SNSUN

Or he got wind of Saints’ interest and deliberately played badly to put us off the scent... 😉

“Cody, that team from England have bid for you!” “That’s good enough for me, goodbye lads!” Later… ”We will shortly be landing at Southampton airport…” ”Wait, aren’t we supposed to be going to Manchester?”

It’s be #saintsy to sign a full back that couldn’t play full back…

As it stands, the players we have for each position are (their main positions) GK: Bazunu, McCarthy, Caballero, Lis RB: KWP, Livramento, Valery LB: Perraud CB: Salisu, ABK, Lyanco, Bednarek, Stephens CM: JWP, Lavia, Romeu, Diallo, AM: Djenepo, Moi, SArmstrong, Aribo, Redmond, Walcott Str: AArmstrong, Adams, Mara Ok, we have some versatility (Djenepo, Valery, KWP able to switch sides, Aribo as a striker) but we’re still lacking at FB and in attack. Personally I still think we’ll see Bednarek leave which leaves us with 4 CBs, plus Valery or Simeu stepping in if needed. Selling Romeu would definitely leave us light in CM IMO, unless JWP has another season where he plays every minute. Two more players would be enough for me pending any more players leaving, a full back and another striker. Then spend money if needed in January. Shipping out some deadwood is also needed. With three days to go it doesn’t seem like we’re going to bring in 4/5 players, but hopefully we can get a couple we need. AMN would definitely add some extra versatility. I said it last week, I definitely think we’ll be one of the active teams on deadline day.

There are no easy games this season so I'll phrase it this way... this is the last of our tough fixtures before we move on to the more "competitive" fixtures, otherwise meaning games we have a chance of winning. Therefore we need to keep up the performance levels against Chelsea that we showed against United. We've had a tough start to the season and looking at the start beforehand (including Chelsea) 4 points from those fixtures is probably close to what we could have expected, so any extra we get tomorrow is a big bonus. Then we move on to Wolves, Brentford, Villa and Everton and to teams more on our level. 7 or more points from those would be a great haul. Chelsea are a bit in disarray and don't seem to have much cohesion in signings but Koulibaly and Sterling were both decent signings. They don't seem to have got out of second gear yet and I think they'll be active on deadline day so we've probably caught them at a good time. 1-1 would be a decent result.

We wuz robbed. Wait, is this the match reaction fred? 😜

And there goes my stream. I'm blind for the last ten mins. Come on Saints! Not out of it yet!

Saints struggling against United's 12 men. Makes the equaliser even sweeter…

I’m an advocate of VAR but it doesn’t remove the human element of mistake. It needs to be clear in the stadium what VAR is watching and communication done like in Rugby. That was handball. Good chance creation from Saints, we’re not out of it yet.

Well I said 1-1 so it’s up to us to score next.

Their attack is possibly more blunt than ours! Apart from the flurry of blocks and save they haven’t done a lot going forwards although they’ve had the bulk of possession. ABK has probably been the best player on the pitch bar maybe Eriksen. I’d still definitely take a draw here but it could go either way.

Nick a goal and I think we win 1 nil here. Defence has looked decent… ABK is a frigging monster.

CBs look good. Are we playing 4231?

Damn that was butt puckering, my stream a bit behind so I knew it was coming. Keep it together Saints. Bit disjointed up top so far.

Quiet in here today innit. 😊

The way we often do business on the sly, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Hopefully we can be active in the last week of the window and even take part in the “drama” of SSN’s deadline day (mainly because it’s dull when we don’t!).

Adams, McBurnie, Maupay, J.Ayew, Rodriguez - the “great” summer of 2019 where 5 Premier League clubs got their strikers from the Championship… I definitely think we got the best.

Clever. We did the same to Che and he's banged in 4 goals since. MOTM awards for Moi and Stu then. (Seriously I hope we don't sell Stu.)

Redmond can be frustrating but he can also change a game (usually against weaker opposition) and can play 10, winger or up top. As a squad option I'd keep him but it looks like Djenepo may have saved himself from the chop so Redmond is probably going to go to save money. Personally I'd have Moi out over Redmond but that's just personal preference. If someone does leave, I hope we bring someone else in. Yes we have Edwards coming through and I wouldn't want to block the pathway for the youngsters but it's a long season and injury crisises happen.

Starting to get the core of the team right. Bazunu, ABK, Salisu, JWP, Lavia, Aribo, Stu, Mara, Adams. Just the full backs to add (KWP + 1) and that looks to be just about our first team at present. What's particularly important to note is that that strongest team contains all 5 of our summer signings, so kudos to the transfer team for bringing in players that seem to have instantly improved us and kudos to those players for slotting in so well. United beat Liverpool but the Scousers have hardly started the season well. They are both stuttering teams and United just took their chances. If there is a good time to play United, it's now. I'm not going to say we will win because I still think our lads have a lot to learn and, like Lavia's misplaced early pass last week, mistakes will happen but I will go for a 1-1. MOTM Aribo.

Goal machine!

He did the same twice in the Tottenham game last season in the 3-2. Definitely another weapon we have as long as we have someone on the end of it. Luckily that has been Adams 3 times. Even if teams get wind of it and try to do something about it they'll worry about giving away a free kick. He's definitely unsellable and yet remains our most saleable asset.

OP does have a point, look around at the transfers of any promoted team or team that you may think could be in a relegation battle and they've mostly made some decent transfers on paper. Even at this early stage some of the transfers in to clubs are showing promise... even ours. Aribo and perhaps Bazunu are the players we had prior knowledge of but ABK, Lavia and Mara have all started well. I struggle to see anyone that will get cut adrift this season so the sooner 40+points are reached the better.

I'm pleased he's started the season so well and has adapted to the new position. He was always a quick, tricky player (sometimes it seems his feet act before his brain!) and despite starting well with us his time has been spent injured a lot. I'm hoping he stays injury free now as he always seemed to be made of glass.

Even those of us who started supporting Saints after his heyday know who David Armstrong is and his contribution in the early and mid 80s. RIP