sandwichsaint

Nailed it, most realistic people accept that we have to live within our means, we have to be sustainable, we have to invest in the academy and produce our own players. We are a mid-size, mid-table sort of a team and we have somewhat over-achieved the last two years. What's so disappointing is how quickly we have regressed, the team seems to have little motivation, little organisation, and poor fitness levels - we still have the spine of a decent side but confidence and belief seems none-existent. Wanyama and Mane situation doesn't help but RK needs to get a grip on the rest of the team and start actually coaching them into a pattern of play. I'm astonished at the way VVD is allowed to play, absolutely no discipline and he gi ves away a goal-scoring chance every game (Yoshida gets pelters for less). Again Soares struggling, he can't be that bad, I've see nhim play well, plenty on here rated him better than Clyne after his first few appearances (he's clearly nothing like that level) but why hasn't RK improved his basic positional play after half a season? Why do we have so many players that can't play a full 90 minutes regularly? Clasie, Soares, Jjuanmi (supposedly), Tadic, Pelle (on the pitch for 90 but rarely contributes the 60-70 mark), bunch of lightweights!

Would anyone be suggesting Gary Monk for next manager if he wasn't ex-Saints? I'll go for a Skate, Eddie Howe.

Were their glasses half-full or half-empty? I think we should be told.

Completely missed this at the time. What was the clapping in the second half v Liverpool ? I picked up a few 'Gerrard' chants, at about 58 minutes, but reluctantly I didn't join in. No memo, no clap.

A decent system but it relies on your 10 and your 9 keeping the oppo back 4 fully engaged. Last night was a perfect storm for us, VW and Clasie didn't give them an inch, JWP and Davis did all that can be asked and Mane and Long asked questions all night long. With the players we have 4-4-2 / 4-4-1-1 makes more sense. The 4-2-3-1 can leave our full backs exposed and the '1' makes us pretty predictable.

I thought people wanted lots of changes?

0-3 L 0-0 D 2-1 L Tuff times.

Turn it off and turn it on again?

Noticable yesterday how little pace we have up front, Spuds were happy to play a very high line confident that we didn't have the quality in midfield or the pace up front to hurt them.

You've just made my weekend!

First time anyone has ever called Ormerod physical. Hard-working yes, tussling with Skrtel, no.

Not a bad plan ,but who would you consider 'weaker opposition'? We've played four Euro games, we're out of the league cup,we have Palace in the FA cup, not too much room for experimentation from here on....

Jack.Cork. (who I actually have a lot of time for).

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.