Saint Charlie

Our best starting XI is pretty obvious so surely you just play as close to that as you can each game?

Dreadful start. Why **** about with the team so much?!

As Dave Merrington said, how bad must Martina be if he cannot get in ahead of an average CB playing out of position?

The Yoshida RB thing NEVER works. He doesn't think like a full back because he isn't one.

Slightly disapointing to show them so much respect. Great if you keep it 0-0 to HT though as can build from there.

Good start City. Do wonder if sitting back is the best option against a team with such dangerous forward options.

Ronald said Clasie can't play 3 games in a week so is obviously preferring him being available for Liverpool. Also City have powerful midfield 3 whixh might be too much for Clasie. Having Yaya Toure run at him would be almost unfair.

Fonte on Sky saying only way to stop players leaving is to finish in the top 4.

Yeah. JWP too. Might as well chuck in the international break disrupting momentum as well.

JWP doesn't have to ever do a lot to earn recalls to the starting XI, I must say.

Bit strange because their weakness is clearly CBs and keeper.

Guess it will be JWP or Davis out wide on one side. Hopefully not the same side as Yoshida or there will be zero threat there.

****ng weird obsession with Yoshida at right back. That Villa goal aside he has been pretty poor there. Mostly because he is a centre back. Generally looks like a bit of rotation with the cup game in mind.

That doesn't even make sense. If the Club ultimately wasn't ambitious enough for Poch or some of the players, how is that his fault? He doesn't set the ambition level of the club or pay players the 3x salaries they were offered elsewhere?

That Plan b stuff is a red herring IMO. What is Koeman's plan B? Can you clearly identify the plan A even? Adkins did an ok job in the PL, Pochettino lifted us and some of the players to a different level. As he is doing with Spurs. Did a very good job at Saints and transformed our perception in the PL which is hard to do.

He shouldn't have been appointed in the first place. He was never in a million years cut out for the PL. Ultimately it led to us being relegated because it quickly became apparent all hell would have broken loose had he stayed. And then we ended up with Wigley. And Redknapp.

Today if Saints lose there is nothing respectable about it. It wouldnt be a disaster of course but it should never be respectable to lose a game to a team thats lost two in a row and is missing key players. As you say, if we play well we have a chance. I hope the players aren't thinking about taking a 2-0 loss and moving on. I'm sure they aren't.

Had Strachan achieved all he could with us though? I saw us as an organised, high tempo side with some quality, lucky that we had Beattie on fire for some time. He certainly wouldn't have taken us down, but not sure we could have replicated what we did unless we had replaced Beattie with someone else who would have scored that kind of volume of goals. Would say Koeman and Pochettino's teams have been much higher quality, but Strachan made 100% of what he had available and was a great guy. He also knew the right time to leave.

Burley really was a miserable ****er. Wasted some good talent too. Classic case of playing safe appointing someone like that rather than an upcoming Manager like Adkins was when we chose him.

Any home win is respectable for any side!

Yeah Pardew ultimately underachieved that one season which cost his job. The game Griffit scored on his debut was in the Strachan days though. First game of the season Sturrock was fored was when Prutton and Niemi had a bust up on the pitch. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Football%3A+TROUBLE'S+STURRING+AT+SAINTS%3B+Aston+Villa+2+Southampton+0...-a0120676822 Sturrock should never have been put in that situation to even be a PL Manager. A decent appointment then and we would have survived the following year insteead of going down IMO. For that reason he has to go down as a big mistake and cannot make a list of top Gaffers for me. In fact I would rate him in the "slate" group. He had lost control of a solid group of players who didnt respect him.

Stan Collymore has gone 1-1 in his Boyle Sport prediction. Remember to Call Collymore after the Leicester Man Utd game for cardiovascular debate, aggressive opinion and a few calls from Terry the Cabbie from Romford.

Sturrock in the top 7? Brave call. Especially with no Pardew. Even Burley was surely better than Sturrock? He was way out of his depth and probably his appointment set in motion our relegation.

Of course. I just feel Pochettino changed the perception of the whole club at PL level, from an also ran everyone patronised to a club that is genuinely thought of as successful in its own way. A big achievement despite backing, plus he clearly improved a host of players.

Can't argue with most of that but not sure how a few in the top list are better than Pochettino? Souness and Merrington for example?