Chez

Armstrong may not have the confidence to just go straight for goal, but he certainly puts shift in. Good claim by Bazunu.

Perraud does just enough to stop the cross. Neither striker in the box were marked, which is a concern.

very poor punch. He's got lucky several times doing similar. At least he's not stuck to his line, but needs to improve that facet of his game.

Great break. Ely has to make that pass.

Thought Aribo was pretty poor. I know he plays a slightly different (perhaps slower) game to everyone else, but he just doesn't seem to be sharp enough today. Needs to do a lot more in the second half. We carried him in the first.

Bit of a flap form Bazunu. Just did enough though.

What are you on about? ABK simply overstretched. Nothing to do with taking a battering.

looked like a shoulder injury. Hopefully not gonna keep him out for too long.

He's the striker we desperately needed. Got to get tighter to him.

dominated and now we have a goal. Excellent start. Keep going saints

On reflection, it's less of `meh' from me and more of a `this could be good news'. Yeah, its a bit of a stretch but give me some rope.... Think of it like this. Would we have signed all those City lads if he hadn't come? Probably not. He joins us and those youngster feel happy to come to Saints. The flip side is, would have City sold all those players if they hadn't allowed Shields to come to us? By the same accord, now we have let Shields join Chelsea, we are now maybe able to make a small fortune selling our talent on to Chelsea. That is our philosophy after all, buy young talent, improve and sell on to allow reinvestment in more young talent. Our players are more likely to be recommended by Shields and those players will be even more happy to go there if Shields is the one asking. Now, if our City youngsters turn out to not be good enough for Chelsea, then maybe Shields bought the wrong ones...only time will tell on that one...and thus did we want him bringing in more players anyway? Yeah, I said it was a stretch, but no more so than the thought that he is departing because the club is rotten. He's going because he go the job he wanted at a CL winner. It's a no brainer.

Fair point. Not terribly fussed about him leaving. Let's go after the Chelsea, Liverpool or United youth head scout and `raid' their best nippers next summer - assuming we will continue down that route.

Some were wondering if he would have a second act. We will never know. Wonder if at Chelsea he will try to buy the nippers City wanted to keep.

it is. You can't get away from that fact. Teams at the foot of the league (especially those on a budget) struggle to bring in genuine talent full stop...in January...its almost impossible. "we want you badly, and will pay you handsomely, but if we do go down you'll have to take a 50% cut in wages"... A loan is perhaps the answer. Ings has been mentioned on here and that's a nice idea, but second choice and squad players are the cover teams need and they wont be allowed

I would guess the Lavia and Livramento threads go the other way, with them overhyped.

yesterday he did OK. He was grease lightening off his line and he caught everything. However, he hasn't been hugely impressive in other games so far. He lacks a physical presence. He's the smallest 6'2" keeper I've ever seen.The goal looks massive with him in it. I guess if he saved everything, then that goal would look a damn sight smaller, but his positioning has not been perfect and he had made the goal look even bigger at times. Yesterday apart, he hasn't looked brilliant on crosses. He's dropped stuff when given the faintest of nudges. That lack of physical presence has shown up. Yesterday has improved my confidence, slightly. He's made some decent saves, but so far only one `world class' save that I can recall. That said, I am not sure how many of the goals conceded were saveable. A couple went through him perhaps, but that's inevitable for all keepers. His kicking has been a bit disappointing. Nine times out of ten he just hoofs it long to no one. When given more time he does ping a decent ball wide. He plays it safe a lot, by which i mean he just smashes it first time. I thought he'd play a bit more football. This may not be a bad thing as Raya found out yesterday. In general, I have confidence in him. That certainly can't be said of other recent Saints keepers. Other than dropping a simple cross last week that he got away with, he hasn't made too many obvious big mistakes. Certainly not ones that have been punished, and that is important for team confidence. Again though, if you don't get your positioning right, that can be as big a gift as dropping a cross. Overall, I get Kepa vibes. Seeing as he is back as first choice in a CL Chelsea side, I am not sure if that is good or bad.

Unless it relates to goalkeeper coming off his line or CB positioning, I'd hazard a guess at no.

We desperately needed him to blossom, but I don't see any improvement from year to year. He is so lightweight. With his build, he ought to be snapping at the heels of opponents, turning over ball and driving into space (which is what he did in France), but the game just happens around him. I don't know what he does well.

was Edozie injured by the way?

fair enough. I just worry that the next manager will have the same squad to select from and this attack is an issue. Where are the goals coming from.

yep, wonder if the manager might actually bring some talent with him otherwise its the same scouts, same negotiators, same budget that has created this bang average squad.

Hope so, but whoever the next man is, will have a squad that is limited.

don't worry, the new manager will have us top six in no time at all.

We are poor.No doubt about it. Inexcusable ineptitude? What a load of bollocks.

Its both. We don't win the ball back enough to dominate possession, and when we don't have the ball, it relies on forwards that can break and create...but they can't.