Chez

when I hear `The Southampton Way', this is what I think of. Clueless tactics (or a failure to see what i obvious to most fans) from managers and coaching staff

another one focusing on McCarthy.

another going after McCarthy for no reason at all.

my word. We are getting stuffed, McCarty has done nothing wrong, yet you still pick him out for criticism. How about taking a look at the ten outfield players that have allowed them to walk goals in?

I was asking that before we started. Sometimes managers think five at the back offers more security, but more often than not it just means center backs pulled out wide and massive gaps as no one really knows what they are doing.

I don't like.

Is every post going to be a moan about McCarthy?

was it handball?

I blame you

offside or not, he still has to score those. Good move, started by a composed pass by McCarthy.

this formation isn't working defensively, they look like they will score with every attack, but at least it feels like we have bodies forward/a threat in attack.

this three up front thing looks terrible so far

what an absolute joke of a start. shambles from front to back.

Sure. Surprised we have not copied what we did at City, where we did pretty well. The form Salah is in, the formation may not matter. Hope he has an off day.

Did we play 5 at the back earlier in the season against City? Hope Lyanco has a stormer. Gonna need everyone to play well to be honest. Armstrong did well when moved to the left side last week. he could play in the hole too, but cant see all three strikers pushed right up all the time. I remember WBA absolutely blitzing us at SMS one season when they played three forwards all pushed right up. We didn't know what to do. Liverpool might have more answers. We will see. We'll get a result...somehow.

if a keeper throws it from one end to the other and it goes straight in, does that count? I am guessing not.

not many victories at Anfield, but when they happen they provide tremendous joy. Obviously the Shane Long semi immediately springs to mind, but the 2003 league game, with Ormerod and Svensson scoring, was one that sticks out for me. We were a good side at that time and certainly weren't holding on for grim life, but even so a win there was extremely rare so it was an amazing victory. I missed the 2-3 victory in 1998. Anyone go to that game?

The big sides (specifically Liverpool and City) don't come unstuck often at home. Palace seem to cause City a few issues and I always think that is because when they do get a chance to break (which isn't often) they have players with pace and skill to actually make those opportunities count. We don't have a Zaha, and maybe we don't even have a Townsend type either (pace and the odd worldie), but Redmond and Walcott are going to give you a bit more pace than Ely. Its hard to know how to beat Liverpool at Anfield, but I would certainly be studying what Brighton did well.

our kits have been so shit in recent years, the only solace has been knowing it would change after 12 months. The cost of kids kits has become ridiculous. Buying new ones every year is mental. I'm finding more and more people happy to buy `fake' versions. I've said it many times, the word Club should be removed from the company name. Ownership could not give a fuck about fans. Fans money is all that matters. Brentford seem to have the right idea.

Interesting that Brentford have decided their shirt will be used for two seasons - to reduce cost for fans and be more environmentally sustainable. Good idea if you ask me.

From the press conference Stevens is back in training, but no chance he will play Saturday - needs more time to get sharpness Stuart Armstrong still injured and wont play Mussa is back in training (probably on bench) McCarthy had a bad game, but Ralf mentioned his match winning saves in other games and wont drop him on the basis of one bad display Tella still learning and pointed to him being a little careless with possession ("sloppy")

hope that coin toss is close to the goal line.

Are there any `hard' men in top level football these days? Powerful athletes with the more skill the better. Romeu lacks Morgans pace across the ground, but his all round game is decent. No idea where you get the idea that his passing is frequently off target. He tends to be very careful with the ball. We miss him when he doesn't play. Diallo has ability too, but his passing on Saturday was horrible. He should have been subbed IMO, but as you asked, I have no qualms whatsoever with the captain being taken off at any point in any game. The captain's role in football is largely ceremonial. Captains shouldn't get special treatment. I disagree about tactics going wrong in the later stages. The keep ball tactic created a golden chance to score for Walcott. Hoof it long and maybe something happens, maybe not. What went wrong is we were absolutely shit in most of the second half and no matter what the manager did to try and change it, we continued to be shit. Players did not do their jobs.

never felt safer than when we had those two in nets. Both made so many outstanding saves too. Even when Boruc fucked up at Arsenal I felt that was more of a one off. As well as Forster did, I really didn't think Boric needed replacing.

I know its hard to look past the two goals, but one thing that was noticeable was McCarthy's willingness to come off his line to claim crosses. He made a complete horlicks of it for one corner, flapping at thin air and they may well have scored. He did though come for a couple of others that helped totally diffuse a couple of attacks. Nothing outstanding, but some keepers, and I am thinking about Forster here, simply don't come deep for those. You may not concede, you may not even be able to point a finger at the keeper if you do concede, but at the top level, managers do notice these things. Keepers not putting themselves out there to help prevent situations. Its not as obvious as glaring mistakes, but it does matter. Got to say that there does seem to be a lot of errors by keepers. Are these balls moving faster than ever? Check out Darlow's pathetic attempt at stopping Toney's goal.