derry

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?

Made for us. Long, Clasie, Wanyama,(Romeu), Tadic, Pelle, Mane. Cedric at RM in front of Yoshida could be an alternative possibility. Koeman won't buy 4-4-2.

This is all very well but years ago amateur players at the highest levels because they could if they wanted often, played Saturday, Sunday, Wednesday for different clubs and the very best often played mid-week representative games as well as training Tuesday and Thursday and working full time. The Sunday teams were usually teams that comprised players from a couple of Saturday clubs playing in comparable leagues of similar strength. The days when pitches in the winter were very heavy, much more tiring than the pitches Saints have to play on. I can understand the concerns but I don't buy fatigued after one game especially with the effort some of our international superstars have been putting in lately seriously affecting them 48 hours later. Knocks and injury recovery in that time is a different matter altogether.

Of those 12 five were against Villa. so 7 shots against the rest.

Gallagher seems to be out of favour at MK Dons where he is hardly pulling up trees. Not the best example. Stephens not playing at Middlesborough, Turnbull in div 1, McCarthy in div 2 Seager (For U21 6 goals in 6(1) appearances, Reed and Hesketh should surely be near to the first team bench

Koeman has to find an answer and can't afford this safety first negative thinking or we will be in a relegation scrap before we know it. We need to be more positive, raise the tempo and put teams under pressure if we don't we aren't going to win very often.

I don't like passing it sideways and backwards, getting closed down and back to the keeper to launch it. I want to see passing but I want to see the passing going forward with midfield players getting forward to help the attackers and incisive passing not the easy option.

JWP or Davis wouldn't even get on the bench for me. Davis, fourth forward from midfield 8 goals in four seasons 137 appearances, JWP in four years 1 penalty. We don't need that and it is time to get in players that can score goals and win the ball. Small wonder we can't score with either, sometimes both of those two in midfield. I can't see anybody in the Premier wanting either of them.

Interesting insight into Leicester, Kasper Schmeicel on Sky. We went back to trying what we did in the Championship and it's working. We are NOT a possession team. The front players play off the shoulder of the defenders and the ball is put into the space behind them, where the forwards want it. We win it and get it up to them quickly. We on the other hand pass it around slowly, allow the opponents to close down the space in their half and outnumber our few players that get up front. Or we hit Pelle who is struggling to win the ball with precious little support. We have loads of shots ie Villa, 23 only five on target and a goal from a corner that everybody misses except Romeu at the far post. In my view we need more of Leicester and less of Poundland Tika Taka as coined by Verlaine 79 which nails it for me. Or Souness slaughtering Swansea, passing for the sake of passing. 651 passes 2 shots on target 0-0.

If he does he'll be out of a job sooner than later. We don't need bottlers in midfield. He doesn't give 100% and has been allowed to indulge himself for too long carried by the players that do give 100%.

As far as I am concerned he is a big part of our midfield problem. I was delighted when he was taken off and it certainly didn't get worse. Wanyama's atrocious positional play and passing didn't help neither did JWP's powderpuff presence. It's time Koeman got ruthless, small wonder nobody ever tries to buy Davis and JWP.

In 1975 I voted to remain in a common market. In the referendum I will vote to come out of what the cheating politicians have made it into without a mandate from the people.

If you want to see all that is wrong with Davis watch the BBC South clip of the first goal. It starts after Davis unloads the ball to an opponent and Clasie's tackle that rebounds to Alli. Davis can be clearly seen trotting back now level with Fonte's tackle where Kane receives the ball, Davis still jogging back, Kane goes towards goal Davis still jogging slightly quicker, Soares out of position trying hard get back to get a tackle in but on the wrong side, Davis in the ideal position to go in hard on Kane but slows up, pulls out and lets him by with only VVD to beat and score. Davis pulls that stunt all the time. Pressing he only tracks and rarely gets close enough in my mind making damn sure he is always a bit short then when confronted by a physical tackle he does what he did here slows down and waves a foot, oh dear too late. As for the pointing as he strolls around.

He won't cost anything like that with only five months left on his contract after the window. Besides a lot of the teams linked are relegation candidates at the moment. He won't be going to a struggling team like last year.

It's a no brainer. Austin is out of contract in July and reportedly on circa £38k per week. His goals would shoot us up the league and the extra place money would go a long way to covering the cost. Because we sure as hell aren't scoring now and Rodriguez has a long way back when medically fit. The talk of him not moving in January and running his contract out makes sense but an offer that covers that and gives QPR something won't be dismissed out of hand, especially if he wants to go to Euro 2016, he really has to be scoring in the Premier League.

I suspect he's not sucking up to the manager.

Play Mane and Long together up the middle until January, with another forward, Juanmi, Seager? on the right. Consider a midfield of Romeu (holding) Clasie and Tadic on the left. Rein in the full backs so that only one gets forward at a time, basically defenders defend. This could switch into a 4-4-2 or a 4-3-3 as wanted. Get Austin in in January, JayRod fed in from the bench after a good series of run outs in the U21s to get some goals and regular games.