benjii

I actually agree with this. 7th or 8th in Puel's first season would be really good. 9th - 13th : not bad if we progress in Europe, decent cup run etc. Below that would be a bit disappointing unless we actually won a cup! We're trying to instill a different style of play and we've got loads of matches.

Just walk, it's all pretty close.

Probably because all our stuff looks utter ****e.

If I had to guess: "Facebook"; "reader comments under Mail Online article", or some such.

Well, Wilson repeats what the club feeds him so if the club wants to rewrite history he will too. I don't know when we knew Pelle was leaving but relying on only having Austin and Long as proper front men and an unreliable Rodriguez was always going to be a risk. I think we're doing OK this season but it's perfectly fair to question why we didn't boost the forward line a bit more. We are completely reliant on Austin for any sort of consistency in front of goal and it's not good to be completely reliant on one person.

You're so macho.

The clue is in the word "equity" (if that is what it is).

This is the wurst idea.

Grab 'em by the pussy, baby. Yeeeeehah!

So true.

FFS, engage your brain. Burnley are a worse team than us who will face far more shots against them and finish lower than us. I guarantee you this. We are very good at managing the amount of decent chances we concede so you are unlikely to see Forster, or any other Saints GK at the moment, make a "string of saves" in many matches.

There's nothing wrong with the "plan". Dominate possession, restrict the opposition to very few shots on target and attempt to score goals is a good plan. If the players mess that up that's not a problem with the plan. We lost yesterday because we failed to convert a number of good chances, we let in one sloppy goal because people switched off from a throw-in and we let in another goal from a set piece. The whole phase of play for the first goal came from Fonte giving away a stupid foul on Mbokani which was completely unnecessary. On another day, Austin could have had a hat-trick and Clasie should have done better with his chance in the first half when he was played in. Van Dijk also hit the bar from a corner. Also worth observing that Van Dijk spent most of the last ten minutes up front, showing that we aren't afraid to get it forwards and try something different if needed. The deficiencies in our squad (lack of a genuine "box to box" midfielder, unreliability at right back and limited depth in front of goal) would manifest themselves in certain matches regardless of the "plan". Why do people over analyse everything? We lost yesterday due to individual poor execution. Not Puel's fault at all. I feel sorry for Puel because he seems to be doing a really good job and if we had invested in one or two more decent players in the summer we could really be pushing to achieve something again this season. As it is, I think we should be concentrating on the cups because the squad lacks the depth to achieve anything noteworthy in the league as well as competing in all the cups.

So? If anything that means he's likely to give less of a **** about being rested for some Europa League group games.

He led us out in Europe last season didn't he?

Yes, we rest players for the competition but we only have 3 decent centre backs. Because he is older than VVD he has been rested. He also played in a tournament in the summer, which VVD didn't. If we were determined he wouldn't play to avoid being cup-tied then he wouldn't have been on the bench last night. And does anyone good enough to sign him really give a toss about the Europa League? It's basically Man U, in this country, that would be impacted either way and I doubt they are planning their transfer strategy around the knock-out stages of the Europa League to be honest. Likewise, if he was off to Sporting or Benfica or whatnot, I doubt they would be too bothered.

No he hasn't. He's never been a striker or played "upfront". He was a wide attacking midfielder. He's only a "striker" or an "upfront" player if you think Adam Lallana, Eden Hazard or Dusan Tadic are "strikers". Where you may have a point though, is that Puel doesn't seem too fussed about playing traditional "strikers" in the "striker" position.

Same as pretty much every other match then.

Other than the penalty incident (which shouldn't have been awarded and then should have been managed much better), which was very badly reffed, I thought the ref was actually decent enough. He didn't award Inter cheap free-kicks falling over and rolling around and was much less fussy than a lot of European refs might have been. Ok, he missed some pulling on VVD at set pieces but that whole area of the game is a mess, in terms of how it is officiated, from top to bottom.

If Redmond needs a rest then bring Boufal in, not Jay Rod.

The rotation point is why Yoshida deserves so much praise this season. Every time we've asked him to step-in he's done admirably. Yoshi is a superb squad player for us to have.

He was ok in the first half and "controlled" the game well, but his passing was too cautious to control it in a meaningful way. In the second half he seemed to make a conscious decision to drive forwards more, both physically himself and with his use of the ball and he worked really hard to tie down the right flank after Davis came on. It was, overall, probably an 8/10 from him but nothing to go overboard about IMO. If he can produce that level of performance against half-decent Premier League teams regularly, then great!

Something like that would make sense to me.

Good performance but against an unfit, aging, half-assed, weird team.

It's for chicks with dicks.

The Chinese are a great bunch of lads.