Chez

He's slow. Not glacial slow, but still slow. The fact is though, when he gets there he does something useful. Strikers at this level, at any level, must put the ball in the onion bag...

wages will always be a huge issue when it comes to buying from United.

Whilst the John Stones move might show an alternative outcome. Very similar type players Imo.

I cant see us signing or selling anyone in January. The squad is balanced. Someone would need to go before another came in.

Has the first touch to play at this level, but the question is will he ever excel? One things for sure, SFC is going to give him the time to fulfil his potential. Which I don't think he has reached yet.

absolutely. Fresh legs were needed much earlier than 88 minutes when Davis came on. The snappy closing down disappeared. That's when you make the change not after they score.

Enjoyed the game from sunny Shinoukville - unsurprisingly there aren't too many saints fans in Cambodia. We did defend a lot, but when the opportunity arose we did create problems for Arsenal. Tadic's reverse pass was sensational. If that was Ozel we'd never hear the end of it. We were well worthy of our lead, but Arsenal dominated possession and had us scrambling on occasions. We seemed almost concede from our own corners a lot these days. We need to sort that out. Other than that defensively we look solid. Yoshida was done in the air for the goal,but he had a good game. Stephen also looked composed and help get us out of tight spots. He's a very good footballer. Just needs to win a few more headers and then we might have our own John Stones. A few gripes, not many mind. Don't understand why Boufal keeps being dropped. He needs to be playing all the time. The more he plays the better he will get. Redmond cutting inside all day long has become predictable and tiresome. His failure to pass ten yards forward to Bertrand also does my head on. He goes backwards and ten passes later we are in the exact same position as we would have been. The goal was down to Tadic and our failure tosub him. He was knackered. He chose to close the keeper down instead of preventing the easy out ball. From then on we were short. He didn't bust a gut to get goalside. Or was too tired to do so. This enabled them to work the ball forward easily and the rest is history. Where was Lemina? He was brought on to great effect in the last home game. Why not here? Why is Forster punching everything? Romeu's distribution has been below par in recent weeks and he's also hacked a lot away rather than his usual composed and cool stuff. Difficult balance as he has-been caught overplaying on the edge of our box before. As I said, just a couple of gripes, but overall happy. That said competing with better teams has not been our problem, it's beating inferior teams. Expectation is higher and so will need to be our ruthfulness.

I recall going to their place a few years back when we had a better side than this and attempting to go toe to toe and we got tonked. We did park the bus, you could say we did play anti football to a degree, but in reality we simply devised a defensive game plan to cut out the space they need in and around the box.

worked hard. Barring Long, everyone was behind the ball working hard to regain possession and getting goalside. PEH did his bit. He looked more mobile than JWP and actually out opponenets under pressure. Looking forward to seeing him play again, perhaps with a little more space than City offered.

if they had drawn or lost he wouldn't have been offering compliments.

the physio did the old sub required gesture, so the substitionwasnt part of a time wasting ploy. Need him back. As soon as he went off Stirling's pace came into play. We cant have Yoshida out there.

Lemina...what a player we have on our hands.

only game I've seen him look really decent for us was Anfield semi. He can beat a man all ends up, which is one of the hardest things to do in football, but...well you all know the rest.

I agree. Austin was the wrong man for the job, but after scoring twice and being dropped hard not to give him ten minutes to get the winner.

two very good saves in amongst a host of comfortable ones. Got lucky with some palmed straight outwards that fell to a Saint. Kicking woeful as always. That said, I think you might be right. Thought Lemina was fantastic first half, not quite as good second.

saved me the bother. Spot on except you were too soft on Yoshida. He looked very rusty indeed. I'm not one to moan about Redmond, but thought he was a waste of a shirt and I struggle to understand why Boufal didn't get another start. He offers as much work rate and is just as reliable defensively.

what's he done?

dont get me wrong, I like Stephens and he has a great future, but for all his great play with the ball, he just does not dominate attackers in the same way VVD does. Whether he plays ahead of Hoedt is a different matter, but even he is stronger in the air and thats a basic requirement of CBs. The other option is to play three

No. HTH.

I am not sure I agree with this. In my very humble opinion where he came unstuck under Puel was his forward passing, not the stuff in the other directions. Far too much of it was intercepted. Yesterday he kept it shorter and more simple. The direction of which was back, forward and sideways - everywhere. He certainly didn't play well under Puel, but the sideways/backwards stick used to beat Puel with is a red herring. Agree with you about hopefully squeezing a player out of him. If he can replicate yesterdays display it will feel like a new signing. Well shall see.

I've been saying it for a while, but he needs to be given a long run in the side, not just a cameo, followed by a start, then dropped if he doesn't shine in that game. Play him week in, week out, rain or shine for 10-15 games. He needs to `feel the love' of a regular place and then we might see what impressed us before we signed him. It looks like that is going to happen, but if he is **** on Tuesday, play him again next weekend. Redmond, Tadic and Long have had their chance. As I think the kids say, not that I'd know, `he has mad skills', which is not only great fun to watch, but actually might be what we need to unlock some of these rock solid defences. A few less groans when a trick doesn't work might not go a miss too.

**** him...until he retires, at which point I will consider him a former Saint and thus he will regain a place in my heart. Until then, **** him.

**** opposition or not, he had a tremendous game yesterday. He won the ball back so many times and showed great desire and strength. With Romeu out he effectively was the main man and given that responsibility he really rose to the occasion. I never saw him a `destroyer' type, but if he can replicate that performance against better teams then he is going to be a real asset. What I liked most about yesterday was his ball retention. He kept it very short and simple throughout the entire match, not once looking to play an eye of a needle type pass. His biggest failing to date has been his inability to pass to a fellow Saint. Time after time he has given the ball away trying to thread passes through congested final thirds. Perhaps he is just not good enough or cut out to do that. If that is not his role then maybe he can thrive. We shall see. Fingers crossed.

Lower league football certainly has it charms. For starters it is cheaper. Focusing on that and that only, is going to live games more important than seeing your team in a higher league? It might not be applicable to many on here, but for some I wondered whether you'd rather have top flight football, but due to pricing could only afford to go to some games, or lower league football and more games due to lower prices? Yes, I know, its not as simple as that...just asking.

same players were serving up exactly the same **** last season too. That front four or five are ****.