The Kraken

Our league attendances this season make some pretty impressive reading. After 22 home league games our average attendance is 21,729. Our total attendance over the course of the season is 478,042. Saturday's sell out means that we will exceed half a million on Saturday. Also, a crowd of around 30K will mean our average attendance for the season will rise above 22,000. On three occasions in the league our attendance has exceeded 25,000 (against Bournemouth - 26289, Brighton - 26237 and Carlisle - 25076). In only 5 league games has our attendance dropped below 20,000. The highest attendance of the season came in the FA Cup game against Man Utd - 28792. Here's looking forward to seeing those numbers continue to increase next year.

Full squad: GOALKEEPERS Frankie Fielding (Blackburn Rovers), Scott Loach (Watford), Jason Steele (Middlesbrough), Alex McCarthy (Reading), DEFENDERS Joe Bennett (Middlesbrough), Ryan Bertrand (Chelsea), Kieran Gibbs (Arsenal), Phil Jones (Blackburn Rovers), Michael Mancienne (Wolverhampton Wanderers - loan from Chelsea), Ben Mee (Leicester City - loan from Manchester City), Kyle Naughton (Leicester City - loan from Tottenham), Micah Richards (Manchester City), Chris Smalling (Manchester United), James Tomkins (West Ham United), Kieran Trippier (Barnsley - loan from Manchester City), Kyle Walker (Aston Villa - loan from Tottenham Hotspur), MIDFIELDERS Marc Albrighton (Aston Villa), Jack Cork (Burnley - loan from Chelsea), Tom Cleverley (Wigan Athletic - loan from Man Utd), Mark Davies (Bolton Wanderers), Adam Hammill (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Jordan Henderson (Sunderland), Jonathan Howson (Leeds United), Adam Lallana (Southampton), Henri Lansbury (Norwich City - loan from Arsenal), Josh McEachran (Chelsea), Fabrice Muamba (Bolton Wanderers), Jack Rodwell (Everton), Danny Rose (Tottenham Hotspur), Scott Sinclair (Swansea City), Jack Wilshere (Arsenal) FORWARDS Andy Carroll (Liverpool), Nathan Delfouneso (Burnley - loan from Aston Villa), Gary Hooper (Celtic), Jay Rodriguez (Burnley), Freddie Sears (West Ham United), Daniel Sturridge (Bolton Wanderers - loan from Chelsea), James Vaughan (Crystal Palace - loan from Everton), Danny Welbeck (Sunderland - loan from Man Utd), Connor Wickham (Ipswich Town). Ex-Saints Jack Cork and Adam Hamill also in the squad. This is of course just the provisional squad and will be cut to 23 players by 1st June.

I think every single Saints fan should change their name by Deed Poll to Markus Liebherr.

Alpine Stain. What a visionary. You absolute plum.

Given how tight it's been between us and Huddersfield in the last few weeks/months, I had a look at our relative form in the second half of the season. It's a great run of form for both sides, and just highlights what could have been for them and us had we hit the ground running from the start of the season. Since January 1st, Saints have: Won 17, Drawn 4 and Lost 3. Total points 55. To put into perspective, that form over the course of a whole season would have gained us 105 points. Since january 1st, Huddersfield have: Won 15, Drawn 9 and Lost 0. Total points gained 54. Over the course of a whole season they would have gained 104 points. All completely meaningless of course; but it just highlights what a shame that it took both of us so long to get our acts into gear. A 3-way race for the title could have been a real treat. In any case, lets carry on that run of form and get promotion clinched tomorrow.

Don't be a *****. The best "football team" finished top of the division by a comfortable distance. Beating them (and getting 4 points in the 2 matches) was very, very enjoyable. But that doesn't change the fact that, over the season, they have been the stand out team and won the league well.

Having seen just how much pain he was in when stretchered off I would be enormously surprised if this were to happen. I'd m very happy to be proven wrong though. And I think if ever there's a time to get at Brighton, it's this weekend. Which I why I suspect Adkins will play Lallana if he proves his fitness.

You may think so, but I very much disagree. Guly is (and has always seemed to me to be) a "number 10". And the problem with that is, in that position, you pretty much have to build a team around that type of player. MLT played in very much a similar position, but then he was such an incredible player that he justified having a team built around him. Guly doesn't have that presence and, for me, struggles to fit into a fixed position. I certainly don't see him as a centre forward. He is at his best when running onto the ball in central areas. As a centre forward his back is facing the opposition goal much more and I don't think this plays to his strengths. His goal today I think typified the strenghth in his play, where he can burst through the defence from a slightly deeper position with his pace and skill. Ricky Lambert wouldn't have scpred that goal today, which highlights the difference between a centre forward and the number 10 role. I'm still not sure whether we can bring the best out of Guly; he's obviously got a lot about him but unless he can be given freedom to operate in that position between the midfield and the strikers I don't think we'll ever see the best of him.

Last 10 games: LWWWWDLWDW OK, the last 5 games weren't as good as the first five but still, that's averaging 2 points per game. Not too shabby. Perhaps you meant the level of performances were dropping off?

This is the first time at St. Mary's I've seen real reason to criticise Adkins. His double substitution of Barney and Morgan for Guly and Holmes was suicidal. After dominating the centre of midfield for the entire game, those subs saw us gift wrap it to Brighton and encourage them on to us. Our attacking threat was also largely diminished as we couldn't keep hold of the ball. In any case, butterfield came on because AOC had cramp, but it was also a measure of shoring things up and solving the problem that the double sub had created.

If we can get some good money for him then I'll not be disappointed to see him leave. Plenty of potential but I don't think he's realised a quarter of it whilst playing here, and I also don't think he's the type of player we need right now.

I don't buy Puncheon's outburst; it just smacked of a player who was a bit out of sorts at a club and looking to play the blame game. Look at his previous; he's had disagreements at many of his previous clubs, which suggests he is trouble. And saying that he is happier playing for "a manager who wants him to be there" is just rubbish, all of pardew, Wilkins and Adkins gave him plenty of chances to perform and he didn't step up to his potential here.

Our season overall, I'd give 5/10. The form we showed in the last 2 months of last season suggested a season of success, and that we were so far away from that at the end of September was a shameful indictment of the club as a whole. Since coming in Adkins has done a decent enough job of turning our fortunes around, though we are still very much a work in progress and I expect him to be allowed to bring in two or three players in the January window. Adkins is running at about a 7 or 8 out of ten so far, he's got much more right than he has wrong but still plenty of room for improvement.

Forgot that. Shame. If Chaplow puts in another decent performance on Saturday (injury permitting) that could be death knell for Morgan.

It won't be this as I think Adkins will go with a strong, first choice line-up, but I'd like to see: Bart Butterfield - Seaborne - Martin - Harding Schneiderlin - Hammond AOC - Guly - Holmes Connolly

He's clearly a talented player, but playing up front is really not his position. He looks much better when he is running on to the ball rather than holding it up. The problem is that his type of position needs a team built around it, he just can't be shoe horned into a position that is not naturally his. And playing up front with an immobile Lambert is doing him no favours whatsoever. I fear we will never see the best out of him as the current line up cannot accommodate his particular position. It was the same under Pardew; which makes it a very strange signing in the first place.

Just back from the game. Overall a good performance, particularly in the first half when we really made them look ordinary and totally dominated play. If it hadn't have been for their goalkeeper we might have even dominated posession, he must have had 50% all on his own. Dire, stalling tactics from the start; not exactly the flowing football this lot are supposed to be famous for. Our problem tonight was similar to the Plymouth game opening day; for all our posession and dominance we really didn't create enough for their keeper to do, and ultimately could have been completely undone by a sucker punch. Also, I think Adkins got it very wrong with his double substitution of Morgan and Barney for Guly and Holmes. As completely ordinary as Morgan was, he at least put in a shift in the middle and closed them down. Without that, and with no real hustle up front, we completely played into their hands. Anyway, my player ratings: Davis: 8. Very solid performance, good distribution and a great penalty save to keep us in it. Richardson: 7. After a few shaky performances he's starting to look like the player we signed, and could turn out to be a great acquisition. Very strong in defence, and starting to get forward well. Dickson: 8. I really like the way he gets forward so well; with Lallana cutting inside so much we're reliant on the full back to get to the byline, and I think Dicko does that better than Harding. Almost got caught out defensively in the first half but recovered well. Fonte: 7. Decent display and showed his class on occasions, but still slightly suspect. Jaidi: 6. The problem with Jaidi is that while he will comfortably win everything in the air, we look so suscptible to balls in behind him, he's just so slow now. Good performance on Saturday, but got a little found out today against a higher standard of opposition. Hammond: 7. Did well, broke up play well and controlled the midfield. Schneiderlin: 5. Defensively he did ok, but those people who are convinced he can cut it at a higher level should judge him on this game. Tackling wasn't great, range of passing very average, and did nothing going forward. Chaplow will walk back into side after that showing, and rightly so. Chamberlain: 6. Lots of willing run, and looked like he could always be a threat, but the ball didn't quite fall for him tonight. Still a good enough performance without too much end product. Lallana: 6. A frustrating night, as we know how great he can be, but like Oxo it just didn't come off for him tonight. Typified just before the end when he broke away past two defenders, had just one to beat and decided to pass to Guly who was clearly offside. Lambert: 5. I've defended him an awful lot this season, but this is starting to get silly now, he's so far away from the player he was last year. Should have scored in the second half with a header but put it over from 6 yards. Barnard: 7. Lots of willing running and gave their defence no time at all, really missed when he was taken off. Subs: Holmes: 6. Not the same impact as last week, but still lots of promise. Guly: 5. I just don't see him as a striker, and certianly not up there with Lambert, we had very little movement with them as a pair. Butterfield: 5. Not enough time to be noticed. Oh, and I give the new Banksy street art on Mount Pleasant Road an 8.

He IS a chequebook manager though. It's not to say that that's necessarily a bad thing, as Redknapp has clearly had some success with his methods (apart from here where his hands were tied and he couldn't manage like that). But to suggest otherwise just isn't true, his managerial policy relies on a heavy turnaround of players. Some of his transfers won't pay off at all, but he's also likely to pull a few out of the hat as well. To suggest that he hasn't spent a lot at Spurs to get where they are is laughable. He clearly has, and when taking over in October '08 even inherited a team that had spent around £40M in the summer, then allowed him to spend another £40M in the January window. He also received money from incoming transfers of course, but was still allowed to spend £40M (plus another £20M or so in the summer), so has had a good deal of resources at his disposal. Of course, the potential problems with Redknapp's methods are aptly demonstrated down the road. On balance of transfer fees alone they should have made millions from the players he bought and sold. However, you also need to consider the stupid wages that he sanctioned in order to bring those players to the club. Utaka supposedly on £80K a week, Crouch and Defoe nudging towards £90K a week. If you have just 2 or 3 transfers who don't work out and you then can't shift on, you have an almighty expenditure at the club which can only be resolved by spending even more to bring in a better replacement. Redknapp has done very well at Spurs and clearly has something about him; but he is a chequebook manager. As I said, its not necessarily a bad thing so I don't know why there's such a clamour to deny it, there have been plenty of completely unsuccessful chequebook managers throughout history, so he's clearly doing something right.

Tim Flowers

I'm a bit underwhelmed by Brighton's stadium. It's only a small capacity and it seems the only aesthetic bit of design is the curved roof. Inside there's a lack of symmetry and each end behind the goal is reminiscent of the old Milton Road end. Add in the fact that it's miles out of town and, even at 22k will probably be rarely full, and I think it's have a bit of a lack of atmosphere. As samey and flatpack as our stadium is, I'd much rather have St Mary's than Falmer.

We look such a better side without Morgan. He was good for this level last year but hasn't progressed; the notion that he's too good for this standard is laughable. He may well go on and play for his country, he's young so anything could happen, but having watched France last week he is a million miles away from the movement and class their midfield players displayed. His career here needs to give him a kick up the arse to remind him that basic talent plus minimal effort will get you nowhere. Hammond and Chaplow have probably less talent than him, but they look much the better option to him for us right now. And if you can't stand out in lower league football it is an indictment on the player, and not the level of football.

It has been suggested that, given keeping fans inside the ground has failed to prevent trouble outside on previous occasions, a new approach was taken with the erection of the big fenceline. Did it work? Not really. But was it any worse than the scenes that were previously seen both here and down at Fratton? Debatable. In this instance the police are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Personally I certainly think they should have kept the away fans in, but i can also understand the argument that they tried something different to methods that had clearly not been anywhere near 100% successful in the past.

Disagree; I think the next two games in particular are the perfect judge of where we are under Adkins; if we come out of them with 6 points then it's a real hats off to Adkins. A win and a draw, that's my minimum expectation and I'd honestly be a little disappointed, anything less than that is unacceptable IMO. Any manager can only be judged properly when he has had a fair amount of time to mould his team, and also the chance to correct any deficiencies he sees in the squad. Being as all summer there was a clamour for at least 3 new players (new CM, replacement for Antonio/Waigo, new CF) and we've only seen Chaplow come in and Oxo step up from the ranks, I think it's only right that Adkins be given license by NC to bring in players in January, and I fully expect this to happen. The departure of Puncheon further indicates that Adkins will be allowed to tailor his team to his requirements rather than be completely hamstrung by previous signings. Disagree with a lot of that. I'll agree that we still often look under par, but I have seen very many signs that we are a team in transition, and our playing style is changing and improving all the time. Where we have fallen down is that we haven't been able to put in winning performances against the top sides (apart from Bompey who are up there). I've said all along that these two games will define where we are under Adkins, and I'm confident of winning both.

It really wouldn't. If anything, sporadic arrests would have just enflamed the situation.

Being as Lambert (I believe) has a 100% record with us, I think that deserves a bit of respect. Six/seven out of ten compared to ten out of ten is a very big margin.