derry

I saw that and if true Koeman went off half cocked. Surely it's not beyond the wit of man to firstly ascertain the facts and to act accordingly. From our union work I've experienced this was not a common occurrence with some managers.

Hell, this is your opinion and in my view pretty indisputable. There is a hell of a lot more along the same lines you could have said about others, fill your boots.

It isn't working except 4-4-2 against Arsenal which he couldn't wait to revert to losing.

If Mane knew if he was late while everybody else was off he was going to get a beasting, he wouldn't have been late nor would anyone else.

£5m:?

Who we weren't even prepared to pay a lot less for than VVD, even though it wasn't the £8m agreed in the loan. We obviously didn't get how important he was.

If a player knew he was going to be given an individual lung busting training session after such an event he would be much more inclined to toe the line and avoid the pain.

Personally I see little point in fining or even leaving out an offender. They need a beasting. Run them into the ground on their next day off which is cancelled. If they don't like it do it again and again until the message is received and understood.

We have played 4-2-3-1 almost exclusively this season but it isn't really working, in my view for a number of reasons. Firstly Schneiderlin was disciplined and sat which gave Wanyama a reference point to play off him in front of Fonte and the very disciplined Alderweireld which gave us a very solid base. This made the 4-2-3-1 work. This year Wanyama has no reference and is all over the place, additionally he has no regular partner although Clasie may now be. At centre back we have the casual VVD who could be a superb centre back but for two things, he ball watches and his awareness honed in the best team in Scotland is not up to the mark for EPL but could be. His casualness and thinking he can just stroll forward when he likes, often with full backs out of position can expose us. When caught out he doesn't bust a gut to get back. Against Arsenal Koeman was presented with a problem, how to stop Arsenal exposing our full backs so he went to 4-4-2 knowing full well that Arsenal would dominate possession and we would have to play on the break with two quick strikers, that worked so well he couldn't wait to drop it for the next two defeats. We struggle to score because we persist in playing only two forwards who can score given enough chances. Apart from Pelle (injured ), Mane and Long are the only forwards. Because we play Tadic, Davis, and Ward-Prowse as forwards we have slow possession but no penetration. These players have qualities but not the ones we need. We need badly a finisher and two working forwards that will score some goals but more importantly break fast and cause opposing defences to be outnumbered rather than our forwards under pressure. The 4-4-2 worked because we were closing down the opposition and quickly getting in behind the defenders at the same time allowing the slow midfielders to be effective something they are not in 4-2-3-1. With our wingers, sorry full backs in the current system out of position we are letting in goals that start from wide positions. 4-4-2 the full backs are more defensive and against the better Arsenal we didn't get caught out but against Palace, WHU and Norwich we were opened up from wide.

4-4-2 = 4-0 win over leaders. Twice 4-2-3-1 both defeats. Not only that but we had loads of meaningless possession. Wanyama misses the cup. Mane could have been sanctioned differently, just handicapped ourselves. Get a bloody finisher FFS, what's to wait for. It's goals that win matches not possession. JWP delivery was appalling. Can't shoot, can't tackle, sells himself give Reed a go instead. Any team that starts with Tadic and Davis as forwards is in deep mire. Not a gram of courage in the pair of them.

Koeman panicked a bit and out of desperation played 4-4-2 against Arsenal but only got 35% possession and won 4-0 could have been 7. WHU, went back to what he is comfortable with, more possession but slower less incisive penetrating attacks and lost like previous games. I'd like to see more of the Arsenal tactics and less of the pass it around. I don't see having lots of possession and losing great tactics. Some of our best wins have been with less possession.

We need to total thirty goals from the two strikers (Long, Pelle, Mane ), twenty goals from the four midfielders and a few from defenders. At the moment the two strikers are on target. IMO to step up a notch we need an Austin for another ten up front and a midfielder to get ten more.

If he can't score in the Championship he will find it much tougher in the Premier. We can't afford another non goal scorer up front. Out on loan until he can get goals.

Jenkinson had the ball on the right and moved forward passing to Valencia wide on the right, Both Juanmi and Bertrand were wide of Valencia, I didn't see who they were picking up but VVD was right in front of Valencia and could have easily blocked him off, instead he inexplicably ran back towards our penalty area leaving Valencia time to cross before either Bertrand or Juanmi were able to intervene. It struck me that Juanmi and Bertrand thought that VVD would tackle/close down Valencia and were caught out by his decision to back off and leave him free, they then tried to get to him but he had time to cross.

Valencia had the ball out on the right but had no tracker, no idea where Bertrand had got to, VVD was coming out to close him down but just as he was getting in range to close him down he inexplicably decided to leave him and try and get back into the middle. That left VVD in no mans land allowing Valencia the comfort of all the time in the world to cross without pressure. A really poor decision, once he had come out he had to close down Valencia. He has spent too much time playing in poor leagues and his ball watching and decision making is costing us goals. Palace and Spurs as an example.

An ass is a donkey or even a poster on here and an elbow can be any number of things. I hope that helps. Davis had for him one of his better games as he did against Arsenal however an earlier pass rather than a half hit lob into the keepers hands might have been more effective as would hitting the target.

That was a decent display except for two bad goals given away. The least said about the first the better. The second was an awful goal to give away. What the hell was VVD thinking of, he came out to pick up I think Valencia as he was controlling the ball, he should have kept going and closed him down but changed his mind and went back towards the goal and left Valencia to cross at his leisure. His decision making is being found out in the Premier League, against Palace he was ball watching along with Cedric and let Cabaye round the back, God knows what he was doing against Kane for the first goal, now today indecision let the cross in. That was three points dropped after a pretty good display. Ramirez was poor out of position on the right and Juanmi has a lot to do.

I like Long, he is difficult to pick up and unsettles the defenders. He is a lot more physical than given credit for. His background playing GAA Hurling makes him unafraid of the physical clash. He played in two successive All Ireland Minor (U18 ) Finals before moving to Cork City to play football. GAA helps to give a nasty hard streak because of the total physical confrontation of the games. He is not a subtle finisher but still scores goals given the chances and service. Great the way he put Koscielny on his backside for his first goal.

He had a good solid game and brings the ability to fill in at centre back to the far post. Cedric lost goal scorers in the last two games Cabaye and Alli by not looking behind. Give him some more games.

Davis was last man on the left when the ball came across from the right he was just offside when the ball was played slightly behind him so he headed it back and it was Bertrand's cross that Mertesecker headed out to Martina.

The way we played last night reflected the results teams like Leicester, Watford and Chrystal Palace are getting by forsaking slow possession for win the ball and get it forward or in behind the back four quickly to fast aggressive runners. Last week we had more possession but lost, this week 35% possession, won 4-0 and threatened a few more. The 4-4-2 was flexible and the Arsenal playmakers were never able to open us up. Martina, never mind the goal, never gave Walcott any room, deserves a run. JWP and Davis followed the script and in their own way contributed. Luckily the linesman was asleep when Davis headed the ball back or we wouldn't have got the first goal. Clasie and Wanyama were good in the middle, The two centre backs along with the full backs subdued the Arsenal front three while Mane and Long terrorised the two centre backs. The high tempo aggression and directness were the missing ingredients. great result. More of the same from whatever team we play. No more smartass selections or tactics please, just keep it simple and ruthless.

Yes they are. I've never rated either of them except as squad fillers. If we are going to be serious about being a top six side we have to have goal scoring forwards and midfielders. Only Mane and Pelle are anything like goal scoring players plus our 12 shots on target and 3 goals in the last five home games is awful.

Davis and JWP are so good that no Premier League club has ever made a bid for either. Davis mostly as a forward 8 goals in 137 games, JWP 1 penalty from a shed load of free kicks and nothing from play in four seasons in the PL. Both of them do nothing for us except to neuter most of our forward movements by passing backwards.

At one time there were quite a few Old Simmarians on here. I was there 1949-60

First and foremost A Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year to everybody plus a shed load of points. Presumably that was the Sister College of St Mary's College Bitterne Park Southampton, run by The Brothers of Christian Instruction who had their HQ in St Malo?