washsaint

pelles body language is terrible and really offering nothing

omg....awful from tadic

reckon we need to change it up and go for it. playing 1 up front is useless: paricularly when it is pelle in his current (lack of) form

awful - again - with zero cutting edge. clyne has been bloody awful. plenty of time but pelle needs service and my god he needs a goal.

Disappointing but all teams struggle against sides that come for a point, like Swansea and WHU. We have no cutting edge at all and both Pelle and Tadic are mere shadows of the players at the start of the season. Since December, in truth, on the whole we have struggled to score and it's only mane that ever really looks like scoring. In a strange way Liverpool might suit us - they need to win games and won't/can't come to park the bus. We do need to be clinical though and we are anything but. Realistically it looks like we won't finish lower than 7th and that in itself would be an absolutely incredible achievement. And 17 goals conceded after 25 games? Incredible. Very disappointing tonight but we have 13 more games to make a mark. We are still effectively, with GD, 2 games ahead of both Liverpool and Spurs.

wow....can't believe some of the comments here (actually I can). Liverpool are still 3 points behind and if we win against WHU (which we need to be doing to maintain momentum) we will be 6 clear of Pool and 5 clear of Spurs. So Spurs then would have to win 2 and Liverpool get 2 wins and a draw whilst we lose every game just to get ahead of us. And the games are starting to run out. So long as we keep winning then we are in an unbelievable position: I think 7th is the lowest we will finish now which is extraordinary considering what the general perception was at the start of the season. It is very much in our hands.....win tomorrow and avoid defeats against Liverpool and Spurs and that means only 11 games left: and if both Spurs and Liverpool have to get 2 wins ahead of us that is a huge mountain to climb at this stage of the season.

I think Koeman seems like an honorable and trustworthy guy (unlike that snake in the grass Pochettino). TBH, I would love to see Koeman here longer than 3 years as this would enable us to potentially build something really special.

pelle has been terrible. May as well not have been on the pitch

Nail, head, on.....would have thought people would have learnt their lesson from the summer. Chances are we will end up with a better player than Cork and if/when Schneiderlin leaves sure we will get a quality replacement. Cork was a good squad player but realistically was not going to be the first name on the sheet any more.

Shurlock has it bang on IMO. We could play 5 strikers up front but if we don't give them a chance to score we have problems. Our defence, today aside, has been outstanding and that is why we are as high in the League as we are. Incredible how many chances we are converting as we are creating so little. That is the biggest concern right now: creatively we are completely flat and Tadic seems to have gone right off the boil. 3 points against Swansea would be great - but anyone who thinks bringing in a new striker will change anything is dreaming.

Nope, never.

http://babb.telegraph.co.uk/2015/01/matt-le-tissier-the-last-footballer-of-his-kind/ Great article and what a privilege to see his great goals. Absolutely loved him scoring the last ever goal at the Dell and yet another cracker. What a player - would be really interesting to see if he would have as much impact in todays team.

Would not be at all surprised to see JWP break into the England squad this season. He is a very special talent and is very underrated by many on here.

That's OK re. Crooks team of the week. For some reason, only known to himself, he thought Falcao was superb for Manure. The guy is the worst pundit in the history fo mankind. Even makes Townsend seem like he knows what he is doing.

Frank - yet again your 3rd grade writing resorts to insults. How on earth you can say Adkins was doing crap (Saints on a good run, just drew at Chelsea) is beyond belief. He was treated appallingly - if you cannot admit to that then there is something seriously wrong. We have moved on and have, IMO, the best manager for many, many years but at least credit Adkins with the fantastic role he played in our upwards curve.

A really good point made by Robbie Earle on NBC yesterday (he has become a very good pundit IMO). Said our club is run exceptionally well all the way from top to bottom. By not having a team of 'stars' like Man U the club can focus on getting the little things right that make differences. Nothing particularly new there but easy for media to ignore/discount this fact.

Lol.,....what has happened to you Alpine? FWIW, I think Saints just need to keep winning games and not worry about the other teams. Good news is that Liverpool are still 7 points behind despite being on a good run (they will have a blip at some stage), Spurs 5 points (with tough run of games coming up). 3rd to 8th (including West Ham) is where we will finish and its too tight to call right now. If we win 5 of the next 6 then I would say we are in with a shout of catching City for 2nd.

Reading was not a failure for Adkins. You do realize they had not a penny to spend after failed takeovers and promises made to him were not honored? Adkins was too honorable a guy to make a big deal of it but he was dealt a bad hand. They have not improved since he left. Top guy and very good manager who deserves a good club that is stable.

Harrison Reed looks like a top, top player in the making. Yet another gem. So tonight we had 3 U21 Academy lads starting (Targett, Reed, JWP) and not looking bad at all. Very comfortable and potential banana skin avoided. This is some team.

Think a lot less points will be needed this season, maybe as low as 65/66. If you look at last season, after 23 games Chelsea were 3rd with 50 points: no team will be close to 50 points and 3rd this season. Likewise, after 23 games last season we had 32 points so we are already 7 points better off with 2 games in hand. Not sure we will ever have a better chance of CL football and the way we play, why not? It's in our hands with Spurs, Liverpool, West Ham all to play at home.

Immense stuff. This team is not like Saints of previous years: Koeman has instilled belief and steel into the side. 15 goals conceded all season: incredible stuff. This team just needs to keep it going until the end of season with no more major blips and there is every chance we could finish top 4. Incredible stuff and Koeman is an inspiring manager. This club really is well run from top to bottom.

He has actually been pretty good I think - not a starter as it stands, but he puts himself about, makes room and space for others and has some pace. Good squad player - of course we overpaid, same way Liverpool overpaid for all our players. He is not a winger (neither is Mane) and I think playing both out of position (Mane looks a different player through the middle) has not made look them strong.

Pretty poor from Saints: Dave Merrington, I think, had it spot on that we don't threaten enough when Pelle is the lone front man. Look how good Saints have been with Mane off Pelle: we'll miss him for sure. We just don't create enough with just Pelle up front - and not convinced Long is the answer to anything, despite how hard he works. Really hope we try and get another proven striker in during the window.

Certain that Ron is saying this tongue in cheek to get on smarmy Brenda's nerves and as payback for what happened in the summer!

He did and Cork will be a good squad player if he signs a new contract.