Matthew Le God

Nigel Adkins thinks he is the "future for Southampton Football club" and also says he thinks he could represent Argentina at senior level. He is in a more informed position to make such a judgement than anyone on this forum. Of course you could accuse him of lying and not really believing in such a statement, are you?

From what Nigel said today, it seems unlikely Clyne will play. They'll probably save him for the Villa game and keep Cork at right back or bring Richardson in.

Before the start of the 2nd half against Arsenal he hit himself in the face 3 times.

As I said from the day he signed, although Boruc is clearly crazy I think given a run of games he should be more than good enough. Adkins agrees, so put some trust in Nigel and Artur.

Rodriguez in recent games has played as the striker, with Lambert in a deeper role.

Looks like it will be Boruc for the rest of the season and Gazzaniga in the future.

Adkins said today "I won't be making wholesale changes" on Saturday.

Southampton's system uses one real striker with Ramirez behind, Lambert hasn't been injured or suspended and has scored 8 league goals. In the summer how much quality did we have in the striking department beyond Lambert to work at Premier League level? Had we not signed Rodriguez or Mayuka, who would you suggest play if Lambert were to be injured/suspended? To criticise Rodriguez for only scoring 2 goals is daft, he has been used out on the left and come on for brief cameos. Rarely has he been played as a striker. As I said, he is 7 years younger than Lambert, he is his replacement this season in case of injury/suspension etc and in the long term can be groomed to be his successor.

Do you have any evidence for all of this?

Why is it a waste of money? We don't just need 11 players, we need a squad. Mayuka and Rodriguez are 22 and 23 years old respectively. Rodriguez in particular is the replacement should anything happen to Lambert, plus he is his long term replacement given he is 7 years younger.

Kasper Schmeichel is 7 years older than Jack Butland! For a keeper of 26 years old, Schmeichel has hardly had a glittering career.

As others have said, if in self defence from serious harm then yes. But I'd expand that further to include the defence of other innocent people from serious harm.

I'd be intrigued to hear you explain the logic behind that. Are we always going to be a newly promoted Premier League club?

Why would you want to move away from the 4-2-3-1 system that has been working so well?

If Juventus don't make a bid and Southampton do/have already then it isn't quite the choice you have stated.

Unlike Oxlade-Chamberlain, Bale and Walcott who were sold having only played League One or Championship football, Shaw already has shown himself to be more than capable to play at Premier League level aged 17 for Saints. Plus when Bale, Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain were sold were either in the 2nd/3rd tier and/or didn't have the Liebherr estate funding the club. Things are very different now, as I'm sure Cortese will tell any club bidding for our players.

The (ever reliable) Daily Star say Arsenal want to sign Leighton Baines to play left back.

The thread title is very misleading, Ian Abrahams has been shown to be clueless on numerous occasions.

Or... we could be positive and support the team perhaps?

Yes. Just use Artur Boruc.

The main point of opening post was using the fair play league (with Saints at the top and Stoke at the bottom) which has numbers of red/yellow cards as a key weighting factor.

Why do you see getting yellow cards as a positive? It is perfectly possible to be aggressive and not get booked, i.e. win the ball cleanly and also not time waste/dissent etc.

If you mean Hooiveld and not Hooivelt, then it could be because at 6 foot 4 Adkins thinks he offers a counter to Stoke's aerial threat. Today's team has a lot of 6 foot plus players, which we might just need.

Have you considered it is the same 4-2-3-1 formation as normal with Yoshida at right back?