austsaint

Good point about the formation - I had written J-Rod off, but he was pretty good today and should have had two against his name. Redmond did well out wide when he came on allowing Boufal to have that freedom in the middle of the park, and Tadic will get better with game time - it's probably our best attacking set-up.

A moment of sheer class papers over quite a few cracks but the 2nd half performance was so much better. Boufal coming into the 10 role made so much positive difference. Clasie had a really good 2nd half and Martina was our main attacking outlet in the last 30 minutes strange as it seems. J-Rod should have scored a brace; he wasn't bad overall. I thought Fonte had a good game and McQueen had his moments. Such an important win.

Need a 2nd, don't we.

What a lift....pure quality.

We look better with Redmond wide and Boufal at 10.

This really is the problem - there is zero mid-field run in this line up. Davis has to come on.

Yes, you can carry these guys with Mane buzzing around; Pelle providing a focal point and Vic mopping up everything. Now, the really average players are exposed by the lack of quality around them.

I don't think we have the players.......Martina, Clasie, JWP..

Boufal showing some class - no one on the same wavelength. Our mid-field is completely static.

I'm sorry to continue the JWP bashing but how do we end up with him in the box to try and head a goal?

Your winding me up - JWP is awful; one of the problems without a Davis or a Hojbjerg is we have no mid-field run.

Awful game but a few green shoots from Rodriguez.

Very happy with Tadic and Boufal starting. Very worried with Clasie and JWP together.

You may right that someone like Reed has earmarked Redmond and probably JWP as young English players who will fit the Southampton way. Look at the young English players at Spurs....Winks, Ali, Dier...they all look like they belong at Prem level; you cannot say that about NR and JWP. What I take from that is Mitchell is a better judge of a Footballer than Reed and our current recruiting team.

I just feel the need to correct you here Redkeith. Having watched the game twice, I can tell you Davis got back 4-5 times to tackle, dispossess and pass to team mate - he also made many incisive runs into attacking areas where sadly there wasn't much in the way of support to capitalise. There were a few poor performances from our lads last night but Davis was not one of them.

F*** off Les Reed, and take your useless England U/21 Internationals, Redmond and James Ward-Prowse with you.

You're such a ****e stirrer Glasgow. The clown is you, not Puel.

I'm with you Trousers. Elsewhere in that parallel universe Yoshida got that 93rd minute header on target and one all praised Puel for holding his nerve.

He had two great heading opportunities late, but neither of them were sitters. VVD missed a similar header early in the 2nd half.

That's the bit I don't like about him - Pelle used to bollock out his team-mates a bit, but Redmond's taken it to another level. He also seemed to get caught up in a slanging match with the BS Manager. I called him mediocre a few weeks back and copped a spray for it, but he really is....along with Long and Rodriguez.

Agree with Stan. Pep wouldn't be able to get more from the many average players we have in the squad - namely Long, Rodriguez, Redmond, Ward-Prowse, Martina and probably Austin and Clasie. The loss of Mane in particular has exposed the lack of attacking force.

Tough day. Will someone kindly remind me what it is about Ward-Prowse that is so "good"?

Probably the absence of Austin and Ward-Prowse increased our zippiness too.

No denying this quote. I remember thinking Lovren was fairly special, and then Alderweireld who seemed a step up again, but Virgil Van Diik is almost your complete CB. My hope (forlorn) is we get one more season after this........he has to be a 50 million pound transfer, at least - notwithstanding Stones homegrown status, VVD is so much the better player - from what I've seen Joel Matip is the next best CB in the Prem.

Yoshida is a genuine Prem CB and he was among the best players on the park tonight; not for the first time this season.