James

Can't claim to have seen him so will defer to those who have. Everything I read sounded promising and his stats are pretty decent. I do think Janssen is better than his Spurs form suggests. Needs a run of games and he won't get them behind Kane.

Not the ideal draw but hopefully they'll put out a weakened team (if we go through).

I'm still hoping we make a move for Haller. He seems to tick all the boxes. Young, tall, good goal record and wouldn't cost the earth.

The Lovren sub and then subsequent second half collapse really was a thing of beauty.

Am becoming more confident by the day. If we can get into them early like we did Spurs and not drop back and try to hold a one nil lead we could get something here. That said, it's probably the pre semi final excitement. I was dreading this last week and then remembered that I hadn't seen Saints in a major cup semi for 14 years.

Agree. I fear if we get a narrow win Puel will go to Anfield trying to defend it and we will come unstuck.

Would like to see McQueen in attack. It worked beautifully against Arsenal, a little surprised we haven't tried it again.

That's a fair point but how long would you wait before you decide enough is enough? For every Swansea and Hull managerial change there is one which actually works (Poch for us, Big Sam for Sunderland etc.) so I wouldn't necessarily cast a mid season change of manager as always being a bad thing although I do appreciate your point.

If we are 10th at the end of the season then yes. I'll still remain disappointed in our style of play if we continue to retain possession for the sake of it and don't score too many goals but I would stop 'banging on' about him. If we finish 15th will you finally admit he's not the man?

Hardly baseless is it? There are definite flaws in the way we are set up at the moment. Even the most optimistic must acknowledge that surely?

Seconded.

If we finish between 8th and 10th this season then I'll be happy enough. Yes, we are 10th at the moment but we are also 4 points off 15th so I'd argue that any justification of Puel's performance by reference to league position is, at the moment, a false indicator as the league is so tight that we could move 4-5 places on the back of one result. Also it's hardly "subjective pony" is it? We've scored 19 goals in 20 games. I'll ask you, do you go every week? If so, do you enjoy what you are watching?

More interested in seeing how you will continue to blame anyone but Puel. Your insistence on defending him is a bit odd.

Having finished sixth last season I would expect to be more than 3-4 points off 15th place in the table. For all the cries of "but we are tenth" people seem to forget just how tight the league is. If/when we are 14th/15th in a couple of weeks will you find that acceptable? If we were playing a style of football that looked promising or which made you think the results would come sooner rather than later that would be fine but, at the moment, the football is very very poor.

I, of course, hope I'm wrong. I just find it ridiculous that this seasons shortcomings are justified by being compared to last season where we went on a Leicester style run to finish sixth. We were **** this time last season and we are **** now. The difference is that this season we don't have the players to go on a run like we did last year.

Ah the old compare it to last season chestnut. Wonder what the excuse will be when we get knocked out of the league cup and slide down the league table.

Yet another game where Long does nothing. How much longer do we have to put up with him? Get rid I say.

I fear that Liverpool will be a bloodbath. Hope I'm wrong.

Another disappointing game. Could even beat a Championship side with a decent side out so what hope against Liverpool? Absolutely no desire to attend the replay.

We really are a side with a soft underbelly.

Garbage.

Sounds like another Puel special. Loads of possession but zero chances.

Les is, IMO, warming us up to no significant signings in January so don't expect much movement personally. If we aren't getting a striker in then we need to recall Gallagher. We surely can't go through the rest of the season relying on just Long and JRod.

Well said.

Ok, so what do you propose? Flog the senior players even if the manager is sub par? If it can happen to Jose at Chelsea it can and will happen at Saints if this turns out to be true.