VectisSaint

We've failed to score in 7 games this season (including Wolves), just because we scored 4 yesterday does not mean yet that we can suddenly score goals for fun. Things went well yesterday against a diabolical side, lets wait and see if we have turned a corner or whether this was a bit of an aberration. Incidentally if we had continued going for it one more goal yesterday would have taken us above Brighton in the League.

Davis will play, as captain and (equal) top goal scorer. Hoj deserves to play based on yesterday but if MP agrees it will be instead of JWP.

Hojbjerg was a huge positive today. Looked good in the tackle, made some excellent passes and crucially battled back when needed, showed great fighting qualities something badly lacking in the team generally. Still can't shoot, but not going to knock him for that on today's performance, MOTM for me. Boufal also much better today, actually attacking rather than going backwards. Charlie's two goals were excellent old-school strikers goals. Only real down side for me was that we were playing probably the worst team seen at SMS in recent years (or even ever).

Managed Fulham from 1994-1996.

If not then would suggest Stephens would be a better bet than JWP for DM.

Fair enough, looks like Koeman did change things a bit, he certainly played 5across the back in the next game against Palace, but some reports show Bertrand playing MF against Everton. Anyway this is not the major turnaround most people remember, which was after the appalling run in December when Koeman was coming under serious pressure and he switched formation and stuck with it for several weeks. It also coincided with Forster's return. Ultimately Koeman saved Saints with his switch but fell out with Reed (Les) which lead to his departure.

Fake news from Batman, there's a first.

It was Watford at home in 2016 when Koeman changed the formation. Stuck with it for a few weeks.

So go support a team that plays in it. Its not the PL that is the problem, its Saints, and specifically our management team (Reed, Watson, Black, Pellegrino, Krueger) and some of our players (Tadic, Forster, Redmond etc). Apart from one season when we were promoted being in the Championship was ****.

and Forster. Austin and Long I agree with but not Gabbi.

Hate to call for a manager to be given the boot, but he has to go, and take Tadic, Redmond, Forster, Black and Watson with him. Les Reed as well, oh and the hockey coach. Southampton Nil. It has become a disgrace.

Reversing down a one way street I expect.

Liverpool probably.

So who do you suggest he plays? There are no players who are regular goal scorers in the squad (with the exception of Gabbi, who isn't exactly regular and Austin, who isn't exactly fit and available regularly). Long is a regular non-scorer. So if MP is mad, what is your solution? He is not mad because he plays them. he may be mad for other reasons, granted. Personally I think its time to use McQueen and/or Sims (if fit) instead of the hopeless Redmond and Tadic. They cannot be any less effective. At least Sims is direct and quick (if fit) and doesn't seem to have had his attacking mindedness coached out of him by Puel. We need some injection in the January transfer window but until then only these two are options over and above what MP currently has at his disposal.

In the League it was when Koeman turned around the awful mid season form in 2015/16. Resulted in a run of 5 wins in 6 games.

and of course you know for a fact that no one has tried since. Still, he hasn't played for a top 6 side so he must be crap, MLT would presumably have to agree with such an assessment. At the time he played for Villa and Rangers they were top sides, of course they aren't now. The guy appears to be someone who is happy with his lot and loyal to teams he plays for. He is not the greatest player in the world by a long way, but he is an above average PL player who gives his all, is vital to making us tick and altogether an all round nice guy, but a few people here still want to knock the bloke and make themselves look small minded.

You know they haven't, of course. They won't want him now because he is nearly 33 years old.

They would.

Reality is they don't, hardly any even make it out of the group stage. Only Swansea from the 12 groups last night.

Hardly played due to knee injury.

Also, any striker will struggle with a lack of our attacking midfield options. Even Lambert would struggle with the service provided by the current three (on their current form and the way they are being played).

Yes, seen most of them, thanks, hardly a catalogue. Mostly at the start of last season (though not all), so you could justifiably (though not sure I would) link them to a hangover from Watson's coaching. He also got many plaudits for the many good performances that he put in, especially as the season progressed. 12 clean sheets, 35 goals conceded in the season (approx 1 per game). His cockups were often like the one today against Spurs, rather than not making saves. By the way, its not "trendy" to knock FF and DW. The reason many people do it is because they see for themselves how useless the big man is based on available evidence. The way FF "performs" is so similar to the way other (our and England) keepers perform who are coached by Watson, including how Gazzaniga performed in the past under his tutelage.

But a season and a half away from our esteemed goal keeping coach and he at least makes decent saves that our incumbent would not have got near.

Because he looked dodgy last week I expect.

It shows to me that we know that our attacking players (primarily Tadic, Redmond and Boufal) are so bad at giving the ball away to the opposition that we are forced to cover the opposition breakaway possibility. It happens so often, we get the ball forward to those three and eventually, often because they take so long to create anything, the ball ends up back with our opponents. We also give the ball away more often than not from corners. Of course we also are worried and commit to defensive tactics because we have a useless keeper. All in all until we replace our current crop of attacking mids and our keeper we will continue to play in this way.