Dusic

He is bloody awful. Its amazing for him to be in a PL squad let alone a starter for a team that supposedly wants to be top 10. I can't think of one PL side he would get in the team as a lone striker apart from Brighton, Newcastle and a Mounie-less Huddersfield. That says a lot. We should hsve moved Long on in the summer. We have had the best of him that snd was mediocre. I the best attribute of my striker to be more than running and winning cheap free kicks.

If the wages worked then signing him would be a no brainer. Still has something to prove and has a very good goal record from a wide position.

You sap.

Now further away from being a regular than in any of his 6 PL seasons. http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/15575780.Ward_Prowse_out_to_fight_for_his_Saints_place/?ref=rss This bit interested me: “I have always played in a deeper midfield role, and that’s where I see myself playing,” he reflected. “I spoke to him about it and about playing a more advanced and attacking role, which of course I am willing to as well." Surely he sees the impact Lemina has had and realises all his weaknesses are the things that are essential in that position: strength, aggression, mobility, ability to put your foot in. Six years on and I'm still not sure how realistically he gets in the starting team. Unfortunately for him, he rarely has a positive impact as a sub either.

Amazed so many want Long to play out wide. 1. His first touch is woeful 2. His passing is dreadful 3. His awareness of teammates is lacking 4. Technically he is a poor player 5. He can't cross a ball 6. If he never scores up front then he won't from out wide. To be less than 10 games in and having Long back in the starting lineup after such a poor season last year just shows what a cluster**** we made of the transfer window, in an attacking sense.

Why was it people thought he would suddenly be quiet and not mention wanting to leave still? Was inevitable as soon as he went on Intl duty.

Probably not, no. So not worth anyone being overly bothered about. If he plays well then whats the issue? We knew he wanted to leave all summer and its great we kept him but he will play for us still wanting to leave. I am ok with that personally. The alternative was to sell him and most agreed we needed to make a stance. So we have kept him, might as well play him as he is our best player and we can handle is comments about wanting to leave, which TBH are just the truth of the matter.

Not sure why anyone is suprised. He made it pretty clear what his position was right throughout the summer. Nothing will have changed his mind.

Amazing that some people genuinely feel Black is a major problem. Keep clutching.

He has played out wide before and is worse there than up front. His first touch, passing, crossing and combination play aren't good enough to play wide in the PL.

Accept he is utter turd and bring Gabbiadini, our best striker by a mile, back into the lineup?

Indeed he has. Resembles a carthorse in his sub appearances so far. Poor signing on big wages. Hopefully we can get rid of Austin and Long (who is woeful) over the next two windows.

Did you go the game? I did and first half we were dreadful and but for Forster would have been 3-0 down at HT. Stoke are fairly poor and we created nothing against them. All our possession was in front of them. We looked most threatening in the last 5mins when we were desperate and put VVD up front and played direct. Its very worrying - we won't score enough goals playing like we did yesterday and if we maintain scoring in less than 30% of matches like at the moment then we will be in a relegation battle.

Thought he improved us when he came on today. Yes he will give the ball away, but he played at a quicker tempo than our other attackers and had the beating of his opponent virtually every time he got the ball. Would give him a run instead of Redmond and see what he can do - potentially could be a difference maker.

He was good overall, one of our best players. Dominant, some great interceptions, especially first half and good on the ball. Anyone saying otherwise wasn't at the game. Should get better with game time too.

Just on the way back. Overall very poor. We are a decent side until the final third and then we are a bottom three side - absolutely clueless. There is no shape in attack, no clear idea as to how we are trying to score goals. In particular: - Long isn't good enough in the PL as a lone striker. His touch is terrible, he has no concept of linking play and he never scores - Davis isn't a PL number 10. Today we improved hugely once he went off. Any defence facing a Long/Davis combo will feel comfortable. - Redmond needs dropping. He just doesn't offer anything. The midfield pass backwards because they don't have good options to pick out. We haven't replaced Mane at all and to not sign any forward players after the season we had last season was an absolute cluster**** from Reed and Wilson. There was zero benefit in signing Bednarek, we needed a pacy attacker. VVD showed his class. Excellent player as we know. Overall - with our kind start a total of 18 points from the first 10 games would have been par, so we need to win the next 3 or its been a very poor start for Pellegrino I feel.

Bothered. This once great franchise has died a death recently.

Red Ball: Is McManus a good enough number 7 bat? Need a reliable (fitness as much as performance) seamer and 2 x openers. White Ball: Need a no 6 and 7 that can score runs at at circa 120 S/R and probably a canny one day bowler

Great work today. Now sack the two Whites and sign a couple of decent top order batters.

Our travelling support is mostly made up of face-painted, day-trippering Marketing Execs with names like Horace and Lucien though because the likes of Shane from Shirley are working in KFC at the weekend and couldn't afford to go anyway.

He will probably miss that one with a cold.

It seems he is broken physically though. Even at Saints he was a player who needed to play 90mins every week to stay sharp. Its so long since he played regularly, I wouldn't expect him to make any impact at PL level now.

It wasn't a foul IMO. Just strong forward play.

Deserve to go down IMO. A few batters have been absolutely disgraceful this season: how do Adams and Ervine still get a game? Massive clearout needed in the summer. Alsop and Weatherley have asked for opportunities and been terrible. Only Abbott and Berg have performed over 6/10 this season which is why we will be relegated.

He was actually a sub for the first four league games, sometimes unused. He only began to start in the league after he played and scored against Prague in the Europa League due to Puel's rotation policy. That started his decent little run, including a few pens, before being injured. Puel didn't pick him to start with. Neither did Koeman. Neither has Pellgrino. He isn't the answer to our troubles. I am not a Long fan, but would select him over Austin and Gabbiadini over both. He scores the types of goals the other two cannot.