Rebel

If we get relegated this season most of our better players will leave. Lallana, Schneiderlin, Clyne, Cork, Ramirez and Mayuka would all be on their way I suspect. We could also lose Shaw and Ward-Prowse. And I'm not sure Sharp would come back as he'll probably be playing Premier League football with Notts Forest. We are going to have to rebuild the team - and the last time we had to do that we ended up in League One.

At the moment you'd struggle to see this team finish in the top half of the Championship. Right now I'm not quite sure how we got promoted. We are desperately short of a first choice goal keeper and an entire defence not to mention a midfield.

Simply not good enough!

Losing games of football - our defence making mistakes

I think it's fairly obvious we put a team out to lose tonight so that we can concentrate on Premier League survival. The big problem with that is we need a win - from wherever we can get it - and a team that is used to playing together and to a system. Momentum and that winning feeling got us promoted last season. That losing habit will get us relegated this season. Reading have got the right idea - playing their first team against Arsenal and going 4-0 up. Think how a win tonight could turn their season around. Mind you the way we are playing our first team would struggle against Leeds at Elland Road.

Mayuka has to start the next game. He completely changed the game when he came on with his confidence and his pace. His confidence spread to the others and the who,e team stepped up a gear or two. I thought we might have got the 2-2 draw before Adkins made the last 2 subs - but they took our momentum down a notch or two. Ben Reeves looked the part and should probably start the next game over Fox - but we did miss Fox's free kick delivery. Problem is he can't defend and that and the long diagonal ball is all he's got to his game. Guly just proved he's not up to this level of football - he lacks the dynamism you need at this level. Even in the per-game warm up he looked half-*rsed! Davis I'm not sure about - he can look tidy on the ball but passes backwards and sideways too much, has no pace and can't defend or tackle - and doesnt run with the ball or drive the game forward. I think Cork will give us an awful lot more in the middle of the pitch.

The Stadium was actually rocking against Fulham when we went 1-0 up and before the crazy substitutions that lost the game for us. Yes the crowd at St Mary's are brittle - it seems the hangover from 2 relegations is still with us.

Lowe - at least he did something's wright - Redknapp did absolutely everything wrong for Saints. It's not a question at all really is it!

Our defence got away with it an awful lot last season - mainly because we dominated possession of the ball in nearly every game we played. They still managed to make mistakes every game though - but at that level we didn't get punished every time. The big difference this season is we're not dominating possession - the defence our under a awful lot more pressure and they are making a lot more mistakes - and we are getting punished nearly every time they make a mistake The games we didn't dominate possession last season - like against Blackpool - we got punished - and every time we came up against an attack with pace and quality we - like against Blackpool and Reading - we got punished. Even last summer most people thought our League 1 defence wasn't up to the Championship - and not much has changed since then. And all we've added since then is a Championship right back and an Eredivise centre back from the team with that leagues worst defensive record last season. Even if we go down this season - which is now looking more likely than not - the defence will require major surgery. Our only chance is that January doesn't come too late - and that we manage to scrape out a few results before then to keep us in the fight. Whoever is in charge of transfers needs to be working on the deals for January now - so that come January 1st we have a new centre back and a new left back to slot into the team.

I'd take Hoddle over Redknapp any day.

We don't have the players to play 4-3-3 - it's as simple as that. Lambert is just not fast enough or mobile enough to lead the line playing that way. We also lack wide forwards/wingers with real pace to play that way. Not to mention the fact that out full backs just aren't up to playing that way either - both of them need protection from a midfielder in front of them. All this suggests there is some truth in the rumour we are being made to play that way from the very top down. Adkins did sound all but defeated in his post match interview. Something has to change - and it has to be the way we play - I can't see that simply changing the manager will make any difference. Whoever was ultimately responsible for signing players in the summer should also take a large chunk of the blame for not brining in the players needed to play 4-3-3 or more importantly strengthening he defence.

Our defence has no idea what they are doing.

It's defenders we need - and a defensive midfielder - not a new manager.

In another statistics table it says Morgan is joint second in the tackles made table - with 24 just one behind Mark Noble at West Ham - it's our full backs, centre backs and wide midfielders who are the problem.

That's because he's from Yorkshire

Kappa

Ramirez will probably turn out to be a great player for Saints - if we stay up and he stays more than one season. He certainly looked like it for parts of the game against Villa. I'm not assuming we spent all the money we had as there were rumours of substantial bids in for other players like Boilesen at Ajax. But it looks like we've borrowed money to spend now on transfers against our TV revenue/payments from later in the season and the security of our parachute payments ifvwe go down which suggests otherwise. So far we've spent £30 million on transfer fees - and our probably going to be paying out the best part of another £20 million in wages. Our revenue for this season - with the the premiership TV money is probably going to be around £60 million. So unless the Liebherrs are going to put some more money into the club - which they probably arent as we have borrowed money instead - it suggests we have pretty much spent all our money for this season. I guess January will tell us for sure if - as if we've got it we'll surely spend it. At the moment we don't seem to have too many problems scoring goals - but we seem to be completely unable to stop teams scoring against us. So Raimrez at £12 million will probably help us score some more goals - but we'll keep conceding more than we score unless something changes. Maybe 2 or 3 defenders - bought with the same money - who made the difference when it came to keeping a clean sheet or even just reduced the amount of goals we concede might have been a better investment. Granted buying any player is a risk - Ramirez is going to be out for a while it seems with a leg injury. But I can think of a couple of defenders we could have bought in - Douglas Franco Texeira was supposedly up for grabs at £4.5 million, Niklas Moisander went for £3 or £4 million to Ajax - and the two of them were rated as two of the best defenders in the Eredevise lady season. You could add Mateo Mussachio at newly relegated Villareal - highly rated despite his lack of height - and we'd have probably got him for a couple of million. Dann, Johnson and Davies at £6 million or whatever are all overrated as they're English. To be honest we haven't really seen enough of Gaston to know fir sure yet - but at 21 and with the flashes of potential we've seen he probably was great value compared to Johnson and Jarvis.

We bought Rodriguez as a long term replacement for Lambert - and also as someone with a bit of pace and height to lead the line. Besides Lambert is a much better player when he has someone like Barnard or Sharp in front of him - and I think Rodriguez is probably an upgrade on both of those two. He just needs some game time a d a first premier league goal. But his signing only makes sense if Barnard and Sharp are moved on permanently in January or next summer. Was Ramirez a good signing @ £12 million? Possibly not. I'd rather have spent the £12 million on 3 £4 million defenders. At the time I thought it was a vanity signing and although he looks to be a great player I still think he might be just that - and I'm not sure at all that he will make the difference enough to keep us up. Whereas 3 quality defenders might well have done.

Rodriguez looked good playing in front of Lambert - he just needs one goal and then they will start to go in. He had the pace and height we need t lead th line and he running to Crete space for Lambert behind him. Plus it's gives us two targets two aim for with the long ball out from he back. Gazzinaga also added a lot with his distribution from he back - his kicking is so so much better than Kelvin's. Puncheon and Lambert were two of our better players today - taking them both off seemed to lose the team it's shape and cohesion - and although they maybe weren't creating as much with the ball in the 10 minutes or so before that they were still keeping possession. If they'd stayed on we probably would have held on for the one nil victory or maybe got the second goal.

4-2-3-1 for me with Rodriguez leading the line and Lambert playing as the second striker in the hole with Lallana and Ramirez on the wings. This allows Lambert to drop deep or go wide to collect the ball and make the play. He can also drop back into midfield when needed to give us the extra man. Rickie always play better when he's got someone in front of him creating space behind them for him to attack. And Rodriguez has the pace we need to lead the line. Davis and Morgan can shield the back line and Lallana and Ramirez can provide the creativity and pace down the wings to pin back the Everton fullbacks ....................Gazzinaga............................. Richardson.........Fonte...........Yoshida.........Clyne ..............Davis................Morgan.................. ....Lallana..........Lambert...........Ramirez......... ..................Rodriguez.............................

Did Lawrenson and Redknapp not even notice Ramirez then? he basically ran the game in the second half. They are both terrible pundits. Comparing Lambert to Holt is just lazy - Lambert has a lot more to his game than Holt. The big difference between the two sides was we had 4 players who could all change the game - Puncheon, Lallana, Lambert and Ramirez. Villa didn't! And they seem to have forgotten the reason we have been out of the Premier League was Harry Redknapp got us relegated. I can't even stand that man talking about our club.

That would be Liverpool that are below us in the League - a team and a city in terminal decline!

Saints outplayed Villa by quite some way in the second half. Villa had no one with the class of Lallana or Ramirez on the ball - and that was a massive difference between the two sides. Villa have been in decline for several years now and it looks like they will be in the relegation battle this season.

Davis Richardson. Fonte. Yoshida. Clyne Cork. Chaplow. Morgan Lallana. Ramirez Rodriguez Using Cork and Morgan as the 2 defensive midfielders and Chaplow as the attacking midfielder. We need someone with a bit more pace and running upfront - that's what I'd start Rodriguez

I was worried when we failed to sign a decent left back and two good centre backs. I was worried when we lost to Wigan - and in the way we lost. I thought by now we'd have at least 1 point thanks to Wigan. I was worried when we failed to hold on for a 2-1 victory against United - and even more worried when we couldn't hold out for a draw. Now I'm terrified having let in 6 goals against an Arsensal side that is far from being a great Arsenal team. It's not just that we've lost the all of our first four games it's the way in which we've lost them!