Professor

I just wonder why Toby should make a decision to sign now if it means a wage cut. Even if he believes his future may be with Saints he might as well wait until the end of the season when he will have more information on which to make his decision, for example, whether Southampton are in European competition.

This needed saying. We are all Saints' fans but a small minority seem more intent on criticising fellow fans than participating in adult debate. The culprits could do worse than consider the famous quote from Voltaire who said (en Francais, bien sûr) "I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." My ignore list is still short but I'd far prefer not have an ignore list at all.

There does seem to be a problem at RB with the cover for Clyne being one of the CBs so that with Yoshida away and Toby not fully fit, Koeman wasn't prepared to trust McCarthy but having just seen the stats for the game it does look as if luck played a big part. 66% possession for Saints and no corners at all for Ipswich tells a story that in most matches would have been reflected in the score line.

Hard for any manager to admit an error but the selection and set-up today didn't work and wasn't entirely enforced. The options seemed to be a return to the back 3 using Fonte, Gardos and Alderweireld or bringing in a specialist RB in place of the injured Clyne. Jason McCarthy was regarded as capable enough to be on the bench but not capable enough to play ahead of an out-of-position midfielder. Can't have done McCarthy's confidence much good. It'd true that the attack was somewhat ineffective today but had we kept a clean sheet, the game would have been won.

Any improvement in Forster's performance since he came here should indicate that Dave Watson is earning his crust.

Many years ago people such as Alfred Oliver (of Keynsham, spelt K. E. Y.......) realised that you couldn't make money from predicting football results but you could make money by selling your predictions, useless as they might be, to others. Lawrenson and Merson are merely the modern equivalent.

It doesn't come across to me as hatred for Southampton or any of the 'small clubs but just that his 'predictions' are, to coin a phrase - 'predictable'. He assumes positive results for the 'Big' five, which to him are Chelsea, Man City, Man Utd, Arsenal and Liverpool. Given that three of those teams are in the top three, that will have worked for him a lot of the time but when one of them is failing, as Liverpool have done so far this year he inevitably gets predictions wrong. My criticism of him is twofold - (1) that the result he predicts is often not reflected in the assessment paragraph that is printed - which I suspect is actually written by a journalist anyway; and (2) the predictions are formulaic without taking enough account of known current facts such as recent form, injured players and suspensions. Quite satisfying when his predictions have a bad week, as this week.

Toby Alderweireld has become the Michael Svennson of this era, with the added bonus of being able to play at FB as well. Integral to the team and would be an immense loss if we can't keep him for next season. But was there not an announcement that no decision could be made until the end of the season and that Atletico have the right to buy out Saints' option if they choose? If that is true, this may yet come down to more money, but if he can be transferred to a full contract it's hard to imagine that the club would hesitate.

On the way back from the game I learnt how lucky we have been. Just as against other top teams, we only manage to look good when the other team has an off day. Also learnt from M.Wenger that his team lost only because they let in a couple of silly goals and because one of our players wasn't sent off. He was clear that they could easily have beaten us if only their players had scored a goal or two. Despite this, it seems that one of Arsenal's more intelligent fans was anxious to give M. Wenger some advice in the technical area towards the end of the game, but unfortunately this assistance was rejected. MotD will be entertaining tonight.

Surprised that Lord Duckhunter has no concern over cheating. Fortunately other sports take it more seriously than football with cheats being banned, sometimes for life. There are two things that could improve the situation, one being the retrospective panel to identify cheating in the same way that the Dubious Goals Committee operates. If the punishments are severe enough, cheating could be eradicated. The other action would be change in the laws to remove the penalty kick except for cases where the referee believes the foul or handball prevented a goal or a clear goal-scoring chance. The present penalty kick is too great a reward in many of the circumstances where it is awarded. Players throw themselves down to get the free 12-yard shot at goal because they know that if they continue in play, there is much less chance of their team scoring.

The pundits on MotD made the situation worse over the Fabregas dive by stating categorically that it should have been a penalty and that it wasn't a dive. Seems they don't know the Laws of the game which require a trip to careless, reckless or due to excessive force in order for the referee to give a free kick. Since Targett slipped when defending against Fabregas, it clearly was none of the these and yet the BBC's pundits act as if their judgement overrules the referee without any reference to the Laws of the game. Fabregas did what so many players do when in the opponent's penalty area, which was to make contact with an outstretched leg and threw himself to the ground to make the trip look deliberate. It was good to see Mourinho, whose team could only manage one shot on goal all game, complaining that cheating by one of his players hadn't been rewarded but had been penalised instead. Mouinho's approach which is win at all costs regardless of the rules and to undermine referees by trying to get favourable decisions, simply stinks. Very much hope he is punished for his post-match comments and that the BBC apologise for their part in damaging confidence in a referee who has correctly applied the laws of the game.

Mané being away for the ACN in January may be good thing. To me, the team looks much better with Long in attack and with some talented young players waiting for their chances I'd rather the club see them used than buying someone in. Harry Reed has already shown that Koeman can have confidence in him so now it would be nice to see more of Dom Gape and some game time for Seager and McQueen.

Very pleased to see Dom Gape on the bench. Extremely talented sportsman and I have high hopes for him.

It means a great deal because it gives security to the Club as well as the player. This is going over the same ground that was debated back in the summer, but a player cannot break a contract without the agreement of the club. The club can agree to terminate for a fee and, as we saw in the summer, that agreement can come at a high price to the buying club. The Club can also refuse offers, even if a substantial fee is likely, as we saw with Schneiderlin. Matt Targett is a prospect with years of top flight football ahead of him. The alternative to tying him down is to accept that you will let him go for peanuts.

Only a 1-0 defeat away to one of the top sides in L1 so its encouraging to know that if we were back in L1 we could expect to be competing for promotion.

The.3 fatigue suggestion may well be an issue, although there were players in the starting 11 who have not played many games. But if a small squad is the problem so that Koeman is having to play his first choice 11 too often, maybe being out of the League Cup will help and perhaps we should hope for a similar outcome against Ipswich. Many fans are now just hoping we stay in the top half of the table and don't get drawn into the relegation fight that will begin to heat up come Feb/Mar.

Watched the bits of the game shown on MotD. Although you see very little of the action, the stats showed that Saints were the better team and confirmed what Koeman said in his post-match comments about the performance being positive. The result did look largely to be a matter of luck. You would expect to have scored from the penalty but there will be the occasional miss. The goal conceded looked unlucky, although you might have expected another defender or two to be in the area. Maybe this was an unlucky defeat, as many are saying was the defeat to Man U, and at Arsenal. These results might be down to the run of luck over which there can be no control, but you then have to consider whether some of the results we got through the autumn were also down to luck in our favour, so perhaps it evens out over time..

Actually, its two loans at the same time but only 1 from the same club. Premier League Handbook 2014/15 - Rule V.7.5 No more than 4 temporary transfers in a season and no more than 1 from the same club. Rule V.7.6 - Maximum number of temporary transfers at the same time - 2. So, no Torres.

I think people will find that under Premier League rules, Southampton cannot take Torres on loan. Loans are known by the Premier League as 'temporary transfers' and are subject to limits. There is a maximum on the number of loan players a club may have, and no more than 1 from the same club. As Torres is a Chelsea player and Saints already have Bertrand on loan from Chelsea, I think that rules out a loan of Torres to Southampton. Anyone care to check if that is correct?

Agree about Daylight Robbery but Hesketh had hardly set foot on the pitch when Forster failed to deal with the free kick. Hesketh has been with Saints since he was aged eight, signed a professional contract in May 2014, and was the club's 2013/14 Scholar of the Season after impressing with the Under-18s and Development Squad. Similar age to when JWP was given a starting place against Man City in our first game back in The Prem in 2012. Good decision to bring him on and better than the decision to keep Mané on the pitch.

With four players out through injury who could have started or come on in midfield (Schneiderlin, Cork, Aldeweireld, JWP) it doesn't look as if squad depth is an issue. There is a limit to how many players you can have for cover who will normally never get a game. The two errors that resulted in last nights goals being let in should never have happened but weren't cause by a lack of squad depth. Personally, I'm not convinced by Mané and would like to see competition for his role. He seems to be competing with Long but they are very different players. Was surprised last night that it was Long who was taken off and not Mané but doubt if that would have changed the outcome. The reality is that chances were made that weren't taken. When JRod and Gallagher are fit to provide more competition for the front places, maybe that will help, but it really does seem we are not a top 4 side.

Number 35 (Saints) against number 36 would be fun.

It is impossible for WHU to be third after the Saints/Man U game, whatever the result. Might have been too complicated for the BBC researchers to work out or as Badger says, for the media, the only interest is in teams from three cities - London, Manchester and Liverpool. I imagine that everyone on this forum knows that if:- Saints win, Saints go 3rd by 2 points; Man U win, Man U go 3rd by 1 point; Draw, Saints go third on GD.

Brilliant bit of incisive commentary by BT Sport - "You can't help thinking that the injury to Alderweireld taking Southampton down to 10 men might just have had something to do with it......"

Thoroughly irritated by the BT Sport commentary which might just as well be the Arsenal Club commentary.