tajjuk

No one is going to be perfect with their deleries, even Beckham fluffed a few. Plus he tries to put them it at pace, this is a more difficult technique, both him and Bertrand whip the ball in, whereas you see a lot of corners kind of floated in much slower and they are easier to deal with. I'd say the problem is probably B and D, most of our midfield and forwards aren't that big so you are really only expecting centre-backs, Austin and maybe Hojberg to be real aerial threats.

Sims deserves to start after that performance, both JWP and Bertrand should play because Palace are awful at set pieces. I'd expect Fonte, Cedric and Austin to come back in. Would love to see us score more than 2 goals for once, get some goals for some others besides Austin, like maybe one ofr Redmond and Boufal. I reckon we might concede, but they'll need to win and won't be confident of keeping it tight.

We don't rest Van Dijk very often. But I think it's the youngsters that have really added to the team, McQueen, Sims, Hesketh and Reed have all shown they can come into the team and do well.

If we want to win the competition then it's likely we have to beat either Man Utd or Liverpool at some point, might as well do it in the semis. Klopp rested a lot of players, so it's likely they are concentrating on other stuff and we are good enough to beat them anyway.

Everton can have him for £70 million, but I seriously doubt he'll want to go, even if they throw money at him. Koeman made that sideways (if not downwards) move, but he was given a little nudge, Van Dijk will know his reputation is growing and growing and a truly big club is not beyond him. I think he may go in the summer, but I'm hoping it will be upwards of £50 million and out of the league, I personally think he is the best centre-back in the league and will get better, I can see him at Madrid or Barca. If a prem club come knocking then the fee should have £20 million slapped on top instantly, but a Barca or Real then I'd happily sell for £40 million and a promising youngster from them.

Only seen him in snippets but impresses me every time for Borough, Adama Troare looks like exactly what we need, a true Mane replacement.

Lazy slow performance, just thought they could turn up and win.

Need more going forward, final ball on several occasions has been pretty woeful and it looks like we are in second gear and then we look really dangerous when we actually step it up. Hopefully Puel has a word with them half time and we kill this off, easily could dominate this 3-4 to nil.

In central midfield at 22? I don't think so, 25-27 more like. He needs more consistency but he's clearly had a jump in improvement this season whether that is Puel effect or more competition from the likes of Hojberg who knows.

Interesting, I hope it's this would be good for the club and city if that areas was improved. That would be a win win pretty much, wouldn't rock the boat football side but would provide more commercial income for the club and jobs for the city.

Hope Boufal starts and is given a full 90.

What a result. Especially with not a full strength team, this squad is showing promise. No more Tadic pens please, Charlie was right, Austin, Boufal, JWP and Bertrand can take a pen.

This basically, the fact that Bailly and Mustafi, players not as good as Van Dijk, from a not very rich clubs, that didn't have premier league experience and are thus more of a gamble cost that much shows how much Van Dijk would cost. Premier league player instantly adds like £15 - 20 million I'd reckon. Sissoko from a relegated spanish club would have been like £15 million.

Yeh saw their coach parked on the Science Park road this morning. Long old drive for their coach driver

Er Micky Quinn, is he reliable as source? , as far as I can tell Mickey Quinn has gone, van dijk is a good Southampton player + Liverpool buy Southampton players, so they are buying Van Dijk. Also they bought two new centre-backs this year. I agree with the above as well, don't think they can afford him, he should be upwards of £50 million and that is Man City/Chelsea/Utd/PSG/Barca/Real territory, I'm hoping when he does go it's outside the league

No thanks, stability of ownership and behind the scenes structure has been key to our success. Plus I don't like this in the article - Doesn't sound so much as they want to invest, more that they want to make quick bucks.

A striker, a goalscorer, no idea who though. Not Behrahino too much baggage now, Ings is not really a striker, he's more of all round forward/second striker. We have the players to create plenty of chances, we just didn't play that great against a very good Chelsea side who were able to sit on a lead. But overall we've been creating a lot of chances but not putting them away (think Leicester away, Inter away etc.), even Austin who's probably our best striker and finisher. We need to unearth a Pahars from somewhere, or get the next Aguero or Suarez before their move to big clubs. That real quality striker who'll we will have for a couple of years. We seem to do quite well finding the young up and coming talents if they are midfielders/defenders/wingers (Van Dijk, Cedric, Boufal, Redmond, Wanyama, Mane etc.) but our recent out and out strikers are all a bit older, later bloomers (Pelle, Austin, Long, Osvlado) We need to find the striker equivalent of a Boufal or Tadic or Cedric or Van Dijk, that up and coming 21-22 year old, someone like Milik (who went to Napoli this summer) would have fit the bill. Aside that another centre midfielder to improve on Clasie/Davis who could also play if Romeu was injured and Fonte's long term replacement but they probably aren't January signings. I'd not expect any Jan signings though.

Including Jay Rod as a squad option may have been a mistake, though to be honest from the rumours I think we wanted to loan him out for 6 months, even a year and wanted to get another striker in. But for whatever reason that didn't happen. And you have to remember that Martina was on his way out but then Pied got injured. So I don't think the squad is 100% as Puel and Reed envisaged it, I think we should be scouring the globe for a goal scorer though doubtful if we can get one in January. But on the face of it, we pretty much have two players for every position, you can't ask much more than that otherwise you are just having players not even getting bench time. I mean before they go injured I'd imagine both Jay Rod and Long were probably agitating for more game time and it's unlucky to get both your left backs injured at the same time. I mean when Man Utd had 4 centre-backs out injured at once and played Carrick there was anyone questioning their depth? You just aren't going to keep 3 players happy for every position, which is where the development/youth team comes in. Look at the all the millions Chelsea have spent, but if Costa got injured they'd have Batshuayi and that's it, no other recognised striker in their first team squad. So two injuries in the same position and they'd be struggling just like us.

They were set up for shut out and got the early goal that meant they could just do that. It will be a blip, we won't beat every team especially ones as good as Chelsea, hell I reckon we'll have a good chance of beating them away when they are expected to be more on the front foot. We should take heart from a team like that coming to St Mary's an essentially coming to park the bus, but the team needs to expect that, we won't get treated as the plucky underdogs anymore, the big teams know we can hurt them and outplay them because we have for the last 3 years. So won't expect many teams to come to St Mary's to try and out play us.

True, but he said as much as himself, he said something like there is a collective guilt (him and the players) but ultimately the responsibility lies with him as it's his job to make the players play the best. I don't like West Ham at all these days but have a lot of respect for Bilic, seems very switched on, was the best pundit ITV had during the Euros (though that isn't saying much). I mean the other thing is we won't have the West Ham situation because generally the media will right us off as soon as they see the sales so there is no hype for our players to buy into. I think the only player who might have been guilty of some complacency this season is Fonte, believed his own hype too much after the Euro win, then the links to Man Utd etc, but I think the reality of the premier league and him making a few mistakes when he wasn't 100% switched on have reminded him it was hard work that got him where he is.

So I was watching the build up to the West Ham game and they were talking to Bilic, he was saying how in the summer after they had done so well last year and got the new stadium etc that all the press were talking about them targeting champions league etc. He reckoned that this naturally allowed some complacency to sneak into their players, second season, they'd done so well, similar players, etc. This got me thinking that our lack of stability, or at least our changing of manager and players has at least one benefit, there is no real opportunity for complacency. New players put pressure on the existing players to perform, a new manager doesn't know them so they have prove themselves to him, they can't rest on their laurels or just think 'I did well last year so I can cruise a bit'. Everyone gets basically a clean sheet and has to earn their chances, so I think you see that with the young players, they probably lacked confidence under Koeman because he seemed negative about the academy players and the likes of McQueen probably thought they'd never get a chance. But now, new manager, new ideas, clean slate and chance to impress and I think we are seeing the results, several players have made obvious improvements already this season. Not just the fringe youngsters but the likes of Romeu, JWP, Austin etc.

I said earlier in the year that VVD should be in the £50-60 million bracket at least, based on what was going on in the transfer market (and his contract length) and many laughed at that, but I stick buy it, IMO he's one of the best centre-backs in the world right now and if Stones is going for £45 then anything less than £50 million we have been mugged. I sincerely hope though that when we do inevitably sell him, it's outside the league so we stop strengthening our rivals. He's good enough for Barca or Madrid so I'd rather see him there than Anfield or Man Utd. Got to lol at Liverpool wanting our third choice left back. Hope McQueen stays certainly think he could challenge at least Matt Targett for that second spot and with the games we are playing we are going to need the whole squad. It is a good success story about Bertrand and Romeu, hopefully same will be true of Hojberg as well, basically helping players starved of game time at big clubs rebuild their careers and realise their potential. The more we do this and the more we improve the Mane's of this world the more we become top of the queue for the up and coming talent out there that isn't first team Man City/Liverpool level.

Our home draw with Sunderland is looking crapper and crapper each game Sunderland play.

Would prefer him not be shouting the merits of Van Dijk though, I mean everyone knows he's class but let's keep it on the down low as much as possible to keep him here as long as possible. To be honest I was pretty skeptical about Puel but he has impressed me so far and hope he continues to do so. I also been very impressed with the progress the team has been making and I'm quietly excited that something special is building this season, I look at this group of players, see them progressing and just think either a top 4 or a cup is there for them. Only concern is in the striker department, I think Boufal will add what we've been missing for the last few years that Payet/Coutinho type play who's bit of magic will make the difference in those stodgy games or when the team isn't quite at it's best, but just concerned over our striking options and the lack of that really clinical finisher, even Austin hasn't been that clinical for us though he is the best we have. If the black box could dig us out a goalscorer for Jan, I think we'd have the makings of an excellent team that can match the big boys, I already think we have a back 5 that probably matches anyone in the league, we have an extremely hard working midfield all of whom are also excellent technically, and we've now got pace and trickery in forward areas with Boufal, Redmond and Tadic.

Unless Jose massively mucks up, I can't see him going, I mean who would Utd go to then?, no one is going to do any better. I'd reckon he's got two seasons to at least look like title challengers, if they aren't there and still bumbling along around 4-6th, then they'll sack him like Van Gal, but not this season. So Morgan should go, I'd totally have him back because he's a quality player and with Romeu playing so well he'd be able to slot in the Clasie or Davis role. But I'd reckon he's going to go to an Everton or West Ham. Another 'grass isn't always greener story' though that makes this club look good, a lot of our leavers who move on for expected better things have not done as well (aside financially) as they probably expected.