Chez

quality, expensive or overpriced? Sharp, Osvaldo and Mayuka will all be back and need shifting before funds/wages are available for their replacement.

I would have to agree. He needs to play in the middle. How you get him and Lallana into the same side I don't know.

The problem is he is so far from being the player that dominated one or two teams earlier in the season, that having him in the side weakens us big style. The match fitness should be gained in training and with the under 21s side. Personally I think we are a worse side to watch with him in it, but result wise it's hard to argue.

Not sure the side ever gives up, they just got strangled by a team confident of their position in the game, helped no end by sloppy over ambitious passing that gave them to ball back. Players bust a gut, the effort was there, but they have to be better.

Unlucky to go a goal down, a ricochet put Suarez in and he couldn't miss, but there was quite a bit of luck in our defending in the first half as the SS movement caused no end of problems, so there was always the possibility that they would score. That said we were by far the better side in the first half, responding very well to conceding and creating two guilt edge chances. Lallana should hit it first time and Jrod has to put his in the corner. You can't miss those, just as you can't miss from one yarder at Sunderland and expect to get something from a game. We started well in the second half, but the second goal knocked the stuffing out of us and we went to pieces. Far too many miss placed passes from the likes of Morgan. All momentum was lost time after time. Thought ours away a stick on pen. Not seen it again mind. Boruc - this lofted passes out to the wing do my head in. What the fu ck can shaw do with those sort of passes other tan get flattered? One fabulous save from Gerrard. solid game. Chambers - another good game. Very composed on the ball. Let's tie him down to a five year deal quick smart. That said when he got in the box in the second half he has to pick someone out. Lovern - very poor game. Looked sluggish after the long lay off, made lots of bad decisions and a very bad mistake for their second goal. Need him to quickly get back to his best. He was below par just before the injury, so I was worried before the game that he had lost his form. Fonte - got Lovren out of jail a lot but then made some mistake of his own getting caught in possession right in front of the goal. Overall not a bad game considering the talent they have up front. A lot of decent positions taken up. Shaw - terrible first half. Mis-controlled almost everything and lost the ball a number of times. Looked nervous. Found his feet in the second half. He seems to want to dribble inside a lot. Not sure that helps us. We need a goal from him. Cork - when the security blanket of Davis was taken off Liverpool took over in midfield, which is worrying. Cork had a good first half, but ran out of legs and longer passing became awry. Morgan - decent first half,but terrible second. Far too many longer over ambitious cross field balls that were cut out. This is not our game and the loss of possession killed us. Davis - we had created enough in the first half with him in the side, why change it? That said Ramirez looked excellent when he came on so the sub seemed to work, but when the second goal went in we suddenly missed his control and the game disappeared. Lallana - amazing first half. Took the **** out of Gerrard and caused mayhem. I have said it before, but is there a better player at controlling the ball whilst on the move? Gerrard got hold of him the second, but that was helped by some terrible service to him. Should have scored in the first half. Faded when out wide. Lambert - decent first half but he is dropping deeper and deeper. At least when he found himself out wide Rodriguez was in the middle for his crosses. Carried no threat in the second half and thought SG should have come on 5 minutes earlier. Not all bad, linked up quite well, but he doesn't seem to be quite sharp enough to get the ball under in such crowded areas. Jrod - you have to tuck those away. For me he frustrates with his dribbling as he never seems to know what he is doing and ends up just running straight into defenders more often than not. Should some great strength in the first half, putting his body in and coming away with the ball. No threat in the second half. I don't think he is international quality myself.Good club player though. Ramirez - thought he was terrific in the middle, but when pushed out wide he doesn't see the ball and is little threat. That must have been a MP decision to move him out there and it was a bad one. Great impact sub when there is more room, but we got desperate later on and his passing got over ambitious. Wanyama - still rusty as his first touch showed, but he improved a little. Not enough to get a grip of the game, but damage was done by then. SG - no impact. Should have got more time.

he impressed me in the games I saw him. Always looked very composed, showed good vision and had a great first touch. Very Scholes-like style wise. I was a little surprised that we released him to be honest, but you can't keep them all and the management would have a much better idea of his true ability.

to a degree, form needs to be overlooked as by the time Brazil comes round players may have either found it or lost it. If players have been shot for quite a long time then I don't see why they should be selected. I agree with W G that Ricky does what Hodgson is looking for. Leads the line and collects it to feet linking the play. That's what he is really good at. That and pentalties of course.

boy, they must have some bloody good players at CM?

If Assou Ekotto hadn't got injured bale would have been sent out on loan by Bagpuss and who knows what might have happened. What a player. Nice to have watched him in a saints shirt. Enjoy these really top talents while you can, because the likes of shaw are perhaps not likely to stay forever.

to make the general public feel intelligent or more confident of their own oratory skills?

without question Garth Crooks is the worse football pundit on TV at present IMO. I think he speaks so slowly simply because his brain is too small to cope with the twin task of thinking and opening and closing his mouth. This horrific stuttering delivery is so off putting, for a short while you actually think he is an intelligent guy, but when you decipher what he has been struggling to say for the last half hour you realise that he has told you the square route of **** all. He annoys me more than Jimmy Hill did, which surely is impossible. Jimmy could at least speak clearly in joined up sentences, all be it to tell us a complete load of ********. Crooks doesn't even manage to come up with ********, or if he does I have got so bored waiting for him to deliver it that I've switched off. If your job is to speak about football IMO the bare minimum requirement is to a) know about football and b) be able to speak. He struggles with both. Ideally coming up with coherent arguments and insightful or original thoughts should be a must too. However it seems that you have to have played professional football to be allowed to talk about it on TV, so that reduces the selection pool somewhat. It annoys me greatly that my TV licence is being used to pay people like him. I think by and large ex footballers are poor pundits. Not all, but many. I actually much prefer listening to the local journalists as they at least come up with original thoughts and they know exactly what is going on in the background. These guys are the real specialists and should be used much more.

futures monkey muff.

why did we go all red, rather than all white. Much preferted the white kit from last season to the red. The terribly cheap looking stick on logo does ruin it a bit though.

The skates were fractionally less **** than Stanley. Oh well, can't lose them all.

Saints fans swelling the away numbers. The skates are woeful. BT getting dogs abuse. It's set up perfectly for his cup ear ****take as Stanley score a last minute winner.

Personally I'm not all that fussed by the 82 shirt, but I don't buy shirts so my vote counts for little, but I do like the Hummel style. I'm not sure we ever saw the best of them. Again they are still going and are a little better than Patrick IMO.

quite nice site that looks at some old Patrick stuff including Saints. http://shop.patrick.eu/heritage

as I was saying...terrible:

Patrick are still going. Their current sportswear looks terrible and they don't even sell Keagan-kid or Michelle Platini boots any more.

no, but I believe that away fans can buy on the night from an away ticket booth. Just head to the away end and ask a steward.

possibly due to lack of space just in front of the back four. Premiership sides are much more wary of players getting in that space in between the lines, so they fill it with bodies, which is a problem for Lambert as that's where he likes to do his work.

Decent post. I like it when people offer an alternative when he called out. I have no idea if he would be good for us, but always nice to broaden to mind. As we saw when the great Adkins was sacked, the grass can be greener (possibly). MP may well be a very good manager, but more often than not it is the situation the manager lands in that defines them. When he joined we were a mid table side, much improved on early season issues. We had money to spend and a glut of great young players coming through - none of which were down to him. Pretty much the perfect storm for a manager if you ask me. Answering the OP, I'd prefer him to stay as I think the stability that will offer will help us next season more than the invigoration a new man might bring in. As we have seen at Man United a new CEO and manager can't half **** up a transfer window.

Some might say that we needed his arial strength yesterday. Jos would have been a better option than Yoshida IMO and this was a poor selection by MP. No modification of the side to combat the opposition by the manager.

He will be sacking his chief scout then I presume as he's brought 8 in since he joined.

Don't underestimate what Davis does for us defensively and in terms of possession. I like Ramirez a lot, but we will be more open and have less ball. Whether that is compensated by what Ramirez offers I don't know, but just because Davis does have a nut meg in him doesn't mean he does contribute greatly to what is good about us.