austsaint

It was me who called Martina, Classie, J-Rod, JWP, Long and Redmond mediocre. And I stand by the comment - they are mediocre at Prem level and are the principal reason our squad depth falls away so quickly after the top 11 or 12. I wish it was different; but let's revisit this subject at season's end and see who's judgement has stood.

Get off Puel's back and take a close look at the players we have in the squad beyond the best 11 - who cannot play every game. It's not Puel's doing that we have players like Martina, J-Rod, Long, Clasie, Ward-Prowse and even Redmond who I suspect Uncle Les had signed up before Puel arrived. Those six are frankly mediocre footballers and better players like VVD, Romeu, Boufal and Hojbjerg can't carry so much deadwood in important games. If you're arguing that Puel should have played our best eleven to secure knockout stage at the expense of Sunday's match v Everton then maybe you've got a case, but the more significant issue of blunt attacking force, lightweight mid-field and poor RB options have little to do with Puel.

More like 35 million. Hojbjerg is a good player who will make the grade even if his form has tapered recently.

Long was good last season because he had a player like Mane to play off and with - and to an extent Pelle as well. I don't think it's the changes so much as the lack of quality with so many on the pitch tonight ie Martina, J-Rod, JWP, Clasie, Long, Redmond (as a striker).

All of the players you mention, except Hojbjerg, are simply not good enough; they really aren't. Long has been lost since the departure of Mane and Pelle; Rodriguez was never and will never get back to his best. Clasie has had his second season and ample opportunity but falls short and then there's Ward-Prowse, who neither holds or attacks from mid-field but continues to be "talked up".

These guys lack talent not motivation.

It's not Puel's fault we have attackers like Long and Rodriguez and midfielders like Clasie and Ward-Prowse and a RB like Martina.

It's someone like Sturridge's quality we desperately need.

Boufal on for Ward-Prowse, who is neither an attacking mid-fielder nor a defensive one; you can't afford the luxury of a dead ball specialist, sideways passing trundler.

He can't help himself - Fry - he's your nailed on contrarian who can string a clever sentence together...sort of.

Fair enough Whelk; I missed the pi sstake you intended - no doubt the Pochettino love-in at Spurs is in decline, and as others have noted, his pattern of prioritising the Prem over Cups, Europa and now CL is a risky strategy. There's something about him though that makes me think he will do better than Spurs before his time's up.

Yes, probably right. Poch's high pressing style does seem to catch up with player fitness as the season goes on, and the player rotation/resting issue is highly debatable isn't it; just like with SFC at the moment. The other thing with Spurs seems to be the depth of their squad and maybe an over-reliance on Kane. I'm as glad as the next person that they're out of the CL, but the comment about Pochettino being a dud coach/manager as post 5471 was claiming has to be called out.

Might be confirmed in your mind but most, including me, see him as a progressive Manager on an upward career trajectory. Injuries and player fatigue seemed to cost them late last season.

I think Hojbjerg can assume the role that Davis has been playing well for 3 or so seasons - shuttling forward, picking out a pass and putting himself into the goal scoring frame occasionally as well as covering defensively and hassling opposition midfields. Claude may revert to JWP but he should not - Hojbjerg has much more to his game already, and will improve with games and Prem experience.

I agree - he is a tremendous box-to-box midfield prospect. With Davis starting to wane; JWP treading water at best and Harry Reed still trying to establish himself, Hojbjerg is the partner for Romeu for the immediate future.

Klopp's saying if he'd signed Mane while he was at Dortmund, Pool would have had to shell out more than the 30k plus they've paid SFC - hence, the Scousers have picked up an exceptional player at a cheaper price. I'm saying SFC sold him too cheaply to Pool. You are disagreeing - that's not unusual.

Suggesting that he was being sold cheap, as many did, was received with ridicule by many on this forum. From what I've seen of Pool this season Mane is the ignition for most of their attacking play, just as he was for us. If we can keep him quiet Saints are a chance.

It could be - the Trump threats to put up the tariff shutters against Chinese exports might be the death knell of this takeover.

On the Beeb website it has a picture of Sadio in a Saint's shirt as nominee for African player of the year. Might even things up a bit.

That really is good news. I'm hoping Mane has a quiet day - he has lifted Pool to another level.

I reckon some of the "big boys" have Dembele's card marked already.

Isn't there an older Men's Shed or Workshop open in Glasgow where you could keep yourself occupied for a while GS.

Yes, but looking at the goals scored statistic in isolation is often misleading. How many of Austin's goals are penalties? With Mane, it wasn't just the goals he scored but the speed with which he attacked and turned round defences - and his incisive passing and assists. Boufal looks like a top player to me, but he's a different player to Mane - he's more a hybrid of Tadic and Lallana.

Lallana's headed goal tonight was a cracker; I still don't like him, but that was some goal, and he is playing well for Club and Country at the minute.

He wasn't always honest and upfront (while at SFC) though, was he. I do remember him saying something similar about Mane, 12 months ago, along the lines of enjoy the skills of Mane while he is still here.