Saint Charlie

Still, 10mins of league action is almost nothing in the whole season and substantially less than last year when we were probably a better team. Is no game time plus no loan move good for his development? He is too good for U21 football.

Wonder if Koeman maybe thinks his passing and on ball work isn't good enough for PL level?

Would suggest he must be quite disappointed with how the season has gone. - 10minutes of league football (as a sub vs Norwich) compared to 458 minutes last season - No domestic cup starts - No loan move to the Championship or L1 for regular first team experience. Teams must have been keen so presumably we didn't want to send him out. - Dropped out of the England age group sides presumably for the three reasons above. Nobody would have believed this towards the end of last season. I was at the End of Season Awards and Krueger and Les Reed probably mentioned HR more than any other first team squad player for impact he had against Everton and in other games. Future Prospects He signed a four year contract in 2014 so he is now halfway through that. Will he be more prominent next year in the first team? We have lots of numbers in central midfield although all have their flaws. Reed does too, he is overly aggressive at times and gives away too many free kicks, and is obviously very small in stature (couldn't play him and Clasie together) but most people are suprised he hasn't been more involved. I wonder what he will think when we (most likely) try to get him to extend his contract? Won't be a no brainer to sign like it was last time...

I remember it that he struggled quite a bit and everyone was very happy when Bertrand came into the team. Not that he isn't a good player, but as a left back in a back four (his primary position) he is exploited at PL level just now.

Seconded. Absolutely nailed it.

This. Currently probably a good Championship standard player who does a job for us when we change system. In time he could prove to be a good PL player but has looked shaky defensively when played at LB of a back 4 at the start of the season. Lacks the yard of pace that really makes a top player IMO but will have a good career in the top two leagues. Similar to JWP.

I do find this quite frustrating. It stopped us being able to bring Rodriguez on or potentially to sub Wanyama and prevent a possible second yellow. If he isn't fit enough now age 24 and with 6 months of training and games to play 2 games a week or last 90mins in the PL then will he ever be?

Thoughts so far? After a promising spell has been really disappointing of late. Seems to lack confidence to take a defender on down the outside despite having good acceleration and often cuts back onto his weaker foot. Iffy defensively too and a target for being done at the back post. Seeing as Koeman has dropped him for error prone Yoshida and the average Martina it would seem he isn't sold on him. Crazy when just 2 years ago we had Chambers and Clyne competing for one place. Hopefully they feel he will have benefitted from the season and will be good enough to be a guarenteed first choice next season.

FWIW Graham Poll said neither of ours were pens in his opinion and both were not intentional and hands were not in unnatural positions. He also said its hard to judge and there have been some poor handball decisions given this season. I agree tbh. Neither was blatant hand to ball. You don't deserve a pen for smashing the ball at someone from 3 or 4 yards. What is the player meant to do, cut their arm off?

Spot on.

We never let anyone get into the final year of their contract, let alone when they are worth near £20m perhaps. If Forster doesn't sign a new contract by summer 2017 we will 99% sell him that summer. Do you disagree?

Every team has injuries and suspensions. We have had relatively few injuries I would say, so still a far higher amount of changes week to week than most sides.

Wasn't Austin's more of a cross, he was certainly very wide? The Fonte save was regulation IMO - looks nice but he would save 9/10 of them. Apart from that he was untroubled.

He is still our best centre mid though. He wins duels the others don't and we miss his physicality when he doesn't play. That said, I'm not sure the balance of him and Clasie works, both are quite immobile and don't cover lots of ground and neither really moves with the ball.

Think Bertrand is pretty spot on with this assessment: http://mobile.saintsfc.co.uk/news/article/20160403-ryan-bertrand-post-leicester-city-1-0-southampton-3040808.aspx

Sky mentioned we have made (I think) 81 changes to our PL lineup across the games this season. Makes it the second or third most in the league. Whats everyone's opinions on that? Would we be any better with some more consistency of selection or doesn't it matter? Potential arguments: - Shows we have a strong squad and can make changes without affecting the quality of the team? - Shows we have lots of similar quality players who have dips and spikes in form without being nailed on starters? The likes of Cedric, Romeu, Clasie, Tadic, Martina etc spring to mind. - Shows Koeman likes varying the side depending on who we are playing? We know this is the case and does mean some changes are inevitable when switching systems. Certainly don't think we or Koeman really knows the "first choice" XI which isnt necessarily a problem, but is interesting.

Cedric seems to lack confidence in his pace to take players on down the outside which is odd as his acceleration is decent. Clyne was excellent at that short burst of pace near the box...and also wasn't afraid to try it. I'm not convinced by Cedric all round really and seems Koeman isn't either.

I think we need to decide which style of striker we want. At the moment we have two main ones in Long and Pelle who are complete opposites and the way we play of very different with both. Austin is more in the Pelle mould of being a finisher rather than a threat in behind.

Agree. No attacking movement, quick passing, creativity just easy to defend "pressure" which didn't result in their keeper doing anything. None of our central midfielders contribute anything going forward, never make late runs into good areas and the full backs were also poor going forward today.

We did miss Long's movement. Pelle and Austin are more static players. Davis was good generally but scoring and creative assists aren't his game and never have been.

Did think Cedric was very poor. Nowhere near Clyne, thats for sure. We do have quite a few flaky players but if some weren't they would play for bigger teams.

Not sure how everyone can say it was such a great performance when Schmeichel barely made a save? Started poorly, gave them momentum and then couldn't find a good final ball all game. That game sums up why we won't get any higher than 7th.

Cedric has been poor.

We look miles better with 4 at the back.

Tadic excellent so far.