Professor

Hard to know where to start to criticise a post that appears so ill-judged. In my opinion we are better off out of Europe because squad rotation, essential with the number of games to play has undoubtedly affected results. But to call a 1-1 draw 'abject failure' when a 0-0 draw would have taken Saints to the first knock-out round is huge exaggeration. The description of Boufal's shot, powerful left-footed curler by a right-footed player is just silly, as it is to complain about a player who needed to be nursed back from a serious injury. Boufal's substitution after scoring suggests he is being rested in order to play on Wednesday. We are all entitled to our opinions perhaps but Kingsbridge has allowed his disappointment that Southampton will not be going on to win the Europa League, to cloud his judgement.

It's odd that people who note, rightly, that JRod and Long don't appear to be performing as well as last year but they think that Pelle would have if he had remained. It was because Pelle was thought to be on the decline that he was sold. It's no good looking back to when a player was at his peak, on that basis we should still be playing Matt Le Tiss. The idea that we sold our best players in the summer just doesn't hold water as those that were sold were replaced. Whether the manager is using them to their best ability is an entirely different matter. As I've said before, I'd like to see Puel now finding his best XI, which might take a few games to do, but then to put out a consistent side as often as possible. It does seem that Puel accepts that JRod and Long are fading as he has promoted Sims into the squad. It's probably premature to regard Sims as the 'new striker' people are saying we need but it's clear we can't just rely on Austin. £20m please, Mr Reed and maybe a sale or two to raise the money.

This draw is proabably the best thing to have happened for our Prem results. Amongst all the players in the squad there surely must be a best XI but Puel says he doesn't know which players that consists of. If departing the Europa League means that Puel ends the dire rotation policy he will have to find his best XI. An unchanged team (or realistically, minimal changes) has often been the secret of success for many clubs. So, cheer up everyone. A good night.

If we can't put out a team to win at Carrow Road, it could be argued we aren't entitled to be in the Premier League. That doesn't mean Puel can select an under-23 team and still expect to win but he has enough quality in the first team squad to put out a capable top-level side that should be too good for any Championship team.

Best thing for this season is to lose on Thursday and start concentrating on the home competitions. Bournemouth above us in the table.............congratulations to them. Our players aren't "playing for the shirt" at the moment because rotation means they get a game or get dropped, in turn with performance making little difference either way. We need to find our best XI again and establish some stability.

Some sympathy for Everton fans who thought they had obtained a brilliant manager in Koeman, although not so much for the few who came onto the Saints' forum to boast that they had "taken our manager because they could". Rather like us, Everton fans have found that a billionaire owner is no longer able to pour unlimited funds into a team even if willing to do so and in due course they may find that Koeman is not as good as he thinks he is. In retrospect, the Everton owner's decision to stuff Koeman's mouth with gold showed us a lack of integrity of which we were not aware. It's well documented that he had little interest in the Academy while he was here and his post-match comment on Josh Sims was sufficiently ill-judged to have done his reputation no good. He came over as an embarrassment that Southampton are well rid of.

It really is no good anyone kidding themselves that players can be held to a contract right to the end. It can be done for a while but players who are aware of massive pay rises waiting for them will soon agitate for a move. If a player no longer has his heart in playing for the club because it is costing him a fortune, that will affect how he plays. It's not lack of ambition to be honest about the situation we are in. The club will keep top quality players for as long as they can but World class players will inevitably move to one of the top 4 or 5 clubs and once they know they have that potential they will do what they can to get there. Locking them in the dressing room and making them wear an ankle tag just won't work.

Duplicated

Beginning to think that trying for top six is a waste of time. European qualification hasn't brought much, if any, pleasure to the fans. Beating Inter Milan was a highlight, but that was the Inter side that is finishing bottom of our EUROPA group so not quite the achievement it sounds at first. On the down side we have the rush of games, the weakened teams because of having to rotate ad unexpected league defeats. There has been criticism of some of the players in the side against Prague, such as Classie, Long, JWP and Redmond with someone calling them mediocre. They are far from that, after all Classie and Long play regularly in good international sides while JWP and Redmond are considered good enough to play for England u-21. That suggests they are good quality premier league players, but I doubt any of them would get a place with any of the top 5 or 6 sides in the Premier League. When we do get players of that standard, it's only for a season or two as they are soon tempted away for more money. In the meantime, the players we have are easily capable of a comfortable mid-table league finish if they aren't spread too thinly. This, it seems to me, is the reality. We should be content with top 10 but not top 6, keeping far enough away from the relegation zone so as not get drawn in to the relegation struggle that always hots up as the season goes on. We should make a real effort in the domestic cups to give supporters the chance of winning something but forget about Europe altogether. It takes far more financial clout than we have at present to compete at that level but established Premier League should be enough to settle for.

Reluctantly, I'm beginning to agree with those saying our strike force is no longer up to the level we need. Now slipping into the lower half of the Premier table and only 4 points above the relegation zone begins to look serious. It's almost immaterial whether we get into the knock-out phase of the Europa League as I can't see any prospect of progressing very much further. Boufal was a major investment but surely Les Reed didn't expect him to still be in the 'setting-in' phase come December. A lot of people calling for an extra striker but will the budget allow new front players to come in unless one or two are also off-loaded? I'm sure the manager wouldn't do this deliberately but it might be a good thing if we get knocked out of all the cups so that there is only safety in the League to focus on.

Had to comment on this. Liverpool have paid £100m for four of our players and have a huge budget for players and wages. To hold our own against the odds is cause for celebration, not an excuse for another moan. I'd rather watch our team and enjoy knowing we have home-grown talent in our squad than follow Liverpool any day. I see no pride in supporting a team that is put together by trying to buy your opponents best players and then finding you still can't beat them!!!

It is true the stats will tell in due course, but according to The Echo, the stats are that Pelle and Mane scored 11 goals each last season. Not so many as to be unreplaceable. It's true that scoring is a weakness so far this season but Austin has 5 so far this season which looks on course to do better than 11 but we do need the whole team to convert the many chances being created. Claud and his staff must be working on it, which might be what we need rather than bringing in one more player at the expensive of the talented players we already have.

Can't blame Jose for being interested when the reports of interest from Man U came along. He knows Luke Shaw very well and at Man U they could have sat next to each other on the bench. Oh, and then there's the money. No one should be critical of a player wanting to earn as much as he can during a short career. Unfortunately, because fans naturally feel a close relationship to the players they support its difficult to understand that loyalty by players is temporary at best. Rightly or wrongly, the episode last summer did sour the feelings towards Jose for a lot of fans and although he's still well worth his place in the side, people are beginning to see the decline of an aging star. The fact remains he has been a fantastic servant for Southampton, all the way back to being in the Johnson's Paint Trophy winning team in 2010. If an approach did come from Man U or any club offering a payrise it would be a nonsense for him to show no interest but its hard to see the club releasing him this side of next summer and by then his value to another team might be much lower. The Magic Man in the Sky doesn't really play any part in this.

So disappointing to see so many Saints fans having so little faith in our team. It's true we have shown a weakness in that our front players find it hard to shoot on target but I think we can be sure that is being worked on at training. We are capable of winning this game and of defending solidly. It may well come down to who has the most luck.

Good thing, the yellow for Classie if it encourages Puel to get on with the substitution. Don't mind who it is, Hojbjerg or JWP. If he hadn't waited, the equaliser could well have been avoided.

Ward-Prowse never disappoints. If you want the ball blasted high over the bar, he's your man.

The rise of Sam McQueen is remarkable and although Bertrand is the clear No.1 at LB at the moment, it would be easy to see Sam and Matt Targett competing for the back-up spot. Their predecessor, Luke Shaw, still struggles to make an impact at Man U, despite 6 caps for England, the first of which he gained whilst still a Southampton player. Shaw's career has suffered from injury blights and to some extent you could say the same has happened to Bertrand, although to a lesser extent. We've now seen the recent injury to Matt Target, and with there being fewer left-sided players in the game, perhaps LB is a position where extra cover is a bonus.

When recruiting, whether a player has been at Southampton previously shouldn't be a factor but as an academic question, I suppose Clyne is a candidate but since we have a RB with a Euro16 winners' medal, I don't think I'd prefer him over Cedric. Mane for Boufal, nope. Morgan for Romeu, no again. The club has done very well with the players brought in but some of the old boys might be worth a place in the squad.

Have to agree. JWP is an exceptionally talented player but despite appearing in the Saints' starting line up at the age of 17 in 2012 he has remained a first choice sub, rather than becoming established as one of the first XI. Every player has strengths and weaknesses, even those who cost obscene fees such as those paid for John Stones and Paul Pogba, so its to be expected that JWP has weaknesses in his game as pointed out by Winchy. The surprise is that given his experience at the top level, the accuracy of his attempts on goal don't seem to have improved despite the examples he must see all the time. We've heard about how he has become a dead ball specialist by extra hours spent practicing which indicates he has the dedication needed to raise his level. At 21, he is still a young player with capacity to become even better.

One purpose of the squad is to cope with players out through injury. While we have seven players unavailable through injury (Pied, Gardos, Long, Cedric, Targett, Bertrand and Hesketh), we should expect to be close to 'bare bones' although that might be a slight exaggeration. It's not surprising that options are reduced with this injury list but we still had a strong bench, the bulk of possession and won the game. If you had an even larger squad which assumed this level of absentees as the norm, it would be very difficult to keep all the players match fit and satisfied with second string games.

After watching the full 90 on the OS you can see good reasons for the club to have bought Jordy Clasie and not just because in Koeman's time anyone Dutch or with Dutch connections was high on the radar. If you were to analyse the good things Jordy does against the not so good, I'm sure you'd come out on the positive side but the not so good moments stick in your mind after a game. Some of his play against Man City was exceptionally good but every now and then he makes an error or fails to capitalise on an opportunity which leaves you feeling disappointed. It seems to me that Jordy is an exceptionally talented player but one who could do better. I wonder to what extent there is one-to-one coaching of first team players because it seems to me that any player will sometimes benefit from advice given privately, outside the group.

If anyone had to get a yellow, Jordy Clasie would have been my choice. With Højbjerg and JWP on the bench I'd expect an early substitution in the second half which might even improve the midfield. Expecting to see Boufal at some point. To have a £20m player as a sub shows the depth available.

Was pleased to see this response just as I was thinking of posting a mildly dismissive comment of my own about Garth Crooks, but then I thought, sod it, I'll post one anyway. So long a has been, few can remember when he could fit inside a football shirt, now making comments that don't fit either ? .

Can't really say anything about Stephen Davis that others haven't already said in this thread but will just add one more voice of appreciation for a great player. It felt almost accidental that he came here when Glasgow Rangers imploded. He understandably declined the request by Ranger's new owning company that he join them in being relegated to the fourth tier of Scottish football and instead came to Southampton to continue playing at the top level, just as we were returning to the Premier league. It was very fortunate for the club and for Steven Davis that the two events coincided. Very pleased that he's contracted here now until 2019.

The new OS should be an improvement, otherwise what's the point of changing. But it isn't in a lot of ways. It's not just that its different as that's to be expected and users would expect to get used to it, but, no, it's worse in many ways that people have pointed out. Some information isn't accessible or is no longer there.