sandwichsaint

How do you consolidate a 20 year high? I got laughed out of Dodge for daring to suggest that we were 'regressing to the mean'; I've not seen anything this season to suggest that that's not true and that we are (now) as far as ever from being an established top 6-8 club. Top 6-8 clubs are always looking to add players and improve, we've always got 1-and-three-quarter eyes on the balance sheet. Not knocking it, me and the nipper were weighing up the pros and cons of relegation on the way home: don't need a ST, you can get home tkts on an as when and if basis, away tickets easier to get, cheaper ground prices over the season, more chance to see the home grown players, less mercenaries, and you get rid of the plastics at SMS. Did Half man Half biscuit ever pen Relegation Heaven? They probably should have.

Loving the edit, I so wanted that to say 'incorrect similies', as in 'grinning like a broken drain'.

He rattled Arsenal last year and made several other decent contributions. Ultimately you're right, we're weak in GK, weak at the back, weak in MF, non-existent up front ... one player won't make a difference.

Originally Posted by brett24 Gazza Cedric Fonte VVD Bertrand Wanyama Clasie Davis Pelle Tadic Mane Prediction - Take a point. Probably our best back-to-basics side but not sure it's enough to win the game? This side with four 8's and four 9's would give most people a game but we seem to be stuck in the 4's-5's-6's at the moment. Can't really see past a 0-2 but I'm always happy to be proved wrong. From the Sunday Times Nick Townsend who's pretty fair; Gazza 6 Ced 5 JF 6 VVD 5 RB 6 Classy 6 VW 6 (WTF?) Davis 6 Mane 6 Tadic 5 Pele 6 (WTF?) I don't do lottery numbers but Saints 0 Arsenal 3 is worth a tenner of anybody's hard-earned.

Same!

Drop VW, a large part of where we are, we've never recovered from him effing over our Europa effort and why people still sing his name is a bit of a mystery, tho noticably fewer in the last couple of games (A1 5hithead who thinks he's better than our club and has no respect for the shirt or the fans). We can manage with Romeu/Clasie/JWP if we have to, sell VW for anything north of 7m, if not let him stay in the u21's till the last day of the Sept window next year). Shooting practice and lots of it for all our strikers/midfielders. Over and over and over, nothing but striking the ball cleanly and accurately to a defined target rather than a vague area. Pick a settled back four and school them hour after hour after hour on their shape and role in possession and out of possession, they've been a shambles all season. Sort Bertrand's head out, does he want to go now, six months, twelve months? If we sort that out he would be like a decent new signing, if we can't sort his head out get rid, would be good money and he would be replaceable with the sort of money we'd get. Tell VVD to get back to basics now, he doesn't value his clean sheet anything like enough, plays like he just wants to play football like a kid would, (PlayStation defender!) it's great to watch but he's not currently in the right team or place to do that, much more discipline needed. Tin hat time, I'd play Yoshida over Fonte for the next six games, Jose's been a total legend but it's just not happening for him at the moment, seems to have lost all his authority and leadership, doesn't look fit, making way more mistakes than we're used to. Midfield would be improved massively if we played Romeu and Clasie, both can pass and we would immediately have better possession and fd momentum with those too rather than VW. We desperately need a new striker , we prob need another 20-plus goals to stay up, add together our current attackers' scoring rates and they don't make 20! Although nothing to say we can't improve what we have, one positive is we create 2 or 3 clear cut chances a game and we 'should' be able to convert them. Positives you wanted? Gazza looking a decent back up and possibly Forster to return VVD clearly a good player who should be improving quickly under RK's tutelage Clasie starting to play a bit Tadic has been pretty consistent Crowd good for a long time yesterday Happy Christmas everybody!

Probably our best back-to-basics side but not sure it's enough to win the game? This side with four 8's and four 9's would give most people a game but we seem to be stuck in the 4's-5's-6's at the moment. Can't really see past a 0-2 but I'm always happy to be proved wrong.

I'm surprised Bertrand's not in there at LB to be fair, obvs coming back from injury, no pre-season etc etc and he has had some good moments but overall he's nowhere near last year's levels. He seems to have rather gone under the radar with the focus elsewhere (Yoshi/JWP/Clasie/VW etc etc etc) but he's been a big disappointment this season, he's probably had his memo from Hodgson to get himself to a proper big club either before, during or after the Euro's.

Decent delivery.

Swap Wanyama for Dembele, job done.

I was thinking this yesterday, we rarely buy in January. Does anybody have any sort of list of those we've bought in the Jan window in the last few seasons? I'm thinking Forren? Fonte? possibly Jonno Quick? Am I missing anybody obvious? TBF we don't sell many either.

Hope we're going to re-name the training ground in his honour, it's the least we can do.

I assume you know the difference between weather and climate, yes? There was a whole thread yesterday about our 'natural level' where the consensus was that we can sustain a mid-table position but not realistically aspire to anything very much higher, and we can give it our best shot in the cups each year. I'd agree that's pretty much where we are at the moment and it's pretty typical of our longer term historical position (8th-12th is probably a bit higher than our long term average but on last night's showing I'm not sure 8th-12th is a long-term given).

Only up to a point, surely we would have to create 7 goal scoring opportunities to draw this conclusion. Apart from Wanyama's header straight at him I can't remember him having to make a save?

Don't be mean, you know what I mean. Something like we were in an unnaturally long-term low position when we were in Lge One and we were still below our long term average when we were in the Championship. Last year we rode in the top 4 for a part of the season and had our highest finish in modern times. We were everybody's darling, surely you remember that? We played some great stuff in front of a generally pretty solid defence. Looks to me like we're back to the same old, same old, in 12 short months. The players look unfit, unmotivated, the better ones want out, we will likely finish somewhere between 8th and 14th, we might occasionally bring down a big beast, we will probably take a couple of hits ourselves, I'd say normal service has been resumed.

1 Watching Saints will forever be a triumph of hope over expectation, after a decent period of growth we appear to be rapidly regressing to the mean. 2 Going to SMS is becoming a pretty soul-less and joyless day out. Away days are much more fun (although also increasingly less good, see point 4) 3 The demise of Liverpool has been greatly exaggerated and they have another 6 or 7 starters who didn't even play last night, one tiny consolation was to see just how much Brenda was under-achieving with that group of players. 4 So glad I followed us down the leagues and, particularly, back up again; my best years supporting Saints, great memories that plastic PL fans will never have. 5 We have turned into a combined shop window and bargain basement, RIP, the night the Southampton Way died.

Moving him to CB gave him the chance to shine and show his versatility and footballing smarts ... that master stroke that must have knocked another couple of £m off his price .... shambolic.

Dembele CDAJFU Unlikely to happen now but prob would have been available in the last window.

This is exactly what happened.

Bit presumptuous on current form?

A few things we missed last night: leadership (I literally couldn't tell you who was captain last night), any semblance of talking or organisation across the keeper and back 4 .. none what so ever. Fitness and conditioning, just embarrassing, Liverpool quicker, stronger, in all areas, we've gone from being super-fit under Poch to looking like a bunch of parks players. Desire, hunger, will to win, were all non-existent, we actually looked like we were up for it the first 15 minutes but when their first goal went in we just chucked the towel in, I didn't see any belief or desire to get back in it at any stage. Formation/tactics, again back in park land, huge hole in the middle of the park, no cover for the full backs, Pelle 30m from any supporting player .. just rubbish hoofball a lot of the time. Can't keep putting these below par performances down to it being an up and down transition type season, our transfer policy decrees that every season will be a transition and we've seen the evidence of it too many times already this season, essentially Wanyama and Mane are gone and just going through the motions, Bertrand looks the same to me, he's half the player he was last season, Pelle gets more irritable/negative by the game, though obvs he had nothing to work with last night tbf. No plan B at all, a squad full of one-paced, one-dimensional journey men, if that's all we've got then we need to get back to basics, set-up from the back and make ourselves much much much harder to play against. I really can't believe the academy loans would have done any worse last night. Second cup competition this season we've exited with barely a whimper, seems like the fans want it much more than the players do!

Anybody know if the King Alfred is open tonight? I have to meet someone fairly lastminute.com so any port (pint?) in a storm and all that.

He can start from tonight then, it's a big ask but he'll never have a better chance of a trophy with Saints. We padded out the squad for a Europa campaign and most people think we now have more depth than before (though he/we would always like more) though possibly a slightly weaker starting X1 too. He has probs with Fonte and RB to contend with, beyond that he has a fit and partly rested squad. He needs to conjure decent performances from Wanyama/Bertrand/Mane that reflect their real ability. On our day we play some great stuff and are a match for anybody. He needs to stick to his job which is to pick the right team, call the right tactics, make the right subs. Together as one!

Rested Clasie, Tadic, Soares, and we also have an involuntarily rested Pelle to come back too; and kept the GD to -2, well played RK. Isn't this what everybody wanted for cup games?

If you read one thing today, read this piece. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/11/david-cameron-letter-cuts-oxfordshire Now tell me, are the Government merely incompetent or do they really not care? Looking at this exchange Cameron (or the lackey who actually wrote the letter) have absolutely no idea how their austerity plays out in real life.