Dusic

Wow, that was awful for the whole 90mins. We had a spell for about 3mins in the first half where we passed the ball well but that was it. As poor as the worst performances we put in last season. No shape, no desire (Derby commentator noting they wanted to play, Saints keen to slow the whole game down. Team shape didnt look right with the 3CBs but the woeful individual defending from Hoedt (throughout), Stephens (throughout) and Vestergaard (momentarily) when we went to four at the back probably showed why Hughes has decided to get up that way. JWP is not a RB or wing back. Personally don't see Targett offers anything that is PL level. We had no control in the midfield, Romeu has to start for me as Lemina is too loose as a holding player and Armstrong clearly happier further forward. Redmomd by a mile our best player (again), shame he only had the static Auatin to combine with. Is he seriously the best a PL side can find? He offers absolutely nothing until the ball is in the penalty area - ditto Gabbi tbh. Hard to judge Moi, he made some decent runs but wasnt seeing much of the ball. If he can match Tadic's 7 goals from last season then that will be a good first PL season. Key learnings from today: 1. We will struggle to score goals with the players we have 2. We will concede lots of goals with the players we have

Saints poor so far. Sloppy passing between back 5 and midfield and Austin extremely isolated. Hoedt dreadful on the ball. Personally I don't think we suit the 5-3-2 from an attacking perspective, especially when the wing backs are JWP and Targett. Once all our CBs are back and available then surely Bertrand switches to LWB. Armstrong doesn't look suited to the deeper role.

Nae bother, pal.

Giroud? Get real pal.

To be fair we don't need a lot, one more really good attacking player would probably do and RB/WB cover if they don't feel Reed is up to it. Sometimes good players become available as other deals happen, so might be waiting to see what falls into place.

Great window so far for incomings. Poor window for outgoings. Likely to end up only loaning out Carrillo, Clasie, Forster and Boufal - who we spent approx £50m on. Surely need to shift a few for cash to be able to do much in?

Everton want £20m for Lookman. Thats one to be all over.

He might be injured judging by his IG story.

Antonio has a woeful injury record the last couple of years.

Long out wide. LOL.

No probs, Jeff Le Taxi.

No way we should be playing Bertrand as a LCB just to shoehorn Targett in as some are suggesting. To play regularly, Targett needs to show he is better than Bertrand. If he can't then he shouldn't expect to play a lot.

If he is a good enough defender to move to Liverpool in a couple of years then that will be a welcome change from what we have now.

Definitely need more going forward. Ultimately will just have swapped Tadic (our most reliable creative player) for Moi, who will likely take a while to get used to English football and added Armstrong who is unproven. Wouldn't say that will solve our attacking problems. I think we clearly need a starting quality striker and then if Boufal goes a replacement for him too.

Can't see JWP getting many starts in that system.

We know he will miss at least 15 PL games so will need more.

Happy to leave it to the Scouts and Recruitment team. If they can't find better than Long and Austin then we might as well scale back the worldwide operation we have.

Anyone else feel we are very weak up front at PL level? Excluding the attacking midfielders (none of whom have proven PL goal records) we have: Austin - Ageing carthouse with dreadful injury record, has missed big chunks of each season he has been at Saints. Wasn't sharp when returning from injury at the end of last season and doesn't suit playing as a lone striker. Long - good at running, terrible at scoring goals, will do well to get 5 or 6 in the league. Gabbiadini - by a mile the best technically but flaky as **** and has zero physical presence. Has long runs without scoring and also isnt really a lone striker. Gallagher - unproven, possibly in last chance saloon at Saints...if he even gets that chance Not exactly options that scream top 10 challengers, and there was a reason we panic bought Carrillo... Clear to me that the next striker we sign has to be a starter and has to be a success.

Seems only to be Sport, which appears akin to talksport.com or Alex Crook as a worthy source having already announced he was joining West Ham. Can't see us needing him and Vestergaard and few other serious Spanish resources have reported it.

Austin misses too many games to be worth £50k a week in the Championship - no way he starts 3 games in a week. As for Long tearing up the Championship...he is ****e in front of goal (always has been, always will be) so I don't think he would, and certainly wouldn't be worth £50k a week in that league. See Villa, my point was that had we gone down we have quite a few players on big cash that it would be hard to shift. Paying half of Carillo's wages in the Championship would have been ludicrous!

Still don't have a good striker. Thats the glaring area for improvement in the squad. None of the ones we have will get more than 10 goals.

About a month to go, funny window so far, have sold our best and most reliable creator but appear to have made two solid signings, albeit unproven at PL level with a third on the way, which looks promising. Nice to see early business as well. Still need: 1 x GK (if we manage to move Forster on) 1 x RB 1 x CB (seemingly Vestergaard) 1 x Wide Attacker (if Boufal goes) 1 x Striker (to start. Long and Austin aren't good enough if we want to get back to top 10)

He was poor. Being on the same level as Shano only proves that!

Absolutely.

We will end up loaning him out for the next 3 years whilet we pay Monaco for him. No chance Leganes are paying all his wages either. Hopefully this entire fiasco was the wake up call they needed. Imagine if we had got relegated and were lumbered with 3 years of Carillo, a couple of years of Clasie and Long and Austin on more than 50k a week. Scary.