Saint Charlie

Change very little, don't bill it as a must win. Start is crucial to quiten their fans and make them nervy. Make sure Tarrabt has an off day - he is good when at the races. Most of all attack their defence which like ours makes mistakes, put balls into the box for RL and get AL and GR running onto them - pretty much like Swansea.

For me it is quite simple. Davis is finished at Saints as a starting keeper. Gazza looks like he is going to be class, brilliant kicking, great build but is too inexperienced hence error on Saturday. Not that he isn't good enough...just not played enough matches. Boruc - the only one of the three to have played at a consistently high level in his career. Has personality which is also important. I could imagine him coming back in and winning us some matches. Not an ideal start but on paper the best of the three. 1. Boruc 2. Gazza 3. Davis

Would rather they were loosened up and ready to play. Besides from what you hear there isn't a huge amount of tactical chat that happens at HT and certainly nothing the Manager can't tell the player before he comes on.

Will also be interesting once he responds to my questions - would he swap Adkins for Allardyce now if he could?

The OS tweeted that but they are still listed on the FA Squad too.

We enquired about Benayoun on the deadline day but didn't want to match his wages. Nolan on 50k a week last year, Carroll easily on more than Ramirez...fair point I think. Would imagine they are midtable for a wage bill.

Have you answered the other question re Adkins/Allardyce? Would you swap them now if you could? Its not what they do with the ball - our team is probably better on the ball than they are. It is the experience of playing at that level, specifically against those better players - they have done it before and most of them were good Prem players the likes of Nolan, Noble, Tomkins. Maybe last year they took some time to get used to the league, Im not sure - but having played lot of Premier League games versus a team who has 10 out of 11 players who have played none certainly has an advantage.

Shows their players have all comfortablly played at this level many times, know what to expect and Sam knew what he would get from them. He knew Nolan was good enough, knew Noble was. We didn't have that luxury, any prem experience we would have needed to sign, and obviously didn't. Not saying it is the sole reason, but it has certainly helped them as it showed they have been good enough at this level. None of our players had that confidence to take into the season.

Simple question then: if now we could sack Adkins and bring in Allardyce would you? Also Carroll is still on zero leagues goals.

We were better than them last season. So far they have been better than us. Their players in total probably have about 50 times more Prem Apps than our squad does which at the moment seems to have been important. Are you doing a comparison thread with Reading too?

Pretty pointless thread then. Its hard to work out if you are a saints fan or not at times?

And in the game at Upton Park our midfield was fine, out played theirs first half. Its defensively where the difference between the sides is. The two early goals after HT - both poor defensive errors cost us at least a point there. WH just have more knowledge of winning at this level and it shows, the relative quality is not much different.

Plus the fact that when you see their lineup they are all players that have played msot of their career in the Prem ie Nolan, Noble, Tomkins, O'Neil, McCartney, Cole, Benayoun, Carroll etc. Seeing as they had lots of those players last year who had extensive Prem experience it also shows how well we adapted to the division to beat them over a whole season. They were used to the quality because the players had all experienced it before, we hadn't. partly due to recruitment and partyl due to the fact the were in the CCC from the Prem and we were in it from L1.

Outfield should certainly be the same, only question is on the Keeper. I like Gazza and clearly he will be class, but can't help but think its a bit silly to have a keeper of Boruc's experience and not use him.

Well clearly the keepers are told to try and pass out from the back. Adkins has obviously never said to just clear it everytime and nor should he otherwise you can't really build attacks from the back like we clearly want to do. The error was a lack of judgement of when to clear and when to pass. He passed, but should have cleared, however his distribution is actually very good, it was just a poor decision. Do i want to see him hack every ball up the pitch at QPR? No Would I expect him to clear the same ball in those same circumstances - Yes.

Having read about Villa switching where the away fans sit at Villa Park to enable better coverage of one end and also the fact that at many grounds (especially the larger ones) you are shoved in the corner etc is it worth thinking about where the away fans at SMS are placed? I have thought for a while that having them behind the goal - especially at the end their team normnally shoot at in the 2nd half - is not perhaps ideal, especially for teams who fill the allocation. Games like Man Utd spring to mind where the presence of their fans behind the goal seems to lift them. Would it be worth putting them on the side in the corner somewhere (believe this has been muted before?) or does it make zero difference? FWIW Im not sure how much difference it makes but I would probably switch it so they kick that way in the first half rather than the second where the results of most games are decided - although by no means suggesting it often affects the results of games - but it can have an impact IMO.

Griffit looked immense in the reserves and the goal v Blackburn was class too. Jonno Quick was meant to be the new Henry but it hasn't quite happened for the lad. Prutton sounded good but pretty much joined us and turned terrible, which he has never recovered from.

Bizarre post. Fox was ok when he came on.

Subs not an issue at all today...

Moong - read the criteria

Bump

He doesn't fit the 1999-present day criteria.

Kosowski is a good shout - will pencil him in if there isnt a better option.

Agree!

Will add him now!