Dusic

Romeu is a player who, a bit like Lambert, needs to be playing 90mins each week to stay sharp. When his fitness is lacking is when he starts getting booked all the time, and why most of his yellows come in the last third of a game. Definitely a role for him, and his passing is underrated as well - certainly better than Hojbjerg's.

Totally agree. Discarded too early and has a role to play.

So Maya is in the squad for the Asian Cup, which is due to last pretty much the whole of January. January is a hugely key month for Saints. Would not suprise me if Hasenhuttl plans without him from now rather than have a hopefully settled back four ripped up when he goes. Also, have to say Yoshida has been very poor this season when he has played - clearly something went on in the summer with him.

My comments would be: 1. He "lost the armband" through suspension at Fulham i.e he had to lose it for that game 2. I don't see any good PL sides that need a left back. City are coping just fine without Mendy, he will be back soon anyway and Bertrand is probably a bit old for their style 3. I was speaking to someone close to the squad at the Fulham game, someone who speaks to RB on a semi-regular basis and he said that Bertrand is totally misunderstood and that he is well respected, professional and a leader within the squad. Personally, and this may be very naïve but I don't think RB would stop playing football in November just because he is fed up of being at Saints.

No sign of Ings, Bertrand or Obafemi in the short training video just posted...

Becoming increasingly clear that if we don't do big business in January we will be relegated. Hopefully Gao can find a few quid to protect his investment.

Really good player for us and a top professional. Shame how its ended here as I still think he could have done a job from the bench in the last few months.

A Yoshida/Stephens partnership is worse than one of them + Hoedt IMO.

Stephens and Yoshida have shown time and again that as a pairing they just cannot stop teams from scoring at will against them. Individually decent, but too lightweight when paired together. I would go Stephens and Vestergaard in the hope that JV shows a big improvement. Need a CB in January to stay up though.

He has played over 30 games for Saints and I have rarely been impressed, including during the Koeman era when he was coming into a flourishing team. How many more does he need? His biggest problem is a lack of pace - and he won't suddenly develop that. My opinion is that he isn't a PL quality player. After that many games its not "pathetic" to draw that conclusion. He is miles off Bertrand's quality level. (FWIW I think Targett is better than McQueen too - he isnt a PL player either)

Some are worse than others.

We badly need Bertrand, Cedric and Ings back. Obafemi too.

1. Bertrand is far, far superior despite the calls on here for Targett to play. Sooner he is available the better (same as usual). 2. As has always been the case since his debut, Targett lacks the yard of pace you need as a PL fullback. 3. To not take Fulham's £15m looks to be yet another of Reed's poor errors of judgement. Not good enough at PL level. Simple as.

No Ings, Bertrand or Obafemi.

Pretty sure he has created goals twice in our last three leagues games. Not recorded as an assist officially as it wasn't the last touch before the goal (arbitrary definition) - but we certainly wouldn't have scored either without his input. Assist for Armstrong at Fulham Assist for Armstrong vs Utd Both incidentally created through dribbling, especially the United one which was excellent. At the moment Redmond and Lemina would be the first names on the teamsheet, unless you disagree?

No sign of Ings or Bertrand in the short training video. Wonder if Ings will turn into one of those nearly there injuries that goes on for months?

Fantastic first impression. The key bits I took: 1. Its his way or you are out. And he specifically mentioned hard work and running. Music to the ears of fans and it appears clear which players that won't suit - and he will just marginalise them 2. He has already targetted a defensive improvement will be the key to getting out of trouble, but will be interesting to see how he goes about that. Sounded like he has spotted things from the Spurs game to work on 3. He is a very engaging character, who will be well liked in the media in England and if he does well, will get touted for bigger PL jobs before too long.

Interestingly, via WhoScored.com Redmond has the highest number of completed dribbles in the PL this season. Not bad for a poor player with no end product. The problem is that some people, possibly those with lower intelligence, just decide they like or dislike a player and don't actually watch how those players change over time. Quite clearly, Redmond is playing as well as he ever has done at Saints. He has probably been our Player of the Season so far. He knows he needs to score (has hit the bar twice in the last week or so) but that will come IMO as he is playing with increased confidence, as stated in his interview in the programme recently. At the moment, IMO, he is the first name on the teamsheet alongside Lemina, and is the player we would miss the most if he were unavailable. ------------------------------- Fast-forward to 2018/19 and the swagger is returning. Still with room for improvement – he is yet to score this season – but, more important than any statistic, he feels liberated. “I feel like I’m in a more positive way of thinking, in terms of getting at players,” Redmond explains, as he goes into detail about the psychological change. “I don’t feel I’m afraid to mess up or not get past somebody. I feel like I’ve overcome that point that I was in – especially last season where I was almost afraid to take somebody on, in the fear that I might lose the ball. “My confidence was low, on and off the pitch, but I’m at a place now that I’m literally thinking as soon as I get the ball: what are my strengths? And then just doing it. “I feel like I’m happy with my form, but at the same time I’m not happy with it. I’ve created a lot of chances for the team, but I had an expectation that I would have a couple of goals under my belt and a few more assists, because I’ve only got two in the cup. “It’s about managing my own expectations and not letting them frustrate me to a point where I’m back in a place where I was last year.” https://southamptonfc.com/news/2018-12-01/programme-interview-preview-nathan-redmond-saints-vs-man-utd-premier-league-1819 ----------------------------------- Most successful dribbles in Premier League: Nathan Redmond 38 Eden Hazard 37 Wilfried Zaha 34 Adama Traoré 32 Mohamed Salah 30 Aaron Wan-Bissaka 29 Leroy Sané 28 Paul Pogba 27 Willian 25 Andros Townsend 24

At least RH saw our biggest problems. We are so nice to play against. Rarely make crunching tackles, lightweight CBs, had Targett and JWP marking Kane and Dier at corners. We are a really poor side in both boxes and Hasenhuttl has his work cut out. In attack, Redmond got better as the game went on and showed he can beat a man - need him in a central position. Yoshida was absolutely dreadful, equally as bad as anything Hoedt has shown this season IMO. Can we stay up without signing a good CB in January? I'm not sure we can.

1. Stick to one main system and get players comfortable in playing it. 2. Find the best combination from our 5 CBs who each have clear weaknesses and overall are about as good as each other. 3. Win a home game to get fans truely onside and capitalise on a revitalised fanbase. 4. Quickly judge which players are not up to it and attempt to move them on in January to free up cash and space. 5. Track down the elusive Gao and convince him we need to spend in January to pull ourselves safe.

Good move. Assume he will be adding his own coach at a later stage, otherwise thats a bit odd.

Long is ****e. Managers who like pressing don't suddenly love players who run but are terrible at anything to do with kicking the ball. If we ship out Long in January and move on it would be a good thing. Assuming Austin goes as well. Both are the past, not the future.

Wonder who he will bring in staff wise? Assume Watson stays as GK coach and Kelvin, but probably space for two more coaches.

Hopefully if he does well we try to extend his contract after a few months!

I heard similar from a very reliable source at the Fulham game who would have got it from the same person as JW. Essentially we have lots of players on similar mid-sized PL wages and have lost our matchwinners, who typically cost more. This person had heard from the club that SFC intended next summer to sign a couple of more costly (mostly wages) players, try to get rid of some of the more costly fringe players or ageing first teamers and fill those spots with emerging Academy players on far less money, which covers the hits at the top end of the wage bill. It makes total sense to me and is probably what other clubs do anyway. For example, Obafemi is on way less than Long or Austin, Slattery could replace Davis, Lewis replace Forster, Valery's emergence negates the need to sign a backup RB etc. That should then free up big wages for the right player, for example a genuinely quality CB or matchwinner forward type. Whether they can carry out the strategy is another thing (who will be gagging to sign Long, Austin or Forster?), but there is definitely a recognition that we lack matchwinners which has to be a good thing. Re Has - sounds like a genuine coup which will unite the fans - which is very important. Slight shame he joins at the busiest stage of the season with little training ground time rather than earlier, but better late than never.