S-Clarke

I keep forgetting it's coming round, which probably says it all. It won't fit right in the winter. As someone said above, the WC isn't all about watching football, it's the warm evenings in fan parks or beer gardens etc. This is going to be watched during damp, cold days with light drizzle and with it being dark post 4pm. It just won't feel the same because of that and it's probably why I'm not too 'up' for it. I guess that might change when it kicks off in anger, but the whole Qatar WC thing has never sat right with me.

Whenever it pans out like that in the opposite way (i.e we're on the good run, they're on a bad run), you can almost always guarantee we will slip up. Not so sure it ever applies the other way round for us. But I must admit this is one of the reasons why I have a funny feeling about a positive result at the weekend.

Is that the same Liverpool who are unable to compete with Man City financially, and are totally aghast with Man City's approach to squad investment? Thought so. I don't think that's a big enough variation to really say we're underachieving by much, especially when there are like 1 or 2 points in it.

I reckon we'll win this, just a feeling I have. Not sure where the optimism stems from, but I just fancy us.

Look at any corporate job advert these days and it's sadly full of that nonsense, it's not limited to football sadly.

They don't really have any strikers. Trossard, their '10' scores a fair few goals, Gross from midfield chips in from the penalty spot. Brighton have a much better group of 10's, and a really tidy CM in Mac Allister and Cacedio. I'd say this weekend was a bit of a freak for them, they don't usually score goals and aren't very clinical, so I'm not sure we should be basing our striker recruitment on them.

What's whipping boys all about? Are you simply not allowed to call out anyone? Is everyone always perfect and magical? JWP has been horrific this season, so bad. Che Adams cannot finish his dinner, as has always been the case. Their situations haven't been helped by the club hanging them out to dry by selling Romeu and not adding a proper attacking player for Adams to feed. In a team with a clinical forward Adams would be a critical component to our game and I'd still play him. It's a sign of regression when we have to rely on him for our goals.

I genuinely believe that had we had a goal scorer we would have more points than we have today. Football can be overcomplicated sometimes, and we can put too much into systems, tactics, shapes etc, but at the end of the day it's about keeping the ball out of the back of the net and scoring the chances when they come about (and we have had chances in many games this year, however they've come about) It's all being lumped at Adams door because he is an awful finisher and due to the failed transfer window, he has been hung out to dry. We know that Adams strengths are his build up and support play, feeding more clinical forwards and being unselfish in his approach. He's still got that part of his game, which has got better over the years, but he's now the single person we rely on for goals and this is the problem we face.

That is the difference, same with Broja. Both Ings and Broja were capable of generating chances themselves either with quick feet, good movement, good skill, good power/pace etc. Sure they wouldn't score them all, but already we had more chances to score than we do today. We have to rely on a very poor mix of 10's to put chances on a plate for Adams/Armstrong etc and the likelihood is that they'll still miss them. It really is a miserable place to be in.

I don't think it's fair to judge them so harshly on what is 10 months, you can clearly see the approach and what they are trying to do and the intent is there (financially at least). Which is something we haven't had for years. The biggest mistake they have made is weakening our attack after spending about £60m without sales. By all accounts it wasn't the plan and we did want one, but the fact we didn't get one has to be seen as their biggest mistake to date. I know people will lump all the blame on Ralph, and whilst he should shoulder some of it, the lack of a striker is paralysing us. With an Ings or a Broja we get points against Wolves, Villa and Palace, which would have meant less pressure on Ralph and a better platform to take into the season after the WC. But we're embroiled in a relegation battle now for the entirety, and that isn't all because of Ralph.

Didn't have the money for that back then, I think Newcastle spent £20-25m on him. And we also had Ings when they signed Wilson, so the same urgency wasn't there.

Sadly, I think he's gone by the WC. In around 20 points I think he'd be safe, but to finish on 15-12 points is not good enough by any stretch given the investment. True, we have somehow managed to invest and make the attack worse, which hasn't helped things, but it gets to the point where everyone just needs a reset and a fresh pair of eyes to appraise what is here.

After half a step forward, he took 20 back today. That first half was as bad as I've ever seen from an 'attacking' player. What often gives him some wiggle room in fan opinion is his off the ball work, which is somewhat consistent, but even that was dire today. When you're judging an attacking player's impact on their off the ball work then it's probably not a good sign. Still don't think he's anywhere near the level we need.

You seem to be adopting this ''we're only Southampton, we're lucky to even be a professional football club'' mantra that is flooding through all corridors of this club right now.

He had a real spark about him against Leeds in the 2nd half, but he's just regressed ever since.

A wide number 10 and a clinical front man, that's what we needed in July, and we still need it. We always do this, every window we leave a position short. Full back, centre back, CM etc. But this year we've played the game with the position you cannot play that game with. I'm one who will stick up for the club when it does good stuff, but the summer transfer window has to be looked upon as a huge failure. We spent £80m and ended the window with a weaker attack than the season before, absolute shambles.

I dunno, even of the teams who look a bit shit (Forest, Bornemouth, Leicester, Villa, Leeds, Wolves etc) have attacking threats who are capable of scoring goals. We've got nothing.

Could potentially beat Newcastle, but still 12-15 points is a pretty naff return before the WC. I must admit I thought thinking we'd get 15 points by the WC as being seriously pessimistic, but seemingly that seems to be an optimistic view nowadays which is quite depressing in itself.

Yeah I don't know why we keep flogging Diallo in the 6, I don't know how many more times he needs to play for everyone to realise he can't do it. He is not good enough and never, ever, ever will be good enough at this level. Inept central midfielder. As a further advanced in a 3 he can pass as a squad player, but whoever keeps thinking he can play as a 2 in this league needs shooting.

First half was absolutely dire, we were not in the game at all and we were lucky it was only 1-0 really. The main problem from that first half was Diallo who is so far away from being able to play in CM in this league. Stop putting us through the misery of having to watch him, a truly inept CM. One of the worst we've ever had. 2nd half was much better once we got more of a grip of the CM. AMN, whilst not amazing, added steal and some intelligence in his play which was sorely lacking in the first half. We did create some great opening and if we had a Broja or an Ings then it's at least 1-1, we wouldn't have lost it. Adams once again showing that whilst in build-up and hold up he's the best we've got, he just cannot be relied on to score goals at this level. We undid all the work from our transfer window by failing to address the attack in my opinion. It's looking likely we'll finish around 15 pts before the start of the WC and to me that's not enough. I'll stand by what I said weeks ago - get 20 or so points on the board before the WC and we can continue with Ralph and look forward, but if we get 15 or less (which now looks likely) then sadly it's probably time a change needs to happen. There are times when a club needs a fresh impetus, and I must admit it does feel a bit stale right now. I will stand by my opinion that Ralph isn't the sole problem here, anyone would struggle to get these guys scoring goals, but sometimes a fresh start and a fresh pair of eyes after so long is needed to give a new appraisal on the squad. But January is critical. Fail to sort out the attack/strikers in January and we will be gone by March/April. But it seems quite clear that this is the first season in some time that we will be engulfed in a relegation battle for the entirety, we're certainly 'one of the teams' and no longer on the periphery - and after an £80m spend, that's a huge failure.

Just what we need, another non-scoring support forward.

Great read. What I like about DCC as opposed to Lyanco is that he seems a bit more assured in his game. Lyanco will just throw arms, heads, legs into everything which is great entertainment but somewhat risky. In a way Salisu also has some of those traits, but they've been weeded out a bit in the last year or so. DCC is more measured and assured, seems to take the right positions up, gets nice and tight when marking and he's very strong/no nonsense about it. Another point you mentioned is his passing, which is almost always on the money from the back. It wouldn't have ever taken much to upgrade on Bednarek, but this guy is just streets ahead and it's obvious after just 2 games.

You say that, but our transfer policy this summer pretty much revolved around the best Man City youth players, whom he was all over prior to joining us.

I guess that's the same 'fucked' as Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Virgil Van Dyk, Falcao, Shearer, Xavi, Totti to name just a few. He's young enough to get right back up to speed. I wouldn't expect much from him this season, give him a full pre-season behind him and he'll be our first choice RB in 23/24. Hopefully in the PL.

I'd argue that his off the ball work is consistent, that's why Ralph picks him as he’s reliable on that side. His problem is the lack of consistency in an attacking sense, that's where we need him to play those killer balls, drop his shoulder and beat a man etc but it's few and far between he does that. It's great that we have a '10' who can close, work hard against the ball etc, but ultimately he will be judged on his attacking output which is pretty awful overall.