austsaint

Sorry, Danish. And I quite like Hojbjerg, just making the point that we don't always get our replacements for big money sales right,

And don't forget the Sengalese attacker who went to Liverpool for big money only to be replaced by the new Thierry Henry and a Moroccan superstar. And the Kenyan international midfielder who couldn't pass that we replaced with a Norwegian international equal of Barcelona's Xavi and our own home grown future international England captain JWP.

He really isn't, Andy. Tidy player but fringe Prem, at best.

Eduardo Howeski from Bournmouth?

Good write up LD. I think a section of the crowd were booing the decision to sub JWP, not JWP himself. He had quite a good game, but the run and penetration of Boufal was a good change and he proved that with a decent cameo.

Boufal changed things when he came on....quite a few on here have a pre-conceived idea about him being a dud. He's a good player who will get better. The second half was so much better. Tadic played well, Yoshida was good, Cedric before his injury and JWP played well.

Look Andy, JWP had a tidy first half; made a few neat passes, put in a good cross and covered a lot of the pitch, but he wasn't really influencing the game in attack or defence in the second half when we were 1-0 down. Boufal for JWP was the right sub. By all means talk up Ward-Prowse but don't inflate his influence in the second half last night.

I'm with you Super. A unique, world class attacker is Mane.

Machiavelli?

A post which should be sent on to to Les Reed - or whoever will be making decisions about the squad next season.

Yep, and should have been given a free when Mignolet handled just outside of the box. There was a lot of spirit in the side all day - but particularly after the penalty save.

I'll guarantee you it was given against Stephens.

Once again I'll challenge your assertion. Davis played well today - the glaring weakness in midfield was Ward-Prowse! Great fighting display by Saints, especially after the penalty save. They were there for the taking, but we didn't have much in attack to take them with. Stephens and Yoshida were both excellent today - so was Forster, Cedric and Romeu. In the end it was a great point.

I thought he had a good half of Football. How did you rate JWP at DM and Tadic staging for free kicks? Davis, Romeu and the two CBs very good. Would like to see us take the game on a bit more - Redmond for Tadic and Hojbjerg for Ward-Prowse.

Yes, I agree that both Hoj and Boufal are not finishing the season well after really good early season performances. Boufal has been blighted by injury, interruption and trying to settle into the demands of the Prem. Hoj seems to have dropped confidence after being dropped and just hasn't played enough Football since to regain his rhythm. I hope they stay though - they have to be given their chance - the talent is there.

Your maybes' are crazy.

Agree with you, but where does this leave JWP in your line up? Don't you agree that the playing of JWP wide right has upset the balance of midfield; because effectively he has taken the place of either Hoj or Clasie playing alongside Romeu - a position JWP isn't suited to.

Just not true. Ward-Prowse has played the last 3 -4 games in a wide right wing position and had very little influence. Trying to fit him into that position has upset our mid-field balance. One of either Hoj or Clasie should have been employed to partner Romeu freeing up Davis for less holding responsibility. Our midfield has been overrun in the past month.

Apart from the lack of quality on display, the unhappy appearance of Bertrand and lack of spirit across most of the team was the most worrying part of yesterdays game.

Apart from the last 20 minutes, that was the most abysmal Saints performance of the season. So little energy and intensity outside of Romeu, Davis and Stephens. Really worrying to see the bickering going on with Bertrand and Redmond - you get the feeling RB is on his way out.

Koeman did - but he had Mane, Wanyama and a fit VVD to pull some strings for him.

I'm surprised there haven't been more comments about the vulnerability of playing both Davis and JWP. Much has been made of Yoshida and Stephens being shaky at CB tonight, and at times they were - but the lightweight nature of our mid-field with Romeu asked to handle most of the work stands out as a weakness. Davis was busy but did lose the ball a lot, and while JWP's set pieces were good, he really didn't offer much else, did he - defensively or in attack. I thought Cedric was outstanding tonight.

It was JWP out-jumped by Alonso which led to Cahill's goal.

Boufal has played well.

We are suspect defensively tonight with Tadic, Boufal, Ward-Prowse and Davis all on the pitch.