Cabrone

I've been around long enough not to get too worked up about players coming and going and to get £75M for Virgil is a superb piece of business. Of course we now need to spend wisely, not on experiments but proven players. We need to go big on a goal scorer now that Charlie is out otherwise where are the goals coming from? However top priority MUST be a decent manager if we can find one. I still think that with a good motivator in charge and Gabi plus a real spearhead up front that this squad could do pretty well in this league. Don't feel any particular animosity to Virgil, football is a business and we've done well by him. Ironically it could be his lack of loyalty that saves our conversation prem status.

The best 'signing' would be to replace the manager is with someone competent. That would be worth a few players. After that I'd spend big on a goal scorer. Current squad plus decent manager plus regular goal scorer would see a massive improvement in all areas but MP has to go.

I like him, bought to score goals and has never let us down. Not his fault the plum in charge didn't pick him for so long, says more about mp than Charlie. And yes, I do like the back story. He's reached the prem the hard way and full credit to him, makes him more relatable in my book. Funny how some players can't score in a brothel yet are constantly praised for running around yet others who know how to do the business get slagged at the slightest excuse. Evidently running is good whereas intelligence and razor sharp finishing ability is meh.

TBH I always thought he'd be a punt as he wasn't pulling up trees at Norwich and was cheap. That said like a lot of the players I've not seen him under a decent manager so there's still a part of me that is willing to give him a chance. Let's get a decent manager first and then we can truly judge the players. Even the best would struggle under this incompetent manager.

The new guy surely must be realising that mp is not up to it. I'd suggest that he gets shot of his ass before his £200M gets flushed down the pan. It's beyond a joke now.

The football is dull defensive s..t and he has no clue as to who his best players are and where to play them. If he stays then Premier league football is touch and go, either way ST sales will nosedive. Someone needs to put him and us out of our misery ASAP.

He's overstayed his welcome by about 6 games for me. By now the club could have put someone in charge who would have had us moving forward but instead we are stuck with Mr Negative and his rigid 1 up front , no plan B, players out of position, bizarre team selections management 'style'. TBH just waiting for the club to sack him now. It hasn't worked and both sides need to be put out of their misery.

I admire the OP's optimism with 2 up front but this manager has never ever shown any inclination to start with 2 up front and I don't see him changing it for this game. He'll probably start with 1 up front, try to nick a goal and then go ultra defensive because he hasn't got a clue and doesn't care if he bores everyone senseless.

If we get into a relegation situation then MP will probably go even more defensive if that's possible, sort of a 10-0-0 formation with everyone crowded into the goalmouth. Don't think we will go that far down though, the squad isn't that bad despite the manager's best efforts at getting us down there.

It's time for chairman Gao's cultural revolution. Football is supposed to be entertaining.

Currently on track for 36 points, very touch and go. Another nail in MP's coffin, surely he can't go on for much longer?

His selection of Charlie Austin has bought him a bit of time - despite the fact that he had to have his arm twisted so hard it almost snapped - but he's on thin ice. Clueless chopping and changing of players must be peeing them off, it certainly is for me - also continuously playing players out of position is just looking plain dumb. Oh and he doesn't appear to have one iota of positivity in his head, religiously sticking to 1 up front despite a chronic lack of goals. If he was half decent he'd know his best team by now. The squad is a lot lot better than he is capable of delivering. Think we'll scrape through this season - as long as CA stays fit - but the thought of him around for next season will be a bit much for many ST holders. It's supposed to be entertainment right?

Feeling a lot happier than I was a few weeks ago, we finally have a goal threat and the rest of the team is responding. If MP could get over his own negativity and set us up with 2 up front we could start to move. Gabi up front please.

He has the assassin's ability to lose his man just before striking. I can remember him giving the Man U defence the slip for his first Saints goal at Old Trafford (proper strikers goal) and he did it on Sunday again. It's instinctive and given a split second he'll punish you. He carries a threat and offers an outlet for the support players. Feeling a lot more confident now that MP has sussed that CA is worth picking, frankly it's a joke that it's taken this long but better late than never. As has been said before he doesn't seem fashionable enough for some. Would also like Gabbi up front as a support striker, could be a good combo IMO.

Best thing about the game is that even MP must be getting the message that Charlie Austin is worth picking. Had MP actually tried him earlier on in the season who knows, we may be a lot further up the table by now. Oh, but I forgot - he doesn't run around enough for some of the experts on here

Sounded like a good performance which is great but why the hell does this manager persist with a forward that doesn't score? Long should be nowhere on the team sheet, Gabbi or Charlie or both are the options - they can score. It's going to be interesting to see how MP goes from here, clamming up at Citeh is understandable - doing it at Bournemouth is not. Attacking football this weekend please and no Shane Long up front.

The truth is we've been able to score goals all season but if you don't pick your goal scorers and you don't support them you won't score. It will be interesting to see if MP has learnt something this weekend, if he has then great and if he hasn't then he'll be gone soon enough. He'd have to be one stubborn SOB to just ignore what happened on Sunday and go back to the failed ways.

If Austin's fit then play him and try him up front with Gabbi. Charlie has been ignored all season and needs match practice right now - provided he's fit enough. We'll probably lose anyway so I'd like us to give new combinations a go.

As has been said by many of us on here ad nauseum - play a proven goalscorer in Charlie Austin and guess what - you score goals. Cannot for the life of me understand why it's taken this manager so long to figure this out. I'd also like to see Gabbi positioned in a free role just behind Charlie - I really think they could click. We don't have a bad set of players, just a manager that has thwarted our attack for too long. Today shows it. As for Everton you'd have to have a heart of stone not to laugh. We play them in the 2nd to last match - would love it if we relegated them.

Everton aren't great but we're worse. With this manager we may as well have a traffic cone up front. Shaping up to be a cracker of a game, 0-2.

It's all relative wherever you are. If your team is on the up any league is good fun. Our last season in the Championship was awesome - but then we did win it didn't we . Leeds (a) particularly sticks in the memory, KD was a brick wall that evening.

Worrying if that's what he's identified as the real problem. How is Gabbi supposed to score when he has no service? As for Charlie, well he's not even picked. When he has been regularly picked when has he failed to deliver? Long I would let go, he genuinely can't score. Instead of scapegoating our forwards get rid of the one dimensional MP and bring in a manager that believes in attacking football. If our players still fail under a guy that is willing to try different formations and personnel then I will join the 'players aren't good enough' bandwagon. We may be relegated by then and they'll go anyway. At the moment though they get a pass because the current manager is incompetent to a point of madness.

What an absolute joke. Right now based on form I'd say we were bottom 3, most of the teams who will be our relegation rivals at least look like they can score whereas we cannot. Palace certainly look better than us, so do Bournemouth. This manager has destroyed the team, he's dismantled our scoring threat by continuously ignoring our best goal scorers which in turn has destroyed morale throughout the rest of the team. Had Charlie Austin been played earlier (as Puel did to be fair to him) up front with Gabbi we'd be nowhere near where we are now IMO (and I don't give a toss if he doesn't run around like a headless chicken just as long as he scores). He needs a run of games!!!! MP goes into games not thinking about how to win but how to not concede. Winning doesn't even seem to come into his head. Yet again he started with 1 up front and the guy who was up there hasn't scored in months. From the 1st second he was broadcasting to everyone that he wasn't the slightest bit interested in winning, his ambition was 0-0. When will it sink into his thick head that this isn't working? It's sucking the life out of everyone. Over the course of the season you can see that the players heads have dropped and I don't blame them, it must be sapping having to play for a manager that has no intention of scoring goals. All the blabbering on here about the team not being good enough - it is good enough but it is being strangled by the worst manager we've had since Branfoot. TBH I've been wanting him out for a month now, it was looking pretty obvious back in Oct that he hasn't got a clue. Why are we wasting vital matches with this dead man walking? Even if the new guy lost the next 6 at least they'd be able to take stock before the Jan transfer window. Personally I'd like to see a British manager with a positive approach but TBH I'm starting to think that even no manager is better than this guy, he's toxic.

The only way I could see this guy's style having any chance of succeeding is to buy a top quality goal scoring no 9 which would cost a small fortune. Cannot see SFC doing that so why delay getting rid - his negativity is strangling the team. We couldn't do any worse if he wasn't there.

Exactly, we've had 2 good goal scorers available to us since game 1 but if the manager either doesn't pick them or set the team up to service them then guess what - no goals. The argument for a no 9 is a good one and if we could get a Pelle replacement then fantastic but that's another debate - the squad we have right now has goals in it.