Junior Mullet

It's Yoshi's positioning that lets him down. That really does worry me against teams that can carve through teams like Arsenal did. The hoof ball merchants actually worry me less. It was good to see him hoof the ball himself on Sunday - clearly been drummed into him to clear his lines rather than eff around with the ball. He may gain us fans in the lucrative and developing far-eastern market. I do not expect to see him replaced soon.

...and the look on Nigel's face whenthis happened...it was like seeing your flash new girlfriend meet her old boyfriend for the first time since they broke up and giving him a peck on the cheek. Oh well, at least we won and Nigel showed that he has bigger more shiny balls.

Good spot by the opening poster. It's right, they are holding more defensive positions now. It didnt affect our forward play at all though - we had our best front 4 playig ahead of our best two central midfielders. That unit looked so good together it was nice not to confuse matters by allowing the fullbacks to push on all game to provide different options. Thought Clyne in particular helped the CBs out yesterday.

Not the 'next' one but I've aid all season he'll play for England. I've no doubt about it. He will play regardless of the fact he doesnt play for a top team.

I've been thinking similar on reflection AND we must remember that if Adkins takes us down he'll be taking a demoralised squad whose natural reaction to the embarassment of relegation may be to point the finger at him (if he hasn't already lost the dressing room). It's difficult for managers to take a club straight back up if it was they who took them down. Either way, I'm coming to the conclusion that Adkins will go and our ambition (full blooded gamble or accept that we are likely to be relegated) will be apparent from his replacement.

The club set up and this group of players would be ideal for Hoddle IMO. I like the racing driver analogy :0) but I don't agree with it. He is a very talented coach.

November for me was always going to be the test for this team and the club's ambition. We have winnable games this month. If we are still in the relegation zone as we enter December we will see the club's ambition laid bare. As I see it there are two possible scenarios: 1. The club stick with NA, a manager who has shown he can get us promoted from the Championship, is keen to play exciting attacking football and embraces the club's desire to bring on the youngsters. He is also a known quantity, an intelligent man and has people skills. Likely outcome is we get relegated and have a good chance of bouncing straight back up. 2. The club replace NA, who looks tactically naive and incapable of providing the coaching needed to organise the defence, which to be fair is not Prem class but still should be doing a lot better than it is. Any good manager with a reputation willing to take over would surely demand a hefty transfer budget for January and assurances that new player wage demands will be met. This would be a gamble: it's clear we need at least three, ideally four very good new players and new coaches. New managers can upset established players and what may be left of team harmony (although with every defeat I accept this becomes less of an issue). Would such a manager embrace the youth policy? I don't think the likes of Harry or Benitez being touted around would. If the gamble fails and we go down, we will be saddled with a heavy wage bill, transfer fee losses and a manager who might just feck off if a better offer comes along. I honestly don't know what will happen, but like everything else that has happened over the last 10 years I watch with interest and continue to enjoy supporting the team regardless. Let's not lose sight of the fact that a few years ago some on here were actually talking about going out of business altogether! Now we are discussing Prem survival. If we do replace NA, I would love to see us break the bank and get Hoddle. For me he is tactically astute, gets the best out players and would embrace the youth policy. I can dream!

Yoshida's positioning is like an average schoolboy's. Then consider he's playing next to Fox who is equally bad if not worse. I bet Prem teams can't wait to play us. Our failings are obvious and nothing is being done about them.

Does anyone else think that Cork playing RB with Clyne switching to LB is an option until January?

Working well for me

Unless Punch substitution was injury drive (Lambos certainly wasn't), they were dire decisions. 3 subs today, we looked weaker after each one. It was like Man Utd de ja vous and the crowd knew it. Thank goodness Fulham were as bad as they were otherwise they could have been out of sight.

The risk to start with Gazza a fortnight ago for an even bigger must win game shows NA has balls, serious balls.

Puncheon was unplayable for 15 mins of the second half vs Villa and must start.

Played golf with him once - a very very nice guy. His banana golf shot is legendary.

Thank you for pointing out what I don't realise. Your analysis is clearly far superior to mine.

We are bottom of the fouls league. Says it all. Perhaps we are focusing on getting into Europe via the fair play system, if the League Cup route fails. We have comparable scoring records to the top two teams either at home or away and have scored as many as anyone outside of the top 8. If we can just survive this year NA can buy a whole new defence and keeper so that we can really challenge for a top 6 spot. Seriously, going forward we are as good as I have seen this year, except Arsenal on their day. Imagine how confident our forwards would be knowing they had a solid defence to play ahead of. Exciting times.

Cork will be class at this level and will start. Lee is not good enough for the Prem but will be given chances off the bench like Mayuka to please our growing fanbases in far flung parts of the world.

You didn't watch the united game then? He was superb.

The biggest mistake for me was Mayuka not holding the ball up but instead insisting solely on balls he could run on to. Lambo holds the ball up so well and brings others into the game - he was a massive loss when he went off. JRod, sorry but whats the point?

We did not get the balance of the team right today. Wigan had weak spots and we didn't take advantage of them. With the squad we currently have I would line up like this (those players I would like to replace with Prem class players are marked with a *): --------------------Davis*------------------- Clyne----Fonte*-------------Jos---------Fox* -------------Davis-----Schneiderlin----------- ----Guly*----------------------------Lallana--- -----------------Lambo---------------------- -----------------J Rod-----------------------

Ward-Prowse and Clyne will be full England internationals sooner rather than later I think. Good to see Fox getting a call up for Scotland too. Who else do you think we currently have who is uncapped but could get an international call up?

First time I've seen him. About time we developed a good central midfielder. A little bit Steven Gerrardesque anyone?

When we were in the Prem I would often find young guys across from the continent on days or weekends out, keen to take in a bit of Premier League football. We have well connected airports at Southampton and Bournemouth and of course ferries - if we can get top names to play for us you will see quite a few people coming from Europe to watch us play. I'm sure Nicola is well aware of this. I know people here in Southampton who regularly go and watch Barca play because it's quite cheap and easy to get there.

Are you including on-line sex?

That's made my day! Not seen that before.