tajjuk

There are 4-5 wins in there if we play like we did v Brom or Spurs, there are some teams in terrible form in that list. Burnley haven't won in 9, Stoke are awful, Everton are woeful at the back, West Ham are full of injuries. Swansea just lost Fer and Bony as well. Even Liverpool and Chelsea on current form are beatable, neither team looks solid and aside Arsenal are probably the most out of form in the top 6 right now. Austin is apparently on his way back, aside from that we barely have any injuries.

It's a stonewall pen, even Carragher agreed with that. Lamela was clever, went blindside, got to the ball first and got his body in the way, Van Dijk volleys him in the leg. If that is not a pen I don't know what is. First one is a mess all round but technically is correct by the letter of the law, Kane is offside, but Lovren has ample opportunity to clear it, spoons it, essentially bring Kane back into play, keeper clearly touches him, Kane does what any striker does and goes down. Pen. Klopp and the Liverpool fans are playing the victim yet again. I used to like Klopp at Dortmund, but Liverpool have infected him, those whiny scousers have got to him and he is more whiney that Wenger and Mourinho combined these days. I like Klopp doesn't mention anything about Spurs battering them second half, they have no plan B when their first half rush doesn't work and they are all dead on their arses. Spurs played them perfectly to be honest, aside the unlucky first goal they kept moving the ball wearing them out and then last 30 minutes it was a matter of time. I hope VVD makes another error against us next week, that would be great, and hopefully Real Madrid will come in the summer to poach Salah, that would be hilarious.

Every fixture on there bar City and Arsenal away is winnable. Burnley are in poor form, who knows which Liverpool will turn up. West Ham are doing poorly and have injury issues. Everton, Stoke, Bournemouth all pretty awful. Leicester have gone off the boil and have the Mahrez problems. I think if we can keep up our more recent performances then 4 wins is achievable, with probably 4 draws. 42 points.

Arms seems to be more of an issue, hasn't Austin had two long spells out with shoulder injuries? He does seem to do his hamstring a lot but that is a pretty common injury for all players.

Promes is not really a striker but he does have pace, IF we stay up, I think we need an overhaul, 5-6 out, 5-6 in. Long and Redmond would be top of that list, maybe Forster, Gabbi will probably go even though I think with someone like Promes wide and in behind Austin/Carrillo he'd be quite good. I expect Austin to start as soon as he is fit again, he has the pedigree and is the closes thing to a 20 goal a season man probably anyone outside the top 6 has I reckon. His prem record overall is 31 goals in 73 games, and some of those are subs, plus the amount of times he has to get going again after injury that is pretty good IMO. IF big IF we could get a 30 game season out of him I reckon he'd get a good 16-18 goals at least, especially if we got someone like Promes as well.

Not if Mkhitaryan hits his old Dortmund form, that was a level above anything Sanchez has managed and Aubeyang is an upgrade on Sanchez anyway, 141 goals for Dortmund in 213 games, the last 3 seasons he has pretty much been a goal a game, goalscoring wise he is a level above anything Sanchez has ever managed in his career and has two of the most prolific assist machines in modern football behind him now. If Arsenal can sort out their defence, Mkha hits his old form, then they could easily overtake Utd next year and challenge city IMO. But knowing Wenger he'll do nothing in the summer.

Sound like he gave the team a focal point, something only Austin offered. I'd expect those two to rotate for the rest of the season but Austin probably to get the nod. Doubt we'll see much of Gabbiadini, if only we could find a striker with pace that is able to actually score so we can bin off Long for good.

Let's be honest everyone from Burnley down in this league is crap at football at the moment, we just need to make sure we aren't as crap as at least 3 teams. Burnley haven't won in 9 now I believe and they are sitting in 7th and Everton are shocking and sit in the top half. Even if we stay up this year it's such a wasted opportunity to not be challenging for the top 6 because our team of like two years ago I'd fancy beating every single team that isn't the current top 6 with ease. Also Arsenal could be quite threatening for the rest of the season, new contract Ozil, Aubeyang and a rejuvenated Mkhitaryan is a pretty scary forward line.

It's a big leap in fee for us, we are going from signing players for £12 - 18 million to suddenly over £30 million. We are probably just doing an Arsenal, going in with like tiny increases on each offer.

A pretty high standard to set, someone of Lambert's calibre but younger would be £50 million plus in today's market, look at Chelsea scrabbling around for target men.

Surprised Conte doesn't want him, he was the one that brought him into the Italy squad and seems desperate for a target man, he is surely a better option than Carroll or Crouch.

Yeh got that, but meant that didn't really matter, he's not some player who has been brought up in a warmer climate.

12 in 37, so it's not terrible, depends how good the rest of his team is cos he's not really the sort of striker who just scored goals on his own. Tevez only managed 4 in 16.

Isn't he on £260k a week? He'd be mad to give that up.

To be honest I think an 80% Bertrand is still better than anyone else. And I'd give Carillo a start, didn't he score in his last game for Monaco? Surely should be more confident than our other fit strikers and we have looked our best this season with Austin up front, so Austin mk 2, is surely the next best option.

We were linked with him a while back - https://saintsmarching.com/2017/04/23/southampton-linked-transfer-toulouses-christopher-jullien/ So likely we have been scouting him for a while. 6' 5", would bring us at least that big physical presence at the back.

He's Dutch, was born in Amsterdam, their weather is no better than ours, probably colder on average. ------------- The media seem all over the place with this, some saying we are close and he is keen, but it's the fee that is holding it up, others saying he is waiting for a bigger club.

I'd much rather wait 3 minutes (and it will decrease) to get more right decisions, we should have had this years ago.

Probably doesn't want to be associated with derogatory comments in public, but still might be privately be thinking it or at least along those lines. I mean it's harsh but a fairly fair assessment of our current state and easily could be a reason for a player not wanting to join. The optimist in my suggests he does want to join, and we wouldn't have got this far without encouragement from the agent/player, but the sticking point is the fee with Spartak, with us not wanting to pay over £30 million and pretty much doubling our record transfer fee. Plus Spartak probably want the maximum possible as some is apparently due to Twente.

I didn't say he was going to turn into Lampard at all, I said I saw similarities in their play at similar ages and particularly that Lampard was another young midfielder who was generally slated by his fans for not being able to dribble or be quick or whatever other excuse fans like to lambast JWP with. The guy is clearly talented, works very hard and has something to offer, but is very far from the finished product. I'd like to see him though get a run in the team in one position. I think we'd see the best of him. I don't really care if you see my post as 'overtly pro', just fed up with the armchair pundits on here who say retarded things that are completely contradicted by the fact the guy is highly rated by people far more knowledegable and experienced than any of us. He could get no better from here, but even then he's shown himself to be a decent premier league player, and at 23, there is plenty of time and scope for him to become better. Especially as he clearly has the right attitude for it. But of course when you express these opinions, the armchair 'know it alls' rush out to lambast you, cos they clearly know better than several managers, pretty much every pundit, all the England youth managers etc.

We are 18th, which currently makes us one of the worst sides in the Premier League. People will add if and buts, doesn't change the fact that is our current situation. Just give him an acceptable relegation release clause and sell him on the fact if he does well he might get to play for Liverpool in two years. If his wages are going up, it's not that much of a risk for him. He either does well, we stay up and he's at a club that (hopefully) just had a blip season and is (hopefully) back to challenging around the top 8 again, he gets a pay raise whatever OR we go down and he'll move to another team in the summer. Like others have said, I'm not sure there would be movement if he had completely ruled out the move.

I think MP has taken a long time to work out who his preferred eleven is. Who knows, maybe he came in and Black told him the best side so he went with that for a bit until he'd seen them more. Also was Austin actually fit pre-season/early season? By those Monaco fans description of him Carillo seems to be very professional and used to some rotation. At a guess we are aiming to basically have one big guy up front as a focal point, then 3 in behind, where we lack some pace (hence Promes) and our 'big guy' options are limited with Austin's fitness issues and Gallagher on loan. I kind of agree with SKD, presuming we stay up, I can see the aim for next season to basically have the 3 strikers - Austin, Carrillo and Gallagher to fight it out as that main target man option, and we then maybe move on Long and Gabbiadini, with more investment in those 'behind' positions. i.e getting in someone else (hopefully in addition to Promes) with pace and direct running ability to complement Boufal, JWP, Promes, and Tadic. I think basically we are trying to go back to the Pelle + Mane times. A good in the box or target man type up front, pace and direct running, Tadic/Boufal floating about the other side and then depending who we are playing either 3 more solid CMs, or putting a number 10 in there.

Sounds about right all round to be honest.

Most of them seem to say he is sh*t, or at least some politely say that, but seem to like him because he worked hard, was always professional and was part of their title winning squad. A little too much Shane Long in those descriptions

By the descriptions of him, he sounds like a less broken Charlie Austin. We look a much better team with Austin in it as a focal point than we do without and he scores goals, so IMO the club has worked that out and has basically looked for a younger, fitter Austin. If the guy can hold up the ball, win some headers and get on the end of crosses it'll be a shrewd signing. People should also remember that Ligue 1 football is different to Premier League football, this guy might have much better attributes for this league.