derry

Keeping clean sheets and scoring goals win matches not passing the bloody ball around going nowhere. We got our best results last season with the least possession and some of our worst results with the most possession. There's a lesson there for somebody.

I understand where you are coming from but every year we are having to rebuild, that is a hard enough thing to do in itself without then presenting the team with a new system that nobody plays in the Premier and the players struggle with. I would submit that a manager admitting surprise at the physicality of Watford is a manager not ready for the Premier. We don't need a manager that is ill prepared for the challenges but arrogant enough to think that his system and radical change is the answer. We needed to hit the ground running not struggling to work out how to play together. I'm wondering if his mentor who doesn't play a diamond has put his thumb print on this. The same mentor that turned what was potentially the quickest wide player for years into a support player to come inside and be overlapped by a full back. Walcott was then moved inside and compared with Thierry Henry, how did that work out? I've heard something similarly stupid lately about Redmond.

We finished 6th with a decent team playing a system that suited it. That put us in amongst the best Premier teams however whilst most of them strengthened their team we lost two key players and a decent goal scorer. We then apart from replacing a reserve goalkeeper, brought in three, Hojbjerg-brilliant, Redmond - potential, Pied - if it's cheap it probably is hardly treading water. The teams around us in the main retained their strength and added three or four better players. If we had retained our players we would still have been looking for the club to strengthen positions with the players that have come in. In my view we have slipped back strength wise. Even worse I subscribe to the system suiting the players not shoehorning players into the new managers favourite system. He patently thinks meaningless possession statistics will translate into an unbeatable side by not allowing the opponents the ball. The diamond with attacking full backs has a major weakness, the space in the corners behind the advanced full backs. All three goals conceded have been conceded from there, two by crosses from our left corner and one a dubious penalty in the right corner. Austin needs to be up front and centre doing what he is good at. Long is mobile mayhem, supporting Austin. Tadic, Redmond or Rodriguez wide. Hojbjerg, Romeu and Clasie with full backs whose primary job is defense. Cedric is a nice footballer on the ball, defends desperately but is awful when the ball is crossed from the right. Targett tries hard and is coming on but Bertrand is a class act. I don't buy into Pied as the answer on the strength of a couple of cameos late in games we were mostly attacking. Martina was a cheap option that probably did better than expected but now looks redundant. That doesn't translate in any way shape or form into a diamond.

The first goal was made easy for Rooney to cross by Davis as usual not bothering to get in close and shut the attacker down. On Saturday instead of getting in behind Targett stood on the edge of the box spectating and left him isolated and again a cross led to the goal. We looked a lot better tonight after he went off. We tried really hard to get something back without success, nevertheless we put Utd on the back foot.

I really couldn't give a ****e about reactions, as far as I'm concerned it's what I thought.

With due respect he might be brilliant in training but it's in matches he needs to perform and he doesn't do that. My measure of him is that nobody has tried to take him off us.

Against Athletico Bilbao VVD and Hojbjerg were stand outs. Not Davis and certainly not JWP yet Puel started them as a pair and got precisely what most of the crowd could have told him for free. they are crap together and are more a liability than anything else. After 55mins Hojbjerg comes on and makes Puel look a clown by running the game. I personally think the manager could be out of his depth. I'm not saying he is but the signs aren't good. Redmond is a nippy little player that scored a classic wingers goal coming off the right, in the centre he just didn't have the movement or strength to make the runs that a striker needs to make. He doesn't look like a striker but a winger in the centre. I get the feeling Puel has hung his hat on this diamond formation despite the players struggling to play it and trying to turn Redmond into Thierry Henry. A good manager plays the players in their best positions and uses a system designed to get the best out of them. That didn't happen today. Not only has he imposed a rigid system requiring the players to conform but he has made selection mistakes that today deprived us of a win. He turned a team that finished sixth after a great run of results into a first half shambles.

I originally had Sportsnation which changed to Sportsmania. Sportsnation was then re-launched and both streams ran in parallel. At the end of the last years subscription only one was available. I renewed Sportsnation which is identical to Sportsmania in all respects as to content. Literally loads of stations and sports covered for £50 per year. Using Kodi (Tutorial on SM/SD) gives a high quality product.

Hoijberg was absolutely outstanding as one of the two midfielders in the first half and effective as the defensive midfielder in the second. Some terrific runs into the box which we have needed. Romeu holding, Hoijberg on the right and one from Clasie, Davis and JWP. Davis had a decent first half paired with Hoijberg but was anonymous in the second as the 10. Redmond looks useful and quick, Long was as usual, Austin looked decent but JRod needs games. Van Dyjk was outstanding. Pied looked ok but no better than Martina who didn't figure. Cedric gave us good width but floated crosses mostly caught by the keeper. Targett had a good game.

Puel is saying that the team won't be ready for the new season. He wants the fans to be patient while the players bed into the new system that they obviously are struggling with. Finish sixth, qualify for Europe, bring in a new manager that immediately introduces a new system that the players have to fit into not a system that fits the players. that sounds daft to me. Use the tried and tested system that all the players have been suited to and as appropriate introduce the diamond as an alternative until the players are comfortable and if it is then more successful use it. He won't get patience, the fans are looking for continuation. If we struggle with results in our first two home games he will be in trouble.

We looked pretty toothless to date. It's no good keeping possession and having the whole opponents team in front of the ball. If Puel thinks we are going to have more possession against the top teams he is living in cloud cuckoo land. Against the top teams it's work hard, defend hard, hit on the break and get something from set pieces. Time for a reality check.

Claude Puel is now asking for patience as we may not be ready for the start of the season as we are not yet fully into the new system. If we aren't ready it is self inflicted by introducing a new system into a successful team that would be ready playing it's usual system. I'm a believer in the old adage " If it isn't broke, don't fix it". I can't see him getting much patience if it doesn't work.

I am not convinced by our attempt to establish a diamond midfield. I've watched the last four matches and whilst the teams are mixed and only Van Dyjk was playing of what should be our first choice back four. I don't see Redmond as a clinical finisher Or Tadic as an effective 10. I prefer Tadic and Redmond wide and Long and Austin playing off each other. Those four would be useful in last years formation but they won't all play in the diamond. Long is our best front man but Austin is far and away our best finisher. I fear this is a coach with a pre determined system rather than playing a system that the players suit. The players are being made to fit the system which often ends in failure. I just don't want us to have a bad start with a loss of confidence and be well down the league with a team management struggling to see where the next point is coming from. Looking at having to make a change to try and survive. I want us to blast off and average a couple of points a game but I'm not at all sure we can adapt.

Until the day Melia put on a 9 and nobody knew who to mark, while the forwards ran riot against Wolves 9-3

In the Saints team promoted in 1960 Davies 2 Page 5 Traynor 3 Huxford 6 was the defensive half back. in the middle Connors 4 Mulgrew/Clifton 10 with Paine 7 and Sydenham 11 wide and Reeves 9 and O'Brien 8 as central goal scorers.

Doesn't look like it. nothing on YouTube.

That would make sense as the Sunday match seats were reserved for ST holders in all areas and the same ticket is valid for Wednesday.

Smalling to Wasps. Ever so impressed with his tackling.

You can add Austin to that list. Good answer.

He scored both his goals coming in from the right. He wasn't playing behind Austin.

Austin, Rodriguez and Redmond played up front in a 4-3-3.

4-3-3 against Zwolle then switched to this diamond. When I see a manager shoe horning players into formations that neuters most of them against mediocre opposition I question his ability more than the players. Last year we were very effective, we finished the season with a great run but have lost Wanyama and Mane replaced by Redmond and Hojberg. I would have thought unless unfit Rodriguez would have played as much as possible. I question a manager that comes into the Premier for the first time and changes what works in a team that finishes sixth and tries to impose a system rather than seeing how the established way of playing familiar to the players worked. I think he is treading on dangerous ground this isn't the French league. I don't get the diamond being used with mixed teams. These last two games albeit with pickup teams have been poor, the ball meandering around the field and familiar players who we know are better players looking totally lost. If we play this system with one holding midfielder and the full backs pushing up we will get murdered by teams sticking the balls in behind the full backs with runners exposing the centre backs. Bournemouth showed how away last season.

The weakness is the space behind the full backs. Unless we learn to cover that from midfield the better teams will murder us.

As happened in Scotland and with the LDs

I'm Conservative not UKIP and if a Conservative government used pro EU parties to push through legislation it would lose them the votes they need in an election. The referendum was a majority vote to leave the EU and that's a fact. Banging on about the economy lost the referendum, because the decisive issues are immigration, sovereignty, and being out of the EU for most of the leave voters. Quite how outraged left voters not voting Conservative is going to put them out of office is beyond me. It seems all right for you to talk for the tens of millions when 17.5 million voted Leave.