WALK DMC

Well, since the start of 2018, Saints goals have only been scored by people who did not register a single goal in the first part of the season (Aug-Dec). Long, JWP, Stephens and Sanchez (og). Based on that I predict our goal scorers will be Cedric, Hoedt and Hojberg ...

I'm pleased that Long gets some credit. I get fed up hearing how awful Long is and how could he possibly be chosen over Gabby. Yes, he doesn't score enough, but he adds pace and a whole hearted attitude which is lacking elsewhere in our team. And as the OP says, he provides a speedy outlet and threat to relieve our team. The reason Obafemi was brought on last week against Spurs was they had realised that they could squeeze our team by pushing up as they had no fear of a ball over the top, so our MP put on the only true pacey player available to him. We missed Long and this is why he is so very important to the team. Sometimes his other contributions, such as the assists against Watford away only seemed to receive a cursory acknowledgement. Both goals demonstrated some real quality. I personally feel that he is more effective away from home with more space to run into, but he still contributes at home too. I already see proposed teams for the Brighton game in other threads and his name isn't nominated. He'd certainly be my preference on Wednesday.

I don't know much about rocket surgery, but I'm interested to know who would have been the 3 if you move Stephens to RB/RWB ? There were no other center halves on the bench. While I don't necessarily agree with the Boufal substitution, I can understand the logic that the manager wanted some additional height for the inevitable direct bombardment towards the end of the match. It also allowed us to play two up front shortly after. I quite like the idea of Long and Carrillo up front as one is strong in the air and finisher, the other has pace and movement. But it was a strange moment, although talking to my son who went to the game, he didn't think it was as stupid as Dave Merrington did. Hull City in the next round please. I'd like to welcome back Nigel.

Even though Hoedt is tall, I'm not convinced that he is great in the air either. I think he has potential but needs a dominant strong partner who can head the ball. All in all, we have three centre halfs and none of them are good headers of the ball. We have a very unbalanced team throughout.

I agree, although I think that part of the problem is that while each of our centre halves have some good strengths (i.e. skill on the ball, decent pace), they are too similar and none of them have the physicality or ability in the air to play against direct bombardment. It's probably why we were better playing Man U (without Lukaku) than Watford as their styles were so different. Silva clearly noticed this yesterday and towards the end replaced his pacey forward with another big bulky substitute to supplement Deeney. While I'd like to sign an outstanding prospect for £20m, our focus is to stay up and decent bargains are difficult to find particularly in January, so a cheaper, more mature, physically commanding centre half on loan would work as a short term solution, until we can regroup in the summer and plan a longer term recruitment strategy. I'm not a fan of Wes Morgan, but if somebody like him played yesterday in the 2nd half, I believe that we'd have comfortably secured 3 points. I just hope that start to get linked with a few centre halves soon ...

Isn't it three players ? Boufal - WBA Yoshida - Stoke Romeo - Man City Regards

This is interesting although there is one line sounds a concerning. It sounds a little too familiar ...... 'Scoring goals was what Alaves found most difficult last season, netting just 41 times. Only three teams in La Liga scored fewer and two of those sides – Granada and Osasuna - were relegated. ' Personally I can't see too much in his CV which would make Saints want to procure his talents, so wouldn't be too disappointed if this didn't come off. Of course, that still leaves the question, who can take us to the next level ?

I agree, although with such an intelligent player as Gabbiadini, such a style could be effective again. I still believe Jay Rod running from deeper positions was a strength that we miss as Puel always plays him as the main target.

Jay Rod was most successful for Saints when he played on the left left side of the three in a 4-2-3-1 formation. That was the position that he also played in his one appearance for England. Since returning from injury he hasn't played there, but it would be good to see him tried in that role before the end of the season. I felt that it suits his attributes and running with the ball froma deeper position was one of his strengths. I appreciate that he may no longer have the fitness levels to play there, but before we give up on him completely and flog him in the summer, it would be nice to try him in the role where he had so much success. Now that Saints play 4-2-3-1 he could be utilized there again. Unlikely to happen, but would be bad news if a new club succeeded by playing him in his best position because we didn't try it.

One thing that was noticeable on Wednesday was Redmond sudden desire to use his left foot more (not just the goal), but his crossing throughout (an excellent one just before the hand-ball incident) and numerous times in the 2nd half including for one of the goals. I appreciate that he scored with his left foot v Watford in the first game of the season, but until recently he tried to avoid that foot unless necessity demanded it. Now it almost seems more instinctive and he will become much less predictable to defenders because of it. Whether it is down to the Saints' training staff or just increased confidence with the England I don't know, but it is encouraging to see ....

He seems to have a good pedigree, but appears to be very injury prone, so we may not get too many games out of him. Could work as a short term solution, or could just be somebody to keep Austin, Van Dyke company in the Injury room ......

As I suggested in my earlier post, a new striker would help, but ...... there have been many many matches this year (e.g WBA, Everton, Stoke) where it was also the paucity of clear cut chances that contributed to our inability to score. I just have a horrible feeling that a new striker (who won't be top top class) in Jan will just be rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic there are other fundemental issues to address.

This to me is the big issue. We have very experienced premier league standard players such as Tadic and Long and they're not contributing goals or assists as they previously were. The possible reasons ? they're not good enough (and last season and before was a fluke), we're not playing them to their strengths and/or rotating too much, the system 4-3-3 is not working as our midfield players don't get forward to support them, Pelle and Mane are much better than the replacements Pelle/Austin and Mane/Boufal and Redmond. Personally I do not believe that we'll be able to get a Mane quality player in January to make a significant upgrade. Why not change the system to 4-2-3-1 or 3-5-2 ? At least we can get more forward players supporting the attack. Koeman changed the system last year and got great results, why can't we try something new ? We have tied the diamond (briefly), but since then 4-3-3, we can't score why not change the bloody system. What's that definition of madness ? Trying the same thing time and time again and expecting a different result. That is when we are today. Buying a new forward in January to me is wasting money without trying all our options. While I don't think that our replacements are as good as the originals we have a much better quality of player than many are giving credit. We need to try a different system and Puel needs to get motivating the team so they believe in his methods. I am not a Puel out man, at least not yet. But he has to demonstrate his qualities in the next few months otherwise I'd rather our next manager spends what ever limited budget we have in the summer.

Unlucky today, wasn't a bad performance except for the bleeding obvious. However can someone explain why we persist in 4-3-3 when none of the three midfielders today can virtually ever score ? You can add Clasie to that list. 4-2-3-1 at least would mean that there would be 4 players who are forward minded. It's simple maths. It's worked well for the last few years with many of the same players and Rodrigues was great on the left side of the three, he doesn't have to be the front man. Having four from Long, Rodrigues, Boufal, Tadic, Redmond would give us a better chance. I'm not convinced that it would solve all our problems, but we need to make a fundamental change. Trying to buy a great new forward in January is not likely to be possible due to the market, so we need to try other approaches in the short term.

I do think that some will find the current tactics don't suit their style. Long in particular likes the ball played early and behind defenders, and that's certainly not the way we play at the moment. As others have said the his injury and loose finishing hasn't helped the situation either. I find our football more entertaining than last year, but I do think the slower build up, possession based football is a contributory factor to the significantly lower number of goals scored. The loss of Mane has also left a big hole, although trying to replace a £35 million footballer on a budget is extremely difficult. What's one wrong ? Nothing, very much, but there is going to be a transisition between the different styles of football of Koeman and Puel and it may be that the lower number of goals will remain, even if we still achieve a top ten finish.

A 3-0 (or 4-2) victory will take us above Koeman ....... We just need a strong performance, improved finishing and a heck of a lot of luck .......

The recent performances have been very positive and it is great to start looking up the table rather than down. However, the stat that we have only scored 2 goals in our last 5 away games is something that needs to be put right (and has been an issue most of the season). Unless this improves, we will struggle to get into a European position. I think that the game on Saturday is a great opportunity to see if our recent form has masked a fundamental issue that has yet to be addressed. Nobody expects us to score a hat full at Old Trafford or Emirates, but Swansea are not at the same level and we have to win this type of match if we are to climb further up the league. Fingers crossed, that we see a decent 2-0 victory on Saturday.....

I notice from Wiki that Koulibaly is listed as a central defender, right back and defensive midfielder. Perhaps it is cover for these positions that is also being considered. Or it could be that some sort of agreement is in place to let go of Fonte or Wanyama next year, so replacements are already being recruited. Getting both VVD and Koulibaly would be very exciting, but it does seem unlikely.

Try http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xz6nkv_swansea-vs-southampton-0-0-motd_sport?search_algo=2#.UXO4VMsaySM

I think that we are generally agreeing, but my main point remains that unless we can demonstrate that we can pick up some away points here and there we will find ourselves in big trouble. Our current away form of W1, D0, L6 which is abysmal and if it is the inbalance in the number of our home (played 9) and away (played 7) games that has been a big contribution in our climb up the league. However, we threw away winning positions at home to Swansea and Norwich which means that we cannot rely on home form alone. As per my previous message, I think that Fulham and Stoke away will be the real proof of whether we have really turned the corner, or whether it has been mainly due to good home form against lower half teams. Fingers crossed that we can pick up 3+ points from those away games, but the performance at Liverpool disappointed and hasnt yet convinced me that the turnaround is permanent.

While I agree with many of the comments on here about the reasons for the improvements; Cork, Shaw, more settled side and playing easier teams I still would like more evidence that our away format has really improved. Last season our away form was okay even though we won three less matches than WHU and Reading and conceded more goals. However there were some bad signs such as Bristol City, Blackpool and others where both the performance and result was sub-standard. Our defence away from home often gave away silly goals. It was our outstanding home form that made the big difference in getting us promoted. This year our away form with the exception of a win against a really poor QPR side has consisted of only losses and in the most recent game against Liverpool only the home sides inadequate finishing let us off a hammering. I hope that when we get a period of consecutive away games that the old problems don't suddenly reappear. Hopefully the confidence gained from improved home results against bottom half teams leads to increased confidence and a better defence when playing away. I would really settle for a few solid draws and occasional victory in our away games before celebrating our turn around in form. Fulham and Stoke are good tests and will in some ways will be a better indication of whether we have truly turned the corner.

Purely speculative, but couldn't the answer to question 1 is that if Pompey don't pay the wages then they could move into administration. Thus they would only pay their creditors a % of what they are owed ? So Chenrai could get 5p in the £1, which would be a heck of a loss. Alternatively, if they go into administration and are deducted 10 points then they also become less attractive to potential suitors, so they could go completely under and he could lose part of investment anyway. Previously Chenrai had a secured loan, so he was guarenteed his money, but perhaps that situation has changed when CSI bought the club. Either way, I think Chenrai has to keep Pompey alive and I wouldn't be at all surprised if he ends up as owner of Pompey again.

I agree with the original thread (with the exception of the comments about Belgium). I remain convinced that Saints can gain promotion this year and to do that investment in players better than we have already is imperative. I've been impressed by De Ridder, but he needs a spell of games to demonstrate what he can really do (same with Fox). The arguments that we don't need to worry as we are top of the league are irelevant at the moment, it will only count if we are there at the end of the season and to to achieve that I believe that we need a strong centre half to partner and a forward with pace to offer something that we don't currently have. However, I'd like to believe that the people brought in would be automatic (or close to automatic choices) on the basis that they are higher quality than what we already have which means spending a significant amount of money. For me Saints have a good squad already, the aim now is to increase quality not quantity; At the moment, I'd rather have one top player, than three lesser ones. Let's see how Nige addresses this; but after the likes of Stephens and Forte and with Fontaine appearing to be of a similar type, I have some minor concerns that we are not looking at the right type of person and/or spending our cash on players in positions where we are already well covered (e.g. left back). Still Nige is doing a great job at the moment, so lets see what he and NC come up with by next week.

One of my friends who is a Bristol City season ticket holder just sent me this email when I asked about Fontaine. He is on holiday so wasn't aware of Saints interest. It seems to validate some of the other opinions about him. See comments below; "Liam Fontaine - good 2nd defender if you have a dominant centre-half for him to play alongside. He's a good footballer - more Bobby Moore than Stuart Pearce or Terry Butcher. He'd probably command a fee in the region of £250k-£300k. Don't tell me Saints are being linked with him! You must be delighted with the start you've made in the Championship!!!!!" His estimation on price is a little concerning though...