Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan

Same thing right... Interesting how politicians lean on football to try and seem more relatable, like David Cameron supporting Aston Villa, or was it West Ham! Would love to know which Curry house he waited in, the dizzy heights of Coriander Lounge or Kutis, or is he a Manzils fan...

It is certainly coming through, and the improvement in coaching too will help. When you look at players like Lucia Kendall for Saints, she's easily one of the best players technically, and that is because she will have been exposed to a higher level of skill and coaching from a young age. The thing with the full backs in the Euros is that oddly a fair few play as wingers for their club sides, so might be that they aren't as used to receiving the ball in the deeper positions. England look a different side with Greenwood at left back compared to Daly, because they offer different experience and skills. Greenwood has always played left back or centre back whereas Daly is naturally a winger. One of the themes of the tournament is the teams struggling if they don't have natural defenders and instead are working the most talented players into an 11

Think it comes down to the way teams are playing more now, we seem set on a front 2, but most teams play a front 3, where the goals are coming from the wider forwards not the number 9. Only 6 of the top 20 scorers last season were typical strikers, the rest were wider players who get on the end of crosses and cut in (Sterling, Mane, Salah etc) and attacking midfielders playing as 10s or high 8s (De Bruyne, Maddison etc). Our issue though, with 2 strikers on the pitch pretty much all time, is definitely an out and out striker to score goals, but a few more from the supporting players would also massively help!

This seemed to be the case to me at the NI Norway game. Around the ground they had covered any hint of it being Saints' stadium and replaced it with Uefa branding. Even the red and white perspex at the back was covered up! Hard to see when the work can be done to the stadium to refresh it and add the structure for new screens. Season is coming up soon, and there are still constant corporate events in the ground year round!

Hard to argue with this! Adds quality at the levels we need and the positions we need. I would really like a Dolberg type signing as an out-and-out striker, an obvious class about A.Armstrong (who will have his place in the squad). With those five, a starting 11 and 5 subs to bring on just instantly looks more quality.

Could be a back 3 or back 4 (although listed as a back 5!) Interesting to see how Edwards does, always seemed to be a right sided 10 for the B team so will be interesting to see if they use him at wing back today I do think it is important to see everyone and for them all to get fitness, but as pre-season draws on I would like to see closer to a first 11 play together, and this is definitely not it!

Looks to me like we’re playing the same system as England in 2018 World Cup In possession 3central defenders with the options to split wide, 2 wing backs for width, one holding midfielder with 2 10s in front and then 2 up top in front of that (so 3-5-2 in a way) then out of possession one of the forwards drops back as does a ten making more of a 5-4-1

Ignoring the weird patronising sarcasm above... I do genuinely hope Rafferty gets some time for NI tonight, would be such a shame for her to not get to play at her home stadium in an international competition, truly once in a lifetime sort of opportunity that.

Looks to be a strong squad for the first 3 quarters, then suddenly drops off in terms of back-ups/competition for the left 10 and front two! Will be interesting to see what a first 11 starts to look like. Shame not more youngsters have gone

Alpha Romeu Alpha Romeo Lavia Simply Redmond Matt Le Piss Gavin & Spacey-Cale Chele's Tartan Army

Remember lots of talk about Michael Carrick when he was at West Ham. but I think once they were in Div One that was the case for everyone!

I was at the NI v Norway game last week, the app worked brilliantly (although they require quite a lot of info to register you). I'd bought two tickets, kept one for me and transferred the other to my dad. The app sent him an email, followed it through and his ticket was on his phone ready for him too. They both scanned easily under the usual ticket reader and were in easily. Makes a mockery of the issues we had at the start of the season how smooth it was

Signed a keeper with experience of the higher levels too, really great additions so far. Replacing what we’ve lost nicely

And now signed Oxford's top scorer from last season too!

You bored now the Rainbow Saints thread has been locked? I'm looking forward to it, should be some good games towards the latter stages, and initially nice to see some players I've not heard of at the smaller teams. I do wonder how much game time Rafferty will get, given that NI are playing at St Marys. Shame that Spain's best player has done her ACL, was looking forward to watching her play, given how hard it is to watch Barcelona women's games.

A very odd advert. Sexism is a problem, but do people still really tell women they belong in the kitchen. Seems like they've wheeled out a cliche to make a point, rather than actually doing anything of substance. With the platform they have, maybe they could celebrate the women's team, rather than ask Gareth to drearily voice over something he clearly doesn't care about. Oh, and obviously you can buy the shirt... And EE have a website dedicated to "Hope United" that lists their 4-4-3 plan. They don't even know how many players are in a football team ffs

Is this the end of Fulham realising Reed is too good for the championship but not good enough for the Premier League?

Interesting that they’ve announced the preseason friendlies but no new signings as of yet

Anyone know when we're getting the away and third? Can at least get my hopes back up for them...

This list really does highlight the real lack of quality we have up front and in the ten position. So clearly crying out for an upgrade

The red under the arms is such a simple tweak but makes it look so much more like a Saints kit!

Think you might be talking about different chances. I can remember a chance where the ball span slowly onto the post, from the far right side of the area, but not sure what game that was. For me, the big chance against Man U was the one where we won the ball back high up the pitch, it was played through to AA and he hit a shot left-foot nearly straight at De Gea. The sort of chance that Ings was burying for us just months before. Armstrong doesn't seem a bad player to me, and with work he could become really useful to the press and with his pace. He can score goals, he's proven that at Blackburn and at times for us, he just needs a run of games and to build a proper partnership with Adams. Sadly, I don't know if we can afford a slow start, so maybe someone in instead and a loan for him is best.

Guess it comes down to how much we want to use him until Livramento is back fit, could play himself back into longer term plans in the cups etc, or could provide the reason for his contract running and dropping down a level to me he is the level of Obafemi (pre-Swansea move) in that he’s a good squad player who can provide performances once or twice a season but that’s about it. If he’s happy doing that and we’re not paying him more than that level deserves them no complaints at keeping him

Crikey, what a value some of you put on your time. How long does it take to read a headline and decide the article isn't for you, or to read the first line of an article. At most I think a few seconds. But that is clearly too long for a lot of you. I hope you are this ruthlessly efficient about every aspect of life. Women's football may not be to the same standard as men's but that doesn't mean it isn't enjoyable, and doesn't mean it shouldn't be given a platform to develop.

Agreed, the amount of corners we seem to have our tallest players stood watching the ball rather than attacking it is odd. We have arguably the best set-piece taker in the world in our team, and yet we make nowhere near enough use of it