derry

Redmond has never scored regularly unless you call once every eleven games career average. Redmond plays like he is not a goalscorer Boufal does the spectacular, is a decent footballer but not a box striker, Tadic gets the odd goal when we are playing well, Davis, JWP, Clasie and Hojbjerg are hopeless in front of goal, Romeu could but is the midfield anchor. I do wish the centre backs would head the ball down in the box when they get the chance. Heading up and over doesn't hit the target. Last night the slow build up allowed Stoke the time to park the bus around the area. Bertrand was effective on the left but Martina's hesitation and indecisiveness on the right together with awful delivery is adding to the midfield lack of penetration. We need at least a pair of strikers up front Puel plays one. We need at least three players that are possibly going to score, Long, Rodriguez and Boufal are all we've got at the moment IMO they should now play possibly 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2, plus maybe Sims. With Hojbjerg and Romeu in midfield. Again IMO the over emphasis on attacking full backs slows the delivery up front. The ball needs to be delivered quickly to the forwards to then get at the back four instead of the full backs delivering the ball badly into a fully defended penalty area. They can support the attacks but not be the focal point. We are not going to get anything different out of the midfield, they don't have it in them. As long as Puel makes the selections he is making we get what we are doing now. High possession, numbers in midfield, good defence, poor attacking and the striker feeding off scraps. What's the point of 71% possession and no goals and few chances.

Another punch less unbalanced cluster**** unless they play 4-2-3-1 with Boufal behind Long like the at the start of the second half on Sunday.

Not politically correct for the experts but I'd love to see it. A lovely balanced system with the right players rather than a hopeless system with the wrong players.

It's not a case of bringing Gallagher back. It's more about why on earth would we bring the lad back to face the higher standard defences in the Premier with the team playing such defensive negative dross. It might ruin all the good work he is doing. Leave him where he is. Better still get Puel to change the way he has the team playing more Everton and second half Middlesborough than meaningless possession statistics. Goals win matches.

Sturridge is arguably the biggest sick note in the Premier League. We need a strong, brave, quick forward that has a history of scoring goals and playing most of the season's games.

Personally I think we lack physical strength up front when we play just one out and out forward, Austin, Long or Rodriguez with little support from Redmond, Boufal or Tadic plus the lack of midfield support. I would like to see Rodriguez coming in off the left, Maybe give Boufal the freedom in the centre behind Long and a choice of Sims, Redmond or Tadic on the right. I feel that Tadic is most productive on the left so if he was to play Rodriguez could switch to the right. That would give us more physicality, pace and height and four attackers instead of three. Clasie was showing forward intent both yesterday and against Arsenal so He or Hojbjerg could partner Romeu in a 4-2-3-1. I can't see Puel buying that though as he seems hell bent on playing most of the game in our half pushing up the possession percentage but sacrificing goals for preferring to let the forward feed off scraps. Whilst many in the crowd are passive there is a rising dissatisfaction with the set up of the team and some of the negative dross on show.

All the Premier matches were live on SportsnationHD today. Tomorrow just go to Sportsnation register and pay, If you go through Google there are numerous sites underneath the main Sportsnation site that show how to put Sportsnation into the Video addons on Kodi. If you have registered and paid you will be on the Sportsmania home page whether you have Sportsnation or Sportsmania. At the top of the page there is a Kodi tutorial to select. I just wrote down each step pausing the process each time then carried out the operation quickly from the crib sheet. You can go through google and download Kodi to your computer. You then have it. If you want to use the Firestick I assume you use the same process as above to put SN/SM on Kodi there.

Leave out Davis, Clasie and JWP and play Romeu and Hojbjerg in the middle with Sims, Rodriguez and Tadic in front of them with Long at centre Forward. Play a high pressing tempo and get the ball up to the forwards quickly dispensing with the defence knocking the ball around for a dozen passes ending with a punt anywhere from Forster. The slow tempo ultra negative crap is sucking the life out of the team.

I was driving in and the team was announced on Solent. FFS Redmond starting, from that moment I knew we were up against it. Redmond is no forward, he flatters to deceive looks lively on the ball but one dimensional only comes inside and runs out of ideas and the attack breaks down. If he is playing as a forward in a 4-3-3 he has to make runs, get into the box rather than standing in the box. He stands and waits for somebody to give him the ball, he has no anticipation and lacks a football brain of any quality. Sims requires a dynamic tempo to be able to make his runs effective, the funereal tempo last night allowed the opponents to crowd in front, deny space behind and make it almost impossible to exploit any space leaving us with one forward and three midfielders who need to play differently, get the ball up to the forwards quickly and support or even run beyond. Holding the midfield and waiting for the full backs to get up the lines just plays into the opponents hands because invariably we have one in the box, totally outnumbered by defenders trying to get something on crap crosses. This manager and the way he plays represents everything that is wrong, 70% alleged possession and lose, 59% last night and knocked out is absolute crap. He either has to sort it out or the club have to fire him. We cannot sustain this nonsense and if we lose VVD and Fonte we will be struggling, conceding goals and not scoring. Harry Reed will give us more in midfield than the backward thinking Davis, JWP and Clasie. For Gods sake his substitutions were dire last night bringing on JWP when we needed goals. He should have shoved VVD up front and put Fonte on at the back. Leaving Redmond on was daft he should have been replaced on the left by Tadic and left Sims on.

The point that had already struck me. Peace in Gaza is unachievable until the people there grasp the nettle and give up violence towards Israel which will end the retaliation and allow the world to help them to a better and safer life. They need this together with electing a government that endorses that peace and recognises the reality of the existence of the Israeli state and tries to peacefully co exist.

Rod Wallace I believe was offered a new higher paid contract with a year left on his old one. The reason he let his contract run out was that the agent I believe advised a clause allowing him to leave if the club were relegated which the club refused to entertain.

I'd like us to try and sign Nathan Ake, he looks a very talented player, then keep Fonte until his contract runs out and use Ake as a box to box midfielder until we want him as a centre back.

If there is a £25m release clause it will only set the maximum fee that we can ask for him but that doesn't mean that he is automatically released. The club could refuse to release him and hold him to the term of the contract. It also doesn't mean that if there is an auction the club couldn't take a much higher fee by setting the bidders against each other. The Saints hold his registration and he can't join anybody until they agree to transfer the registration.

Higgins had some lads that were loyal to him which I found strange at the time. Apart from the Wallaces the very talented left winger Darren Eadie left Saints for Norwich where I thought Higgins went after leaving Saints. It was a long time ago and it's something that rings a bell.

Relieved that he has been tied down. It looked like he would be out on loan and probably released but fair play to Puel he tried him at left back and he looks a natural there. I personally rate him between Targett and Bertrand, second choice.

That's a fact.

We paid north of £12m with I believe a 15% sell on profit to Celtic. We sold Lovren for north of £20m and Puel is already talking of VVD being capable of being one of the top six central defenders in the world. Stones went to MC for about £50m and is nowhere near that bracket. I would be gob smacked if Saints knowing the market, how good he is would even dream of allowing him to go for £25m.

It seems to me in midfield and attack, apart from Long, Romeu, Reed, Austin and Hojbjerg there is a lack of aggression and tempo. Redmond, Boufal, JWP, Davis, Tadic and Clasie slow the tempo. It's all very well having two thirds possession but if it's mainly in our own half in front of eleven opponents it invariably ends up being passed back to the goalkeeper and half the time punted up field. Boufal shows signs of being good on the ball but that needs to be in the opponents final third. Sims looks very natural with a real grasp of running the channels. If we are to score more goals other than dead ball situations we have to pressure the ball in our half and pass it up to the forwards quickly and then get the midfield players up in support immediately. The midfielders plus especially Redmond, Tadic and Boufal don't attempt to rapidly get into the six yd box mostly watching Austin or Long rather than getting in amongst the defenders.We get our best results with less than 40% possession often losing with 70% possession or not scoring. We need to speed up our whole game when we have the ball. I'm not advocating lumping it onto the heads of big defenders, rather fast movement and delivery of the ball into the path of our runners early enough to avoid running offside and exploit the maximum space behind defenders.

Redmond is a lightweight that flatters to deceive because he is nippy and looks clever on the ball. There is little end product, he has no idea where to go and just wanders mostly ball watching and waiting for a pass to feet. He has no awareness or anticipation in attack, makes no decoy runs or runs into the box on the off chance of picking up something all a necessity in a striker. He definitely hasn't got a clever football brain. Puel picking him every week is doing him no favours. The way we play must be a real irritation to Austin, Long and Rodriguez, to see Redmond averaging a goal in 11 games playing up front. Every time I see him in the team I know we will struggle to create and score.

Redmond hangs about on the edge of things looking pretty on the ball but providing absolutely nothing up front. Puel seems to have a blind spot where he is concerned. Boufal looks clever but again nothing of real substance. Attitude looks poor at times. Austin virtually playing up front on his own feeding off scraps. It was just a matter of time until a Fonte pass to the keeper ended up in the net. Forster was pathetic in dealing with it but Fonte needs to put his foot through the ball instead of the incessant back passing. The attack was lightweight it's about time Austin played up front with Long and maybe Sims. If Boufal or Redmond are to play, then it has to be with two strikers they are no threat at present. Maybe back to 4-2-3-1 with Boufal, Austin,Sims with Long in front and Romeu and Hojbjerg holding. Until the Fonte / Forster aberration we were in no bother in defence then conceding again in three minutes was more due to the lift CP got with the shock goal. The third goal was probably predictable.

I see Marcus Barnes is back playing for the U23s after a long lay off also back amongst the goals. Looked a talent before he was injured.

You should drop Canada Saint a line he has lived in Edmonton for years. Played in same youth team as MIck Channon.

Thanks, another piece of the Jigsaw. I once had to hold over Colombia whilst an entry clearance to Peru was found. Sounds like the wrong aircraft for the flight unless it had long range tanks.

Barcelona, Real Madrid should be VVD's target. Saints should state that they won't sell to a PL club. That would jack the price up.