Chez

If you gave me this seasons shirt I wouldn't wear it. No chance. The worst designed saints kit ever, including the pony abominations. The good thing is, it can only get better. You simply could not design something as bad as that again...surely.

Spot on. We may have only lost three players in the summer, but the three were crucial. Wanyama gave us the size and power to compete in midfield, Pelle helped to prevent all those balls you talk about coming straight back and Mane gave us a real goal threat, stretched teams and turned bad displays into good ones with his magic.

We found Classie...

Foul, but not worth a yellow for me.

IMO he was undersold. outstanding footballer, I've not seen anyone control the ball on the run like he can.

Struggling to be honest. Boufal looked good to me. He can beat one, even two opponents all ends up. He looks top draw. Got to get most out of him.

criticise his tactics and his decisions, but when fans say stuff like this it drives me nuts. He lives, eats, sleeps and breaths SFC. What on earth makes you think he doesn't give a toss?

This is painful to watch.

Nyom is right up there amoung the worst players I've ever seen in the prem. When I saw him for Watford against us I thought someone had pulled another Ali dia.

Agreed. It's quite clearly a tactic of allowing CBs to deal with everything, which on occasions can have fans like me shouting at him to get off his line, but over the long term has been something that has worked well for us.

one step at a time...

Agreed. Kicking has gone to pot since injury, nothing else has changed.

Id like to make my usual push for a signing from the championship. Won't solve our immediate issues, but as was the case with Oliver Burke, if you don't get in early enough his price will rocket. Ben Osbourne, also at Forrest, looks a good prospect.

Genuine question: has the club paid Kat any/all the money lent/given over the years?

Can I make my annual plea for us to return to dark navy shorts.

I'd like to echo that. Absolutely horrific kits that must have been designed by committee and even worse tracksuits, that I can only think must have been designed by a child. I don't think it will be possible to produce something worse, so there's the silver lining.

Never seen him come off his line since he joined. He doesn't come for crosses and offers nothing in the way of a sweeper. He simply stands there allowing his defence to do the work. Nothing has changed in that department. The only good thing is that defenders know this is the case so there is no confusion and he doesn't make poor decisions - he doesn't make any decisions. His kicking has been **** since he came back from the injury. He simply doesn't seem to have mentally recovered from what happened and as a result he doesn't set himself right and there is no fluidity to his kicking movement. He could get worse as confidence erodes. Perhaps we ought to stop passing back to him every two minutes. As for his shot stopping, nothing has changed. It's just that shots are currently going in the corners rather than straight at him.

I've said this for years: with the ball he is comfortable at this level, without it he is a total non-entity. You don't need pace to play in the prem, but if your opponent is technically as good AND does have pace, straight away you are at a disadvantage. Personally I've seen an improvement in his game this season. I've seen some interceptions, actually getting close to an opponent and even the odd tackle. Much more needed though, especially when up against the better sides.

Don't need one. He pulled his shirt about 5 metres outside the box. It was a professional foul and deserved a red as it prevented him running through and slotting home. Once inside the box, Redmond tried to grab Ali, missed and fell, almost but not into him. It wasn't a pen. No chance.

Is this a pay structure the club has told fans about? I must have missed that. How does it work? What is the limit? What is Morgan's wage? What is he asking for now? Is it not all private information and paper guesswork? The nearest thing to evidence of an actual wage figure is Gold saying Austin wasn't worth the £100k a week he wanted. Saints fans don't want to believe that we are paying him that, but I'm willing to. If we are, that means we wouldn't be going far beyond that to pay Morgan the £120k a week wages he may or may not be getting or wanting now.

our midfield is so lightweight.

Could easily have been 6 and but for a great Fonte tackle 7. Let's not kid ourselves, Spurs were the better side before the red too.

its poor that we seemed to lack the fitness or inclination to do it for longer than 15 minutes.

It's not just one of those games, it's a game that shows exactly where we are as a club. One that can score, even beat teams, but not one that really competes toe to toe, even dominates as we once did against the big sides. The gradual removal of top talent may not have shown last season in results, but whereas once we dictated now we hang on. We miss the Wanyama/Morgan partnership more than people think...

is that not the point of this kind of thread - identifying players that, in some fans opinions, perhaps aren't and maybe won't be good enough to form a side that really competes with the top sides like Spurs, not hangs on for grim life.