Saint Charlie

By Pardew.

I did. You obviously weren't listening to the Press Pass with Des Kelly after the game. Alvin Martin said on talkSPORT Matchday Live that he has heard via Mickey Gray that Koeman is relaxed about our form and thinks it will turn.

You have missed the point. If you said to Les Reed in July when he signed that we would be dropping Cedric for Yoshida because the Manager saw Maya as "the best option" he would have laughed at you. They bought him with the idea he would be good enough to play. Clearly its not going to have been in their plan for that to be the case. Cedric is obviously decent but the Manager doesnt fully trust him or think he is physically up to it (has been subbed after 70mins when he has started). As a replacement for the England right back that has not been an ideal start, especially with the first choice LB injured too. Fans thought Cedric would play 90mins every week and surely thats the idea the club would have had when thinking about a Clyne replacement.

So far in 6 league games we have used Fonte, Van Dijk, Yoshida, Targett, Cedric, Caulker and Martina each for at least 45mins. Thats 7 players and will be 8 when Bertrand comes back in (thank God). No wonder we look shaky because we probably have barely fielded the same back 4 twice yet. At some stages last year we played the same defence for many games in a row and it makes a huge difference.

They arent knocking him. More the process of buying a replacement for Clyne who doesnt have the confidence of the Manager in games where defending is needed. Its bizarre. We need a settled back four, should play him every game to adjust him quicker as obviously is a good player. He is actually 24.

LVG said they brought Darmian off and Valencia on purely to reduce the influence Tadic was having. When he is playing well we definitely create more and the last three games he has looked more like his best. Obviously faded second half but so did most of the team. Fair enough if you don't rate him but you can't say he is crap every week and expect people not to read it with a pinch of salt. Quotes: "He gives too much space on [Dusan] Tadic in my opinion and Tadic was the most dangerous man,” he said. “That is why I have changed him and Valencia did very well. I didn’t see Tadic in the second half.”

Interesting LVG said they took off Darmian and brought on Valencia purely to try and reduce the influence Tadic was having on the game. Tailed off second half as did the rest but was one of the reasons for our good start.

Respect your opinion but it wasn't for me. He did pretty much everything right just a couple of centimetres in it. Pelle was the reason we were close to getting anything from the game.

One of Pelle's best games for us. His finishing has been excellent this season and he caused them loads of problems. Far better allround game than someone like Austin who lots would have replaced him with this summer.

Of course. Thats what I said initially after someone said Koeman buys them. Not sure why you even got involved if you agree with me!

Should have enough to win this quite comfortably with the likes of Rodriguez, Juanmi, Long, Davis, Caulker, Yoshida, Cedric etc all likely to play you would think.

He said all are bought by the transfer committee of which Koeman is a member alongside others. Koeman obviously ok's the players but he is given a list of workable targets. In the case of Cedric all I am saying is Koeman may well have preferred other options, or Cedric may have been his first choice, we won't know. But recruitment is done by the club not solely the Manager.

For 50 odd mins we didn't get near them. We allowed them a goal from a 45 pass move. Sure we had some good chances but we were poor for more minutes than we were good and displayed some horrific defending. We didn't deserve a penalty. Our second goal and late flurry somewhat hides the abysmal second half collapse for me.

As opposed to some clubs where the Manager has full say on who comes in. Watch the first couple of episodes of The March on the Saints You Tube and there is a good section with Ross Wilson who explains how it works.

Deulofeu barely starts to be honest and rarely did last time he was with Everton. Bojan took a few months at Stoke too. It does take time.

No. Just that Koeman is only part of a transfer committee. Cedric was bought by the club, not by Koeman himself.

Koeman said in the week Juanmi was struggling to adapt to the pace and physicality of English football but has been training well and will get his chance. Hopefully starts on Wednesday.

Because he was being closed down well by their strikers. The only reason the defenders go back to the keeper is a lack of options in front of them. Schneiderlin always came deep to get the ball. Maybe Clasie can do that for us when he is back.

Haha. Then in the summer you say the time to judge is at the end of the transfer window. Circular argument. Football fans will naturally be continuously judging and its definitely a concern we sign a RB who the Manager doesn't trust to defend and a backup RB who is just awful. Today we had our first and second choice RB fit and chose instead to play a backup central defender there. I don't need to wait til next summer to know Martina is crap and that we havent improved a single position in the starting XI from last year.

Fonte was looking for a midfield option and had none. He looked for a full back option and they didn't give him one. Defensive full backs never really want the ball.

Its Soares, the man the Club brought in.

Reed has always said there is no point buying if the player isn't better than what we already have. The likes of Juanmi, Clasie, Van Dijk might prove to be quality signings but Martina definitely doesn't fit that bill. We got a lot of money in for Schneiderlin and he was such a key player so I think we could have replaced his agility and quality in midfield much better. Without question our first XI is weaker this season than last, and ultimately that will tell in the results. In addition, we ended todays game with Yoshida and Martina as our full backs which is telling.

Started the game with weak full backs. Ended with even weaker ones. Need a settled back four with full backs who can contribute in defence and attack. Pelle played well, Mane too but 3-2 flattered us. With Swansea and Chelsea to come next we could well be bottom 3 after 8 or 9 games which isn't good at all. Aside: What was signing Martina all about? Why sign a RB in Cedric who you don't trust to be able to defend?

Not a fan of Yoshida at RB. Will get zero from him going forward.

Against bottom club Newcastle. Plus we played a back 7 almost against Watford. We have only played one team out of five who will be a top half finisher so to judge our defence we just need to see how it does once we have played a more representative set of teams.