Giordano

German fourth division. 1man, 1 drum...plus his kids! http://www.11freunde.de/video/flimmerkiste/der-ein-mann-mob

Wait until either MS or VW get suspended/injured/lose form. This year we have fantastic back up. Last year we did not. Last year we were rubbish until our DM's got into a rhythm. This year we have started with the new "big money" signing as - quite frankly - you would expect, and dropped Cork rather than drop Morgan - all natural logical decisions. IF/When there are suspensions/injuries or form drops Cork will get his chance. I agree about directness : I think that Jrod was direct running with ball last year- case in point goal v Liverpool, but he then tailed off. Why? Please do it again Jrod. Ramirez started doing that but then he stopped too. Why? If those two do not do it then it is only Clyne and Shaw to take players on and go past them as Ads can beat a player but can rarely get away from them, and Osvaldo does not seem that kind of player. This element of the game is the one with the most risk. Possession football is less risky, taking a guy on but getting tackled / dispossessed opens us up to what is being called a transition situation from attack to defence, and depending upon if our full backs are in place or not this could be disastrous against teams just lobbing a long ball forward to a fast powerful attacker...case in point west brom with Lukaku. It is a valid strategy, already being used last year and this against Southampton to let us have the ball and defend well but to take advantage of a number of transition situations that will happen every game to release a marauding striker on exposed centre backs.

A minus for me. Three World class starting players. Best transfer window in my memory. Only give a "minus" because in an ideal, perfect world they would have joined earlier bonded earlier etc and it might have helped get results quicker. But that's a "might". Those that want pace or feel we lack wide pace - I think Clyne and Shaw have enough pace, in our standard formation they are our "wingers". Chambers CAN bomb on but he is still learning how to play that position don't forget- and also don't forget he got the highest score in the training VO2 max tests ( basically suggesting he has got the most efficient engine in the team ie he is loosely what you could describe as the fittest) as has Jrod who is faster than any centre back ive seen and one of the fastest in our squad for sure, and if you need more for whatever reason Id pick Omar Rowe- who is (I think) the fastest we have in a straight line at the club.

Sochaux just became one of my favorite French teams. I shall watch them on BT1+2 whenever possible and report back. I am interested to know what Mayuka can do if given a run in a team that believes in him. I wanted to see him play but it does not seem to be that we will, unless its for the french lot. He is meant to be fast and a goalscorer. Hope he scores plenty goals quickly. Good luck,Mayuka. If im ever over there i might go visit. And I hope he does well for the Chipolopolo.

Good point Duncan- might make him third then! Yay, podium!

Given Saints had to forego around £21.5million + in potential sell on fees in return for a promising young goalkeeper and a small cash compensation fee I reckon that makes Tommy the 4th or 5th most expensive goalie of all time behind Buffon, Casillas, Neur and another one i cant remember off top of my head - but more than Hart anyway. Rock on Tommy!

I also don't understand why we've shoe-horned Chambers and Ward-Prowse in the team, they're not ready for the 1st team in my opinion and we should be playing our best team every time no matter what. The team we had last year was only good enough to avoid relegation on the penultimate day. We needed to change something. So we bought some new players and are giving some younger players a chance. Are you against that? Should we play the team that nearly got relegated last year? Seriously? Just what do you expect? We should go from just avoid relegation to beating the likes of Sunderland and Norwich easily? Wakey wakey - its the Premier League and Cardiff can beat Man City, Stoke can beat West Ham away, West Brom can draw at Goodison.....anything can happen. If you think we spent £xxm so that instantly equals team bonding shape performance and results improve vertically then take off those rosetinted glasses. It takes time and luck. A penalty given yesterday and the game changes such that we might have won or drawn away....and would you still be so critical? In rebuilding and upgrading a team occasionally you get lucky and the combination of new players and young players plus the best of the others works instantly, other times it takes time. Some clubs allow the manager and team more time than others. Many agree that allowing a team the chance to settle with each other and manager is better than constant chop and change. We have played three games this season that count. If we get better than last year that's a good season top ten amazing. Get real chaps.

Pleased for Rickie, pleased for JWP, Luke and Calum. I do not wish injury upon any Liverpool or Manchester United forwards in the next week or two but if they did pick up a niggling ankle injury or muscle strain in training then I would be delighted to see Rickie get on the pitch in a World Cup match to further stake his claim to go to Rio. Rickie in Rio is beyond Roy of the Rovers and Escape to Victory....it would almost require a long running West End musical written by Lloyd-Webber if we ended up by some miracle winning it and Rickie scored the winning penalty in the shoot-out v Brazil and turns away joyously lifting his England shirt to reveal a "I did it for Saints" message on his Saints shirt ..:-) And then i woke up.

I cannot remember how many strikers Roy usually picks, but suspect its 4. If so its Rooney, Wellbeck, Sturridge and hopefully SRL, who will probably not play unless there are injuries or we are coasting late in the game. If its 3 then I think no place for SRL, if its 5 then he really should get in the squad. Four is the difficult one though as Roy does have the option of really piccing me off and picking Defoe instead....

Jack Cork is first reserve as holding midfielder to MS and Big Vic this season based on form. We need a high quality back up for EVERY position. I think Cork is still number one reserve for those two myself as holding midfielder.And he will get games, and not just Carling Cup as our high octane game needs fresh legs. You rightly mention the pleasing (re)emergence JWP and the reliability of SD but I would still rather have Cork if either MS or VW were unavailable for that DM position. So, no, cashing in on Cork is not a good idea, it undermines the reason we got BigVic in the first place. Having the quality of Cork in reserve for that vital position is excellent news. We have strength in depth. Wait until the weaker squads are down to bare bones, and dropping points they should'nt and we are still putting out a strong side and the gap betweeen the bottom three and us lengthens ...we will be picking up points on the back of that and gain the extra confidence needed to make that top ten push...

£37 is too much frankly. When you add up Petrol parking programmes drink food its easily £60+. And that's just for one person. My family and it nearer £200 + per game. I love saints but cannot afford that. Not is it vfm because I can get a flight to turkey Greece Spain etc for a weekend withy gf including hotel breakfast transfers etc for that. And watch the match online from my laptop from the beachside bar with wifi. Or on the multitude of TV's showing it live. And NO, seeing Sunderland live does Not make it worth it for me. Single bloke i once was many moons ago - yes- bloke with saints supporting gf and two saints supporting kids - no, sorry. Only occasional matches for me nowadays......

Spoken like a true Saints supporter! Sadly, I agree. Publicly I expect conclusive victory, - if we can beat Sociedad then we can beat this lot......privately I am considering how I will feel later today if they steal 3 points from us, or 2 even, and trying to come to terms with it....

Mcbendy I have the ambivalent approach to Saints you are noting....I usually lay saints in-play when we are winning as a consequence. It's like paying off the fates to let us win. I work out what a victory would be worth to me, ie I might say its worth £20 to me right now for that 1-0 or 2-0 to us scoreline to remain like that and would happily give that to anyone if in return we got the win. If we should then draw or lose I have the minor consolation that the £20 may have grown to £30,£50 or £200. I rarely do it the other way as I would always get happy if we were losing then mounted a fight back to draw or win, though one memorable occasion against mk Dons I think it was ( when Forte saved us...) I laid them when they were 0-2 ( if I recall correct) in second half and collected a few hundred pounds plus ecstatic happiness... In general I'd say don't bet if you are doing it as a career as you will probably ultimately lose, if its small stakes - then wait for Saints to be winning and then "lay" them. I'm sure opening up a bet fair account, doing a few tutorials they have online etc will explain to you how that works, but that's probably the best way to bet on Saints given your predisposition/ feelings on the matter.

Scotland have announced there squad for 6th September game - any ideas when England will do there's? Saturday night?

Anyone seen one in Phuket, Bodrum, Hong Kong or Vietnam yet?

If Rickie scores against Sunderland, scores v Barnsley and scores v Norwich but Carroll, Rooney Wellbeck and Sturridge are fit but not scoring will he still get in the England squad for the match on the 6th? Or will he be dropped despite being the on form striker, delivering what was needed to save England and Roy versus Scotland? Odds are he won't even play v Barnsley or not much, so its two matches. Yeah, exactly. Would be like MLT v Russia all over again... Lets see if Roy is as spineless as all the other England managers have been regarding picking players on form rather than who they play for the last thirty years.

I agree. Without JP I'd rather give Isgrove the chance, or even Rowe if there is a bench place open for them. I'm very proud of having the youngest EPL team with the most british players coming from the best british academy....We have always known that buying our way into the top four is virtually impossible, and that wheeler dealering our way into the top four virtually the same, but doing so by creating World Class players of our own plus a bit of the first two means, well then its not a total fantasy. Even being competitive again this year with this team is a massive result. A top ten finish would be outstanding and anything above last year job done imo.

Hey Phil, I'm one of those that think Jrod has a shout of playing for England. I can see in him attributes from all the current England starting forwards (Welbeck, Sturridge, Lambert, Rooney, Carroll), except I think that his finishing has let him down a bit and being played out of position/ learning how to play in a not conventional number 9 role ( however you want to put it) at beginning of last season disrupted his development. I think Jrod has got pace at good levels, power at good levels and growing, technique which is improving and hopefully will continue to improve playing in this saints side, attitude outstanding and work-rate which is excellent, aerial ability which is fairly good and shooting which is fair but too often at the goalie - needs to aim for the backl of the net not the centre which is a nerves/confidence thing to guarantee his shot is on target basically .... His composure at the death is the missing element. Not ruthless and devastating in his finishing yet. If he gets that then I see an England call up. He also has age on his side.

Of course he would not want to play second fiddle to an 18year old. But that 18 year old shares some important characteristics with him namely Pace and Dribbling (running with the ball) ability. FB might be an ideal position for him to showcase those talents in our current formation. He is not likely to immediately get a game otherwise because he's basically an upgraded Puncheon as far as i can recall. The alternate is that he is added to the list of attacking midfielders/ strikers we already have in the team and fights it out with Jrod, Adam Lallana, Gaston Ramirez, Guly, Mayuka etc for a place. I have not seen him play since Swansea so have no idea what he's like nowadays but he used to be direct and speedy and good with ball at feet......

According to @tancredipalmeri check out #TancrediTop500.

I did suggest he might be tried in that position if Shaw was unavailable and had been retrained, yes. I also think its not very likely for reasons I have also noted. I think its helpful in analyzing potential signings like this to keep an open mind. Same with Osvaldo. If a possible outcome sounds stupid or ridiculous or whatever to anyone reading it - fair enough - when assessing possibilities you must start by including all of them, including the ridiculous. I don't think Osvaldo will play anywhere other than the most central of our strikers because he is a very good finisher and you usually put your very good finisher near the goals - but i don't rule out him coming in from the right hand side of the three AM's nor playing behind SRL in the second striker role. Not ruling it out.

Good OP thread mate cheers. I think the best when fit line up currently is this using 4231 : Boruc Clyne Lovren Yoshida Shaw Big Vic Morgan Jrod Osvaldo Ads. SRL.

Yes I think you are right. Its very rare - in fact I'm trying to think but cannot recall - for a left winger to revert to left back. But can think of loads that play or played left back and end up pretty much as a left winger for a lot of the time on the pitch. Its just a possible option that I thought about and had not seen discussed anywhere else that's all. I think much more likely is that two out of Clyne,Chambers,Shaw will be our FB's this season with Clyne playing at LB if needs be rather than Fox - with Fox used there only in a real emergency. When Cork plays at RB and gets high up the pitch (like v Sociedad - who killed Lyon last night btw- we MUST be CL quality based on that ;-) ) I do get worried about his ability to turn and get back to cover quickly if we lose possession - so pace in the FB position in the way we play is not optional - its ESSENTIAL. That is why our CB's cannot play there in this formation, if they do we need play a different way. In summary - if Luke gets injured and both CC and NC are fit we are still ok.We don't need mess around converting leftwingers into left backs.

That's quite a compliment. Thank you. Derry is very knowledgeable indeed about Saints and football in general.

Yes I am probably mental. Good guess! But on the subject of the player - if you stop to think about it a moment you will see that I understand SS attributes as an attacker fairly well - they are common knowledge - like born in Bath, his 22 swansea goals, his penalty taking, his long mazy length of the pitch goal of the season type scoring runs, his representing eng from u17,u18,u19,u21 and olympics where he scored. His not playing since May last year, his loads of loan spells all over the place, I understand Holloway loves him too having had him before but seemingly wants JP (why you might ask?)........................but facts are hes not moved on in that role - Theo, Oxo, Lennon and others have all got that speedy wide player position sewn up for England and he's not made it to the full team yet and clearly he's not a star at Man City. So we need a speedy wide/ dribbling player at Saints do we? Yes we do i think. If he plays he displaces either Adam Lallana or JWP or GR or Guly or SD and of course JP I guess, none of whom are convincing at turning over the right back and putting a cross in regularly ( except Adam is playing well again and can put the fb on his ar4s on occasion whilst JP does attack players..) so maybe he is just a conventional alternate attacking wide midfielder. Of course he might displace Jrod, SRL and DO but i think the latter two are very different to him and think we have got a long term project going with jrod that i don't see being given up on quite yet...in fact i expect jrod to be on fringe of the WC squad this year and might be a nice outside bet to make it too...so i don't think he could oust jrod- but itys possible his presence might give him a gee-up. Or maybe he might be able to do what he is known to be best at- running with ball- from the left back position if Luke was injured or suspended or rested for instance I mean, i dont think anyone feels Foxy ( good player that he is ) is quite top EPl fb quality do they? Yup, I must be mental, but its not such a mental idea really in that context..consider this- shaw gets injured- fox replaces him- and we will have to play in a different way as fox cannot do those runs- but SS could....