verlaine1979

So needless from Armstrong. There was an easy offload and we'd have been on the break.

Bednarek and McCarthy the only real weak links in our possession game. I never feel confident that we're going to keep the ball when play goes through either of them.

Means its unlikely to be a mental illness issue, considering all the work being done to destigmatize depression in sport. You're not exactly filling us with confidence that he's going to play a long-term part at the club by alluding to a personal misfortune so terrible that it cannot and should not ever become public knowledge.

I'd be interested to see a map of where Redmond's take-on attempts occur on the pitch. My guess would be most of it is around the half way line or immediately after throw ins, when he's quite good at shifting the ball around a defender from a standing start. He's much less effective when carrying the ball over distances bigger than 5-10 yards, especially when pace is involved (as, contrary to forum wisdom, he's not got much straight line speed).

Walcott's control is still very good, which enables him to turn more quickly than most of our attackers. His pace is obviously not what it once was, but several times against Newcastle he picked the ball up centrally and advanced to the edge of the box, driving the defense backwards and allowing our wide players to make runs. He's a different threat to Ings, and certainly won't score as many, but I do think he adds a new dimension to how we build attacks through the middle, which could unsettle teams who think they have us worked out.

Agreed - his technique is okay, but not nearly good enough to make up for his lack of acceleration, top speed and strength. Tadic was also pretty slow, but his control and awareness are miles better, which is why he's starring against the likes of Madrid in the Champion's League, and Elyounoussi is starring against Motherwell in Scotland.

Why would a club breaking even or making transfer profits find itself with a vastly elevated wage bill compared to the rest of the league? As I've said, Wolves spent a large amount of money to get promoted in the two years after their takeover, but they appear to be the exception rather than the rule.

You're just way off in your estimate of how much teams have to spend to get promoted. For instance, in the five years prior to promotion, Leeds made a net transfer profit of over £14m. In contrast, Wolves spent pretty big after their takeover, but their pre-promotion transfer outlay was still under £60m net, and 1/3 of that was buying Neves who is now worth around £50m just by himself. If anyone is spending anything close to £100m to get promoted, they are the outlier, not the likes of Sheff Utd.

Thing is, you don't have to spend as much. It doesn't cost £100m to get to the PL from the Championship, and once you do get promotion, your spending spree to stay up is funded (for now) by the vastly increased TV revenue and the safety net of parachute payments. You also seem to imply that football club owners (outside of Man U, Arsenal and a few others with massively elevated commercial incomes) earn money from their clubs' annual revenues - they don't. If you're trying to make money from buying a non-elite football club, the only game in town is asset appreciation, in which case there's almost no value in a club like Saints unless you're planning a tilt at the CL, which would be VASTLY more expensive than trying to take a Championship club into the PL.

Haha - happy to take the dings from this one.

Yup, his passing has been rubbish and he looks like he's running through treacle.

Vest doesn't really jump - he leans towards the ball and hopes his height advantage will be enough.

Marginal gains at that age. Do you have anyone in mind that went from having poor technique to good technique (bearing in mind that I'm only talking about his ball striking/finishing and nothing else)? You can usually spot whether a player has good control or shooting from their first handful of appearances.

That's not the point - the point is that Adams' finishing is what it is. He's not going to gain technique at 24.

Two things: 1. 27 isn't a player's peak anymore. It was when teams didn't debut players until they were well into their 20s, but according to Dortmund's sport science team, players decline from 26 onward. 2. Adams isn't fast (he was easily outpaced by a Burnley CB only a few games ago). Like Redmond, I'll leave the reason why people assume he must be quick uninvestigated.

I hope so, but I'm not convinced. His technique striking the ball looked pretty ropey at Birmingham, and there's no reason his confidence would've been low then. I think with the exception of the goal against city, all his goals for us have basically involved him whacking the ball as hard as he can in the direction of the goal. When he tries to go for placement, it usually ends up straight at the keeper. Still, he's very strong, holds the ball up well and is much more of a nuisance for defenders than Long ever has been for us. I can see why Ralph appreciates him.

"tamed" ffs. Missionary Christianity of course having such a spotless historical record when it comes to not engaging in territorial conquest and genocide.

Still looks painfully slow running with the ball. First goal was a superficially nice finish, but the keeper was stranded and he had literally no defender to beat carrying the ball forward. Essentially invited to bend it into an empty net from 20 yards.

Not really - leaving aside the likes of Chelsea, Everton and Man City, who have received scads of cash from their owners, even clubs like Brighton, Palace and Wolves have continued to receive owner funding after their promotion seasons. For the rest its too early to say, but I see no reason to assume that Villa, Fulham or Leeds' owners will follow our path rather than the one taken by Wolves.

That was the best I've seen Adams play for us. Held the ball up well and was very energetic in pressing and chasing. His finish was still a bit hit hard and hope for my taste, but I suppose we have Ings providing the precision.

11 out of 20 clubs have received meaningful owner financing over the past five years. And among clubs who haven't had any money from their owners in that period, both Leicester and Newcastle have had very sizeable (£100m+) loans from their owners immediately prior. Arsenal, Spurs and Man U also haven't had any cash from their owners, but they have significantly more commercial revenue than any club of our size. Only Burnley, West Brom, West Ham and Saints are really trying to make it in this league on a self-sustaining basis without having large commercial revenues.

Only a few glimpses, but seems like he plays on the half turn and looks to move the ball forward quickly, which our midfield hasn't always done the past few years.

Salisu looks pretty slow off the blocks, but like he might be able to get up to a decent top speed over a sprint. Agree that Diallo looks more mobile than any midfield option we've had since Schneiderlin (okay, Lemina was pretty nimble, but he wasn't an option for long).

Isn't that how scouting internationally has always worked? I don't think they were flying back and forth from Southampton every weekend before this. Scouting has been pretty gash for several seasons now, so a shake-up is welcome.

Odd, I'm often struck by how rarely Vest seems to jump when defending in the air. If he can win it simply by stooping over his opponent, he will, but if someone is jumping up to contest him, he's much less dominant.