mitch01

Lallana strangely quiet. I think we will win.

Would be brilliant if he ended his career with us. He has been one of the main reasons why supporting Southampton had been so much fun the last few years.

His form is just sensational. I honestly think he is one of the top 15 or so players in the PL now

Gets endlessly written off on here. He may not be our number one man anymore but he is still a great option. Some of his lofted passes wide today were great, and he took his goal superbly.

£3m for Jack Cork. Thats a funny joke.

Really looking forward to tuning into this one, disappointed that I can't make it down. COYR

I just watched the Saintsplayer highlights. His turn round the defender at the end in the box was phenomenal. If he's got that in his locker at 18 he could be something a bit special.

I really rated Connolly as a player. Shame he was a bit injury prone...

Way way too soon to think about getting rid, unless the rift with the rest of the squad is irreparable. He clearly has an awful lot of talent, but he just hasn't really started to fulfil yet for whatever reason. If he hasn't got up to speed in a year/18 months time, then is time to start thinking that we have wasted our money. As things are, it really wouldn't surprise me if he ended up having a great career with us. His time in Italy shows him to be an extremely talented striker; he needs a run of undisturbed pitch time before we can really condemn him.

Incredibly stupid thing to do which further disrupts his already frustrating season. However, I find it unlikely that the club would give up on our record signing just yet.

Decent end to a traumatic 48 hrs. Probably too much to hope that NC will ride back in with the cavalry, hopefully his good work can continue nevertheless.

Wasn't that last May? Unless he's just mentioned it again on his way out of traing..?

That's my hope too. He's done an awful lot to get us to this league position, as well as developing the exciting new traing ground, and it seems a real shame for him to leave now. Let's hope he's just maneuvering for great power and that it pays off. Would be a very bad blow to the club if he walked.

I'd say its definitely up for debate, but I'm leaning more towards the pro-Gaston side. He gives the ball away too much, doesn't always play with enough intensity and could be stronger on the ball. However, he has also played two passes in the last couple of home games that nobody else in the squad would be capable of seeing or playing. The first was against Spurs when we were chasing another equaliser, threading an incredibly well weighted pass through to Lallana who couldn't beat Lloris. Then against Chelsea he clipped a stunning pass through to Rodriguez who was tackled before he could finish. Both of those had me out of my seat. He has phenomenal talent, its just whether it can be fulfilled, and I don't mind admitting that I would have expected to see much more from him by now. Still, I'm willing to stick with him and hopefully he shows more improvement when he gets a run in the team - I'm sure Pochettino is doing his best to bring the performances out of him.

I remember when his name was mud around here.

True, but I suspect that Puncheon is playing at close to his full potential, while Ramirez is nowehere near his.

I liked that bit where he was a massive part of why we got to the PL. Still, not playing well now so **** him!

Same player, different form. Way too simplistic to say he's suddenly no better than L1. He actually did OK at times last season too. Not a 'liability', just not a PL player either and now well out of confidence.

But what about 18 months ago when he was absolutely quality in the Championship? I agree he's not good enough for where we want to be but there's no need to talk rubbish like that.

He is an absolutely unbelievable player for his age.

I respect that position but he really is a bag of nerves, 21 year old or not. He makes some really poor decisions, and a really exceptional goalkeeping talent wouldn't (in my opinion) be doing that this regularly at 21 with a fair few PL appearances under his belt. I've always been of the opinion that he has some great ability (that excellent save at home to Newcastle last season for example), but at some point he has to start showing a bit of command of his box and self-assurance. I haven't really seen that so far. Wouldn't surprise me at all if he had a very good career in football but the regularity of his suspect moments suggests to me that it won't happen fast enough to be with us.

As I have always said, he has the necessary quality to be a very good keeper. His technique and reach is better than Kelvin's, therefore he is a good prospect. He can also play a bit with his feet. However, as has already been pointed out on this thread, that is only half the battle for a professional keeper. He appears to be a weaker keeper now than he was when he was first in the team, meaning he has struggled to mentally shake off his mistakes. Decision-making and confidence have got to be much much better if he's ever going to get anywhere with us. Today was a step in the right direction though. If I had to guess, I'd say he'll end up in the Championship. Its very rare for a keeper to be this shaky for this long and to end up as a top class performer.

Good performance all round. Back four were great, like seeing Yoshida back in - not sure how he was ever rated below Jos after how well he played last season.

He has good ability but is making all the wrong decisions at the moment. Being ultra critical he could have come for Soldado's cross, but otherwise the goals weren't down to him. He doesn't exactly exude confidence though, and him combined with Jos and Fox today helped Spurs no end.