The Kraken

Keegan?! i think you need to read the question properly, Mike.

Cheers for that. Just highlights that Schneiderlin actually played slightly further forward than Ward-Prowse and MLG was talking ill-informed nonsense. Also shows what a defensive job Puncheon did.

No.

Together as one.

I think you're pushing this, and I've already told you why I disagree with you. If he's playing in the hole its going to be very difficult for him to also play as the furthest man forward, however intelligent he is its two different roles and field positions that you're talking about. I've seen enough of Rickie Lambert to form my opinion on this and I simply disagree with your assessment.

I agree, which is why I find it slightly bizarre that we prioritised him as a signing and spent an awful lot of money on him when we clearly have other more necessary signings to make to establish ourselves in the division.

I'd disagree with your assessment. While he sometimes drops deep he is quite clearly our target man. Our predictable but often unstoppable technique last season was a long diagonal ball to the far post for Lambert to head either on goal or back across for his team mates. It was predictable but stopping it from happening was another thing entirely.

Well I watched the whole Swansea game, and I disagree with you. You'd be asking Lambert to play a role that is alien to him and IMO one which doesn't play to his strengths at all, while also nullifying his main threat of being a focal point in the opposition area. You may find others on here who'll agree with you, othes have previously said that RL could play in the hole, I've consistently disagreed and still do.

Lambert is nowhere near as mobile as Michu, they are two very different players. And IMO Lambert is absolutely at his best when he is the main target furthest forward and can either header/shoot himself or pay off to supporting players coming in from behind. Playing him deeper would negate his main threat in and around the area, and therefore nullify his effectiveness.

35 years old so it would have to be a cheap, one year contract.

While that's undoubtedly true (apart from the 4 times bit, closer to slightly more than double) I still find it surprising that we seemingly prioritised the signing of Rodriguez. I agree he may need time to settle, and could well be one for the future, which kind of reinforces my opinion that its a bit of a bizarre major signing for us right now, when we're looking to establish ourselves in this division as quickly as possible. You'd also say that Clyne is one for the future but he's been able to come in and immediately have a very positive impact. I don't think you can say the same of Rodriguez yet.

Where can these graphs be found? More than anything I'd be interested to see where JRod appeared throughout the game, in comparison to Puncheon on the other side.

We had more than 50% posession against wigan, therefore its more valid to look at the formation when we were actually in posession.

I'd honestly be disappointed if NA sees RL as an impact sub for a lot of games this season. I think we're much better with him in the team than not, and if we were going to adopt this new 4-3-3 as our preferred way of playing I'd have liked to have seen us sign the players to suit RL. I think we'd be worse with Rodriguez up front and Lambert on the bench. In pre-season and games so far, when we got 442 it with Sharp up front rather than Lambert and Rodriguez together, which is why I'm very much struggling to see the logic in spending such a chunk of our budget for a player who doesn't yet seem to fit into the ways we want to play. Early days of course, and I'm by no means writing him off, I just find it perplexing from what I've seen to date.

The question is, what happens if/when we get a proper left winger. I can't see JRod usurping Lambert up front, can you? In which case £6M+ would be a hell of a lot of money for a newly promoted team to spend on a reserve player. Its a bit of a bizarre situation.

Leaving aside Captain Pedantic's predictable yet boring riposte..... I'm yet to see the logic in signing someone for our record fee and playing either he or our most prolific striker out of position. JRod's signing only really seems to make sense if he replaces Lambert or plays up front with him; neither of which look like happening right now. And Michu is an attacking midfielder, not a genuine striker like JRod or Rickie.

I think I agree with the gist of that, but I'm not sure. Could you provide some fictional quotes from various Saints-related personnel to make it a bit clearer?

It is extremely odd, as if he can't make a point about what is being discussed so has to create an entirely new fictional argument. Thoroughly bizarre.

No-one has said that, have they? The club are clearly doing things to bring in players, but so far they've been unsuccessful in certain key areas that they themselves identified needed filling by the start of the season.

No, but we can judge by what the manager actually says. Which was that he wanted 1 or 2 GKs and 1 or 2 CBs and before the season started. That didnt happen, the goalposts have now moved and he says he wants them before the end of the transfer window.

That is true, but lets not forget we only made 4 signings last summer, 3 of whom were first team choices. And lost 1 first teamer in the Ox. We supplemented that with 2 strikers in the January window, but neither would replace RL. So we still have the bones of a former league 1 team and need to do some catching up pretty quickly.

Adkins has already made public some of the targets we're looking at. We're also obviously working behind the scenes to bring in other positions (Ramirez and Buttner deals). So I don't think anyone is suggesting that nothing is being done. Simply that there has so far been a collective failure to get deals done in time for the start of the season, which was one of Adkins' stated objectives.

What are you on about? Adkins has previously said he wanted to bring in "1 or 2 goalkeepers and 1 or 2 centre backs". His words, published in print. We were obviously interested in at least 1 winger, perhaps 2. And a left back also. That's potentially 7 positions we were looking to fill, and we haven't done it yet. No-one is saying how or why that hasn't happened. Simply that it hasn't happened, yet, and therefore the manager doesn't yet have the resources he and his transfer committee have identified as being necessary to compete.

He's had a calamitous August, the poor lad.