doddisalegend

No he'll be injured again by Sunday...horrible timing

just need to get 68 million Chinese to buy one replica shirt each at £50 and we are laughing.

I suggest 1 point per impression though even with 68 million points I'd still wouldn't be surprised if we got relegated

I'd rather pack the midfield..

Premier League outfit Southampton have enjoyed a boost to the club’s following in Asia after a range of bespoke videos received more than 68 million impressions on Chinese social media platforms Weibo, WeChat and soccer app Dongqiudi. http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/southampton-weibo-wechat-journey-to-the-west-video Could mean we see a lot more of our Chinese brothers and sisters at SMS in the future..

Simples the one that says what you want to hear is a paragon of truth. Sadly both sides of the debate are good at twisting things to suit the agenda..

Is it only the UK where people are still fighting WW2. This obsession with Germans taking over Europe is so 1941. If you really want to worry about a foreign power gaining hegemony over Europe you want to look a lot further East....

I'm pretty sure all the players where banging on about better training with more intensity when Mope took over and then again when Hughes took over. It does seem to be a stock line that players wheel out every time they get a new manager.

I'd actually back Adkins league one side to beat our current lot TBH. I imagine Lambert and Connelly would tear our current defence a new one.

Do you know what I couldn't care less the club made a rod for their own back ever since they sided with some players against Puel. Since then we hear stories of players being upset about this and upset about every few weeks. ****'em they get paid a fortune to have a pretty cushie lifestyle compared to the majority of the fan base who are paying a lot of hard earned cash to watch them swan around a pitch thinking they are better than they are. Hopeful this time the club will back the manager and any player who doesn't like it can just **** right of.

We are awful at pressing, have been for the last couple of seasons, when we do it we never seem to do it as a unit it just ends up with one or two tearing around like headless chickens while the rest of the squad look on.

So it seems like we've tried every combo of our defensive players so far this season with no really improvement in our performances. They all seem equally as prone to horrible mistakes, lapses in concentration and generally ****ness as each other. So a simple question what is our best defence with the current personal available (assuming everyone's fit)? First I guess you have decide weather we play four or five at the back? personally I'd rather have the extra body in midfield so its four at the back for me. So at LB its Bertrand yeah he looks like he doesn't give a ****, and at times looks like he is not even trying but even then he looks far better than Targett. CB Yoshida yeah he has his moments but he gives a ****, is the closest thing we have to a club man, is a captain (of Japan at least) and as he proved under Puel generally gets better if he plays regularly. CB this one is trickier but I'm going to plump for Jack Stephens mostly because he seems a bit less **** than the others RB Cedric there is no getting away from the fact he has been absolute crap this season so far and I thought Valery did well against Man U but as yesterday showed Valery isn't really there yet so again despite being awful Cedric is still better than Valery. So come on then what is everyone's opinions on our best available defence right now.

I see we are in stating the bleeding obvious season then. I can't imagine anyone is going to be getting on the back of the manager anytime soon. The penny seems to have finally dropped with the fanbase that the squad is awful. The squad has been awful since Puel but it took a long time for some of our fans to realise ( and a few still won't except) no one is going to blame Ralph for the dross he has inherited. Having said that I do take a bit of an issue with the idea that we are going to have to wait weeks/months before things improve. If we want to avoid relegation we need things to turn fast. I really don't think as, suggest on the Cardiff post match thread, the club brought in Ralph in the hope he has got us playing good football by May and the club are happy to take relegation and rebuild with Ralph in the championship. The Club clearly hired Ralph to save us from relegation to do that he needs to start getting wins and quickly. Whatever happens though he cant really be held accountable with the mess he has inherited but if manages to turn us into a midtable side he deserves all the praise he gets.

I must have been watching a different presser I don't remember him saying the plan was to take six months and relegation to get the team the way he wants it. He did say his first job was to get us away from trouble but he couldn't guarantee it.

There is no way the club hired Ralph to get relegated and rebuild in a lower league they hired him to keep us up not be contenders in the championship. If we get relegated the team will certainly look different next season...

I've never rated him. I've always said he lacked pace...being an academy lad though always gives players a bit more lee way with the fan base.

yep no arguments from me we should have managed to recruit at least a competent CB or two with the VVD money. Compared to our CBs, today, Sol Bamba looked ****ing world class. Still having said that I still think not replacing Fonte with an experienced leader type CB has cost us dear the last couple of seasons. There is no one at the back to organise the defence at all these days no wonder they look like the keystone cops most of the time.

well I didn't expect much improvement, after one training session, but this was actually a worse performance than Man U a week ago. While I didn't expect much from the manager I did naively think the players might want to try impress him with the best performance they could manage. Now either they weren't worried about impressing the new manager or that was them playing out of their skins to impress him I'm not sure which one of those options worries me the most..

VVD was a top class CB actually replacing him with someone of equal ability was a pretty tough act. I actually think not replacing Fonte properly was a bigger problem, his legs where going but he was a proper leader, we haven't had an leader and organiser in the defence since he went and it shows every game.

What have Reading ever done to you

we don't have two months though. We are rapidly falling behind the pack two more months of losing and drawing before we pick up will see us already relegated.

Agree anyone who thinks we are just going to sell and buy our way to safety in Jan is deluded. We are stuck with this squad our only hope is Ralph is a miracle worker and turns it around I'm not hopeful if I'm honest.

Exactly who will want to buy our ****e players ...

Given our likely league position in January I think we are going to struggle to find any decent players in Jan. Last season we missed out on Walcott and Promes most likely because they didn't want to tie themselves to a sinking rock could well be the same this January.