austsaint

Bunkum. Blind Freddy can see the lad's a good player. He may not make the grade as a regular Prem player but Boufal has much more attacking nous and creative skills than most of our incumbents.....Redmond, Long, Ward-Prowse, Austin.

Mirrors how I feel about Saints Football in the last season or two. I'll go further and name the one or two I actively dislike.....Tadic and Redmond; not team players, moan and whinge on the pitch and don't put in when things get difficult. Those that underwhelm and leave you cold....Forster, Ward-Prowse, Long, Austin, and as he ages Davis begins to underwhelm too. With Van Diik on his way out it leaves Lemina as the player to enjoy and get you out of your seat now and again. And then the next group of solid, talented players - some more consistent than others.....Romeu, Bertrand, Cedric, Hoedt, Boufal and Gabbiadini.

Did they have a major injury crisis at the back though? Zouma and Wimmer looked not to shabby to be fair. Stoke aren't a bad side; a few roughnuts with a sprinkling of quality like Choupo-Moting and Shaqiri.

Come on Duck..Boufal has a few flaws in his game, but the skill, touch and killer pass he has in his locker is what we are crying out for. He has to be given a run in the side.

There is a lot of what you write I agree with, but a couple of points I'd argue with. Stephen Davis is no coward; his game is showing signs of decline as you would probably expect in a 32 yo. Davis is still a valuable player but rightly will be benched or used as a sub as the season (s) go on. Redmond isn't a coward, but there's no doubt about his limitations and non-team approach to go with his strengths of speed and ability to beat a defender. As much as I like Shane Long, he is never going to deliver as a starting striker, particularly when played up front on his own - at best he has a role as an impact sub, or perhaps played wide. Agree with you about Lemina/Romeu and the Defence - that is sorted but the attack side of things is alarmingly weak.

Sums it up well for me. Pep, Jose and Conte would have trouble getting results and goals with the attacking personnel Saints find themselves with. While the recruitment of Lemina and Hoedt have been first class, the current group of attacking players are an indictment on Reed and the Board. MP might not be the answer but it's folly to think that Long, Redmond, Tadic, Jwp, Davis (at 32) and Austin could be transformed by a higher profile Manager.

Nope, Virgil was very good; Redmond was awful and Lemina, while nothing like as good as last week still played well.

Tom; keep your own counsel, is a piece of advice I've always found useful.

Hard to choose between the Joule's Pale Ale and the Slumbering Monk! Really hope MP starts Gabbiadini.

Unless Forster beats him from a goal kick on a very windy day.

Their midfield must be incredibly good. Is it though? Or have they blundered. Lemina is a top shelf player and judged by his last two performances, he's a 50k player. Just hope we can keep him for a couple of seasons. He is the type of player you keep your eyes on; just like you had to when Mane played for SFC - he looked the best player on the park against Man U.

Can't argue with that - watching Redmond, Long (Davis) and Tadic yesterday confirmed how down on quality we are in attack - the other six were excellent. Redmond's second half was a big improvement.

I thought Long could have got to Romeu's shot; he seemed to lose concentration and didn't follow up.

Deserved a point - much better second half. How are we going to hang on to Lemina; brilliant box to box midfielder.

By a long, long way. There has to be a change to our front three - Gabbiadini on.

Great watching those highlights again. A couple of things stand out - the disallowing of Gabbiadini's first goal was shambolic. Gabbiadini has to start on Saturday, even if it's wide right/left. Davis is much more effective playing a more advanced role.

Head and shoulders the best player on the pitch - strong, skilful and cultured.

He really is; the real bright spot so far - he and Romeu are the right combination. Long hasn't done badly but this game is crying out for Gabbiadini - there has been a bit of service today and Gabbi is the player to take advantage. Hoedt, Davis, Bertrand, Cedric, Romeu all good, but Lemina is a class above.

How ridiculous - class striker gets no service from the likes of Tadic, Redmond etc...and class striker pays the price. I know the Manager has a fairly mediocre squad but Gabbiadini is one of his trump cards - I can't see this ending well.

Thick skinned.

We may disagree about Ward-Prowse, but I like your thinking with this line up. If PEH was training well and confident I'd consider him over Stephens. Against Huddersfield Lemina showed up when played in a more attacking box-to-box role.

Doomsday scenario is we save De Boer's job by conceding a headed Benteke goal or the like. Lemina has to come in; probably VVD as well; Forster should be dropped, he really should.

How are you getting on over in Perth Ginge? No, I like the lad from what you cam make of interviews and the like. It's all about performance on the pitch for me. Did you see the game yesterday? If you did, you would have seen he was completely out of the game, and literally, only had one or two touches. Davis wasn't great either, but he was much more involved. JWP really was a passenger yesterday, and needed replacing - you don't agree?

One of the commentators yesterday when he realised JWP had been subbed off at half time said that he felt sorry for the lad because he always seemed to be the player who made way despite having a wonderful dead ball delivery and being a terrific player. He seemed to completely overlook that the lad had been completely out of the game and apart from a couple of corners and one free kick touched the ball once or twice. That's the befuddlement for me with JWP - he can have the quietest of games yet the same old cliches of world class delivery come trotting out. I do feel he was thrown to the wolves a bit yesterday being played as a central attacking mid - if he had to start why not wide right with Boufal at 10, at least the he could have attempted a cross or two which seems to be one of his few tricks.

I assume that comment is a send up....he touched the ball once in the first half before being substituted.