Sheaf Saint

Yeah I clocked that. He probably realises that he's going to have to fight to get his starting place back after such a comprehensive performance without him.

Long's finishing really is shockingly bad. He shouldn't be anywhere near the Prem IMO. Champ standard striker at best. Just how any professional striker can make such a pigs ear of the chances he gets amazes me.

Yeah that's what I'm trying to play. I'm only getting about half a meg download speed and it can't even support that.

Any low res streams? I'm at the in-laws, out in the sticks outside Kendal and their internet connection is too slow to play the sportsmania feeds.

He reminds me of Forrest Gump. The only attribute that he brings to the team is that he can run fast in a straight line.

Yet another dreadful performance from him today. He's just going through the motions and quite clearly doesn't want to be here. Drop him, sell him for whatever we can get in January and find somebody who cares about playing well and can pass the ball more than 5 yards.

The most frustrating thing is that teams don't even need to be that good to beat us at the moment. They know they just have to contain our (minimal) attacking threat and wait for us to gift them a goal or two.

Our best chance of the game and it falls to JWP of all people.

No idea. He always looked dreadful whenever I saw him play for Hull or WBA, and I haven't seen anything from him in a Saints shirt to suggest he is ever going to improve. Just think of what we could have got for the money we wasted on Long, Osvaldo and Ramirez.

Oh yaaaaaaay! The massive game-changer JWP is coming on! Wooo!

And there we have it. Take a bow Shane Long. Even by your own low standards, that is a whole new level of f*cking awful.

All those slagging off Tadic - he hasn't had his best game today but he was the only one who looked likely to actually create anything. But hey, let's take him off and replace him with a headless chicken whose only real attribute is his ability to run in a straight line. A bit like Forrest Gump. I actually despair. Koeman has lost it. He has no idea how to turn this around.

Well at least we have had two shots on target in the last couple of minutes. True, neither of them were ever going to trouble Loris, but it's progress at least.

Just seen the Mane chance again. What is he doing? why isn't he leathering it? Trying to side-foot the ball into the net from there just makes it far too easy for the keeper. And they really need to sort out the offside rule. Kane can't be deemed to be not interfering with play when he is that far offside, because he is directly affecting the position of the defenders who know full well he is offside and are trying not to play him onside. Not to worry, we've always got the ever-reliable Shane Long on the bench. He'll come on and score a hat-trick for us to rescue this.

And there it is. Lots of good possession with no end product, and a comedy goal given away at the other end. Just like the Villa game. Can't see us getting any more than a draw from this now. And just as I type that - more sloppy defending and another very poor goal goes in. FFS Saints. We are definitely going to be in a relegation battle if we can't sort this sh*t out.

Agreed. But still not taking chances. Mane needs to be putting his laces through it when Tadic squared it to him, rather than trying to pass the ball into the net.

In all fairness to Davis, he came closer to scoring for us today than anybody else did. It was only a truly outstanding save that kept his header out.

I don't think it's fair to blame Koeman for this one. The tactics were OK, both in the first half and then when we changed shape and brought on Tadic and Pelle. The problem is that we are severely lacking quality in our attacking play. We only created two real chances today, with Davis drawing save of the season from Hennessey, and Long doing what Long does in injury time - a PL striker simply has to be doing better with chances like that. One positive to take from today is that Gazzaniga put in an excellent performance and made some crucial saves. Good to see that he is much improved from the 'rabbit in headlights' act that he used to do when called up to the first team.

Disgraceful to allow someone like Cabaye that much time and space in the box. Where the he'll was the marking?

What a save that is. Should have been 1-0 to us there.

Are you completely forgetting that he got injured in pre-season and spent a long time out of the first team before he even had a chance to establish himself? Even the most talented players will struggle to make an immediate impact in that situation, so I think Clasie deserves a little more time to prove himself before we pass any kind of judgement on him, don't you?

What does any of this have to do with his intermittent inability to control the ball or play a simple 10-yard pass?

No surprise to see Wanyama subbed. He's been dreadful again today. Time for Juanmi to deliver the goods now if we're taking off our most creative player for him.

No changes at HT by the look of it then.

Please not Long. He's only even slightly effective when you give him balls over the top to run on to. When he plays against a team that defends deep, which Villa are sure to do now they have a lead to protect, he's just an empty shirt that offers nothing.