SNSUN

Are you trying to build a historical alibi for a crime : "Wasn't me detective, I was watching Saints vs Coventry and I can prove it!" If I buy a programme at a Saints game, I put my ticket stub in there. Maybe seek out a programme of the game, you never know. Car boot sales may be good for this.

That was written in the script. 2 points wasted, and it could be worse...

Someone needs to get their foot on that ball and slow play down. Brighton are all over us. We potentially need a third here...

Big insurance bet on Brighton getting the next goal... Romeu injured or dropped?

We haven't won two games in a row in the league in a year and a half, since beating Palace and West Brom on the bounce in the Puel season in April of last year. Just for once, FOR ONCE, it would be nice to beat a team, at home, in a supposedly winnable match, to make two games won in a row! It would give us real confidence going into the Liverpool game, even without Ings, and it would certainly take the pressure off of us. I predict a draw. 1-1, Elyounoussi with the equaliser after a Gross penalty.

The Premier League governing body would be harsh not to give us 3 points for a win...

I once got headbutted by a giraffe and was knocked clean off my feet whilst trying to feed it bread at Windsor Safari Park as a kid. Animals must have a vendetta against Saints fans, irrespective of whether they're in colours or not. Stupidest injury to myself at a game was when I misjudged a step in the Kingsland whilst ascending, catching it with my toe and tripping myself up. I dropped my freshly purchased hotdog which fell out of the bag and I was so embarrassed, I picked myself up, left the hotdog on the step and kept on walking like nothing had happened. I sustained a scraped knee, a bruised ego and remained peckish. I hope nobody tripped over the hotdog to exacerbate things. Another time, I also got hit in the head by one of those red clapper things that someone had made into a paper plane and chucked from further up in the stand. It hurt more than I let on.

Pickford injured and Bettinelli called up. I reckon McCarthy could be in with a chance of starting for England...

Tick...tick...

Norwich at St Mary's please. The wife is already annoyed at me for going to work and leaving her with the baby () as if it's some kind of boys club and I don't do anything (I do, some of the time), so it would be nice to smash them and annoy her even more.

McCarthy Cedric Yoshida Vestergaard Bertrand Yaya Toure Lemina Armstrong Redmond Gabbiadini Austin

Brighton (a) - Cup - Win (squad players showing what they can do) Palace (a) - Win (confidence from the last game) Brighton (h) - Win (See above) Liverpool (a) - Lose (Brought back down to earth with a bump) Wolves (a) - Draw (Dust ourselves off with a 0-0 and a clean sheet) 7 points and into the next round. Tasty.

I think suspensions are now competition specific so he can play in the cup.

I'd rather a fairly strong starting XI than a weaker one, especially against Brighton. Gunn, Cedric, Yoshida, Vestergaard, Targett, Hojbjerg, Romeu, Armstrong, Elyounoussi, Gabbiadini, Gallagher for me, in a formation that suits them all.

Fortunately I was working yesterday so I was spared the misery of a last minute goal to take the point away, but it seems a very long time ago we had any kind of a run of form of wins. In fact, just checking back through the seasons, March of Puel's reign looks OK on paper, but really it was the tail end of the last Koeman season we really strung some wins together. My initial optimism about this season has very quickly dried up. I would have hope for 4 or more points so far, and we have 1, we need a couple of wins soon or we'll be fighting at the bottom all season. I still back Hughes, but he frustrates me by not picking our strongest side. In fact, like Pellegrino before him, I don't think he even knows what his strongest side is. There seems to be a worrying lack of confidence around us at the moment, and it's difficult to see where we can turn it around. Still, on the plus side only 3 games have gone. We may yet click.

Vestergaard Yoshida Hoedt Bednarek/Stephens Not sure about Bednarek... I saw him play right back at Fulham in January where he kept Sessegnon quiet, and for Poland in the World Cup with differing results, but he also came in at the tail end of last season and did well. Likewise I've seen Stephens have both good games and not-so-good games. Hard to choose between them. On the few times I've seen Hoedt play he's not been as bad as others have made out, although that's not based on this season so far as I've so far worked every game. However, I think there's to much readiness to knock our own players on this forum when we should be getting behind them, irrespective of their talents. Heck Benali would be vilified if he were playing nowadays. That said, I certainly feel we'd still have Bednarek, Stephens and Hoedt in the squad had we got relegated last season, which perhaps says a lot about what I think of their standard, however all are fairly young and can improve: I just feel Yoshida and Vestergaard are our obvious first choice pairing.

Wow, didn't see that coming - on one hand he gets first team football, on the other hand it's for a club that will be fighting relegation in the Championship this season IMO and it weakens a position for us that i feel we are already weak in. It'll be interesting to see just how much Hughes uses the youth this season, i'd like to see at least Targett and Gallagher given some game time.

This, for the rest of the season please. I was luckily enough to miss the first half of today's game as I was sleeping through it, but as soon as I saw the line up, I thought "formation better, personnel wrong". OK, Vestergaard was ill, but really we need our best players playing. The above, with possibly Romeu or Gabbiadini slipping in, is our strongest team. Vardy suspended could help us, but we have a history of Iheanacho scoring against us, so that alone is written in the stars. We need a win pretty quickly - I'd hope for 6 points from the next 3 games.

Fair enough, wouldn't be the first time i was led astray by something I've read, apparently there are also ladies wanting to have sex with me in my area... In which case, I'd rather have this chap https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/balazs-dzsudzsak/profil/spieler/35004 than Ben Arfa. Was a decent player not so long ago and had a good Euros a couple of years back.

MLG will probably know for sure, but I did find this link (albeit in the Mirror) that says we can't sign free transfers until January. https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/transfer-deadline-day-can-free-13044460 I'm sure I read it somewhere else earlier in the summer too. However we did sign Caceres outside a window so either the rules have changed or it's all nonsense and we can still sign out of contract players. I'm not au fait with the rules, I just go by what I read.

I was under the impression Premier League clubs couldn't sign anyone, even out of contract players, after last Thursday... ...unless you mean in January, in which case I hope not. Talented but there's better out there.

MLG will confirm no doubt, but at a glance we have 28 over 21. So need to send two out on loan, and the likely candidates are Forster, Rose, McQueen, Gallagher and Hesketh. I’d keep McQueen and Gallagher of those five, but it may be Gallagher now has too much competition in which case I’d keep Hesketh. Lewis as third keeper doesn’t use up a space but we’ll see. I guess we announce the squad after the European transfer window closes.

Man Utd 3-1 Leicester Newcastle 1-1 Spurs Bournemouth 2-1 Cardiff Fulham 3-0 Palace Huddersfield 0-2 Chelsea Watford 0-0 Brighton Wolves 1-1 Everton Liverpool 3-3 West Ham Saints 2-0 Burnley Arsenal 1-2 Man City

No more ins, no more outs then? OK. Pros: Gunn > Forster Vestergaard > Not having a 5th centre back Armstrong appears to be a decent addition that could add goals from midfield We don't start the season with Pellegrino Gallagher as 4th choice striker offers us something different to Carillo. We have at least managed to loan out Boufal, Clasie and Carillo to get some wages paid. Cons: Lost Tadic and have to hope Elyounoussi is as good if not better. Forster is still on the books, and have one or two fringe players that perhaps could have been loaned out or sold. (Could still happen of course) Defence still looks shaky and we have to hope they improve. No striker signed (although Gallagher as an additional 4th choice IMO strengthens the position in lieu of Carillo, but we should still have signed an experienced, goal-scoring striker) Lack creativity and pace in the attacking midfield positions due to a lack of strength in depth. Overall I think we are stronger this season than we were last season, but whether we have kept up with other teams I don't know. As for other teams around us, West Ham have been splashing the cash to reach the next level and have done some decent business, Wolves and Fulham already add tougher teams to the league than last season and Fulham have had an excellent window. I'd like to think our youngsters like Reed, Gallagher, Sims, Stephens, Targett (if he's still here), McQueen and Hesketh (whichever of those don't go out on loan) step it up this year now they have a bit more experience, but I'm not going to hold my breath. (Although I'd like to see Gallagher more than the others given some chances to show what he can do.) I'd like some late drama though, Targett and Forster out, Alcacer or Welbeck in, something like that, but it doesn't look like it's happening. As the window stands it gets a 6/10 - needed more attacking talent and the purse strings loosened. Mid-table finish if we are lucky.

You're the manager, everyone is fit and raring to go, your formation/system has been implemented in pre-season successfully, and there are no more incoming transfers. Using the current SFC squad, what is your best/favourite XI, formation and tactic to start against Burnley? For me, I'd be playing a 4-1-2-2 (a kind of elongated 4-3-3) with a back 4, one holding midfielder that can drop back into centre back if a full back bombs up field (Which in a perfect world would be more like Wanyama than Romeu but there we are), two box to box central midfielders, two wider players and a striker. Team would be: ---------------------McCarthy---------------------- Cedric-----Vestergaard-----Yoshida-----Bertrand -----------------------Romeu----------------------- ------------Armstrong-----Lemina----------------- -----Elyounoussi----------------Gabbiadini-------- -----------------------Austin------------------------ McCarthy gets the nod over Gunn purely as he won POTS last season and deserves to at least keep his spot for a bit. Tactic - press them high up the pitch a la Pochettino, and counter attack quickly. (But then all this is why I'm not a Football Manager. And do poorly playing Football Manager.)