Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan

I think we should do something with stripes every other year, and do something that is a nod to the past in the other year. What I don't like is the oddity that we seem to have every other year at the moment. This seasons isn't particularly nice, and the red with white sash never quite looked right to me from a couple of years ago. Away should be yellow and blue when we have stripes, and something different in the alternate years. If it were up to me next year would be Red and White stripes (red sleeves) black shorts and white socks. Yellow and blue away, maybe stripes, All black third with a red trim.

Agreed, we don't make enough chances and then when we do, we don't convert enough of them. The approach seems to be, give Adams 5 chances a game and hope he scores one, rather than giving another striker 2 chances a game and hoping they score one of the two

I have such fond memories of those first few years after relegation in terms of the academy products. Theo came in and looked like the quickest most direct player in the world (sadly long-gone are those days) and Bale was an absolute monster right away. Loved his partnership with Skacel where they would both play left back and left mid, and whoever was in the position did the job and the other covered them. Shame his career never quite hit the absolute heights it could have (stuck a little in Ronaldo's shadow really) but he has to be one of the best Saints have ever had through the ranks

Payne and Pearce would be my votes to get a loan move. Both are a little older in the group so might be the right time for them. Payne would get more opportunities to learn his game defensively (looks to me he spends half the time as a right winger when we're dominating games), and Pearce needs game time now Ballard and Morgan are playing so often. It is hard to see how many of this squad will actually make it to the top level, but it is so good to have a crop of players to be excited about

In terms of on the field, we need to ditch 5 at the back asap. At times we have all 5 defenders, JWP and Lavia behind the ball so then only attacking with 3 players, which just does not work. We have the players to play a 4-3-3, provided we sign a good player. I would play the following (with subs/backups in brackets) Bazunu (McCarthy) KWP (Tino, AMN) ABK (Lyanco) DCC (Salisu) Perraud (Larios) Lavia (Diallo) JWP (Ely) S Armstrong (Aribo) Edozie (Walcott) Adams (Mara) A Armstrong (Djenepo) We play a back 4 with Lavia sitting in to pick the ball up on the turn (his obvious strength) with JWP and Armstrong playing in front of him to support Adams when pushing forward, or one of them sitting in with Lavia when required defensively. The obvious weakness is the attack, we need players around Adams who can make use of his excellent hold up play and who can take some of the goalscoring responsibility from him and JWP

Free kick outside the box, they put a man on the line so we flood the box with players now onside and the ball goes straight over the bar, classic

Agreed, gives flexibility to the defence. Chelsea did it brilliantly the season they won the league with Moses and Alonso at wing back. Both fairly limited technically but were constant energy and movement into the right places. Then with Azpiliceuta at right centre back they could move to a back 4 if needed, or Matic would drop in. Don't think we have the players for it at the moment, KWP is too small, and Perraud doesn't seem defensively sound enough

How long does it take to get used to giving the ball away, not tracking runners and playing slow ploddy football. I think I could give it a go

Just like years of England teams, everyone going for Gerrard and Lampard when Carrick was the answer

Definitely helped him having Morgan sitting behind him. Imagine having a midfield where you actually trust that every team we play won't be able to just run straight through us. God I miss him.

Going to say I don’t actually hate it, if it’s 3 at the back. Get our wing backs high and stop there full backs getting forward; and have an extra centre back should stop crosses to the back post for Mitrovic to bully a full back and score like the idea of Aribo and Ely playing between their midfield and defence and Edozie and Adams are sadly the best we have Only difference I would make is Armstrong for Ely and DCC for Lyanco

Edozie was magic when he came on, really wanted to take players on, and kept getting into the box and the byline. Have to feel that given 90 minutes of that eventually a right back is going through him and giving away a penalty. Also his positivity seemed to impact Perraud too who suddenly was running beyond more. Watching in the stadium it was odd, we still seemed to be playing sideways like we did under Ralph but it did feel different. Seemed like there was more movement ahead of the back 3, they just weren't quick enough getting the ball moving to make use of it. A few times AA and JWP seemed to be frustrated that they had moved into space and the ball never came, about 15/20 minutes in there was a period where the ball seemed stuck with the centre backs and JWP was shouting and waving his arms around as if to say they needed to be moving the ball quicker. Initially (for the first half and a little of the second) the aim seemed to be to form a passing triangle between the wide centre back, wing back and midfielder on that side to move the ball up the pitch and then cross the ball in. We just then weren't winning any headers or second balls. That didn't seem to give AMN much of a role and he looked very lost. When we moved things around in the second half, JWP moved back a little and seemed to be on the ball a lot more and looked a lot sharper than he has recently We definitely had a massive switch in the second half to a 4-3-3 which definitely got through them easier (helped by Armstrong carrying the ball through midfield). One thing I did notice is that everything seemed to be in a hurry, throw ins were taken quickly, free quicks in our half played instantly to the spare centre back.

I would suggest Lavia’s homework be to watch Amrabaat for Morocco across this tournament. The way he’s receiving the ball on the turn and passing through the lines is excellent

Mattia Perin from Juve- the club is a mess and he's their back up, but an Italy international and a good keeper. Let him play the second half of the season because when we're fighting relegation we'll need a more experienced head back there, and it saves Bazunu from following Gunn's path of having all confidence drained out of him. Tammy Abraham- quality striker, PL experience and seems to have fallen out with Mourinho. He'd maybe know a couple of players from his Chelsea days, or England youth, so would fit into the squad well

Good to see Livramento has gone, must mean he's doing well in terms of his inury rehab

Mouez Hassen is there with Tunisia who was on the bench for us at Wembley under Puel: Ex-Saints 11 at the World Cup would be hard to field, bit out of position, but: ----------Hassen------------ ---Toby---VVD--Yoshida----- Caceres-Hojbjerg--Tadic--Shaw ---Minamino--Bale--Boufal----

Definitely a second eleven that played yesterday, getting them some game time to try and keep the squad fresh. Never really looked like troubling Reading, we played Freeland up front on her own and she was very isolated. Thought Lloyd-Smith and Wynne looked effective out wide, but they were all over us in the midfield for the whole game.

Salisu has given away a penalty, let Felix run past him and not tracked and played Leao onside you can take the boy out of Southampton…

I sometimes think Cedric accidentally ended up at right back, so just played there. Some of his best moments for Saints were randomly high up on the left (goals against Wigan and Pompey) and he never seemed to actually know how to defend.

Should have had a second penalty there, flagged for offside when Belgium played the ball pack themselves

The ex-Saints battle we've all been waiting for this morning as Boufal's Morocco take on the mighty Lovren's Croatia

Tunisia have Mouez Hassen on the bench, nice throwback to the bench of the Puel era

Reading are 11th in a 12 team league, on 3 points, with Leicester bottom on 0 (from 8 games). Reading play Liverpool on Thursday, so 3 days before us, and Liverpool are only one point above them, so will be a game they're really up for., so we may play some tired legs, or squad players on Sunday. Not sure about promotion, it's the classic thing of is it better to be in the higher league but lose more games, or be in the lower league winning more games. Selfishly as a fan I'd rather see us win more games, than get thrashed by the top teams every week.

Unbeaten in the league since the first game, and third in the table level on points with second. The rise up the leagues and the excitement of the wins reminds me of the men's rise through league 1 and championship, with some players staying with us through the rise. Next weekend is Reading in the cup, who have only won once in the WSL and play Liverpool on Thursday! Hopefully a Sunday afternoon game at St Marys will be well attended.

Agreeing with a lot of what has already been posted, but one I haven't seen mentioned is Delap against Spurs. We were crap, it was a crap game and then out of nowhere a man who I had never seen do anything that technical produced one of the most athletic bicycle kicks I've ever seen. I'm not sure of specifics, but Walcott in 2005 scored a couple of great goals, remember one where he lobbed the keeper from the wing.