benjii

Some of the comments in here are bewildering. Excellent performance at league leaders, who are a top European team. We lost, it happens. Encouraging stuff though.

Apparently they are teaming up with Milwall, Rangers, Stoke, Besikats and Red Star Belgrade to give us a pasting.

Picked one too many. Holiday for Jones.

My England team: ------------------??-------------- Clyne----Jagielka---Cahill-----Cole ---------Carrick---Henderson----- Townsend----Lallana-----Ox-C ----------------Rooney----------- Rest of squad: GK x2 Smalling Jones Baines Barry Wilshere Barkley/Cleverley/Berahino/JWP... Basically, up for grabs. Gerard Walcott Milner Sturridge Lambert

Cleverley has been one of our best players. Better than Gerard, at least.

Probably trying to emulate Daniel "have a shot" Sturridge.

Prefer Range Rovers.

Robert Webb is less funny than Lenny Henry.

Travesty if Clyne doesn't go to World Cup and continues to play like he has been.

Leelawadee on Commercial Road is very nice (although small).

In terms of quality of football, most Bundesliga teams would struggle in the Prem. Bayern and Dortmund are as good as anyone but the mid-table teams are pretty rubbish. That said, the ability to stand safely and have a beer in your seat is clearly a good thing.

I think that might be a step too far.

Clyne is the best English right back in my opinion.

My ambition in the remainder of 2013 is to use the phrase "full bore bonk" in serious circumstances at work.

Labour's demolition of educational standards and mindless participation targets have ensured that anyone save a borderline retard can get into uni. So yes, we could, I guess. But it's probably not much of a loss.

Arsenal's a funny one. There seemed to be a sense they were struggling at the start of the season (losing first gome at home didn't help) but I think I'm right in thinking they already had more Premier League points in 2013 than any other team which kind of suggests they were perfectly capable of winning the title, especially with one or two good additions. Obviously Ozil is one and Giroud has found form. They probably don't have the squad depth of a Chelsea or City which should see one of those two pick up the title but if Arsenal can sustain their form until Jan and maybe add another couple then there's no reason why they can't win it. United have not been a particularly good team for the last few years but have managed to win the league a couple of times because City and Chelsea have conducted their management so badly. I wouldn't be surprised to see United between 4th and 6th. Saints have done great away from home. At home, we should probably have more points as Sunderland and West Ham are rubbish. That said, we didn't play badly against them and were a tad unlucky. By contrast, we were pretty lucky to beat Swansea. I don't think we're playing as well going forwards as I'd hoped but when you are solid at the back it means you can win games anyway; we have enough talent to stick the ball in the net without playing superb football. Hopefully we continue to gel and improve. I think we lack another midfielder who can go past a player - Lallana has been very good for the last few games but if he were to go missing for a while I fear we would become very predictable in attack. In theory, Ramirez should be that player but you have to wonder whether the writing's on the wall there. Depends what's been said behind the scenes; if he's still in contention then I hope he plays his way into the team. If he doesn't then we should be looking to sign a player who can pick the ball up and drive forwards. Someone in the style of Ben Arfa would be perfect. We have no depth at left back or goalkeeper and that could be a problem if we have long-term absences there but you can't really expect to have a squad without any weaknesses without spending City/Chelsea type money.

Ahoy hoy, Which pubs, reasonably close to Soton centre, have the best Saints streams for non-Sky/BT Prem matches. I would like to watch our match on Saturday in such a pub. I think we might lose to a late winner but we shall see! Thanks Super Saints fans.

Why would Walker and Johnson be shoe-ins? Walker was rubbish in the previous set of qualifiers and Johnson has been shown time and again to be inadequate at tournament-level. Right back is a position where you don't really need so much time to gel (in the way forwards, centre backs or centre mids do) so the best candidate, come the summer, should be able to slot straight in. I quite rate Smalling (over Jones anyway) and his versatility should see him in the squad but I think Clyne is a better right back. If England scouts watch our games then if Clyne doesn't get a chance in the friendlies they are doing something seriously wrong IMO. I agree re Shaw. He isn't better than Cole or Baines yet so there's no reason why he should go (unless there are injuries). As for Lambert; he will need to start playing better as he is really in the squad based on last year's performances, rather than this year's so far.

Clyne is our player with the greatest chance of making the squad IMO.

I would suggest you are a little short sighted then. He is quality.

I said exactly the same thing. He knew he screwed up from the Swansea reaction and decided to give them a free-kick before we had even taken it. Wanyama's celebration was funny though.

Our best player so far. Two goals conceded in four games. Excellent stuff.

We played 4-4-2 away at Wigan in the second half and we were excellent. Long term I'm not sure it suits our squad though. To be honest, formations are rarely the issue - with better finishing or better set piece marking we would've beaten Sunderland and would have two wins out of three.

Fair play, but that was you. I bet the crowds were much lower than they are at the moment, and they will be again. You might enjoy it but it's all you will have. It's back to "fifty years of dross", to quote Harry Redknapp. If you're happy to accept that and that you will have spent the best part of 100 years as the laughing stock of Hampshire then fair dos.

It looks like the weather will be awful tomorrow. Rain, but worse, strong winds. This should favour their agricultural style.