S-Clarke

3 posts in a row by the same person, weird.

Still enjoying these fella, good stuff!

Yeah, I thought both Villa's full backs looked very assured actually, and 2 area's they've really improved upon since last year.

Yeah, what a dumb thing to talk about on a football forum!! Idiots...

He does remind me of Welbeck sometimes! Doesn't look capable, and then does something top class out of nowhere! He's defiantly our best outlet in terms of stretching sides though. I am a big fan of Jay though, I think he'll be a top class player for us.

We're missing a bit more depth to the squad, pretty much. We clearly need better backup in goal, and I think we're getting to the stage now where we can look to evolve the 2nd CB position with another Lovren-level defender. Having Fonte, Jos and Yoshida as the backup to CB isn't too bad. Midfield we're pretty much sorted, a lot of really good depth in that area. (Only question mark is over a natrual AMC style midfielder, if Ramirez isn't going to stick around) and as hard as it may be for some people to accept, I think we're also edging nearer the time where we'll possibly look to evolve Lamberts position in the team.

To me it's quite clear who the obvious WUM's are, and it should be to the mods as well. So they'd be struck off pretty quickly. I dont buy any of this forum character bull**** either, they're just an absolute borefest of relentless drivel.

Other way round I don't know, I just think City can blow hot and cold, especially away from home. I still look at Demecheillis and wonder WTF he's on sometimes, looks an awful defender when turned against pace....so if we deploy Jay up alongside him, we can get some joy. I think we're going to have to score a few though.....

It is quite an interesting debate, because you're right - in the times I've seen him, most shots seem to go in, you can call them wordlies, or poor defending in front of him, but he doesn't really seem to make saves. Boruc can pull of an unbelievable save and get us out of the mire, but you just get the feeling that Gazzaniga just isn't capable of that. I still look at the 2nd goal last night and the way he threw his arms all around, a really odd reaction to it. No real strength behind those arms if he did get a touch, they were just flapping all over the show. Someone made a good point a few days back, Boruc pulled off 1 or 2 great saves a match, because we did let teams through at times and they did have shots at goal. I don't know what it is, but he just seems way, way too slow in thought process and positioning.

I don't know why, but I just have a very funny feeling we'll have one of those big results on Saturday. Call it a premonition, I've seen it in the stars!

A pretty stable side to be honest. You can't just dismiss Moyes, he built that side on very few funds over a period of time and provided Martinez with a very good base to work from. His style of football seems to go hand in hand with their players though. And their squad is so much stronger than ours, that's why I think they've got a chance of holding out for a European side. Still got a few years of building until we can have a squad like theirs.

When can someone ban 100% again?

I think that tactic actually allowed teams to tear us to shreds in the PL, not the opposite.

Honest and fair assessment. At least he doesn't try to brush over the results moaning about the officials or decisions, or injuries. I'm sure he'll get right into them over the rest of this week. I wouldn't be surprised if we beat City to be honest, it's what we do...

Couldn't you have just put this in the match thread?

He was alright, nothing spectacular, but then you're not going to get much more from Jack. He's always been a steady eady type of player (bar that silly error for the 2nd). Can't really moan about having him as a squad player, you wont' get much better.

Ah yes, the age old ''pace fixes everything'' debate.......

See, this is why you get people's backs up Barry. It's like you're taking the **** out of ''your own'' fans. What's the point? Some were positive and believed it at the start, so what. Didn't hurt anyone did it? At the end of the day they were positive about the club they support, that's not really something worth taking the **** out of.

No, I don't think so.

We scored 2 goals and created numerous other opportunities, including 2 that hit the bar. I didn't see a great deal wrong with our attacking intent or approach tonight, if there is one criticism it's the lack of that ''finishing'' touch, but we did have an attacking verve to our play today. And as mentioned above, if we remembered how we'd been defending throughout the year, we'd have won that 2-0 anyway and there wouldn't have been a thread like this! 8 goals conceded in 3 games, isn't going to yield much success, no matter how many you score at the other end.

It was a weird game, because in many ways it brought back memories of last year. Lots of chances at one end, yet gifting goals at the other. But it is a poor result, there's no 2 ways about that. Villa aren't and weren't any great shakes, but we weren't solid or organised at all today. Simple balls straight through the middle cut us open on a few occasions, Shaw is looking very jaded at the moment too, and I have to say that Yoshida looked like a complete calamity out there, well off the pace. Not entirely sure why he started, because he shouldn't have. Lambert is having a bit of a period at the moment. Another absolute mare from him. Wrong passes, bad touch, lost his free kick technique. You name it...he was really off the game tonight, and he has been for a while now. Cork for the 2nd half didn't really improve us, but you can't really complain about having a midfielder of his ability as a squad player. It's not a bad problem to have! Overall though, you have to say that on another day we'd have won that...but we've started to pick up injuries everywhere, and the squad is looking paper thin right now. If we're without Morgan, Wanyama, Boruc and Clyne for the next few games, I don't see much of a change to be honest. The injuries have all hit us at once and we simply don't have the quality in the squad, for a team like Southampton to have a ''magic'' top 6 season, we'd need an injury free campaign. Unfortunately we're not going to get that. But let's be honest, we were always going to have a spell like this. We were not going to carry on the season conceding no goals and winning most weeks, as above - we don't have the squad for that. The frustration for us is that we play all the top sides all at the same time, so a result like tonight's is made to look all the more worse - even though we were always going to have a result like that this year. Heck, we'll probably have another couple before the season is out! At the end of the day, we can all go into meltdown and change absolutely everything, or we can calm down, look at it objectively and actually come to the conclusion that we're in pretty damn good shape.

Cheers for that. Interesting about Fonte? What's he done wrong??? He's been a star this year, I'd have thought the last thing you'd do to an unsettled defense, is unsettle it even more (although he may have a knock of course)

What is there to discuss exactly? They're 19th, we're 7th. End of thread.

I do agree with the Davis inclusion if I'm honest. I think he's been consistently one of the best players since MP has been here. Keeps the ball well, uses it well, gives us energy through the middle and offers a pretty decent goal threat. Jack Cork uses the ball and passes it well, but doesn't offer the goal threat. That's what really lets him down to be honest.

Cropper is pretty bad to be honest.