washsaint

I thought the players who did not start against Milan were, on the whole, our worst ones....... Davis, Fonte, Bertrand were all awful and thought Clasie and Tadic were poor too. Trouble with Austin is, he's just not clinical enough. Seems to need too many chances to score from open play and after that where on earth are the goals coming from? Right now I would start McQueen ahead of Bertrand, have Boufal in place of Tadic, JWP in place of Davis and Pierre instead of Clasie. We really, really do need a proper striker in the January window. We're far too lightweight and poor up front and Long, before his injury, appeared to have reverted back to his pre-Saints form. Still, reasonable season so far. Could, and should, have been better in the League and if we had a proper striker we would have won in Milan and pretty much already qualified for the knock out stages.

Worst display for a very long time - Davis, Bertrand, Tadic have all been beyond woeful with many others not far behind. As ever, we seem to have zero cutting edge and are far from clinical in front of goal. Clasie bottling a shot summed it up for me.

Definitely think that JWP and Hojberg are a far, far better pairing than bloody Davis and Clasie. Never really understood the love fest for Davis

I have to say that, based on the last 2 outings from Bertrand, that McQueen is a better option for us right now. bertrand has been terrible

This is a shocking display from Saints......absolutely no desire or pace in attack. We should be out of sight..... Tadic and Davis have been very poor. Tadic with his constant stepovers when he has the chance to deliver a shot or cross. We dearly need the likes of JWP and Boufal on now......... And as I type - we go down 2-1. Utter ****e!

Looks good Winner - be really interested in your thoughts on it once you have tried it.

The beauty of living in the States. I have a lovely finished basement so can connect everything up to a big TV and be nice and warm too! Thanks for the headsup - I have my eye on the Kickr....

Fantastic response 2nd half but Cedric cannot come back quick enough! Yoshi did a great job again, JWP was immense and Redmond is going to be some player. How did not win that by 5 or 6 who the hell knows. We should have had 4 or 5 penalties alone! Good news is if we beat Halpoel we are basically through........we should have won at Inter too but we are in with a good shout of qualifying.

I see VFTT is back on a bike - hopefully good news? Weather still unseasonably warm here (24 degrees celsius on Saturday although we started the ride at about 3 degrees celsius) and lovely ride through the back roads including Trump National golf course (really wanted to take a dump in one of the bunkers - that guy is a nasty, vindictive piece of work) and then some nice hills around Great Falls. This year has been great meeting so many people and now I very rarely have to ride on my own as I have built up a pretty good network of riders this summer. Much more fun riding with folks than having to go solo! What indoor trainers do folks have and can you recommend a smart trainer (I have a pretty basic, non-smart trainer right now)? The added benefit is the dry weather - sounds like it has started to get wet and drizzly back in the old country!

Davis has been very, very poor again

Mr X - you do know that they have only played City away and Spurs at home of any note and that a lot of the natives up there are getting restless due to the style of play he is insisting on? Our 5 away fixtures have been leicester (1st last year), Man City, Arsenal, Man Utd and West Ham. All teams that did well last year.

100% agree VFTT. Wasn't keen on him at first with some of the other options but, as ever, the club really did its homework. Some of the play right now is beautiful to watch and, on the whole, way better than under RK. We are well drilled, everyone knows their role and CP is not afraid to mix it up and blood the youngsters which will, in turn, make them hungrier as they know they will get a chance if they show potential. Hopefully the style of play will continue and we will get more clinical in front of goal: that is the one thing that is missing and if that clicks we will be as good as anyone in the League.

Taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather over here. Yesterday was around 27 Celsius so got out for a 53 miler up on Skyline Drive with a couple of friends. Normally this time of year it is spectacular with the Fall colors but not this year. 6,000 feet of climbing in 54 miles and a great ride followed by nachos and beer in Front Royal. What more can you ask for? Never having seen the benfits of indoor trainers until this last winter I am now on a mission to have a full winter of indoors training. I did the same ride in March solo with the same kind of times - coming off 2-3 months off intensive indoor training. Certainly highlighted the need, for me, to not just go out and try to bomb it on group rides in the summer and to supplement this with a more structured plan too. VFTT - fantastic news that you are able to get back on a bike. Keep us posted on progress!

Victor who? We do not miss him in the slightest with Romeu's rise to prominence. Some of his skills were a joy to watch and I just hope we get him tied down to an extended contract soon or the vultures will start circling again. Hats off to Puel - the style of play is beautiful and so much better than the last couple of years. If only our finishing were better........ Much harder tests to come but we seem to be a real team with much fluidity - who knows wahtwe could achieve this year?

The new site is terrible - half the time it doesn't work and my browser simply loads an image with the text behind the image so you can't read it. Doesn't work at all with Chrome. Sure its just teething problems and I'm sure the multimedia content is good - if you can ever get to it!

Amazing isn't it that we have so many resident 'experts' on here who say how ****e Redmond is. yet you read the journo reports or listen to ex-players and they have a completely different view and are glowing in their priase of him. So who is right? Got to say, talking to the wife while watching todays game we were both commenting on how enjoyable it is to watch the Saints style of play now. Might not be a 100mph 'up and at em' approach but is really enjoyable to watch and some of the 1 touch play today was fantastic. Hopefully we will soon make our superior play count by scoring the goals our play deserves. Hats off to Claude - I was skeptical about his appointment but have a feeling Les has pulled off (yet) another masterstroke!

I actually think Redmond has been good in the very few touches he has had so far and he tracks back well. Some of his touches have been sublime and over time I am confident he will flourish under Puel. 2 mistakes at the back apart we have looked really comfortable and by far the better team. Don't think either Bertrand or Davis have had their best games but overall a solid display by Saints and you can see the team now understands Puel's way of playing and the good news is that it does not expand copious amounts of energy running round like headless chickens.

Agree Old Nick - you look at the dreadful displays against Mijtlland last year. Chalk and cheese. 1 win against Inter (home or away) and we have 1 foot in the next round.

Great interview and his passion comes across really clarly even in the written interview. As a club, we are so, so lucky to have the ownership and leadership that we do.

Love that area Winner - my dad lives out in Tisbury so understand the steep hills and lumpiness round that way! Don't you just love the organized rides where you meet so many different people and have some good chats/company that makes the ride fly by? Sounds like a great ride (in decent weather!) - I know last time I was back in the UK (last summer) I was able to get out round Winchester and while not mountains like near me here, plenty of steep hills to get the legs burning! But was still shocked at how damp it was in summer (obviously had forgotten)!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/26/exclusive-investigation-england-manager-sam-allardyce-for-sale/

Nice Winner - been really interested to see if the UK organized rides are like the US ones, in the sense of good aid stations, post ride meals (and beers sometimes) included. Sounds like your ride had better fuel than the ones I do here. One ride does amazing tomato sandwiches and fresh peaches but other than that it is a bit grim. In terms of riding over here, I ride year round. I actually really enjoy the winter riding in the dry as it can be -15C with wind chills but wrapped up warm and no-one else around can be fun! The air is very dry here in the winter so it only becomes icy after snow or rain. Look forward to the next instalment of your ride.......

Really challenging ride to finish the group ride season today - nearly 4.5K feet of climibing in 50 miles with some nasty climbs. Beautiful ride though - esepcially when following the Shenandoah river through the forest. It's been a cracking season and realized a number of 'dreams' such as riding in the ROckies (twice!), big rides in Oregon and really picking the pace up this year. Have my eye on one final century in Anne Arundel in late October and will likely do Skyline Drive again before it gets too cold.

And you're still an absolute idiot who should p**s off back to the UI board.

Really pleased to see results improve and, quite honestly, our style of play is now back to some of the Pochettino era.....exciting to watch and easy on the eye. Despite how well Koeman did for us over 2 seasons you couldn't honestly say the style was particularly joyful to watch for the majority of the time. The squad seems to be really together and it was quite opportune Koeman leaving, as otherwise I don't think Tadic would still be here. Hopefully we are back on an onward march and nice to see press and commentators finally giving lots of praise to the Southampton Way in terms of the whole ethos being far more than any individual.