redkeith

Frustrating game, which should have been all over at half-time. Tadic was excellent. I don't normally like him staying on the right, but he completely owned Oviedo. Our crossing, as ever, could have been better but we still hit the woodwork twice, worked the keeper time and again and got Long in twice one on one with the keeper. Hope the new money coming into Everton results in a stadium move as I f@@king hate Goodison Park.

Reflex Moodys of Salisbury have years of expertise in continental moves. They moved us to France, plus most of the staff are Saints Fans. http://reflexmoodys.com/

A lot of people turned their nose up at Bertrand, because of his time at Villa. I hate to think what the reaction would have been if we had signed Allbrighton in the summer, now look at him. If we do sign him, and it's a big if because we may just of had the mad notion to send a scout to watch Villa before we play them in a couple of weeks, then perhaps it might be worth seeing how he plays for us before going into total meltdown.

Moving out of the EU has nothing to do with it. When I flew from Paris to Norway, I didn't have my passport checked at Bergen, as they are part of the free movement agreement. When I come back to the UK from France I always have my passport checked, and sometimes see people taken away for further enquiries. People can cross from Spain to France with no passport control, but not into the UK.

Good performance, shocking sending off! Nice to see Pelle back in form again.

From the four teams in the relegation scrap, I would take :- Sunderland : M'Villa as a replacement for Vic Newcastle - Winjaldum, or however you spell it, for the number10 role. Janmatt is great going forward, but there is a big hole at right back when they are trying to defend. Norwich - Redmond, although he is very inconsistent. Villa- uhm.... err ..... Ayew or Gil might be better with better players around them (Bertrand looked awful for Villa).

Mane is really lacking confidence at the moment. From the first minute, he was taking the easy option, or trying to dummy the ball on to someone else, rather than try something himself. This also results in players waiting to see if their pass has arrived at the target player before making a run themselves, which slows the play down, and stops 1-2's. He did seem to get a bit better as the game went on. The problem with a lack of confidence is that it is not improved by not playing. We need to just stick with him until he comes out the other side. There is still a good player in there.

I thought the same, the only bit of Cahill's body that touches the ball in the incident is his arm! It does feel a bit like Kevin Friend over again. Chelsea would have struggled to close a 10 point gap over 11 games, but now it is down to 4 they will probably catch us by the end of the month.

Mane scares the hell out of the opposition but as everyone else says, the end product just isn't there at the moment. Shane Long, on the other hand scares the hell out of both teams. That accidental back-heel to put Arsenal through on goal when he was running at the centre-halves was incredible.

Sometimes a winning youth team can be made up of players that have been together for years, because they aren't good enough to make the next step up. I seem to remember Saints winning the old Combination league with the likes of Steve Baker, Steve Richardson and Mark Whitlock in the team. Not very good, just consistent at that level.

I go to Bordeaux sometimes, if they have a decent afternoon, or early evening kick-off. The normal kick-off over here is 8pm on a Saturday which means I wouldn't get home till gone midnight. Saw them play Caen last year and I thought they were playing too many Hollywood passes all game, that kept getting intercepted. Turns out that it was Kante cutting everything out, just like he does at Leicester.

I think that Neil Maddison scored on his debut and then in the next 2 games as well. Can't be sure though, as Duncan's book stops in 1987.

I think you will find the Ref is a Mr W Rooney from Greater Manchester, who will be informing the bloke with the whistle about all of the decisions.

I've got an all day meting in Bordeaux on the 19th, so I'm going to have to support Liverpool to win in Europe for a change. It's like the 80's all over again. ( For younger readers, Saints got into Europe at least twice as a result of Liverpool winning the European Cup) .

The most believable thing that David Gold has ever published is the Readers Wives letters column in his porn mags.

And their fans are unhappy about Lallana, Lambert and Lovren. Caulker is proof of the FA England team selection algorithm " 2 seasons playing well for a mid-table team

All the coaching manuals say that 3 at the back is the way to go when playing against 2 up front. However, that would mean playing one of Yoshida or Caulker or maybe a debut for Stephens. Alternately, you could go traditional and match the 4 4 2. This could put players in their more suited position, in the middle for Mane and on the bench for Long. Davis or JWP to support Cedric and Tadic on the left. Both of the next 2 games will be difficult, as they are both strong defensive teams that like to counter attack, a big problem for a team that needs 10 chances to score one goal and are prone to give the ball away in dangerous areas.

Interesting look at how Saint's departees are fairing. http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/jan/07/saido-mane-southampton-manchester-united-chelsea-transfer-window

I'm starting to feel that he just matured early, a bit like Martin Cranie. He is still relatively young, but has not made the impact that Steve Williams, Graham Baker, Matt Oakley or even Neil Maddison had at the same age. Maybe he suffers from the commentators using the same FA inspired stuff about his great dead ball deliveries etc, that make him seem even more disappointing when nothing comes off.

Vic's yellow was in the first half, so that would have been a tad early for a substitution. Maybe he could have been subbed after his argument with Clatenburg, but that wasn't when he received the first yellow card. As to the Mane situation, although it did have a serious impact on the team, rules are rules and if they are seen not to apply to one member of the team, the others aren't going to be too happy about it.

We were in no danger until Vic got himself sent off. ****wit ! had nil-nil written all over it until then. Clasie was very good, but we had no goal threat. Long was OK first half, but spent the 2nd offside. Mane needs a big fine for his attitude and get one of the U21's to chauffer him around. JWP was just awful today. Davis and Tadic need to learn to hit it first time. We need a goal threat from somewhere. May as well give Gaston or Hesketh a go in the cup game as a last resort before we GET THE CHEQUE BOOK OUT !

If it was a boxing match, the ref would have stopped it at half time. We should have been out of sight. The turning point was Davis's decision to try to lob the keeper, instead of put Long through on goal, acceptable if you are 3 nil up, or your surname is Messi, but not at 1 nil. Both goals were avoidable, with Antonio on the deck, surely the keeper should have just called for it and picked it up. As for the subs, what other attacking options were there ? I would agree with some of the posts about Clasie , if he wasn't fit enough for 30 minutes the Reed should have been on the bench instead.

Against a packed defence, which we seem to get inmost home games, I would like to see VVD make more of his forward runs, with one of the DM's dropping back alongside Fonte to keep our shape. Other than Mane, and Tadic he is the only player how likes to take players on. Also, for the rest of the season we need to either make up with Ramirez, or ship him out for another creative player with an eye for a pass. Mane has to come far to deep sometimes to get the ball and is then face with 2 banks of players in between him and the goal.

We were by far the best team for the first 25 minutes, then a **** Davis pass sets up some keystone cops defending and we are punished. We aren't that bad really, just not getting any breaks.

It is very reactive at the moment, but it could be worse. If Branfoot was in charge, not Koeman they would need a bigger server farm than Facebook.