The Kraken

Or to be more accurate 3) Some clubs do it (including Man City today at times, including for Cardiff's 3rd goal), some don't and its a question of individual teams' tactics.

Everyone didn't have an off day at all. JWP was superb. Fonte and Lovren looked decent. Chambers was solid; Shaw and Clyne did a good job. Lallana was better than usual, Wanyama was very good. In fact the only players that didn't shine were Lambert and Rodriguez, both of whom were below their best. We had close on 65% possession, so how can you claim everyone had an off day? Even di Canio admitted that Saints were much better than Sunderland.

It's a worrying accusation if we're expected to push on to "the next level".

Vincent Tan looked exceptionally special in his football shirt over normal shirt tucked into terrible blue chinos pre-game outfit.

You call yourself a crisp man but haven't heard the term "grab bag"?! They've been around for years! Basically a bag of crisps that is around 50% bigger than a normal sized bag; usually to be found in motorway service stations as standard fare, but pretty much all the major brands do a grab bag.

As has been said though, we had around 1,500 less Saints fans yesterday than we did on opening day last season against Wigan. Now I'd argue that even Sunderland are a bigger draw than Wigan. Time will tell; its likely that we'll start selling out games as we get into September and October but if we don't then the pricing argument will start to hold some weight, plus all the other factors. I genuinely think that having all pubs showing games will make a difference; it was something of a niche last season but much more commonplace this time round.

Exactly, we don't play wingers and never should!

"Pablo Daniel Piatti (born 31 March 1989 in Ucacha, Córdoba) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays for Valencia CF in Spain. He operates mainly as a left or right winger, but can also play as a second striker or a forward."

I never said that being quick was the be all and all. Its about having pace and using that pace with a combination of skill to attack the full back. The days of a traditional kick and run winger are, of course, long gone. That said, Jesus Navas is as close to a new-age "winger" as you're going to get; and if Man City feel they can improve their side with such a player then I don't believe it's beyond us. In Lallana and Ramirez we have a couple of AMs. Not sure what JRod gets classed as, but he's typically not someone who is going to get the ball and run at the full back. We may play a different way to Man City but, as I said, just because we don't currently play that way (we don't even have the personnel to do so) it doesn't mean that we couldn't or shouldn't at least look to have the option to do so, and in games such as yesterday where the opposition park the bus it would give us a genuinely different option. Probably not going to happen, but it's not something I'd choose to rule out.

No idea what you're going on about now. VFTT made the point that West Brom have slashed their prices to £25 a ticket to combat dwindling crowds. We've chosen not to do that. TBH I'm not surprised it sailed over your head but there we go.

Just because we don't it doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't. As I posted on another thread; Tottenham have a winger in Lennon; Man City have signed Jesus Navas; Chelsea have Kevin de Bruyne, and you could probably also argue that the likes of Young, Valencia, Nani and Zaha are capable of the role for Man United. Really we're talking about a skilful player with pace who is capable (and willing) to attack a full back either on the inside or outside. Perhaps we don't look to play that way but there's no reason we couldn't add it to our locker, I think it might just make us a little less predictable and slow at times.

Oh dear, you really did get out of the bed the wrong side today, didn't you Mr. Angry?

Spot on. Much better to have 90% - 95% of the stadium full at around £40 per ticket than to have 99% sold out at £25 per ticket.

I'm fairly sure that the average punter doesn't pay £10 on food and drink at the ground. Most will either buy nothing, or will have a drink at half time. Probably only around 5% - 10% that actually buy any of the (incredibly sh*t) food.

Don't think either JRod or Ramirez are the answer in that position to be honest. I know its shunned on here to say we need a "winger", but that's what I think we're missing from our armoury. Tottenham have one in Lennon; Man City have signed Jesus Navas; Chelsea have Kevin de Bruyne, and you could probably also argue that the likes of Young, Valencia, Nani and Zaha are capable of the role for Man United. Really we're talking about a skilful player with pace who is capable (and willing) to attack a full back either on the inside or outside. Perhaps we don't look to play that way but there's no reason we couldn't add it to our locker, I think it might just make us a little less predictable and slow at times.

I guess we'll see, but right now there's definitely more pubs showing games on "non-Sky" TV channels.

What has struck me in the past 2 or 3 weeks is noticing how many pubs are now advertising the fact that they're showing all Saints games this season. Last season there were a handful of pubs in the area streaming the game, this season it seems as if loads more have cottoned on to it. Both Chambers and the Alex now show Saints games (whereas last season they were just popular pre-game venues); coupled with high ticket prices I think this could well have an effect this season. There has to be a tipping point in terms of pricing; if there's an option to watch in the pub for free then it's surely going to have an effect.

I wouldn't say 1,900 is a poor figure by an stretch. If Saints take close to 2,000 up for the return fixture that would a thoroughly decent number.

Blimey, so taking into account the total figures we actually had around 1,500 fewer Saints fans in attendance yesterday than on opening day last season against Wigan.

Fair enough Ed. It's all about opinions and various people will have their own. Me, I was hoping for a higher figure, and was certainly quite surprised to find we hadn't hit 30K. I'm fully aware that we typically have lower crowds in the first few games. That said, back in our old PL times, we also had over 31K a couple of times on opening day, including a 31,656 against Birmingham, so its not as if we haven't done it before.

A fair comment, Bear. Especially given Wigan probably brought around half the fans that Sunderland did. So we had around 1,000 fewer fans at St. Mary's yesterday than on opening day last season.

And yet here you are commenting on it. Go figure.

Sadly Sunderland didn't fill the away end, Matthew. They brought "just under 2,000 fans" according to a couple of online reports; so "circa 31,000" is a little generous if those figures are correct.

Yep, everyone loves an attendance debate. But I thought 29,596 was a pretty poor figure for opening day. There are of course plenty of excuses why the figure was so low; holidays, Sunderland returned tickets, excessive ticket prices, games shown on streams and in pubs etc etc. Nonetheless I think its a shame that the investment made by the club into the squad this summer and last wasn't matched by us getting close to a sell-out. Crowds will improve, they always do pick up from the typically lower figures at the start of the season. But it would seem we haven't yet made the big strides forward in terms of attendance that some of us (myself included) hoped/expected we would.

Funny how comments like this last season caused uproar on here. I thought Rodriguez was poor today, he just doesn't seem to offer enough. A very frustrating player.