sandwichsaint

Not sure Gabbi is a target man or particularly suited to 4-3-3, 4-5-1 type systems. With the players we've got I think we'd be better off getting Lemina higher up the pitch (top of a diamond), with Boufal and Gabbi as the two strikers in front of him. Depending on oppo and home/away you can then perm two from Dav/Hoj/JWP/McQueen?/Stephens?? to play either side of Romeu. Long and Redmond as the change-it fd options. You would still have a fairly static/pedestrian midfield but you would at least get three of our better players closer together, nearer to their goal and causing the oppo problems.

He'd be mad not to ... biggest job he's ever gonna get and think he'd do well there. Everton completely lost their way under Koeman, just need to get some organisation and some belief back into themselves. He needs to steady the ship, trade a few in and out and find himself a decent striker, Everton give him time he could easily get them back into the top 6/7.

Tapped up by Juliette no doubt, head's gone.

I enjoyed Leeds v Sheff Utd on Friday evening, proper hurly burly football with a bit of ambition shown from both sides too.

In the big scheme of things one of the problems was that we scored about 75 minutes too early! My game plan was to have just enough for them, weather their early onslaught, bore the home crowd into submission (sod the away fans!), keep a clean sheet, and then nick it 1-0 late on. Only two problems with that plan: a)we don't always score (we did yesterday, yay!) and b) we are pretty good at the back but we can't guarantee a clean sheet if the keeper can't produce the ONE fairly routine save he's required to make. You have to wonder whether we had any sort of plan B lined up yesterday? Bonus early goal and keeping the ball well but you have to think that game was won/lost/drawn on the two half time talks. MPe needs to wise up very quickly that 1-0 at HT isn't a winning lead or a game-over situation in any PL fixture. Obvs Brighton were going to come steaming out, we needed disciplined defence and purposeful counter attacking and decent set pieces and we got neither, just meh.

TBF in the all the doom and gloom we made one classic counter-attack towards the end of the first half, we intercepted in front of our own D, VvD carried it over half way through their broken midfield, he relayed it to the right (JWP or Tadic prob) who quickly played Cedric in on the overlap, Brighton defence all over the shop and we had 3 players in distinct scoring positions in the box, Cedric hammered it over to no-one in particular, Brighton cleaned up and a really good scoring chance went begging. He didn't need to cross blindly, he had time and space to look up and pass it into the middle, we had 3 players all available. TBF he (Cedric) did that all game, he got forward (well) but I can't remember one cross going vaguely near where it was intended. Corners were also a shambles, I don't think we won one header in their box all game, VvD and Hoedt regularly came fd but the ball in was nowhere near them.

You missed 'drop Yoshida' for a full house. And the bonus ball of having Austin nowhere near the match day squad too. Shuffle the deckchairs, or the manager, but we're still just a bit one-paced, not very fit and not particularly bothered in the main. Those long contracts not looking quite so enticing now are they.

From the 5th March: called it 8 months ago;)

Bertrand too.

Yes! Did Fonte have something on refs? He seemed to get away with plenty at his own end, though unfortunately he ran out of luck at the Arse just when we needed some.

Your just a bryl-creamed Ward-Prowse A bryl-creamed Ward-Prowse.

I can trump all those derbies, back in the day when they had a competition that mixed L2 + L3 with the 'Conference' and other decent non-league teams, Meridian TV announcer on local news, 'and in the South Coast derby it was Bournemouth 0 Dover 0' ..... it was probably one of Dover's longest away games of the season. If you like a bit of bovver with your derby I haven't seen Blackburn/Burnley mentioned yet, that was a bubble before bubbles were invented. And for our older viewers that don't think of Brighton as a derby you obviously weren't at the park run after the Goldstone in 1978 (?), or maybe '77? 40 years ago, where's it all gone?

Lemina clearly a big loss but we 'should' still have too much PL know-how for BHA. We can pick any number of combinations where we are 'better' than them man-for-man, but do we want it, can we scrap, and do we know how to grind out a result? ...........Forster ........... CS .... Yoshi...VVD... RB .... JWP.... OR....SD....... .....Long....Gab....Tadic That side should have enough about it to keep a clean sheet, and enough of a counter punch to keep Brighton honest. Add Boufal (and Redmond) from the bench and we could see a solid 0-1 / 0-2 sort of a result.

City centre

Club missing out on a bit of a revenue stream here, looks like they should be selling half-term tickets for #Nighttime(un)GuidedTours

Few teams lose 9 games out of 10; we could get something from the Dugouts/Leic/Hudds/B'mouth but agree it will be relatively slim pickings, we really need 6 points plus from our next three games!

And yet he was one of our better players second half of last season, though that's not saying much admittedly. Just think we need to change shape to get the best out of Lemina and he (JWP) can do a job in a diamond... not sure who else could play there, Davis to a point, (McQueen, perhaps?), but probably not any of Redmond/Tadic/Boufal.

Lemina is built to play at the top of a diamond, maybe play Romeu holding, Hojberg and JWP each side, then Gabiadini + one (perm from Long/Davies/Boufal depending on circumstance/oppo).

first goal or second goal? saw Tadic with his head in his hands after the first!

Not sure where we go from here? We are where we are, constant downgrading and a blind belief in the #Southamptonway has bought us to a pretty pass. We have totally ****ed up the wall one of the easiest set of PL fixtures you could hope to have. Newcastle are hard working and organised and unfortunately that's all you need to be to get a result against us. Watching the first half was like watching two teams who were both playing away. Even in the last 15 minutes once momentum had shifted to us you never got the feeling Newc were hanging on, they still fancied their chances and were able to pin us back for the last few minutes. Clearly our problems are many-faceted and deep seated but, briefly, we are lacking in belief, direction, confidence, fitness, pace and power. Pace and power is the modern game, particularly in the PL and we don't have either. The sort of Mexico '70 / walking football we are serving up just doesn't cut it in the modern PL, it might get you top 6 in the French Ligue but not in the PL. Newcastle won't have an easier game all season; bar a ridiculous challenge from their CH they would have flown back north with 3 easy points today. Tactics way off today, we don't need 2 holding midfielders at home to a Newc team who would have taken 0-0/1-1 before kick off. We essentially played 6 defensive players against a team that were happy to sit 8 players in front of their 18yd line. Even with 6 defensive players we looked all at sea every time they broke, no authority, no leadership, no game plan of what we would do when they had the ball. Buck stops with the manager and he will carry the can but the rot goes a lot deeper. GK/GK coach/reserve keepers, what the actual F is going on that an established top half PL team can't field a half-decent GK? It wouldn't bother me if FF never played for Saints again, stealing a living that bloke, sell if we can (unlikely on the money he's on), if we can't sell then replace in Jan with a half competent Championship/kick-a-ball keeper. VVD - WTaF? Shambolic today and he needn't ever play for us again, Yoshi/Hoedt/Stephens can all DAJFU, bin him to the darkest corners, cash-in in Jan and buy some FDs! Pathetic that we have allowed ourselves to be dictated to by some billy big ones, when their head's gone it's gone, would take someone far more clued in than MoPe to turn that one around; should have got rid in the summer (and learnt the Fonte lesson); he was allowed to fester around and undermine the dressing room and we now have history repeating itself. Far too negative in our approach today, first 20 minutes set the tempo and gave Newc hope, a game that should have produced 3 fairly straightfd points has left us glad to grab one consolation point. Next up: West Brom H, Brighton A, Burnley H (the fixture list that keeps on giving), 6 points from that and we might have turned a corner but there's no easy games in the PL!

Then we just need to swap our front 6 with their front 6, problem solved.

No! Where's the #canofworms pic?

Not every fan gets a Boxing Day game though do they. I haven't looked at the other fixtures but would have to think Spurs/Saints is fairly attractive and will quite possibly be moved later in the week or kick off at silly o'clock early/late.

Far too negative, why on earth would you line up with 11 players facing your own goal?

They looked hard-working and organised last time out (v Liverpool), would think Benitez has enough about him to do a job on MoPe, we'll play pretty well and lose 0-1.