vectraman

I saw a couple of minutes of Udinese v Roma earlier. Edin Dzeko up front for Roma - now he would tick the right boxes. Experienced proven premier league goal scorer, tall (whoever we get has got to be tall, we desperately lack height upfront), can hold the ball up, scores with feet and head and certainly would be a presence. Now, how do we persuade title chasing Roma to sell him....☹️️

My thoughts exactly. Good luck Jose, wherever your new adventure takes you.

Now that is a good idea ✅

Well every cloud has a silver lining and all that... Once we've let VVD, Fonte and Bertrand out the exit door in the summer, the queue will have gone! The rest of them are, umm "average" at best currently, and no one will want any of them! We will have then peaked. Got to the point that the remainder is so average, that other premier league teams will finally not want to come shopping at Saints. Good, but in a bad way if you catch my drift...

We are in a rich vein of ****e form. Our best player is now suspended, can't shoot on target, and can't hit a barn door with our crosses. 1-0 Saints written all over it!

Dire today ��. Boys v men all over the pitch. We are so physically small as a team, that Puel's system is doomed to fail. We ponce about at the back/midfield going sideways, that teams just close us down, ball goes back to Fraser, he plays it long, the ball comes straight back at us because we have nobody of any size to win and then hold the ball up. Our midfield is slow to get forward in support when we do get in good positions, usually leaving us 2 or 3 v 8 in the area. It is just so painful to watch. Claude, this is an entertainment industry, please start the team doing this. Boos at the end justified, we were terrible. One shot on target in 90 mins against West Brom at home. ������ Subs - �� Jrod comes on - methinks finally, we are going to get two strikers up front. No. He pushes Long back. Jrod ploughs a lonely and fruitless furrow. We are losing 2-1 at home you end of a bell, and you continue to play one up front? ☹️️ Then, in a master stroke of brilliance, we take our adequate right back off and replace him with the pacy wingmeister JWP ����. Genius. Not. Surely, against WBA at home we should have played our strongest 11, rested players at Everton. I seriously believe Claude has not got the hang of the P League. West Brom are a decent, difficult to beat side, so you go and underestimate them by playing 3 back up defenders! ����. No no no. I hate this dull, slow, boring, defensive ****e we are serving up. Change it or go Claude. Please. If this continues, I certainly will not be renewing mine and the kids season tickets. Sort it out.

I'm 100% with you on this, go for a traditional 442 with two forwards playing off each other. I might even go wild and play Long and VVD together up front, to give us a bit of aerial menace. Yoshi can take his place at the back.

I would love us to play a traditional 4-4-2 with Long and JRod up front playing off each other. Tadic left, boufal right, Romeu and clasie in the centre. Strongest back 4 plus Fraser. Won't happen, but I believe two proper forwards playing together would alleviate our scoring problems...

Just got back from the game, my thoughts... Dire first half, better second half, fantastic goal, three points, great!! I thought Boufal was very good, apart from the goal, he showed some real glimpses of hopefully what is to come regularly. Classie did well, fonte looked good, Redmond improved the attack when he came on. I'm sorry, I didn't see j rod do much at all today, he was pretty much a passenger imo. Missed a sitter too. We are desperately lacking a striker who can strike! Austin out for 3-4 months is a mega blow. Hate our sluggish forward play in the first half. So slow that 'boro got everyone behind the ball whilst we bored everyone going sideways and backwards. Horrible, boring trash to watch. Better in second half, even saw a couple of quick breaks! We can do it, just need to do it more often! Atmosphere was very flat (unsurprisingly). Nothing to lift it first half, just a continuation of the trash served up on Thursday. So much for a team response! I genuinely feel I am seeing some of the most boring football at St Mary's I have seen for a long time. Yes last season there were some epic sh1t games - Stoke and Villa spring to mind, but there are far more this season. Puel may grind out results, but it is not pretty. Hopefully he'll realise he needs to play the players we have in their proper roles, not square pegs in round holes to suit a system. E.g. Today, we should never have Romeu, Classie, jwp in the same team, just so limiting going forward. Anyway, my views, from the match.

When you're sat here watching this total bore fest I believe you're entitled to voice your opinion as you've splashed the cash. Nothing to get excited about at all. Horrible on the eye, my 8 and 6 year olds want to go home - dad this is boring, can we go now? I'm going to get done for child abuse by making them watch the 2nd half ? Total boring football. Fix it or depart Mr Puel. Please.

I predict 0-0. Hope I'm wildly wrong.... Please prove me wrong goal shy boys...

Good strong side. Looking forward to this, come on Saints let's do it. COYR

Completely agree with everything you have said. Spot on

Why experiment with a cup semi at stake? If Long get injured there is no forward to replace him! Crap team selection. This is a serious game in a winnable tournament, yet the manager takes the supporters as idiots. 3000+ saints fans on a freezing night in London for a no doubt "interesting" fixture. The manager has no concept of what real supporters want Seriously, cup semi or Palace away? Oh, palace away. Bell end

I concur with your thoughts Sod Palace, Tonight and Hapoel are important.

This is a cup quarter final - sniffing distance of a Wembley final. What's the point of being in any competition if you don't want to try and win it in the latter stages. Strong team, lets go for it. Don't worry about the league, we'll be fine, and really what's the difference between 15th and 8th anyway? League is not winnable. Fa cup, league cup go for it. Otherwise what's the point in being a fan really?

2-1 to saints today. Vvd and Austin to score. Fingers crossed

Proven quality, guaranteed 10 goals a season from midfield. We won't sign him - no profit to be made

Arsenal and Beersheba. Keeps the interest levels in the cups very much alive

Lose against beer sheva and we are out... Sorry performance against a very average side. Toothless dreary and slow.

Total slow motion borefest Come on Saints we are bloody well losing and playing like we don't give a toss

I'm 100% with this. We're not going to be fantastic in the league, so let's concentrate on the cups/Europa. Being a fan is about having hope of winning something, so the cups it is . Sod it, why aim low, let's win this Europa league, champions league it is then . We've got to be serious in the cups etc. We ARE too good to go down, so let's go and win something. Please!

Back from the game, and dried out! My thoughts... Back 4 plus Fraser were all excellent. I thought Romeu was fantastic battling away, absolute bundle of energy and commitment. My mom but can understand why others picked vvd. I personally thought our starting 11 was our best team - the team I would have gone for anyway! Boufal is still finding his feet, a few skill displays, an embarrassing dive, ok. 6/10 Redmond, not really effective today. I wish he would take players on and run at them more often, better when he does that. 5.5/10 Biggest disappointment for me - PEH. Kept giving the ball away - start of the second half almost cost us the game with a crap pass - defence got him out of jail. Tried very hard, but not his best game today. 5/10 Steven Davis, 6.5/10 - solid and unspectacular. Charlie Austin - ploughed a lone furrow, never going to get much played like this. Missed our only chance, should have at least got it on target. 6/10 Needed pace up front to hit them on the break - long looked sharp (& quick) when he came on. Ditto Jrod. 7/10 Overall decent team display, i'd have taken a draw. We got one, better lucky than good with the result. Liverpool strikers had our shooting boots on! Brilliant defensive display. Happy

I think we may well do if we insist on playing it out short from the back. We'll screw up under their high pressing and gift them a goal or two. Tomorrow is a game to go long and attack them quickly before they can get numbers back. Come on Claude, prove that we can play in a different way to the lumbering, slow, boring sideways backwards style we seem to be adapting

Nonsense. The cups and defo the Europa are much bigger than the league. We are not in danger in the league. Seriously, there is so much sh1t in the prem that we are NOT going to get relegated. Equally we won't make top 6. So cups and Europa are our whole reason for being aren't they? Manager needs to adapt to the premier league, and needs to alter the formation to suit. His 'diamond' needs to morph into a proper 442, 433. Even a koemenesque 532 if necessary, but Puels flexibility is limiting the team imo. Square pegs into round holes to suit his system. But seriously, the league is not where a supporters excitement is to be found. With our squad we should be going for silverware, and we are still good enough for top ten imo. Managers obsession with possession I feel is limiting the team, not vice versa. Again only my opinion...