SWLondon Saint

Think it's obvious the '10' spot or middle of the 3 behind the striker is the big miss right now. Obviously Fernandes can play there but in terms of getting someone in, I bet there's a 'chain' as in people will be waiting to see if they can get a move to a team in Europe, then the prem or a top league, then whoever's left will fall down to us. Bit like the Celtic lad last year who went to Brighton and we ended up with MF.

Only watched 10 mins or so but he looks like he could be the business, he was quick and strong beating a striker to a dangerous flick on.

They actually have the video streaming on their site if anyone's looking for it. Trying to remember my GCSE Spanish from 30+ years ago 😂

I don't understand why so many people on here are surprised it's hard for us to get rid of players? These are players who just had one of the worst seasons in PL history and you think there's going to be a high demand for their services? Or for taking them on loan and paying their wages - which even after a relegation reduction, are likely to be extremely high compared to most other leagues around Europe anyway. Like it or not, we're stuck with them.

Have to say, the commentators are bloody annoying when they go on about how brilliant Bonmati is when the fact is that is a stone cold goalkeeping disaster.

He's getting on a bit so maybe he doesn't have the pace to play wide anymore and Still is just seeing if he can get anything at all useful out of him?

I said the same, it 100% looks like he's putting 'weak zones' or weak groups onto the pitch to see who else can still do a job, maybe even still make something happen and influence the game when other players are having a bad game or not available. Not even our revolving carousel of managers last season would have put AA-Fraser-BBD on behind a front man.

Looking at the team sheets, if the 2nd half central mid was Smallbone, Sesay, Aribo ahead that's going to put a huge amount of pressure on our team as it's simply not good enough in terms of ball winning or retention. While first half the 3 behind the striker look the weakest possible combo. Maybe it's an active attempt to put out weak combos to see how the rest of the team performs under pressure?

Haven't seen highlights yet, but if Archer was playing ahead of: AA - Fraser - BBD That pretty much looks like the problem right there.

Agree with the commentator criticism, that bloke is f***ing awful. Talk about commentator's curse as well, saying how amazing Kelly is right before the pen 😑

Thought they won that in spite of the manager - too slow to react, engine room of the side is all wrong. Italy were there for the taking the last 25-30 of regular time, they were nearly on top of their own keeper but the manager should have changed it a lot earlier.

Ramsey had a pretty decent season didn't he? That must be a PSR forced sale if true. If our finances are OK I could still see us demanding more for Fernandes...

Looks like Manning was obstructing a free kick, so yellow for him, obvious red for the kicker and yellow for the guy standing over Manning. Officials should be taken off duty if they only gave a yellow to the kicker.

Wow, looks like Cap'n Jack has been busier than we thought with his defensive coaching masterclasses on how to hair pull in the age of VAR...

I honestly thought this was just a piss take but just goes to show I should never underestimate Cap'n Jack's ability to hole the ship below the waterline... 😅

Sounds like a proper pre-season 👍🏼

Isn't the Gibbs-White move off or at least in contention so that could well be slowing it down? Also, I would bet if they want Fernandes, they'll want to pay something like £25m+bonuses, like they paid for Gibbs-White, but the problem is we probably want Lavia money - which I think is correct as he's an established PL player unlike Gibbs-White when they got him.

Robyn Cowan to me is just average as a commentator, fairly inoffensive. But whoever was co-commentator last night was complete rubbish, half the time they were just describing what had just happened and the other half just spouting gushing compliments about the England players, couldn't offer even restrained criticism.

She's clearly technically a level above most of the women, probably from playing with her brother and boys for so long when younger, but she does also seem to drift worryingly at a lot of points and seems a bit casual in possession. But then she also does some top drawer stuff, I remember one volleyed goal that any player male or female would've been proud of.

I reckon last year's defensive 'philosophy' was definitely just do whatever you feel like, including making quarter-arsed attempts to stop someone walking past you and shooting aka Small Willy style...

I thought the pens were bad but it seems quite a few shootouts down the years have ended at 1-1 after 5! https://www.rsssf.org/miscellaneous/penalties.html

Makes you wonder what the f*** they were told last year then?! Don't cross it or shoot?!?! 🤯

Wonder if the 1st half / 2nd half was a shot across the bows to the older squad members basically saying you lot need to shape up.

That's most of my 'players I don't want to see play for Saints again from last season' list, maybe Still started with the shite team?

What else is he going to say though, 'he's complete crap and we're crossing our fingers someone's dumb enough to take him off our hands'? That'll really help the sales team!