Brumsaint

I'd like to see: McCarthy Cedric Yoshida Danso Bertrand Romeu Armstrong Djenepo Boufal Obafemi Long and have a strong bench in case they're needed.

In terms of the chances of selling players, this is my take on it: Forster - would need to be prepared to take a massive wage drop. Even then, uncertain as a 3-0 defeat was his first appearance in nearly 2 years. McCarthy - I'd rather not sell him, but seeing he's out of the first team, there might be interest. Cedric - not sure whether we'd get the kind of money we hope, but sellable. Stephens - doubt there'd be a big fee, but championship teams might take him off our hands. Hoedt - we'll take a huge loss, but someone might be mad enough to take him on the continent. Yoshida - don't want to lose him and we wouldn't get much, but plenty of teams would take him. Jones - was expecting him to feature after coming back from loan. Maybe we'll see him against Huddersfield? Otherwise, put him out on loan again. Targett - could have sold him for a good fee last summer. Glad we didn't and hope we keep him unless RH thinks Vokins is ready to play more of a part. Romeu - makes the team look more solid when he plays, so wouldn't sell, unless RH sees an upgrade available. Lemina - has been a huge disappointment considering how good he can look. Would cash in if we can. Reed - would like to see him given a chance. Definitely would attract interest in championship if not. Clasie - doubt we'll get much of a fee, but Holland seems most likely destination McQueen - terrible injury record, so unlikely to get much of a fee. Hesketh - was hoping he'd be given a chance this season. Has been good on loan and hope he can impress in pre-season rather than being sold. Boufal - hasn't done much on lan this season to justify a big fee. We'll see if he is given a chance in pre-season, or whether anyone's prepared to buy him. Moi - another terrible buy. We would be lucky to give him away. Austin - not suited to our style and goalscoring record not great recently, but would still attract interest possibly. Carillo - unlikely to recoup much of the ridiculous amount we spent on him, but can't see him coming back into the first team. Need to shift and move on. Gallagher - despite our woes up front hasn't been given a chance this season, which indicates he never will, as he's been fit as far as I know. Long - until his recent form, I assumed he'd be going, but now reckon RH may keep him. Not worth much in transfer fee, anyway. Ings - if we can cancel the £20m transfer and invest that money in someone else instead, it would be as good as selling someone IMO. I didn't even comment on Gunn, Bertrand, Vestegaard, Bednarek, Valery, Hojbjerg, JWP, Armstrong, Redmond, Sims or Obafemi, as I don't see any chance of them leaving. We need a big clear out when you look at the (lack of) quality overall. How brave will the club be?

When I saw Bednarek up for that corner I thought "**** we're going for it, hope we don't regret this!" Then Salah picked the ball up and ran in a straight line with nobody challenging him until he stuck it away and I just felt sick. I suppose it's good that we don't just settle for a point against title challengers, but a point would have been a great result and we lost it through poor decisions on defending at the end of the game. We didn't really look like scoring in the second half, but neither did they until we presented it to them. Ralph's done an amazing job to take us this far with the squad we have, but the attacking options need a complete overhaul in order to compete for a top half place, let alone Europe.

I know we're still in a terrible position in the league, but do you remember last season? McCarthy won player of the season with no real challenge from any outfield player. It does make me appreciate RH's ability to coax good performances out of the players we have and we can see players visibly improving. Redmond, JWP and Bednarek are prime examples and each could be worthy by the end of the season.

I trust Ralf and his team to get the most out of all of them. I'm surprised that Sims and Hesketh haven't been given a chance yet when others have. Considering the improvements we've seen in other players who'd been written off, I expect a few more to come good, but I think it'll take a while.

I reckon he'll go with his 4-2-2-2 formation from the off and will expect the players to fit into it. Is Targett fit? If not, he might go for Vokins at LB, as he's been promoted as a big supporter of chances for the youth players. McCarthy Cedric/Valery Vestergaard Yoshida Vokins/Targett Lemina Hojbjerg Armstrong Redmond Austin Gabbiadini (basically, who else is fit?)

A settled team would be good, but we need to know that the players have been well coached so that whoever comes into the team due to suspension or injury will be able to step in and play their part. I just hope the squad are good enough to take on his ideas and improve individually and collectively.

I'm sure I read something very similar to that in the summer. I'm hoping that his grounded nature will help him settle and produce his best form for Saints, because he's not looked the player we were hoping for so far.

I actually feel that the current crop are better, but then so is the standard of the league. Cedric is not a top 4 RB, but he's a good Premier League player, as I believe are a good half of those. Long & Austin are not good enough for a team aspiring to challenge for Europe, or even to stay up IMO, as both seem in decline, whereas many of the others, with the right coaching, are capable of playing at a high level and certainly better than the dross we had when we went down last time.

This was the first game I've made it to this season and it really hasn't filled me with much hope for the campaign ahead. We were in the ascendency for most of the middle part of the game, but without really threatening the Wolves goal. Austin hardly managed to hold the ball up successfully at all from what I remember and didn't have a chance near the goal all game, but Ings, Redmond, Hojbjerg and Lemina did a good job of keeping possession and we looked fairly competent, just unlikely to score. I think Cedric was the only player to put any crosses in and only did so with urgency towards the end. Mainly it was painfully slow and easy to defend against. I can see why Hoedt gets so much stick. I would much rather have Yoshida playing and absolutely agree with the criticism of Bertrand, too. I don't see what he offered at all - certainly not inspiration and leading by example as captain. I will be delighted if Hughes learns and turns things round, but from what my Stoke supporting family and friends say, I'd be quite surprised. I am totally baffled at the 3 at the back formation being played all pre-season and then ditched so quickly. Now we don't seem to have any kind of clear identity or style on the pitch. Also, far from having half the team from the academy, there was not a single player on the pitch who came through the ranks. So much for the Southampton way.

Did Long really play there in the first half?

Does anyone think it's possible Reed will play himself into contention as RB in pre-season? I reckon he's got no chance in midfield, as we have far too many other players ahead of him there, but could he be like McQueen and make the switch? I know he played there quite a lot for Norwich last season, so is that the reason we haven't been linked with signing any right backs yet?

Am I right in thinking we played three CBs without anyone who normally plays as a CB in the second half?

Finally! Now let's hope deals for players are sorted in time for pre-season, so everyone knows where they stand.

I agree with the majority here saying that this was an underachieving team always a few results from pulling away. I wrote a blog post about how lucky the board were that the late gamble with Hughes paid off here if you're interested: missedtrees.wordpress.com/2018/05/09/saints-board-fortunate-that-hughes-sparks-a-revival-to-save-top-flight-status