VectisSaint

Only two, Lewis and Sims. Not included Forster, Reed and Rose. Assuming Forster will go and Rose won't be named that leaves just one space. Then again Cedric also seems to have gone AWOL, so who knows what will happen. When does the squad have to be submitted, is it when the PL transfer window closes or after the FIFA window closes in 3 weeks?

Prett clear to me that Cedric will not play v Burnley (if he ever plays for us again). He's not back yet and if the reason for his absence is to be believed he is suffering from some seriousish stomach problem, so likely not to have done much in the way of training anyway. Hughes will play a back 3, and I think it will be Stephens, Vestergaard, Hoedt, I would prefer it to be Yoshida instead of Hoedt but suspect Yoshi will not be ready to start this one. Targett to play RWB in the absence of Cedric (pity we don't recall Pied, he is still looking for a club as far as I can see and his fitness training looks impressive, he may not be the greatest wing back but think he suits Hughes system better than MoPe's). Midfield Romeu, Davis, Armstrong, with Gabbi and Austin "up front"

Also noted for penalty taking. 4 of his 12 league goals last season came from the spot. If Austin is on the pitch I have a high degree of confidence that he would score pens as well. 15 goal a season strikers are a modern myth outside the top 6. What we lack is significant contributions (5.6 per season, not including pens) from the midfield and wing backs (our CBs contributed, Stephens got 2 or 3 and even Hoedt got one if I recall). I thought Long was on his way out, something seems to have gone wrong with the move to Glasgow. Also very disappointed that Sam G didn't even get on the pitch on Saturday, he has to be an improvement on Carrillo and at the moment that is our only difference between now and the 2nd half of last season as far as strikers are concerned (though I understand that Moi can play as a striker).

Burnley lost 0-2 to Espanol.

Pope is out for most of the season, Heaton is injured, they have brought Hart in (or are bringing him in). Having Hart could be a positive for us. They also have a friendly against Espanyol today, so we will be their 3rd game in a week with a trip to Turkey in between. It all looks good for us, trouble is we are looking decidedly crap so they will probably get away with it.

Clear demonstration again today, our CBs may not be great but they are being exposed time and again by our midfield players. Only Romeu comes.close to providing the shield. Hoj and Lemina are hopeless in that role, Lemina gave the ball away in dangerous positions so many times today. The focus on this thread on blaming the attack or the defence simply highlights how simplistic so many of our self opinionated forum experts are. That said Vestergaard is horrendously slow, and Hoedt continues to make dreadful mistakes, I was hoping he would start to learn and cut out the nonsense. Bednarek also has been given a chance by Hughes after showing well when asked to in our run in, but he is demonstrating now why he was not previously getting close to the 1st team. Seems to me that we haven't improved on our longest serving CBs, Yoshida and Stephens still the best we have.

Usual problem forthe goal, opposition completely missing out our midfield, leaves Bednarek pace-exposed and Hoedt doing his Danny Fox impression, hands on hips facing the goal blaming everyone else. With the pace of our CBs our midfield has to improve to close the ball down effectively and cut out the through balls. Please can we get Schneiderlin or Wanyama back?

How could Cedric have been back sooner? He played in the WC and was given the standard holiday time like all the others. Players have a right to their time off and it's important they get down time to recharge. Whether he is actually ba k as he should have been Monday is a different matter, does seem a bit odd that he hasn't been seen or mentioned, yet Yoshida has.

Interesting idea that even Spurs supporters are clever enough to see the problem. It's true, it certainly was last season, but all the Saints board intelligentsia think the problem is the defenders, Stephens in particular or the attack. The problem has been so much the midfield, the attacking ones, cannot hold the ball, give it away in stupid places, lead to situations where the defence have no way of recovering the situation. Tadic, Boufal and Redmond specifically were all guilty as sin last season, and only Boufal had the balls to get back and put a shift in defensively. Last night the same thing appeared to be happening, firstly with Davis/McQueen and then with Long. Players like this will.always give the ball away, it's part of their job, trying to create, it carries a high level of risk, but we need to have a strategy/someone to deal with it. It used to be Morgan and then Wanyama. Romeu is a good player but he is not of their stature and he gets overwhelmed and also has to cover for calamities from Hoedt, in particular. The plan has to be to have Lemina in there, and that was what was missing last night. Trouble is the jury is still out on Lemina. Until we solve that problem we will probably continue to struggle and the Saints Forum gurus will continue to blame individuals because they need someone to blame. I'm positive in as much as I think Armstrong will not be as dangerous to us as Boufal, Tadic and Redmond, but not convinced yet on the basis of 75 minutes in a preseason friendly and clearly we need someone else in there as well. I should have added as well that things were better when we also had VvD who would step up and support Romeu, his brains from the CB role helped paper over the cracks in the MF to some extent. Will Vestergaard develop this was as well, only time will tell, only Stephens of our other CBs seems to show these qualities, but of course Stephens is **** and cannot head the ball according to some of the learned few, the legends in their own minds, that haunt this place.

Yoshida is certainly back, the Echo reported yesterday that Cedric was going to be back as well. No guarantee he actually arrived of course, but Hughes was certainly expecting him. Can't see he would be off, if he was surely we would have brought someone in in this area given we don't really even have a true backup (Reed and McQueen seem to be cover). Given the system Hughes is looking to play this position is critical to its success. http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/16384770.southampton-manager-mark-hughes-has-maya-yoshida-and-cedric-soares-back/

Sounds like a made up story. Burnley still have 2 senior keepers, they may have others as well, can't really see why they would want to have 5 keepers on their books even with Europa League. Sun adding 2+2 and making 5. Would be good though.

Quite a few of these kids are u18s, Klarer for instance. Seem to be bringing the younger kids through that have done well under Danny Butterfield to boost the U23s that have been poor in the last couple of seasons.

Antrim who beat us went on to win the final (on pens) against Man U. Coverage seemed to focus only on Man U (how unusual).

Tadic is no god to me. Tadic was one of the triumvirate of Ams along with Boufal and Redmond who were the main reason for our awful season (along with our hopeless manager). A late flourish by Tadic helped improve his stock but I said during the season we should get rid of all three, and so far the club has at least achieved 2 out of 3. Back to the point, sorry but however you try to big him up JWP is never going to be more than a squad player for an average PL team. His goals and assists given his status as set piece taker is very poor, and that's why he is on the bench not because of it. Will be surprised if he is first choice under Hughes.

If you consider 3 goals (2 in one game) and 3 assists good, well then yes he was. Given he is the main free kick and corner taker (when he is on the pitch) 3 and 3 is really not that hot.

Chambers has played 105 games since he left us, 72 in the PL (Arsenal and Middlesbro).

Injured his ankle trying to pass the ball to a team-mate, something his ankle hadn't experienced before.

Sims is not blocking anyone in terms of squad. How about we actually play some of our a academy kids instead of continually bringing in Carlos Kickaballs who prove to be no better. If we can't bring players like Sims and Gallagher through what is the point of having an a academy? Any other country these kids would be in the team, but here no one has the balls to give them a chance.

Good luck to the Saints U15s tonight in the Junior section. Semi final v Antrim after winning all their group matches. Man Utd or Armagh in the Final tomorrow. Well done so far lads.

The SFC Black Box is not named from the black box on an aircraft (which is orange anyway). Black box is a science, computing or engineering term for a device or system which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs without any knowledge of its internal workings. Its implementation is "opaque" (black).

Bologna: Skorupski (57’ Santurro); De Maio, Calabresi, Paz; Mbaye, Poli (46’ Kingsley), Pulgar, Donsah (57’ Falletti), Dijks (76’ Krejci); Falcinelli (76’ Avenatti), Destro (66’ Petkovic). Coach. F. Inzaghi. Southampton U-23: Rose; Valery, Klarer, Jones (46’ Rowthron), Vokins (77’ Davis); Smallbone, Hesketh (46’ Slattery), O’Connor; Barnes (63’ N’Lundulu), Obafemi (77’ Flannigan), Johnson. Coach. Jaidi. By the way just for clarity this was not Bologna U23s, it was their "first team", very early in their season preparations. Penalty and last minute 2nd goal. The goals were all the fault of Jack Stephens.

Its not as simple as that though is it. While Pellegrino was in charge our defence was average, or if you want to be pedantic very lightly below avearge. After 30 games we had the 12th best defensive record, and that was on the back of a 3-0 at Newcastle. Take out the 5-2 embarrassment against Spurs we were bang average. We fell below average after Hughes came in. 44 goals conceded after 30 games, thats 3 in every 2 games, really quite decent for anyone outside the top 6. Only conceding 1 or 2 goals per game is actually defensively good. Trouble was we were abject at scoring. Remeber also that up to the Spurs game we also had Forster in goal. So don't try tomake out we had a below average defence under Pellegrino, who as you say set us up to be defensively solid, we didn't we were pretty much average. Not forgetting also that for the first half of the season we also had van Dijk (who also gave goals away by his sloppy play). Our problems under Pellegrino (besides not scoring goals), was too often giving the ball away when we were in possession, indeed several goals were conceded from our abject play from our own corners, Tadic, Boufal, Redmond, Davis, Lemina, all guilty. Our CBs were usually in the area providing some of our most potent attacking options when the ball was givem away, you can't blame them for not being able to stop these goals, when they are doing what they should be and, in Stephens case at lease, being quite successful. The stats that you slate Tajjuk for stating (although actually he didn't really) were actually very relevant, and for those who care to actually review what went on are very telling, certainly not something to be dismissed in your patronising way.

Can't see why Gallagher won't be given the chance. Looks like it's Long who is going and who we will replace. Gallagher gives us something a bit different with his height and pace, has proved himself capable of getting goals even in very poor teams and will get his chance this season given that Chas won't be fit for 38 games or 90 minutes. Have no idea if Wellbeck is serious, but would be a big upgrade on Long. Shame Long is going but you can't persist with one of your 4 strikers only scoring 1 per season. Little surprised if he goes to Rangers rather than Celtic.