Teddeer

1 hour ago, Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan said:

My team for the game would be:

Bazunu, KWP, ABK, Bednarek, Salisu, Perraud (if fit, if not Djenepo), Lavia, JWP, S Armstrong, Adams, Aribo In a 5-1-2-2/ 5-2-3 sort of setup, where JWP can either sit with Lavia, and Armstrong push up, with Aribo tucking wide on the other side, or a front 2 with Armstrong and JWP behind and Lavia holding.

They obviously have so much more quality in the key areas, so it will come down to whether we can outplay their system. If they have a front 3 against our 3 centre backs, we will need Lavia to drop in and help. But we might have more numbers in midfield and could win the game there if JWP is at his best. Will be interesting to see how we setup. There could be great battles at wing back, if they have Perisic at left wing-back KWP will need to be on it defensively but could expose him going forward.

 

 

Not sure it'd be wise to leave out Romeu with all his experience - he's often our best player so wouldn't want to see him left out. Think he'll boss Hojbjerg if he plays.

2 minutes ago, Smirking_Saint said:

He looked very good in Belgium to be fair to him, but it’ll remain to be seen if he can replicate that same form in the premier league really

Id say their squad is steady, but nothing spectacular. Its well stewarded by Potter but after losing Bissouma and Cucu Id say they are significantly weaker. Its worth noting too that they did well off the back of Maupay/Trossard early/mid season form and from memory (purely memory so apologies if this is wrong) but it feels like last was maupays/trossards best seasonal return and Im not sure they have the consistency to do it again

Of course with 100m ready to go they could look very different in a couple of weeks but they have a lot to do in the market

I would hope that we also have a lot still to do in this window even if we don't have 100m burning a hole in our pocket. Doubt we'll survive with the squad we've got so I'm hoping that Ralph was genuine when he said we have more business to do. I like the look of the youngsters we've signed plus the more experienced Aribo but they'll likely take a season before we see the best of them although we may be lucky in that we have another Tino or two among them. Bazunu will probably quickly establish himself as number one in goal but he has only limited competition.  Would love to see us try to get Conor Coady but I doubt we'll even put a bid in - his experience could galvanise our defence as he seems to be a great leader and organiser, something we badly need.

1 hour ago, tajjuk said:

No and no. 

They were 11 points better off than us last year and have lost their best player and are about to lose one of their other better players.  We have signed 7 players. 

They have signed no one of note at the moment either. Their squad looks weaker than ours and not sure how their planning is better when they are approaching the start of the season without any key signings after lose a top player. 

I'd be delighted and a little surprised if we manage to finish this season above Brighton.

2 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

Why did Bella-Kotchap, Bazunu and Lavia get so much gametime in pre-season?  They've joined us due to the sales pitch being... you will play in the PL. Not sit on our bench.

Let's wait and see how many of them start on Saturday against Spurs which is the game I was talking about. Things will likely change as the season evolves but I think Ralph will opt for experience in this first fixture.

1 hour ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Very torn between 3-1/4-1 to Spurs. Probably a Son or Kane hat-trick too.

Absolute domination, an eye opener, and a huge plummet back down to earth for everyone after signing all these future wonderkids and realising “they’re probably not good enough yet”.

 

Most of them will probably be on the bench. Think Ralph being Ralph will opt for experience.

Just now, Scully said:

McCarthy playing his way onto the bench

Knowing Ralph he'll opt for experience over a keeper who is young and makes saves.

39 minutes ago, LiberalCommunist said:

If Harry Winks is the answer, then can someone kindly tell me what the question was?

Hopefully the question was, 'which midfield player should Saints not sign?'

1 hour ago, qwertyell said:

We're surely not considering spaffing £20m on Harry fucking Winks. 

Passes safe and slowly, backwards and sideways. Can't tackle, can't head. No pace. No physicality. An absolute nonentity of a player.

He's not even Matt Oakley.

 

Agree.

3 hours ago, tajjuk said:

lol he got into the England team at left back, having played at left back (and played well). He also IIRC has come out said publicly he's enjoyed it. 

As for the last 3 months, I don't think anyone has forgotten it, they just have more sense to not judge a whole season, a manager and a team on a third of a season. 

All teams have periods of poor form, even the best, but especially a team like ours that has had very little investment in the last 3-4 years and in reality lacks quality all over the pitch. As said above, Ralph has got them over performing when you consider our spend and budget, pretty much every team that finished just above us or below us has had significantly more investment than we have and that is pretty much been the case every season he's been here. Wolves, Newcastle, Palace, Brighton, Villa, Everton, these sort of clubs have been spending way more (whilst also not been hamstrung by poor signings giving us 'useless' wages on the wage bill) and but have been in around us for most of the season. I think that pretty much conclusively proves Ralph 'has what is takes' in the PL. 

Also it's pretty consistent for teams with not much to play for but unlikely to go down to coast till the end of the season, Charlton in the Prem did it pretty much every year, didn't make Curbishley suddenly a bad manager.  Some players have natural drive, others need something to motivate them and I'd imagine most don't care about an extra £2-3 million for the club for finishing 10th instead of 14th or whatever.  If we can keep improving the squad then hopefully we can push ourselves to be involved in the Euro places battle going into the home stretch next year and then hopefully we won't see the drop off. 

The comment about players regressing is just baffling. Our best player for example, is our best player because he's developed under Ralph. Loads of our players have improved, we are literally talking about one in KWP who was a Spurs barely squad player when he came here, or just look at Danny Ings, how his form has dropped off at Villa. 

There is something seriously wrong if your suggestion that players coasted til the end of the season is anywhere close to being factual. The fans pay a lot of money to watch the team and if true that they were allowed to coast then something is seriously wrong. For the record I don't believe they coasted or that Ralph would have allowed them to.

2 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

No mate, that is just agent talk (because Snobs here don't like him)

Some rate him, some don't. It's all about opinions and nothing to do with snobbery.

22 minutes ago, Bad Wolf said:

I don't actually think Winks is terrible...I just don't get what his role is. He just kinda exists. He's 5/10 every single game.

5/10 every game is pretty terrible 🙂

We need to pay him what he is worth - must be niggling for him knowing how much players like Theo are on.  Offer him a contract for more realistic money and get him tied to the club.

Seen Harry Winks linked again today - wish this would go away. He is the last type of midfield player we need as we should be getting away from the shuffling about, sideways, backwards, recycling and passing for passing sake rather than being proactive and positive.

Think Liam Delap would only be a squad player with appearances from the bench rather than a player we can rely on for goals in the first team. He looks to be way short in terms of development to play against experienced Premier League defenders. Might be wrong but that's how I view him.

52 minutes ago, beatlesaint said:

I think if we are relying on Adams to score many we are in deep brown stuff territory.

Feel free to quote this tweet when he’s banged in 15-20 for the season though 😂

But how many strikers bang in 15-20 goals in the Premier League?

I think there is a lot more to come from Adams. For me he's a bit of a slow burner but, if he turns the gas up a few notches he could yet develop into a regular scorer. Just have a hunch that he's one of those strikers who will suddenly explode and push his numbers up. I think he has it in his locker and also he has other good attributes to his game so would be disappointed to see him leave at this stage of his Saints career. The new coaches might also manage to get more out of the team as a whole and that could lead to Che getting more chances.

Still very quiet on the striker front. Maybe we are still trying to get Broja signed and don't want to show our cards or reveal other options until the future of him is settled one way or another.

1 hour ago, Ex Lion Tamer said:

Isn't the point though that we have had awful runs of form before and come back to have absolutely great ones? 

I don't think Ralph will ever get the team performing consistently over a whole season, but I also don't think that last season's bad run has much relevance for this one.

I predict a slightly slow start as the new players get to know the system following by a brilliant one in the run up to Christmas

It's not difficult to predict a slow start for Saints because it happens every season. Time it was rectified but I'll not hold my breath.

5 minutes ago, Suhari said:

 

And we seemed to be doing so well...

To be fair Elyounoussi had some decent games last season. We are going to have to retain some of our more experienced players and, if he does well enough he'll get some game time. Also we need a reasonable squad to make the most of the new 5 sub rule.  Not the worst decision in my opinion.

1 hour ago, Ex Lion Tamer said:

I think someone on here said he's learning Japanese. Not the actions of someone who intends to stay put in Soton

Sure they didn't say he's turning Japanese? 

6 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

I'd really like us to adopt a 3-4-3 formation. Can't see it happening unless we sign another CB though, especially if Bednarek is off.

Didn't Adam Armstrong profit from some brilliant supply and assists mainly from Harvey Elliott when they played together at Blackburn? Then we signed him and fed him on scraps from players far less gifted than Elliott. Get him a decent player or two to supply and I still think Armstrong will get goals. 

9 minutes ago, LiberalCommunist said:

One month till the season starts. First little twinge of excitement. Can't wait to see Spuds snuff that out after five mins! 

Richarlson suspended for this match for throwing flare back into crowd during Everton match 🙂

All very quiet on the strikers front. Hopefully means things are happening under the radar and a couple of decent signings will eventually be announced.

3 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

I actually like Harry Winks and would take him here, but absolutely not for the price that's been quoted. A loan might be decent.

In my opinion he would make a static, stuttering, negative team even more so. He's the last player this club needs to progress into a more offensive unit.

7 hours ago, Saint-Reece said:

So from what I have read (on Twitter!) he is more of a ‘ball winner’ that then shifts the ball along with a quick pass once he has picked it up. 
 

Bare in mind I hadn’t really heard of him before these links, despite a load of kids on social media wetting themselves over the prospect of signing him when I doubt they’d  heard of him either. Too much FM / FIFA scouting being done I reckon! 😂

Just from the clips I've watched he seems well capable of picking and weighting a pass. Think there's more to him than putting himself about and getting his foot in.