doddisalegend

Did koeman buy him? Some players clearly have the koeman touch not sure Soares is one of them.

Didn't Martina replace Targett? You could have moved Yoshida to LB and brought Cedric on but Yoshida is a worse LB than Martina...

No chance propaganda football requires you to have lots of the ball and pass it about to no effect. We had neither a lot the ball or the ability to pass it. It wasn't propaganda football it was just **** football.

Why are we playing Yoshida at RB? Saw some stats the other day that said Cedric was the best performing RB currently in the Pl so why the hell our we playing a CB there?

Disappointing but not overly surprising the PLs reputation doesn't come from the world class football on display but the general competiveness. The only team who has regularly hung on to the coat tails of the big six is Everton and even they have had poor seasons. The issue with the last two seasons is it has given saints fans expectations that we were going to be a constant top seven team which is highly unlikely given the nature of the PL and the resources the club has.

Watford's attack looked pretty good yesterday. Also arguably the five goals leaked in the first two games had a lot to do with us adjusting to the loss of Morgan, Toby and Bertrand. We have started to look a lot more solid now I have no doubt we'd beat Newcastle now and we would give Everton a much better game to.

You were expecting different? We're a good PL team for which (like most teams in the PL) anything in around 10th is a good season having two seasons finishing 7/8th didn't suddenly make Saints a PL super power to rival the big boys.

that's a pretty amazing stat

One of the reasons why I thought those people declaring Saints as the 7th super power in English football at the end of last season were a bit deluded. It was like that didn't expect any of the other PL teams to get any better, this season, and saints wouldn't get any worse. On the plus side if things stay as they are maybe it will be West Ham's and Leicester's turn to have their squads stripped bare next summer.

Good article here http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/sep/09/chelsea-loan-players-change-rules-wild-west-football There are fiscal concerns at play, too. The potential financial upside is not insignificant. The clubs that take their players on loan usually (if not always) pay the wages of their signings, removing them from the books for that year’s accounts. Given the concentration on “home-grown” players in football’s rulebooks, it helps to have as many on hand as possible. There are also many in football who believe Chelsea have effectively developed a new business stream with their loan operation. Romelu Lukaku, the powerful Belgian forward who was hailed as the new Didier Drogba when he signed for Chelsea in 2011 for a fee believed to total £13m, rising to £19m with add-ons, was sold for £28m in the summer following loan spells at West Bromwich Albion and Everton.

For that to work surely transfer fees need to be axed. Unlike a footballer I can change jobs at a months notice but on the flip side my employer didn't pay someone 15 million pounds to secure my services. If players can just walk out of contracts transfer fees are pointless which sounds great unless you are a small club who rely on player sales to balance the books. It's the sort of changes that might be beneficial in the long run but would probably do a lot of damage in the short term before that happened.

I'd love to able to invade a pitch to celebrate getting to a cup final...

No footballers are horribly underpaid for the amount of money they generate and besides they only have short careers so they need to make as much money as possible because it would be inhumane to expect them to work after they turn 35......................................or so I'm told

Blind will have his hands full trying to stop Mane running past him.

FIFpro are a players union right? So what ever they suggest will be for the benefit of players over all else

That's quite a wish list. I think Koeman has got the first bit down. He is probably the highest profile manager we have ever had which certainly seems to help our recruitment. The second bit sounds like Eddie Howe but he certainly doesn't have the gravitas or arguably the experience at a top level. Interested to know who you think can cover all those bases and would consider coming to Saints.

Think we are going to get stuffed now. I was feeling pretty confident until I saw both Merson and Lawrenson have tipped us to beat Man Utd........kiss of death

Think that pretty much applies to most managers. TBF most managers are lucky to last three seasons at a club in modern football these days.

Has that actually happed to Koeman? Most of the players that left during his first summer he never even met and this summer the club sold two whole players which by any stretch is difficult to call selling off a team.

When did accuracy rather than stereotypes become an essential ingredient of football chants/songs?

Not as Cringe worthy as telling other people what they can and can't do at the football.................

Just to add insult to injury (at least in Man Utds eyes) Manchester United fuming as Luke Shaw leg breaker Hector Moreno is named man-of-the-match after Champions League clash http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3237516/Manchester-United-fuming-Luke-Shaw-leg-breaker-Hector-Moreno-named-man-match.html Roy Keane's take on the tackle Roy Keane: Moreno tackle on Manchester United's Luke Shaw was brilliant http://www.dailypost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/roy-keane-moreno-tackle-manchester-10074514

oopps Oxo scores an own goal....

Amazing that given our form so far this season some of them think we are going to win. Can see another 0-0 goalfest with their limited striker options.

He's not really a horror show though is he? JWP is a competent but unspectacular PL footballer I've seen far worse players in the red and white.