S-Clarke

All 3 of those have done a hell of a lot more than he's ever done.

It was open! They've scored in the end though. Liverpool, as per usual, look an utter shambles.

What a miss by Leicester!

To be fair, Valencia is pretty much a wing back these days anyway, SAF played him at RB a few times. Young I give you, horrific footballer played out of position. His pace will get him out of trouble though.

Notice they've got Rojo back now, so they're not looking too bad at the back.

Slightly over the top I think? But what you also need to take into account is that potentially, the current crop we have, are the lads recruited during our 'dark days' with the Lowe/Wotte experiment, whereby the academy did fall by the wayside. Obviously the club will have supplemented the age groups since then, but we possibly missed out on some of the core talent of that generation due to our situation. Worth taking that into account. And academy's come in waves, batches of players, then a few, then nothing for a few years...then another batch, but I think if there's one thing you can be sure of with Southampton is that we will continue to churn out PL level players over time.

We sold them all.

I think that's a fair point. I think even if we played at our maximum, we'd still have lost. They were THAT good on Sunday. Their work ethic was something else.

All this ''could have done a job for us'' if he was still here and on the bench isn't really true, to be honest. We all hope he could, we all wished to hell he could make that pass we all say he can make....but the general reality is that he'd be pretty useless on our bench as he didn't influence things for us, just left on the wayside in the premier league. For me, he's never, ever the sort of player I'd want to bring on to change the course of a game we're struggling in. He'd hardly make an impact, which we saw time and time again. If we're winning and there's lots of space, maybe, but in tight games - no chance.

I don't think he'll play for us again, quite simply not suited to English football what so ever and has shown no signs that he's even close to adapting. Will be back at a club like Torino next summer I reckon.

It's so weird how this season is mirroring last year. We lost a pivotal midfielder around this time last year (Wanyama) and struggled, probably not directly down to that, but it didn't help. We've now lost a pivotal midfielder again, for who knows how long. Morgan is absolutely vital to our tactical set-up, he's going to be a colossal miss, as good a pro Cork is, he's no where near Morgan.

It would stretch the squad and would cause a hangover in the league, pretty much guaranteed. Look at Everton this year for a fine example. It's a hell of a lot of travelling, shorter windows for match preparation etc. We'd need to add 4 or 5 of decent quality to spread the squad out a bit and allow players rest and recovery time, otherwise it could lead to be a bit of a nightmare season and our European adventure would be a distant memory. Never been a big fan of the Europa league anyway tbh.

Ah, we're still going with this Forster isn't good enough lark. He is, end of thread.

Well, neither are average players. I think they're just having a dip, Tadic in particular is quite clearly class as we've seen, but he looks a bit off colour. After starting the season like a train, a dip will always raise questions as we've yet to experience many dropped points. All 3 will come good in the end though, and I predict we'll be worrying during the summer if we're able to keep hold of them. This is almost a complete mirror of the first half of last season, as I remember threads popping up regarding Shaw, Chambers, Wanyama as well at the time we started to drop off. Let's hope the 2nd half of the season is a bit better this time.

Should have been out beforehand? Where should he have been? In midfield to anticipate Aguero getting through and in behind the 2 CB's? He didn't make any error of judgement, because he made a save. He didn't get lucky, because his 'judgement' enabled him to make the save. Jesus wept.

He's had 2 pretty frightening games, but this is what you get with him. He will give you a few stinkers, and then a few blinders. There's obvious ability there, but a bit of rawness and rashness too. I like him, I think he adds an element of unpredictability to our attack which can open the door in those real tight games. I would be tempted to bench him for the next game though, as from the bench he may look more threatening at the moment. Rotating him and Long seems to work ok.

Tadic's touch was particularly horrific. It was similar on Monday as well, not quite sure what's up with him as we all know he's sheer class.

He learnt from his mistake. He came out slightly in order to narrow the angle, but he didn't rush out because that would have been a silly idea. So he shouldn't have gone more quickly, he should have done exactly what he did - which was to hold his ground, narrow the angle and save. And he did all of those, therefore he made a terrific decision and a good save. Why are people even calling that a mistake or an error of judgement? Seriously, what does this guy have to do to win over some people? Best defence in the league, yet apparently it's nothing to do with him. I think he deserves credit. And this unhealthy lover affair some people have with a wacky, injured Pole is a bit odd. Fraser is a better keeper.

To be honest, I think our last 'complete' performance was our job against Hull at the KC. I felt we muddled through against Leicester, and obviously were pretty crap in the subsequent 2 games as well. But the reality is that we were always going to dip. We were never going to win every week whilst keeping clean sheets, it's a total impossibility. And we are and were in a false position, that's not being negative, it's just the truth. The longer our amazing run went on, the bigger 'bolt'' this sort of period would hit us with as expectations have been screwed all over the place. I'd say that getting a good result in the next 2 is pretty important to maintain a bit of momentum, otherwise we're heading into the Christmas fixtures on a pretty horrific run of form.

There are some proper obvious WUMS on this forum, always looking for an opportunity to berate and criticise - no matter where we are or what position we're in. The oddballs never post during any of our successful runs either. They must try harder as their acts are so transparent.

I keep reading that Arsenal are having a rubbish time with injuries, but who apart from Wilshire are they missing? (and he's not exactly much of a miss).

That was a decent save at his near post, which took a lot of sting out of the shot and allowed Toby time to clear it.

Ah good, we have one of those people who like to belittle Steven Davis and are constantly trying to replace him in the line-up! He's basically one of the first names on the team sheet, he's a terrific player and pivotal to the formation and way we play. If you can't see that, then I suggest you take a trip to specsavers. And how is the fact that no ''Top club'' has put in a bid for him take away from his ability to do a job for us? You say this is typical English fan syndrome, but I'd say your post is typical of a modern day football fan. Spend, spend, spend. Name, big names, big transfer fee's.

Yeah, I'd bring in Long. Mane has been pretty horrific in the last 2 games to be honest. I've got a feeling we'll nurse Morgan through the next few days and he'll be ok, would imagine Cork would be available if he isn't anyway.

Really not getting the ''embarrassment'' posts. We didn't play well, they did, they hit us on the break whilst we were pressing. Game over and not worth sweating over. Wednesday is too close to mull over this.