we want to change to their style? And Leicester are a possession team playing the man city way under their former assistant manager.

His injury record is good of late. He had hamstring problems as he came back from his serious knee injury but has been in good fitness for years now

I think Bree should play but the reason Martin plays Manning is he wants more attacking penetration - that thing that everyone here claims they want rather than tippy tappy passing

So we should only sign strikers who are proven in the Premier League over the past year? That's a high bar

He was Champions League quality in that season when he scored 22 goals

I think the thing that's getting missed a bit is that whatever system we play, a lot of teams are going to sit back against us. We're now a big fish in this league. It's been a complaint under previous managers that we can't break teams down when they come to defend, hence our poor home form. And I don't think the first half against Coventry would have been much different if we were playing a counter attacking system as you can't counter a team that doesn't come forward. What would help is a clinical striker who can find space in a crowded area

It's really not a given though that you can lose so many players and start winning immediately. Leicester did, and well done them. Generally though it's difficult and in our case we needed time to gel