derry

Good goal. Was certainly not sublime and said himself that he is still finding his feet. He is a decent player but adapting and work in progress. Koeman said it all, poor pressing and ball possession.

I think what Koeman is unhappy about was the number of times we gave the ball back to Swansea, he was also very critical about the lack of tight pressing. Our closing down was poor especially when the back four dropped deep and the midfield also dropped off allowing Swansea to dominate the latter part of the game. Rodriguez, Mane, Bertrand, Soares, Romeu, Wanyama closed down tightly and quickly when they could but the tendency of the others to stand off allowed Swansea the room to get at us. Wanyama really was poor in terms of passing and gave the ball away a lot. Good result but a lot to do because Fonte is nowhere as dominant as last season and VVD whilst a decent player is still adapting to the Premier.

I wonder will he put Ramirez in the squad for tonight after all he is in the first team squad and training with them.

If Koeman plays the static Yoshida at right back it just adds to the neutering effect of two holding midfielders and usually another one playing behind the striker. IMO if he plays Yoshida he has to balance that with Mane wide right and Tadic left, with a proper forward behind Pelle, one of Rodriguez, Long or Juanmi who looks a good finisher. He could also play Soares in front of Yoshida. I'm not in favour of that as I'd really prefer Soares at right back. Surely with a back four including Soares and Bertrand with two defensive midfielders we can play four forwards. JWP and Davis just don't provide or score goals. JWP just looks like a holding midfielder full stop. With Clasie coming back it would be surprising to me if JWP and Davis didn't drop down the pecking order. I just wonder how he is going to accommodate Clasie without leaving out Romeu or playing a negative 4-3-3 with only three forwards.

As soon as I saw the team I thought we were frightened of them. Playing a static centre back at right back to give us greater strength at the back neutered the right side and still gave away goals. the midfield two were ok but my biggest criticism is playing the non scoring JWP as an attacker. The defence is MU's weakest part shored up by arguably the world's best keeper. Playing Mane, Rodriguez/Long or Juanmi and Tadic behind Pelle would have given Utd a problem. Pelle had the beating of their defence in the air especially when he pulled away onto Blind on their left side. Fonte looked like a rabbit in the headlights. He needs to release the ball quickly because as soon as he dwells on it he invariably turns backwards and passes back. There was far too much passing back yesterday. I don't subscribe to the JWP expert dead ball delivery myth. No goals and we never score from free kicks or corners. The biggest problem for me was the lack of closing down and the pathetic length we were getting on clearances, often struggling to hit the ball thirty yards. When we conceded the first goal Romeu at some point tried to belt the ball and instead of sending it as far as the goalkeeper only managed to reach the Utd midfield. As for the closing down, our players are not picking up, but standing off the opponents. Many times yesterday players just marked space when the only opponent that they needed to pick up was say twenty yards away and eventually had the ball passed to them but passed it on before they could be closed down. Instead of standing off they needed to move close in and deprive the opponents of that option. There was no anticipation just reacting too late from too far away. I feel pretty sure that a high tempo and hard pressing would have given Utd problems they didn't look equipped to solve. I just think Koeman has selected far too many negative teams this season. We were far better in the second half with four proper forwards and Soares against Norwich, albeit ten men, without either Davis or JWP in the front four. I don't enjoy watching these sterile punchless teams often resulting in poor results.

I don't know who the prat was asking the questions but it made the news conference into an event that should have been cancelled. A total waste if time. Not what Southampton fans want to hear. Shaw, Van Gaal, Schneiderlin, DePay, who cares. What is the state of our injuries is of more interest.

Lost to Leicester with over 60%.

I saw a little bit on TV this morning of Gary Neville doing a video analysis of the Newcastle passing last night, about 90% backwards and sideways. He made the point that it's no good passing like that unless the ball is passed forward into the danger area as scoring goals becomes difficult almost impossible, as we find with Davis and Ward Prowse plus a defensive midfielder.

There was a time that no player could be approached but times have changed. Although the FA have rules in place not allowing clubs to even say that they have bid or received a bid agents run riot. Possibly with the connivance of the potential bidder the agent/source seeds the media to circulate the story whilst at the same time putting the improved terms in the hands of the player's agent. That in itself unsettles the player having the crock of gold dangled under his nose by an agent who will benefit considerably from any move or even a renegotiated contract. Wanyama was obviously exposed to this so it is understandable in an industry where there is a lack of any ethics and money is the God that a young lad of limited intelligence is easily led. I personally see him tied to us as long as he is useful and contracted then he will be gone, either dispensed with, or for a big fee. With that in mind as long as he does his best for us while he is here that'll do me.

Yes but the **** then realised he had two years left on his contract.

I think what really hacks the player's clubs off is the manipulative way clubs like Spurs, Liverpool, MU, Chelsea etc blatantly try and unsettle the players to get them to force a transfer. It won't happen but it needs the FA to step in and if the disadvantaged club complains the transfer is not allowed.

I think the people involved in this including Levy may struggle to get anything but an answerphone until tomorrow. If I was Wanyama I'd be on my way to Kenya because that's the only place he will be allowed to go today by Saints.

He is not noted for his tackling but he did really well to win the ball and put in Mane with a 20 yd through ball that led to the first goal. He has been very slow tempo in nearly everything for quite a while but today he really stepped up the tempo and aggression and looked a much better player for it.

I thought that is the most penetrative we have been with the second half four forwards. Juanmi looked useful but playing behind Pelle looks made for Rodriguez.

Almost as if he was reading the criticism. A much improved display, good tempo, with some quick passes, hard work and god forbid some forward passes, A decent display from the lad.

Now there is the uncomfortable truth.

He is only good enough, barely to be a reserve. About time he realised that his performances need to do his talking not pathetic sound bites.

It seems more that the spirit has been sucked out of certain fans. Time for everybody to grow a pair. If Wanyama wants to go, put a top price, cash on the nail, on him and see if we can get rid of him. I'm sure we could bring in a decent defensive midfield player for a proportion of the fee. Wanyama's problem is Levy doesn't do money up front. I can see there being no deal and Wanyama left high and dry because Levy won't want to pay. Bring in the defensive midfielder anyway and if Wanyama stays leave him out. If Koeman picks a proper team, not the sort of negative stupidity we saw on Thursday, we are well able to win.

I can understand how you feel. I was at home and just looked at the team picked in disbelief, because having watched the previous leg I could see that two goalscorers up against five defenders, Three slow ball recyclers, two mediocre full backs and three centre backs to mark one forward was daft and bloody incompetent. I was spitting chips especially when it turned out as bad as it looked. I would have been incandescent if like you I had gone to the trouble of making the expensive and difficult journey to Herning only to be let down by the management and to a lesser extent by the players shackled by the stupid team selection. Winning against Norwich won't ever mask that stupidity but it will allow us to move on to a better place than the present.

I just think there is a lot of hot air on here about the team at the moment. A team cannot be selected randomly and be successful. One of the most stupid things a manager can do is pick a system and put the players in. That almost never works. We have the players but what we have to do is put in the players that blend together and give a balanced team. Playing three centre backs that patently feel awkward because from childhood they have invariably been part of a pair isn't the answer. Playing a centre back at full back for the same reasons is a square peg in a round hole. A priority has to be a high tempo. As far as I am concerned Soares should play right back, Fonte and either Yoshida or Caulker at centre back. Left back is a conundrum, Targett is underconfident so Martina may be a one game solution. Having said that it wouldn't be a disaster if Targett played there. The midfield picks itself Romeu and Wanyama. The front end is the difficult end. Pelle, Mane, Long, Rodriguez, Juanmi and Tadic. IMO Tadic on the left, Juanmi behind Pelle, Mane on the right. I have left out Davis and JWP because of their inability to score and preference for slowing things down. My view is that making possession a priority in itself doesn't work in average teams. The four I'd like to see up front would make runs and move the ball quickly and three of them will take on players. In my opinion that is a team that could cause Norwich a lot of problems. The two DMs are going to have to cover the space behind an attacking full back. Just my view, however unless Koeman picks another unbalanced team we will probably win.

He was training yesterday, so was Mane.

If we think he is the answer we should just get it done. No more Toby games and discussions.

Also in a long period of stage payments. WBA look like they were insulted and angry that the player was unsettled as it appears his agent had already done the business. Presumably Victor's agent is the same agent that demanded a £1m payment for himself when Saints walked away and Cardiff nibbled but didn't bite. The club need to tell him to **** off and tell Victor he is here until next May so get with the program.

Tell me please how many goals did Silva score last season, nearly as many as our top scorer I think. What we need is goals from midfield. Tadic doesn't, Long a few, Mane the most. Rodriguez is struggling to score. Gaston could possibly do that job as we don't have a Silva, Hazard or Sigurdsson or anyone else and don't appear to be looking for the answer outside. Davis and JWP can't that is a fact. We are talking about Saints and who can play there from the present squad with their present limitations, so it's Gaston or Juanmi for a few goals or a second striker or god forbid a non scoring Davis or JWP. We need to have at least four players that can score not two as we have proved with that we are struggling to score regularly.