Tommy Mulgrew

I've supported Saints since the 50s and the sacking is not remotely "saintly" but if you consider the toings and goings since Ted Bates and Laurie Mac perhaps it is in character. Cdertainly it is an expression of extreme ambition on NC's behalf. A day ago I thought relegation at last unlikely; now I know NC sees it as top four next year or bust and relegation completely unthinkable. I just hope we don't lose the tactical pragmatism that has seen us get some good results recently.

The furture's bright; the future's red and white!

I thought we had a really good game: right tactics bossing Arse in the middle of the park, a solid back four showing good spatial anticipation and both wide midfielders tracking back as well as forward in support of RL and GR; centre midfield closed theirs down like terriers. Boruc - 5 solid after a shaky start and a real character; mad as a hatter; not a lot to do 'cos we defended so well Cork - 8 as good an RB display defensively as you will see but no attacking threat Fonte - 8 one of his best games in the PL; covering well for others Yoshi - 8 ditto; well positioned and solid throughout; for me just shaded MotM Shaw - 7 not his best game but dealt well with AOC Morgan - 8 commanded the centre of the field Davis - 7 scurried around spoiling Arse's midfield; with MS, nullified Willshire and co Puncheon - 5 well below his best and sometimes seemed unsure where to run to or pass to; poor shooting - best one went straight to the keeper Gaston - 7 inventive and sometimes too clever for his teammates; good two "goals" GDP - 8 strong on the ball and closed Sagna down almost every time when the latter attacked; cracking 2nd half shot Lambert - 6 strong but too immobile; not at his best and never looked like scoring. Subs did OK but we lost our attacking threat and didn't look like scoring after GR, RL and GDP departed. GDP had to attack the Walcott free kick otherwise Koscielny would have got to it. Saints looked like the team challenging for Europe, not Arsenal. We deserved to win 2-1 and didn't deserve to have Gaston's little hand-off penalised (I originally thought it was for a wrongful off-side). Tactically spot-on. (I don't know what Ottery is talking about -sunny Devon indeed - OSM is only a few miles from here and it's been cloudy and raining or drizzling almost incessantly for as long as I can remember.) Five point cushion over Reading and QPR, one over Wigan and not far behind Villa and Newcastle. The future's bright; the future's red and white!

some wonderful names in the Fluminense squad!

Comment on MOTD about Rickie and how good he was against Stoke: "Huth is big and good but at times today he looked like he'd been in a car crash - that's how good Lambert was" or words to that effect from an experienced former PL defender.

BBC Sport gives plenty of suggestions for posssible January movers. And includes Lescott, who I've suggested before, and this: " DEDE (24, centre-back) Vasco da Gama Strapping Brazil centre-back, dominant in the air, quick across the ground, sound in the tackle and capable of playing out of defence. Club's financial crisis could force a sale." Sounds promising. Anyone know anything more about Dede?

Surely, unless Everton get him, Lescott fits the bill for an experienced Premiership CB, even ahead of Dawson. Citeh seem prepared to let him go and might even pay some of his wages if loaned out until the end of the season. No real idea how much it'd cost to buy him though. I hope we have enquired about him. Kjaer (spelling?) if we get someone in from Europe.

I’ve not seen mention on here of Barcelona’s willingness to give Ibrahim Afellay a run in the PL. He could be interesting for us as an international-standard winger.

Ron Vlaar is one of the few Dutch players who did well at Euro 2012. He is rated at more than £8m but a clause in his contract makes him available for £3.2m. His present wages are about £15,000 a week. Worth a look.

Pele

Complete lack of passion and commitment from the players and complete lack of tactical nous from the manager. I hope no other games are televised cos tonight was even worse than against the Skates. Everyone concerned needs to get their act together and ensure that we can cope with pressure on us.

Agree with CBF. MON and Mark Hughes are far more likely to interest Sunderland.

Defo a star, he opens up Championship defences with one instant pass like a hot knife through butter. He's so perceptive that I do believe he can do the same in the PL. He instantly knows the danger zone in or around the opposition's penalty area and, as the season progresses, more and more teammates are running into it to receive his (yet-to-be-released) pass, which instantly arrives - witness the one to Chaplow against the Posh. He does good defensively, too. I really hope he stays fit. I think he should start on the bench away in favour of SDR more often. Does he know anyone else plying their football trade in Italy and who would fit into the Saints team ethic?

He's certainly a star for us but does he have enough pace to succeed at a high level in the Premier League?

Lambert and Barnard can hopefully keep on banging in a few for us (and Lallana, Guly, AOC and Chaplow) but they stood out against ManUnited by being slow in body and mind. Forte apparently has plenty of pace and so solves part of that problem. He could prove to be a useful impact sub this year and grow into a potent squad member next year. Adkins knows him, his weakness and his potential; that's good enough for me.

We played very well but, strangely, ManU didn't pressurise us and our general quality was allowed to shine through. MOM as undoubtedly Spiderman: he would not have been out of place in a full MU side. Also excellent were Chaplow (but he has no pace ), Butterfield and Harding. Fonte was very good, as was Seaborne. Guly demonstrated he has a fine footballing brain and shone in patches but lapses of concentration made him sloppy at times. AOC and Bart were good. Barnard and Lambert tried hard but weren't really sharp enough against a PL reserve defence. I admired the plan to play AOC out of position but it did mean our right-field crosses all came from a fullback. And we had the good sense not to do our utmost to get a replay after their second goal. It would certainly have been good to play in front of the ManU home crowd but of course promotion is our main objective. Let's hope we can perform similarly against League 1 opposition for the rest of the season. Well played Saints. COYR

I thought AOC's father was a skate; if so, and if he pleced his son with us as suggested earlier today on this thread, loyalty to Saints is hardly likely to amount to as much as is needed to keep AOC here for very long.

Sorry folks, I've been away for a while so forgive me if this has been done to death on here and point me to where I can find the info: Saga has not played more than a few minutes as a sub for a long time and now we have Connelly; why are we not using our Polish international? Thanks. Tommy Mulgrew

"even Sarmiento, Arias and Challa would have gotten into this side!" Sarmiento plays for a Greek team and, as playmaker, has guided his team to wins in the UEFA Cup. He didn't get a proper chance here.

Boys against men again tonight: not streetwise enough and not enough Tiger. We too often eschewed the forward pass in favour of moving sideways or back. KD had a good game, as did Cork, Surman and Lallana. Robertson was dire. MCG tried hard but to little end. James did well until his mistake. We did not create enough good chances and from those we did have we never looked like scoring. Why didn't Euell play? We need someone to organise the team and take control in the manner of Wootton, who talks a good talk on the pitch but doesn't cut the mustard technically. This side is two senior players, a striker, several more matches of experience for the youngsters and a way of changing the emphasis of our play while on the pitch short of being a very good team. The question is can we avoid relegation? The going will get rougher and tougher in the next few months and our lightweight side will surely struggle to stay clear of the bottom three. I'd like to know what JP's plan to get up the table is: we must have more than just faith, hope and charity.

Perry should have played. With Svensson and Thomas ruled out by injury (we never seem to have only one CB out at the same time!), we needed to have experience in the centre of defence. Without it we were cruelly exposed; nobody organised the defence in the first minute and it didn't get much better as the match progressed. KD was our man of the match and we nevertheless let in 4 goals; that statistic tells a story. A couple of older and wiser heads yesterday (and hopefully in future) and we would have been a good side.

Perry should have played. With Svensson and Thomas ruled out by injury (we never seem to have only one CB out at the same time!), we needed to have experience in the centre of defence. Without it we were cruelly exposed; nobody organised the defence in the first minute and it didn't get much better as the match progressed. KD was our man of the match and we nevertheless let in 4 goals; that statistic tells a story. A couple of older and wiser heads yesterday (and hopefully in future) and we would have been a good side.

It seemed to me that the most obvious thing lacking was a creative midfielder who posed a threat by incisive passing. We had Surman stagnating at left back. Why doesn't JP play him in midfield. Either that or get Romain in PDQ.