SaintBobby

At the range from Saints to West Brom (149m euros to 127m euros), would it be fair to say it's so "much of a muchness" that none of these 8 teams really have a measurable advantage over any other. The elements of luck, desirability of location, quality of local housing stock, having an international team mate who recommends the club etc might outweigh a financial advantage/disadvantage of £12mpa or so. Competing with the very top teams over the long run is damned near impossible though. Man City could burn £100m a year as a laugh and still have much more money than Southampton.

Obviously things came right for him yesterday and he'd basically won us the game after 35 mins. Other than his goals, I didn't think he really shone though. He was fine/okay but not amazing. Frustrating player. For the last few years I've been thinking he is going to breakthrough as a great player right now, but he never does. I always felt the same with Matt Oakley back in the day. I like JWP. Very good at set pieces. Good squad player. Seems a nice bloke too. But I don't think he will ever be much more than an adequate mid-table Premier League player. Hopefully yesterday really was a turning point and he proves me - and others - totally wrong.

I was there. Feeble. At least add "'m" after the first "I". Hell, these guys are paid a mint and speak/write like 4 year olds. Secondly, we lost on pens. Not sure which party was spoiled.

I'm sure if we can crack this key, existential question we can replace Koeman with a "crowd sourcing" manager from this forum.

That would basically be the opposite of "parking the bus", right? 4 goals ain't "parking the bus".

Just heard from a reasonably reliable source that VVD is fine. However, he then said he may not be risked on "tiredness" grounds. Wldnt that apply to Yoshida even more? So, only reasonably reliable.... (Caulker didn't travel, so maybe he goes into the back 4?)

He ain't going nowhere. Until 2017. Come back to me if that proves to be wrong.

I've read it. I've reread it. You're still mad. You're assuming whether over 11 or 12 games that Saints should have had 5 more points. But over that run of games, we're bound to have off days and make errors. You can't just wish these away for Saints, but keep them factored in for Man City (who clearly shouldn't have lost at home to West Ham) or Arsenal. If Southampton played to our absolute best in all 38 games and eradicated all and any errors from every match, we'd probably win the league. But errors and (occasional) sub-standard performances are part and parcel of the sport.

Utterly, utterly mad. In what sort of world would you expect Saints to be level with Arsenal and Man City after 12 games? Sure, you can find matches where we were below par (e.g. surrendering a 2-0 lead to Leicester in the 2nd half at home), but then you can say the same for Man City and Arsenal. You can't treat Man City's failure to beat Aston Villa today as some sort of natural act of God but our failure to hold a lead against Man Utd at home as a weak display on our part.

If you expect 8-9, why not "take" 9?

Ten points would be a good return. That's a tricky batch of six fixtures. Although we are pretty good, this next batch includes two teams who are going to finish above us (Man City and Arsenal), one who will likely finish above us (Spurs), two teams who are around our level, maybe just a tad below (Palace and Stoke) and only one match where we are clearly and unambiguously the better side (Villa) Football being what it is, we will probably lose to Villa and beat the other 5 clubs!

In a probably futile attempt to get this thread back on topic, I want to argue that we arguably now have a stronger squad than last season. Not much in it between Forster and Stekelenburg. Maybe Forster is a bit better, but there isn't a huge amount in it. I'd prefer to have van Dijk than Alderweireld. I also think Yoshida looks better this season than last. Hard to make a definitive judgement on Caulker, but he gives us better depth. Soares isn't as good as Clyne, of course, but looks like he's now settling in. Bertrand has got better and better over the last year. Targett may never be a first choice, first team Saints player, but he is surely better as cover at left back than he was a year ago. In midfield, it was always going to be difficult to replace Schneiderlin. I'd prefer to have Morgan than either one of Clasie and Romeu, but we now have BOTH Clasie and Romeu. Sure, the rules of association football sadly don't allow us to play two new players in place of one departing player, but again the depth is much better. We can cope much better this year with an injury or a suspension to a defensive midfielder. Last season when either Victor or Morgan were out, I feared we were much weaker (especially after Cork's departure). Now, if we can't field Wanyama or Clasie, I think we are only slightly weaker. Steve Davis seems to be a better player than last year (is this just form/confidence or has he found his role?) The front three of Tadic, Mane and Pelle are clicking together brilliantly. This time last year, some fans were saying Mane was a League One player. It now seems close to unanimous that he's a £30m player. Tadic started last season brilliantly but then faded. He now seems way more consistent. Pelle remains very consistent. Although it's been stop-start, we hopefully still have Rodriguez to come back and play a role. Hell, even Gaston Ramirez seems to have re-emerged as a half useful squad player. I might still be persuaded that our best XI from last season is a little better than our best XI from this season. But you can't play your best XI in every game. In fact, it's quite rare to be able to field your best XI in any single match, there's usually an injury, a niggle or a suspension for at least one of them. Over 38 games, you need to look at your best 17 or 18, not your best 11. On that score, I think we are better this year and so have every chance of beating the 60 points we got last year. And on a rudimentary points per game basis, we are on target to get 63 points this season.

I much prefer comparing the matches like-with like (so, example: we're 3 points down v Everton at home, 3 points up v Sunderland away, same as last season v Man Utd). The problem with all the "best" or "worst" start to the season sort of analysis is they just stretch this to cover an indefinable number of matches. If we win the first three games of a season and draw the next three, that would be our best ever "start" to the season. If we lose the first two games 3-0, that would be our worst ever "start" to the season.

Law 12 of the game covers that. You don't have to make contact for it to be a direct free kick/penalty. Sadly, it's rarely or sensibly enforced.

I was quite a fan of Fabrice Fernandes too. But I think we need to accept that he ain't coming back.

At least Mane wasn't in the team tonight. He's League One at best. Basically Ali Dia Mk2.

2-1 to west ham

Well, there's usually a positive relationship.Anders wasn't bad for us, but somehow very, very good for Sweden.Delgado just couldn't adapt to England. That was a weird one.Otherwise, being good for Saints and being good for your country are pretty well correlated. The only other one that springs to mind is Neil McCann - wasn't he quite good for Scotland but utterly rubbish for us?

You okay, hun?

For the LOLs

Fair question - when did we last beat the Champions away? Ever?

Can someone please, please, please dig up that thread with people saying Mane was a League One player. That was a peach.

People get so hung up on the transfer fee and forget the wages. My rough guess is that Long is paid about 30% of what Lallana gets paid and so this needs to be factored in to whether they are each "worth it" or not. Very rough guess on what each would be sellable for? Long £8m, Lallana £12m. That's a massive capital depreciation on both players, but on an epic scale for Lallana. Not as bad as Osvaldo though, admittedly.

I keep thinking we really need a No.10...that position just behind Pelle doesn't seem to have anyone who's a natural fit (apart from Ramirez...but let's not reopen that can of worms).

That's not wholly unfair. But making a net profit of, what, £30m on the transfer market while doing so is pretty impressive. Whether that can be repeated ad infinitum...well, let's less certain.