S-Clarke

This is all a bit tedious isn't it. Broja is clearly a good player, he's a young player going through a tough patch of form. It happens and will always happen. I like to think Saints fans are pretty well adapt at spotting 'potential higher level players' and my opinion is that Broja, along with Tino, are 'potential higher level players'. They will finish their careers at a higher level than Southampton, whereas Adams and Armstrong will probably still be drifting around the same sort of level for most of their careers. Happy to bump this thread in 5 or 6 years to see what's what.

Why single him out? Stop trying to prove a point, you've called Broja out as not being good enough as x or y (that was wrong) and you are frantically trying to justify it so you don't have to say you were wrong. I don't often get involved in the tit for tat bollocks, but it's so irritating watching your posts at the moment.

Absolutley abysmal from min 1 to the end to be honest. Salisu looked like he was hung over or something, really rubbish. Worse than the Newcaslte game, and he was shit then as well. He was slow in his mind, headers not directed well enough, passing and decision of passing atrocious. If that is his level then we'd struggle to get 2 quid for him. Its not his level though, so my take is that we've rushed him back too soon and he's not fit. Bednarek is Bednarek, when he doesn't have Salisu to bail him out he is pretty inept. He can pass as an average CB from time to time, but when he has his poor runs he cannot defend at all. We might as well put Adam Armstrong back there, it wouldn't make us any weaker. Stu Armstrong was awful, his passing was dreadful. He was marked quite heavily and struggled to find space, but he wasn't careful enough in possession when he did have the ball. Midfield was ok...they passed the ball back and sideways, but there was zero penetration in there. Less said about Smallbone the better. KWP probably the best player on the pitch, only one providing us any real threat to be honest. Broja gave us some legs when he came on as Adams struggled massively to impose himself as a lone striker, but both struggled to get a head of steam as the side was just devoid of anything at all. Worst performance of the season in my opinion. We really are an extreme team, there's no denying it. From highs which are great highs, to lows for prolonged periods of time. That seems to stop us ever really doing anything of note. A proper mid-table team, probably 3 or so players from making the 'next' step.

Nah, i think he'll always be a bit flawed. He's gone through many managers and clubs and is a bit of a journeyman because of his personality/mentality, not because he's been mismanaged. Wasted talent really as he had all the tools.

He's been a bit of a disastrous signing for Brighton all told. Similar to Theo with us really, just over the hill now.

Everyone who looks at Broja can see talent, there's someone there who will be a Champions League player in a couple of years. Will Armstrong? Absolutley not, he will never get anywhere near the level Broja will get to. That's not being down on Armstrong, it's just being realistic. I think Armstrong has impacted the games in the last couple he's played in, but he's still a fairly average player all told with very little to no growth left in his game. Broja has the world at his feet in my opinion. Young players will go through extreme dips and extreme highs as they grow and mature, he's not the finished article. I've said a few times that he needs to calm down when he's in front of goal, as he gets himself into great positions but lets it get to his head sometimes - that'll settle down though, we probably won't benefit from the finished Broja though. Just enjoy him whilst you can, he adds a new dimension to our attack which we didn't have last season.

If we play as we can then we will beat Watford, if we drop off our level then we won't. I think that's one thing I've learnt about this team over the last few years, there is simply no middle ground. We have to be on it to get results, and when we are on it we are so good. But if we drop off then we are incapable of grinding anything out which is why we keep falling from great runs into horrible runs.

Honestly, what is your problem with Villa? It's weird. They clearly have much, much better quality than Newcastle and us in multiple positions. Konsa is very good, Cash, Dinge, Luiz, McGinn, Bailey, Ings, Watkins etc - really good top half PL players, I don't know why you are so against them. They'll finish at least 6 points ahead of us in my opinion.

First half was better than the second for me, I thought our efforts in the second half were really, really poor. Huff and puff and we had a period where we were abject and Newcastle were all over us. We didn't seem to come out in the second half with any real belief, the best chances came on 90 mins plus. Agree we played ok first half and had some really good chances, but the second half was a really really poor showing for me.

We haven't been that bad I don't think. The fault with the goal came in the build up as opposed to the corner it's self, we are an absolute mess outfield from 50 mins to 60 mins. They could have scored their 3rd and 4th during that spell. Salisu had an absolute nightmare, got a feeling we rushed him back as he didn't look with it.

We certainly have better ballance in the side when Perraud plays. I'd personally put Livramento on the bench and keep Perraud at left and KWP at right to be honest, we played some great football with those in the side.

Just a bit reactionary.

Well, that was shit. Second half was an absolute disaster. We pretty much confirmed ourselves as the most streaky team, ever. We go from one extreme to the other, there's no middle ground with us. We can't seem to get results over the line when we play poorly. There is no justice in this world though, it just had to be the two players they'd signed in January who won this game. No fairness in life I think we've all come to learn. Onto Sunday I guess, Watford will want to bounce back though and that won't be easy. I hope we're not going in the direction I fear we are, i.e an amazing run of form followed by an absolute load of abject trash over a prolonged period, like we've done before.

Salisu sloppy for their goal, no doubts. Wood completely did him in movement, but I think Salisu was slightly unbalanced. Not sure how this game goes to be honest, we've let some great chances slip and they're still a threat.

I liked BWP, especially in the first season. I think he got 12 goals that year, did alright I thought. Always felt a bit guilty at the time when we got him as part of the 'Coca-Cola Kid' promotion, as we were much more flush than other clubs at the time, given that we'd just spent £1.5m on Skacel. Seemingly we were spending money we didn't have though!

I guess we could send back 'LOL' as the offer response.

It's hard to say what will happen at Chelsea, it could go one of two ways. They can't sit with all these players hemorrhaging money, the transfer ban surley doesn't include players they sell? (although I guess until it's not in romans hands, the money could still go to Russia) I still think we're well out of the reach anyway given the fee they will likely look for. Certainly Tammy Abraham type levels (so 35-40m)

I'd love to see them go down don't get me wrong, I just can't see it yet. Next two games will clear it up in my opinion, if they get results in those two home games that should get them moving again. Those are the key though, if they lose those then yeah I'd come to your line of thinking and that they'll be staring down the barrel.

Would it be that easy for them though? They're saddled with FFP problems, they've lost most of their sponsors and their financial backing. They'd lose Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison, Pickford, Daccoure, Allan, Van De Beek - basically all their half decent players. That leaves them with a core of Keane, Coleman, Davies, Gray, Alli which is predominantly championship level bar Ali, but that's still him living on past rep as he still looks a shadow of a PL player right now. They'd have very little money to buy any decent quality up front, in goal, in midfield to replace the quality they lost. Very tricky times if they go down in my opinion. I still don't see them going down though, they'll probably win the next two games or at least 4 points. I still can't see a way out for the current 3, I don't think any of them are good enough and that will be Evertons saving grace as they're not really good enough either - just slightly less shit, same goes for Leeds.

As in it's not so much of a surprise to see them lose 4-0 to anyone half decent. You kind of expect it these days.

That's a sign not to believe everything you see online. That's been doing the rounds for a few days now, it was from the climate protests a few months back.

Keane is always good value with his views, he doesn't mince his words. Jamie is one of those computer-generated pundits who you can put on ITV. BBC, Sky and they'd say the same thing. Never too controversial and just go with what's popular at the moment. Man Utd are full of awful players though. Not technically, but mentality wise they are just beyond shit. I must admit I never thought I'd see such a prolonged period of such a god awful Man Utd team, but it's fun viewing.

They're hardly a decent yard-stick to judge against, they're such a crap team.

I've seen us described as a streaky team, we can go on great runs and be the form team one min and then in the next min become the worst team in the league over the next 6 games. Let's hope we nip that description in the bud and get straight back into form on Thursday and then Sunday.

Absolutley agree, but I don't think we had the money to do much more than Lyanco. Should be different this summer, but we'll still have to lose one in order to make the space.