S-Clarke

If we wanted to sign those 4 players in particular, you're looking at £80-90m spend, and that's without us selling one of the 'stars' (i.e VVD, Bertrand etc). So, as good as that would be, we're not in a position to splash out on all four of those at once.

I dunno, no smoke without fire and all that.

I assume he was moaning about something. He spent the entire game moaning at someone or something. It was never his fault, always someone elses.

Very easy to say that now. It would be unfair and disrespectful to suggest that Leicester won the league in spite of him. How he was treated by staff and players at Leicester is ****ing despicable, in my opinion. Should have been given a knighthood for what he did for them.

speculation such as this is pointless.

We've been better away from home, certainly. Can remember so many more good away performances than home. I wonder if our struggles at home are starting to become a little psychological? I'm seemingly in the minority to think we're not miles and miles away, we need a few tweaks personal wise and tactically, we don't need to reinvent the wheel. We're not Sunderland levels of ****ness. (yet...)

This sums it up

To be fair, we've not really had any form all season. Just a few good results here and there, but generally very samey. The only consistent fact from the entire season is that we don't score enough.

That's been a proper gripe for me all season. Forsters kicking isn't great at the best of times, but when he seems to be tactically aiming for people like Redmond or Tadic it's all a bit wtf. What are they supposed to do with that. We don't have the ability to play long anymore, can't think of any attacking players we have who are particularly strong and dominant in the air. Pelle is a huge miss for us, no matter how much crap he got last season from the 'fans'.

Let's be honest, 'The Southampton Way' is just PR spiel. Sounds good for branding etc. Same as the 'We March On' crap, which got old 2 years ago.

Probably the most sure fire 0-0 of the season. Bet it ends 5-5 for the bants.

I still can't see KL just selling to any tom **** or harry because she wants out. This still has connections to her late father, so I can't imagine her wanting to ditch it to people who will run it down to the ground. I wouldn't have thought many people know the true intentions apart from KL. But whatever, it needs to be sorted quickly. Feels like everything is in limbo.

His movement was still good, you can see that when you watch off the ball. He made some exclent moves on the blind side of defenders and bent his run, but not once did the ball find him. He was notably frustrated on a few occasions. As mentioned before, the midfielders we have are more than happy to go back or sideways. Until we have another midfielder in there to break the line and link the team, then it will be more and more of the same. It's very hard to find that sort of midfielder for sure, which is why sometimes having a really, really quick player floating around can make all the difference and pull the midfield closer to the attack. Mane did that for us.

Yeah, he's pretty spot on most of the time. Some good ITK's over there.

It wasn't a bad performance though, first half especially. 2nd half questions need to be asked though.

I don't disagree with that, he needs to wind in his chats a bit. They're often quite a lot of garbage just to appease fans and it's best to just mute them..... What bugs me as a club is that we're arrogant. We think we do everything a special way, secret this, secret that. We're no different from the rest, at the end of the day $$$$ is what makes the difference, not being cute and clever in how to approach situations. That's the sad reality of it, we're not going to win the league because we have a black box. That's the main gripe I have with us. Too nice, believe our own hype and not enough conviction in our goals. He's still got more than enough points in the locker to stay though, done more good than bad for us.

9th or 10th I reckon. The middle of the league this year has been ****ing garbage. The gap to the 'rest' is way too big, a lot of clubs will be trying to rectify that over the summer I'm sure. A clever transfer window by one of the 'middle pack' and they could potentially drive away from the rest.....

Tadic is a luxury player, team carried him at times. But Redmond was garbage tonight, his ability to pick the final pass or deliver a telling ball is ****ing awful. It's something that has to improve massively. He's got the pace, he can dribble...but he needs to start doing something on a consistent basis. He was very, very, very frustrating tonight - as he has been in a lot of home games.

Club tried to be clever with Puel, not quite worked out as they'd have hoped I'm sure. Not bad as bad as some are saying, but certainly underachieved. But all these 'OUT' threads are very knee-jerky. Who next? Watson? Jadi? The tea lady?

We don't have anyone to join the midfield to the attack, that has been the issue all season. The full backs can do that if they provide the width, they did that excellently in the first half....but we need a proper midfielder who passes forward and can dictate it. Someone of the style of Cesc (not saying him...!) - but he looks forward, passes, spreads it etc. Our midfielders are all too samey. Recycle position very well, but not penetrative enough with it. Mane gave us a huge 'mold' last season, we still lacked that in our midfield last year...but Mane's ability to come into midfield, pick the ball up and run at the team sort of nullified our lack of a penetrative midfield. Now we've not got Mane, it's all very obvious and samey. No one willing to break the line.

If we did 'twist', then we are still a hugely attractive club. We've easily underachieved this year in terms of attacking sense, but we're highly thought of over the continent and we'd still be a good pick for a lot of managers. PL is an attractive league, and whoever is the manager will certainly have $$$ to spend. Think we tried to be a bit clever with the Puel appointment, outside of the box and all that. Still don't think we've been 'as bad' as some are suggesting, just very inconsistent and frustrating to watch. It doesn't feel like we're far away...but it makes you wonder what needs to change to get us back to that level again.

Not quite sure where to start with that, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as some are saying. First half we really should have gone ahead, they were there for the taking I felt. Their back 3 was all over the place and the width was exposing the formation and their wing backs. We were let down by a lack of quality with the final pass once we got in behind, Redmond especially guilty of that in the first half. But the intensity was there, the purpose was there, we just couldn't make it count. 2nd half was a totally different ball game, obviously Arsenal re-shaped a little - but what on earth was said to the players? We stopped doing what we were good at in the first half, it all became too central and we became frustrated. This played into Arsenals hands and they got a grip, although they still didn't really play with huge pace or purpose. But once we stopped doing what made us tick in the first half, it was always going to be a back to the walls job. Now, was that something which was said to them? Were we told to change it? Or did Arsenal really improve that much? Probably a combination of poor half time management by us and a good one from Arsenal. Another game goes without a goal, this has been the most non-season at home that I can remember for a long, long, long time. I know I keep saying it, but it's like this season has just never started, I'm still waiting. Puel didn't do himself any favors with the 2nd half, still can't bring myself to listen to his pre or post-match stuff, but I don't think we're a bad side, we're not miles away from anything - but you do start to wonder if it's the management and instructions holding the players back, are we being told to play within ourselves and not take the game to teams? There was 40m odd worth of attacking talent out there in Tadic, Gabbiadini, Boufal, Redmond at points in that game. We really should have got a goal or looked more likely. I feel sorry for Long, there are goals in him...but I don't think we know how to utilize him - or jay....or boufal correctly. Long summer ahead, big thinking to be done. Don't think he'll go personally, but a few players will likely go before him.

At least he's getting the bites he wanted.

I reckon he'll end up at Liverpool. Klopp loves a young player he can develop.

I'm with Garrett, I'd love to see Hojbjerg allowed time to work alongside Romeu. I don't think Hojbjerg himself is what I'd call a sitting or defensive midfielder, he's much more capable of driving forward and looking forward. I'd like to see them both play a run of games together.... Keep JWP on the right side of the attacking 3, he can drop back centrally if and when required. Bit of flexibility there, but I'd say both guys need to bulk up a bit.